THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. MOGHUL EMPIRE; FROM THE OF THE MAHRATTA POWER. BY. HENEY GEORGE KEENE, OP THE BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE. LONDON : WM. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL, S.W. 1866. WYMAN AND SONS, ORIENTAL, CLASSICAL, AND GENERAL PRINTERS. GREAT QUEEN STREET, W.C. Stack Annex ADVERTISEMENT. nnHE revolutions of the Moghul Empire of Hin- doostan,* up to the battle of Paniput, have been chronicled by the late Hon. Mountstuart Elphin- stone, along with the corresponding periods in the history of the Deccan. The campaigns of Generals Lake and Wellesley, with the subsequent British administration, have been described in the works of Mill, Wilson, Kaye, &c. But there is a period of above forty years, the annals of which are only to be made out by laborious research among various and conflicting narratives, some very scarce. To collate and reconcile these with the aid of trustworthy MSS. and traditions, has appeared a service which might be acceptable to those who are in any way interested in the great dependency of the Crown. A brief introduction has been prefixed, which, it is * It will be seen by the " Preliminary Observations " that this word is used in a special and restricted sense. 20G46O3 VI HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. hoped, may be of use to those even who are familiar with the standard histories. For although a relation of the events which took place in remote provinces has not "been reiterated in what professes to be merely an account of the disintegration of the Empire after the death of Aurungzeb, yet a few particulars of manners and occurrences are now, it is believed for the first time, presented to the English reader ; while some errors that had crept into preceding works, have been silently rectified from Native authorities, compared with English memoirs written at the time. In the history of the anarchy, much that is desired in a history will be sought in vain. There will be little or nothing learnt of the state of the people ; for there are extant with regard to those dark days, no annals of the poor, however short or simple. Nor will there be any light thrown upon systems of government ; for, as has been said, it was an anarchy. But it is believed that an interest may be derived from the biographies of the persons chiefly engaged ; and from the picture of things which, let us trust, are for ever passed away. The spelling of native words has been framed on the system prescribed by the Government of the North- West Provinces of India, much the same as that followed by Grant Duff in his " History of the HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. VU Mahrattas." The notion is to represent the words by the nearest phonetic equivalents ; to discard the use of accents ; and to adhere to the received spelling of very familiar words like " Calcutta," " Mahomet," &c., even when quite incorrect. It cannot be hoped that those few persons who have made the subject their special study will be altogether satisfied with the manner in which the writer has performed his task. He can only plead, in mitigation of their censure, that he has had to work in the intervals of an absorbing profession, and with but a small command of English books of reference. The treatment of the subject is intentionally superficial, and full of episode.' Not only is this believed to be the only method which the nature of the subject will bear, but it is, in a manner, forced on one by the character of the materials. To have attempted to give a complete narrative, it would have been necessary to treat at length on matters which (like the campaigns of Olive and Lake) had been exhausted by distinguished writers, from whom one must have transcribed wholesale if one wished to shun an unequal competition. And, how- ever the work was done, it would still have laid a very Vlll HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. severe burthen upon the patience even of those few indulgent readers who may perhaps be induced to bear with the slighter nature of the present humble Essay. H. G. K. CONTENTS. PKELIMINAKY OBSEKVATIONS ON HINDOOSTAN AND THE CITY OF DEHLI page BOOK I. INTRODUCTORY. CHAPTER I. A.D. 1707-19. Individual greatness of the descendants of Timoor-^The tolerance and wisdom of earlier Emperors essential to the prosperity of the Empire Power of the Empire at death of Aurungzeb only apparent Parallel with France Aurungzeb's peculiar errors Reaction from centralization in weak hands Special danger of Moghuls from unsettled succession Virtues of Buhadoorshah of no avail Temporary subjugation of the Sikhs On Buhadoorshah's death at Lahore, in 1712, Furokhseer disputes succession with Moizoodeen, and, on the latter dying, succeeds to the throne Rise of Cheen- killich Khan, afterwards "The Nizam" The British Embassy, and disinterested surgeon The Seiuds Murder of Emperor page 21 CHAPTER II. A.D. 1719-48. Vigorous commencement of Moohummud Shah's reign Strong feeling of nobles against the Seiud ministers Combinations of the Emperor Seiuds overthrown The Empire visibly CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. (continued). A.D. 1719-48. dissolves after their fall Nizam becomes independent, and wages war against Mahrattas At length connives at their gaining possession of territory They cross the Jumna, but are repulsed by the prompt conduct of Saadut Alee They sweep round on Dehli, but retire upon the advance of the Nizam, who thus regains power at court, but soon meets with a check from the Mahrattas in Central India He coalesces with Saadut, and they invite Nadir Shah of Persia to invade the Empire Fatal result His treatment of the traitors Death of Saadut Rohillas revolt Aliverdi takes Bengal First incursion of Ahmud Khan Abdallee His repulse Death of the Emperor page 32 CHAPTER III. A.D. 1748-54. Promising appearances of new reign Disposition of offices War with Pathans of Rohilkund Cession of northern Punjab Departure of Captain-General with Mahratta auxiliary force Young Ghazeeooddeen subverts Sufdur Jung Vuzeership of Intizamoodowlah Campaign against Jats Perplexities of the Emperor His weak and unsuccessful intrigues Revolution Rise of Najeeb Khan State of the Empire page 40 CHAPTER IV. A.D. 1754-60. Capacity and courage of Ghazeeooddeen Death of Sufdur Jung The Emperor's futile efforts and succeeding period of repose Death of Meer Munnoo The Abdallee, incensed at the Vuzeer's interference at Lahore, invades the Punjab Vuzeer returns to Dehli, and oppresses the King and Court until they invite the Abdallee Ineffectual campaign and defection of Najeeb Khan Abdallee enters Dehli, llth September, 1757 Miseries of the inhabitants Yuzeer taken into favour and employed in the Dooab Campaign against the Jats The Emperor's unsuccessful negotiation for a wife Najeebooddowlah made Ameer-ool-Umra The Afghans retire, occupying Lahore Further excesses of the Vuzeer CONTENTS. XI CHAP TEE IV. (continued). A.D. 1754-60. Najeeb retires to Sikundra, where tie is presently joined by the heir-apparent Eeturn of the Abdallee in 1759 League between Shujaa-ood-Dowla of Oudh and the Eohillas The Mahrattas, at the Vuzeer's instigation, attack Najeeb, who defends himself at Sookhnrtal Murder of the Emperor Combination of all the Mussiilmans against Mahratta con- federacy Mahrattas seize Dehli, and complete its desola- tion- Battle of Paniput page 48 BOOK II. CHAPTER I. A.D. 1760-65. First movements of the Shahzada after escaping from Dehli Character of the Nuwab Shujaa-ood-Dowla of Oudh Aid refused by him The Shahzada turns to the Governor of Allahabad, who aids him to invade Buhar Arrival of news of Emperor Alumgeer's murder Assumption of Empire by Shahzada His character Defeats Eamnarayun Attempts to seize Bengal M. Law and his followers Memorable march of Captain Knox, and relief of Patna Battle of Gaya The Emperor marches towards Hindoostan, but is stopped by Shujaa-ood-Dowla Massacre at Patna, and flight of Meer Kasim and Sumroo Battle of Buxar Treaty with the Emperor His establishment at Allahabad page 59 CHAPTEE II. A.D. 1764-71. Proceedings of Najeeb-ood-Dowla at Dehli Eespectable cha- racter of Prince Eegent "War with Jats, and their temporary subjugation On the death of Sooruj Mul, Sumroo takes service with his successor Dissension among sons of Sooruj Mul, and return of the Mahrattas, who pillage the Bhurtpoor country Advance of Mahrattas, and consequent Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. (continued). A.D. 1764-71. loss of the Dooab; all the Eohilla chiefs falling off but Ruhmut the Protector Death of Najeeb-ood-Dowla - Zabita Khan expelled from Dehli by the Mahrattas; and return of Emperor to the capital on their invitation... page 75 CHAPTER III. A.D. 1771-76. Return of the Emperor to Dehli The Moghul-Mahratta army, under Meerza Nujuf Klian, attacks Zabita Khan at Sook- hurtal He flies to the Jats, leaving the victors in possession of his family Treaty between Rohillas and the Viceroy of Oudh Hussam-ood-Dowla Battle near Dehli Mahrattas side with Zabita, who regains office Nujuf retires to Holkar British advance into Oudh Suspicious conduct of Ruhmut and the Rohillas Nujuf joins Shnjaa-ood-Dowla, and is restored to Emperor's favour Fall of Hussam Confederacy against Rohillas Ruhmut refuses the Vuzeer's claims to tribute Battle of Kuttra, and conquest of Rohil- kund Death of Shujaa-ood-Dowla Zabita joins the Jats Successes of Imperial army page 90 CHAPTER IV. A.D. 1776-85. Renewed vigour of Empire under Nujuf Khan Zabita's rebellion Sumroo's Jaeegeer ; he dies at Agra, and his fief is granted to the Begum Mujud-ood-Dowla's intrigues Rajpoot rising Mujud's treacherous dealings with Sindeea Un- successful campaign against the Sikhs The latter threaten Dehli, but are defeated by Nujuf Khan His death, and the consequent intrigues of Mujud-ood-Dowla Meerza Shuffee and Ufrasyab Khan Flight of Shahzada Juwan Bukht Mahdojee Sindeea obtains possession of the Empire Death of Zabita Khan Submission of the Moghul nobles State of the country page 115 CONTENTS. Xlll CHAPTER V.' A.D. 1786-88. Accession of Gholam Kadir, son of the deceased Zabita Khan Sonorous titles of Moghul nobles Siege of Raghoogurh Meerza Juwan Bukht will not leave Lucknow to put himself into Sindeea's power Sindeea's regular army Discontent of the Moghuls Rajpoot confederacy Battle of Lallsote Defection of Ismail Beg Sindeea's measures Gholam Kadir enters Dehli Checked by Begum Sumroo and Nujuf Koolee Khan Gholam Kadir pardoned and created Ameer- ool-Umra Joins Ismail Beg before Agra Battle of Futteh- poor Emperor invited to aid the Rajpoots He leaves Dehli Letter of Prince to George III. His death Rebellion of Nujuf Koolee His pardon The army returns to Dehli Battle between Rana Khan and Ismail Beg near Feerozabad Return of the Confederates to Dehli Their difficulties Insufficient exertions of Sindeea.... page 142 CHAPTER VI. A.D. 1788. Defection of Moghuls, and retreat of Emperor's Hindoo troops Further proceedings of the Confederates, who obtain posses- sion of Dehli Emperor deposed and blinded Approach of Mahrattas Scarcity at Dehli Courage and recklessness of Gholam Kadir at last give way He prepares to escape by way of the river The Mohurrum in Dehli Explosion in the Palace Departure of Gholam Kadir His probable intentions Defence of Meerut Gholam Kadir's flight His capture and punishment Sindeea becomes all-powerful Future nature of the narrative , page 169 XIV CONTENTS. BOOK III. CHAPTER I. A.D. 1789-94. Maharaja Patel Sindeea as Mayor of the Palace Depression of the Mussulmans of Hindoostan Pacific policy of the British Augmentation of De Boigne's army Revolt of Ismail Beg Battle of Patun Jealousy of Holkar Sindeea at Muttra Siege of Ajmeer Battle of Mahaeerta Alarm of Sindeea's rivals Chevalier du Dernek Investiture of Poonah Holkar's opportunity Ismail Beg's capture Battle of Lukhairee The Emperor rebuked by Lord Corn- wallis Power of Sindeea Rise of George Thomas Intrigues of Sindeea and his opponents at Poonah His death and character page 191 CHAPTER II. A.D. 1794-1800. Dowlut Rao Sindeea Thomas goes to Dehli Revolution at Sirdhana Thomas and Appoo Khandee Rao Retirement of De Boigne M. Perron Thomas defeats Sikhs at Kurnal Mussulman movements Disputed succession in Oudh Death of Tookajee Holkar Sindeea's indifference to his dangerous position in Hindoostan War of the Baees Menacing condition of affairs The British ; the Afghans ; Jeswunt Rao Holkar Rising of Shumboonath in the Upper Dooab Thomas assumes independence at Hansee Revolt of Lukwa Dada Thomas fights against the Sikhs Death of Lukwa Dada War with Holkar Power of Perron page 212 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTEE III. A.D. 1801-3. Difference between French gentlemen and those of the French who were not gentlemen Perron attacks Thomas Defence of the latter; his fall, death, and character Treaty of Bassein Sindeea's alarm Perron's plans Statistics .. Dismissal of British officers from Sindeea's army Perron's position His retreat Fall of Aligurh Perron surrenders Battle of Dehli Reception of General Lake by the Emperor page 233 CHAPTER IV. A.D. 1803-17. Effect of climate upon race The French and the English Im- portance to the British of the conquest of Dehli State of the adjacent country immediately preceding that event Perron's method of administration The Talookdars General Lake's friendly intentions towards them frustrated by their own misconduct Tardy restoration of order Concluding remarks ....................................... page 254 APPENDIX A ......................................................... 269 APPENDIX B ......... .............................................. 271 APPENDIX C ...... .................................. ................ 273 APPENDIX D ..................................................... 273 ArrENDixE... 275 KEY TO THE METHOD OF ROMANIZING ADOPTED IN THIS WORK. T'HE English reader will be enabled to judge the correct pronunciation -* of native words occurring in the following pages by bearing in mind a few rules more simple than absolutely accurate. My object has been to express the Asiatic sounds by their nearest English representatives without using accents. Of the consonants there are but three which require any further explanation. The great or dotted " Kaf" of the Persian alphabet is sometimes rendered in English by Q. But Q by itself has an awkward look, having no recognized value in English spelling ; and Qu, though used in such cases by the Spaniards (e.g. G(iad.alqmvir-Qiuid-ul-Kubecr) r does not at all express the sound to English ears. Moreover, the use of an ordinary K for this letter is already familiar in such words as The Koran, Abd-ool-Kadir, &c. Ghain and Ain are unpronounceable gutturals, and it is enough for me to say that they pass without notice, here, a s Gli and A. The latter will bear a diaeresis, to show that it is to be pronounced separately ; e. g. Shoojaci (q. d. " Shoe Jah Ah"). N.B. Whenever an aspirate follows a consonant, it is to be pro- nounced as if it began another syllable, as in English " Loophole," " Pothook." The following is the respective value of the vowels : 1. A has the value as in English " Ah!" "papa." 2. E sounds as in " elephant," " there" 3. I sounds as in " India," " lit." 4. O, sounding as in " rope," " more" is rarely used. 5. U as in " but" And of the diphthongs, this : 6. Aee has the sound of i in " light" [This diphthong is also expressed by some writers in one or other of these ways, ai, ei, ey; and some of them may have crept into my pages by inadvertence.] 7. Ao, au, and ou, as ow in " cow." 8. Ee as in " bee," " seen." 9. Oo as in " boot " or " book " (long or short). Examples. (1) and (5) BABUR. (7) (5) and (2) AURUNGZEB. (3) and (8) SINDEEA (N.B. sometimes written in Persian SAEENDEEA). (4) and (5) POKUB. (6) and (9) JAEEPOOR. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON HINDOOSTAN, AND THE CITY OF DEHLI. FT! HE country to which the term Hindoostan is J- strictly and properly applied may be roughly said to be a rhomboidal trapezium, bounded on the north-west by the rivers Indus and Sutlej, on the south-west by the Indian Ocean, on the south-east by the Nurbudda and the Sone, and on the north-east by the Himalaya Mountains and the river Ghagra. In the times of the emperors, it comprised the provinces of Sirhind, Rajpootana, Goozrat, Malwa, Biana, Oudh, Kuttahur (afterwards Rohilkund), and Unturbedh, or Dooab (Mesopotamia, the " land between the two rivers ") : and the political division was into soobahs, or divisions ; sircars, or districts ; dustoors, or subdivisions ; and pergunnahs, or fiscal unions. The Deccan, Punjab, and Cabool are omitted, as far as possible, from notice, because they did not form part of the normal territories of the Empire. In the former, down to nearly the end of Aurungzeb's reign, independent Mussulman kingdoms continued to flourish ; Cabool was as often as not in the hands of the Persians, and the Punjab (at least beyond 2 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF Lahore) was a kind of debateable land, where Afghans and Sikhs were constantly warring against the Empire, and against each other. It must, how- ever, be remembered that all these outlying provinces have been held by the Emperors of Hindoostan at one time or another. Bengal, Buhar, and Orissa also formed an integral portion of the Empire, but fell away without playing an important part in the history we are considering, excepting for a very brief period.* Including these three, the regular soobahs were twelve, the rest of the names as follows : Sirhind, Dehli, Oudh, Allahabad, Meywar, Marwar, Malwa, Biana, and Goozrat. Soobah Dehli contains sircars Dehli, Hissar, Bawaree, Saharunpore, Sumbhul, Budaon, Coel, Sahar, and Tijara. From this a notion of the extent of other divisions may be formed. Soil and climate depend upon the physical features rather than upon the latitude, in a country facing south a great wall of limestone and having a vast desert to the west. The highest point in the plains of Hindoostan is, probably, the plateau on which stands the town of Ajmere, about 230 miles south of Delhi. It lies on the eastern slope of the Aravalee Mountains, a range of primitive granite, of which Aboo, the chief peak, is estimated to be near 5,000 feet above the level of the sea ; the plateau of Ajmere itself is some 3,000 feet lower. * Vide book II. chap. I. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 3 The country at large is, probably, the upheaved basin of an exhausted sea which once rendered the highlands of the Deccan an island like a larger Ceylon. The general quality of the soil is accordingly sandy and light, though not unpro- ductive ; yielding on an average about 1,400 Ib. of wheat to the acre. The cereals are grown in the winter, which is, at least, as cold as in the corre- sponding parts of Africa. Snow never falls, but thin ice is often formed during the night. During the spring heavy dews fall, and strong winds set in from the west. These gradually become heated by the increasing radiation of the earth, as the sun becomes more vertical and the days longer. Towards the end of June the monsoon blows up from the Bay of Bengal, and a rainfall averaging about twenty inches takes place during the ensuing quarter. This usually ceases about the end of September, when the weather is at its most sickly point. Constant exhalations of malaria take place till the return of the cold weather. During the spring, cucurbitaceous crops are grown, followed by sowings of rice, sugar, and cotton. About the beginning of the hot season the millets and other coarse grains are put in, and the harvest- ing takes place in October. The winter crops are reaped in March and April. Thus the agriculturists are never out of employ, unless it be during the extreme heats of May and June, when the soil becomes almost as hard as the earth in England becomes in the opposite extreme of frost. .. 9 4 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF Of the hot season, Mr. Elphinstone gives the following strong but just description : " The sun is scorching, even the wind is hot, the land is brown and parched, the dust flies in whirlwinds, all brooks become dry, small rivers scarcely keep up a stream, and the largest are reduced to comparatively narrow channels in the midst of vast sandy beds." It should, however, be added, that towards the end of this terrible season some relief is afforded to the river supply by the melting of the snow upon the higher Himalayas. But even so, the occasional prolongation of the dry weather leads to universal scarcity which amounts to famine for the mass of the population, which affects all classes, and which is sure to be followed by pestilence. Such are the awful expedients by which Nature checks the redun- dancy of a non- emigrating population with simple wants. Hence the construction of water- works has not merely a direct result in causing temporary prosperity, but an indirect result in a large increase of the responsibilities of the ruling power. Between 1848 and 1854 the population of the part of Hindoo- stan, now called the North-West Provinces, where all the above described physical features prevail, increased from a ratio of 280 to the square mile till it reached a ratio of 350. There were at the time of which we are to treat few field-labourers on daily wages, the Metayer system being everywhere prevalent where the soil was not actually owned by joint-stock associations of peasant proprietors, usually of the same tribe. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 5 The wants of the cultivators were provided for by a class of hereditary brokers, who were often also chandlers, and advanced stock, seed, and money upon the security of the unreaped crops. These, with a number of artisans and handicraft- men, formed the chief population of the towns ; some of the money-dealers were very rich, and 24 per cent, per annum was not, by any means, a high rate of interest. There were no silver or gold mines, and the money-price of commodities was low. The language of Hindoostan, called Oordoo or Rekhta, was, and still is, so far common to the whole country, that it everywhere consists of a mixture of the same elements, though in varying proportions ; and follows the same grammatical rules, though with different accents and idioms. The constituent parts are the Arabised Persian, and the Sanskrit, in combination with a ruder basis, possibly of Scythian origin, known as Hindee.* Speaking loosely, the Persian speech has contributed nouns substantive of civilization, and adjectives of compliment or of science, while the verbs and ordinary vocables and particles pertaining to common life are derived from the earlier tongues. So, likewise, are the names of animals, excepting those of beasts of chase. The name Oordoo, by which this language is usually known, is of Turkish origin, and means literally camp. But the Moghuls of India restricted its use to the precincts of the Imperial camp; so * Forms of this are still spoken by the Soodras of the Deccan. 6 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OF that Oordoo-i-mooalee (High or Supreme Camp) came to be a synonym for new Dehli after Shahjuhan had made it his permanent capital; and Oordoo-Jd- zubaan meant the lingua franca spoken at Dehli. It was the common method of communication between different classes, as English may have been in London under Edward III. The classical languages of Arabia and Persia were exclusively devoted to uses of state and of religion ; the Hindoos cherished their Sanskrit and Hindee for their own purposes of business or worship, while the Emperor and his Moghul courtiers kept up their Turkish speech as a means of free intercourse in private life. Out of such elements was the rich and still growing language of Hindoostan formed, and it is yearly becoming more widely spread, being largely taught in Government schools, and used as a medium of translation from European literature, both by the English and by the natives.* For this purpose it is peculiarly suited, from still possessing the power of assimilating foreign roots, instead of simply inserting them cut and dried, as is the case with languages that have reached maturity. Its own words are also liable to a kind of chemical change when encountering foreign matter (e. g. jow t barley : when oats were introduced some years ago, they were at once called joivee " little barley "). The peninsula of India is to Asia what Italy is to Europe, and Hindoostan may be roughly likened to '' There is a native society for this purpose founded by Saeead Alimud, a respected judicial officer. