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The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21: Chapter XIII. The Hyderābād State (1724–1762)

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21

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English

Contents

Chapter XIII. The Hyderābād State (1724–1762)

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NIZĀM-UL-MULK (Qamar-ud-dīn, Chīn Qilich Khān, Khān Daurān) had held the viceroyalty of the Mughul Deccan once in 1713–14 and again from 1720 to 1722, and though in February, 1722, he migrated to Delhi to take up the post of chief minister of the empire, he retained his Deccan appointment by means of his agents. Early in 1724, in despair of reforming the government of Delhi, he set out for the Deccan, with the secret intention of resigning the more responsible office. The intrigue by which his enemies sought to destroy his position in the Deccan by urging his deputy Mubāriz Khān to usurp power there, and the failure of the plan and death of Mubāriz Khān in the battle of Shakarkhelda, have been related in chap. XII. This one blow was decisive, and its effect was completed by the Nizām's wise conciliation of his dead rival's son and his peaceful acquisition of Golconda by liberal gifts (early in 1725). In a short time the entire Mughul Deccan was brought under his control and the revenue began to be collected regularly. The emperor recognised the accomplished fact by "pardoning" the Nizām and confirming him in the viceroyalty of the Deccan, with the title of Āsaf Jāh (June, 1725). This was the foundation of the present state of Hyderābād.

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When in 1724 Nizām-ul-Mulk went to the Deccan for the last time as its governor, he dropped the curtain on one act of his career and began a new one. All his aspirations for restoring the power and prestige of the Mughul empire and guiding the government from its centre, as its minister, were abandoned, for he felt that the mean and jealous favourites of the fickle emperor would not let him do anything, and he was not the man to agree to a passive sleepy existence like Muhammad Amīn Khān, his predecessor, or Muhammad Amīn's son, his successor. He thus set out for the Deccan, determined to make it a stage on which he could at least play a man's part and build up a political structure that would justify his title of "Regulator of the Realm".

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In the history of the Mughul Deccan, too, a new scene opens with the battle of Shakarkhelda. The constant succession of short-term viceroys, the discord due to the six divisions being held by six different officers, and the civil strife between rivals for the viceroyalty, henceforth ceased. There was now one ruler over the whole tract; he made it his home and planted his dynasty there; and he had not to take his orders from a far-off master. His strong arm brought peace to that unhappy land harried by war for forty years since the invasion of Aurangzīb. Ambitious local officers, rebel chieftains and robber leaders thought twice before challenging the vanquisher of Dilāvar ‘Alī, ‘Ālim ‘Alī and Mubāriz Khān. This enforcement of law and order, coupled with his moderate revenue assessment and strict prohibition of illegal cesses, gave security to the peasant and the trader, and the wealth of the country increased rapidly.

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It was a splendid heritage into which Āsaf Jāh had entered. The six Deccan provinces had a standard revenue of 160 million rupees, against 170 million from the other twelve provinces of the Indian empire taken together; and though the actual collection here had now fallen to 130 million or even less, it was still larger than what came to the impoverished exchequer of Delhi, and was capable of rapid improvement under an orderly and beneficent administration. For the land in the old Qutb Shāhī kingdom was exceedingly fertile and its wealth had excited the cupidity of prince Aurangzīb in 1654, when he described it to his father as “a spacious kingdom, well cultivated, rich in mines of diamond, crystal etc.—a money-yielding country, unmatched by the imperial dominions”. Its annexe of the eastern Carnatic was proverbially rich, “a kingdom by itself”. Bījāpur, though less favoured by nature, was enriched by the tributes of a wide belt of vassal states on its south and west, which made it the richest among the six provinces, Hyderābād being a close second. The population in Hyderābād and Berār was dense and industrious. Such a soil required only peace to yield gold, and that peace Āsaf Jāh’s long and uninterrupted rule for a quarter of a century assured to it.

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After the victory of Shakarkhelda, the terror of Āsaf Jāh’s arms and the high reputation for capacity and spirit which he had brought with him cowed his own refractory subjects. But the Marāthās were an ever present menace to his state and proved his chief preoccupation throughout his rule, and they succeeded in nibbling away his state when he was no more. And yet he was sincerely desirous of living at peace with them. He had seen with his own eyes how the whole force of the empire wielded by a sovereign of the stamp of Aurangzīb for twenty-five years had failed to crush the Marāthā people. Āsaf Jāh therefore recognised the basic truth that the Marāthās were the native landowners of the Deccan and that the Mughul governor of that country must cultivate their friendship if he was to live at all. On the other side, Rājā Shāhū too was eager to remain on good terms with the Mughul government and to avoid war at all costs. Completely enervated by his long captivity in Aurangzīb’s harem, constitutionally weak and unenterprising, faced with disobedience and tumult by many of his own subjects, the Marāthā king was content with the *chauth* and *sardeshmukhī* which had been legally granted to him by the Delhi sovereign in 1718, so long as he could collect them in peace.¹ Thus, the principals on the two sides sincerely sought peace and the maintenance of the *status quo* established in 1718, but their followers forced their hands.

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¹ Chap. xi, p. 338.

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The Nizām rightly claimed to enter into the full territorial legacy of Aurangzīb in the Deccan, modified only by the grant of 1718. This completely barred the expansion of the Marāthā race and threatened to coop them up for ever within the narrow limits of Shivājī's small possessions in their homeland. Then began the inevitable clash between a legitimate but static authority and the dynamic spirit of expansion of a new people trying to find its place in the sun, which was witnessed a century and a half earlier when the Elizabethan adventurers burst upon the lawful Spanish government of the New World. There were some distinct centres of friction. The Nizām's possession of Bāglān blocked the easiest path for Marāthā penetration into Gujarāt; similarly, his province of Khāndesh lay across their way to Mālwa. Much of the true home of the Marāthā race, like the districts of Junnar and Ahmadnagar, still owned Mughul sway. In the closing years of his life the triumphant Marāthās swept onwards to raid the eastern Carnatic and also penetrated into the Kanarese country southwards (Savanūr, Bednūr, etc.), and squeezed the Nizām's tribute-payers there, while in the north-east the Bhonsles of Nāgpur conquered the Gond rajas and encroached upon the Deccan province of Berār.

