The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.81

v4.c20.81

There were some serious Hindu risings in Mālwa and Bihār late in this reign, but owing to different causes. Pahār Singh, a Gaur Rājput petty chief of Indrakhi in western Bundelkhand and an imperial commandant, took the side of Lāl Singh Khīchī against the latter’s oppressive overlord Anurudh Singh Hārā of Būndī, a loyal general of the emperor, and defeated Anurudh and plundered his camp and baggage (1685). He then broke with the imperial government and took to plundering the villages of Mālwa. Rāi Mulūk Chand, the assistant of the governor of Mālwa, attacked and slew the rebel at the end of the year, but the rising continued under Pahār Singh’s son, Bhagwant, who totally defeated Mulūk Chand near Āntrī but was himself killed (March, 1686). Devī Singh, another son of Pahār Singh, joined Chhatra Sāl in plundering imperial territory in Bundelkhand. We find more rebels of this Gaur family active and troublesome up to 1692, when they were pacified by receiving employment in the imperial army. Gangā Rām Nāgar, the revenue officer of Khān Jahān, managed his master’s assignments in Allahābād and Bihār while the Khān was campaigning in the Deccan. The other servants of the Khān jealously poisoned his ears against his absent officer, and Gangā Rām, after clearing his reputation once or twice, flew to arms in disgust and in despair of his life and honour. Collecting some 4000 soldiers he plundered the city of Bihār, laid siege to Patna, and set up a bogus prince Akbar, calling upon the people to rally round his standard (April, 1681). The siege of Patna was raised by imperial reinforcements, but Gangā Rām, after looting some other places, went over to the Rājput rebels in Mālwa and plundered Sironj (October, 1684). Shortly afterwards he died. Rāo Gopāl Singh Chandrāwat, the chief of Rāmpura in Mālwa and an imperial captain, rebelled when the emperor gave that estate to his son Ratan Singh as the price of his conversion to Islām (1700). But he was defeated and forced to submit. In 1706 he joined the Marāthās for a living and accompanied them in the sack of Barodā.