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 7 Italy without the two Sicilies. In this comparison the Himalayas represent the Alps, and the Tartars to the north are the Tedeschi of India ; Persia is to her as France, Piedmont is represented by Cabool, and Lombardy by the Punjab. A recollection of this analogy may not be without use in familiarizing the narrative which is to follow. Such was the country into which successive waves of invaders, some of them, perhaps, akin to the actual ancestors of the Goths,* Huns, and Saxons of Europe, poured down from the plains of Central Asia. At the time of which our history treats, the aboriginal Indians had long been pushed out from Hindoostan into the mountainous forests that border the Deccan ; which country had been largely peopled, in its more accessible regions, by the Soodras, who were probably the first of the Scythian invaders. After them had come the Sanskrit-speaking race, a congener of the ancient Persians, who brought a form of Fire-worshipping, perhaps once monotheistic, of which traces are still extant in the Yedas, their early Scriptures. This form of faith becoming weak and eclectic, was succeeded by a reaction, which, under the auspices of Gautama, obtained general currency, until in its turn displaced by the gross mythology of the PooranaSj which has since been the popular creed of the Hindoos. This people is now divided into three main deno- minations, the Surawugees or Jaeens (who represent * It has been supposed that " Goih"=Jat, "Saxon" Saka, mid that the Huns were settled in Hoon Des. 8 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF the Boodhists or followers of Gautama) ; the sect of Shiva, and the sect of Yishnoo. To the Hindoo invaders succeeded the early Mus- sulmans from Ghuznee and Ghor. Then came the terrible incursion of Timoor the Lame, followed in its turn by an Afghan invasion which founded a strong dynasty, and largely affected the population of the northern provinces. Finally, a descendant of Timoor by name Babur, a man of intellect and energy, led a fresh Mahome- dan crusade at the head of a Turanian tribe called Moghul (who may or may not have been connected with the Mongol conquerors of China) on the same familiar path. His dynasty, after a long and severe struggle with the Afghan settlers, established themselves firmly on the throne of Hindoostan under his grandson Ukbur, one of whose first public acts was to abolish the Juzeea, or capitation-in-lieu-of-death, which all previous Mussulman rulers had imposed upon the Hindoos ; and which, when again introduced by his bigoted great-grandson Aurungzeb, contributed powerfully to the alienation of the people and to the downfall of the Empire. The Mahomedans in India preserved their religion, though not without some taint from the circumjacent idolatry. Their celebration of the Mohurrum, with tasteless and extravagant ceremonies, and their fast in Rumzan, were alike misplaced in a country where, from the moveable nature of their dates, they some- times fell on seasons when the rigour of the climate THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 9 was such as could never have been contemplated by the Arabian Prophet. They continued the bewilder- ing lunar year of the Hijree, with its thirteenth month every third year ; but, to increase the con- fusion, the Moghul Emperors also reckoned by Turkish cycles, while the Hindoos tenaciously main- tained in matters of business their national Sumbut or era of Raja Bikrum Ajeet. If India be the Italy of Asia, still more properly may it be said that Dehli is its Rome. This ancient city stretches ruined for many miles round the present inhabited area, and its original foundation is lost in a mythical antiquity. A Hindoo city called Indra- prustha was certainly there on the bank of the Jumna near the site of the present city before the Christian era, and various Mahomedan conquerors occupied sites in the neighbourhood,* of which numerous re- mains are still extant. The last was the Deen Punnah of Humayoon, nearly on the site of the old Hindoo town, but it had gone greatly to decay during the long absence of his son and grandson at Agra and elsewhere. At length New Dehli the present city was founded by Shahjuhan, the great-grandson of Hoo- mayoon, and received the name, by which it is still ! ' There was also a city near the present Kootub Miiiar, built by a Hindoo rajah, about 57 B.C. according to General Cunningham. This was the original (or Old) Dilli or Dehli, a name of unascer- tained origin. It appears to have been deserted during the inva- sion of Mahmood of Ghuzni, but afterwards rebuilt about 1060 A.D. Cunningham's Report, published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal 10 SKETCH OP THE HISTOEY OF known to Mahomedans, of Shahjuhanabad. The city is seven miles round, with seven gates, the Palace or citadel one-tenth of the area. Both are a sort of irregular semicircle on the right bank of the Jumna, which river forms their eastern arc. The level is about 800 feet above the level of the sea, and is a basin bordered by a low range of hills, and receiving the drainage of the Mewat Highlands. The greatest heat is in June, when the mean temperature in the shade is 92 F. ; but it falls as low as 53 in January. The situation as will be seen by the map is ex- tremely well chosen as the administrative centre of Hindoostan ; it must always be a place of com- mercial importance, and the climate has no peculiar defect. The only local disorder is a very malignant sore, which may perhaps be due to the brackishness of the water. This would account for the numerous and expensive canals and aqueducts which have been constructed at different periods, to bring water from remote and pure sources. The text of the following description is taken from the Mirut-i-Aftab- numa, a work on the history of modern Dehli by Shah Nuwaz Khan, a noble of Shah Alum's court. " The city of Dehli," also called Dillee by Hindoos, and sometimes by Europeans (without any just cause) Delhi, " was founded by the Emperor Shahjuhan in H. 1048,"* and that remarkable edifice, the fortress * The original additions, with notes on the state into which the town and palace had fallen after the death of Alumgeer II., are added from the accounts of travellers chiefly British officers, who visited Dehli in Shah Alum's reign. THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 11 (commonly called Lall Killa), begun in the following year (the twelfth of the reign of this Emperor) and completely finished in the twentieth, at an expense of 5,000,000 (fifty lakhs) of rupees. This fortress extends 1,000 guz* in length and 600 guz in breadth, with its fronting walls 25 guz high; two canals passing within, fall by two mouths into the Jumna. The chief material of this fine building was red stone, f and the whole of the buildings in this fortress, intended for the Imperial ladies to live, in as well as some other buildings, such as the garden named Huyat Buksh, Mootee Mehul, Hummam (or Bathing- house), Shah Mehul (commonly called Deewan-i- Khass), refectories in the Boorj-i-Tilla, Imtiaz Mehul, and the sleeping-rooms both of the king and his ladies, were built on the northern side of the fort ; the canal from the Jumna was also made to flow in the centre of these buildings. The account of each of the above-mentioned buildings is as follows : " Boorj-i-SMmalee. This was a raised pavilion of which the plinth was 12 guz in height, and all con- structed of white marble. In the centre was a large marble reservoir inlaid with precious stones. " Hay at -BuJcsk. This garden occupied a good * A guz is about 33 inches. The Emperor Shahjuhan had ordered the comrneiicement of these works before setting out on his second Deccan expedition in November, 1635 A.D. 1045 A. H. (Maurice, ii. 400.) He was assisted by Alee Murdan Khan, Governor of Candahar, who had surrendered to him that place, which he had held for the King of Persia, in 1047. He is also the founder of the Jumna canals. Elpli. 510. t Red sandstone from quarries of Futtehpoor, as used at Agra. 12 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP tract of land, and contained a reservoir in the centre, through which some 49 jets rose, while 112 of the same, set all around it, were bursting forth constantly. On its eastern and western sides there were two kingly houses surmounted with domes of white marble richly gilt. " Motee Mehul. This beautiful edifice stood on the eastern side of the above-mentioned garden. The vestibule contained a reservoir, and the stone of which the reservoir was made was in those times found in a mine about 200 Jcoss* distant from Dehli. On the southern side of this building was a bungalow built of polished marble, about 7 guz high. " Shah Mehul, or Deewan Khas.-\ This building was situated on an estaode of 1-| guz from the ground, the canal passing through was about 4 guz broad, all made of marble, of which material the building itself was likewise composed. The roof and * A Persian Hindee word, meaning a measure of length about equal to 2^ miles. Elliot in verb. t There was a square between the Deewan Khas and Deewan Am, called Am-Khas ; with two-storied apartments for courtiers all round, which used to be ornamented with hangings, ike., at their cost. Here the Omra and select troops used to parade. Deewan Khas itself is 150 feet by 40 feet. It contained the famous Peacock Throne valued by Bernier at three crores, A.D. 1663. When he saw it on the Nouroz it was covered with an awning of richly flowered chintz. Ta vernier, himself a jeweller, says it cost 160,500,000 francs, 6,420,000 sterling. Judging from the model at Lucknow, it would seem that this cumbrous piece of ostentation was a sort of lai'ge four- post bed, with two peacocks and a parrot perched upon the tester, all of gems and gold. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 13 arches of this were also richly * plated, and adorned with flowers and the well-known inscription " ' If there be a heaven on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.' The construction of this beautiful edifice is said to have cost nine lakhs. " The Hummam, or bath-house, contained a terrace and reservoir of marble, all inlaid with precious stones, where the warm baths were taken. The cold bath adjoined, a square reservoir with a jet of gold at each of the four angles. In the southern part of this building was another pavilion called Tusbeeh Khana, behind which was the bedroom of the Emperor, bearing inscriptions from the pen of Sadoolah Khan, containing accounts of the con- struction of the fortress. " Boorj-i-Tilla. The material of this house is polished marble, in the northern part of which stood a beautiful bedroom for the Emperor. The pro- fusion of inscriptions and incrustations on the walls of the room were almost a repetition of those in Shah Mehul. " Imtiaz Mehul. Of all the buildings of this fortress, this superb edifice was the first object of attraction ; the houses within were, many of them, very large and high. The Mehul was of an oblong form, being 57J guz long and 26 guz broad; the pillars as well as the roof of one of these rooms being richly gilt rendered it an ornamental room * The silver was torn down by the Mahrattas before the battle of Paniput. 14 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP with its mosaics and marble reservoir. Within this was a quadrangle of about 7 J guz ; the canal passing down the Aramgah first entered this reservoir, and then issued its water to the south, while a branch canal bursting forth from this reservoir was carried through a garden planted in this Mehul. This garden inclosed a length of 117 guz, and a breadth of 115. Over the entrance were four minarets of red- stone and marble, crowned with gilded cupolas. To the west of the courtyard of this building was a room * called Deewan Khana, 67 guz by 24. The material of this pavilion was also red-stone and marble richly inlaid, like the other similar building ; it was raised on an elevated terrace surmounted with beautiful gilded domes. This was a very extensive hall, with three handsome gates of red-stone ; the one of these four towards the west being surrounded with some other building was called Nulcar Khana. In the Imtiaz Mehul there was also a room intended for ' the Begum Sahibah,' surrounded with colonnades very beautifully made. A canal made of marble had also been made to flow within. This room was adorned with a handsome orchard, and an octagon reservoir about 25 guz in diameter : to the eastern part of this were connected many other agreeable abodes intended for other royal families to live in. To the right and left sides of the fortress along the river Jumna there had been founded many other superb edifices by the princes. * The Deewan-i-Am. F/Wenoh- t, j>. 1 '1. THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 15 To the north of the market named the Chandnee Chowk, an extensive Seraee (for passengers) had also been constructed, in accordance with the order of the Begum Jehanara ; this seraee consisted of 90 convenient rooms, with a terrace of 5 guz broad all before them. " Beyond the gate towards Lahore was a very- beautiful garden called Shalamar,* planted by the Emperor Shahjuhan. " Fronting the gate of the fortress was a mosque named in honour of the Ukburabadee Begum ; this mosque was entered by seven rooms, of which there were only three which were surmounted with three magnificent domes, the other four being flat like a roof. " Jumma Musjid. The foundation of this Imperial mosque was laid on the 10th of Shuwall H. 1060, by Shahjuhan, the Emperor of Dehli. This remarkable edifice was completed after a period of six years, although a considerable number of about 5,000 workmen of every kind had to work daily for it. The site selected for it is a small rocky eminence about one hundred guz distant from the fortress to the west. It consists of three beautiful gates, the doors of which are covered with plates of wrought brass. The mosque possesses seven excellent arches, with three stately -domes, about 90 guz high and 32 guz broad ; along the cornice there are eleven com- partments, bearing some religious inscriptions ; the * Properly Shabliniar, from Shahee Imarut " royal edifice." 16 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF courtyard of the mosque is paved with large flags of red-stone, in the centre of which is a marble reservoir." [The completion of this stately mosque is said to have cost a sum of ten lakhs of rupees, probably near a milhon of our modern money.] "The surrounding wall of this city was con- structed by Shahjuhan, the Emperor, in the twenty- fourth year of his reign, at an expense of one and a half lakhs of rupees ; but the wall, being made of earth and stone, soon began to fall in the rains of the next year. Seeing this, the Emperor began to build a more solid wall with rich materials, the wall when thus constructed, was 6,610 guz in length, 4 in breadth, and 9 in height. This and the last construction are said to have cost five lakhs of rupees. " Nuhr-i-Faiz. This canal was originally cut from the Jumna by the Emperor Feeroz Khiljee, and brought as far as the jurisdiction of pergunnah Sufedoon, a place about 30 koss distant from Khizer- abad, the source of this canal ; but, after the death of the said Emperor, the canal, owing to the want of repairs, had been thrown into a disgraceful state, until it was again repaired, for the purpose of irriga- tion, by Shuhaboodeen, the Soobah of Dehli, in the reign of the Emperor Mohummud Julalooddeen Ukbur, and henceforth it was called by the name of ' Nuhri-Shuhab.' But, as a long time came to pass without any repairs, the canal was left to fall again into the same bad condition ; it was however repaired THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 17 and kept in excellent order by the Emperor Shah- julian as soon as he had laid the foundation of his fortress ' Lall Killa ' at Dehli : and he also bade his engineers to lengthen the same canal for 30 koss more from Sufedoon to Dehli." Thus far the Nuwab. But in his days the archi- tecture was all that was left to bear witness to the magnificence described by him from tradition and from the accounts of earlier historians, in the city and fort. The entrance to -the palace was, and still is, 'de- fended by a lofty barbican, passing which the visitor finds himself in an immense arcaded vestibule, wide and lofty, formerly appropriated to the men and officers of the guard, but now (1865) tenanted by small shopkeepers. This opened into a courtyard, at the back of which was a gate surmounted by a gallery, where one used to hear the barbarous per- formances of the royal band. Passing under this, the visitor entered the Am-Khas above described, much fallen from its state, when the rare animals and the splendid military pageants of the earlier Emperors used to throng its area. Fronting you was the Deewan-i-Am (since converted into a barrack), and at the back (towards the east or river) the Dee- wan-i-Khas, since turned into a museum. This latter pavilion is in echelon with the former, and was made to communicate on both sides with the private apartments. On the east of the palace, and connected with it by o 18 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF a bridge crossing an arm of the river, is the ancient* Pathan fort of Suleemgurh, a rough and dismal structure, which the latter Emperors used as a state prison. It is a remarkable contrast to the rest of the fortress, which is surrounded by crenellated walls of high finish. These walls being built of the red sandstone of the neighbourhood, and seventy feet in height, give to the exterior of the buildings a solemn air of passive and silent strength, so that, even after so many years of havoc, the outward appearance of the Imperial residence continues to testify of its former grandeur. How its internal and actual grandeur perished will be seen in the following pages. Of the character of the races who people this wide region, very varying estimates have been formed, in the most extreme opposites of which there is still some germ of truth. It cannot be denied that, in some of what are termed the unprogressive virtues, they exceed most of the nations of Europe ; being usually temperate, self- con trolled, patient, dignified in misfortune, and affectionate and liberal to kinsfolk and dependents. But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that, as India is the Italy, so are the Indian races the Italians of Asia. All Asiatics are unscrupulous and unforgiving. The natives of Hindoostan are pecu- * This building is assigned to Suleem, son of Sheer Shah, the Afghan interrex^of Humaeeoon, A.D. 1546. Cunningham's Report, 1864, from Asiatic Society, Bengal. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 19 liarly so ; but they are also unsympathetic and un- enterprising in a manner that is altogether their own. From the languor induced by the climate, and from the selfishness engendered by centuries of misgovernment, they have derived an unblushing audacity of meanness, almost unintelligible in a people so free from the fear of death.* Macaulay has not overstated this in his Essay on Warren Hastings, where he has occasion to describe the character of Nund Komar, who, as a Bengalee man-of-the-pen, appears to have been a marked type of all that is most peculiar in the Hindoo character. Of the Mussulmen, it only remains to add that, although mostly descended from hardier immigrants, they have imbibed the Hindoo character to an extent that goes far to corroborate the doctrine which traces the morals of men to the physical circumstances that surround them. * I hope I need not explain that no comparison is intended in this respect with the educated natives of Italy, who have often shown high qualities of determination and true courage. BOOK I. INTRODUCTORY. CHAPTER I. A.D. 1707-19. Individual greatness of the descendants of Timoor The tolerance and wisdom of earlier Emperors essential to the prosperity of the Empire Power of the Empire at death of Aurungzeb only apparent Parallel with France Aurungzeb' s peculiar errors Reaction from centralization in weak hands Special danger of Moghuls from unsettled succession Virtues of Buhadoor- shah of no avail Temporary subjugation of the Sikhs On Buhadoorshah's death at Lahore in 1712, Furokhseer disputes succession with Moizoodeen ; and, on the latter dying, succeeds to the throne Rise of Cheenkillich Khan, afterwards " The Kizain " The British 'Embassy, and disinterested surgeon The Saeeuds Murder of Emperor. is probably no record in history of any family that has produced such a long and unbroken series of distinguished rulers as the Emperors of Hindoostan, descended from the great Timoor Beg, known in Europe as Tamerlane. The brave and simple-hearted BABTJK,; who won the Empire for his house, has left his image to us in the remarkably outspoken commentaries which have been more than once edited in our language. When 22 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF he had an inclination to make merry, we are told, he was wont to fill a fountain with wine, and join gaily in open-air revels among companions of both sexes; and the inscription of the fountain was to this purport, " Jovial days ! blooming spring time ! old wine and young maidens ! Enjoy freely, Babur, for life can be enjoyed but once." This cheerful hero was succeeded in his wide conquests by his son HOOMATOON, alike famous for his mis- fortunes and for the unwearied patience with which he endured and ultimately surmounted them. His son was the great JALALOODEEN UKBUR, liberal, merciful, and intrepid ; a follower of Truth in all her obscure retreats and a generous friend of her humblest and least attractive votaries. Ukbur's eldest son, SULEEM JUHANGEER, is well known to all readers of English poetry as the constant and reasonable lover of the gifted Noormehul, but deserves greater distinction for his peculiar accessi- bility and inflexible justice. So far did he carry his convictions of duty on this head, that his maxim is said to have been " That a monarch should care even for the beasts of the field, and that the very birds of heaven ought to receive their due at the foot of the throne." Nor is he less remarkable for walking in the path of religious liberality traced by his distinguished father a lesson the more deserving of study by modern Europe, that it was set by two Mussulman despots at a time when the word " toleration " was not known to Christians. The clemency and the justice of his son and successor, THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 23 SHAH JUHAN, are still famous in India ; like his father, he was a devoted husband, and has im- mortalized his domestic affections in the world- renowned Taj Mehul of Agra, which is, at the same time, a conspicuous monument of his artistic feeling. This emperor was indeed one of the greatest architects that ever lived ; and the Mosque and Palace of Dehli, which he personally designed, even, after the havoc of two centuries, still remain the climax of the Indo-Saracenic order, and admitted rivals to the choicest works of Cordova and Granada. The abilities of his son ALUMGEEB, known to Europeans by his private name, AUKUNGZEB, rendered him perhaps the most distinguished of any member of his distinguished house. Intrepid and enterprising as he was in war, his political sagacity and state- craft were equally unparalleled in Eastern annals. He abolished capital punishment, understood and encouraged agriculture, founded numberless colleges and schools, systematically constructed roads and bridges, kept continuous diaries of all public events from his earliest boyhood, administered justice publicly in person, and never condoned the slightest malversation of a provincial governor, however distant his province. Such were these emperors ; great, if not exactly what we should call good, to a degree rare indeed amongst hereditary rulers. The fact of this uncommon succession of high qualities in a race born to the purple may be ascribed 24 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF to two main considerations. In the first place, the habit of contracting marriages with Hindoo princesses, which the policy and the latitudinarian- ism of the emperors established, was 'a constant source of fresh blood whereby the increase of family predisposition was checked. Few if any races of men are free from some morbid taint : scrofula, phthisis, weak nerves, or a diseased brain, are all likely to be propagated if a person predisposed to any such ailment marries a woman of his own stock. From this danger the Moghul princes were long kept free. Secondly, the invariable fratricidal war which followed the demise of the Crown gave rise to a natural selection (to borrow a term from modern physical inquiry), which eventually confirmed the strongest in possession of the prize. However humanity may revolt from the scenes of crime which such a system must perforce entail, yet it cannot be doubted that the qualities necessary to ensure success in a struggle of giants would certainly both declare and develop themselves by the time that struggle was concluded. It is indeed probable that both these causes aided ultimately in the dissolution of the monarchy. The connections which resulted from the earlier emperors' Hindoo marriages led, as the Hindoos became disaffected after the intolerant rule of Aurungzeb, to an assertion of partisanship which gradually swelled into independence ; while the wars between the rival sons of each departing emperor THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 25 gave more and more occasion for the Hindoo chiefs to take sides in arms. Then it was that each competitor, seeking to detach the greatest number of influential feudatories from the side of his rivals, and to propitiate such feudatories in his own favour, cast to each of these the prize that each most valued. And since this was invariably the uncontrolled dominion of the territories confided to their charge, it was in this manner that the reckless disputants partitioned the territories that their forefathers had accumulated with such a vast expenditure of human happiness and human virtue. For, even from those who had received their title-deeds at the hands of claimants to the throne ultimately vanquished, the concession could rarely be wrested by the exhausted conqueror. Or, when it was, there was always at hand a partisan to be provided for, who took the gift on the same terms as those upon which it had been held by his predecessor. Aurungzeb, when he had imprisoned his father and conquered and slain his brothers, was, on his acces- sion, the most powerful of all the emperors of Hindoo- stan, and, at the same time, the ablest administrator that the Empire had ever known. In his reign the house of Timoor attained its zenith. The wild Pathans of Cabul and Candahar were temporarily tamed; the Shah of Persia sought his friendship; the ancient Mussulman powers of Golconda and Bee- japoor were subverted, and their territories rendered subordinate to the sway of the Empire ; the hitherto 26 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF indomitable Rajpoots were subdued ; and if the strength of the Mahrattas lay gathered upon the Western Ghats like a cloud risen from the sea, yet it was not to be anticipated that a band of such marauders could long resist the might of the great Moghul. Yet that might and that greatness were reduced to a mere show before his long reign terminated ; and the Moghul Empire resembled, at the time of Aurung- zeb's death, one of those Etruscan corpses which, though crowned and armed, are destined to crumble at the breath of heaven or the touch of human hands. And still more did it resemble some splendid palace, whose gilded cupolas and towering minarets are built of materials collected from every quarter of the world, only to collapse in undistinguishable ruin when the Ficus religiosa has lodged its destructive roots in the foundation on which they rest. Thus does this great ruler furnish another instance of the familiar but ever-needed lesson, that countries may be over-governed. Had he been less anxious to stamp his own image and superscription upon the palaces of princes and the temples of priests ; upon the moneys of every market, and upon every human heart and conscience ; he might have governed with as much success as his free-thinking and pleasure- seeking predecessors. But he was the Louis Quatorze of the East ; with less of pomp than his European contem- porary, but not less of the lust of conquest, of centralization, and of religious conformity. Though each monarch identified the State with himself, yet it THE MOGHUL EMPIBE. 