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Shāhū's authority as king was so little backed by force and was recognised by so few of the Marāthās that it was beyond his power to control the actions of the free-lances and adventurers among his nominal subjects and effectively keep them out of the Mughul Deccan. Thus, the regular payment of the stipulated contribution (*chauth*) did not invariably safeguard the Nizām's dominions from Marāthā depredation.

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One of Āsaf Jāh's earliest acts, after taking full possession of his charge (1725), was to make an agreement with the Marāthās. The *chauth* of the Deccan provinces having been granted by the emperor by a royal rescript, Āsaf Jāh had to recognise the settled fact. But he did what was possible in the circumstances to save his realm from ruinous occupation and unlimited extortion by a host of greedy Marāthā tribute-collectors and their troops. He settled with Rājā Shāhū that in respect of the province of Hyderābād he would himself pay the amount of the tribute in cash from his treasury, so that no Marāthā collector need enter his dominions for the money. Unauthorised extra taxes (like the *sardeshmukhī* and *rāhdārī*), which the Marāthās used to realise in the Mughul Deccan by sharing with the former governors, were definitely abolished. This arrangement was concluded on Shāhū's behalf by his minister, Shrīnivās Rāo, while the Peshwā Bājī Rāo advocated a more aggressive and ambitious policy. Its details had not been fully worked out and the agreement had not been put into actual operation before war broke out. The Nizām encountered opposition in taking possession of the Mughul territories in the Kanarese districts (south-west), while Marāthā raiders disturbed the country west and south of Aurangābād.

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Unable to keep the Marāthās within their own limits, Āsaf Jāh took refuge in diplomatic machination. Malcontents among Shāhū’s subjects and those ministers of his government who were jealous of the Peshwā’s ascendancy all found welcome at the Nizām’s court. By their advice, he planned to create division and weakness in the Marāthā state by undertaking to instal Shambhūjī of Kolhāpur (the first cousin of Shāhū) as the head of the Marāthā royal family (*Chhatrapati*) and to make an equal partition of Shivājī’s kingdom between the two cousins. He attached the ancestral estate (*watan*) of the house of Shivājī, which Shāhū had so long enjoyed and to which Shāhū like all other Marāthās felt an almost religious attachment. The attempt ultimately failed through the utter incapacity of the Nizām’s puppet Chhatrapati and the unreliability of his Marāthā allies, but mainly because of the superior genius and energy of Bājī Rāo. It left behind it two results very harmful to the Nizām’s interests: Shāhū was bitterly estranged from him, and Bājī Rāo’s ascendancy in the council of his king became unrivalled.

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Shambhūjī of Kolhāpur had gone to Āsaf Jāh in October, 1726, and kept claiming to be placed on Shivājī’s throne. Two great Marāthā nobles, Rambhā Nimbālkar and Chandra Sen Jādav (the ex-commander-in-chief of Shāhū), were on the Nizām’s side. Shāhū’s officer (*Rājādnyā*) Chimnājī Dāmodar joined Shambhūjī in 1727 and became his prime minister. Several captains of lesser note like Thorat were also in the same camp. With their support, Āsaf Jāh assembled a large army for the invasion of Mahārāshtra in November, 1727, in the interests of Shambhūjī. But his plan leaked out, Shāhū learnt of it long in advance, warned all his fort garrisons to be carefully on the defensive, and struck the first blow by launching Bājī Rāo upon the Nizām’s dominions. The Peshwā, passing west of Pārner, forded the Godāvarī at Puntambe, and skirting the larger cities like Baizāpur and Aurangābād some distance on their west and north, burst into the Jālna and Sindhkhed districts at the end of October and sacked the country right and left. But now at last the Nizām was on the move; his advanced division led by ‘Iwaz Khān attacked the Marāthā bands dispersed for plunder (17 November) and beat them back. Bājī Rāo, avoiding pitched battles, began a series of bewilderingly rapid marches, which completely baffled and exhausted his enemy. In fact, in this cross-country race over a vast broken country, the Nizām, with his mail-clad heavy cavalry and cumbrous artillery, was completely out-manœuvred by the Marāthā light horse and toiled painfully behind it without being able to prevent its ravages or to bring it to an action. After a feint against Burhānpur, Bājī Rāo made a dash eastwards to Mangrūl, beyond Bāsim in the extreme east of Berār (20 December), and then turning sharply to the north-west, crossed the Tāptī some distance west of Chopra (30 December) and the Narbadā at the Bābā Piārā ford (14 January, 1728), and arrived within twenty-five miles of Broach. Then he swooped down due south, spending a fortnight near Songarh (forty-five miles east of Surat), and doubled back northwards across the Tāptī and the Narbadā to the ‘Alī Mohan country (fifty miles east of Baroda city) on 11 February. From this point he was recalled by news of the danger to Poona and reached Betāvad (twenty miles north of Dhulia in west Khāndesh) on 24 February.

