GIFT OF THE FALL OF THE MOGUL EMPIRE THE FALL OF THE MOGUL EMPIRE BY SIDNEY J. OWEN, M.A. LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1912 <=>* o* \ PREFACE THIS book is not a regular history of the period over which it extends, but the substance of a course of lectures intended to trace the operation of the causes which, in the course of a century, reduced the mighty and far-famed Empire of the Great Mogul to a political shadow. Accord- ingly, events of minor importance, or not materi- ally affecting the main issue, are not noticed. And others which are cognate to, and virtually repetitions of, what has been already related, are either omitted, or glanced at very summarily. And throughout an attempt has been made not to tax the memory with too many bald facts, but to bring out the salient features of the story, so as to enlist the imagination by suggesting a series of historical pictures. A common impression is, that, as is so often the case in the East, the decline and fall of the Mogul Empire were due to the degeneracy of its Sovereigns. But it is the object of this book to show that it was irretrievably ruined in the reign of Aurungzib, a monarch of great ability, energy, and determination, but lacking in political insight, and a bigoted Mussulman. 42C50 vi PREFACE He struck the first mortal blow by reversing Akbar's wise and generous policy of ignoring distinctions of race and religion, and reimposing the jizya, or poll-tax, on his Hindoo subjects ; whereby he estranged them, and turned the noblest and most warlike of them the Rajputs, hitherto the staunchest supporters of the throne into deadly and persistent enemies. And Sivaji and his followers not only vindi- cated their independence, but struck a second mortal blow at the integrity of the Empire. They destroyed its military reputation. They exhausted its accumulated treasure. They spread disorder and devastation over the Dekkan and beyond it. They loosened the ties of allegiance, and led multitudes of the doubly oppressed people to join them. They asserted a claim, by way of blackmail, to a quarter of the Imperial revenue, and exacted it by planting their own chief officers, collectors, and troops in the Imperial Provinces, and levying this tribute at the point of the lance, and thus establishing an imperium in imperio. Thus the Empire, though not dis- solved, was hopelessly debilitated. How desper- ate was this situation may be inferred from the fact that Aurungzib's son and successor, Bahadur Shah, in vain sought to arrest the further progress of the Mahrattas by sanctioning this masterful pretension to divided sovereignty in the Dekkan Provinces. The effective authority of the central govern- PREFACE vii ment was thenceforth in abeyance. And, as usual in the East, the provincial rulers, without repudiating the technical supremacy of the Em- peror, became independent, and the Mahrattas more aggressive and dominant in Hindostan as well as in the Dekkan. Lastly, Nadir Shah, after inflicting the ex- tremity of humiliation on the Emperor and his capital, annexed the Imperial territory west of the Indus. The dissolution of the Empire was complete. But the lack-land Sovereign retained his imposing title and pretensions, which still impressed the native mind, and were turned to practical account by Clive in the grant to the East India Company of the perpetual Dewani of the Bengal Provinces. The following narrative is derived almost entirely from contemporary authorities. For the nefarious process by which Aurungzib cleared his way to the throne I have followed Manucci, a Venetian in Dara's service, whose Storia do Mogor has been lately translated and edited by Mr. William Irvine. The account of the reigns of Aurungzib and his successors, to the final settlement of Nizam- ul-Mulk in the Dekkan, has been taken from the standard history of Khafi Khan, translated by Professor Dowson, and inserted in the 7th volume of The History of India from its own Historians. This author served under Aurungzib in the Dekkan. viii PREFACE For the later history I am most indebted to Grant Duff's History of the Mahrattas. But the sketch of Aliverdi Khan's career is taken from the Seir Mutaquerin, a contemporary work, translated by a Frenchman under the auspices of Warren Hastings. This work has also supplied information on matters outside Bengal. The Paniput Campaign has been fully and lucidly described by Casi Pundit, a Mahratta in the service of the Nawab of Oude, who was much concerned in the negotiations preceding the battle, and was an eye-witness of it. The narra- tive was translated and published anonymously in the third volume of the Asiatic Researches. In spelling Indian names I have endeavoured to steer an even course between uncouth archa- isms and the latest fashion of unfamiliar and accentuated rendering, which perplexes and troubles the general reader. But I have not felt at liberty to alter the spelling in passages which I have quoted. For the Index I am indebted to my daughter, Mrs. F. Boas, who kindly offered to compile it. S. J. O. OXFORD, January 1912. CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF CHIEF EVENTS 1657. Shah Jehan falls seriously ill. Shuja defeated by Solaiman Shukoh. 1658. Dara defeated by Aurungzib and Morad. Shah Jehan deposed and imprisoned. Morad arrested ; and Aurungzib becomes Emperor. Solaiman flies to Sirinagar. 1659. Aurungzib defeats Shuja. Aurungzib defeats and puts Dara to death. Sivaji murders Afzal Khan. 1660. Shuja retires to Arakan. Solaiman betrayed to Aurungzib. 1661. Morad murdered. 1662. Sivaji surprises Shaista Khan at Poona. 1664. Sivaji raids Surat, assumes title of Raja, and coins money. 1665. Sivaji submits, and goes to Delhi. 1666. Shah Jehan dies. Sivaji returns to Rajgurh. Is crowned as Raja with Mogul forms. 1677. Aurungzib reimposes the / 1679. The Rajputs revolt. Prince Akbar joins them. 1680. Sivaji dies. 1681. Prince Akbar joins Sambaji. 1682. Sambaji raids near Burhampur. 1683. Aurungzib undertakes the Dekkan war. 1686. Aurungzib takes Bijapur. 1687. Aurungzib takes Golconda. 1689. Sambaji put to death. 1690. Ram Raja becomes Regent. 1694. Gingee besieged. 1698. Gingee surrendered. Santaji Ghorepuray murdered. 1699. Aurungzib changes his plan of war. 1700. Ram Raja dies. 1707. Aurungzib dies. Shao released, and established as Raja, at Satara. 1709. Bahadur Shah marches against the Sikhs. 1712. Bahadur Shah dies. Farokhsir defeats Jahandar Shah. x CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF CHIEF EVENTS 1713. Husain Ali goes to the Dekkan. 1716. Baud Khan defeated and killed. 1717. Husain makes peace with Raja Shao. 1718. Farokhsir deposed and put to death. 1720. Nizam-ul-Mulk becomes strong in the Dekkan. Defeats the Seiads' armies. Husain assassinated. Abdullah defeated and captured. Baji Rao becomes Peishwa. 1722. Nizam-ul-Mulk made Vizier. 1723. Nizam-ul-Mulk resigns, and retires to the Dekkan. 1724. Mubariz defeated and slain. 1729. Nizam-ul-Mulk coerced by Baji Rao. 1731. Baji Rao defeats and kills Trimbuk. Nizam-ul-Mulk and Baji Rao make peace. 1732-6. Baji Rao's success in Malwa, etc. 1737. Baji Rao threatens Delhi. Blockades, and extorts concessions from, Nizam-ul-Mulk. 1738. Nadir Shah invades India. 1739. His extortions and massacre at Delhi. Aliverdi becomes Viceroy of the Bengal Provinces. The Mahrattas take Bassein. 1740. Baji Rao foiled by Nazir Jung. Baji Rao dies. 1742. Balaji extorts the cession of Malwa. First Mahratta invasion under Bhaskir Pundit. 1743. Aliverdi defeats and expels Rugoji from Bengal. Second Mahratta invasion under Rugoji. 1744. Third Mahratta invasion under Bhaskir. Aliverdi murders him and his officers. 1745. Mustapha defeated and slain. Fourth Mahratta invasion by Rugoji. 1748. Mohammad Shah and Nizam-ul-Mulk die. Rebellion of Sirdar Khan and Shumsur Khan. Fifth Mahratta invasion. Ahmed Shah Abdali's first invasion of India. 1749. Raja Shao dies. 1751. Balaji entraps the Guikwar. Salabat Jung marches on Poona. Aliverdi makes peace with the Bonsla. Ahmed Shah's second invasion. 1754. Ghazi-u-din deposes and blinds the Emperor Ahmed Shah. 1756. The Abdali's third invasion. 1758. Rugonath Rao takes Delhi and Lahore. 1759. The Abdali's fourth invasion. 1760. The Bhow conquers the Nizam. Marches to Hindostan, and takes Delhi. 1761. The battle of Paniput. The Peishwa, Balaji, dies. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH . . 1 II. AURUNGZIB MAKES* HlMSELF EMPEROR . .17 III. RESULTS OF AURUNGZIB'S USURPATION . . 44 IV. AURUNGZIB'S NEW POLICY . . . .48 V. SIVAJI'S CAREER . . . . .55 VI. THE REIMPOSITION OF THE JIZYA, AND THE RAJPUT REVOLT . . . . . .74 VII. AURUNGZIB'S CONQUESTS IN THE DEKKAN . . 86 VIII. THE MAHRATTA WAR OF INDEPENDENCE . . 102 IX. AURUNGZIB UNDERTAKES TO MASTER THE MAHRATTA BASE. THE MAHRATTAS RETALIATE BY SETTLING IN THE DEKKAN IMPERIAL PROVINCES . .112 X. THE EMPEROR BAHADUR SHAH . . .127 XI. THE INTERREGNUM ..... 133 XII. THE EMPEROR FAROKHSIR . . . .135 XIII. THE EMPEROR MOHAMMAD SHAH. PROGRESS OF THE ANTI-MOGUL REACTION . . .155 XIV. MOGUL COUNTER-REVOLUTION . . . l6l XV. NlZAM-UL-MuLK's POLICY . . . .183 XVI. GROWTH OF THE MAHRATTA CONFEDERACY, AND OF THE PEISHWA'S ASCENDANCY IN IT . .191 xii CONTENTS PAGE XVII. PEACE BETWEEN THE NIZAM AND THE PEISHWA, AND CONSEQUENT MAHRATTA PROGRESS IN HINDOSTAN . . . . 194 1 XVIII. NADIR SHAH'S INVASION .... 200 XIX. CULMINATING PERIOD OF MAHRATTA ASCENDANCY IN NATIVE INDIA .... 208 XX. ALIVERDI KHAN ..... 224 XXI. EPILOGUE . . . . . .234- XXII. THE PANIPUT CAMPAIGN .... 236 INDEX 267 THE FALL OF THE MOGUL EMPIRE i THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH IN the middle of the seventeenth century, the Empire of the " Great Mogul " was highly renowned both in Asia and in Europe. It is notable that Bernier, who lived many years in India, and was very familiar with the Court of the Emperor, thinks it worth while to institute a comparison between the Mogul Empire and that of le Grand Monarque at the height of his power ; though, of course, he concludes in favour of the latter. Nor was the reputation of the Asiatic Monarchy undeserved. Whatever its defects, it was, on the whole, a grandly conceived, well-adjusted, and beneficent structure of dominion. The illustrious origin of its founder, Baber, who was descended from the two mightiest Asiatic conquerors, Ghenzis Khan and Timour, gave to the dynasty high prestige, which its 2 "THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH matrimonial alliances with Rajput princesses tended to enhance among its Hindoo subjects. And the vigorous vitality of the royal house had been attested by the personal rule of five successive emperors in lineal descent. After its apparent extinction under Humayun, Akbar's genius and indefatigable warfare had restored, pacified, and extended the limits of Baber's acquisition. And Shah Jehan was now the undisputed sovereign of a vast territory, not indeed, as is often assumed, conterminous with India on the south, but, on the other hand, extending beyond it into the Afghan mountains. That a Mussulman emperor should thus quietly command the allegiance of a great and warlike population, the far larger number of which was Hindoo, was remarkable, and an eloquent testi- mony to the merits of the regime. And this favourable impression was confirmed by a closer inspection of the Mogul Government, and its general results. The habitual and ready submission of the Hindoos to a sovereign alien to themselves in race and religion was due to his lenient and sympathetic treatment of them. Instead of carrying out the harsher precepts of the Koran ; maintaining an invidious distinction between the followers of the Prophet and the unbelievers, and narrowing the moral basis of his authority by excluding the latter from office on the ground of religious disqualification ; the Great Mogul THE EMPIRE BASED ON TOLERANCE 3 winked at and condoned the misbelief of the bulk of his subjects, and their strange practices ; showed special favour to their more eminent men ; admitted them freely to high posts, both civil and military, and thus, figuring in the capacity of the Father of all his people, made it their interest and their pride to serve and sustain a regime so liberal, comprehensive, and considerate. Thus, while the Empire rooted itself more and more in the hearts of the natives, its material strength was proportionally increased. For, though its regular armies were constantly re- cruited by soldiers drawn from its Afghan territory, and by mercenaries from Upper Asia, who were Mahometans, as well as by men of the same faith, though inhabitants of India, the vast force which was at the disposal of the Emperor, according to the Ayeen Akbery, may be described rather as a quasi-national army, if not as a militia, which must have been very largely composed of Hindoos. The naval weakness of the Empire was as notable as its military strength. Practically, it never had a fleet of its own, though the Abyssinian " Seedys " were patronised and sub- sidised for its occasional objects. And this is the more remarkable, as the annual pilgrimage by sea to Mecca required protection, and was apt to be seriously interrupted by enemies or marauders. 4 THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH Sivaji, as we shall see, took advantage of this circumstance. Though the Government was despotic, and particular acts of great severity are recorded, its general tone was mild and humane. Taxa- tion was light ; and its most productive source, the land revenue, was moderately assessed, and equitably adjusted. Foreign commerce was pro- tected and favoured ; and the English East India Company throve, and multiplied its factories, under the shadow of the Imperial authority. The judicial system, though what we should consider crude and capricious, as well as too often corruptly exercised, was not liable like our own to the tedious delays which have been its reproach, and which have so much tended to obstruct, and even defeat, the course of justice. And the right of appealing to the Emperor, from inferior tribunals, though too generally a futile privilege, was sometimes really remedial, and probably was, to a certain extent, a standing check on judicial iniquity. Much the same may be said as to the Provincial Governors. Though their delegated authority was, like their master's, arbitrary, its exercise was open to the criticism and unfavourable reports to Court of other officials, and of unofficial but influential Jaghiredars ; as well as to the periodical inquisitions of Imperial Commissioners, like Charlemagne's Missi Dominici ; on whose adverse judgment the LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, & ART FLOURISH 5 Governor was liable to removal and punish- ment. The comparative internal tranquillity of the Empire in later years had favoured the pursuits of peace, augmented the Imperial revenue, and culminated in what may be called the quasi- Augustan Age of the dynasty ; when the pomp and magnificence of the Court were most elaborately organised and profusely displayed ; literature and philosophy were esteemed, and cultivated in high quarters ; and the fine arts flourished to an extent that may be fairly appreciated by the noble and graceful monu- ments that, as in the case of the Taj Mahal, still appeal so forcibly to the aesthetic sense even of Europeans at the present day. Paradoxical as it may sound, it is not the less true, that the greatness and prosperity of the Empire were due to the Gallic disposition of its sovereigns. Though professed votaries of Islam, they were none of them animated by its exclusive and fierce spirit ; and their instincts as statesmen constrained them to ignore differ- ences which they could not hope to remove ; and to strengthen their power by conciliation, rather