27 may be doubted if either, on his deathbed, knew that his monarchy was dying also. But so it was that to each succeeded that gradual but complete cata- clysm which seems the inevitable consequence of the system which each pursued. One point peculiar to the Indian emperor is that the persecuting spirit of his reign was entirely due to his own character. The jovial and clement Toor- komans from whom he was descended often the sons of Hindoo ladies, who retained in the Imperial household their hereditary opinions were never bigoted Mohummudans. Indeed it may be fairly doubted whether Ukbur and his son Jehangeer were, to any considerable extent, believers in the system of the Arabian prophet. Far different however was the creed of Aurungzeb, and ruthlessly did he seek to force it upon his Hindoo subjects. Thus there were now added to the usual dangers of a large empire the two peculiar perils of a jealous centraliza- tion of power, and a deep-seated disaffection of the vast majority of the subjects. Nor was this all. There had never been any fixed settlement of the succession ; and not even the sagacity of this politic emperor was superior to the temptation of arbitrarily transferring the dignity of heir-apparent from one son to another during his long reign. True, this was no vice confined exclusively to Aurungzeb. His prede- cessors had done the like ; but then their systems had been otherwise genial and fortunate. His succes- sors too were destined to pursue the same infatuated course, and it was a defeated intrigue of this sort 28 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP which probably first brought the puppet emperor of our own time into that fatal contact with the power of England which sent him to die in a remote and dishonoured exile. When therefore the sceptre had fallen from the dead man's hands, there were numerous evil influ- ences ready to attend its assumption by any hands that were less experienced and strong. The prize was no less than the possession of the whole penin- sula, yielding a yearly revenue of the nominal value of thirty-four millions of pounds sterling, and guarded by a veteran army of five hundred thousand men. The will of the late emperor had left the disposal of his inheritance entirely unsettled ; " Whoever of my fortunate sons shall chance to rule my empire," is the only reference to the subject that occurs in this brief and extraordinary document. His eldest surviving son consequently found two competitors in the field, in the persons of his brothers. These however he defeated in succession, and assumed the monarchy under the title of BTJHA- DOOESHAH. A wise and valiant prince, he did not reign long enough to show how far he could have succeeded in controlling or retarding the evils above referred to ; but his brief occupation of the monarchy is marked by the appearance of all those powers and dynasties which afterwards participated, all in its dismemberment, and most in its spoil. The Barb a Seiuds of whom we only hear in the reign of Au- rungzeb as particular objects of his suspicion ; the THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 29 Mahrattas of the south-west, who were for the time bought off; the Rajpoot confederacy, with whom a hasty peace was concluded ; the adventurous mer- chants of Britain, who were almost without notice founding the Presidency of Fort William at the mouths of the Ganges ; Cheenkillich Khan, after- wards founder of the dynasty known as " Nizam of the Deccan ;" and Saadut Khan, a Persian trader, founder of the royal family of Lucknow ; all now began to assume an important position to which they had not access under Aurungzeb. But all had to be neglected for a time in order that the whole attention of the Emperor and all the forces of the 'Empire might be concentrated on the subjugation of the Sikhs. In the successful prosecution of this task the Em- peror died at Lahore, just five years after the death of his father. The usual struggle ensued. Three of the princes were defeated and slain in detail, and the partisans of the eldest son, Meerza Moizoodeen, conferred upon him the succession, after a wholesale slaughter of such of his kindred as fell within their grasp. After a few months, the aid of the governors of Behar and Allahabad, Seiuds of the tribe just mentioned, enabled the last remaining claimant to overthrow and murder the incapable Emperor. The conqueror succeeded his uncle under the title of FUROKHSEER. The next step of the Seiuds, men of remarkable courage and ability, was to attack the Rajpoots : and to extort from their chief, the Maharajah Ajeet 30 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP Sing, the usual tribute, and the hand of his daughter for the Emperor, who, like many of his prede- cessors, was anxious to marry a Hindoo princess. But, after this negotiation had been successfully concluded, it was found that the ill-health of the Emperor still furnished an obstacle to the marriage. This circumstance is remarkable for the coincidence of the arrival of a deputation from the nascent government of Calcutta, accompanied by a Scottish surgeon named Gabriel Hamilton. In his first delight at the success of this gentleman's treatment of his case, the Emperor, on the solemnization of his marriage, gave Mr. Hamilton the reward his well- known disinterestedness demanded, in the conces- sion of those privileges which not only founded the British power in Bengal, but strengthened the pos- sessions of our countrymen in other parts of India. This was in 1716. About the same time Cheen Killich Khan, the Toorkoman noble already men- tioned, obtained the government of the Deccan, which was afterwards to become hereditary in his house. But the levity and irresolution of the Emperor soon united this chief with an extensive conspiracy headed by the Seiuds, of which the result was the murder of Furokhseer, 16th February, 1719. A brief interregnum ensued, during which the all- powerful Seiuds sought to administer the powers of sovereignty behind the screen of any royal scion they could find of the requisite nonentity. But there was a Nothing still more absolute than any they THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 31 could find ; and after two of these shadow-kings had passed in about seven months, one after the other, into the grave, the usurpers were at length con- strained to make a choice of a more efficient puppet. This was the son of Buhadoor Shah's youngest son, who had perished in the wars which followed that emperor's demise. His private name was Sooltan Eoshun Ukhtur, but he assumed with the Imperial dignity the title of MOOHUMMUD SHAH, and is memo- rable as the last Indian emperor that ever sat upon the peacock throne of Shah Juhan. The events recorded in the preceding brief sum- mary, though they do not comprehend much actual disintegration of the Empire, are plainly indicative of what is to follow. In the next three succeeding chapters we shall behold somewhat more in detail the rapidly accelerating event. During the long reign of Moohummud foreign violence will be seen accomplishing what native vice and native weakness have commenced ; and the successors to his dis- mantled throne will be seen passing like other decorations in a passive manner from one mayor of the palace to another, or making fitful efforts to be free, which only rivet their chains and hasten their destruction, One by one the provinces fall away from this distempered centre. At length we shall find the throne literally without an occupant, and the curtain will seem to descend while preparations are being made for the last act of this Imperial tragedy. 32 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF CHAPTER II. A.D. 1719-48. Vigorous commencement of Moohummud Shah's reign Strong feeling of nobles against the Seiud ministers Combinations of the Emperor Seiuds overthrown The Empire visibly dissolves after their fall Nizam becomes independent, and wages war against Mahrattas At length connives at their gaining possession of territory They cross the Jumna, but are repulsed by prompt conduct of Saadut Alee They sweep round on Dehli, but retire upon the advance of the Nizarn, who thus regains power at court, but soon meets with a check from the Mahrattas in Central India He coalesces with Saadut, and they invite Nadir Shah of Persia to invade the Empire Fatal result His treatment of the traitors Death of Saadut Rohillas revolt Aliverdi takes Bengal First incursion of Ahmud Khan Abdallee His repulse Death of the Emperor. ll/TOOHUMMUD SHAH had not been long upon the throne before he began to give marks of a vigour that could not have been anticipated by the king-makers, and which indeed was not maintained in his latter conduct. Guided by his mother, a person of sense dnd spirit, he began to form a party of Moghul friends, who were hostile to the Seiuds on every conceivable account. The former were Soonees, the latter Sheeas ; and perhaps the animosities of sects are stronger than those of entirely different creeds. Moreover, the courtiers were proud of a foreign descent ; and, while they despised the minis- ters as natives of India, they possessed in their mother tongue Turkish a means of communicating THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 33 with the Emperor (a man of their own race) from which the ministers were excluded. The restless intriguer Cheen Killich Khan, and the newly arrived Persian adventurer, Saadut Khan, both joined in desiring the downfall of the Seiuds ; although the latter had not the excuse of sectarian bitterness, being himself a Sheea like them. But something is chargeable to the demoralizing tone that the brothers had been the first to introduce into the politics of the Empire ; and they had perhaps but little right to complain when the cabal followed their example, and removed one by the dagger and the other by the bowl. But to execute a secret and sudden stroke of State, though it undoubtedly requires some gifts, is not of itself sufficient to show capacity for the administra- tion of an empire. And the Nemesis of centraliza- tion was beginning to require stronger spells than any that could be brought to bear upon her by the dissolute companions of the youthful emperor. First of all they had to deal with the Rajpoots, whose nascent patriotism they for a time conciliated by a hasty concession of territory. Next, when the old viceroy, Cheen Killich Khan, expressed disgust at this weakness, they retorted by turning into ridicule his austere manners and anti- quated habits, formed in the severe school of Aurung- zeb, and drove the reluctant veteran to resign his office in the cabinet and depart for the Deccan, where he henceforth exercised a sway that was independent in all but title. 34 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP This great event happened in the early part of A.D. 1724, and forms the first actual instance of that disintegration by which the Empire was soon to perish. At first sight it appeared as it doubtless was a great and grievous blow, but a little reflec- tion taught an astute contemporary, like Saadut the Persian, to think that he might regard the indepen- dent Viceroy as a useful substitute for the vanished kings of Golconda and Beejapore. In truth there was between them only such differ- ence as there is between allies who respect a potent friend, and rebels who have learned to despise a weak and baffled superior ; and the practical result was attained for some time in the one case as well as in the other, for it was ten years before the growing power of the Mahrattas was able to make such head against the Viceroy as to enable them to become an actual peril to the Empire. In 1730 a compromise was effected between the Viceroy and the Mahrattas, whereby the wily old statesman diverted his foes by the sacrifice of his sovereign and his countrymen. On his conniving at their invasion of Hindoostan, their first blow fell on Malwa, which they overran, and where they slew the governor. True to his temporizing policy, the effe- minate Moghul, with the concurrence of his friend and minister Khan Douran, at once confirmed the marauders in this conquest, an act of weakness by which they were soon encouraged to fresh enter- prise. In 1736 the heads of their columns crossed the THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 35 Junina under Mulliar Rao Holkar ; but they were des- tined to experience a temporary check. Saadut the Persian, who was by this time engaged in laying the foundation of that monarchy possessed down to our own time by his descendants in Oudh, advanced into the country between the Jumna and the Ganges ; and while the Moghul cabinet was engaged in negotia- tions in which the disgrace of shameful concession was only mitigated by the disgrace of intended treachery, the Nawab of Oudh fell suddenly upon Holkar, and drove him back in confusion upon Bun- delkund. The Peshwa Bajee Rao, who led the main army of the Mahrattas, lost no time in recovering whatever prestige his cause might have suffered from this defeat. By a brilliant and rapid flank movement he marched upon the undefended metropolis and dis- played his standards within sight of the Emperor's palace. So it was now the moment for the old Viceroy of the Deccan to step upon the scene as the saviour of the monarchy. The Mahrattas retreated from Dehli, having struck a blow from which the Empire never recovered ; but the Nizam had the satis- faction of turning the laugh against the silken minions who had once made their jests upon him. At the head of a compact and well-appointed army, the Nizam next marched back towards his own dominions. But the Mahratta armies barred the way, and Cheen Killich Khan found that the maxims of Aurungzeb were but little more effectual than the puerile warfare of the young courtiers. In D 2 36 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF a word, he too had to negotiate, and the result was the final cession of Malwa, and a solemn engagement that the Imperial Government should henceforth pay tribute to the Soodra thieves. This was a galling situation for an ancient noble- man, trained in the traditions of the mighty Aurung- zeb. The old man was now between two fires. If he went on to his own capital, Hyderabad, he would be exposed to wear out the remainder of his days in the same beating of the air that had- exhausted his master. If he returned to the capital of the Empire, he saw an interminable prospect of contempt and defeat at the hands of the Captain-General Khan Douran. Thus straitened he once more resolved to sacri- fice his country in his own cause ; probably recon- ciled to that course by the arguments of Saadut the Persian, who was still at Dehli. The intrigues of an aristocracy are always obscure ; and there is nothing in Saadut's general character and conduct, which should deter us from charging his share of the great crime that was now to be committed to his simple desire of supplanting Khan Douran in the command of the army. The result to him was to be far other. The crime of the confederates was nothing but the writing of a letter ; but the effect of that letter was the invasion of Nadir Shah, the usurping king of Persia (1738-39), which led to the spoliation of the palace of Shah Julian, the massacre of 100,000 of the population of Dehli, and the pillage of Hindoo- stan in money alone to the amount of above eighty THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 37 millions of pounds sterling, besides untold wealth in jewellery and live-stock. It would be out of place in this introduction, to enter into a detailed narrative of the brief and insincere defence of the Empire at Kurnal; or of the sack and massacre of Dehli under the dark and terrible eye of the conqueror, as he sat in front of Roshunoodowlah's mosque in Chandnee Chowk. But historical justice cannot be satisfied without an exhi- bition of the fruit personally acquired by Saadut from the atrocious treason in which he had borne a great and gratuitous part. This is the more indis- pensable since Mr. Elphinstone has omitted the story, although it rests upon authentic evidence. The native historians relate that when the victori- ous invader had obtained possession of the imperial city, he sent for both the Turanian and the Persian, and roughly reproached them with their selfishness and treachery. "But I will scourge you," he pur- sued, " with all my wrath, which is the instrument of divine vengeance." Having said this, he spat upon their beards and drove them from his presence. The crest-fallen couple of confederates, upon this confer- ring, agreed that each should go home and take poison ; it being out of the question for them to out- live such disgrace. The Nizam was the first in the field of honour, and having swallowed his potion in the presence of his household, shortly afterwards fell senseless on the ground. A spy of Saadut's having satisfied himself of the result, hastened to his master, who being ashamed to be beaten in this 38 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF generous rivalry, fulfilled his part of the compact to the letter, taking a draught that proved instantly fatal. JSTo sooner was the breath out of his body, than Cheen Killich Khan came as by a miracle to life, and ever afterwards amused his confidential friends by the narrative of how he had outwitted the pedlar of Khorasan. A man of such resource was too useful to be long unemployed, and ere Nadir Shah had reached his own country, the Nizam was more powerful than ever ; sovereign of the Deccan, and absolute master of the Emperor and his Yuzeer, under the title of Vukeel-i-Mootluk, or Plenipotentiary- Agent. Death also continued to favour him ; his great Mahratta enemy, the Peshwa, died in 1740. Next year the Nizam once for all left Dehli for the Deccan, having installedhis eldest son, G-hazeeooddeen, in a confidential post about the Emperor, and leaving an equally trustworthy friend and connection, in the person of Kumurooddeen, the prime minister-. But the work of dismemberment now proceeded apace. Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, were conquered by a Tartar adventurer, known in English histories as Aliverdi Khan ; and the only show of authority the Emperor was ever able to make again in that quarter was to stir up the new Peshwa to collect clwivtli (the Mahratta tribute) from the usurper. The next defection was that of the province beyond the Ganges, now called Rohilkund, in which Alee Moohummud, a Pathan soldier of fortune, de- feated the military governor, whom he slew, and THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 39 rendered himself independent (A.D. 1744). This was the rise of the Rohillas ; and though the Em- peror himself took the field, and actually captured the rebel, yet the exhausted administration was never able to recover the territory which his rebellion had alienated. Shortly after a fresh invader from the north ap- peared in the person of Ahmud Khan Abdallee, leader of the Dooranee Afghans, who had obtained possession of the frontier provinces during the con- fusion in Persian politics that succeeded the assassi- nation of Nadir. But a new generation of Moghul nobles was now rising, whose valour formed a short bright Indian summer in the fall of the Empire; and the invasion was rolled back by the spirit and intelli- gence of the heir-apparent, the Vuzeer's son Meer Munno, his brother-in-law Ghazeeooddeen, and the nephew of the deceased Governor of Oudh, Abool- Munsoor Khan, better known to Europeans by his title Sufdur Jung. The Vuzeer however did not live to enjoy the short-lived glory of his gallant son. A round shot killed him as he was praying in his tent ; and the news of the death of this old and constant servant, who had been Moohummud's personal friend through all the pleasures and cares of his momentous reign, proved too much for the Emperor's exhausted con- stitution. He was seized by a strong convulsion as he sate administering justice in his despoiled palace at Dehli, and expired almost immediately, in the month of April, A.D. 1748. 40 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF CHAPTER III. A.D. 1748^54. V Promising appearances of new reign Disposition of offices War with Pathans of Rohilkund Cession of northern Punjab Departure of Captain-General with Mahratta auxiliaiy force Young Ghazeeooddeen subverts Sufdur Jung Vuzeership of Intizamoodowlah Campaign against Jats Perplexities of the Emperor His weak and unsuccessful intrigues Revolution Rise of Najeeb Khan State of the Empire. SELDOM has a reign begun under fairer auspices than did that of Ahmud Shah. The Emperor was in the flower of his age; his immediate associates were distinguished for their courage and skill ; Cheen- killich was a bar to the Mahrattas in the Deccan, and the tide of northern invasion had ebbed out of sight. There is however a fatal element of uncertainty in all systems of government which depend for their success upon personal qualities. The first sign of this precarious tenure of greatness was afforded by the death of the aged Viceroy of the Deccan, which took place almost immediately after that of the late Emperor. The eldest son of the old Nizam continued to be Captain-General and Paymaster of the Forces, and his next brother Nasir Jung held the Lieutenancy of the Deccan. The office of Plenipotentiary was for THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 41 the time in abeyance. The Vuzeership, which had been held by the deceased Kumurooddeen, was about the same time conferred upon Sufdur Jung, nephew of the late Viceroy of Oudh, to which government he had succeeded. Having made these dispositions, the Emperor fol- lowed the hereditary bent of his natural disposition, and left the provinces to fare as best they might, while he enjoyed the pleasures to which his oppor- tunities invited him. Meanwhile, the two great de- pendencies of the Empire, Rohilkund and the Punjab, became the theatre of bloody contests. The Rohillas routed the Imperial army commanded by the Vuzeer in person, and though Sufdur Jung wiped off this stain, it was only by undergoing the still deeper disgrace of encouraging the Hindoo powers to prey upon the growing weakness of the Emperor. Aided by the Mahrattas under Holkar and by the Jats under Sooruj Mul, the Vuzeer defeated the Rohillas at the fords of the Ganges ; and pushed them up into the malarious country at the Toot of the Kumaon mountains, where famine and fever would soon have completed their subjugation, but for the sudden reappearance in the north-west of their Afghan kindred under Ahmud Khan the Abdallee. The Mahrattas were allowed to indemnify them- selves for these services by seizing on part of the Rohilla country, and drawing cliowtli from the rest ; in consideration of which they promised their assist- 42 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ance to cope with the invading Afghans ; but on arriving at Dehli they learned that the Emperor, in .the Vuzeer's absence, had surrendered to Ahmud the provinces of Lahore and Mooltan, and thus termi- nated the war. The cabinet of the Emperor was now in the position of a necromancer who has to furnish his familiars with employment on pain of their destroy- ing him. But an escape was soon afforded by the projects of the Captain-General, who agreed to draw off the dangerous auxiliaries to aid him in wresting the lieutenancy of the Deccan from his third brother, Dulabut Jung, who had possessed himself of the administration on the death of Nasir Jung, the second son and first successor of Cheen Killich, the old Nizam. Gladly did the Yuzeer behold his rival thus depart ; little dreaming of the dangerous abilities of the boy he had left behind. This youth, best known by the family affix of Ghazeeooddeen (2nd), but whose name was Shuhabooddeen, and who is known in native histories by his official title of Aamad-ool- Moolk, was son of Feeroz Jung, the old Nizam's fourth son. He was but sixteen when the news of his uncle's sudden death at Aurungabad was brought to Dehli. Sufdur Jung had just removed the Emperor's chief favourite by assassination, and doubtless thought himself at length arrived at the goal of his ambition. But the young Ghazee, secretly instigated by the weak and anxious monarch, renewed against the Persian the same war of THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 43 Tooran and Iran, of Soonnee and Sheea, which in the last reign had been waged between the uncle of the one and the grandfather of the other. The only difference was that both parties being now fully- warned, the mask of friendship that had been main- tained during the old struggle was now completely dropped ; and the streets of the metropolis were the scene of daily fights between the two factions. The Moghuls for the time won ; and Ghazee assumed the command of the army. The Yuzeership was con- ferred on Intizam-ood-dowlah, the Khan Khanan (a son-in-law of the deceased Kumurooddeen, and young Ghazee' s cousin), while Sufdur Jung, falling into open rebellion, called the Jats under Soorujmul to his assistance. The Moghuls were thus led to have recourse to the Mahrattas ; and Holkar was even engaged, as a partisan of the Empire, against his co-religionists the Jats, and his former patron the Viceroy of Oudh. The latter, who was always more remarkable for sagacity than for personal courage, soon retired to his own country, and the hands of the conqueror Ghazee fell heavily upon the unfortu- nate Jats. The Khan Khanan and the Emperor now began to think that things had gone far enough ; and the former, who was acquainted with his kinsman's un- scrupulous mind and ruthless passions, persistently withheld from him a siege-train which was required for the reduction of Bhurtpoor. The Emperor was now in a situation from which the utmost judgement in the selection of a line of conduct was necessary 44 SKETCH OF THE HISTOKY OF for success, indeed for safety. The gallant Meer Munnoo, son of Jiis father's old friend and servant Kumur-ooddeen, was absent in the Punjab, engaged on the arduous duty of keeping the Afghans in check. But his brother-in-law, the Khan Khanan, was courageous and sensible. To call in Sufdur Jung, and openly acknowledge the cause of the Jats, would probably only cost one campaign, well con- ceived and vigorously executed. On the other hand, to support the Captain- General honestly and with- out reserve, would have secured one's own repose, whilst it crushed a formidable Hindoo power. The irresolute voluptuary before whom these plans were laid could decide manfully upon neither. He marched from Dehli with the avowed intention of supporting the Captain-General, to whom he addresed messages of encouragement. He at the same time wrote to Soorujmul, to whom he promised that he would fall upon the rear of the army (his own !), upon the Jats making a sally from the fortress in which they were besieged. Sufdur Jung not being applied to, remained sullenly aloof: the Emperor's letter to the Jats fell into the hands of the Captain-General, who returned it to him with violent menaces. The alarmed monarch began to fall back upon his capital, pursued at a distance by his rebellious general. Holkar meanwhile executed a sudden and independent attack upon the imperial camp, which he took and plundered. The Emperor and his minister lost all heart, and fled precipitately into Dehli, where they THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 45 had but just time to take refuge in the palace, when they found themselves rigorously invested. Knowing the man with whom they had to deal, their last hope was obviously in a spirited resist- ance, combined with an earnest appeal to the Oudh Viceroy and to the ruler of the Jats. And it is on record in a trustworthy native history that such was the tenor of the Vuzeer's advice to the Emperor. But the latter, perhaps too sensible of the diffi- culties of this course from the known hostility of Sufdur Jung, and the great influence of Grhazeeood- deen over the Moghul soldiery, rejected the bold counsel. Upon this the Khan retired to his own residence, which he fortified, and the remaining adherents of the Emperor opened the gates and made terms with the Captain-General. The latter then, with his usual address, contrived to obtain as a vote of the cabinet what was doubtless the sugges- tion of his own unprincipled ambition. " This Emperor," said the assembled nobles, "has shown his unfitness for rule. He is unable to cope with the Mahrattas : he is false and fickle towards his friends. Let him be deposed, and a worthier son of Timoor raised to the throne." This resolution was immediately acted upon; the unfortunate monarch was blinded and consigned to the state prison of Suleem Gurh, adjoining the palace; and a son of the competitor of Furokhseer proclaimed Emperor under the sounding title of Alumgeer II., July, 1754 A.D. One name, afterwards to become very famous, is 46 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF heard of for the first time during these transactions ; and since the history of the Empire is henceforth to be little more than a series of biographies, the present is the proper place to consider the outset of his career. Najeeb Khan was an Afghan soldier of fortune, who had attained the hand of the daughter of Doondee Khan, one of the chieftains of the Rohilkund Pathans. Rewarded by this ruler with the charge of a district in the north-west corner of Rohilkund, he had joined the cause of Sufdur Jung, when that minister occupied the country; but on the latter' s disgrace had borne a part in the cam- paigns of Ghazeeooddeen. When the Vuzeer first conceived the project of attacking the government, he sent Najeeb in the command of a Moghul detach- ment to occupy the country about Saharunpore, then known as the Bawunee muhal, which had formed the jageer of the Vuzeer Khan Khanan. This territory thus became in its turn separated from the Empire, and continued for two generations in the family of Najeeb. The dominions of Ukbur and Aurungzeb had now indeed fallen into a pitiable state. Although the whole of the peninsula still nominally owned the sway of the Moghul, no provinces remained in the occupation of the Government besides part of the upper Dooab, and a few districts south of the Sut- luj. Goozrat was overrun by the Mahrattas ; Ben- gal, Behar, and Orissa were occupied by the successor of Aliverdi Khan, Oudh by Sufdur Jung, the central Dooab by the Afghan tribe of Bungush, the province THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 47 now called Rohilkund by the Rohillas. The Punjab had been ceded, as we have seen ; the rest of India had been recovered by the Hindoos, with the excep- tion of such portions of the Deccan as still formed the arena for the family wars of the sons of the old Nizam. Small encroachments continued to be made by the English traders. 48 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF CHAPTER IV. A.D. 1754-60. Capacity and courage of Ghazee-ooddeen Death of Sufdur Jung The Emperor's futile efforts and succeeding period of repose Death of Meer Munnoo The Abdallee, incensed at the Vuzeer's interference at Lahore, invades the Punjab Vuzeer returns to Dehli and oppresses the king and court \intil they invite the Abdallee Ineffectual campaign and defection of Najeeb Khan Abdallee enters Dehli, llth September, 1757 Miseries of the inhabitants -Vuzeer taken into favour and employed in the Dooab Campaign against the Jats The Emperor's unsuccessful negotiation for a wife Najeeb-ood- dowlah made Ameer-ool-Umra The Afghans retire, occupy- ing Lahore Further excesses of the Vuzeer Najeeb retires to Sikundra, where he is presently joined by the heir-apparent Return of the Abdallee in 1759 League between Shujaa- ooddowlah of Oudh and the Rohillas The Mahrattas at the Vuzeer's instigation attack Najeeb, who defends himself at Sookhurtal Murder of the Emperor Combination of all the Mussulmans against Mahratta confederacy Mahrattas seize Dehli, and complete its desolation Battle of Paniput. "TVTO sooner was the revolution accomplished than *-* the young kingmaker took effective measures to secure his position. He seized and imprisoned his relation the Khan Khanan, and procured his own investiture in the office of Vuzeer. The opportune death of Sufdur Jung removed another danger, while the intrepidity and merciless severity with which he quelled a military mutiny provoked by his own arbi- trary conduct, served at once as a punishment to the THE MOGHTJL EMPIRE. 