Tadhkirah i Anand-Ram “Mukhlish” 4: Muhammad Shah's second visit to the Shah. Entry of the two monarchs into Shah-Jahanabad.
Tazkira, of Anand Ram Mukhlis (Elliot & Dowson, extracts) 4
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Muhammad Shah's second visit to the Shah. Entry of the two monarchs into Shah-Jahanabad.
4.1
The result of Muhammad Shah's visit to the Persian Emperor has been seen. Some days later, on the 24th of the month, Asaf Jah was deputed to finally settle sundry matters; but, through some unknown cause, this personage failed in his mission, and was detained in the camp. Muhammad Shah himself, neglecting the remonstrances of a few well-wishers who advised a further appeal to arms, then paid a second visit to the Persian Emperor on the 26th. Muhammad Shah, as a result of this interview, found it advisable to continue in the Persian camp, and ordered a part of the royal camp equipage to be brought. This was accordingly done. By degrees all the chief nobles of the State joined His Majesty. To all appearance they acted according to their inclination, but in truth under compulsion. Nasakchis were ordered to be in attendance on them; these in reality were but spies on their actions. How strange are the freaks of fortune! Here was an army of 100,000 bold and well-equipped horsemen, held as it were in captivity, and all the resources of the Emperor and his grandees at the disposal of the Kazalbash! The Mughal monarchy appeared to all to be at an end.
4.2
A proclamation was issued to the army that all might depart who chose, as His Majesty himself was about to return to Shah-Jahanabad. The soldiers and camp followers now departed in crowds, and, with the exception of the chief dignitaries, and a few of lesser rank, who would have thought it a crime to abandon their master at such a time, the Emperor remained alone. Tahmasp Khan Jalair Wakilu-s Saltanat, Burhanu-l Mulk Bahadur, and 'Azimu-llah Khan Bahadur, were sent in advance by the Shah to have the fort prepared for his reception, and to settle various other matters. When the Shah's camp equipage arrived from Shahabad, the two Emperors set out. They made the journey seated together on an elevated car. Muhammad Shah entered the citadel (ark) of Shah-Jahanabad in great pomp on the 8th of Zi-l hijja, seated in his car; the conqueror followed on the 9th mounted on a horse. By a strange cast of the dice two monarchs who, but a short while before, found the limits of an empire too narrow to contain them both, were now dwellers within the same four walls!
4.3
The next day Nadir Shah returned the Indian ruler's visit, and accepted the presents offered by the latter. When the Shah departed, towards the close of the day, a false rumour was spread through the town that he had been severely wounded by a shot from a matchlock, and thus were sown the seeds from which murder and rapine were to spring. The bad characters within the town collected in great bodies, and, without distinction, commenced the work of plunder and destruction. A discharge of firearms and other missiles was continued throughout the night. The darkness of the night and the difficulty of recognizing friend or foe were the cause of numbers of the Kazalbashis being slain in the narrow lanes of the town. Scarce a spot but was stained with their blood.
4.4
On the morning of the 11th an order went forth from the Persian Emperor for the slaughter of the inhabitants. The result may be imagined; one moment seemed to have sufficed for universal destruction. The Chandni chauk, the fruit market, the Daribah bazar, and the buildings around the Masjid-i Jama were set fire to and reduced to ashes. The inhabitants, one and all, were slaughtered. Here and there some opposition was offered, but in most places people were butchered unresistingly. The Persians laid violent hands on everything and everybody; cloth, jewels, dishes of gold and silver, were acceptable spoil. The author beheld these horrors from his mansion, situated in the Wakilpura Muhalla outside the city, resolved to fight to the last if necessary, and with the help of God to fall at least with honour. But, the Lord be praised, the work of destruction did not extend beyond the above-named parts of the capital. Since the days of Hazrat Sahib-kiran Amir Timur, who captured Dehli and ordered the inhabitants to be massacred, up to the present time, A.H. 1151, a period of 348 years, the capital had been free from such visitations. The ruin in which its beautiful streets and buildings were now involved was such that the labour of years could alone restore the town to its former state of grandeur. But to return to the miserable inhabitants.
