Muntakhab al-lubab 164: Nizámu-l Mulk.

164

[Text, vol. ii. p. 742.] Nizámu-l Mulk Bahádur Fath Jang, after receiving his appointment as Súbadár of the Dakhin, went to Khujista-bunyád (Aurangábád). It has already been stated that the fame of the sword of this renowned noble put a stop to the ravaging of the country and the plundering of the caravans, which the forces of the Mahrattas practised every year, without his having to fight with either the army of Rája Sáhú or Tárá Bái. But as the hands of the Mahrattas stretched everywhere, their agents appeared in all places according to usage to collect the chauth, that is to say, the fourth part of the land revenue of every district, which they levied every year. Nizámu-l Mulk's pride was too great to submit to this, and he was desirous of preventing the collection of chauth, and especially in the neighbourhood of Aurangábád. He wrote orders to the faujdárs and zila'dárs, directing them to oust the kamáísh-dárs of Rája Sáhú from several places dependent upon Aurangábád.
After the 'Íd-i fitr, in the second year of the reign, he set out with five or six thousand horse and a strong force of artillery to settle the country, and repel any attempt of the enemy's army. * * None of the Mahratta chiefs had the courage to face him, but fled at his approach; so, after satisfying himself as to the state of the country, and chastising some rebels, returned to Aurangabad, where he arrived at the beginning of Zi-l hijja. After his return, the Mahrattas summoned up courage enough to begin plundering the caravans in remote districts. There was a caravan proceeding from Surat and Ahmadabad to Aurangabad, and Muhammad Ibrahim Khan Tabrizi, Bakhshi and Waki'-nigar of Baglana, who with a party was travelling along with that caravan, was killed. In Rajab of the second year of the reign, 1125 (July, 1713), the enemy assembled twenty-three kos from Aurangabad, at a fort called Panah-garhi, which they had built, as in other subas, as a place of refuge for themselves in their retreats. [Defeat of the Mahrattas, and destruction of the forts by Nizamu-l Mulk's lieutenants.]