49 miserable offenders and a warning to all who might be meditating future attacks. Of such there were not a few, and those too in high places. The imbecile Emperor became the willing centre of a cabal bent upon the destruction of the daring young minister ; and, though the pre- cautions of the latter prevented things -from going that length, yet the constant plotting that went on served to neutralize all his efforts at administration, and to increase in his mind that sense of misanthro- pic solitude which is probably the starting-point of the greatest crimes. As soon as he judged that he could prudently leave the Court, the Vuzeer organized an expedition to the Punjab, where the gallant Meer Munnoo had been lately killed by falling from his horse. Such had been the respect excited in men's minds towards this excellent public servant, that the provinces of Lahore and Mooltan, when ceded to the Afghans in the late reign, had been ultimately left in his charge by the new sovereign. Ahmud the Abdallee even carried on this policy after the Meer's death, and confirmed the Government in the person of his infant son. The actual administrators during the minority were to be the widow of Munnoo and a statesman of great local experience, whose name was Adeena Beg. It was upon this opportunity that the Yuzeer re- solved to strike. Hastily raising such a force as the poor remnant of the imperial treasury could furnish, he marched on Lahore, taking with him the heir apparent, Meerza Alee Gohur. Seizing the town by 50 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF a coup de main, he possessed himself of the Lady Regent and her daughter, and returned to Dehli, asserting that he had extorted a treaty from the Afghan monarch, and appointed Adeena Beg sole Commissioner of the provinces. However this may have been, the Court was not satisfied; and the less so that the success of the Vuzeer only served to render him more violent and cruel than ever. Nor is it to be supposed that Ahmud the Abdallee would overlook, for any period longer than his own convenience might require, any unauthorized interference with arrangements made by himself for territory that he might justly regard as his own. Accordingly the Afghan chief soon lent a ready ear to the representations of the Emperor's party, and swiftly presented himself at the head of an army within twenty miles of Dehli. Aided by Najeeb Khan, the Vuzeer marched out to give him battle ; and so complete was the isolation into which his conduct had thrown him, that he learned for the first time what was the true state of affairs when he saw the chief part of the army follow Najeeb into the ranks of the enemy, where they were received as expected guests. In this strait the Vuzeer 's personal qualities saved him. Having in the meantime made Munnoo's daughter his wife, he had the address to obtain the intercession of his mother-in-law ; and not only obtained the pardon of the invader, but in no long time so completely ingratiated himself with the THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 51 simple soldier as to be in higher power than even before the invasion. Ahmud now took upon himself the functions of government, and deputed the Vuzeer to collect tribute in the Dooab, while Surdar Juhan Khan, one of his principal lieutenants, proceeded to levy con- tributions from the Jats, and the king himself undertook the spoliation of the capital. From the first expedition Ghazee returned with considerable booty. The attack upon the Jats was not so successful; throwing themselves into the numerous strongholds with which their country was dotted, they defied the Afghan armies and cut off their foraging parties in sudden sallies. Agra too made an obstinate defence under a Moghul governor; but the invaders indemnified themselves both in blood and plunder at the expense of the unfortunate inhabitants of the neighbouring city of Muttra, whom they surprised at a religious festival, and massacred without distinction of age or sex. As for the citizens of Dehli, their sufferings were grievous, even compared with those inflicted twenty years before by the Persians of Nadir Shah, in proportion as the new conquerors were less civilized, and the means of satisfying them less plentiful. All conceivable forms of misery prevailed during the two months which followed the entry of the Abdallee, llth September, 1757, exactly one hundred years before the last capture of the same city by the avenging force of the British Government. E 2 52 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF Having concluded these operations, the invader retired into cantonments at Anoopshuhur, on the Ganges, and there proceeded to parcel out the Empire among such of the Indian chiefs as he delighted to honour. He then appointed Najeeb to the office of Umeer-ool-Umra, an office which involved the personal charge of the Palace and its inmates ; and departed to his own country, from which he had lately received some unsatisfactory intelligence. The Emperor endeavoured to engage his influence to bring about a marriage which he desired to contract with a daughter of the penulti- mate Emperor, Moohummud Shah : but the Abdallee, on his attention being drawn to the young lady, resolved upon espousing her himself. He at the same time married his son Timoor Shah to the daughter of the heir apparent, and, having left that son in charge of the Punjab, retired with the bulk of his army to Candahar. Believed for the present from his anxieties, the Vuzeer gave sway to that morbid cruelty which detracted from the general sagacity of his character. He protected himself against his numerous enemies by subsidizing a vast body-guard of Mahratta mercenaries, to pay whom he was led to the most merciless exactions from the immediate subjects of the Empire. He easily expelled Najeeb (who since his elevation must be distinguished by his honorific name of Najeebooddowla, " Hero of the State ") : he destroyed or kept in close confinement the nobles who favoured the Emperor, and even THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 53 sought to lay hands upon the heir apparent, Alee Gohur. This prince was now in his seven-and-thirtieth year, and exhibited all those generous qualities which we find in all the men of his race as long as they are not enervated by the voluptuous repose of the Palace. He had been for some time residing in a kind of open arrest in the house of Alee Murdan Khan, a fortified building on the banks of the river. Here he learned that the Vuzeer contemplated transferring him to the closer captivity of Suleem Gurh, the state prison which stood within the precincts of the Palace. Upon this he consulted with his companions, Rajah Ramnath and a Mussul- man gentleman, Saeeud Alee, who with four private troopers agreed to join in the hazardous enterprise of forcing their way through the bands which by this time invested the premises. Early the following morning they descended to the courtyard and mounted their horses in silence. There was no time to spare. Already the bolder of the assailants had climbed upon the neighbouring roofs, from which they began to fire upon the little garrison, while their main forces guarded the gate- way. But it so happened that there was a breach in the wall upon the river side. By this they galloped out, and without a moment's hesitation plunged their horses into the broad Jumna. One alone, Saeeud Allee, stayed behind, and single- handed held the pursuers at bay until the prince had made good his escape. The loyal follower paid 54 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF for his loyalty with his life. The fugitives found their way to Sikundra, which was the centre of Najeeb's new fief; and the Prince, after staying some time under the protection of the Ameer-ool- Umra, ultimately reached Lucknow, where, after a vain attempt to procure the co-operation of the new Viceroy in an attack upon the British, he was even- tually obliged to seek the protection of that alien power. . Ahmud the Abdallee, being informed of these things by letters from Dehli, prepared a fresh incursion, the rather that the Mahrattas had at the same time chased his son, Timoor Shah, from Lahore ; while with another force they had expelled Najeeb from his new territory, and forced him to seek safety in his forts in the Bawunee Muhal. The new Viceroy of Oudh raised the Rohillas in his aid; and the Afghans, crossing the Jumna in Najeeb's territory to the north of Dehli, arrived once more at Anoopshuhur about September, 1759. The ruthless Vuzeer was now almost at the end of his resources. He therefore resolved to play his last card, and either win all by the terror of his monstrous crime, or lose all, and retire from the game. The harmless Emperor, amongst his numerous foibles, cherished the pardonable weakness of a respect for the religious mendicants, who form one of the chronic plagues of Asiatic society. Taking advantage of this, a Cashmerian in the interest of Ghazee took occasion to mention to Alumgeer that I THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 55 a hermit of peculiar sanctity had recently taken up his abode in the ruined fort of Feerozabad, some two miles south of the city, and (in those days) upon the right bank of the Jumna, which river has now receded to a considerable distance. The helpless devotee resolved to consult with this holy man, and repaired to the ruins in his palanquin. Arrived at the door of the room, which was in the N.E. corner of the mosque of Feeroz Shah, he was relieved of his arms by the Cashmerian, who admitted him, and closed the entrance. A cry for aid being presently heard was gallantly responded to by Meerza Babur, the emperor's son-in-law, who attacked and wounded the sentry, but was overpowered and sent to Suleem Gurh in the Emperor's litter. The defenceless monarch meanwhile was seized by a savage Uzbek, who had been stationed within, and who sawed off the unfortunate man's head with a knife. Then stripping the rich robe he cast the headless trunk out of the window, where it lay for some hours upon the sands of the river until the Cashmeree ordered its removal. Ghazee, on hearing of the consummation of this gratuitous villany, endeavoured to imitate the conduct of the Seiuds by elevating a puppet emperor, but the new approach of the Abdallee compelled him to withdraw, and he sought a temporary asylum with Sooruj Mull, the chief of the Bhurtpore Jats. As this restless criminal here closes his public life, it may be once for all mentioned that he reluctantly and slowly retired to the Deccan ; that there he 56 SKETCH OF THE HISTOBY OF found no opening, and spent the next thirty years of his life in disguise and total obscurity ; till, being suddenly discovered by the British police at Surat, in 1790, he was, by the Governor- General's orders, allowed to depart with a small sum of money to Mecca, the refuge of many a Mohummudan scoundrel, whence he never returned. The vengeance of the Abdallee, therefore, fell upon the unoffending inhabitants of the capital once more they were scourged with fire and sword. Leaving a garrison in the palace, the Abdallee then quitted the almost depopulated city, and fell back on his old quarters at Anoopshuhur, where he entered into negotiations with the Rohillas, and with the Nuwab of Oudh, of which the result was a general combination of the Mussulmans of Hindoostan with a view of striking a decisive blow in defence of Islam. On the other hand the Mahrattas and Jats, partly influenced perhaps by the persuasions of the fugi- tive Vuzeer, and still more by a feeling of religious patriotism which had been long growing up among the Hindoo powers, collected a vast army, and easily possessed themselves of Dehli, which they laid com- pletely waste. Ere the periodical rains had weh 1 ceased, the Abdallee broke up his cantonment, and, marching across the Upper Dooab, threw his army across the Jumna in the face of the enemy, and entrenched himself on Nadir's old battle-ground near Kurnal. The Mahrattas, for their part, constructed a fortified THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 57 camp at Paniput, a few miles to the south. The strength of the hosts was not ' altogether unequal. The Mahrattas had 55,000 excellent cavalry, with 15,000 foot, of whom the greater part had been imbued with French discipline in the Deccan. The vast number of irregulars swelled their number to 300,000 fighting men, and they possessed a large train of artillery. The Afghan force consisted ot about 50,000 cavalry, and they were aided by some 40,000 Indian infantry, but they were weak in the matter of guns. As events turned out, this was of no consequence. Their camp was open to the. rear, and their superior discipline enabled them to blockade the Mahrattas while they continued to derive ample supplies for themselves from the Punjab. A series of indecisive skirmishes having been maintained for more than two months, the famished Hindoos at last made a desperate onslaught in the morning of the 6th January, 1761; but the Jats deserted in a body ; Holkar (who had always an understanding with Najeeb) left the field a little later ; the Peshwa's son was killed ; the commander-in-chief suddenly disappeared and was never heard of more ; and the Mahrattas were driven into the village of Paniput, where they were massacred next morning in cold blood. Their losses in the whole of this campaign have been estimated at 200,000. The Abdallee marched forthwith upon Dehli, from which the Mahratta garrison decamped at his approach. He only remained there to despatch an 58 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF embassy to the absent Alee Gohur, whom he saluted as emperor ; to coriftde the temporary administration to that prince's eldest son, Meerza Juwan Bukht ; and to reinstate Nujeeb-ooddowlah as Ameer-ool- Umra, the vacant office of Vuzeer being vested in the Oudh viceroy. Having made these dispositions, Ahmud the Abdallee returned to his own country, and never interposed actively again in the affairs of the Indian peninsula.* * It is stated by Mr. Gleig that the Shahzada applied to Colonel Olive for an asylum in Calcutta, while the colonel was at the same time in receipt of a letter from the minister at Dehli the unscru- pulous Ghazee-ood-Deen calling on him to arrest the prince as a rebel and forward him to court in custody. Clive contented him- self by sending him a small present in money. About the same time, Clive wrote to Lord Chatham, then Prime Minister, and Mr. Pitt, recommending the issue of orders sanctioning his de- manding the Viceroy ship of the Eastern Soobahs on behalf of the King of England ; an application which he guaranteed the Emperor's granting on being assured of the punctual payment of fifty lakhs a year, the estimated fifth of the revenues. " This,'' he says, " has of late been very ill-paid, owing to the distractions in the heart of the Moghul Empire, which have prevented the Court from attending to their concerns in those distant provinces." Uleig's " Life of Clive," p. 123. UND OF BOOK I. TOE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 59 CHAPTER I. A.D. 1760-1765. First movements of the Shalizada after escaping from Dehli Character of the Nuwab Shujaa-ood-Dowla of Oudh Aid refused by him The Shahzada turns to the Governor of Alla- habad, who aids him to invade Buhar Arrival of news of Emperor Alumgeer's murder Assumption of Empire by Shahzada His character Defeats Ramnarayum Attempts to seize Bengal M. Law and his followers Memorable march of Captain Knox, and relief of Patna Battle of Gaya The Emperor marches towards Hindoostan, but is stopped by Shujaa-ood-Dowla Massacre at Patna, and flight of Meer Kasim and Sumroo Battle of Buxar Treaty with the Em- peror His establishment at Allahabad. WHEN in 1759 the heir to what was left of the empire of Hindoostan had gallantly cut his way through the myrmidons sent against him by the ruthless Vuzeer, he crossed the Jumna and took refuge with Najeeb Khan, the Afghan, who was then at Sikundrabad, the chief place of his new fief, about forty miles S.E. of the metropolis. But finding that noble unable to afford him material support, and still fearing the machinations of his enemy, he gradually retired to Lucknow, intending to wait there until the return of the Abdallee leader might 60 afford him an opportunity of turning upon the Vuzeer and his Hindoo associates. The present viceroy of Oudh was Shoojaa-ood- Dowlah, the son of the famous Sufdur Jung, whom he equalled in ability,and far exceeded in soldierly qualities. On his first succession to his father's now almost independent fief, he was young and satisfied with the unbounded indulgence of those bodily faculties with which he was largely endowed. He is described as extremely handsome, and above the average stature ; with an acute mind, somewhat too volatile, and more prone by nature to the exer- cises of the field than to the deliberations of the cabinet. But neither was the son of Sufdur Jung likely to be brought up whoUy without lessons in that base and tortuous selfishness which, in the East even more than elsewhere, usually passes for state- craft ; nor were those lessons likely to be read in ears unprepared to understand them. Shujaa's con- duct in the late Rohilla war had been far from frank ; and he was particularly unwilling to throw himself irredeemably into the cause of a ruined sovereign's fugitive heir. Foiled in his application to the Viceroy of Oudh, the Shahzada (Prince) then turned to a member of the same family who held the Fort and District of Allahabad, and was named Moohummud Koolee Khan. To this officer he exhibited an im- perial patent in his own name for the lieutenancy of Buhar, Bengal, and Orissa, which were then the theatre of wars between the British traders of Cal- cutta and the grandson of the usurping Viceroy THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 61 Aliverdi. The Prince proposed t.o Moohummud Koolee that they should raise the Imperial standard, and reduce both competitors to their proper place. The governor, a man of ambition and spirit, was warmly encouraged to this scheme by his relation, the Viceroy of Oudh (for reasons of his own, which we shall speedily discover, Shujaa highly approved of the arrangement) ; and'a powerful official, named Kamgar Khan, promised assistance in Buhar. Thus supported, the Prince crossed the frontier stream (Kurrumnassa) in November, 1759, just at the time that his unfortunate father lost his life in the manner related above. (Book I., chapter iv.) In the distracted state of the country, it was more than a month before the news of this tragedy arrived in camp, which was then pitched at a village called Kunotee, in Buhar. The Prince im- mediately assumed the succession, and, as a high aim leads to high shooting, his title was to be nothing short of " sovereign of the known world," or SHAH ALUM. He is recorded to have ordered that his reign should be reckoned from the day of his father's "martyrdom " ; and there are firmans of his patent- office still forthcoming in confirmation of the record. He was at once recognized as emperor by all parties ; and, for his part wisely confirmed Shoojaa-ood- Dowlah as Vuzeer in the room of the assassin Grha- zee ; while he intrusted the command of the army in Hindoostan to Najeeb Khan, the Abdallee's nominee. Having made these arrangements he proceeded to 62 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF collect revenue and establish himself in Buhar. He was at this time a tall, portly man, of near forty, with the constitutional character of his race, and some peculiarities of his own. Like his ancestors, he was brave, patient, dignified, and merciful ; but all contemporary accounts support the view suggested by his whole history, of defects which more than balanced these great virtues. His courage was rather of the nature of fortitude than of that enterprising boldness which was absolutely necessary in his situa- tion. His clemency did great harm when it led him to forgive and ignore all that was done to him, and to lend his ear and his hand to any person of stronger will who was nearest to him at the moment. His patience was of a kind which ere long degenerated into a simple compromise with fortune, in winch he surrendered lofty hopes for the future in exchange for immediate gratifications of sense. In a word, writers unacquainted with English history have com- bined to produce a picture which is a counterpart, both in features and position, to Charles the Second of Britain, after the death of his father. The Eastern Soobahs were at this time held by Clive's nominee, Meer Giafur Khan, known in English histories as Meer Jaffier, and the Deputy in Behar was a Hindoo man of business, named Raja Ramnarayum. This official, having sent to Moorshedabad and Calcutta for assistance, .attempted to resist the proceedings of his sovereign ; but the Imperial army defeated him with considerable loss, and the poor accountant, wounded in body and THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 63 alarmed in mind, threw himself into Patna, which the Moghuls did not, at that time, think fit to attack. Meantime, the army of the Nawab having been joined by a small British contingent, marched to meet the Emperor, who was worsted in an engage- ment that occurred on the 15th February, 1860. On this the emperor adopted the bold plan of a flank march, by which he should cut between the Bengal troops and their capital, Moorshedabad, and possess himself of that town in the absence of its defenders. But before he could reach Moorshedabad, he was again attacked and routed by the activity of the English (7th April), and, being by this time joined by a small body of French under a distinguished officer, resolved to remain in Behar and set about the siege of Patna. These French were a party of about one hundred officers and men who had refused to join in the capi- tulation of Chundernagore three years before, and had since been wandering about the country perse- cuted by their relentless victor Olive. Their leader was the chevalier Law, a relation of the celebrated speculator of the Regency ; and he now hastened to lay at the feet of the Royal adventurer the skill and enterprise of his followers and himself. His courage was high and bold, but not more so than his con- sciousness of his own abilities might well warrant. But he soon saw enough of the weakness of the Emperor, of the treachery and low motives of the Moglml nobles, to contract the hopes his self- conn- 64 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF dence had fostered. To the Historian Gholam Hos- seyn Khan he said : " As far as I can see, there is nothing that you could call government between Patna and Dehli. If men in the position of Shujaa-ood-Dowla would loyally join me, I could not only beat off the English, but would undertake the administration of the Empire." The very first step in this ambitious programme was never to be taken. Whilst the Emperor with his new adherents (and a hundred Frenchmen under such a man as Law were as strong as a reinforcement of as many thousand native troops under a faithless Moghul) whilst these strangely matched associates were beleaguering Patna, Captain Knox, at the head of a small body of infantry, of which only 200 men were European, ran across the 300 miles between Moor- shedabad and Patna in the space of thirteen days, and fell upon the imperial army, whom he utterly routed and drove southward upon Gaya. The im- perial army was now commanded by Kamgar Khan, for Moohummud Koolee had returned to Allahabad, and been murdered by Shoojaa, who seized upon the province and fort. The Emperor, as is evident from his retreating southward, still hoped to raise the country in his favour, and his hopes were so far jus- tified, that he was joined by another Moghul officer, named Khadim Hosseyn. Thus reinforced, he again advanced on Patna opposed by Knox, who in his turn had been joined by a Hindoo Raja named Shutab Raee. Another defeat was the result, and the baffled sovereign at length evacuated the country, THE MOGHTJL EMPIRE. 65 and fled northward, followed by the whole united forces of the British and the Bengal Nuwab. The son* of the latter, however, being killed in a thun- derstorm in July, the allied armies retired to can- tonments at Patna, and the pertinacious invaders once more posted themselves between that place and the capital, at their old station of Gaya. Early in 1761 therefore, the Anglo-Bengalee troops once more took the field, and encountering the Imperialists near their camp, gave them a fresh overthrow in which Law was taken pri- soner, fighting to the last, and refusing to surrender his sword, which he was accordingly permitted to retain. Next morning the British commander paid his respects to the Emperor, who was now quite weary of the hopeless struggle he had been maintaining for above two years, and who willingly departed towards Hindoostan. He had by this time heard of the battle of Paniput, and of the plans formed by the Abdallee for the restoration of the empire ; and there is reason to believe that, but for the jealousy of Meer Kasim, whom a late revolution (brought about by the English) had placed in the room of Meer Giafur, the Emperor would have been at once reinstated at Dehli under British protection. Meer Kasim was confirmed as Soobahdar; and the fiscal administra- tion also vested in him , the English having so deter- mined. The Emperor was to have an annual tribute of 240,000. * Meer Sadik Alee Khan, known to the English as Meerun. F 66 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF- As affairs turned out there was much to be done and suffered by the British before they had another opportunity of interfering in the affairs of Hin- doostan ; and a strange series of vicissitudes impended upon the Emperor before he was to meet them in the palace of his fathers. On his way to the north-west he fell into the hands of the unprin- cipled Nuwab Vuzeer of Oudh, who had received the Abdallee's orders to render the Emperor all assist- ance, and who carried out the letter of these in- structions by retaining him for some two years in an honourable confinement, surrounded by the empty signs of sovereignty, sometimes at Benares, some- times at Allahabad, and sometimes at Lucknow. In the meanwhile the unscrupulous heroes who were founding the British Government of India had thought proper to remove their old instrument, Meer Kasim, to the Musnud of Bengal. This change in their councils had been caused by an in- subordinate letter addressed to the Court of Directors by Olive's party, which had led to their dismissal from employ. The opposition then raised to power were represented at the Nuwab's Court by Mr. Ellis, the most violent of their body ; and the consequence of his proceedings was, in no long time, seen in the murder of the Resident and all his followers, in October, 1763. The scene of his atrocity (which remained without a parallel for nearly a century) was at Patna, which was then, threatened and soon after stormed by the British ; and the actual instru- ment was a Franco-German, Walter Reinhardt by THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 67 name, of whom, as we are to hear much more here- after, it is as well here to take note. This European executioner of Asiatic barbarity was a native of Treves, in the Duchy of Luxemburg, and came to India as a sailor in the French navy. From this service he deserted, and joined the first European battalion raised in Bengal. Thence desert- ing once more, he entered the French garrison at Chandernagore, and was one of the small party who followed Law when that officer refused to share in the surrender of the place to the British. After the capture of his gallant chief, Reinhardt (whom we shall in future designate by his Indian sobriquet of " Sumroo," or Sombre) took service under Gregory, or Goorjeen Khan, Meer Kasim's Armenian General. After the massacre of the British, Kasim and his bloodhound escaped from Patna (which the British stormed and took on the 6th of Novem- ber), and found a temporary asylum in the dominions of Shujaa-ood-Dowlah. The Nuwab solemnly engaged to support his old antagonist, and sent him for the present against some enemies of his own in Bundel- kund, himself marching to Benares with his Imperial captive. In February, 1764, the avenging columns of the British appeared upon the frontier, but the Sepoys broke into mutiny, which lasted some time, and was with difficulty and but imperfectly quelled by Colonel Carnac. Profiting by the delay and confusion thus caused, the allies crossed into Buhar, and made a furious, though ultimately unsuccessful attack upon p 2 68 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF the British lines under the walls of Patna on the 3rd of May. The Nuwab, upon this, retiring, the Em- peror opened negotiations with the British comman- der ; but, before these could be concluded, the latter was superseded by Major (afterwards Sir Hector) Monro. This officer's arrival changed the face of affairs. Blowing from guns twenty-four of the most discontented of the Sepoys, the Major led the now submissive army westward to Buxar, near the con- fluence of the Kurrumnassa with the Ganges, where the two Nuwabs (for Kasim had now joined the army) were totally routed on the 23rd October, 1764.