than undermine and fritter it away in a Quixotic tilt against the strongholds of Hindoo superstition. Baber himself was not only too sagacious and experienced, but too generous a man to be a religious persecutor. And his grandson Akbar not only inherited his large- 6 THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH hearted disposition, but was too independent a religious thinker to feel bound to act on the precepts of the Koran in their political applica- tion. Thus his latitudinarian views found expres- sion in his liberal and comprehensive policy. Though, like our own Government, he set his face against some of the worst social evils of Hindooism, forbidding suttee, and sanctioning the remarriage of widow r s, he was more than tolerant to his Hindoo subjects for he not only, by abolishing the jizya, or poll-tax on infidels, removed a most invidious distinction between his co-religionists and the majority of his people, but he gave the strongest practical proof of his resolution to ignore distinctions of race and religion by employing both classes impartially in his service, and by cementing domestic relations between his family and the most typical and venerable representatives of Hindoo nationality, the Rajput Principalities. And he was person- ally attached, and gave his fullest confidence, to members of this noble race. They held high commands in his armies, were Governors of important provinces, and sat in his Council. Their gallant troops distinguished themselves in his w r ars ; and from them were selected a corps of what may be called Guards, who were char- acteristically stationed outside the palace. His example was followed by his descendants ; and the intermarriage of the Mogul princes with the Rajput princesses tended much to promote HINDOO DEVOTION TO THE DYNASTY 7 sympathy between the races, to abate religious prejudice on both sides, and in the end to half- Hindooise the dynasty, and thereby to strengthen its hold over the Hindoo community generally. For it thus lost much of the aspect of an alien and invidious Power, established by conquest, and was more generally regarded as (so to speak) a naturalised, normal, and congenial Paramount Authority, rightfully entitled, by its beneficent sway, to the allegiance and zealous support of its native subjects. This result was of course due not simply to the introduction of Hindoo blood into the royal family, but to the persistence in Akbar's line of conduct. Jehangir and Shah Jehan, without pledging themselves to his theological eclecti- cism, steadily adhered to his liberal and compre- hensive policy, which thus came to be recognised as the fixed and inevitable order of things ; though there was, of course, a back-water of rigidly orthodox and fanatical Mahometan sen- timent, very hostile to the system in favour at Court. But the authority of the Emperor counteracted, without entirely suppressing, its indignant protest. On lower grounds also than religious principle attempts seem to have been made to reintroduce oppressive and degrading inflictions on the Hindoos. One audacious speculator, as the Emperor Jehangir tells the story in his Memoirs, ventured to sug- gest that he should " spoil the Egyptians " by 8 THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH reinstituting the jizya, and allowing the proposer to hold the farm of it. But Jehangir, proud of his great father's memory, and determined to walk in his steps, and not blind to the self- interested motive of the proposer, was not content simply to repudiate the suggestion, and rebuke the rash and selfish proposer of it, but punished him after a fashion characteristically Oriental. More mindful of Akbar's policy than of Ma- homet's precepts, he closed with the proposi- tion, consented to farm out the impost to the projector, exacted the money in advance, and then cut off the unlucky fellow's head for having had the temerity to seek his own profit at the expense of his sovereign's reputation, the welfare of the community, and the good-ordering of the State. This strange incident at least shows how thoroughly Akbar had indoctrinated his son in the principles of religious freedom and social equality, though Jehangir 's peculiar dealing with the impugner of them certainly leaves something to be desired in the matter of equity and humanity. Again, the process of assimilation which had approximated the Imperial family to the Hindoo race had long been in operation in various degrees, and from more than one cause, among the Indian-born Mussulmans. As in Ireland, immigrants after a time were proverb- DANGER OF REVERSING AKBAR'S POLICY 9 ially said to become Hibernis Hiberniores, so local influences and associations, including inter- marriage, and more irregular connexions, con- tributed to soften the asperities of religious antagonism, and to create common interests and a common jealousy of foreigners of a different type, though of their own faith. This feeling was liable to be much intensified by the circum- stance that there was a constant stream of Mahometan adventurers from the North, seeking their fortunes in the Imperial service ; and that they were apt to be more highly esteemed, and more liberally paid, than their Indian co-re- ligionists. Moreover, it must be remembered that the latter were often the descendants of converted Hindoos ; and, as in the case of the Moriscos of Spain, heredity might assert itself in the shape of stronger sympathy with their old stock than with their new and superficial faith. And this was the more probable from the remoteness and comparative isolation of India from the capital of the Mussulman world, and the influence of the Sultan of Roum. Thus not only were the Emperor's native Mahometan subjects only a fraction of the popu- lation ; but it was very doubtful how far he could count on their sympathy and co-operation in an attempt to reverse Akbar's policy, and depress and persecute the Hindoo majority. The arduousness of such an enterprise will be more evident if we consider the characteristics 10 THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH of the several peoples that were destined to become the subjects of this rash experiment. Foremost and most obviously formidable were the inhabitants of Rajputana. Their alleged origin, on which they prided themselves, their authentic history, their institutions and estab- lished character, and the prominent and effective part which they had hitherto played in the Imperial service, all betokened the serious consequences that might be anticipated from their estrangement and hostility. They claimed descent from the original warrior caste ; and their stereotyped character- istics gave much plausibility to the pretension. Their ancestors had undoubtedly fought obstin- ately and valiantly against the early Mahometan invaders, and had eventually preserved their independence by retiring into the remote and sequestered region which they had since occupied, and where they retained their military char- acter in all its vigour, sustained by institutions which curiously combined the tribal peculi- arities of the Scotch Highlanders, the feudal relations of the more settled communities of mediaeval Europe, and a chivalrous spirit,, akin to that which was so closely associated with feudalism in the West. The personal devotion of the Highland clan to the patriarchal Chief had a counterpart in the passionate fidelity of the Rajput tribe to its Prince. Under him, as in feudal Europe, the thakoors, or nobles, held FORMIDABLE CHARACTER OF THE RAJPUTS 11 their lands by military tenure, and were bound to support their Prince in his wars. And while, as in feudal Europe, their independent spirit, their pride, and their readiness to take offence, made their relations with him by no means uniformly harmonious, their proficiency in war was more habitually maintained by the jealousies, quarrels, and consequent contests of the rival tribes. And these were the more frequent and obstinate, because the Rajput was, so to speak, a true sportsman in the great game of war. To distinguish himself in battle was his point of honour ; he fought for fame, not like the lower races for plunder ; and his great delight, in his hours of relaxation, was to listen to the spirit-stirring strains of his bhats or minstrel bards, commemorative of the martial achieve- ments of his Princes and their followers. But as Akbar's policy was developed, the Rajputs found ample occupation for their favourite pursuit in the Imperial armies ; in which, however, they still retained their separate organisation, and thus preserved their peculiar character and corporate spirit. Akbar's remembrance of his grandfather's experience of Rajput hostility must have strongly impressed on him the importance of conciliat- ing this remarkable people, and securing their alliance rather than their subjection. For, after his easy victory over Sultan Ibrahim, Baber had been confronted by a great Rajput Con- 12 THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH federacy, headed by a typical hero, Rana Sanga ; and though in the desperate battle which ensued the invader conquered at last by employing a Tartar manoeuvre, he bears full testimony to the fighting power and gallantry of his oppon- ents, whose undisciplined valour yielded only to his superior tactics. And such as he found them, they continued to be in the days of his successors. It must be remembered also that, besides the Rajput communities established under their half-independent Princes in the country which bears their name, numbers of the same race were widely dispersed elsewhere, and abounded especially in their old home, Oude, and in Behar, whose descendants so largely constituted the Company's sepoy army in later times. Many Rajas and Poligars throughout the country claimed to be of Rajput descent ; and their sympathies, and those of their followers, would naturally be enlisted on behalf of their real or alleged kinsmen and co-religionists. And much to the point for our present purpose, Sivaji himself claimed Rajput descent on the mother's side. On the whole, as the Empire had thriven so much by its connexion with this noble and powerful people, their estrangement would be a very serious blow to its strength and integrity, both directly and, from the example of so pre- eminent a people, indirectly. CHARACTERS OF THE JATS AND SIKHS 13 The Jats were a very different type. Their early history is obscure. But they were a comparatively more indigenous race, and may be classed among the sudras in caste. They had none of the chivalrous spirit of the Rajputs. But though a ruder and more ordinary people, they were hardy, daring, pertinacious, and war- like ; and in later times they approved their military capacity by holding their capital Bhurt- pore against Lake, and repulsing four assaults. They also had a pronounced taste for plunder, which if, as seems probable, the Gypsies are their kinsmen, might be safely assumed. But I mention it because, as with the Mahrattas, if they were inclined to resent religious intoler- ance, this filibustering appetency would be an additional stimulus to resistance and lawless- ness. Again, though the Sikhs, originally Hindoos, and probably Jats, had repudiated caste, and their peculiar religious system had little in common with popular Hindooism, they were fanatically devoted to the Khalsa, or what I may call their own Church; and circumstances, which I need not now relate, transformed them from a body of mild and mystical religionists into stern and grim warriors, jealous for the honour, and sanguine of the extension, of their faith and polity ; and burning with hatred of Islam and its rival pretensions and domineering principles. Any attempts to enforce these would 14 THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH inevitably encounter most resolute resistance from such a people. That exclusively of any external assault, the Empire could have survived the debilitating and disintegrating consequences of reversing the policy which had developed, cemented, and consolidated it, is highly improbable. The alienation of the Rajputs, even if it had not amounted to active hostility, would alone have availed to sap both its material and moral strength. It would have been further weakened by the indisposition of the native Mussulmans to identify themselves with, and support heartily, a regime which in a land where custom is an all-powerful consideration did such violence to their old associations and fixed habits, and, in many cases, to their latent sympathies ; and which was too likely to produce internecine war with the majority of their compatriots. Thus the Government would be compelled to place its chief reliance on the foreign and more bigoted Mahometans ; while the inevitable fail- ure of the revenue, from the disturbed state of the country, would make the payment of such extraneous mercenaries, in adequate force, the more difficult. Moreover, as I have already said, the marked preference for these strangers habitu- ally shown by the Government tended to divide the Mussulman interest, by exciting jealousy and antipathy to them among the native Mahom- etans. And such feelings would now acquire a A RUINOUS EXPERIMENT IN ANY CASE 15 new and powerful stimulus. Hence, again, a new danger to the dynasty. It was by no means improbable, as I hope to show from what actu- ally occurred later, that some distinguished and influential native Mussulman might make common cause with the Hindoo interest, and attempt to re-establish the old order. Thus the Seiads of Barha, long settled in India, had always been distinguished for military prowess. They were now a very numerous and powerful com- munity, and, as appeared later, quite capable of engaging in an anti-Mogul and quasi-nationalist revolution, in concert with the Hindoos. Thus, on the whole, had the critical experi- ment been made in a time of profound peace, and had not its inherent difficulties been aggra- vated by external danger, and heavy demands on the Imperial resources to meet the exigencies of foreign warfare, it could hardly have failed eventually to ruin the dynasty, and, unless the counter-revolution had succeeded, and the new ruler had possessed great governing qualities the Empire also. But the catastrophe came about in another way ; though the experiment was made, and the first fatal breach in the integrity of the Imperial structure the alienation of the Rajputs rapidly ensued. But before this had occurred, Aurung- zib, the rash innovator, had already engaged in another enterprise, which committed him, in a new field, to a contest with militant Hindooism 16 THE MOGUL EMPIRE AT ITS ZENITH of an exceptionally formidable and insidious character, which proved more than a match for his utmost and prolonged efforts to suppress it, and in the end a chief cause of the collapse which his proceedings in Hindostan had threatened to bring about. II AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR WHEN the Emperor, Shah Jehan, was attacked by a sudden and dangerous illness at Delhi, Dara Shukoh, his eldest son, was at the capital ; Shah Shuja, his second son, was Governor of Bengal ; Morad Buksh, the youngest, was Governor of Guzerat ; and Alamgirh, styled later Aurungzib, the third son, was in the Dekkan engaged in the siege of Bijapur, the capital of one of the two surviving Afghan monarchies there. The Emperor's illness, and disappearance from public view, produced general consternation, and threat- ened serious disturbance at the capital and in the Provinces. Shah Jehan himself fully appreciated the danger of the crisis. Disabled as he was, he seems to have feared that the coup de grace might be given him by the partisans of one or other of his ambitious sons, rivals for the succession of their moribund