History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c41.6

v2.c41.6

The river Sonamukhia is perhaps a mistake for the Suvarṇarekhā, which we find to be the southern boundary of the province of Bengal as soon as the English East India Company had assumed the reins of government of that province. Mīr Ḥabib was invested with the supreme command of the Maratha army of occupation in Orissa. Under him there was a Maratha officer, a relation of Raghuji Bhonsle, who had strict orders to obey the Musalman Nā’ib Nāẓim. Mīr Ḥabib managed the revenue department of the province and also received the sum of twelve lakhs annually as the *chauth* from Bengal. He discharged the arrears of pay due to the Afghan mercenaries, whom he had employed after the defeat and death of Muṣṭafā Khān and Shamsher Khān at the hands of ’Alīwardī. He discharged them gradually and strengthened his own position in the province of Orissa. His fall was swift. Raghuji sent his own son Jānujī as his deputy and the commander of all Maratha troops in Orissa. In the meanwhile, Mīr Ḥabib’s own officers had grown jealous of his power and prestige and turned traitors to him. Gradually they turned Jānujī’s mind against his trusted ally. Jānujī was of an overbearing disposition and would not pay implicit obedience even to his own father. He ordered Mīr Ḥabibullah to render accounts of the revenues of Orissa. He was caught at a disadvantage when his own troops were away from Katak, surrounded with Maratha troops and hacked to pieces according to the orders of Jānujī. According to a Maratha account, ’Alīwardī brought about the death of Mīr Ḥabibullah by a stratagem. He forged a letter using the name of Mīr Ḥabibullah and contrived to have it put in Jānujī’s hands, who ordered the execution of Mir Habibullah immediately.¹ Mirzā Muṣliḥ-uddīn who had negotiated the treaty of peace between Mir Ḥabīb and ’Alīwardī, was now appointed Na’ib Nāẓim of Orissa, both by Raghu jī Bhonsle I and ’Alīwardī Khan. He was a man of peaceful disposition and permitted matters to drift. He recognised himself not as a subordinate of the Nawāb Nāẓim of Bengal but the deputy of the Bhonsle chief of Nagpur.² In the end he was obliged to resign his office because he could not manage to collect sufficient revenue to keep the government of Orissa going, such was the devastation of the province during the twelve years’ war between the Mughals and the Marathas. He had foolishly agreed to pay four lakhs more over and above the stipulated amount of the *chauth* and failed to pay it. In 1755, a little before or after the death of Raghuji Bhonsle I, Mir Muṣliḥ-uddīn formally resigned and a few months later a Maratha or Deccani Brahman was appointed the *ṣūbāh* or governor of the province.³ Śivarām Bhaṭṭa Sāṭhe, called Sheobhat Sāntrā by mistake by Musalman and European writers, took up the reins of government in 1756 during the rule of Jānujī and continued to rule over the province for eight years. He is repeatedly mentioned in the correspondence of the officers of the East India Company, a portion of which has been made public by the Record Office of the British Empire in India.