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In the meantime the Nizām, worn out by his long and futile marches, had wisely changed his plan of war. Giving up the pursuit of the elusive Bājī Rāo, he in full force entered the Poona district now denuded of defenders, his vanguard under Turktāz Khān opening the way. Nothing could stand against him. Rājā Shāhū and Chimājī (the Peshwā’s brother and agent at court) took refuge in Purandar fort; every military station and town in the Poona district submitted to the Nizām in terror and was placed in charge of some agent of Shambhūjī. One fort alone, Udāpur, made a bold defence and had to be taken by bombardment. Finally, the Nizām entered Poona city, proclaimed Shambhūjī’s authority over the country, and celebrated that raja’s marriage with a princess of Rāmnagar.

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All this time, owing to Bājī Rāo’s rapid marches, Shāhū had received little news of his position and success, and was frantically writing to him to come back for the defence of his home. From Betāvad, Bājī Rāo turned southwards, crossed the Ajanta range at Kāsār ghāt¹ about 28 February, and like a master strategist ensured the automatic relief of Poona by marching upon the Nizām’s capital Aurangābād. While he was sacking the Gandāpur and Baizāpur districts west of that city, the Nizām evacuated the Poona district, deposited his camp and baggage at Ahmadnagar, and then on 4 March set out in light marching order to overtake Bājī Rāo. But the Peshwā, by his “Cossack-like tactics”, plundered on both sides of the Nizām’s line of advance, stopped his grain supply, and harassed his troops at every difficult place like a watercourse or ravine. At last the Nizām was manœuvred into a broken waterless ground near Palkhed (twelve miles east of Baizāpur and twenty miles west of Daulatābād) and completely hemmed in (11 March). However, after undergoing unspeakable hardship, he cut his way out, but in utter disgust at the worthlessness of his Marāthā allies, he gave up the plan of backing Shambhūjī. Negotiations were opened with Bājī Rāo and a treaty was made at Shevgāon (22 March) by which the Nizām abandoned Shambhūjī’s cause, gave up several forts as security for the payment of the tribute (including all arrears), and made Rambhā Rāo Nimbālkar transfer “the Twelve Māvals” (western Poona and Nāsik) to Bājī Rāo. Shāhū’s collectors were restored to all their former places and the Nizām returned to Hyderābād. It was a complete triumph for Shāhū.

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¹ Twenty miles due east of Manmād railway junction and the same distance north of Baizāpur.

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But this treaty did not bring peace, any more than the former settlement of the Hyderābād tribute had done. Though there were no more regular wars between the Nizām and Shāhū’s government, the events of 1727 left behind them a spirit of mutual suspicion and alarm which continued for the next four years, with occasional conflicts between local officers and small invading bands of both sides. Shambhūjī having been cast off as a broken tool, the Nizām formed a plot with Trimbak Rāo Dābhāde (the Marāthā commander-in-chief, jealous of the Brāhman Peshwā) and many other malcontents to crush Bājī Rāo. But before the two allies could complete their musters and effect a junction, Bājī Rāo’s alertness again triumphed. Hastening to Gujarāt he slew Dābhāde near Dabhoi (12 April, 1731) and broke up his party. In the preceding month the Nizām had gone to Burhānpur, suppressed a rebel, Mohan Singh, and held secret consultations with Muhammad Khān Bangash (the new viceroy of Mālwā) on the bank of the Narbadā, and now after a fruitless chase of Bājī Rāo through Khāndesh and Bāglān, he returned to Aurangābād. Unsuccessful in war, the Nizām at last entered into a secret compact with Bājī Rāo, by which the Marāthā government promised to leave the Deccan unmolested and to levy nothing beyond the stipulated *chauth* and *sardeshmukhī* from them, while the Nizām agreed to remain neutral during the projected Marāthā invasions of Hindustān, provided that they did not injure his province of Khāndesh in their northward march through it. This pact was confirmed during Bājī Rāo’s visit to the Nizām in the Christmas week of 1732. Thus Marāthā ambition was diverted to the north, and the heart of the Mughal Deccan enjoyed comparative peace.

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During the next four years, the government of the Deccan followed an even course, only disturbed by minor Marāthā raids here and there. The Nizām used to go out on tour every winter and return to Aurangābād or Burhānpur for cantoning during the rainy season. He collected tribute from his dependents, like the Rājās of (western) Kanara and the Pathān Nawābs, and attended to the normal administration, following his usual practice of changing the local officers every two years.

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When in 1736–37 the Marāthās carried their depredations to the gates of Delhi, the emperor repeatedly wrote to Āsaf Jāh to come to his aid. The Nizām reached Delhi on 13 July, 1737. His defeat by Bājī Rāo at Bhopāl (December, 1737) and the humiliating treaty (16 January, 1738) by which he extricated himself, his passive participation in the battle of Karnāl with Nādir Shāh (24 February, 1739), and his quarrels with the emperor’s new favourites after the departure of Nādir, do not belong to the history of the Deccan and have been dealt with elsewhere. A second time despairing of reforming his master's government or even of preserving his own honour in that worthless court, he finally left Delhi on 7 August, 1740, and returned to Burhānpur on 19 November.

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Here he found a perilous situation created by the ambition of his second son Nāsir Jang, whom he had left in the Deccan as his deputy during his three and a half years' absence in northern India. This young noble was of a fiery impetuous nature, in contrast with his father's cool and far-sighted judgment and perfect self-control. Taking advantage of the shock given to the imperial power by Nādir's invasion and Āsaf Jāh's absence, the Marāthās achieved some conspicuous successes. Raghūjī Bhonsle of Nāgpur slew the Mughal governor of Berār (January, 1738) and exacted contribution from Ellichpur. Chimājī raided the environs of Burhānpur. Gopāl Rāo seized the fort of Māhur (in Berār). In April, 1739, Bājī Rāo began to confiscate grants near the capital of Khāndesh, but retired at the end of next month on hearing of Nādir's retreat. In the winter of 1739-40 he renewed his depredations south of Aurangābād, but Nāsir Jang sallied out and drove him beyond the Godāvarī. For one month (28 January-29 February, 1740) there was daily marching and fighting. At last a meeting was arranged between the two chiefs and peace was made by granting the districts of Khargon and Handiya to the Peshwā.