parent. And it is notable that, in this extremity, he showed more confidence in the Rajputs than in his Mogul subjects. Manucci, who was in Dara's service, says : " He ordered all the gates of the fortress to be closed, leaving 18 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR only two wickets open. Placing no reliance on the Mahometan commanders, he ordered Jeswunt Sing to post himself at one gate with his men, and the other he made over to Raja Ram Sing. These officers guarded the fortress on all sides with thirty thousand soldiers, all of them Raj- puts." Dara himself was only allowed to " enter the fortress twice a day, with a retinue of ten persons, but not to sleep within it. And those within were sworn on the Koran to be faithful to him, he was afraid of being given poison." Reports were circulated and sent to the Provinces that the Emperor was dead ; and a war of succession was imminent. Dara assumed the conduct of affairs at Delhi, and levied additional troops there. Shah Shuja marched with a large army from Bengal. Morad prepared for action, and took Surat in the hope of finding much treasure there. Aur- ungzib proceeded more deliberately and artfully. He raised the siege of Bijapur, and, according to Manucci, secured the neutrality of Sivaji by a very remarkable concession no less, in fact, than the grant of a fourth part of the Imperial revenue in the Dekkan Provinces, which, he asserts, was recorded on a golden tablet, and was to be perpetual. If this state- ment is true, the Mahratta claim to chout in the Dekkan was thus early and formally sanc- tioned by Aurungzib himself. And Manucci taxes him with perfidy for ignoring it later. SHUJA DEFEATED BY SOLAIMAN SHUKOH 19 The Emperor, partially recovered, announced his convalescence to his absent sons, and ordered them to keep their stations, and renounce their ambitious schemes. But suspecting or assuming that his disease was mortal, and that he was not a free agent, and jealous of Dara's ascendancy at the capital, they evaded compliance, on the plausible ground of the necessity of restoring their father to independence. The approach of Shuja compelled the Em- peror to send an army against him. This was composed of the best troops, under the command of Solaiman Shukoh, Dara's eldest son, accom- panied by Jei Sing, Raja of Ambir or Jeipur, and Dilir Khan, an eminent Mogul noble. Jei Sing was well affected to the Emperor, but inimical to Dara, who had highly offended his dignity by flippantly remarking that he looked like a musician or, as we might say a fiddler. This circumstance may partly explain the contrast between Jei Sing's conduct and that of the Rajputs, who were 'generally strongly devoted to the cause of Dara. Hence Jei Sing was not anxious that Solaiman should confirm his father's ascendancy by a decisive victory over Shuja. Moreover, he was instructed by the Emperor to prevent, if possible, a collision, and to induce Shuja to return to his government. But his remon- strances were ineffectual ; and both Princes were eager for the fray. Shuja was defeated ; 20 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR but Jei Sing contrived that the pursuit should be slack ; and Shuja, with little loss, retreated, and returned to Bengal. Morad's demonstration was lightly regarded at Delhi. Though he was brave and obstinate, his weak character was known ; and it was hoped that he might still be reclaimed to allegiance on hearing of his father's recovery. But Aurungzib's ability and declared intention of subverting Dara's overweening influence were considered far more serious. And the event soon justified these apprehensions. Aurungzib, secretly resolved to win the great prize, went darkly to work. Hitherto, though employed by his father in the field, he had studiously disclaimed all ambitious views, and had professed to be a religious devotee a fakir in spirit intent only on his soul's salva- tion. He now saw that, to gain his object, his first step should be to make a cat's-paw of his simple brother, Morad, and that this would be best effected by posing still in his old attitude. He accordingly wrote to him, repeat- ing the report that Dara had poisoned Shah Jehan, seized the government, and intended to make himself Emperor, and that Shuja w r as marching against him with the same object, But, denouncing Dara as an infidel and idolater, and Shuja as a heretic, and asserting his own zeal for the orthodox faith, and desire to re- nounce the world and devote himself to AURUNGZIB BEGUILES MORAD 21 religion ; he offered to do his utmost to secure Morad's succession, if he would swear on the Koran to protect and provide competently for him and his family. The offer was, of course, guaranteed by the same solemn sanction ; and, as a further pledge of his sincerity, Aurungzib sent a large sum of money, and urged his brother to join him promptly. Morad, fired with am- bition and blind to Aurungzib's real character and designs, eagerly welcomed the overture, employed the money in increasing his army, and set no store by the warning of a faithful officer, Shahbaz, who mistrusted the good faith of the piously self-abnegating auxiliary. Meanwhile, Aurungzib had induced the Dekkan army to follow his fortune ; and the junction of the two forces was shortly effected. On this occasion Aurungzib ostentatiously treated his brother in public with the greatest deference, as his future sovereign ; and in private redoubled his hypocritical assurances to him. The Emperor sent repeated orders to them to return to their governments, promising to pardon their rebellion. But Aurungzib per- suaded Morad that these were forgeries, and that, should they find their father alive, the necessity of delivering him from Dara's control would justify their persistence, and merit and obtain their forgiveness. Manucci says that at this time Shah Jehan 22 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR was not secluded, and that he saw him seated at a window for more than half an hour in the presence of a vast concourse. But Aurungzib's partisans at Delhi still maintained that the Emperor's disease was a mortal one, and that his end was near at hand. Weak as he was, Shah Jehan was very anxious to accompany the army which the continued advance of the combined Princes compelled him to send against them. He hoped by his personal presence to overawe and reclaim them. But Dara was opposed to this ; and the direction of the campaign was confided to him. He summoned his son, Solaiman Shukoh, to hasten to his assistance, and meanwhile Jeswunt Sing, the Raja of Joudpur, and Kasim Khan, were sent to obstruct the advance of the rebel Princes through a difficult country. This, according to Manucci, was Shah Jehan's own arrangement. Jeswunt was " the king's loyal subject," but Kasim Khan's disposition was more ambiguous, and " he was not well affected to Dara." Aurungzib's impetuosity baffled these tactics : the Nerbudda and the defiles beyond it were traversed without opposi- tion ; and the armies joined battle near Oojein, where the Imperialists were completely defeated, Manucci says, through the treachery and in- activity of Kasim Khan ; while the Rajputs fought with their usual bravery, and fell in such numbers that Jeswunt, having lost ten DARA MARCHES AGAINST HIS BROTHERS 23 thousand men, retreated with only five hundred, and regained his capital with a slender escort. His wife characteristically reviled him for sur- viving defeat ; and domestic harmony was with difficulty restored later through Aurungzib's mediation, when Jeswunt had conformed to the new regime. Aurungzib's partisans at Delhi strongly recom- mended his immediate advance on the capital, and, confident of the success of his intrigues there, he reassured Morad and the army by intimating that the Mogul troops of the Emperor would desert Dara at the critical moment. Manucci confidently asserts that Shah Jehan had been hitherto a free agent, and in the full exercise of his authority ; but that, on the announcement of Jeswunt's defeat and retire- ment, " finding himself in bodily weakness, and desirous of pleasing Dara, he transferred to him all his powers and dignities, and ordered every one to yield him obedience." Dara rapidly assembled an army of above 100,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry, with 100 field-pieces, and above 200 European gunners, among whom was Manucci, and a corps of 500 camels, armed with swivel-guns. The Venetian was much impressed by the brilliant spectacle of this vast array on the march. " It moved over the heights and through the vales like the waves of a stormy sea." On a magnificent elephant, Prince Dara appeared like 24 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR a crystal tower, resplendent as a sun shining over all the land. Around him rode many squadrons of Rajput cavalry, whose armour glittered from afar, and their lances' heads, with a tremulous motion, sent forth rays of light and so on. But the imposing spectacle inspired him with little confidence. The flower of the Imperial army had been confided to Prince Solaiman, and had not rejoined. And Manucci misdoubted the quality of the new levies. Most of them, he says, " were not very warlike they were butchers, barbers, blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors, and such like." He also mistrusted the disposition of the Mogul nobles, among many of whom Dara was not popular. And, he adds : " What dis- concerted me was that no one would say that Dara was sure of gaining the battle with all that grand array." Dara took up a position on the bank of the Chumbul, securing all the passages across the river. But Aurungzib discovered one more remote and unguarded ; and, leaving his tents standing, with part of his army, led the rest rapidly through a broken and jungly country, and across the river, and appeared suddenly on Dara's flank. Manucci thinks that had Dara at once attacked his wayworn division, he would cer- tainly have prevailed over it. But the oppor- tunity was lost, and the enemy was reinforced by the junction|of the rest of his army. DARA ATTACKS AURUNGZIB AND MORAD 25 Before the battle began, Manucci, from a hill overlooking the scene of action, observed an ominous symptom of treachery. Many horse- men rode out of Dara's camp to that of the enemy, and did not return. In front of each army were ranged the guns, and behind them the infantry, armed with muskets, and the camel corps. The cavalry were in the rear. The Princes were all con- spicuous on elephants, Dara and Aurungzib in the centre of their respective hosts, and Morad on Aurungzib 's left. Dara was the assailant. He opened the battle by a general discharge of his artillery. But the distance was too great, and the fire ineffective. And Manucci says : "I was much amazed at their making us work thus for nothing." And this great tactical mistake revealed another ominous circumstance. When Dara immediately followed up this idle demonstration by a vehe- ment order for a general advance, and the cavalry rushed to the front, " the barbers, butchers, and the rest turned right about face, abandoning the artillerymen and the guns." The enemy, more prudently, had reserved his fire, replying only with a few shells. But when Dara's cavalry arrived well within range, a general discharge of cannon, swivel-guns, and musketry arrested the charge, and threw the assailants into disorder. But, well seconded by Rustam Khan, one of his ablest officers, and 26 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR Chhatar Sal, a Rajput chieftain, he rallied them, and the onslaught was resumed with such vigour that they " broke through the guns and pene- trated to their opponents' camp, putting to the rout camels and infantry." Aurungzib sent the greater part of his troops to stem the impetuous tide of war, keeping only a slight body around him, but heartening his men by a notable display of courage and resolu- tion. He ordered his elephant to be chained, to indicate his fixed purpose to conquer or die. But again Dara's impetuous valour prevailed. After a stubborn contest, the reinforcement was worsted, and Dara still advanced. Had he dashed on at once, Aurungzib's fate, Manucci thinks, must have been sealed. But, wearied by their severe exertions, and impeded by the ground, he halted, and gave his men a short breathing-time. And in this position he received tidings which diverted his efforts elsewhere. Chhatar Sal and Rustam Khan had both fallen, but their troops, though wavering, were still resisting. He hastened to their support, and once more prevailed, and put their opponents to the rout. Meanwhile a desperate contest had been waged between Ram Sing and Prince Morad. Ram Sing and his fiery Rajputs had at last forced their way close up to the Prince's elephant ; and some of them had dismounted and leaped on the beast, and were in the act of cutting the DARA'S ARMY SUDDENLY DISPERSES 27 girths of the howda, when Morad drew a bow, and shot their bold leader in the breast ; who fell to the ground, and was trampled to death by the enraged animal. But the Rajputs, so far from being intimidated, were exasperated at the death of their chief, and " battled more violently than ever." Dara, informed of this, was on the point of joining them, when, according to Khafi Khan, " a rocket struck the howda of his elephant. This alarmed and discouraged him so much that he dismounted in haste from his elephant and mounted a horse." This may be the true explanation of this precipitate and ill-judged act ; though it is not quite reconcilable with Dara's undoubted courage. But Manucci gives a very different reason. Khalilullah Khan, who commanded one of Dara's divisions, but had hitherto hung back, and was in heart a traitor, and who certainly joined Aurungzib immediately after the battle, suggested to Dara that, as the latter was very slenderly guarded, a sudden dash at him would be certain of success, and even more decisive than the capture or death of Morad ; and that it was for this purpose that Dara took horse. Whatever the cause, the result was fatal. The disappearance of the leader habitually involves the dispersion and flight of a native army. And there were, in this case, special circumstances which aggravated this tendency. The personal unpopularity of 28 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR Dara among many of his officers, the death of those most devoted to him, Aurungzib's in- trigues and denunciation of him as an infidel, the rawness, inexperience, and indiscipline of his new levies, combined to impair the stability of his vast but ill-assorted host. Hence his abrupt disappearance was the signal for an equally abrupt disintegration and flight. Hitherto successful, and on the eve of victory, Dara saw his army melt suddenly away, like a cloud driven before a strong wind. It was not, pro- perly speaking, a defeat. It was rather a general stampede, the result of surprise, perplexity, in- discipline, and deliberate treachery. But the event proved that it was an irretrievable catastrophe ; on which account I have described the battle in more detail that I should otherwise have done. Dara reached Agra in the evening in a state of the deepest dejection. Partly from shame, partly for fear of being there besieged and captured, he did not enter the city. Shah Jehan, who had betaken himself to Agra, sent a con- solatory message to him, with hopes that Solaiman's army might still enable him to regain his ground. He also furnished him with an order to the Governor of Delhi, to admit him, and consign to him the great treasure there deposited. But Aurungzib had secured the Governor in his interest ; and he refused to open the gates. And Dara pushed on to Lahore, SOLAIMAN FLIES TO RAJA OF SIRINAGAR 29 where he proposed to assemble