* The Emperor, who had taken no part in the action, came into camp on the evening of the following day. By the negotiations which ensued, the British at last obtained a legal position as administrators of the three Soobahs, with the further grant of the Benares and Ghazeepore sircars as fiefs of the Empire. The remainder of the Soobah of Allahabad was secured to the Emperor with a pecuniary stipendf which raised his income to the nominal amount of a million a year of our money. The terms accorded to the Emperor will be seen from the counterpart issued by him, part of which is subjoined : " J J | Whereas, in consideration of the * For a full account of these transactions see Mill ; Lord Olive's Life, by Rev. R. Gleig ; Broome's " History of the Bengal Army ;" and Mttcaulay's Essays, Art. " Clive." t " Yearly offering " is the translation of the Persian words employed. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 69 attachment and services of the high and mighty, the noblest of nobles, the chief of illustrious warriors, our faithful servants and loyal well- wishers, worthy of royal favour, the 'English Com- pany, we have granted to them the Deewanee of the Soobahs of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, from the beginning of the spring harvest of the Bengal year 1171, as a free gift and fief (Al tumgha), without the association of any other person, and with an exemp- tion from the payment of the tribute of the Deewan which used to be paid to this court ; it is therefore requisite that the said Company engage to be secu- rity for the sum of twenty-six lakhs of rupees a year for our revenue (which sum has been imposed upon the Nuwab), and regularly remit the same. " Given on the 8th Sufe, in the sixth year of our (August 12th, 1765.) The Nuwab was to continue Soobahdar, the Com- pany was N to be his colleague for purposes of civil and fiscal administration, they were to support the Nuwab's (Nizamut) expenses, and to pay the tribute (Nuzurana) in his name. But the execution of these measures required con- siderable delay, and some farther exercise of that dauntless vigour, which peculiarly distinguished the British in the eighteenth century. Shujaa-ood-Dowlah fled first to Fyzabad in his own territories ; but, hearing that Allahabad had fallen, 70 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF and that the English were marching on Lucknow, he had recourse to the Afghans of Rohilkund, whose hospitality he afterwards repaid with shameful in- gratitude. Not only did the chiefs of Kuttahir harbour the Nawab Vuzeer's family at Bareillee, but they also lent him the aid of three thousand of their troops. Further supported by the restless Mahrattas of Mulhar Rao Holkar, a chief who always main- tained relations with the Mussulmans, Shujaa re- turned to the conflict. It may be easily imagined that what he 1765. J failed to do with the aid of Meer Kasim and his own territory, he did not eifect with his present friends as an exile ; and Kasim having fled and Sumroo entered the service of the Jats of Bhurtpore, the Vuzeer soon consented to negotiate with the English; the latter showing themselves perfectly placable, now that it had become impossible for them to insist upon the terms so disgraceful to an Eastern chief, which required the surrender of his infamous guests. General Carnac, who had re- sumed the command, gave the Nuwab and his allies a final defeat near Cawnpore, and drove the Mah- rattas across the Jumna. The treaty above quoted was now concluded,* and the Nawab returned to his own country, leaving Shah Alum at Allahabad, as a British pensioner. His establishment during the next few years is thus described by a British officer who enjoyed his ' ; The treaty of Allahabad will be found at length in Aitchison's " Treaties," &c. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 71 intimacy : " He keeps the poor resemblance of a Court at Allahabad, where a few ruined omrahs, in hopes of better days to their prince, having expended their fortunes in his service, still exist, the ragged pensioners of his poverty, and burden his gratitude with their presence. The districts in the king's pos- session are valued at thirty lakhs, which is one-half more than they are able to bear.* Instead of gaining by this bad policy, that prince, unfortunate in many respects, has the mortification to see his poor sub- jects oppressed by those who farm the revenue, while he himself is obliged to compound with the farmers for half the stipulated sum. This, with the treaty payment from the revenues of Bengal, is all Shah Alum possesses to support the dignity of the Imperial house of Timor." [Dow. II. 356, A.D. 1767.] The following further particulars respecting Shah Alum's Court at this period are furnished by Gholam Hosseyn, and should be noted here as relating to personages of some of whom we shall hear more anon. Meerza Nujuf Khan, the Imperial General, received c " This is, perhaps, as much as the same tracts pay at the present time, with the vast extension of cultivation, and the enormous fall that must have taken place since those days in the value of money. Thirty lakhs in those days would, perhaps, be less easily paid than sixty now : but a close comparison cannot be instituted, because neither have we the means of exactly knowing what were the limits of the assigned districts, nor what were the prices current at the time. I believe, however, that money in Hindoostan during the last century was worth at least ten times what it is now worth in England. 72 SKETCH OF THE HIST011Y OF a pension of one lakh a year, and was nominated Governor of Kora, where he occupied himself in the suppression of banditti, and in the establishment of the Imperial authority. Under the modest state of steward of the household, Mooneer-ood-Dowlah was the Emperor's most trusted councillor and medium of communication with the English. Raja Ram Nath, whom we saw accompanying the prince in his escape from Dehli, continued about him ; but the chief favourite was Hussam-ood-Dowlah, who stooped at no baseness whereby he could please the self-indulgent monarch by pandering to his lowest pursuits. The office of Vuzeer was entrusted by Shujaa to his son Saadut Alee, who afterwards suc- ceeded him as Nawab of Oudh. Fallen as this monarch truly was, and sincerely as we must sympathize with his desire to raise the fortunes of his life, it might have been well for him to have remained content with the humble but guaranteed position of a protected Titular, rather than listen to the interested advice of those who ministered, for their own purposes, to his noble discontent. In this chapter I have chiefly followed Mill. Not only is that indefatigable historian on his strongest ground when describing battles and negotiations of the British from civil and military despatches recorded at the India House ; but in treating of the movements of the native powers he has had access to a translation of the very best native work upon the subject the Seeiir-ool-mootakhereen which THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 73 was written by Ghoolam Hosseyn Khan, a Moosul- man gentleman of Patna, himself an eye-witness of many of the scenes described.* His account of the capture of Law, for example, given at length in a foot-note to Mill's short account of the action of Gaya after which the affair occurred, is full of truth- fulness and local colour. Since therefore the events were already amply detailed, and the best authorities exhausted, in a standard work accessible to most English readers ; and since, moreover, they did not occur in Hindoo- stan, and only indirectly pertained to the history of that country, I have not thought it necessary to relate them more minutely than was required to elucidate the circumstances which led to the Emperor Shah Alum becoming, for the first time, a pensioner on British bounty or a dependent on British policy. Those who require a complete account of the military part of the affair will find it admirably given in Captain Broome's "Bengal Army," a work of which it is to be regretted that the first volume alone has hitherto been made public. Of the value of this book it would be difficult to speak too highly. Coming from the pen of an accomplished profes- sional man, it sets forth, in a manner no civilian could hope to rival, the early exploits of that army of which the author is a member. And not only are the strategic operations related with accuracy V * Vide Appendix. 74 SKETCH OF THE HIST011Y OF and clearness, but the delineations of the various superior officers are marked by vigour and dis- crimination. The ready valour of Knox and Monro, the diplomatic insincerity of Fletcher, the chivalry of Stables, the talents of Dow, scholarlike in the closet and active in the field ; these are all shown at once, and with a few bold and unmistakable touches. General Carnac * is, perhaps, somewhat too severely dealt with ; while, ubiquitous upon the varied roll, blazes still the name of Clive, great alike in his exploits which were many, and his misdoings which were few. * Olive's opinion of this officer was very high : see his letter to the Court of Directors, 27th April, 17G4, quoted by Gleig, p. 168. THE MOGJIUL EMPIRE. 75 CHAPTER II. A.D. 1764-71. Proceedings of Najeeb-ood-Dowla at Dehli Respectable character of Prince Regent War with Jats, and their temporary sub- jugation On the death of Sooruj Mul, Sumroo takes service with his successor Dissension among sons of Sooruj Mul, and return of the Mahrattas, who pillage the Bhurtpoor country Advance of Mahrattas, and consequent loss of the Dooab ; all the Rohilla chiefs falling off but Ruhmut the Protector Death of Najeeb-ood-Dowla Zabita Khan expelled from Dehli by the Mahrattas ; and return of Emperor to the capital on their invitation. A T the conclusion of Book I. we saw that the -^- Abdallee had returned to his own land, soon after the battle of Paniput, in 1761, having recog- nized the legitimate claims of the exiled heir to the throne, and placed that prince's eldest son, Meerza Juwan Bukht, in the nominal charge of atiairs, under the protection of Najeeb-ood-Dowlah, the Rohilla. A better choice could not have been made in either case. The young regent was pru- dent and virtuous, as was usual with the men of his august house during their earlier years, and the premier * was a man of rare intelligence and in- tegrity. Being on good terms with his old patrons, Doondee Khan Rohilla, and the Nuwab Vuzeer * So I translate the title Um^er-ool- Uinra. 76 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF Shoojaa-ood-Dowlah, and maintaining a constant understanding with Mulhar Rao Holkar, whom we have seen deserting the cause of his countrymen, and thus exempted from their general ruin at Paniput, Najeeb-ood-Dowlah swayed the affairs of the dwindled empire with deserved credit and success. The Mahratta collectors were expelled from the districts of the Dooab, and Agra admitted a Jat garrison ; nor did the discomfited freebooters of the southern confederacy make any farther ap- pearance in Hindoostan for eight years, if we except the share borne by Mulhar Rao, acting on his own account, in the disastrous campaign against the British in 1765.* The area on which these exertions were made was at first but small, and the lands directly swayed by Najeeb-ood-Dowlah were bounded, within 100 miles south of the capital, by the possessions of the Jats, who were at the time friendly. Of the rise of this singular people few authentic records appear to exist. It is however probable that they represent a later wave of that Soodra race which is found farther south as Mahratta ; and that they had, in less remote times, a common Scythian origin with the Rajpoots. It is stated, by an excel- lent authority, that even now " they can scarcely be called pure Hindoos, for they have many observ- ances, both domestic and religious, not consonant with Hindoo precepts. There is a disposition also * Vide last chapter. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 77 to reject the fables of the Puranic Mythology, and to acknowledge the unity of the Godhead." (Elliot's Glossary, in voce " Ja.") Wherever they are found, they are stout yeomen ; able to cultivate their fields, or to protect them, and with strong administrative habits of a somewhat republican cast. Within half a century, they have four times tried conclusions with the might of Britain. The Jats of Bhurtpoor fought Lord Lake with success, and Lord Comber- mere with credit ; and their " Sikh " brethren in the Punjab shook the whole fabric of British India on the Sutlej, in 1845, and three years later on the field of Chillian walla. The Sikh kingdom has been broken up, but the Jat principality of Bhurtpoor, in a dependent condition, still exists. The area of the Bhurtpoor State is at present 2,000 square miles, and consists of a basin some 700 feet above sea level, crossed by a belt of red sandstone rocks. It is hot and dry ; but in the skilful hands that till it, not unfertile ; and the population has been estimated at near three-quarters of a million. At the time at which our history has arrived, the territory occupied by the Jats was much more exten- sive, and had undergone the fate of many another military republic, by falling into the hands of the most prudent and daring of a number of competent chiefs. It has already been shown (in Book I.) how Sooruj Mul, as Raja of Bhurtpoor, joined the Mah- rattas in their resistance to the great Mussulman combination of 3760. Had his prudent counsels been followed, it is possible that this resistance would 78 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP have been more successful, and the whole history of Hindoostan far otherwise than what it has since been. But the haughty leader of the Hindoos, Sewdasheo Rao Bhow, regarded Sooruj Mul as a petty landed chief not accustomed to affairs on a grand scale, and so went headlong on his fate. Escaping, like his friend Holkar, from the disaster of Paniput though in a less discreditable way, for he did not profess to take the field, and then fly in the midst of battle, as the other did Sooruj Mul took an early opportunity of displacing the Mahratta Governor of the important fort of Agra, and, at the same time, occupied some strong places in the Mewat country. The sagacious speculator, about the same time, dropped the falling cause of Ghazee-ood-Deen, whose method of statesmanship was too vigorous for his taste, and who, as has been above shown, retired soon after from a situation which he had aided to render impracticable. But a criminal of greater promise, about the same time, joined Sooruj Mul. This was none other than the notorious Sumroo, who had wisely left his late protector, the Nuwab of Oudh, at the head of a battalion of Sepoys, a detail of artillery, and some three hundred European ruffians of all countries. Thus supported, the bucolic sagacity of the Jat Raja began for the first time to fail him, and he made demands which seemed to threaten the small remains of the Moghul Empire. Najeeb-ood-Dowlah took his measures with promptitude and skill. Summoning the neighbouring Mussulman chiefs to the aid of THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 79 Islam and of the empire, he took the field at the head of a small but well-disciplined Moghul Army, and soon found the opportunity to strike a decisive blow. In this campaign the premier received solid assist- ance from the Buloch chiefs of Furokhnuggur and Buhadoorgurh, who were in those days powerful upon both banks of the Jumna up to as far north as Suha- runpoor on the eastern, and Hansee on the western side. The actual commencement of hostilities be- tween Sooruj Mul and the Moghuls arose from a demand made by the former for the Fowjdarship (military prefecture) of the small district of Furokh- nuggur. Unwilling to break abruptly with the Jat chief, Najeeb sent an envoy to him, in the first instance, pointing out that the office he solicited in- volved a transfer of the territory, and referring him to the Buloch occupant for his consent. The account of the negotiation is so characteristic of the man and the time, that I have thought it worth preserving. The Moghul envoy introduced himself in conformity with Eastern custom by means of a gift, which, in this instance, consisted of a handsome piece of flowered chintz ; with which the rural potentate was so pleased that he ordered its immediate conversion into a suit of clothes. Since this was the only subject on which the Jat chief would for the present converse, the Moghul proposed to take his leave, trusting that he might re-introduce the subject of the negotiations at a more favourable moment. " Do nothing rashly, Thakoor Sahib," said the departing 80 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF envoy ; " I will see you again to-morrow." " See me no more," replied the inflated boor, " if these negotiations are all that you have to talk of." The disgusted envoy took him at his word, and returned to Najeeb with a report of the interview. " Is it so ? " said the premier. " Then we must fight the unbeliever ; and, if it be the pleasure of the Most High God, we will assuredly smite him." But before the main body of the Moghuls had got clear of the capital, Sooruj Mul had arrived near Shahdara on the Hindun, within six miles of Dehli ; and, had he retained the caution of his earlier years, he might have at once shut up the Imperialists in their walled city. But the place being an old hunting- ground of the Emperor's, the Thakoor's motive in coming had been chiefly the bravado of saying that he had hunted in a royal park, and he was therefore only attended by his personal staff. While he was reconnoitring in this reckless fashion, he was sud- denly recognized by a flying squadron of Moghul horse, who surprised the Jats, and killed the whole party, bringing the body of the chief to Najeeb. The minister could not at first believe in this unhoped- for success, nor was he convinced until the envoy who had recently returned from the Jat camp identi- fied the body by means of his own piece of chintz, which formed its raiment. Meanwhile the Jat army was marching up in fancied security from Sikundra- bad, under Jowahir Singh, the son of their chief, when they were suddenly charged by the Moghul advanced guard, with the head of Sooruj Mul borne THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 81 on a horseman's lance as their standard.* In the panic which ensued upon this ghastly spectacle, the Jats were thoroughly routed and driven back into their own country. This event occurred towards the end of the year. Foiled in their unaided attempt, they next made a still more signal mistake in allying themselves with Mulhar Rao Holkar, who, as we have seen, was secretly allied to the Mussulmans. At first they were very successful, and besieged the premier for three months in Dehli ; but Holkar suddenly deserted them, as was only to have been expected had they known what we know now, and they were fain to make the best terms that they could, and return to their own country, with more respectful views towards the empire and its protector. But the young Thakoor's thirst of conquest was by no means appeased ; and he proceeded to attack Mahdoo Sing, the Rajpoot ruler of A / UO. Jaeepoor, son of the Kuchwaha Raja Jaee Singh. f Descended from Kusha, the eldest son of the Hindoo demigod Rama, this tribe appears to have been once extensive and powerful, traces of them being still found in regions as far distant from each * It is curious that a similar effect was produced upon a party of Jat insurgents by a British officer in 1857. Vide description of Sah Mul's rising in the Meerut District, by Mr. Dunlop, C.B. " Services of the Khakee Resala," &c. London : K. Bentley. f Jaee Singh was an eminent astronomer, and constructed the celebrated " Juntur-Muntur " Observatory for the Emperor Moo- hummad Shah about A.D. 1730. Vide Cooper's "Handbook for Dehli," p. 60. G 82 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF other as Gwalior and the Northern Dooab (Vide Elliot, in voc.) In this attempt Jowahir appears to have been but feebly sustained by Sumroo, who immediately de- serted to the victors,* after his employer had been routed at the famous Lake of Pokur, near Ajmeer. Jowahir retreated first upon Ulwur, thence he re- turned to Bhurtpoor, and soon after took up his abode at Agra, where he not long afterwards was murdered, it is said at the instigation of the Jaeepoor Raja. A period of very great confusion ensued in the Jat State ; nor was it till two more of the sons of Sooruj Mul had perished one certainly by violence that the supremacy of the remaining son, Runjeet Singh, was secured. In his time the Jat power was at its height ; he swayed a country thick with strongholds, from Ulwur on the N. W. to Agra on the S. W., with a revenue of two millions sterling (equal to nearly twenty millions in Europe), and an army of sixty thousand men.f Meantime the Mahrattas, occupied with their own domestic disputes in the Deccan, paid little or no attention to the affairs of Hindoostan ; and the over- tures made to them by the Emperor in 1766, from Allahabad, were for the time disregarded, though it is probable that they caused no little un- easiness in the British Presidency, where it was not * Vide Skinner's " Memoirs," i. 283. t Dow, vol. ii. Dow wrote in 1767, and described the then state of Hindoostan. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 83 desired that the Emperor should be restored by such agency. At the same time Najeeb, as minister in charge of the metropolis and its immediate dependencies, though skilfully contending against many obstacles, yet had not succeeded in consolidating the empire so much as to render restoration a very desirable object to an emperor living in ease and security. Scarcely had he been freed from the menace of the Eastern Jats by his own prowess and by their subsequent troubles, than their kindred of the Pun- jab began to threaten Dehli from the west. For- tunately for the minister, his old patron, the Abdallee, was able to come to his assistance ; and in April, 1767, having defeated the Sikhs in several actions, Ahmud once more appeared in the neighbourhood of Paniput, at the head of fifty thousand Afghan horse. He seems to have been well satisfied with the result of the arrangements that he had made after crushing the Mahrattas in the same place six years before ; only that he wrote a sharp reprimand to Shujaa-ood-Dowla for his conduct towards the Em- peror. But this, however well deserved, would not produce much effect on that graceless politician, when once the Afghan had returned to his own country. This he soon after did, and appeared no more on the troubled scene of Hindoostan.* * Dow, writing at this time, thought he meant to assume tin- empire. 84 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF . Profiting by the disappearance of their enemy, the Mahrattas, having arranged their intestine disputes, crossed the Chumbul (a river flowing eastward into the Jumna from the Ajmeer plateau), and fell 1768. upon the Jaeepoor country towards the end of 1768. Hence they passed into Bhurtpoor, where they exacted tribute, and whence they threatened Dehli. Among their leaders were two of whom much will be seen hereafter. One was Mahdojee Sindeea "Patel"* the other was Too- kajee Holkar. The first of these was the natural son of Eanojee Sindeea, and inherited, with his father's power, the animosity which that chief had always felt against Najeeb and the Rohillas. The other was a leader in the army of Mulhar Rao Hol- kar (who had lately died), and, like his master, was friendly to the Pathans. Thus, with the hereditary rivalry of their respective clans, these foremost men of the Mahratta army combined a traditional differ- ence of policy, which was destined to paralyze the Mahratta proceedings, not only in this, but in many subsequent campaigns. Aided by Holkar, the Dehli Government entered into an accommodation with the invaders, in which the * Patel is described by Captain Grant Duff to mean the head man of a Mahratta village. There is nothing like this office in England, but perhaps the old Saxon " Headborough," or the mediaeval " Beadle," gives the nearest notion of this humble cor- regidor. In Sindeea's case the affectation of the rural dignity was a stroke of policy, though not a very deep one, Vide inf., Book iii. c. i. THE MOGHUL EMP1IJE. 85 Jats were sacrificed, and the Rohillas were shortly after induced by Najeeb-ood-Dowla to enter into negotiations. These led to the sur- render to the Mahrattas of the central Dooab, be- tween the provinces held by the Emperor to the eastward, and the more immediate territories ad- ministered in his name from Dehli. These latter tracts were spared in pursuance of the negotiations with the Emperor which were still pending. Soon after these transactions the prudent and virtuous minister died, and was succeeded in his post by his son, Zabita Khan. It is not necessary to enlarge upon the upright and faithful character of Najeeb-ood-Dowla, which has been sufficiently ob- vious in the course of our narrative, as have also his skill and courage. It would have been well for the empire had his posterity inherited the former qua- lities. Had Zabita, for instance, followed his father's steps, and had the Emperor, at the same time, been a man of more decision, it was perhaps even then possible for a restoration to have taken place, in which, backed by the power of Rohilkund, and on friendly terms with the British, the Court of Dehli might have played off Holkar against Sindeea, and shaken off all the irksome consequences of a Mah- ratta Protectorate. The preceding record shows how superior Najeeb- ood-Dowla's character and genius were to those of the native Hindoostanee nobles. It may be in- teresting to see how he impressed a European 86 .SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP contemporary, who had excellent opportunities of judging : " He is the only example in Hindoostan of, at once, a great and a good character. He raised himself from the command of fifty horse to his present grandeur entirely by his superior valour, integrity, and strength of mind. Experience and abilities have supplied the want of letters and education, and the native nobleness and goodness of his heart have amply made amends for the defect of his birth and family. He is now about sixty years of age, borne down by fatigue and sickness." (Mr. Verelst, to the Court of Directors, March 28th, 1768, ap. Mill.) Since this prominent mention has been made of the Rohillas, and since they are now for a short time to play a yet more conspicuous part in the fortunes of the falling empire, it is necessary to give a brief description of their situation at the time. It has been seen how Alee Moohummud rose in the reign of Moohummud Shah, and had been re- moved from Rohilkund by the aid of Sufdur Jung, the Viceroy of Oudh. On the latter falling into disgrace, Alee Moohummud returned to his native province about A.D. 1746.