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Shortly afterwards Bājī Rāo died. Nāsir Jang, now freed of all enemies at home, formed the plan of usurping the government of the Deccan from his aged and absent father. Evil counsellors gathered round the hot-headed youth, who began to act with unrestrained caprice and tyranny.

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This news brought Āsaf Jāh to Burhānpur, where he halted for two months, trying to reason with his son. Many of the rebel's adherents took this opportunity to come over to the Nizām's side. Nāsir Jang, unable to face his father in the field, sought asylum at the tomb of Shāh Burhān-ud-dīn. The Nizām crossed the Tāptī on 16 January, 1741, and after a friendly meeting with the new Peshwā Bālājī Rāo on the bank of the Purnā (at 'Ādilābād), crossed the Kāsār pass, and reached Aurangābād in March. Nāsir Jang, in fear of his father, fled to Mulher fort (in Bāglān), but while the Nizām's forces were dispersed in cantonments for the rains, the rebel returned to Aurangābād at the head of 7000 horse, on 2 August, 1741. Āsaf Jāh boldly rode out of the city with his small escort but strong artillery and encamped at the 'Īdgāh outside. In the next day's battle, most of the rebel captains fled away, Nāsir Jang was taken prisoner, and his chief counsellor Shāh Nawāz Khān (the future author of *Maāsir-ulumarā*) went into hiding for five years.

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After suppressing his son's rebellion, Āsaf Jāh engaged himself for some time in exacting tribute from refractory dependents, and then his attention was drawn to the Carnatic. This rich province, with its capital at Arcot, was governed by an Arab family of the Navāit clan, which had offended the Marāthās and the Nizām alike by neglecting to pay to the former the annual compensation agreed upon for the relinquishment of Shivājī’s forts and territories in that region, and to the latter the homage and surplus revenue (1,200,000 rupees a year) due to him as the supreme representative of the emperor in the south. Besides, in 1737 Chanda Sāhib, the son-in-law of the ruling Nawāb of Arcot, had seized Trichinopoly and many other places in the Marāthā kingdom of Tanjore by treachery, with the Nawāb’s support. But a Marāthā army, 10,000 strong, led by Fath Singh and Raghūjī Bhonsle, started from Sātārā on 17 January, 1740, invaded Arcot, defeated and slew its Nawāb Dost ‘Alī (31 May), and took from his successor Safdar ‘Alī a promise of ten million rupees as indemnity. On 6 April, 1741, they captured Trichinopoly, made Chanda Sāhib prisoner, and left Murārī Rāo Ghorpare as their governor there. On 13 October, 1742, Safdar ‘Alī was murdered by his cousin Murtazā ‘Alī and the whole province fell into anarchy.

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Āsaf Jāh set out from Hyderābād in January, 1743, with a vast force, and after establishing his authority at Arcot, laid siege to Trichinopoly in March. Murārī, at the head of 2000 horse and 4000 foot, held out for five months, but evacuated the fort on 25 August and left the province with all his Marāthās. Āsaf Jāh took from the Rājā of Tanjore a million rupees in cash and three and a half millions in promises, left Trichinopoly in October, and at Arcot deposed the family of Safdar ‘Alī and installed his own agent Anvar-ud-dīn as its Nawāb. When, in January, 1744, he reached the bank of the Krishnā on his return journey, he found his passage threatened by a large Marāthā force on the opposite bank and fell back three marches. But their opposition was removed by “treaty, which was more agreeable (than war) to the Nizām’s general method of proceeding”,¹ and he reached Aurangābād in April. The other notable events of his last years were the capture of Bālkonda (sixteen miles south of Nirmal) from a rebel noble (1746) and a terrible famine which desolated Gujarāt and the Deccan (1747), grain selling at 1½ seers a rupee.² Since his return from the Carnatic, Āsaf Jāh’s health had visibly declined, and at last he died at the Mohan Nālā, outside Burhānpur, on 1 June, 1748, at the age of seventy-nine lunar years. Besides liberally patronising Muslim theologians and holy men, scholars and poets, from all parts of India and the outer Islāmic world, he himself wrote Persian poetry, filling two volumes. Among his constructions are the new walls of Burhānpur city (replacing the dilapidated walls built by Aurangzib to keep Marāthā raiders out), a new city named Nizāmābād above the ruined pass of Fardāpur, protective walls round Hyderābād city, and the Harsul canal running through Aurangābād.

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¹ *Madras Consultations.*

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² About 10*d.* a pound.

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For a quarter of a century Āsaf Jāh had been the most outstanding personality in the Mughal empire. He was universally regarded as the sole representative of the spacious times of Aurangzīb and of the policy and traditions of that strenuous monarch. The higher minds among the younger generation of the court nobility looked up to him with the respect due to a father, while fools and knaves hated him for his love of discipline and honesty of administration. He was undoubtedly the foremost general of his time in India. In statecraft and diplomacy he was no less eminent. He had the true statesman's length of vision and spirit of moderation, and of this we have many proofs. He won over the surviving partisans of Mubāriz Khān by liberal provision for their support. After crushing the rebellion of his son Nāsir Jang, he destroyed unread the rebel's despatch-box, which was reported to contain promises of adhesion from thirty-eight nobles of his own court. Still more strongly was his wisdom shown when in 1739, Nādir Shāh, disgusted with the imbecility of Muhammad Shāh, offered the throne of Delhi to Āsaf Jāh, but the latter refused to be disloyal to his master. On his deathbed he gave his son Nāsir Jang several pieces of very good counsel—telling him to live on good terms with the Marāthās, to abstain from putting men to death except by the judge's sentence, to scorn repose and frequently to go out on tours, to live laborious days in doing state business, to respect the rights of his servants and treat every man in a manner worthy of his position, to be loyal to his king, and not to provoke war by aggression. The only wrong policy that he followed and recommended to his son was that of removing his local officers after only a year or two of service and putting new men in their places, on the strange ground that thus "a large number of God's creatures would be fed".¹ In fact, in spite of his possessing exceptional military capacity, his conduct was throughout marked by prudence, the avoidance of waste or unnecessary expenditure, and simplicity of living, worthy of a pupil of Aurangzīb.