4.5
The massacre lasted half the day, when the Persian Emperor ordered Haji Fulad Khan, the kotwal, to proceed through the streets accompanied by a body of Persian nasakchis, and proclaim an order for the soldiers to desist from carnage. By degrees the violence of the flames subsided, but the bloodshed, the devastation, and the ruin of families were irreparable. For a long time the streets remained strewn with corpses, as the walks of a garden with dead flowers and leaves. The town was reduced to ashes, and had the appearance of a plain consumed with fire. All the regal jewels and property and the contents of the treasury were seized by the Persian conqueror in the citadel. He thus became possessed of treasure to the amount of sixty lacs of rupees and several thousand ashrafis; plate of gold to the value of one kror of rupees, and the jewels, many of which were unrivalled in beauty by any in the world, were valued at about fifty krors. The Peacock throne alone, constructed at great pains in the reign of Shah Jahan, had cost one kror of rupees. Elephants, horses, and precious stuffs, whatever pleased the conqueror's eye, more indeed than can be enumerated, became his spoil. In short, the accumulated wealth of 348 years changed masters in a moment. Nawab Sahib Waziru-l mamalik contributed thirty lacs of rupees, besides elephants and his most valuable jewels. Nawab Asaf Jah also suffered an equal loss.
4.6
The property of Burhanu-l Mulk, who had died shortly after the arrival of the Persians, was likewise seized. It amounted to about a kror of rupees, and had been brought from Oudh. On the 26th of Zi-l hijja was celebrated, with great pomp, the marriage of Nasir Mirza, son of the Persian Emperor, to a daughter of Murad Bakhsh, third son of his late Majesty Shah Jahan. The ruler of Hindustan presented the bridegroom with a dress of honour, a necklace of pearls, a jighah and a dagger set with pearls, and an elephant with trappings of gold.
4.7
On the 1st of Muharram, A.H. 1152 (30th March, 1739), writers were appointed to levy ransom from the inhabitants under the orders of Tahmasp Khan Wakilu-s Saltanat, and lay it before the Shah; but, in order that the inhabitants might not be completely ruined, nobles of both States were directed to superintend the settlement of the ransom in the hall of justice, where all might be spectators. The town now offered a strange spectacle. Emissaries of the kotwal and Persian nasakchis wandered from house to house and from street to street, to take inventories of the property, and enforce the appearance of the citizens, so that the sum to be contributed by each individual might be fixed according to his means. It was the wish of the Shah that the townspeople should be preserved from violence and treated with lenity. * * Unoffending people, high and low, rich and poor, were compelled day after day to appear in the hall of justice, where they were kept from morn till night, often later, and then departed, speculating in their wretchedness on what the morrow might bring forth, and wondering to find themselves still alive. Mir Waris and Khwaja Rahmatu-llah openly, and two other persons in secret, had conspired to effect their destruction, and acted as delators. Without ever arriving at the truth, their calumnies were accepted as such. They forgot that they would reap what they sowed, feared neither God nor man, and maltreated the people.
4.8
The inventory was now ready. It appeared from this that the contributions of the capital would amount to two krors. The Shah, therefore, appointed Asaf Jah, Waziru-l mamalik, 'Azimu-llah Khan, Sarbuland Khan, Mubarizu-l Mulk, and Murtaza Khan to collect the money. Five divisions were made of all the city, and lists of the different muhallas, with their inhabitants, and the contributions to be levied from each were prepared and given to the above-named amirs. Now commenced the work of spoliation, watered by the tears of the people. By Nawab Asaf Jah Bahadur and Nawab Sahib Waziru-l mamalik, but especially by the latter, who contributed a great part of the money himself, the collections were made in the most humane manner; but where the other three noblemen presided, and more particularly in the division of Mubarizu-l Mamalik, the sufferings of the citizens knew no bounds. Not only was their money taken, but whole families were ruined. Many swallowed poison, and others ended their woes with the stab of a knife. The author, whose house was in the division allotted to Mubarizu-l Mamalik, endured great persecution.