a new army, and to renew the contest. But his hopes of success were soon dashed by the loss of the support on which he had mainly counted. His son Solaiman was a brave and vigorous man, thoroughly devoted to his father's cause. He had already defeated his uncle, Shuja ; and his army was the flower of the Imperial forces. But, as I have mentioned, Jei Sing, one of his chief officers, was secretly hostile to Dara, and Dilir Khan, probably not too friendly to him, and under Jei Sing's in- fluence. Hence Aurungzib's overtures to them, backed by his recent victory, shook their fidelity to their commander, and from their timid counsels, recommending a retreat, and intimating that their soldiers were not to be trusted, he saw clearly that they at least were prepared to play him false, and perhaps to deliver him up to the conqueror. He therefore quitted the army, and with a small force escaped to the Raja of Sirinagar, who received him hospitably, and pledged himself to protect him. And his army and his faithless chief officers entered Aurungzib's service. When the victorious brothers had taken possession of Dara's camp, Aurungzib main- tained his previous attitude ; congratulated Morad on the result, which he ascribed mainly to Morad's valour ; treated him with the greatest deference as his future sovereign, and intro- 30 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR duced to him the traitor Khalilullah as a loyal subject, devoted to his interest, of which he had given such recent and substantial evidence. Four days after the battle, the victorious Princes arrived before Agra. Manucci was already there ; and he describes minutely the gradual and artful process by which the Emperor was dethroned, and forcibly secluded in one quarter of his vast fortress- palace. The united army was posted, in the first instance, about two miles from the city. Aurungzib made profuse professions of affec- tion and fidelity to his father, and justified his action on the ground of Dara's usurpation of authority and criminal ambition. The Emperor gave him fair words, but, according to Manucci, tried to entrap him into a personal interview with no lenient intentions. But Aurungzib was too wary, and excused himself. Meanwhile he was actively engaged in winning over the chief nobles, and disposing them to acquiesce in his masterful proceedings. Many indeed were already his decided partisans ; Dara's sym- pathisers who had not fallen or fled were dis- heartened and cowed, and self-interest attracted the undecided to the winning side. Thus Aurungzib was emboldened to deal strongly and decisively with his father. He made his son, Sultan Mahmood, Governor of the city ; and he was authorised to invest the AURUNGZIB DEPOSES THE EMPEROR 31 fort, and allow no one to enter it. Aurungzib's troops were moved into the city, and closed upon the fort. The Emperor, for three days, tried to repel them by firing on them, but they took shelter in the adjacent houses. Then the artillerymen, who had been tampered with by Aurungzib's agents, showed symptoms of de- sertion, some letting themselves down from the walls by ropes. Whereupon the garrison, in despair, prepared to follow their example. Aurungzib still maintained his hypocritical attitude ; pleaded illness, which had prevented him from waiting on the Emperor, and that, while he was laid up, his impatient soldiers had acted without orders ; and he proposed that his son, Sultan Mahmood, should visit the Emperor, and arrange matters a Vaimable. To this Shah Jehan consented. The Prince had instructions to secure the gate, introduce his troops, and make himself master of the fort. In this he succeeded, and the Emperor was restricted to the palace. Then, master of the position, Aurungzib threw off one mask, and plainly announced to his father that he was no longer fit to rule, but must take his ease in retirement, and leave the burden of government to be sustained by more capable hands in other words, that he was dethroned and a prisoner. And, suiting the action to the implied significance of this declaration, he demanded, through his son, the keys of the palace. And, as the inmates were very numerous 32 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR and a close blockade was established, and no provisions were allowed to enter, the forlorn monarch was constrained to comply with the demand. Then the palace itself was occupied, many gates were closed, and guards were placed at the entrance of the zenana, to which Shah Jehan was thenceforth closely restricted. Thus his reign came to an end, though the succession was still undecided, and the ex-fakir still professed to be acting only on behalf of Morad's candidature. The easy and complete success of this auda- cious, unfilial, and treasonable proceeding en- couraged its deviser to remove his second mask, and disclose his real features as the avowed pretender to the vacant throne. Morad's friends recommended him to leave the pursuit of Dara to his brother, and with his own army to secure Agra and reduce Delhi. But he preferred to accompany Aurungzib. The two armies marched separately, at a mile's distance from each other, and halted at six miles south of Mathura. The ostensible reason for this halt was the proposed formal elevation of Morad to the throne. Elaborate preparations for the cere- mony were made : Aurungzib was all smiles, congratulation, and flattery ; and to inaugurate the august function, invited his brother to a great banquet. But he arranged that his chief officers should entertain Morad's at their own quarters. AURUNGZIB ARRESTS MORAD 33 The eunuch Shahbaz and other faithful followers of the infatuated Prince suspected foul play, and strongly dissuaded him from putting himself in his brother's power. And Manucci, who was out of employment, but had disguised himself as a holy mendicant, and as such had the free run of the armies, gathered from the ambiguous gossip in Aurungzib's camp that mischief was brewing. But Morad was in high spirits, and, imperturbably relying on his brother's sworn fidelity, went to the feast. Aurungzib, discarding on this great occasion his religious scruples, took care that Morad should be well plied with wine, and allowed to retire to sleep off its effects, while the banquet still proceeded. In this helpless condition Morad was disarmed, fettered, placed in a covered howda on an elephant, and sent off at speed during the night to Delhi, escorted by four thousand cavalry. Another similar cortege was dispatched to Agra to baffle pursuit, should an attempt be made to rescue the prisoner. But the darkness of the night, the continuance of the feast, and the dispersion of Morad' s officers, prevented this, and in the morning Aurungzib's agents saluted him as Emperor, and Morad' s officers were invited to enter the usurper's service, with a promise of double pay, which, after some hesitation, in their desperate circumstances, they did. On arriving at Delhi the unhappy Prince 3 34 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR was publicly paraded as a prisoner, previous to his being consigned to the fortress of Selimgurh. " It was," says Manucci, " very pitiful to see poor Morad Buksh make this miserable entry into Delhi, visible to all, his face dejected, wearing a blue turban, ill put on ; behind him an executioner with a naked sword in his hand, ready upon any attempt at rescue to cut off his head. It seemed as if some criminal were being borne to the scaffold." Aurungzib, on the other hand, lost no time in revealing the object, and reaping the fruit, of his hypocrisy and treachery. " Hardly," says Manucci, " had Morad Buksh fallen into his hands, Dara and Solaiman Shukoh been defeated, and his father imprisoned, than he proclaimed himself Emperor. He con- ferred many distinctions and gifts on the men of Shah Jehan, Dara, Morad Buksh, and Solaiman Shukoh, who came over to his side, thereby the more easily to gain their adherence." Manucci, who had joined in the flight to Agra, was eager to re-enter the service of Dara ; and, after an adventurous and dangerous journey, rejoined him at Lahore. The unhappy Prince received him most graciously, contrasted his fidelity with the desertion of so many on whom he had long lavished his bounty, presented him with a horse and five hundred rupees, and raised his pay from eighty to one hundred and DARA RAISES A NEW ARMY 35 fifty rupees a month. He had already raised a new army of thirty thousand men, mostly Moguls, Seiads, and Pathans. He had also strong hope of assistance from a certain Raja Surup Sing, and gave him a large sum of money to secure his fidelity to his sworn engage- ment. But the Raja went off with the money ; shirked his engagement, and paid no heed to Dara's urgent remonstrances. Daud Khan was Dara's ablest and staunchest partisan. But Aurungzib, by the usual trick of a letter, purposely intercepted, and implying a treacherous understanding between himself and Daud Khan, shook Dara's confidence in the latter. And though Daud denounced the letter as a forgery, and made every effort to reassure Dara, persisting in following his fortune on the resumption of Dara's flight, he was at last formally dismissed, and joined Aurungzib, though with an understanding that he was not to serve against his old master. Dara next attempted to reach Cabul, en route for Persia. But the Governor, Mahabat Khan, discouraged this plan ; and Dara's mind seems to have been divided between a resolution to fight out the quarrel in India, and a project of reaching Persia by sea. He marched, with a very reduced force, to Multan, closely pursued by Aurungzib, and thence to Bakkar, which Dara determined to occupy in force, as a strong place d'armes and rally ing-point, if, as he hoped, 36 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR he could raise a new army in Guzerat. He gave the command of this to a valiant eunuch, Khwajah Basant, or, as Manucci calls him, as a European equivalent, Primivera, i.e. " Spring- time." The garrison consisted of two thousand select men and twenty-two Europeans, with abundance of food, guns, ammunition, and other supplies. Bahadur Khan, sent on in pursuit by Aurungzib, was close on his track ; and Dara, with a small and an ever- dwindling force, pushed on for Tattah. Manucci was very anxious to accompany him. But Dara insisted that he would be more useful as an artillerist in the defence of the fort. He made him Captain of the Europeans, doubled his pay, and gave him five thousand rupees to divide among his men, recommending him earnestly to the eunuch commandant. Aurungzib, detaching a force to pursue Dara, had left Multan, and gone off towards Agra, to confront Shah Shuja, who was marching thither with a large army from Bengal. On his way he was met by Raja Jei Sing, who, on Solaiman's flight, had gone over to Aurungzib and was confirmed in his new allegiance by profuse promises of favour. He was appointed Governor of Delhi, and the province of Sambha was conferred on him. Though at enmity with Dara, Jei Sing was much attached to Shah Jehan, a cause of no little anxiety to his new master. DARA IN GUZERAT SHUJA DEFEATED 37 Dara, with six thousand horsemen, proceeded through Cutch to Guzerat, where the Governor of Ahmedabad, the provincial capital, though his daughter was married to Aurungzib, sur- rendered the city, on the alleged ground that "it was not correct that he, a vassal, should oppose a royal prince, heir to the Empire." Thus Aurungzib's moral victory over his eldest brother was by no means complete. And Shah Nawaz Khan joined Dara, was present in the final battle, and was murdered in cold blood by Aurungzib's general, after it was over. The fort of Bakkar meanwhile was closely invested by Khalilullah Khan. But the defence was obstinate and prolonged. How it fell at last I shall explain later. " Dara's plan," says Manucci, who was engaged in the operations, ' was that if he did not succeed in the province of Gujarat, and suffered defeat, this fortress of Bakhar would serve as a base to help him again." Aurungzib found Shuja strongly entrenched in a position near the village of Bajwah in the Fathpur district. His assaults were repulsed. And in the night, Raja Jeswunt Sing suddenly changed sides and attacked Aurungzib's camp in the rear, while Shuja assailed the army in front. A desperate contest followed ; Aurungzib displayed great presence of mind and constancy, rallied his disordered forces, and in the end gained a complete victory. Jeswunt Sing, on 38 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR Shuja's defeat, retired to his own country. Aurungzib committed the prosecution of the war against Shuja to Mir Jumla, one of the ablest generals of the time, sending with him his eldest son, Sultan Mahmood, " but without a command." Shah Shuja was compelled to retreat successively to Allahabad, Benares, Mongir, and Rajmahal. Thence he was dis- lodged from an entrenched position by Jumla' s artillery ; and took up another strongly fortified near Dacca, while Mir Jumla halted, during the monsoon in that city. Sultan Mahmood, resenting bitterly his insignificant position, act- ually went over to Shah Shuja, and married his daughter. But Shuja seems to have con- ceived suspicion of his fidelity ; his position became awkward, and he returned to his father's army, was ordered to Court, and consigned to Gwalior. The campaign was prolonged. But at last Shuja, despairing of success, and too well aware of what awaited him if he fell into his brother's hands, retired to Arakan, where he was at first well received by the King, but later maltreated, and impeded in his desire to make his way by sea to Persia. And in a dis- turbance that followed, he was killed, thus removing another obstacle to Aurungzib's ambition. But while the contest with Shah Shuja was being waged, Dara had mustered in Guzerat an army of thirty thousand horsemen, and marched AURUNGZIB DEFEATS DARA NEAR AJMIR 39 northwards, relying on Jeswunt Sing's promised co-operation. But Aurungzib contrived, through Jei Sing's influence, and lavish promises of forgiveness for his recent treachery, and high favour in his own service, to neutralise him ; and he remained quiescent. This defection reduced Dara to a most embarrassing and almost desperate condition. He had arrived in the neighbourhood of Ajmir. His army was unequal to cope with Aurungzib's forces. To retreat would be difficult, and would discourage his men, and be the signal for desertion. His only alternative was to entrench himself in a strong position among the hills, which he did. For three days he successfully resisted Aurung- zib's assaults, and by daring sallies did much execution on the enemy. But on the fourth day, according to Khafi Khan, a hill in the rear of his position was occupied, and an effective attack thence delivered. According to Manucci, Aurungzib induced Dilir Khan, one of his chief officers, to make an overture to Dara, promising to desert to him, and thus Dilir obtained an entrance within the lines, and in the crisis of the battle turned his force against Dara's with fatal effect. " Dara's army fell into the greatest confusion, and, without making any stand or resistance, the whole of them took to flight." 6 The fallen Prince had only time to carry off his family and the chief valuables lying in his tents." 