The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.123

v4.c20.123

Freed from his most formidable rival, Bahādur Shāh lived in peace at Āgra till 12 November, when he set out for Rājputāna. This province he was forced to leave for the Deccan at the end of April, 1708, by the news of Kām Bakhsh’s mad acts in the south. That prince had heard of his father's death when on the way to his viceroyalty of Bījāpur and been immediately deserted by the Tūrānī nobles under Muhammad Amīn Khān. But in Bījāpur he crowned himself emperor and lived for two months settling his government and raising an army. Some conquests were made by his agents, namely the recovery of Wāgingerā, Gulbarga and Hyderābād, besides control over the Karnūl and Arcot districts. But the folly, violence and caprice of this prince, who at the age of forty-three acted like an undeveloped child, and the bitter jealousy between his minister Taqarrub Khān and his paymaster Ahsan Khān, soon ruined his affairs. The minister and his allies succeeded in making Kām Bakhsh believe that Ahsan Khān and his friends wanted to imprison him. So, the helpless deluded prince seized by treachery and tortured to death Rustam-dil Khān (the viceroy of Golconda), Ahsan Khān and many other officers who were suspected of being in the conspiracy; their properties were confiscated and their families ruined. Many other acts of insane cruelty were done by Kām Bakhsh, who now came to be dreaded as a bloodthirsty tyrant. Bahādur Shāh, after crossing the Narbadā on 17 May, 1708, slowly proceeded south and sent a most generous and conciliatory offer of peace to his brother, which was rejected. As he came nearer to Hyderābād, all who could deserted Kām Bakhsh and went over to Bahādur Shāh. On 13 January, 1709, Kām Bakhsh's small force of 350 men was attacked by 25,000 imperial troops under Mun‘im Khān and Zu-’l-Fiqār, and the prince mortally wounded, some four miles outside Hyderābād. Shortly after this, because the situation in Rājputāna had grown serious, the emperor set out on his return, and reached Ajmer on 22 June, 1710.