* In the next two or three years he continued successfully to administer the affairs of the beautiful and fertile tract, but, un- fortunately for his family, died before his heirs were capable of acting for 'themselves. Two relations of * Vide Book i. chap. ii. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 87 the deceased chief acted as regents Doondee Khan, the early patron of Najeeb, and Ruhmut Khan, known in India by his title of Hafiz, or " Protector." Sufdur Jung continued to pursue them with relent- less purpose ; and although the important aid of Ahmud, their Abdallee countryman, and the neces- sity of combining against the Mahrattas, prevented the Oudh Viceroy's hostility from taking any very active form, yet there can be no doubt but that he bequeathed it to his successor, Shujaa, along with many other unscrupulous designs. The Rohilla Pathans, for their part, were determined fighters, but false, fickle, and dissolute. In 1753 the elder son of Alee Mohummud made an attempt to remove the Protector and his col- league from their post. It was not successful, and its only result was to sow dissensions among the Rohillas, which caused their final ruin. In 1761, however, they bore a part in the temporary over- throw of the Mahrattas at Paniput ; and during the next seven years the Rohilla power had passed the frontier of the Ganges, and overflowed the central Dooab; while the Najeebabad family (who had a less close connection with local politics, but were powerful kinsmen and allies) had possession of the Upper Dooab, up to the Siwalik Hills, above Suha- runpoor. Nevertheless, this seeming good fortune was neither permanent nor real. In 1769, as we have just seen, Najeeb, though well disposed, was unable to prevent the Central 88 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF Dooab from passing under the Mahratta sway, and he died soon after making the concession. Doondee Khan also passed away about the same time ; and the Protector Ruhmut was left in the decline of his ever- darkening days, to maintain, as best he might, a usurped authority menaced by a multitude of foes. The new minister, ZabitaKhan, himself an Afghan or Pathan by race, did for a time contribute to the resources of the Protector, his co-religionist and quasi countryman. He may therefore be reckoned amongst the Ro- hillas at this period ; and, as far as extent of territory went, he might have been an ally of some importance. But territory in weak hands and with foes like the Mahrattas was anything but a source of strength. While these indefatigable freebooters spread them- selves over the whole Upper and Central Dooab, and occupied all Rohilkund excepting the small terri- tory of Furrukhabad, to the south of the latter and north of the former Z^bita Khan, instead of endea- vouring to prepare for the storm, occupied himself in irritating the Emperor, by withholding the tribute due at Allahabad, and by violating the sanctity of the Imperial zenana at Dehli by intrigues with the Begums. Thus passed the winter of 1770-71, at the end of which the Mahrattas swarmed into the Dooab, and occupied the metropolis ; only respecting the palace, where the prince regent and the Im- perial family continued to reside. Zabita, having THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 89 organized no plan, could offer no resistance, and escaped towards his northward possessions. By the connivance of his hereditary ally, Tookajee tlolkar (as Grant Duff supposes), he left the field open for the Deccanee marauders to treat directly with Shah Alum for his restoration. NOTE. The authority chiefly followed in this chapter has been Hamilton's " History of the Rohillas," a valuable collection of con- temporaneous memoirs, although not always quite impartial. Captain Grant Duff's research and fairness are beyond all praise, wherever transactions of the Mahrattas are concerned. The sketch of Jat politics is derived from the Seeur-ool-Mootakhureen and the Tareekh-i-Moozufuree ; but it is as well to state, once for all, that the native chroniclers seldom present anything like complete materials for history. A credulous and uncritical record of gossip combined with a very scanty analysis of character and motive, characterizes their works, which are rather a set of highly-coloured pictures, without proportion or perspective, than those orderly annals from which history elsewhere has chiefly been compiled. 90 SKETCH OF THE HISTOBY OF CHAPTER III. A.D. 1771-76. Return of the Emperor to Dehli The Moghul-Mahratta army, under Meerza Nujuf Khan, attacks Zabita Khan at Sook- hurtal He flies to the Jats, leaving the victors in possession of his family Treaty between Rohillas and the Viceroy of Oudh -Hussam-ood-Dowla Battle near Dehli Mahrattas side with Zabita, who regains office Nujuf retires to Holkar British advance into Oudh Suspicious conduct of Ruhruut and the Rohillas Nujuf joins Shujaa-ood-Dowla, and is restored to Emperor's favour Fall of Hussam Confederacy against Rohillas Ruhmut refuses the Vuzeer's claims to tribute Battle of Kuttra, and conquest of Rohilkund Death of Shujaa-ood-Dowla Zabita joins the Jats Successes of Impe- rial army. TT would be interesting to know the exact terms *- upon which the Mahrattas engaged to restore the Emperor to his throne in the palace of Shah- juhan. But, since they have even escaped the research of Captain Grant Duff, who had access to the records of Poonah, it is hopeless for any one else to think of recovering them. The emissary employed appears to have been the person of indiffe- rent character who,* like the Brounker and Chiffinch of the English restoration of 1660, had been hitherto employed in less dignified agencies. Unacquainted with this man's name, we must be content to take * Vide Book ii. ch. i. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 91 note of him by his title of Hussam, or Hashim Ood Dowla. The Mahrattas were, amongst other rewards, to receive a present fee of ten lakhs of rupees (nominally expressible as 100,000 sterling, but in those days representing as much, perhaps, as ten times that amount of our present money), nor would they stir in the matter until they received that sum in hard cash. It is also probable that the cession of the provinces of Allahabad and Korah formed part of the recompense they hoped to receive hereafter. Though the Emperor, if he guaranteed this latter gift, was parting from a substance in order to obtain a shadow, yet the receipt of that substance 1771. * by the others depended upon circumstances over which they had (as the phrase is) no control. Early in the year 1771 the Emperor sent to the authorities in Calcutta, to consult them on his pro- posed movements ; and they strongly expressed their disapprobation. But Shoojaa-ood-Dowla, for reasons of his own, earnestly, though secretly, encouraged the enterprise. The Emperor set out in the month of May, at the head of a small but well- appointed army, amongst whom was a body of sepoys drilled after the European fashion, and com- manded by a Frenchman named Medoc, an illiterate man, but a good soldier. The command-in-chief was held by Meerza Nujuf Khan. A British detach- ment, under Major-Gen. Sir Robert Barker, attended him to the Korah frontier,* where the General * Somewhere about Cawnpore. 92 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF repeated, for the last time, the unwelcome dissua- sions of his government. The Emperor unheed- ingly moved on, as a ship drives on towards a lee shore, and the British power closed behind his wake, so that no trace of him or his government ever re- appeared in the provinces that he had so incon- siderately left. From this date two great parties in the Empire are clearly denned; the Mussulmans, anxious to retain (and quarrel over) the leavings of the great Afghan leader, Ahmud Abdallee ; and the Mahrattas, anxious to repair the losses of Paniput. The Oudh Viceroy acts henceforth for his own hand ready to benefit by the weakness of whichever party may be worsted ; and the British, with more both of vigour and of moderation, follow a like course of conduct. Arrived at Futtehgurh, the Imperial adventurer confirmed the succession of that petty State upon the Bungush chief, whose father was lately dead, and received at the investiture a fine (peshkush) of five lakhs of rupees. He then cantoned his army in the neighbourhood, and awaited the cessation of the periodical rains. The Mahratta army, some 30,000 strong, was still encamped at Dehli, but Mahdojee Sindeea, the Patel, waited upon the Emperor in his cantonments, and there concluded whatever was wanting of the negotiations. The Emperor then proceeded, and entered his capital on Christmas Day. At that time of year Dehli enjoys a climate of great loveliness ; and it may be supposed that the unhappy citizens, for their parts, would put on their THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 93 most cheerful looks and the best remnants of their often plundered finery, to greet the return of their lawful monarch. The spirit of loyalty to persons and to families is very strong in the East, and we can imagine that, as the long procession marched from Shahdura and crossed the shrunk and sandy Jumna, Shah Alum, from the back of his chosen elephant, looked down upon a scene of hope and gaiety enough to make him for the moment forget both the cares of the past and the anxieties of the future, and feel himself at last every inch a king. Whatever may have been his mood, his new allies did not leave him to enjoy it long. It has already been shown that Zabita Khan had escaped 1 / / Z. northwards a year before. The Baonee Muhal (comprising fifty-two pergunnahs, now in- cluded in the districts of Suharunpoor and Moozuf- furnuggur) contained three strongholds : Puthurgurh on the left, Sookhurtal on the right of the Ganges, and Ghosgurh, near Moozuffurnuggur. The first two had been built by the late minister, Najeeb Ood Dowlah, to protect the ford which led to his fief in the north-western corner of Rohilkund, for the Ganges is almost always fordable here, except in the high floods. The last was the work of Zabita Khan himself, and its site is still marked by a mosque of large size and fine proportions. Upon these points the first attacks of the Imperialists were directed, and Zabita was soon driven to take refuge in the eastern fort of Puthurgurh, nearest to any aid that the Rohilkund Pathans might be able and willing to 94 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF afford; Ghosgurh and Sookhurtal being left to the mercy of the invaders. Although this campaign was dictated by a Mahratta policy, yet the Moghul army bore a pro- minent part, being ably commanded by the Persian, Meerza Nujuf Khan, who has been already men- tioned as Governor of Kora, and of whom we shall hear frequently during the account of the next ten years.* This nobleman, who bore the title "Meerza" in token of belonging to the late royal family of Persia, evinced the same superiority over the natives of India which usually characterized the original immi- grants. He had married his sister to a brother of the former Viceroy, Sufdur Jung, and attached him- self to the late unfortunate Governor of Allahabad, Moohummud Koolee Khan, a son of his brother-in- law (though whether his own nephew or by another wife does not appear). On the murder of the Governor by his perfidious cousin Shoojaa, Nujuf Khan became a favourite with the Emperor, and commanded, as we have seen, the force which accompanied the Emperor on his restoration. To the combined armies Zabita opposed a spirited resistance ; but the aid of the Rohilla Afghans (or Pathans, as they are called in India) was delayed by the menacing attitude of Shoojaa ; and the Mahratta- Moghul armies having crossed the Ganges by a mixture of boldness and stratagem, Zabita Khan fled : ' Vide, sup., c-haj). i. ]>. 71. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 95 to the Jat country, leaving his family and the greater part of the treasures amassed by his father to fall into the hands of the enemy. This occasion is especially memorable, because among the children of Zabita was his eldest son, a beautiful youth, named Gholam Kadir Khan, whom the Emperor is said, by tradition, to have transmuted into a haram page, and who lived to exact a fearful vengeance for any ill-treatment that he may have received. The rainy season of 1772 was spent by the Emperor at Dehli ; by the Mahrattas at Agra and in the neigh- bourhood. The Rohillas, on their part, occupied themselves in negotiations with the Oudh Viceroy, in the hope of reconstructing the Mahomedan League, which had once been so successful. The result of which was a treaty, drawn up under the good offices of the British general, Sir R. Barker, by which the protector, Ruhmut Khan, bound him- self to join Shujaa in any steps he might take for the assistance of x Zabita Khan, and pay forty lahks of rupees, in four annual instalments, upon condition of the Mahrattas being expelled from Rohilkund. This treaty, which proved the ruin of the Rohillas, was executed on the llth of July, 1772.* * It is curious that Professor H. H. Wilson, the continuer, and ordinarily the corrector of Mill, should cite a Persian life of Ruhmut Khan to show that this arrangement has been misunder- stood, that its real purpoi-t was that the forty lakhs were to be given to the Mahrattas to buy them off, and that Shujaa was only the surety. If the Viceroy's character and subsequent conduct did not refute this, yet the text of the treaty would do so. Vide note at end of chapter. 96 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP The next step in the destruction of these brave but impolitic Pathans was the outbreak of several violent quarrels, in which brother fought against brother and father against son. Zabita Khan, mean- while, being secretly urged by the faithless Shujaa, made terms for himself with the Mahrattas, who en- gaged to procure not only his pardon but his investi- ture with the office of Premier Noble, formerly held by his father, Nujeeb-ood-Dowlah. "With this object the Mahrattas instigated Runjeet Singh, the ruler of the Bhurtpoor Jats, to prefer a claim to the fief of Bulumgurh, held by a petty chieftain of his own nation. The chief solicited aid from the Emperor against his powerful brother ; and in the end of the year 1772 Meerza Nujuf Khan, who henceforth figures in the native histories by his newly-acquired title of Zoolfikar-ood-Dowla, sent a force to his aid under a Buloch leader. The Mah- rattas sent a force from Agra, which, joining with the Bhurtpoor Jats, forced the Imperialists to retreat towards the capital ; but the Patel, disapproving of the Rohilla element contributed to this confederacy by the presence of Zabita Khan, retired towards Jaeepoor, where he occupied himself in plundering the Rajpoots. Tookojee Holkar and the other Mah- ratta chiefs advanced towards Dehli, but were met at a place called Buddurpoor, ten miles south of the city, by a force under the minister himself. In the action which ensued, the Moghul force which, though well disciplined and well led by Meerza Nujuf, seconded by M. Medoc and some efficient THE MOGHTTL EMPIRE. 97 native officers, was numerically weak, fell back upon Hoomaeeoon's tomb, within four miles of Dehli. Here ensued a series of skirmishes, which lasted four days ; till the Meerza, having had a nephew slain, retreated to the town by way of Dureeaogunj, followed by a strong detachment of the enemy. He still obstinately defended the palace and its envi- rons ; but Hussam-ood-Dowla (whose backstair influence has been already mentioned) went in person to the Mahratta camp the following day, and the brave minister was sacrificed by his weak and ungrateful master. The Mahrattas, who were anxious to return to the Deccan, were not disposed to make difficulties ; their main terms were the restoration to the office of premier noble of Zabita Khan, and the cession of those provinces in the Lower Dooab which had been under the direct sway of the Emperor while he enjoyed British protection.* These terms being granted, they picked a quarrel with Meerza Nujuf Khan, about a payment which he was alleged to have guaranteed them during the Sookhurtal campaign, and obtained an order from the Emperor banishing him the court. These events occurred at the end of December, just a twelvemonth after the unfortunate monarch's restoration. Finding Zabita Khan in office, and the pander Hussam in high favour, the heroic ex-minister, having still with him a strong and faithful escort of Moghul horse, and having sent to Suharun- poor for his adopted son, Ufrayab Khan, who * Vide sup., p. 88. n 98 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF had some squadrons with him for the protection of that district, threw himself into a fortified house outside the Cabul Gate of the city. The Mahrattas surrounded him, and the next day he formed one of those desperate resolutions which have so often been known to influence the course of native politics. Putting on all his armour,* and wearing over it a sort of shroud of green, in the fashion used for the grave-clothes of a descendant of the Prophet, Nujuf Khan rode out at the head of his personal guards. As the small band approached the Mahratta camp, shouting their religious war-cries of "Allah Ho TTA'bur," and " Ya Hossem" they were met by a peaceful deputation of the unbelievers who cour- teously saluted them, and conducted to camp in friendly guise. The fact was that the news of thePeshwa's death, which had recently arrived from Poonah, and the unsettled state of the Rohilla quarrel, combined to render the Mahrattas indisposed to push matters to extremity against a man of Nujuf Khan's character and influence, and thus gave rise to this extraor- dinary scene. The result was, that the ex-minister's excitement was calmed, and he agreed to join the Mahrattas in an attack on Rohilkund. One cannot but remark the tortuous policy of these restless rievers. First, they move the Emperor upon the * The armour of a Moghul noble consisted of a skull-cap and panoply of chain-mail, so exquisitely wrought of pure steel rings that the whole scarcely weighed ten pounds : over this he wore a morion, and four plates of steel, called char Aeen. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 99 Rohillas ; then they move the Rohilla, Zabita Khan, upon the Emperor ; and then, having united these enemies, they make use of a fresh instrument to renew the original attack. With this new ally they marched upon Rohilkund by way of Ramghat, below Unoopshuhur, where the Ganges is fordable during the winter months. Meanwhile the British, finding that the Emperor was unable to protect the provinces which they had put into his charge, made them over to the Vice- roy of Oudh, to whose charge they had been attached previous to the negotiations that followed the battle of Buxar, and between whose dominions and those of the British they formed the connecting link. They had been abandoned by the Emperor when he proceeded to Dehli, contrary to the remonstrance of the Bengal Council, and his own lieutenant had reported, and with perfect accuracy, that he could not regard the order to give them up to the Mahrattas as a free act of his master's. It would indeed, have been an easy step towards the ruin of the British to have allowed the Mahrattas to take possession of them. Yet this perfectly legitimate act of self-defence is thus characterized by Macaulay :* " The provinces which had been torn from the Moghul were made over to the government of Oudh for about half a million sterling." The British then joined their forces to those of the Vuzeer Viceroy Shoojaa, and marched to meet the invaders. The * <( Critical and Historical Essays," art. " Warren Hastings.," H 2 100 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF Protector, whom we have lately seen treating with those powers, now became anxious about the money- payments for which he had engaged, in the usual reckless Oriental way, and entered into negotiations with the Mahrattas.* In this scheme, the sudden arrival of the British and Oudh armies surprised him, and he was forced to abandon it for the present and join the allies in an advance against the Mah- rattas, who precipitately retired on Etawa, and thence to their own country, in May, 1773. Meerza Nujuf Khan was a family connection of Shoojaa-ood-Dowla, and an old friend of the British general ; and, on the retreat of his Mahratta sup- porters, he came over to the allied camp, where he met the reception due to his merits. The allied armies moved on to Unoopshuhur, accompanied by the ex-minister, who was attended by his faithful Moghuls. This town, which had, as we have seen, been a cantonment of Ahmud the Abdalee, was particularly well situated for the ad- vanced post of a power like the British, seeking to hold the balance among the native states of Hindoo- stan. To the north were the fords of Sookhurtal, by which the Nujeebabad Rohillas passed from one part of their dominions to another ; to the south was the ford of Ramghat, leading from Aleegurh to Bareillee. It remained a British cantonment from this time t until some time subsequent to the occu- * Hamilton's "History of the Rohilla Afghans." t With one or two short interruptions, such as during the brief ascendency of Francis's opposition in the Calcutta Council. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 101 pation of the country in general, in 1806, after which the town of Meerut became more central, and Unoopshuhur ceased to be a station for troops. It is a thriving commercial entrepot in our days, though much menaced by the Ganges, on whose right bank it stands. The only memorial of the long-continued presence of a British force is now to be found in two cemeteries, containing numbers of graves, from which the inscriptions have disappeared. At this station Nujuf Khan took leave of his patrons, having received from Shoojaa-ood-Dowla the portfolio (or, to use the Eastern phrase, pen- case) of Deputy- Yuzeer, and from the British gene- ral a warm letter of recommendation to the Em- peror. It was especially magnanimous on the part of the Vuzeer to let bygones be bygones, since they included the murder, by himself, of his new Deputy's kinsman and former patron Moohummud Koolee Khan, the former Governor of Allahabad; and it was not an impolitic stroke on the part of Sir R. Barker to lend his assistance towards introducing into the Imperial councils a chief who was as strongly opposed to the Eohillas as to the Mahrattas. Armed with these credentials, and accompanied by a small but compact and faithful force, the Meerza proceeded to court to assume his post. The newly-created premier noble, Zabita Khan, took refuge with the Jats ; but Hussam-ood-Dowla, who had been for some time in charge of the local revenue (Deewan-i-Khalsa) was dismissed, put under arrest, and made to 'surrender some of his ill-gotten 102 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF wealth. An inadequate idea may be formed of the want of supervision which characterized Shah Alum's reign, by observing that this man, who had not been more than two years in charge of the collections of a small and impoverished district, disgorged, in all, no less than fifteen lakhs of rupees.* He was suc- ceeded in his appointment by Abdool Ahid Khan (who bears henceforth the title of Mujud-ood-Dowla), while Munzoor Alee Khan, another nominee of the minister's, became Nazir, or Controller of the Household. Of these two officers, it is only neces- sary here to observe that the former was a Mussul- man native of Cashmeer, whose character was marked by the faithlessness and want of manly spirit for which the people of that country are proverbial in India ; and that the latter was either a very blundering politician or a very black-hearted traitor, f Mujud-ood-Dowla was the title now conferred upon the Cashmeerian, Abdool Ahid, whose pliant manners soon enabled him to secure a complete in- fluence over his indolent master. Nujuf Khan seems to have been equally deceived at the time ; but after- events showed the difference between the undeceiving of a worn-out voluptuary, and that of a nature un- suspicious from its own nobility. Such were the first fruits of Nujuf 's alliance with * Probably as much as two years' land-tax on the same district now, although the value of money is, of course, very much fallen since those days. Perhaps it would not be an exaggerated estimate if the sum in the text were taken to represent a million and a half of our present money (sterling). t Vide inf., chap. v. p. 151, and chap. vi. passim. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 103 the Viceroy of Oudh ; the price was to be paid in the bestowal of the Imperial sanction upon the final destruction of the Eohilla Puthans. It has been already seen how this province, which ran up between the personal domains of the crown and the fief of the Viceroy of Oudh, had been seized, first by Alee Moohummud, and latterly by his sons' guardian, the protector Ruhmut Khan. But ever since AleeMoo- hummud's wars with the late Vuzeer, Sufdur Jung, the rulers of Oudh had marked this province for their own ; and the retreat of the Mahrattas and their occupation in domestic disputes in the Deccan afforded just the occasion for which Shoojaa-ood- Dowla thirsted. Much eloquent indignation has been vented by Messrs. Macaulay and Mill on the subject of the accession to this campaign of the British Governor, Mr. Hastings. As I am not writing a history of British administration, I shall only observe that the Emperor, whose servants the British professed themselves, having conferred the authority usurped by Ruhmut Khan upon his Vuzeer, with whom they had been for some years in alliance, they had a clear right to assist him, especially if it suited them to do so. That it was essential, if not to the safety of the possessions of the Vuzeer Vice- roy, at least to their own well-being in Bengal, that a band of faithless usurpers should not be allowed to hold a country which they could not, or would not, prevent from affording a high road for the Mah- rattas at all seasons of the year, appears to have been clearly admitted by the British nation, when 104 SKETCH OF THE HISTOltY OF they finally acquitted Mr. Hastings, after a pro- tracted trial, in which some of the ablest of the Whig orators had been engaged against the accused. It is a signal mark of the good sense and justice of the English nation that, when they had considered the matter calmly, they should have come to the conclusion that to condemn Hastings would be to condemn their own existence in India ; admission demanding their retirement from the country a step they did not feel at all called upon to take. This appears the moral of his acquittal. Even Macaulay, who objects to the decision of the Peers acquitting Hastings, as inadmissible at the bar of History, nevertheless admits that it was generally approved by the nation. Indeed, this particular affair was dropped out of the charges before the im- peachment began. But, however important to the existence of the British in India might be the possession of this frontier territory by the strongest ally they could secure, the conduct of the Emperor (or rather of Meerza Nujuf, in whose hands he was not quite a free agent) remains the special subject of inquiry in this place. I think that both the minister and his master were quite justified in wishing to transfer the province of Kuttahir from the hands of Ruhmut to those of the Vuzeer. It has been already seen that the Puthan usurpers of that province had always been foes of the Moghul power, since the first rebel- lion of Alee Mohummud, with the solitary exception of the campaign of 1761, when they joined their THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 105 Abdalee kinsman at Panlput. It has also been seen that the fords by which the Ganges could be crossed in the cold weather were in their country, but that they could never hold them ; and that, lastly, they were known to have been lately in treaty with the Mahrattas, without reference to the interests of the Empire. Eastern politicians are not usually or especially scrupulous ; but here were substantial considerations of vital importance to the Dehli Government, sufficient to give them a fair induce- ment to sanction the enterprise of one who was their chief minister and most powerful supporter. Of Shoojaa's own motives this history has no pal- liation to offer. He had often received aid from the Eohillas, and was under personal obligations to them which ought to have obliterated all earlier memories of a hostile character ;* and, whatever grounds the Emperor may have had for consenting to an attack upon the Puthans, or the British for aiding the same, none such are likely to have seriously actuated the Vuzeer in his individual character. If he thought the Rohillas were inclined to negotiate with the Mahrattas, he must have seen how those negotia- tions had been broken off the instant he came to their assistance ; and if he wished to command the movements of the Mahrattas, he might first have endeavoured to strengthen the hands of the Impe- rial Government, and to cordially carry out his share of the treaty of 1772. * Vide chap. i. p. 70. 