40 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR Jei Sing and Bahadur Khan were sent to pursue him " their orders were to seize him, dead or alive." On his way to Ahmedabad he was rejoined by many of the fugitives. But the governor of the city had been gained over by Aurungzib, and refused to admit him. And several of his most intimate adherents now deserted him. With two thousand men he resumed his flight for Sind, suffering much by the way, intending to rally again at Bakkar. But, finding it closely invested by Khalilullah Khan, he once more resolved to make his way to Persia. Though personally inimical to Dara, Jei Sing was not anxious to capture him, but to drive him from India. Hence he contrived to delay the pursuit so as to enable the fugitive to effect his escape. On the frontier was a Pathan chieftain, Jiwan Khan, who was under special obligations to Dara, who had thrice saved his life when Shah Jehan had condemned him to death. To him he applied for protection. Jiwan Khan gave him fair words. But, anxious to curry favour with Aurungzib, he treacherously sur- rounded Dara and his family, and strictly secluded them. Dara's favourite wife, in de- spair, poisoned herself. And when Jei Sing and Bahadur Khan arrived in pursuit, Dara was made over to them ; " chains were put upon his legs and manacles upon his wrists, and four DARA JUDICIALLY MURDERED 41 elephants conveyed him and his family and suite, closely guarded." At Bakkar, which was still holding out, the force escorting the unhappy Prince and his family, appeared suddenly, and were fired upon. But the eunuch in command was promptly informed of the fact of Dara's capture, and summoned to surrender. This he refused to do without Dara's sanction. This was obtained, and the fort was evacuated. At Delhi the pitiful spectacle presented by Morad Buksh was repeated. Dara, with his son, Sipihr Shukoh, was paraded on an elephant in an uncovered howda, behind them a man with a drawn sword, and round him horsemen also with drawn swords. For two hours he was thus exhibited in front of the palace, and thence transferred to a garden. Aurungzib, affecting indecision as to his fate, consulted his council, who, well knowing his mind, and the line he had taken against his brother at the outset, with one dissentient voice decreed his death, not only for the public security, but " by reason of his being an idolater, without any religion, and an enemy of the Mahomedan faith." So says Manucci. Khafi Khan's statement is : " The order was given for Dara Shukoh to be put to death under a legal opinion of the lawyers, because he had apostatised from the law, had vilified religion, and had allied himself with 42 AURUNGZIB MAKES HIMSELF EMPEROR heresy and infidelity." He adds : " After he was slain, his body was placed on a howda and carried round the city. So once alive and once dead he was exposed to the eyes of all men, and many wept over his fate. He was buried in the tomb of Humayun. Sipihr Shukoh was ordered to be imprisoned in the fortress of Gwalior." Manucci tells a ghastly story that Aurungzib sent Dara's head to be served up to the captive Emperor in a box, at his dinner ; and that the miserable parent was overwhelmed at the sight with grief and horror. This may be true, but it is to be hoped, for the honour of humanity, that it was a bazaar rumour. Dara's son, Solaiman Shukoh, as I have mentioned, had taken refuge with the Raja of Sirinagar. Jei Sing was employed to induce the Raja to give him up. But, faithful to the obligation of hospitality, and relying on his secluded and strong country, he scouted the allurements and threats of the usurping and insidious Emperor. But his son was more amenable to them. Solai- man, aware of this, endeavoured to escape into Tibet, but was pursued by the Raja's son, captured, manacled, and handed over to Aurung- zib's agents, sent to Gwalior, and there poisoned. The old Raja of Sirinagar, Manucci says, " felt greatly the vileness of the deed carried out by his only son," and in a short space he ended his days under the disgrace. MORAD JUDICIALLY MURDERED 43 Thus by force and fraud the ex-fakir had removed one obstacle after another to his un- disputed attainment of the object of his secret ambition. But one crowning act of villainy was still requisite before he could feel himself secure. Morad Buksh might still give him trouble. For, as Manucci says, " many nobles had friendship and affection for him, and wanted him for king, owing to his renown as good soldier and liberal master." And he had at- tempted to escape. As in Dara's case, the Emperor endeavoured to throw the responsibility for his death on others. Morad had put to death a secretary, when Governor of Guzerat. The relatives were secretly incited to prosecute the blood feud judicially. But they declined. But a poor cousin was bribed to bring a capital charge before a kazi duly tutored for the purpose, and the Prince was condemned to death, and murdered in his prison. Khafi Khan says that " His gracious Majesty rewarded the eldest son for not enforcing his claim of blood." Such a refinement of hypocrisy is quite characteristic of Aurungzib, and winds up appropriately his conduct in relation to his deluded victim. Ill RESULTS OF AURUNGZIB'S USURPATION IN tracing the causes of the decline of the Mogul Empire under Aurungzib, his conduct previous to his accession must be taken into account. For, though he removed all obstacles to his ambition, his triumph was dearly bought. He had given a great shock to the Imperial author- ity ; impaired its moral influence ; abjured its character as the impartial and, so to speak, undenominational sway of a paternal sovereign over all his subjects ; and set an example of what I may call political parricide, which was only too likely to be imitated in due time by his posterity. Thus, however successful at the moment, he had sown a plentiful crop of troubles, disaffection, and consequent weakness for the future. The deposition and close imprisonment of his father was an audacious innovation - - a breach of allegiance, and an act of high treason perpetrated against an eminent and able monarch ; and an act of cruelty to an indulgent father, in violation of the primary instincts and obli- gations of humanity. As such, it must have AURUNGZIB SHOCKS HIS SUBJECTS 45 sent a thrill of indignation and horror through the heart of the Empire, and effectually arrested the flow of the old sentiments of reverence and devotion to the Head of the State, which Akbar and his successors had inspired. This revolting impression was deepened by the fate to which he had consigned his eldest and young- est brothers, and by the hypocritical expedients which he had employed for their destruction. Like Pilate, he had washed his hands, and affected to be guiltless of their blood. But, like Henry vin., he had poisoned the fountains of justice by murdering them judicially. And the simple Morad had been led, like a lamb to the slaughter, by an elaborate tissue of sancti- monious treachery. Genuine loyalty, personal devotion to such a man, were out of the question : he could neither be loved, respected, nor trusted ; and must rely, for obedience, on fear, force, cunning, and self-interested compliance. While these remarks apply to his subjects generally, the Hindoos had special and more personal reasons of estrangement from the new Emperor. The attitude he had assumed, and the pretence which had been alleged for the execution of Dara, obviously indicated a new and to them unfriendly departure in Imperial policy. Whether Aurungzib was, or was not, sincere in hoisting the banner of the Crescent against his eldest brother, and justifying his exclusion from the succession, and his execution, 46 RESULTS OF AURUNGZIB'S USURPATION on the ground of his sympathy with the Hindoo religion (as one historian distinctly states) the Hindoos must have felt that such a war-cry, followed by a capital condemnation in the same sense, was an appeal to the hitherto discoun- tenanced but lurking spirit of Mussulman fanati- cism and political exclusiveness, and boded no good to them, under the dominion of him who had, on the strength of it, won his way to the throne. Such a conviction must have made them rebels in their hearts from the first, though the smouldering fire of disaffection was for the time suppressed. While such were the impressions produced by Aurungzib's conduct on the minds and hearts of his subjects, Nemesis was at work in his own bosom. The stings of conscience he might ig- nore, or alleviate them by his strong delusion that he was the fated and favoured instrument of Heaven. But he could not shut his eyes to the danger of his sons availing themselves of his unpopularity to retaliate upon him his treatment of Shah Jehan. And in his lonely eminence, conscious of his own falseness, and judging others by himself, he was infinitely suspicious of ail men. Hence he adopted a system of minute super- vision, secret espionage, checks and counter- checks on officials, limitation of the discretion and means of his employes, double appointments HIS SIN FINDS HIM OUT AS A RULER 47 of military commanders, resulting in mutual jealousies, disputes, and counteraction, and cap- ricious supersession, which, besides betokening want of confidence, and so chilling zeal for the service, clogged the machine of civil govern- ment, and compromised the continuity and systematic prosecution of military operations ; and thus greatly contributed to make his admini- stration ineffective and his arms unprosperous. Thus his ambition in the end over-leaped itself ; and his exaltation involved a humiliating decadence of his power, and of the Empire, of which he was the evil genius. IV AURUNGZIB'S NEW POLICY How Aurungzib came to adopt a course so different from that of his predecessors, so obvi- ously inexpedient from a political point of view, and so fatal in its result, might seem strange, did not history present many analogous phen- omena. His conduct is usually accounted for by his intense bigotry, if not fanaticism, which blinded him to the inevitable consequences of his rash proceedings, like his contemporary James n., "The Ass Who lost three Kingdoms for a Mass." There is no doubt truth in this view, but I , believe that it is not the whole truth, and that though he was a Mahometan devot, he had also a political object in his persecution of the Hindoos which was congenial to his natural character, and confirmed by the circumstances of his rivalry with his brother Dara. Even of James n. Hallam says that it seems difficult to determine whether love of Popery or love of despotism was the stronger incentive to his mad course. And, considering how unscrupulously and hypo- BIGOTRY NOT HIS ONLY INCENTIVE 49 critically Aurungzib made political capital of his orthodoxy to enlist Morad, his youngest brother, in the campaign against the alleged infidel claimant of the throne, and to rid himself of Dara in the end by a capital sentence on the same ground, it might be even surmised that his zeal for the faith was a mere cloak to cover his ambitious design of making himself Emperor ; which he retained as a justification of his violence and cruelty. But this is inconsistent with a more intimate knowledge of the man and his later conduct. There can, I think, be no doubt that he was a real zealot and stickler for the Koran and its injunctions on their own account. But it does not therefore follow that religious zeal alone actuated him. That he should have been attached to his traditional faith was natural ; for, being a man of narrow intellect, with no speculative tendency, he was not tempted to depart from it ; while it suited his morose temper, it encouraged his ambition by its promises of divine aid to the champion of the faith ; and in its fatalism it enabled him to lay a flattering unction to his soul, that though his means might be crooked, his end the ascendancy of Islam would cover a multitude of sins, and that, even in their commission, he was but acting out a predestined career. This strong delusion seems to have sustained him through his long and arduous life, but to have failed at the last, and left him 4 50 AURUNGZIB'S NEW POLICY miserably uncertain, and seriously apprehensive of his fate in the after-world. His last utterance in substance amounts to a palinode of his life- long confidence in the divine condonation of Jehu-like faith without works of mercy and genuine morality. To appreciate the political object, which in practice coincided with Aurungzib's religious bigotry, we must consider his personal char- acter, and his position when he entered the lists against Dara Shukoh. Austere in morals, self-centred, and reserved, he was neither subject to zenana influences nor swayed by favourites. Indeed, he seems to have had no intimate personal friends. His strength of will amounted to obstinacy, and made him impervious alike to the counsels of ministers, to prudential con- siderations, and to the lessons of experience. Indefatigable in the pursuit of his own objects, he was equally ready to face difficulty, danger, and suffering himself, and regardless of the feelings, the sentiments, and the interests of others. Proud, imperious, suspicious, and vigil- ant, he was a proficient in cunning statecraft, in inspiring awe, guarding against conspiracies, and maintaining his personal authority ; but deficient in real statesmanship and comprehen- sive insight into the fundamental conditions of his power, and the impolicy of abusing it. Cold - hearted, exacting, unsympathetic, and censorious on slight or inadequate grounds POLITICAL AND SOCIAL OBJECTS 51 to his ablest and most trusty Mahometan ser- vants, towards his Hindoo subjects he was haughty, supercilious, and contemptuous : too indifferent to them to appreciate their better qualities, but keenly alive and antipathetic to their strange, and, in his eyes, barbarous peculi- arities, to the grossness of their vulgar super- stitions, and the licentiousness of many of their popular rites. Moreover, he despised and vilipended the Hindoos as an inferior and conquered race, who, by Akbar's innovating policy had been allowed to usurp a position of political and social equality with their natural masters, which was equally inappropriate and undesir- able. Thus, apart from his religious bigotry, to such a man as Aurungzib, who was, moreover, the son of a Tartar mother, it would seem as anomalous and improper that the Hindoos should be placed on a level with the northern races, as in the Middle Ages it would have appeared to the Anglo-Irish of the pale that the Celtic population the " wild Irish," as they were called should be incorporated with them on equal terms ; and to the jealous main- tainers of Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, in the eighteenth century, that the Roman Catholics should be placed on a political and social level with themselves. That his pre- decessors had so treated them would, to so 52 AURUNGZIB'S NEW POLICY proud, self-opinionated, and self-willed a man, be no convincing argument for his continuing to do so ; and all the less so, when he considered that the most serious obstacle to his ambition had been the result of this treatment, the political prominence and military power of the Rajputs, and their enthusiastic devotion to Dara, from his extreme liberalism, and alleged sympathy with their religion. Hence he was inclined to reverse the policy of his ancestors ; and not only to regard, but to treat the Hindoos as an inferior race ; to brand them with the old stamp of subjection the jizya which Akbar had abolished ; and thus prepare the way for their depression in the social scale, the sapping of their political influ- ence, and their eventual reduction to the status of a subject population, dominated by the privileged class, on whose rightful ascendancy they had been allowed to encroach. The time when the jizya was reimposed, in 1677, tends to confirm the view that I have taken of the mixed motives that suggested the measure. For many years the precept of the Koran, that the conquered infidel should be taxed as such, had been ignored, and allowed to remain a dead letter. But in the interval events had occurred which, while they must have mitigated the Emperor's contempt