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¹ *Hadīqat*, ii, 179–180.

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With the death of Āsaf Jāh a change came over the scene. The striking inferiority of his successors to him in ability and character was aggravated by the domination of Indian warfare by the European system which requires far larger and far more punctual expenditure on troops and munitions than was necessary in the middle ages. Now more than ever before the life of the state depended on the regular collection and wise expenditure of the revenue. But Āsaf Jāh's sons had not half his skill in war and diplomacy, nor even the wisdom to choose able instruments and confide in them. After his death we find frequent change of ministers and of the *fainéant* ruler's guiding genius, the *Vakīl-i-mutlaq* (corresponding to the Peshwā in the Marāthā kingdom), and consequent mismanagement of the finances and shrinkage of revenue.¹ The state, faced with constant deficit, could not pay its troops; hence arose mutinies, and finally the pernicious system of mortgaging the revenue and government of districts to the creditors of the state, which inflicted untold misery on the subject population and which in the nineteenth century required all the genius of Sālār Jang and the strong support of wise British Residents to root out. Under Āsaf Jāh’s successors we have a repetition of the scene of the declining ‘Abbāsid Caliphate: “A brilliant and extravagant Court, where the arts flourished and hospitality and charity were practised on an immense scale, was supported by a rapacious hierarchy of peculative officials, who were always striving to extort a fortune from their functions before the Court should pounce upon their corruption.”

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¹ For Berār, Khāndesh, Aurangābād and Bīdar, the revenue amounted to 37 million rupees in 1785, against nearly 79 million in 1725, a reduction to less than one-half (Jagjīvandās).

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The indigenous troops of the Hyderābād government were in-effective when pitted against the native forces of the Peshwā or Tīpū Sultān, and its sole defenders were the French and then the English.

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On the cultural side the picture was equally dark. Light came to Hyderābād under the Āsaf Jāhī dynasty, but not progress. Its rulers continued to dream the dreams of Aurangzīb’s reign and to live in the seventeenth century. Titles of hyperbolical sound and fury but signifying no real worth were profusely showered among the officials, regardless of the great Āsaf Jāh’s threat of flogging.

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The modern spirit was shut out with the scorn bred of ignorance. The impact of the west, which was causing a marvellous renaissance in the British provinces and breathing a new life into the dry bones of Hindu society and thought, left Hyderābād untouched. Thus it happened that the intellectual leadership of Indian Islām eluded the grasp of the foremost Muhammadan state in India.

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At the time of Āsaf Jāh’s death, his eldest son Mīr Muhammad Panāh (Ghāzi-ud-dīn Khān) was living in Delhi as his father’s deputy at court. The viceroyalty of the Deccan was seized by his second son Nāsir Jang, who had for some years past acted as his father’s lieutenant and being present on the spot could easily get hold of his treasures and troops. At the secret invitation of the emperor he started for Delhi with the object of overthrowing the new minister Safdar Jang, but had to return from the bank of the Narbadā (5 June, 1749), as the emperor was cowed by his minister and ordered Nāsir Jang to go back, formally creating him viceroy of the Deccan with the title of Nizām-ud-Daula. At this time Āsaf Jāh’s daughter’s son, Muzaffar Jang, claiming the viceroyalty, went to the Carnatic in concert with Chanda Sāhib, an aspirant to the Nawābship of Arcot, who had recently secured release from a Marāthā prison. The two allies bought the help of Dupleix (July)¹ and gained Arcot after killing its Nawāb. Nāsir Jang, with a vast army of 70,000 horse and 100,000 foot, marched to the Carnatic, came upon his enemies near Valudavūr (end of March, 1750), secured the abject surrender of Muzaffar Jang (5 April), and returned to Arcot. But on 16 December he was shot dead by Himmat Khān, the Pathān chief of Kurnool, during a treacherous attack on his camp by the French under Dupleix's orders, twenty miles north of Gingee.²

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¹ See vol. v, p. 126.

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² See vol. v, p. 127.

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The French raised Muzaffar Jang to the viceroyalty and marched escorting him towards his capital; but on the way, at Lakkaredi-palli (thirty-five miles south of Cuddapah city), the new viceroy fought his Pathān dependent and was slain (13 February, 1751). Bussy, the commander of his French escort, was bribed by his revenue minister Rājā Raghunāth ("a black Brāhman of Chicacole, originally named Rāmdās") to transfer his support to Āsaf Jāh's third son, Salābat Jang, who was at once proclaimed his successor, and ultimately gained from Delhi the titles of Āsaf-ud-daula Zafar Jang and Amīr-ul-mamālik and recognition as viceroy of the Deccan. "Muzaffar Jang was the first to engage Europeans and bring them into the realm of Islām. After his death the French troops continued in the service of Salābat Jang and got (extensive) jagirs, so that they soon became all-in-all in the Deccan" (Āzād Bilgrāmī).