106 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP It must, however, be added although the Vuzeer's character was not such as to render him at all de- pendent on such justifications that the latter of those engagements had been better fulfilled by him- self than by the Puthans. For while, on the one hand, he had driven the Mahrattas out of the country, Ruhmut Khan, on his part, had neither collected the wage of that service from the other sirdars, nor paid it himself. Moreover, the Vuzeer's proceedings were only directed against the usurping protector and his actual adherents ; and he was joined by Zabita and some minor Rohilla chiefs ; while others, among whom were the sons of the late Doondee Khan, held aloof altogether, and Fyzoola Khan, the son of the first founder of the Rohilla power, Alee Moohummud, and in every way the most respectable of the clan, though he would not desert an old friend in his hour of need, yet strongly disapproved of his proceedings, and urged him to fulfil his compact and pay the Vuzeer's claim. In October, 1773, the fort of Etawa fell, and the last Mahratta forces were driven from the Dooab. The next two or three months were occupied 1774. . ... '. in negotiations with the Rohillas, with the Imperial Government, and with the British ; and in January, 1774, the allied armies moved forward. On the 12th of April the British entered Rohilkund;* * This is the date given by Captain Hamilton, who adds the following singular account of the condition of the Rohillas at the time, from a native Rohilla source : " A surprising degree of animosity and discord had long since arisen in Rohilkund, and THE MOGBUL EMPIEE. 107 the Protector, when finally summoned to pay what he owed, having replied by a levee en masse of all who would obey his summons. On the 23rd of the same month, the British army completely surprised the camp of the Protector, who was defeated and slain, after a brave but brief, re- sistance. Fyzoola was pardoned and maintained in his own patrimonial fief of Rampoor (still held by his descendants), while the rest of the province was occupied, with but little further trouble, by the Vuzeer, in strict conformity to an Imperial firman to that effect.* The army of the Empire, under Meerza Nujuf Khan, the Deputy Vuzeer, had not arrived in time to participate actively in this brief campaign : but the Yuzeer acknowledged the importance of the moral support that he had received from the Empire by remitting to court a handsome fine, on his inves- titure with the administration of the conquered ter- ritory. He also gave the Meerza some reinforce- each person was earnestly bent upon the eradication of his neigh- bour : and, in order to effect that object, ready to enter into league with foreigners and invaders." Meanwhile, we have it from the same authority that the original population of the country was rack-rented, while life and property were without protec- tion. * Hamilton. This writer, who professes to follow Rohilla historians as far as possible, states that there are no records of the people being ill-used, further than that seventeen or eighteen thousand of the soldiery were deported and settled in the neigh- bouring territories of Zabita Khan. " The Hindoo inhabitants, about 700,000, were in no way affected." So. much for the alleged depopulation of Rohilkund. 108 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ment, to aid him in his pending operations against the Jats of Bhurtpoor. The able but unprincipled Vuzeer, at the very climax of his good fortune, met the only enemy whom neither force can subdue nor policy deceive. Shoojaa-ood-Dowla died in January, 1775 ; and as it was not possible for so conspicuous a public cha- racter to pass away without exciting popular notice, the following explanation of the affair was circulated at the time; which, whether a fact or a fiction, deserves to be mentioned as the sort of ending which was considered in his case probable and appropriate. It was believed that, the family of Ruhmut Khan having fallen into his hands, Shoojaa-ood-Dowla sent for one of the fallen chief's daughters, and that the young lady, in the course of the interview, avenged the death of her father by stabbing his conqueror with a poisoned knife. " Although," says the author of the Seeur-ool-Mootaklierecn, who is the authority for the story, " there may be no founda- tion of truth in this account, yet it was at the time as universally believed as that God is our Refuge." The editor of the Calcutta translation of 1789 asserts that he had satisfactory proof of the truth of this story. The JSTuwab died of a cancer in the groin ; and the women of his Zunana, who were let out on the occasion, and with one of whom he (the translator) was acquainted, had made a song upon the subject. They gave full particulars of the affair, and stated that the young lady she was only seven- THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 109 teen had been put to death on the day the Viceroy received the wound. (S. 0. M., III. 268.) The death of the Vuzeer, however occasioned, was a serious blow to the reduced Empire of Dehli, which was just then beginning to enjoy a gleam of sunshine such as had not visited it since the day when Meer Munnoo and the eldest son of Moohummud Shah defeated the Abdalee, in 1748. Had the career of Shoojaa-ood-Dowla been prolonged a few years, it is possible that his ambitious energy, supported by British skill and valour, and kept within bounds by Meerza Nujuf Khan's loyal and upright character, would have effectually strengthened the Empire against the Mahrattas, and altered the whole subse- quent course of Indian history. But Shoojaa's son and successor was a weak vo- luptuary, who never left his own provinces ; and although the Meerza, his deputy, received for his lifetime the reward of his virtue, yet he was unable of himself to give a permanent consolidation to the tottering fabric. It has been seen that he was meditating a cam- paign against the Jats, whom Zabita's recent fall had again thrown into discontent, when summoned to Rohilkund, in 1774. In fact, he had already wrested from them the fort of Agra, and occupied it with a garrison of his own, under a Moghul officer, Moohummud Beg, of Hamadan. Not daunted by this reverse, Runjeet Singh, the present ruler of that bold tribe whose namesake was afterwards to raise their Piinjab brethren to such a pitch of great- 110 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ness, advanced upon the capital, and occupied Sikundrabad with 10,000 horse. The forces left in Dehli consisted of but 5,000 horse and two battalions of sepoys ; but they sufficed to expel the intruder. He shortly afterwards, however, returned, reinforced by the regulars and guns under Sumroo ; but by this time the Meerza was returned from Rohilkund, and, after the rains of 1664, marched against them, aided by a chief from Hureeana, named after himself Nujuf Koolee Khan, who brought into the field some 10,000 troops. This man, who was a good soldier and a faithful follower of the minister, was a Rajpoot Hindoo, of the Rathoor tribe ; a native of the Bee- kaneer country bordering on Rajpootana proper to the south, and to the north on Hureeana and other states immediately surrounding the metropolis. Having been in service at Allahabad, under the brother of the late Vuzeer, father of Moohummud Koolee, the connection and early patron of the Meerza, he became a Moohummudan under the sponsorship of the latter, and ever after continued among his staff and family. At the time of which I write, he had been appointed to the charge of dis- tricts returning twenty lakhs a year, with the title of Saeef-ood-Dowla. The departure of the Meerza for this campaign was extremely agreeable to the Deewan, Mujud-ood- Dowla, for he never lost an opportunity of preju- dicing the Emperor's mind against this powerful rival, in whose recent appointment to the office of Naib Vuzeer, moreover, he had found a special disappoint- THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. Ill ment. Indeed, Shall Alum, between these two ministers, was like some hero of mediaeval legend between his good and evil angels : only differing in this, that in his case the good influence was also, to a great extent, the most powerful. What the wily Cashmeerian might have done in the way of sup- planting the Meerza, if the latter had been signally worsted, and he himself had been otherwise fortu- nate, cannot now be certainly conjectured, for a fresh revolt of Zabita's summoned the Deewan to the northward, whilst his rival was successfully engaged with the Jats. In this expedition Mujud- ood-Dowla displayed a great want of spirit and of skill, so that Zabita became once more extremely formidable. Fortunately at this crisis Dehli was visited by an envoy, soliciting investiture for the new Viceroy of Oudh, Asuf-ood-Dowla. Accompanying the embassy was a force of 5,000 good troops, with a train of artillery, the whole under command of Shoojaa's favourite general, Lutafut Khan. This timely reinforcement saved the metropolis.* Meanwhile the Imperialists had found the Jats, under their chieftain, intrenched near Hodul, a town sixty miles south of Dehli, on the Muttra road. Dislodged from this, they fell back a few miles, and again took up a position in a fortified village called Kotebun, where the Meerza endeavoured to blockade them. After amusing him with skirmishes for about a fortnight, they again fell back on Deeg, a strong- * Francklin's " Shall Alum, pp. 68, 69. 112 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF hold to become the scene of still more important events a few years later. Deeg properly Deera- ghoor is a strong fort, with a beautiful palace and pleasure-grounds adjoining, watered by the drainage of part of the Ulwar Highlands. (Here on the 13th November, 1804, the army of Holkar was defeated by General Fraser ; and the Jats having fired on the victors, the fort was stormed in the following month. But to return to the campaign that we are tracing.) Observing that the sallies of the Jats had ceased, the Meerza left their camp in his rear and marched to Bursana, where a pitched battle was fought. The van of the Imperialists was commanded by Nujuf Koolee. In the centre of the main line was the Meerza himself, with battalions of sepovs 1775. and artillery, under officers trained by the English in Bengal, on the two wings. In the rear was the Moghul cavalry. The enemy 'sregular infantry 5,000 strong, and led by Sumroo advanced to the attack, covered by clouds of Jat skirmishers, and supported by a heavy cannonade, to which the Meerza' s artillery briskly replied, but from which he lost several of his best officers and himself received a wound. A momentary confusion ensued ; but the Meerza fervently invoking the God of Islam, presently charged the Jats at the head of the Moghul horse, who were, it will be remembered, his personal followers. Nujuf -Koolee, accompanied by the regular infantry, following at the double, the Jats were broken ; and the obstinate resistance of Sumroo's battalions only sufficed to cover the THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 113 rout of the rest of the army, and preserve some ap- pearance of order as he too retreated, though slowly, towards Deeg. An immense quantity of plunder fell into the hands of the victors, who soon reduced the open country, and closely invested the beaten army. Such however was the store of grain in the Fort of Deeg, that the strictest blockade proved fruitless for a twelvemonth ; nor was the Fort finally reduced till the end of March, 1776, when the garrison found means not improbably by connivance to escape to the neighbouring castle of Koombheyr with portable property on elephants. The rest of the Thakoor's wealth was seized by the victors his silver plate, his stately equipages and paraphernalia, and his military chest, containing six lakhs of rupees equal, according to my computation, to above half a million sterling of our modern money. In the midst of these successes, and whilst he was occupied in settling the conquered country, the Meerza received intelligence from Court that Zabita Khan, emboldened by his easy triumph over the Deewan, Mujud-ood-Dowla (Abdool Ahid Khan), had taken into his pay a large body of Sikhs, with whom he was about to march upon the metro- polis. The enterprising minister returned at once to Dehli, where he was received with high honour. He was, on this occasion, attended by the condottiero Sumroo, who, in his usual fashion, had transferred his battalions to the strongest side ,soon after the i 114 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF battle of Bursana. But the detail of these events requires a fresh chapter. NOTE. The following is the text of the supplemental treaty of 1772, as given by Captain Hamilton. (The former portion having provided in general terms for an alliance, offensive and defensive.) " The Vuzeer of the Empire shall establish the Rohillas, obliging the Mahrattas to retire, either by peace or war. If at any time they shall again enter the country, their expulsion is the business of the Vuzeer. The Rohilla Sirdars in consequence of the above do agree to pay to the Vuzeer forty lakhs of rupees, in manner following viz., ten lakhs in specie, and the remaining thii-ty lakhs in three years from the beginning of the year 1180 Fussuiee." Only redundant or unimportant phrases have been omitted ; there is not a word of payment to the Mahrattas. Besides Hamilton, the Tareekh-i-Moozufuree and Francklin's "Shah Alum "have been the chief authorities for this chapter. THE MOGHTTL EMPIRE. 115 CHAPTER IV. A.D. 1776-85. Renewed vigour of Empire under Nujuf Khan Zabita's rebellion Sumroo's Jaeegeer; he dies at Agra, and his fief is granted to the Begum Mujud-ood-Dowla's intrigues Rajpoot rising Mujud's treacherous dealings with Sindeea Unsuccessful campaign against the Sikhs The latter threaten Dehli, but are defeated by Nujuf Khan His death, and the consequent intrigues of Mujud-ood-Dowla Meerza Shuffee and Ufrasyab Khan Flight of Shahzada Juwan Bukht Mahdojee Sindeea obtains possession of the Empire Death of Zabita Khan Submission of the Moghul nobles State of the country. r I ^HE splendid exertions of Meerza Nujuf, though. not yet at an end, might have been expected to give the Empire a breathing-time wherein to recover its strength. If we except the British in Bengal, it was now the most formidable military power on this side of India. No more than three fortified places remained to the Jats of all their once vast possessions. Nujuf held viceregal state at Agra, surrounded not only, by his faithful Moghuls and Persians, but by two brigades of foot and artillery, under the command, respectively, of Sumroo and of Medoc. The Meerza' s chief Asiatic subordinates were Nujuf Koolee Khan, his adopted son, a converted Hindoo ;* and Moohummud Beg of Humadan : two * Otherwise Saeef-ood-Dowla. Vide last Chapter, p. 110. I 2 116 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OP officers of whom frequent mention will be found in the progress of this narrative. Meerza Shuffee, the minister's nephew, also held a high command. Shah Alum lived the life of ease which had become a second nature to him, at Dehli, surrounded by able servants of the Meerza' s selection. One of these indeed soon obtained an apparent ascendency over the indolent monarch, which was destined to afford another instance of the wisdom of that maxim in- vented of old in the East, " Put not your trust in Princes." The only enemy who could disturb the repose of what may be termed the Home Districts, was Zabita Khan, who still exhibited all the faithless- ness so common with his race, and a turbulent dis- position peculiar to himself. Finding all present hope of aid from the Jats and Mahrattas at an end, and instigated, it was suspected, by his late unsuccessful opponent the Financial Minister Abdool-Ahid Khan, Zabita, as stated at the close of the preceding chapter, turned to the Sikhs, who, in the late decay of the Empire, had established themselves in the Sirhind territory, notably in Putteala, and in Jheend. These pushing warriors of whose prowess, both against and for the British, modern history tells so much gladly accepted the invitation of the Puthan in- surgent, and, crossing the Jumna in considerable numbers, joined his force at Grhosgurh, the fort between Suharunpoor and Moozufurnugur, of which mention has been already made. This conduct was justly regarded by the Meerza as a gross instance, not merely of disloyalty, but THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 117 what in his eyes was even worse of impiety. In the opinion of a stern soldier of Islam, such 1777. r as the Persian Prince had always shown him- self to be, the act of joining with unbelievers was unpardonable. He therefore resolved to take the field in person with all his power, and ere long pre- sented himself before Ghosgurh.* The Puthan had however evacuated the fort on receiving notice of his approach, and retreated with his allies to their country. An attempt at negotiation having been contemptuously rejected by the Captain-General, Meerza Nujuf Khan, the two armies engaged on the famous field of Paniput, and the action which ensued is described as having been only less terrible than the last that was fought, on the same historic ground, between the Mahrattas and the Mussulmans, in 1761. Beyond this the native historians give no particulars of the battle, which raged till night, and with not unequal fortunes, if we may judge from the result for on the following morning Zabita Khan's re- newed applications to treat were favourably received ; on which occasion his estates were restored, and a double matrimonial alliance concluded. The Meerza himself condescended to take the Puthan' s sister as his wife, while his godson (so to speak), Nujuf Koolee, received the hand of Zabita' s daughter. Peace being thus restored to Hindoostan, the * The Meerza was aided in this campaign by the force of 5,000 men, with artillery, contributed by the new Viceroy of Oudh, as part of the peshkush, or fine, for the investiture, -and for the suc- cession to the office of Vuzeer of the Empire, which had been held by his father, and which he desired to rota in against the 118 SKETCH OP THE HISTOEY OF Minister revisited Agra, where lie proceeded to pro- vide for the administration of the country. The English sought his alliance ; but the negotia- tion failed because he would not surrender Sumroo. Asuf-ood-Dowla, Viceroy of Oudh, was made Vuzeer ; a trustworthy chief was appointed to the charge of Sirhind ; Nujuf Koolee Khan held the vast tract ex- tending from that frontier to the borders of Rajpoo- tana ; and Sumroo was placed in charge of the country adjoining Zabita Khan's lands, in the centre of which he fixed his capital at Sirdhana, long destined to remain in the possession of his family, and where a country house and park, familiar to the English residents of Meerut, still belongs to the widow of his last descendant. This territory, nomi- nally assigned for the maintenance of the troops under the adventurer's command, was valued in those days at six lakhs of rupees annually ; so that the blood-stained miscreant, whose saturnine manners had given him a bad name,* even among the rough Europeans of the Company's battalion, found his career of crime rewarded by an income correspond- ing to that of many such petty sovereigns as those of his native country. But Meerza Nujuf Khan was soon called upon for fresh exertions; the Sikhs having risen against Moolah counter-claims of the Nizam and of other competitors. Vide last Chapter. * His comrades called him " Sombre," a soubriquet which, after adhering to him through life, became the family name of his descendants. Colonel Skinner is my authority for the statement that his estates were THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 119 Ahmud Dad, the Foujdar of Sirhind, whom they defeated and slew. On the receipt of this 1778. intelligence, the Emperor deputed Abdool Ahid Khan known to us by his title of Nuwab Mujud- ood-Dowla with an army, nominally under the com- mand of one of the Imperial Princes, to inflict signal chastisement upon these obstinate offenders. If the surmise of the native historians be correct that Abdool Ahid Khan had been privy to the late com- bination between the Sikhs and Zabita Khan against Meerza Nujuf the fact of his being sent against them, without any objection from so wise and loyal a minister as the Meerza, can only be accounted for by citing it as a proof of the peculiar danger to which great men are exposed, under an Eastern despotism, of reposing their confidence in secret enemies. That Abdool Ahid was even thus plotting against his patron will be seen to be likely from his sub- sequent conduct, and certainly derives no con- futation from the circumstance of his being a native of Cashmeer, a country the faithlessness of whose inhabitants is proverbial, even in faithless India. The prince, whose standard was the rallying point of the army, is variously named as Juwan Bukht, Furkhunda Bukht, and Ukbur ; the former being the name of the late Regent, the latter that of the future successor to the titular Empire. Whoever it may have been, the outset of the expedition promised him success, if not distinction. The imperial host, 20,000 strong, and with an efficient park of artillery, came 120 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF in contact with the enemy at Kurnal ; but Mujud- ood-Dowla preferred negotiation to fighting, and induced the Sikhs to pay down a sum of three lakhs, and pledge themselves to the payment of an annual tribute. Joining the Sikh forces to his own, the Minister next proceeded northwards, but was brought to a check at Puteeala by Ameer Singh, the Jat chief of that state. Here fresh negotiations ensued, in which the perfidious Cashmeerian is said to have offered to ally himself with the Sikhs, for the destruc- tion of Meerza Nujuf Khan, on condition of being supported by them in his endeavours to be made Captain- General in the room of that Minister. Whether the Jat leader had profited by the lesson lately read to his brethren of Bhurtpoor, or whether he was merely actuated by a desire to try conclusions with the Cashmeerian, having penetrated the cowar- dice of his character, is matter for conjecture. What- ever the intrigue may have been, it was entirely un- successful. A large Sikh reinforcement profited by the time gained in the negotiation to advance from Lahore, the Kurnal force deserted the imperial camp, and a general onset was made upon it the following morning. Led by a half-hearted commander and an inexperienced Prince, the imperialists offered but a faint resistance ; but their retreat was covered by the artillery, and they contrived to escape without suffering much in the pursuit, and indeed without being very closely followed up. This disastrous campaign occured in the cold weather of 1778-79, and the victorious Pimjabces THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 121 poured into the Upper Dooab, whicli they forthwith began to plunder. Meanwhile, Meerza Nujuf Khan remained in con- temptuous repose at Agra, only interrupted by a short and successful dash at some Raj- poot malcontents, who had been stirred up, it is thought, by the instigation of his rival. That in- efficient but unscrupulous intriguer is also shown, by Captain Grant Duff, to have been at the same time engaged in a correspondence with Mahdojee Sindeea, in view to joining, when once he should have gained possession of the power of the Empire, in an attack upon the British Provinces. Duff gives this story on the authority of Sindeea's own letters, which that chief's grandson had placed in his hands; but he does not say whether the fickle Emperor was or was not a party to this iniquitous conspiracy for the ruin of his faithful servant and his long-established friends. It is however to be feared that such was the case. We have seen how marked a feature of the Emperor's character was his inability to resist the pertinacious counsels of an adviser with whom he was in constant intercourse ; and it is certain that he gave Abdool Ahid all the support which his broken power and enfeebled will enabled him to afford. But the danger was now too close and too vast to allow of further weakness. The Emperor's eyes seem to have been first opened by his army's evident confusion, as it returned to Delhi, and by the pre- 122 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF varicating reports and explanations which he received from its commander. If Meerza Juwan Bukht was the prince who had accompanied the ill-starred expedition, we know enough of his prudence and loyalty to be sure that he would have done all in his power to make his father see the matter in its true light ; and what was wanting to his firm but dutiful remonstrances, would be supplied by the cries of fugitive villagers and the smoke of plundered towns.* Nujuf Khan was urgently summoned from Agra, and obeyed the call with an alacrity inspired by his loyal heart, and perhaps also by a dignified desire for redress. As he approached the capital, he was met by the prince and the baffled Cashmeerian. To the former he was respectful, but the latter he instantly placed under arrest, and sent back under a strong guard. The fallen Minister was confined, but in his own house ; and the Meerza, on reaching Dehli, confiscated, on behalf of the Imperial treasury, his wealth, stated to have amounted to the large sum (for those days) of twenty lakhs, reserving nothing for himself but some books, and a medicine- chest. This was the second time he had triumphed over an unworthy rival, and signalized his own noble temper by so blending mercy with justice as has seldom been done by persons situated as he was. Abdool Ahid Khan or Mujud-ood-Dowla * Francklin says unhesitatingly that it was Furkhunda who accompanied the expedition. This prince died the following year. , THE MOGHUL EHPIKE. 123 was a fop, very delicate in his habits, and a curiosity-' seeker in the way of food and physic. It is said by the natives that he always had his table-rice from Cashmeer, and knew by the taste whether it was from the right field or not. Fully restored to the Imperial favour, the Meerza lost no time in obeying the pressing behests of his Sovereign, and sending an adequate force under his nephew, Meerza Shuffee, to check the invaders. Their army, which had been collected to meet the Imperialists, drew up and gave battle near Meerut, within forty miles of the metropolis ; but their unskilled energy proved no match for the resolution of the Moghul veterans, and for the disciplined valour of the Europeanized battalions. The Sikhs were defeated with the loss of their leader and 5,000 men, and at once evacuated the country. It cannot have escaped notice that we have been here reviewing the career of one whose talents and virtues merited a nobler arena than that on which they were displayed, and who would have indeed distinguished himself in any age and country. Profiting by experience, the success- ful Minister did not repeat the former blunder of retiring to Agra, where, moreover, his presence was no longer required, but continued for the rest of his life to reside in the metropolis, and enjoy the fruit of his laborious career in the administration of the Empire, to which he had restored something of its old importance. Meerza Shuffee commanded the army in the field ; while Moohummud Beg, of 124 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF Trlumadan, was Governor of the Fort and District of Agra. I have not thought it necessary to interrupt the narrative of the Meerza's successes by stopping to notice the death of Sumroo. This event occurred at Agra on the 4th of May, 1778, as appears from the Portuguese inscription upon his tombstone there.