for the Hindoos, had greatly inflamed his animosity against them, and inclined him to avenge himself SIVAJI'S SUCCESS MAKES HIM VINDICTIVE 53 upon them for the successful uprising of the despised race in the South, and the challenge of his authority, as the representative of foreign and Mahometan sway, by the foundation of a Hindoo anti-polity. The crushed worm had turned, and had been transformed into a mor- dant viper. Sivaji had successfully resisted his generals in the field ; had outwitted him, when he had tried to entrap him at Delhi ; had afterwards consolidated his independent power, ravaged the Imperial provinces with impunity, and assumed the position of a Hindoo sovereign. Such outrageous presumption was calculated to exasperate the Emperor to the utmost, and to rouse his vindictive spirit against the whole detested race ; to induce him to adopt a policy of depression in his dealings with his Hindoo subjects, and, by the assumption of this dis- paraging attitude, under the sanction of the Koran, to enlist the sympathies and stimulate the zeal of his Mahometan subjects and his foreign Mahometan immigrants for the pro- secution of what Khafi Khan calls the " holy war " against the Mahrattas. Thus his tardy conformity to the precept of the Koran seems to have been occasioned by his exasperation, and his resolve to lower the Hindoo crest at home, on the eve of a great personal effort to bring the defiant natives of the South within the scope of his tyrannical and degrading sway. 54 AURUNGZIB'S NEW POLICY Lastly, it is a significant circumstance, that Khafi Khan states that the jizya was imposed with the object of not only " distinguishing the land of the faithful from an infidel land," but also of " curbing the infidels." V SIVAJI'S CAREER THE Mogul Empire had gradually pushed its way into the Dekkan, and had destroyed some, threatened, weakened, and rendered tributary others, of the older Mahometan kingdoms which existed there. Under Shah Jehan Ahmednuggur had been finally incorporated as a province of the Empire. But farther south Bijapur and Golconda, or Hyderabad, still remained separate and almost independent, though over- awed and assailed by Prince Aurungzib. On the conquest of Ahmednuggur, one of its sturdiest defenders, Sahu (otherwise Shahji), a Mahratta officer, had transferred his allegiance to the King of Bijapur, who had bestowed on him some jaghires, or benefices, in the outlying districts of the Western Ghats not far from Bombay. Shahji was non-resident. He was said to be, on his mother's side, of Rajput descent. And he had a son, Sivaji, who com- bined the Rajput gallantry and love of warlike adventure with the extremely astute and wily disposition characteristic of the Mahrattas. The youth grew up in a region, and at a season, 55 56 SIVAJI'S CAREER well calculated to develop and crown with success his daring project of achieving for him- self and his tribesmen political independence. He was the manager of his father's districts. The country around was wild, broken, and dense with jungles and forests. The steep hill- tops, which studded it in profusion, were crowned with rudely constructed but, from their situation, often formidable forts. Deep ravines and gloomy defiles favoured partisan warfare, and made the approaches of regular troops difficult and dangerous. The humid climate was ill suited to the inhabitants of the lower country, and the frequent and heavy rains and violent tempests were a serious obstacle to military operations, and involved great hardship and danger to an invader, un- familiar with the country and inexperienced in warfare on such a scene. This strong country was peopled partly by Mahrattas, partly by more primitive tribes ; but both classes were distinguished for hardi- hood, enterprise, cunning, and love of inde- pendence and plunder. The central authority at Bijapur was weak, distracted by internal dissensions during a minority, and by the threatening attitude and aggressive movements of Shah Jehan's repre- sentative Prince Aurungzib. The young Sivaji saw his opportunity, and, several years before the Prince became the Emperor, entered on OPENING OF SIVAJI'S CAREER 57 an ingenious, daring, and systematic course of self-aggrandisement and ambition. But never was a great revolution begun more quietly and unostentatiously. A movement which was to pervade and convulse all India took its rise, like one of the Dekkan rivers (so to speak), in a corner, and in the bosom of the hills. Sivaji, by good management and popular arts, secured the devotion of his dependents, and attracted daily new followers. He strength- ened the defences of his father's districts ; summarily annexed others, in the absence of their holders, who had gone to pay court to the rising Mogul sun. " This," says the Mogul historian, Khafi Khan, " was the beginning of that system of violence which he and his descendants have spread over the rest of the Kokan and all the territory of the Dakhin. Whenever he heard of a prosperous town, or of a district inhabited by thriving cultivators, he plundered it and took possession of it. Before the jagirdars in those troublous times could appeal to Bijapur, he had sent in his own account of the matter, with presents and offer- ings, charging the jagirdars, or proprietors, with some offence which he had felt called upon to punish, and offering to pay some advanced amount for the lands on their being attached to his own jagir, or to pay their revenues direct to the Government. He communicated these matters to the officials at Bijapur, who in 58 SIVAJI'S CAREER those disturbed times took little heed of what any one did. So, when the jagirdar's complaint arrived, he obtained no redress, because no one took any notice of it " (Elliot, vii. 257). This he explains by the negligence, corrup- tion, and selfish preoccupation of the officials, and the diversion of government to more serious menaces elsewhere. Hence he continues : " The reins of authority over that country fell into his hands, and he at length became the most notorious of all the rebels. He assembled a large force of Mahratta robbers and plunderers, a,nd set about reducing fortresses. The first fort he reduced was that of Chandan (Grant Duff says Torna was his first capture). After that he got possession of some other fortresses which were short of supplies, or were in charge of weak or inexperienced commandants. Evil days fell upon the kingdom of Bijapur. The operations of Aurungzib against that country when he was a prince in the reign of his father brought great evil upon the country, and other troubles also arose. Sivaji day by day in- creased in strength, and reduced all the forts of the country, so that in course of time he became a man of power and means. He had drawn together a large force, and, protected by mountains and jungles full of trees, he ravaged and plundered in all directions, far and wide. The inaccessible forts of Rajgarh and Chakna were his abodes, and he had secured AURUNGZIB FOSTERS SIVAJTS GROWTH 59 several islands in the sea by means of a fleet which he had formed. He built several forts also in those parts, so that altogether he had forty forts, all of which were well supplied with provisions and munitions of war " (Elliot, vii. 258). Such is the account of the rise of the heroic leader of the Hindoo reaction given by a historian who was engaged in Aurungzib's service, and who, while he hated Sivaji as an infidel dog, and denounced him as an arch-rebel and past- master in the art of plundering, was not in- sensible to his military skill and formidable capacity as the creator and organiser of an anti-Imperial polity. I have, therefore, quoted it at length. But I must continue more summarily. This sudden and portentous growth of pre- datory power was doubly owing to Aurungzib. The above account ascribes the neglect of the growing danger to the distracted attention of the Bijapur Government caused by that Prince's operations against it. And when he quitted the Dekkan in quest of the Imperial throne, he left the scene open to Sivaji's enterprise, unchecked by the presence of the Mogul army. Thus the establishment of Sivaji's power, which might otherwise have been crushed in its early stage, was indirectly at least not a little due to Aurungzib himself. A complete account of the reign of Aurungzib would include a narrative of his so-called conquest 60 SIVAJTS CAREER of Assam. But this is not necessary for our purpose. It is, however, desirable to observe that the conquest was incomplete and ephemeral ; that the sufferings of the troops employed, and the loss of life, were great ; that Mir Jumla, one of the Emperor's most distinguished generals, was worn out, and died at the close of the cam- paign ; and that this ambitious and ill-advised scheme of annexation exhibited abundant pre- monitory symptoms of the dangerous and ex- hausting tendency of such a policy of remote aggression, where the country and the climate fought on the side of the enemy. But the warning was lost on the Emperor. The Bijapur Government undertook to sup- press the formidable rebel. Afzal Khan, an eminent officer, was sent against him. Sivaji was a many-sided man. He could fight well on occasion. But, like Mahrattas in general, he preferred to prevail by stratagem. He now professed a desire of reconciliation with his sovereign, and, affecting timidity, obtained a private interview with the unwary general, and assassinated him. Rejoining his followers, he incited them to fresh efforts, and became more formidable than before. He defeated another Bijapur general, who had been sent to avenge Afzal ; increased the number of his forts ; organised the government of his territory ; ravaged vigorously that of Bijapur ; plundered AURUNGZIB RESOLVES TO SUPPRESS SIVAJI 61 caravans, and rendered the open country every- where insecure. Though he respected mosques, copies of the Koran (which he gave to his Mahometan fol- lowers, for he had such in his service), and free women, this conduct was a direct and bold challenge to the Emperor's authority in the Dekkan ; and he now prepared to assert it, and accomplish what Bijapur had failed to do. But little did the proud and powerful Sovereign anticipate that he was thus pledging himself to a lifelong and fruitless enterprise, and sign- ing, in effect, the death-warrant of the Empire ! Shaista Khan was deputed to conduct the war, assisted by Jeswunt Sing. In January 1666 he began his operations. Supa, Poona, and Sivapur were occupied without opposition. Sivaji, Parthian-like, retired ; but only to harass the Imperial army on its march, and seize every opportunity of annoying and plundering it. In vain a special force was detached to prevent this. The Mahrattas were too nimble to be effectually guarded against, or chastised. Chakan was then besieged. But the defence was long and desperate. Sivaji, from without, co-operated with the garrison. The besiegers suffered severely, both in the operations and from the heavy rains. The native historian says plaintively : 6 The muskets were rendered useless, the powder spoilt, the bows deprived of their strings " ; and the troops were disgusted and disheartened. 62 SIVAJTS CAREER At last the place was taken by capitulation. But such an opening of the war was inauspi- cious, and too significant of its destined course. The next incident was still more disconcerting. Shaista Khan had taken up his quarters in Sivaji's own house at Poona, and strict in- junctions were issued that no Mahratta was to be allowed to enter the town. But Sivaji's audacity, ingenuity, and humour made him an unrivalled partisan leader, and helped him now to achieve one of his most notable feats. On the pretence of escorting a bridal procession, a number of his men gained admittance. Others had the impudence to effect their entrance in the guise of triumphant captors of a party of Mahrattas, whom they dragged along through the streets. At night, Sivaji, at the head of the united body, fell suddenly on Shaista Khan's quarters. His son, and an officer who resembled him, were killed. Shaista Khan himself lost a thumb in the scuffle, and owed his life to two slave girls, who hid him in a corner. The assailants caused the commandant's drums to be beaten, and in the noise and confusion effected their escape without loss. Shaista Khan evidently suspected Jeswunt Sing's lukewarmness, if not complicity, in this affair. He met his condolence with the significant remark : "I thought the Maharaja was in his Majesty's service when such an evil befel me." And the Emperor " passed censure both upon the Khan (i.e. JEI SING SENT TO MAKE SIVAJI SUBMIT 63 Shaista) and Raja Jeswunt." He recalled Shaista, and replaced him by Prince Moazzam. But Jeswunt was still employed under him. The prospect darkened under the new regime. Sivaji grew still, bolder, constantly assailed the Imperial territory and convoys, seized two forts on the shore near Surat, and thence intercepted naval traffic ; and even fell on the pilgrim ships, bound for Mecca, a grave profanity in the eyes of the devout Aurungzib. This assault on his religion was followed up by a daring insult to his political pride. Sivaji began to give himself royal airs, and coined money of his own. Prince Moazzam was apparently not equal to the emergency. He too was there- fore recalled, and a new plan was adopted. Sivaji was said to have Rajput blood in his veins, and his military capacity was now well established. But a pure-blooded Rajput Prince, who was also an eminent and zealous imperial general, might be well adapted both to cope with him in the field, and to overawe and negotiate with him, and by force and moral influence combined induce him to submit to the Imperial authority. The result seemed, for the time, to justify the experiment. Jei Sing [the Raja of Jeipur] promptly captured Poorundhur, one of Sivaji's strongest fortresses ; and for five months carried fire and sword into his territory, reducing much of it to a desert. Not, however, without retaliation. " The sudden 64 SIVAJI'S CAREER attacks by the enemy," says Khafi Khan, " their brilliant success, their assaults in dark nights, their seizure of the roads and difficult passes, and the firing of the jungles full of trees, severely tried the Imperial forces, and men and beasts in great numbers perished " (vii. 273). Still Jei Sing persevered ; and was fortunate enough to blockade closely Rajgarh, in which were Sivaji's wife and maternal relatives. For their sake, and probably finding himself overmatched for the time, and hoping to profit by the racial and religious sympathies of the Rajput, Sivaji opened negotiations ; and, being well received, and led to expect not only pardon, but favour and office from the Emperor, he came to terms ; agreed to surrender his principal forts (retain- ing twelve small ones), to enter the Imperial service, and to send his young son, as a hostage for his own fidelity, to Delhi. Aurungzib readily ratified the agreement, and Sivaji marched with Jei Sing against Bijapur, and much distinguished himself in the campaign, especially in fort- taking. At its close, he and his son Sambaji were sent to Delhi, at his own request ; had an audience of the Emperor ; and were graciously received. Thus the Mahratta troubles seemed to be ended, and Aurungzib' s kingcraft to have attained its object. But the end was not yet. The recorded account of the reconciliation and renewed breach between these two remark- AURUNGZIB'S VIEW ON SIVAJI'S SUBMISSION 65 able men suggests questions which it is difficult to answer at all confidently. But I will en- deavour, as they occur, to state what the character of each, and the circumstances of the case, seem to indicate as the most probable conclusions. The first question arises out of what I have already related. How far was the formal reconciliation, ab initio, concluded in good faith, on either side ? That Aurungzib, informed of Sivaji's wholesale surrender of the keys of his position his strong forts, assumed that he had drawn the viper's fangs, and that it had therefore ceased to be dangerous, seems not improbable. And Sivaji's putting himself and his son into the Emperor's power at Delhi, was a strong additional reason for inferring that he really meant to mend his manners, and look to Aurungzib as his patron. The Emperor also probably relied much on Jei Sing's assurances of Sivaji's political conversion. Thus he might be inclined not only at the moment to hail with satisfaction the convenient pacification, but to try the experiment of per- manently reclaiming the formidable filibuster, by condoning his offences and admitting him to favour. Yet, I suspect, not without serious repugnance and misgivings, and a resolution to keep a tight hand over him, to trust him as little as was compatible with professed friend- liness, and to deal summarily with him on the first symptoms of a relapse. 