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Bussy soon justified the high price paid for his support. The succession of Salābat Jang was opposed by the Peshwā, who wished the Deccan viceroyalty to be given to Āsaf Jāh's eldest son, Ghāzī-ud-dīn, a tame scholarly priest-ridden man, without any military capacity or ambition, under whom the Peshwā would practically govern the Deccan as his deputy. Bālājī intrigued at the imperial court in favour of Ghāzī-ud-dīn, and at the same time obstructed Salābat Jang's agents in taking possession of their territory. War resulted. But while the Peshwā was entangled in a civil war with his domestic enemies, the Marāthā governors of Gujarāt and Berār, Salābat Jang invaded Mahārāshtra with his French contingent and forced his way towards Poona. The rival forces came into contact on 1 December, 1751, and there was daily fighting, the Marāthās retreating and the Mughuls advancing. In the night of 3 December, the French surprised Bālājī between Arangāon and Sārolā³ on the bank of the Sinā, put him to flight in his undress, slew many of his troops and plundered all their property, including the Peshwā's idols and gold ritual vessels. But Bālājī soon rallied his scattered forces and delivered a counter-attack only five days later, in which many were slain on both sides. Salābat advanced plundering up to Tālegāon Dhāmdhera, eighteen miles north-east of Poona. The campaign, however, ended indecisively owing to scarcity of provisions and dissensions in the Muslim camp. A truce was patched up and Salābat started for his capital in the middle of April, 1752.

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³ Two railway stations, respectively eight and twenty miles south of Ahmadnagar.

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The danger which Salābat Jang dreaded most now approached him. His eldest brother Ghāzī-ud-dīn started (17 May) from Delhi with a strong Marāthā escort, in order to wrest the viceroyalty of the Deccan which had been conferred upon him by the emperor with the titles of Nizām-ul-Mulk, Āsaf Jāh. To meet this invasion, Bussy arranged for Salābat Jang a defensive subsidiary alliance with Bālājī (signed on 5 August), ceding to the Peshwā the province of Khāndesh (reserving only the imperial forts and the city of Burhānpur), the district of Bāglān, and lands yielding 200,000 rupees a year in the Sangamner and Jālna subdivisions, besides tribute for the Carnatic and Hyderābād. The Peshwā on his part promised to defend Salābat Jang against all “who might come to dispute the Deccan with him, even if it were the *vazīr* himself, furnished with the emperor’s authority”, to look after his interests at the imperial court against his enemies, and to keep the Marāthās out of the rest of Mughul Deccan. He also freed Salābat Jang from any liability to pay the six million rupees for which Ghāzī-ud-dīn had given a bond to the Peshwā.¹ But the storm unexpectedly blew over. Ghāzī-ud-dīn was poisoned by his stepmother on 16 October, only seventeen days after his arrival at Aurangābād.

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¹ *Lettres et Conventions*, 261–2.

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Salābat Jang thus gained security, but he had neither civil or military capacity, nor character enough to act of his own will or trust able agents. Throughout his régime he was a mere puppet in the hands of his successive regents who ruled the state, while the intrigues of his courtiers and the mutinies of his unpaid soldiery paralysed the administration. The best of these regents was Samsām-ud-daula Shāh Nawāz Khān (in office, December 1753–July 1757), who succeeded in removing financial insolvency, restoring administrative efficiency, repressing foreign enemies and rebellious vassals, and giving some peace and happiness to the subject population.

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Shāh Nawāz Khān was versed in many branches of knowledge, particularly in history (in which his enduring monument is his *Maāsir-ul-umarā*, or biographical dictionary of the Mughul peers, in three large volumes). High-minded, sympathetic to all, habitually charitable, a lover of justice, dealing directly with suitors in an open court without allowing intermediaries, an expert in financial management and diplomacy alike, “he wrought a magical change during his four years of Chancellorship by his wisdom and administrative genius, converted the insolvency of the State—when household goods had to be sold for feeding the Nizām—into a balanced budget at the end of the fourth year” (*Hadīqat*), and kept the Marāthās within their own limits. If he failed, in the end, to reform the government, [Figure: INDIA IN 1761 Approximate Boundaries – · – · British … Hindu … Muhammadan …]

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it was due to the selfishness and incurable love of intrigue of the entire official class and nobility, the imbecile character of his master, and the domination of the French praetorians. The proved worthlessness of his indigenous troops made Salābat Jang absolutely dependent on the French corps for protection. In his letters he represents himself as a helpless orphan who looked for the defence of his rights to his deceased father’s brother, “mon oncle le Gouverneur Bahadour” Dupleix! (*Lettres et Conventions*, p. 267).

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In 1754 Shāh Nawāz exacted 500,000 rupees as tribute from Raghūjī of Nāgpur, and arrested Surjā Rāo, the rebel officer of Nirmal. Next year he sent the Nizām to Mysore and levied over five million. Early in 1756, he repulsed Jānojī Bhonsle’s officers who were raiding Bīdar, and by a friendly alliance with the Peshwā reduced the Pathān Nawābs of Bankāpur and Savanūr to obedience. A year later he subdued Rāmchandra Nimbālkar, the Marāthā grantee of Bhālkī. The imperial forts of Asīr and Daulatābād—the greatest in the Deccan—were gained for the Nizām by bribery. But his attempt to rid his master of French domination led to Shāh Nawāz Khān’s fall. These foreign troops had been constantly troubling the Government for their pay of 2,900,000 rupees a year. They now demanded the great fort of Bīdar in addition to holding vast districts in Chicacole and Rājahmundry. Bussy’s chief of artillery, Ibrāhīm Khān Gārdī, was seduced by Nizām ‘Alī, and Shāh Nawāz induced Salābat Jang to dismiss the French corps. Bussy took leave to go to his grants in Chicacole, but on the way he seized the city of Hyderābād, and stood at bay in the Chaumahalla palace (14 June, 1756). Here he received from Pondicherry a reinforcement of 300 Europeans and 2000 Gārdī troops under M. Law. Salābat and Shāh Nawāz failed to dislodge Bussy after a two months’ siege, and at last had to make peace with him (August).