* He appears to have been a man without one re- deeming quality, " stern and bloody-minded, in no degree remarkable for fidelity or devotion to his employers " the one essential virtue of a free lance. This character is cited from the memoirs of Skinner, where it is also added that he cannot have been void of those qualities which attach the soldiery to their officer. But even this becomes doubtful, when we find the late Sir W. Sleeman (who was in the habit of moving about among the natives, and is an excel- lent authority on matters of tradition) asserting that he was constantly under arrest, threatened, tortured, and in danger at the hands of his men. The force was maintained by his widow, and she was accordingly put in charge of the lands which he had held for the same purpose. This remarkable woman was the daughter (by a concubine) of a Moohummudan of Arab descent, settled in the town of Kotana, a small place about thirty miles north-west of Meerut, and born about 1753. On the death of her father, she and her mother became subject to ill-treatment from her * Vide Appendix. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 125 half-brotlier, the legitimate heir ; and they conse- quently removed to Dehli about 1760. It is not certain when she first entered the family of Sumroo, but she did not become his wife till some time after- wards. At his death he left a son, by a Mussulmanee, who was still in his minority ; and the Minister, observing 'her extraordinary abilities, saw fit to place her in charge, as has been already said. The result amply justified his choice. In 1781 under what influence is not recorded she embraced Christianity, and was baptized, according to the ritual of the Romish Church, by the name of Johanna.* On the 26th April, 1782,t died Meerza Nujuf Khan, after a residence in India of about * forty-two years, so that he must have been aged between sixty and seventy. He appears to have been, if anything, a greater and a better man even than his predecessor, Nujeeb-ood-Dowla, over whom he had the advantage in point of blood, being at once a descendant of the Arabian prophet, and a * Sleeman's " Rambles" and Recollections," vol. II., p. 384. The writer gives the Begum's age, at the time of her baptism, as forty. This is merely conjecture. Her army is stated to have consisted, at this time, of five battalions of Sepoys, about 300 Europeans, officers and gunners, with 40 pieces of cannon, and a body of Moghul horse. She founded a Christian Mission, which grew by degrees into a convent, a cathedral, and a college ; and to this day there are some 1,500 native and Anglo-Indian Christians resident at Sir dh an a. t Mill says " late in the year ; " the date in the text is that given by W. Hastings, who was Governov-Ceneral at the time. 126 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF member of the Suffavee house, which had been removed from the throne of Persia by the usurpa- tion of Nadir Shah. At his death he wielded all the power of the Empire, which his energies and virtues had restored. He was Deputy Vuzeer of the absentee Viceroy of Oudh, and Commander-in- Chief of the army. He held direct civil administra- tion, with receipt of the surplus revenues, agreeably to Eastern usage, of the Province of Agra and the Jat territories, together with the district of Ulwur to the south-west, and those portions of the Upper Dooab which he had not alienated in Jaeedad. But he died without issue, and the division of his offices and his estates became the subject of speedy con- tests, which finally overthrew the last fragments of Moghul dominion or independence. The following notice of these transactions is chiefly founded on a Memorial, drawn up and submitted to the British Governor at Lucknow, in 1784, by the Shahzada Juwan Bukht, of whom mention has been already made more than once, and who had, for the ten years preceding the Emperor's return to Dehli, in '71, held the Regency under the title of Juhander Shah. After referring to the fact that Mujud-ood- Dowla (the title, it may be remembered, of Abdool Ahid Khan) had been, and still was in custody, but that an equerry of the Emperor's procured the issue of patents confirming existing appointments, the Prince proceeds, " The morning after the Meerza's death, I saw the attendants on His Majesty were consulting to send some persons to the house of the THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 127 deceased, in order to calm disturbances ; and at last the Wisdom enlightening the world resolved on deputing me to effect that object. [I] having departed with all speed, and given assurances to the afflicted, the friends of the departed had leisure to wash and dress the body, and the clamour began to cease. After necessary preparation, I attended the corpse to the Musjid, and the rites of Islam having been performed, sent it to the place of interment, under the care of Ufrasyab Khan, who was the cherished-in-the-bosom of the noble deceased ; whose sister also regarded him as her adopted son. " Ufrasyab Khan soon became ambitious of the dignities and possessions of the deceased, and the Begum (deceased's sister) petitioned his Majesty in his favour, with earnest entreaty ; but this proved disagreeable to the far-extending sight of the royal Wisdom, as Meerza Shuffee Khan, who had a great army and considerable resources, looked to the suc- cession, and would never agree to be superseded in this manner, so that contentions would necessarily ensue." There can be no doubt of the correctness of Shah Alum's views. Meerza Shuffee was the nearest relative of the deceased, and in actual pos- session of the command of the army. He was thus not merely the most eligible claimant, but the best able to support his claims. But the Emperor never, as we have seen, a man of much determination was now enfeebled by years and by a habit of giving way to importunity. " Instigated," proceeds Juwan Bukht, " by female 128 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP obstinacy, the Begum would not withdraw her re- quest, and her petition was at length, though reluct- antly, honoured with compliance. The khillut of Ameer-ool-Umra and acting Minister was conferred upon Ufrasyab by his Majesty, who directed this menial (though he [the writer] was sensible of the ill-promise of the measure) to write to Meerza Shuffee to hasten to the presence." It is not quite clear whether the measure, to which this parenthesis represents the Prince as objecting, was the appointment of Ufrasyab or the summons to the Meerza. He was evidently opposed to the former, who was a weak young man, devoid of resources either mental or material. On the other hand, his own matured good sense should have shown him that no good consequences could follow the temporizing policy which brought the rivals face to face at Court. Ufrasyab's first measure was to release the Cash- meerian Ex-Minister Mujud-ood-Dowla (Abdool Ahid Khan) from arrest, and by his recommendation this faithless and notorious traitor was once more received into the Imperial favour. In the meanwhile, Meerza Shuffee arrived at Dehli, and took up his quarters in the house of his deceased uncle, whose widow he conciliated by promising to marry her daughter, his first cousin.. A period of confusion ensued, which ended for the time in the resignation of Ufrasyab, who retired to his estate at Ajheer, leaving his inte- rests at Court to be attended to by Abdool Ahid Khan and by the converted Rajpoot Nujuf Koolee. Shortly after his departure, Meerza Shuffee sur- THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 129 rounded the houses of these agents, and arrested Abdool Ahid on the llth September, 1782, and the Rajpoot on the following day, confining them in his aunt's house under his own eye. The prince upon this received orders to negotiate with the Meerza, who was appointed to the office he had been so long endeavouring to compass. But Ufrasyab Khan, his absent competitor, had still allies at Court, and they succeeded in bringing over to his cause M. Paoli, the commander of Begum Sumroo's Brigade, together with Lutafut Khan, commandant of the battalions that had been detached to the Imperial service by the Viceroy of Oudh. This took place a few days only after the arrest of the agents, and was almost immediately followed by the desertion from Meerza ShufFee of the bulk of the army. The Emperor put himself at the head of the troops, and proceeded to the Jumma Musjid, and Meerza Shuffee fled to Kosee, in the vicinity of Muttra, acting by the advice of the prince, as he informs us. The army did not pursue the fiigitive, and the latter enlarged Abdool- Ahid, who promised to intercede for him with the Emperor, and also made a friend in Moohummud Beg of Hamadan, whom we have already met with as Governor of Agra. While the Moghuls were disturbing and weakening the empire by these imbecile contentions, Mahdojee Sindeea, the Patel, was hovering afar off, like an eagle on the day of battle. The British Governor-General also, naturally alarmed at what was going on, and foreseeing danger from the 130 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF interposition of the Mahrattas, soon after sent two officers to the Imperial Court, being the first English Embassy that had visited the city of the Moghul since the memorable deputation from the infant Factory to the throne of Furokhseer.* But before these officers could arrive, further com- plication had occurred. Meerza ShufFee returning to Dehli, in company with Moohummud Beg, re- quested that their late adherents, Paoli and Lutafut, might be sent to them with authority to treat ; and the application was granted, much against the advice of the prince, who tells us that he proposed either that an immediate attack should be made upon the rebels before they had time to consolidate their power, or else that they should be summoned to the presence, and made to state their wishes there. To the envoys elect he observed that, even were the concession made of sending a deputation to treat with refractory subjects, he would advise that only one should go at a time. " But," he continues, " as the designs of Providence had weakened the ears of their understandings, an interview appeared to them most advisable ; a mutual suspicion rendering each unwilling that one should go and the other remain in camp, lest he who went should make his own terms without the other." What a glimpse this gives of the dissolution of all that we are accustomed to call society ! The two envoys set out, but never returned ; like the emissaries sent to the Jewish * Vide sup. book i. chap. i. p. 30. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 131 captain, as he drove furiously along the plain of Esdraelon to ask, Is it peace ? The European was slain at once; the Oudh general being imprisoned, and deprived of sight. Meerza ShufFee and Moo- hummud Beg next began to quarrel with each other. The Emperor was now much perplexed ; but matters were arranged for the time through the instrumen- tality of the prince, and by the return of Ufrasyab, who became reconciled to his late competitor. The three nobles were presented with khilluts (dresses of honour), and Meerza Shuffee became Premier, under the title of Ameer-ool-Umra, while Abdool- Ahid reverted to his ancient post of Controller of the Home Revenues. We pursue the prince's nar- rative. " It was at this period that much anxiety and melancholy intruding on the sacred mind of his Majesty, the Asylum of the World, and also on the breast of this loyal servant," their attention was turned towards the English alliance, which had been in abeyance for some years. On the 23rd of September, 1783, Meerza Shuffee, who had been to Agra, was shut out from the palace on his return, probably owing to Ufrasyab Khan's renewed desire to obtain the chief place in the State. On this the Meerza naturally adopted a hostile attitude, and once more an emissary was sent forth to treat with him, in the person of Moohummud Beg Hamadanee. The meeting took place in the open air ; and when the elephants, upon which the two noblemen were seated, drew near to each other, the Meerza held K 2 132 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF out his hand in greeting, and Moohummud Beg at once seized the opportunity, and pistolled him under the arm. It is asserted indeed by some that the actual crime was perpetrated by the attendant who occupied the back seat of the howdah ; probably Ismail Beg Khan, nephew of the Hamadanee. Ufrasyab, who had instigated this murder, pro- fited by it, and succeeded to the post of bis ambition, while the mind of the prince became still more anxious, and still more bent upon opening his case, if possible, in a personal interview with the English Governor. Meanwhile, the envoys- of the latter were not less urgent on their employer to support the Emperor with an army. {< The business of assisting the Shah " thus they wrote in December, 1783 " must go on if we wish to be secure in India, or regarded as a nation of faith and honour." * Mr. Hastings was not deaf to these considerations, and subsequent events proved their entire soundness. He desired to sustain the authority of the Emperor, because he foresaw nothing from its dissolution but an alterna- tive between Chaos and the Mahrattas ; and, but for the opposition of his council in Calcutta, he would have interposed, and interposed after his fashion, with effect. Yet his not doing so was afterwards made the ground of one of the charges (No. 18) against him, and he was accused of having intrigued in the interest of Mahdojee Sindeea, the Patel. '"" Mill, book vi. chaj). i. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 133 That Mr. Hastings, when overruled in his desire of anticipating Sindeea in court influence at Dehli, pre- ferred seeing the latter succeed, rather than the empire should fall a prey to complete anarchy ; that he "turned the circumstance to advantage" to use Grant Duff's phrase was neither contrary to sound statesmanship, nor to the particular views of the British Government, which was then occupied in completing the treaty of Salbaee. Under this com- pact, Central India was pacified, and the Carnatic protected from the encroachments of the notorious Hyder Alee Khan, and his son, the equally famous Tippoo Sahib. It is important here to observe that the Calcutta Gazettes of the day contain several notices of the progress of the Sikhs, and the feeble opposition offered to them by the courtiers. All these things called for prompt action. On the 27th March, 1784, the British Governor arrived at Lucknow, and Juwan Bukht resolved to escape from the palace, and lay before him an account of Dehli politics, such as should induce him to interpose. The design being com- municated to his maternal uncle, a body of Goojurs,* from the prince's estate, was posted on the opposite bank of the river, and everything fixed for the 14th of April. About 8 P.M., having given out that he was indisposed, and on no account to be disturbed, the prince disguised himself, and, secretly departing * A tribe claiming to be descended from Rajpoot fathers, and long famous in Hindoostan for their martial and predatory cha- racter. They are regarded by Elliot as Scythian immigrants. 134 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP from his chamber in the palace, passed from the roof of one building to the roof of another, until he reached the aqueduct* which crossed the garden Hayat Buksh.f The night was stormy, and the prince was suffering from a fever, but he found a breach where the canal issued, by which he got to the rampart of the Suleemgurh. Here he descended by means of a rope, and joined his friends on the river sands ; and, with a considerable mixture of audacity and address, found means to elude the sentries, and get across the river. One trait is worth preserving, as illustrative of the character- istic clemency of the House of Timoor. " I believe," said the prince, in talking of this night's adventure to Mr. Hastings, " I ought to have killed the guide who showed me where to ford the river ; but my conscience disapproved, and I let him go, preferring to trust myself to the care of Providence. In effect, the man justified my suspicions, for he instantly went to the nearest guard, and gave him information of my route, as I learned soon after ; but I made such speed that my pursuers could not overtake me." J His Highness reached Lucknow, where he im- pressed all who met him with a highly favourable opinion of his humanity, his intelligence, and his knowledge of affairs ; but the only consolation he received, either from the Viceroy or from Mr. Hast- * NuJir-i-Faiz. Vide Preliminary Observations, t Vide sup. Preliminary Observations. . % Appendix to Mr. Hastings' " Narrative." THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 135 ings, hampered as the latter was by the resolution of his council, was the advice to turn to Mahdojee Sindeea. In the meanwhile, Moohummud Beg, who had returned to his old residence at Agra, continued to trouble the repose of the new minister, so that he also turned to the redoubted Patel ; and this suc- cessful soldier who had barely escaped four-and- twenty years before from the slaughter of Paniput, now found himself master of the situation. The movements of the Mahratta chief began to be all- important. They were thus noticed in the Calcutta Gazette for 18th April : " We learn that Sindeea is going on a hunting-party. . . . We also learn that he will march towards Bundelkund." This was in the direction, as it proved, of Agra.* He sent an envoy to Lucknow to treat with the Governor- General, and proceeded in person to Hin- doostan, proposing to meet the Emperor, who was on his way to dislodge the Moghul rebel from the fort of Agra. The Calcutta Gazette for May 10th says, " His Majesty has signified by letters to the Governor- General and Sindeea that he will march towards Agra.f The Emperor's desire to put himself into the hands of Sindeea was very much increased by the violent conduct of Ufrasyab toward one who, whatever his faults, had endeared himself, by long years' associa- tion, to the facile monarch. Mujud-ood-Dowla, the * S. Karr's " Selections," vol. I. p. 13. t Ut Sup., p. H. 136 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP Finance Minister, having attempted to dissuade his Majesty from going to Agra, the haughty Moghul sent Nujuf Koolee Khan with a sufficient force to Mujud's house, and seizing him, with the whole of his property, kept him in close arrest, in which he continued for the most part till his death, in 1788.* On his arrival, Sindeea had an interview with Ufrasyab Khan, at which it was agreed to concert a combined attack upon Moohummud Beg forthwith. Three days after the premier was assassinated, viz., 2nd November, 1784. The actual hand that struck this blow was that of Zeen-ool-Abideen, brother of Meerza Shuffee, who, no doubt, was not unwilling to have an opportunity, of punishing the supposed author of his uncle's murder ; but there were not wanting those who, on the well-known maxim, cui bono, attributed the instigation to Sindeea. Francklin records, on the authority of one Saeeud Ruza Khan, that Zeen-ool-Abideen found shelter with Sindeea immediately after the murder, which was effected in the very tent of the victim. Rajah Himmut Buha- door (the Gosaeen leader)! at once proceeded to Sindeea' s tent, accompanied by the chief Moghul nobles ; where all joined in congratulations and pro- fessions of service. The latter, at all events, immediately stepped into the dead man's shoes, leaving the title of Vuzeer to the Oudh Viceroy ; but, calling the Peshwa of Poona * Francklin's "Shah Alum," p. 118. t Vide inf. These Gosaeens were a sect of fighting friars, much valued at this period. Vide inf. c. v. note to p. 162. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 137 the head of the Mahrattas by the revived title of Plenipotentiary of the empire, he professed to ad- minister as the Peshwa's deputy. He assumed, with the command of the army, the direct management of the provinces of Dehli and Agra, and allotted a monthly payment of sixty-five thousand rupees for the personal expenses of Shah Alum. In order to meet these expenses, and at the same time to satisfy himself and reward his followers, the Patel had to cast about him for every available pecuniary force. Warren Hastings having now left India, it seems to have been thought a favourable movement for claiming some contribution from the foreign posses- sors of the Eastern Soobahs. Accordingly we find in the Calcutta Gazette the following notice, under the date Thursday, 12th May, 1785 :- " We have authority to inform the public that on the 7th of this month the Governor- General received from the Emperor Shah Alum and Maha Kajah Ma- dagee Scindia an official and solemn disavowal, under their respective seals, of demands which were trans- mitted by them, on Mr. Macpher son's accession to the Government, for the former tribute from Bengal. " The demands of the tribute were transmitted through Major Brown,* and made immediately upon his recall from the Court of Shah Alum, but without any communication of the subject to Mr. Anderson.f * Major Brown was the head of the Dehli. Mission already mentioned. + Mr. Anderson was the British Resident in Sindeea's camp. 138 SKETCH OF THE HISTOBY OF "Mr. Anderson was immediately instructed to inform Sindeea that his interference in such demands would be considered in the light of direct hostility and a breach of our treaty with the Mahrattas ; and Shah Alum was to be informed that the justice of the English to his illustrious house could never admit the interference or recommendation of other powers, and could alone flow from their voluntary liberality. " A disavowal of claims advanced unjustly and disrespectfully was insisted upon ; and we are authorized to declare that Mr. Anderson's conduct in obtaining that disavowal was open and decided, highly honourable to him as a public minister. He acted in conformity to the orders of Government even before he received them. He founded his re- monstrances on a short letter which he had received from the Governor- General, and upon circumstances which passed in the presence of Sindeea, at Shah Alum's Durbar, as Major Brown was taking his leave. " The effects which Mr. Anderson's remonstrance produced are very satisfactory and creditable to Go- vernment, and such explanations have followed upon the part of Sindeea, as must eventually strengthen our alliance with the Mahrattas, expose the designs of secret enemies, and secure the general tranquillity of India." The revolution thus begun was soon completed. Zabita Khan died about this time ; and Moo- 1785. hummud Beg, being deserted by his troops, had no resource but to throw himself upon the mercy THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 139 of the foreign chief. The fort of Agra surrendered on the 27th of March, 1785 ; and all that remained of the power of the Moghul party was the fort of Aleegurh, where the widow and brother of the late minister, Ufrasyab Khan, still held out, in the hope of preserving the property of the deceased, the bulk of which was stored there. This stronghold, which the late Nujuf Khan had wrested from the Jats, had been fortified with great care, and it had a strong garrison, but, having held out from July to Novem- ber, the Governor was at last prevailed upon, by the entreaties of the ladies, to avert from them the horrors of a storm, and make terms with the be- siegers. The result of the capitulation was that the eldest son of the deceased Ufrasyab received an estate, yielding a yearly revenue of a lakh and a half of rupees. The rest of the property valued at a crore, a sum then corresponding to a million of money, but really representing much more of our present currency was seized by Sindeea. The latter was now supreme in Hindoostan ; the disunited Moghul chiefs, one and all, acknowledged his authority ; and a Mahratta garrison, occupying the Red Castle of Shah Juhan, rendered the Emperor little more than an honourable captive. Thus closed the year 1785. It has been already mentioned that there is little or nothing recorded of the condition of the country or of the people by native historians. It must not however be thought that I am satisfied with record- ing merely the dates of battles, or the biographies of 140 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF great men. On the contrary, the absence of in- formation upon the subject of the condition of the nation at large, is a great cause of regret and dis- appointment to me. In 1783, when Ufrasyab Khan was distracting the country by his ambitious attempts, occurred a failure of the periodical rains, followed by one of those tremendous famines which form such a fearful feature of Indian life.* In Bengal, where the mon- soon is regular, and the alluvial soil moist, these things are almost as unknown as in England : but the arid plains of Hindoo stan, basking at the feet of the vastest mountain-chain in the world, become a per- fect desert, at least once in every quarter of a cen- tury. The famine of 1783 has made a peculiarly deep impression upon the popular mind, under the name of the " Chaleesa," in reference to the Sumbut date 1840, of the Era of Vikrum Udit. An old Gosaeen, who had served under Himmut Buhadoor, once told me that flour sold that year 8 seers for the rupee ; which, allowing for the subsequent fall in the value of money, is equivalent to a rate of three seers for our present rupee a state of things partly conceivable by English readers, if they will imagine the quartern loaf at four shillings, and butcher's meat in proportion.! These famines were greatly intensified by the want * Vide Preliminary Observations, p. 4. t Vide Calcutta Gazette, for Thursday, 13th May, 1784. " The 12th. Wheat is now selling at Battalah, 9 seers; at Lahore, 4 seers ; and Jummoo, 3 seers per rupee." Seton Karr's " Selec- tions," I. 14. THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 141 of hands for field labour, that must have been caused by the constant drafting of men to the armies, and by the massacre and rapine that accompanied the chronic warfare of those times. The drain on the population, however, combined with the absence of the tax-gatherer, must have given this state of things some sort of compensation in the long run. Some few further particulars regarding the state of the country will be found in the concluding chapter. 142 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF CHAPTER V. A.D. 1786-1788. Accession of Gholam Kadir, son of the deceased Zabita Khan Sonorous titles of Moghul nobles Siege of Raghoogurh Meerza Juwan Bukht will not leave Lucknow to put himself into Sindeea's power Sindeea's regular army Discontent of the Moghuls Rajpoot confederacy Battle of Lallsote Defec- tion of Ismail Beg Sindeea's measures Gholam Kadir enters Dehli Checked by Begum Sumroo and Nujuf Koolee Khan Gholam Kadir pardoned and created Ameer-ool-Umra Joins Ismail Beg before Agra Battle of Futtehpoor Emperor invited to aid the Rajpoots He leaves Dehli Letter of Prince to George III. His death Rebellion of Nujuf Koolee His pardon The army returns to Dehli Battle between Ran a Khan and Ismail Beg near Feerozabad Return of the Con- federates to Dehli Their difficulties Insufficient exertions of Sindeea. f I THE eldest son of the deceased chief of the -*- Bawunee Muhal was that Gholam Kadir, whom we have seen already in the character of a captive and a page.* It does not appear under what circumstances he had recovered his liberty ; but, on the death of Zabita Khan, he at once succeeded to his estates, under the title of