5 66 SIVAJI'S CAREER On the other hand, Sivaji, I believe, was only acting a part, which he meant to make subservient to a very different one, when it should suit him to throw off the mask. He had conceived high hopes of promotion in the Imperial service, from Jei Sing's representations. To in- gratiate himself with Aurungzib ; to distinguish himself, as he had done at Bijapur, in active service, in a command for which he had proved his competence ; to acquire influence, and wield resources, which he might insidiously and ab- ruptly divert to his own purposes, and employ against his employer : would be quite in accord- ance with his profound subtlety, his unscrupu- lousness, his personal ambition, and his national aspirations in short, with the whole bent of his peculiar genius. And such, I believe, was his calculation. But at Delhi his sanguine hopes were promptly dashed. He had counted without his host, or rather, as so often happens when match- makers and peace-makers interpose their well- intentioned offices, the extent of the Emperor's placability and readiness to employ him had been exaggerated. At the opening of the negotiations, Jei Sing had assured him that he would receive a high munsub or honorary military command. And in subsequent private conferences he had gone much further, and induced Sivaji to assume that he would be placed in a position favourable for the further- WHY WAS SIVAJI SO DEEPLY MORTIFIED ? 67 ance of his ulterior, though carefully concealed, purpose. But when Jei Sing reported the progress of the negotiation to the Emperor, he was less explicit ; for he did not venture to prescribe any specific mode of treatment for completing the cure of the convalescent political patient. Or, as Khafi Khan puts it : " Raja Jei Sing had flattered Sivaji with promises ; but as the Raja knew the Emperor to have a strong feeling against Sivaji, he artfully re- frained from making known the promises he had held out." Hinc illce lachrymce ! Sivaji's annoyance, disappointment, and complaints, which are recorded by the historian, and the consequences of which were so eventful in the sequel, were the natural results of this double- dealing, though neither Ram Sing, Jei Sing's son, to whom they were confided, nor the historian himself, seems to have understood their deepest ground. Khafi Khan implies that Sivaji took offence at the mere circumstance that the munsub granted to him was not high enough, but only the same as was bestowed on his young son and on one of his relatives, who had done good service in the late campaign against Bijapur, namely, that of a panj-hazari, or nominal commander of five thousand men, instead of a haft-hazari, or commander of seven thousand. This was no doubt a grievance, capable of being avowed as a breach of a specific assurance at the opening of the negotiations, 68 SIVAJI'S CAREER and as placing Sivaji on the same level as his boy and his follower. But this was not the root of the bitterness of spirit which he ex- hibited. He was not a man to resent wrathfully the mere fact that, so to speak, he had been made a C.B. instead of a K.C.B. Manucci says that he took offence at being ranged at Court in a low station, and openly expressed his disgust and resentment. Hence a second question occurs to which what I have already said will supply what I believe to be the most probable answer. Why was he so seriously perturbed and so bitterly disappointed ? Was it not because he realised that he was checked, if not checkmated, in his deep, secret game ? Because he had too good reason to suspect that Aurungzib was resolved to give him no oppor- tunity of playing it, and, whether the arch- dissembler saw through him or not, judged that he himself had done enough by putting him off with a second-rate honorary decoration, and had no intention of employing him in such a position as was indispensable for his ulterior purpose ? To Ram Sing he complained that he had not been properly treated, instancing, in par- ticular, the minor honorary distinction. The Emperor was informed of what is called " his disrespectful bearing " ; whereupon " he was dismissed with little ceremony, forbidden to reappear at Court, relegated to a house in AURUNGZIB'S AMBIGUOUS ATTITUDE 69 the suburbs, and orders were given to the kotwal (i.e. the chief of the police) to place guards round it." A third question here presents itself : What were the Emperor's real intentions with regard to him at this moment ? There can be no doubt that he was much scandalised and very indignant at Sivaji's pre- sumption, and testified his high displeasure by banishing him from the Court, and secluding him in his house. But was this all ? The placing of a guard round his quarters looks equivocal and sinister. Had not the so-called " disrespectful bearing " of Sivaji struck Aurungzib as symptomatic of the spirit of self-assertion and latent disaffection which he had never ceased to fear, might still lurk in the breast of the wily though hitherto obsequious suppliant for his favour ? And if so, might he not be considering the expediency of ridding himself of all danger from such a quarter by putting Sivaji to death, or immuring him, as he did so many other dangerous political personages, in Gwalior ? This seems to me by no means improbable. If I have been rather lengthy in endeavouring to thread the maze of this encounter of wit between these consummately artful rivals, my apology must be that the fate of the Empire hung on the issue. Bold as he was, Sivaji realised the imminence 70 SIVAJI'S CAREER of his peril, and with his characteristic ingenuity extricated himself from it. Affecting severe illness, he presently announced his recovery, and in gratitude for it distributed copious alms to Brahmins, fakirs, and others ; especially of sweetmeats, which were sent out in large covered baskets. He also sent, as presents to Brahmins, some horses, which were stationed at an appointed place some miles towards Muttra. A devoted follower took his place on his couch, with a veil over his face, and Sivaji's ring prominently displayed on his hand, and affected sleep when visited. Sivaji and his son passed out of the city, concealed in the baskets, reached the horses, and with a large body of attendants galloped hard to Muttra. Three alarms meanwhile of his suspected escape had been given ; but not until the third did an exact inspection detect the false convalescent. Then active pursuit began, but was baffled by Sivaji's arts and rapid movement. He and his friends disguised themselves as mendicants, and hurried forward on foot, until they were apprehended on suspicion by an officer at an unnamed place. But Sivaji, taking the bull by the horns, avowed his identity, but by a bribe of two valuable jewels procured his own liberation and that of his companions. Their headlong flight after escaping this danger proved too much for the boy Sambaji ; and he was left at Benares in the charge of a Brahmin, SIVAJI RECOVERS HIS GROUND 71 who, after his accession to the Rajaship, became his Sejanus, and his associate in death. The fugitives hastened through Behar by Patna and Chanda, and, traversing a thickly wooded country, diverged southwards, and gained the Court of the King of Golconda. Proscribed anew by the Emperor, Sivaji had nothing to hope from his original sovereign, the King of Bijapur. But his fame, and his solemn promises to help his present host, the Golconda King, to recover territory that had been wrested from him by his and Sivaji's common enemies, procured him the aid of a military force, the nucleus of a new army, which was rapidly increased by the contingents of his own people. His progress thenceforth was startlingly rapid. The hostile but candid Mussulman his- torian says : " By fraud and stratagem, and by his marvellous skill in the conduct of sieges, every fort that he approached fell into his hands." He contrived, by ingenious excuses, to evade the delivery of most of these places to the King of Golconda's officers, and retained possession of them. Not less vigorous and successful were his operations in his own Western country. Satara, Parnala, Rajgarh, and at last almost all that he had surrendered were re- covered. And he recommenced his defiant campaign in the lower country by a rapid and most 72 SIVAJFS CAREER lucrative raid on Surat, where, however, the English factory stoutly and successfully re- sisted him. He captured also some ten thousand horses, and organised a cavalry force of bargeers, that is, soldiers more immediately dependent on him, as opposed to what we should call irregular horse, who provided their own steeds and equipments. Moreover, he rebuilt the forts on the shore near Surat, which had been destroyed, constructed a fleet, and preyed upon the shipping of that flourishing port. At Rajgarh he constructed a stronger fortress than any of those hitherto in his dominions, and took every precaution to make it impreg- nable. There he fixed his abode, formally assumed the throne, devised wise regulations for the conduct of his civil government, and the organisation of his increasing and powerful army. There he defied his Imperial adversary ; and thence, from time to time, he emerged, to plunder the country from Guzerat to the Coromandel coast ; to levy chout, a commuta- tion of 25 per cent, of the land revenue, in lieu of plunder ; to baffle, and at times defeat, the Imperial armies ; and to approve himself an irrepressible antagonist of the Great Mogul, an heroic champion of Mahratta independence, and an unrivalled master of guerilla and predatory warfare. I need not relate his after-career. For I hope I have sufficiently illustrated the nature SIVAJI CHECKMATES AURUNGZIB 73 of the man and of his power, and the formidableness of the problem which he had propounded for solution to the haughty, tyrannical, and aggressive Emperor. He died in 1680. VI THE REIMPOSITION OF THE JIZYA, AND THE RAJPUT REVOLT THE sudden death of Sivaji suspended for a short time the contest in the Dekkan. But Aurungzib's policy had meanwhile produced a dangerous crisis in Hindostan. I need not particularise his earlier measures, which were calculated to annoy, depress, and estrange his Hindoo subjects, but were endured without positive resistance. But the reimposition of the jizya was felt to be at once an intolerable grievance, and a gross insult to the higher and more influential classes, and it no doubt pre- disposed the Rajputs to engage in the rising which the Emperor immediately provoked by his arbitrary and suspicious treatment of the family of one of their deceased Princes. The odiousness, the injustice, and the im- policy of the jizya are forcibly urged in the re- markable letter, of uncertain authorship, said to have been addressed to Aurungzib, and translated in Orme's Fragments of the Mogul Empire. To its account of the disastrous results of the measure I shall refer later. But I will RELIGIOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE JIZYA 75 quote now what are evidently the genuine impressions of a thoughtful Hindoo on the injustice of this invidious mark of distinction, urged on comprehensive religious grounds, thus (so to speak) turning the tables on the bigoted Emperor, and pointing out to him a more excellent way than he had adopted, of pleasing and conforming to the will of the Deity. " If your majesty," he says, " places any faith in those books, by distinction called divine, you will there be instructed that God is the God of all mankind, not the God of Mahomedans alone. The Pagan and the Mussulman are equally in his presence. Distinctions of colour are of his ordination. It is he who gives existence. In your temples, to his name the voice is raised in prayer ; in a house of images, where the bell is shaken, still he is the object of adoration." This would, perhaps, be news to Aurungzib, who, in his abhorrence of the popular polytheism, would fail to discern, and be equally unwilling to acknowledge, that the more enlightened spirits then, as now, through the veil of image-worship, recognised and adored TO Oewv practically the Supreme Being in the unity of His primordial essence, whence subordinate deities are (in Gnostic phrase) emana- tions. " To vilify the religion or customs of other men, is to set at naught the pleasure of the Almighty. When we deface a picture we naturally incur the resentment of the painter ; 76 THE REIMPOSITION OF THE JIZYA and justly has the poet said, c Presume not to arraign or scrutinise the various works of power divine.' : Having thus combated the bigot on his own ground religious obligation, the writer sums up shortly and tellingly the case against the imposition : " In fine," he says, " the tribute you demand from the Hindoo is repugnant to justice : it is equally foreign from good policy, as it must impoverish the country : moreover, it is an innovation, and an infringement of the laws of Hindostan " (pp. 254-255). The passionate animosity excited by the tax was displayed in various ways, and on very different scenes. At Delhi itself a great mul- titude assembled in front of the palace, and petitioned the Emperor to recall the obnoxious edict. "But," says the historian, "he would not listen to their complaints." On his way to pay his devotions in the mosque he was obstructed by a still vaster assemblage of im- portunate petitioners, and was unable to proceed. In vain he gave orders to force a way through. " At length," continues Khafi Khan, " an order was given to bring out the elephants and direct them against the mob. Many fell trodden to death under the feet of the elephants and horses. For some days the Hindus continued to assemble in great numbers and complain, but at length they submitted to pay the jizya " (p. 296). Elsewhere the protest took a more violent RESISTANCE TO THE LEVYING OF JIZYA 77 and menacing form. Burhanpur was one of the most important cities in the Dekkan, the capital of the Mogul Province of Khandeish. And there resistance showed itself in a doubly ominous manner. First, in Khafi Khan's words : " The infidel inhabitants of the city and the country round made great opposition to the payment of the jizya. There was not a district where the people, with the help of the faujdars and mukaddams, did not make disturbances and resistance " (p. 310). That the Imperial officials should connive at and abet the rebellious move- ment was the strongest token of the inex- pediency of the measure, and of the danger of overstraining the administrative machinery, lest it should, in the end, break down altogether. Another fact, mentioned by Khafi Khan, is of similar import. Kakar Khan, as I shall notice immediately, was the first Collector of the jizya. He was succeeded by a