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Within a year of this, French intrigue succeeded in overthrowing the great minister. The pay of the army was due for two years, and “instigated by others” the soldiers caused a riot in the city and forced the Nizām to dismiss Shāh Nawāz (23 July, 1757) and appoint the pro-French Basālat Jang as regent. A terrible popular rising broke out that day; the ruffians and the mob of the city wanted to sack Shāh Nawāz’s house; but two nights later he escaped to Daulatābād, abandoning his house to plunder. Profiting by this internal division, the Peshwā’s son Vishvās Rāo invaded the country east of Aurangābād. So, Salābat made terms with Shāh Nawāz and induced him to return (13 November). But all power now passed into the hands of Nizām ‘Alī, who was appointed heir and regent. The campaign of Nizām ‘Alī against the Peshwā in the Sindkhed region ended in a peace by which the Marāthās gained two and a half million rupees worth of land in the Deccan and the fort of Naldrug (January, 1758).

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All this time Bussy and his force had been absent on the east coast.

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They now returned to Aurangābād, where Bussy's manager Haidar Jang completely deceived Shāh Nawāz, seduced Nizām ‘Alī's army by paying 800,000 rupees, and at last, on 5 April, 1758, caused Shāh Nawāz to be arrested. Salābat Jang himself was placed under a French guard. Haidar was planning to imprison Nizām ‘Alī and to seize the supreme power, when he himself was treacherously murdered by that prince (12 May), who escaped the vengeance of the French brigade by "marvellous skill and bravery". A riot raged through the city, in the course of which Shāh Nawāz and his son were murdered in prison by Lachhmanā, an officer of the French corps. The new regent Basālat Jang (the fifth son of Āsaf Jāh) proved a cypher. The French star waned as the English asserted their armed superiority in the Carnatic in the Seven Years’ War. These disasters reacted on the French position at the Nizām's court. Bussy was recalled by Lally to the Madras coast (June, 1758). Nizām ‘Alī came back to Hyderābād, and after some quarrel among the three brothers succeeded in being invested with all power *vice* Basālat Jang dismissed (June, 1759).

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The Nizām's army, deprived of its French corps and Ibrāhīm Khān Gārdī's artillery (the latter having entered the Peshwā's service now), was reduced to helplessness. On the other hand, the strength and ambition of the Marāthās proportionately increased from the adhesion of Ibrāhīm Khān, which stiffened their "myriads of light horse" with French-drilled modern artillery. The Peshwā renewed war with the Nizām; his cousin Sadāshiv Bhāo gained the important fort of Ahmadnagar by terms (9 November, 1759). A vast Marāthā army under the Peshwā's brother Raghunāth and cousin Sadāshiv, with Ibrāhīm Gārdī's artillery, began the invasion in the beginning of January, 1760. Nizām ‘Alī with Salābat Jang issued forth to oppose them and reached Udgīr on the 11th. Daily fighting began immediately. Hopelessly outnumbered, the Nizām planned to force his way to Dharūr and join a large body of his troops who were detained there. The Mughul force, only 7000 strong, was completely enveloped by 60,000 Marāthā horse, its progress impeded, and its supplies cut off. "This time the Cossack-tactics of the Marāthās were combined with the European mode of warfare (of Ibrāhīm Khān Gārdī) against the Nizām." The march from Udgīr to Ausā was a long drawn agony. The small Mughul army, slowly moving in the open field in close column, presented a sure target to the French-drilled artillery hovering round, while the dispersed and wheeling Marāthā horse were practically safe from their enemy's fire. It was the situation of Pānīpat inverted in favour of the Marāthās. When on 3 February the Nizām reached Ausā, forty miles south of Dharūr, 40,000 Marāthās attacked his rear-guard, which was straggling some miles behind, and a great disaster fell on it, all the commanders and most of the men being killed. The victorious Marāthās then fell upon the Mughul centre and the battle raged till sunset. The Nizām’s army was in no condition to fight any more. So, he made peace by ceding territory, yielding six million rupees in the province of Aurangābād, half of Bījāpur and Bīdar, the forts of Asīr, Daulatābād and Mulher, and the cities of Bījāpur and Burhānpur to the Peshwā (February, 1760). The descendants of Āsaf Jāh retained nothing more than Hyderābād, some parts of the province of Bījāpur, and a little of Bīdar, and that, too, on condition of paying the Marāthās one-fourth of the revenue.

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This was the apogee of Marāthā success. Nemesis came at Pānīpat within one year, followed by the death of Bālājī Rāo, the succession of his minor son, and the internal dissensions caused by the guilty ambition of his brother Raghunāth Rāo, which paralysed the Marāthā power. Seizing this opportunity, Nizām ‘Alī invaded Mahārāshtra in November, 1761, and made his way to within fourteen miles of Poona. The Peshwā made peace (2 January, 1762), relinquishing nearly half of his father’s territorial gains in the Mughul Deccan. Nizām ‘Alī returned to Bīdar, seized the government, and threw Salābat Jang into prison (6 July, 1762), where the latter died two years later. The shadowy emperor of Delhi sanctioned the usurpation by creating Nizām ‘Alī viceroy with the titles of Nizām-ul-mulk Āsaf Jāh II.