zealous officer, Mir Abdul Karim. But on Aurungzib's arrival he requested to be allowed to resign his office, " and that the collection of the jizya might be deputed to some one else." This plainly indicates that even the Emperor's higher and most active Mahometan ministers misliked the invidious task, and dis- charged it reluctantly. But another equally dangerous circumstance occurred on this oc- casion. The two streams of disaffection and resistance to Aurungzib's authority now began to mingle. Sivaji was dead, and had been 78 THE REIMPOSITION OF THE JIZYA succeeded by his son Sambaji. His earliest exploit was, at the head of twenty thousand men, to co-operate with the malcontents by a sudden dash at Kakar Khan, the collector of the jizya, who fled before him into Bahadapur, a town in the immediate vicinity of Burhanpur, and there held out against his assailants, and repulsed several attempts to carry the fort by assault. Baffled in this, the Mahrattas raided severely the town and its district around, and returned home with an immense booty. After what I have previously said, I need not describe the feelings of the Rajputs, and especially of their Princes, on the imposition of the jizya. But it is worth while to mention that the Rana of Oudipur, even while preparing to resort to arms, and casting dust in the interval in the Emperor's eyes by negotiation, scorned even to affect literal compliance, but proposed to commute the tax by a territorial cession. Thus Aurungzib had abundant warning that he was playing a dangerous game, and that any new provocation to the proud Rajput temper would be extremely likely to bring matters to extremities, and to produce the explosion that had been long pending. Yet he chose this peculiarly inopportune time to act in a manner specially calculated to exasperate the Rajputs, and arouse the martial spirit of that gallant people against him. The Rajput Principalities were not regularly AURUNGZIB'S RELATIONS WITH JESWUNT 79 incorporated with the Empire. Their chieftains paid tribute, and supplied their contingents to the Imperial armies ; but otherwise home rule prevailed in their dominions. Jeswunt Sing was the Raja of Joudpur, and had long played a prominent and versatile part in Imperial politics. He had been a staunch partisan of Dara against Aurungzib. But on Dara's, or rather his own, defeat, he had, apparently in despair, and worked upon by Aurungzib's arts, acquiesced in his success, and joined him. But in the renewed contest with Shuja he seems to have discerned another chance of averting what threatened to be a very unwelcome and uncongenial regime ; and in the crisis of the war he suddenly changed sides once more, and made a treacherous night attack on Aurungzib's camp, which, but for the presence of mind and en- ergetic exertions of Aurungzib himself, might have proved fatal to him. Nevertheless, he and Jeswunt were afterwards reconciled ; and though no doubt mutually distrustful, remained osten- sibly on good terms throughout Jeswunt's life. But the Emperor suspected the Raja of remiss- ness in the Mahratta war, if not of actual collusion with Sivaji ; and had also a standing grievance against him respecting his tribute, the particulars of which are not explained. Still he did not find it convenient to break with him. He was too powerful, and had too much influence with other important persons. Hence he continued 80 THE REIMPOSITION OF THE JIZYA to be employed in military commands, though the Emperor's distrust and want of cordiality to him seem to have been no secret among the Rajputs. Aurungzib had unwisely provoked a contest with the unsubdued Afghans, and Jeswunt Sing had been sent against them. While engaged on this service he died ; and his family returned home, without awaiting regular Imperial passes from Delhi. They were stopped at the Indus, but forced their way onwards ; and the Emperor, apparently availing himself of this irregularity, made an insidious attempt to arrest them, and get them into his own custody. The circum- stances are not fully explained ; but the case seems pretty clear, when the past relations of the parties and the character of the Emperor are taken into consideration. Aurungzib prob- ably intended to dictate his own terms about the tribute before releasing them, rather than to visit upon them his ill-feeling towards Jeswunt. But he was suspected of darker designs, and Rajput pride was offended, and indignation excited, by the travellers' camp being surrounded and closely invested by an Imperial force. The Ranis, that is, the widows of Jeswunt, and his two young sons were escorted by a large com- pany of their warlike attendants, commanded by a gallant officer, Durga Das. By his con- trivance the whole family made their escape, and were conveyed to Joudpur. It had been OUTBREAK OF THE RAJPUT REVOLT 81 necessary to substitute other ladies and boys in the place of the fugitives. These were arrested ; and the Emperor sought to make the best of the situation by recognising and treating the captive youths as Jeswunt's actual sons. But the truth could not be long con- cealed ; and Ajit Sing, the elder son, lived to become a formidable thorn in the side of the Empire. Thus what I called the smouldering fire of disaffection, which Aurungzib's attitude arid con- duct had kindled at the opening of his reign, and which his many acts of intolerance had tended to intensify, and his recent imposition of the jizya to fan into a flame, burst out at last in determined rebellion and desperate war. Of the three chief Rajput States, Jeipur was too near to Delhi, and too closely connected with the Imperial family, to take part in the insurrection. Jeswunt's principality, Joudpur, was more remote, on the west of the Aravulli range of mountains ; and there a large army soon assembled, under Durga Das, who had rescued the young Princes. Aurungzib in person advanced against it, and called upon the Rana of Oudipur, whose territories lay along the south-eastern slopes of the Aravulli, to submit to ihejizya, and to seize and bring to the presence the runaway boys. This was perhaps to test his disposition. The Rana disclaimed all com- plicity with the rising, and, as I have men- 6 82 THE REIMPOSITION OF THE JIZYA tioned, proposed to cede territory in lieu of paying the invidious tax. This seems to have reassured the Emperor, and he returned to Delhi, leaving the conduct of the war, and the completion of the negotiation with the Rana of Oudipur, to a lieutenant. But it soon appeared that the Rana had thrown in his lot with the insurgents. And the Emperor, now realising the seriousness of the crisis, made great and comprehensive prepara- tions for meeting it. He marched in person to Ajmir, as a central position in the theatre of the coming war ; summoned in haste his sons, Moazzam from the Dekkan, and Azam from Bengal, at the head of their respective armies ; and ordered the Subahdar of Guzerat to station himself between Rajputana and Ahmedabad, to cut off communication between the rebels and the Mahrattas, while Prince Akbar was detached to attack Oudipur. " When," says the native historian, " the Rana heard of these preparations, he laid Udipur, his capital, waste, and, with the treasure and family and followers of himself and Jeswunt Sing, he fled to the mountains and difficult passes " (p. 299). The Prince was ordered to pursue him with an expeditious mountain corps, and on the prompt arrival of his brothers, they were similarly employed ; and explicit in- structions were issued to wage the war in the most merciless and destructive manner. They complied readily, and besides slaughtering the RAJPUT WAR OMINOUS OF LATER FAILURE 83 men wholesale, as per orders, "employed them- selves in laying waste the country, destroying temples and buildings, cutting down fruit trees, and making prisoners of the women and children of the infidels who had taken refuge in holes and ruined places." The Rajputs retaliated in true Highland style. More than twenty-five thousand assailed the Imperial troops, and cut off their supplies. " They allured several thousand of the royal forces into the heart of the Rana's fastnesses. There they attacked them, and killed many, both horse and foot." " The Rajputs held all the roads through the hills, and came down occasionally from the hills, and attacked the Prince's forces by surprise." I have quoted these passages not only as giving local colour to the course of the contest, but because they prefigure clearly the character of the previous and later Mahratta warfare in the Ghat region, and in combination with Sivaji's fort system and Mahratta " slimness " illustrate the geographical causes of Aurungzib's final collapse. Thus the savage struggle went on. But it assumed a new character when the skeleton in Aurungzib's closet stepped forth, and the political parricide, and murderer of his philo-Rajput brother, was threatened with retribution in kind. With professed desire of a reconciliation, the Rajputs made overtures to Prince Moazzam, requesting him to intercede for them with the 84 THE REIMPOSITION OF THE JIZYA Emperor. But this was only a veil for a deeper design to win him over to their cause by the promise of assisting him to supplant his father, who was notoriously suspicious and jealous of him. The Prince, under his mother's influence, turned a deaf ear to the proposal. But the tempters found a more pliant instrument in Prince Akbar, the youngest son, who was dazzled by the prospect, and joined the rebels. Moazzam sent a timely warning to his father, but was not believed, and was sternly admonished to look to his own steps. Suddenly it was announced that Akbar had assumed the throne, appointed his chief officers to high places, and was march- ing, at the head of seventy thousand men, against his father. Aurungzib had detached almost all his army, and had only a few hundreds of men with him. He sent instantly for Moazzam, who joined him, by a forced march, with ten thousand soldiers. But the Emperor's confidence was thoroughly shaken, and he was in a great strait of misgivings on all sides. He feared Moazzam as much as Akbar ; and actually turned his guns against the reinforcement. Moazzam, how- ever, obeyed the paternal injunction to leave his army, and to come to him in all speed with his two sons ; and the Emperor's suspicion was thus dispelled for the time. Meanwhile, Akbar showed himself quite un- equal to the great game he had aspired to play. He did not advance promptly. And Aurungzib AKBAR'S DEFECTION A FIASCO 85 had time, by his skilful emissaries, to detach some of the rebellious Prince's Mogul supporters, and to sow dissension and mutual distrust among the insurgents. Whether he employed the common device of an intercepted letter to Akbar, assuming that father and son under- stood each other, and that Akbar was to betray his allies, is not certain, though it was currently reported, and is quite in accordance with the Emperor's style. But from what happened later at the Court of Samba ji I am inclined to think that the young and foolish Prince gave himself airs intolerable to his proud confederates ; and that, as his Imperial contingent melted away, they became less and less inclined to back his pretensions. At last, without a battle, he left them, made his way into the Dekkan, was well received by Sambaji ; but proved too over- bearing, and lost heart. He escaped to Persia, was sheltered by the Shah, and lived and died there, having frequently, but vainly, solicited the help of a military force to prosecute a renewed attempt on the throne of the Great Mogul. Thus the Emperor was delivered from his great immediate peril ; but the Rajput war continued, and though he ceased to take part in it, tormented and weakened him to the end of his reign. And in the long course of warfare upon which he was about to engage in the Dekkan, the names of Rajput commanders are conspicuous by tlit'i absence. VII AURUNGZIB'S CONQUESTS IN THE DEKKAN SEVERAL considerations now determined the Emperor to undertake the personal conduct of the war in the Dekkan. The objects of the war were two : to extend the limits of the Empire by the subversion of the two remaining Afghan monarchies, Bijapur and Golconda, and the annexation of their dominions ; and to suppress the Mahratta polity, and predatory power. To pursue simultaneously both these objects was characteristic of Aurungzib's want of political insight and military judgment. He had already experienced the difficulty of effecting the second object. And the conquest of the Afghan monarchies, however practicable, and in accordance with the previous forward policy of the Empire, would be untimely and mis- chievous, while the Mahrattas continued un- subdued. For it would entail new and serious administrative obligations, and a severe strain on a system which was already exhibiting signs of weakness and inefficiency. And it would, 86 AURUNGZIB'S MISTAKEN MILITARY POLICY 87 moreover, tend to disorganise society in the newly conquered territories ; to throw out of employment numbers who had clustered around the Court, or served in the armies of the con- quered sovereigns; and tempt them and others who were indisposed to acquiesce in Aurungzib's regime to escape it, and continue their resist- ance to it by joining the Mahrattas. Thus the achievement of the one object would but increase the difficulties, otherwise great enough and to spare, of accomplishing the other. But, in this, as in other cases, Aurungzib, obstinate by nature, unteachable by experience, and blinded by the passions, on the one hand, of ambition, on the other of vindictiveness, ad- dressed himself to this double enterprise as unwisely as Charles the Bold went to war with the Swiss, and with not dissimilar results. From his own point of view, however, cir- cumstances seemed to promise success to his twofold aim, and to make his presence on the scene, and his personal conduct of the war, desirable. The kingdoms of Bijapur and Gol- conda appeared quite incapable of withstanding the great army which he intended to lead against them. Their comparative weakness was indicated by the fact that they had already virtually acknowledged the supremacy of the Empire. According to a practice, not infrequent in India, when hard pressed, they had, from time to time, paid tribute to it. The 8 3, 90, 93> 94, 96, 104, 112, 126, 130, 159, 191, 208, 214, 231. Sivapur, 61. Siyar-ul-Mutakherin, 200, 203. Solaiman Shukoh, 19, 22, 24, 28, 29, 34, 36, 42. Soonees, 138, 145. Sreeput Rao, 188, 189. Sufi, 129. Sukwar Bhye, 212, 214. Supa, 61. Suraj Mull, 239, 241, 242, 246, 247, 249, 251. Suraja Dowlah, 232, 233. Surat, 18, 63, 72, 92, 157, 158. Surbuland Khan, 148, 150. Surup Sing, 35. Taj Mahal, 5. Tamasp, 201. Tara Bai, 116, 117, 121, 123, 131, 213, 214, 215. Tattah, 36. Tavernier, 206. Tibet, 42. Timour, Emperor, I, 128, 133, .139- Timour, son of the Abdali, 238. Tira, 170. Tod, Colonel, 130. Torna, 58, 120. Torres Vedras, 253. Trimbuk Rao, 185, 190, 192, 213, 215- Udipur, 82. See Oudipur. Ujjain, 125. Warren Hastings, 202. Wars of the Roses, 170. Watson, 220. Wellesley, 114, 195, 212, 244. Wellington, Duke of, 118,245, 2 53- Wiswas Rao, 241, 244, 257, 263, 264, 265. Zulfikar Khan, 104, 106, 107, 130, Printed by MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED Edinburgh VOLUMES IN THE INDIAN RECORDS SERIES. THE DIARIES OF STREYNSHAM MASTER (1675-1680), and other Contemporary Papers relating thereto. Edited by Sir RICHARD CARNAC TEMPLE, Bart, C.LE. Two Volumes. Medium 8vo, 12s. net each. BENGAL IN 1856-57. A Selection of Public and Private Papers dealing with the Affairs of the British in Bengal during the Reign of Siraj-Uddaula. Edited, with Notes and an Historical Introduction, by S. C. 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