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With the accession of Nizām ‘Alī (1762) a long period of stability begins in the affairs of the Mughul Deccan. We have at last one man ruling for forty-one years, and passing an undisputed succession on to his progeny. Family dissensions, except for a short and futile outbreak by his son, end. At the same time the centre of gravity of the Marāthā power slowly shifts from Poona to northern India. The Peshwā’s family was stricken by disease, physical and moral. The ensuing peace could have been utilised for reforming the Hyderābād state and improving its people’s lot, if only there had been wise rulers and honest ministers.

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THE RISE OF THE MARĀTHĀ EMPIRE (1707–1761)

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THE aged emperor Aurangzīb died in February, 1707, worn out by his long guerrilla campaign in the Deccan. His successor, Bahādur Shāh, decided, on the advice of Zu-’l-Fiqār Khān, the viceroy of the Deccan, to put into effect Aurangzīb’s plan of restoring Shāhū, the grandson of Shivājī, who, after the capture and execution of his father Shambhūjī in 1689, had been brought up in the Mughul court. He was not twenty-six years old. Dāūd Khān, the deputy viceroy, who was stationed at Aurangābād, was directed to give him all possible assistance. After Shambhūjī’s death, the direction of Marāthā affairs had fallen into the hands of his half-brother Rājā Rām. Rājā Rām died in 1700, whereupon his widow Tārā Bāī, a strong and masterful woman, declared herself regent for her infant son Shivājī, and profiting by the disorders at Delhi, reconquered Poona and Chākan from the Mughuls. The return of Shāhū, as was intended, threw an apple of discord into the Marāthā camp. Tārā Bāī refused to give up her son’s claims. She declared that Shāhū was an impostor, assembled her ministers, and made them take an oath of fidelity to resist the pretender to the last gasp. Shāhū was granted the customary dues of *chauth* and *sardeshmukhī*¹ of the six Deccan provinces of Khāndesh, Berār, Aurangābād, Bīdar, Hyderābād and Bījāpur, and the governorship of Gondwāna, Gujarāt and Tanjore; all these, of course, he was to hold from the emperor. Starting from north of the Narbadā in May, 1707, he advanced slowly southwards during the rains, entered Sātārā, and was crowned in January, 1708. He made Gadādhar Prahlād his *Pratinidhi*,² Bahiro Pant Pingle his Peshwā, and Dhanājī Jādav his *Senāpati* or commander-in-chief. Tārā Bāī fell back upon Panhālā, the great stronghold twelve miles from Kolhāpur, which became the capital of the rival kingdom. As soon as the rains were over, Shāhū, after celebrating the Dasara, the festival which marks the opening of the campaigning season, marched against Tārā Bāī and took Panhālā. In 1712, Tārā Bāī was removed from the administration by a palace intrigue, and her place was taken by her co-wife Rājas Bāī, who claimed the throne for her son Shambhūjī;³ but this did not help Shāhū, whose hold on his new kingdom became every day more precarious. Very few of the great Marāthā leaders had espoused his cause, and his rule was practically confined to his capital, and a few hill-forts garrisoned by his commanders. The Deccan was in a state of open anarchy. The Deshmukhs and petty chiefs had fortified themselves in the villages in which they resided, and plundered caravans, held up travellers to ransom, and made war on one another with impunity. The new viceroy of the Deccan, Chīn Qilīch Khān, who succeeded Dāūd Khān at Aurangābād in 1712 with the title of Nizām-ul-Mulk, was inclined to favour the Kolhāpur party, and Chandra Sen Jādav, the Senāpati, who had assumed that office on the death of his father Dhanājī in 1708, had gone over to Kolhāpur, owing to a disagreement with Shāhū. This disagreement led to the rise of a very remarkable man, who was destined to become the saviour of his country.

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¹ For the meaning of the terms, see M. G. Ranade, *Rise of the Maratha Power*, chap. xi, and Sen, *Administrative System of the Marathas*, pp. 97, 243.

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² The office of Pratinidhi or King’s Representative was created by Rājā Rām in 1690 and was supernumerary to Shivājī’s Council of Eight. The word Peshwā, or Prime Minister, is Persian, and dates from Muhammad I Bahmanī (1358–77). Shivājī preferred the Sanskrit title Mukhya Pradhān. Briggs, *Ferishta* III, 150 note; Grant Duff, I, 150.

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³ For details, see Kincaid and Parasnis (1931 edition), pp. 204–5.

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Bālājī Vishvānāth was a Chitpāvan or Konkanāstha Brāhman, whose ancestors were hereditary Deshmukhs or revenue officers of Shrīvardhan near Bānkot. His early history is obscure, but towards the end of the seventeenth century his father appears to have migrated to the Deccan and taken service at the Sātārā court.¹ For a time he served under Dhanājī Jādav, the Senāpati, who held him in high esteem and gave him several responsible posts. This aroused the jealousy of Dhanājī’s son Chandra Sen, and shortly after the latter became Senāpati a quarrel broke out which caused Bālājī to flee for his life to Shāhū’s protection. Chandra Sen insolently demanded his surrender from Shāhū, and being refused, proceeded to join the Kolhāpur faction. Bālājī Vishvānāth, in gratitude to Shāhū, made himself invaluable to the king, in whose favour he rose daily higher and higher. He enlisted fresh forces, for which he received the title of *Senākarta*, or “maker of armies”, and came to terms with the Nizām. He next attacked a notorious robber-chief, Dāmājī Thorat of Hingangāon, who, however, defeated him and held him up to ransom. He had better luck in putting down another rebel, Krishna Rāo of Khātāv. Meanwhile, Shāhū had despatched an army under Bahiro Pant Pingle, the Peshwā, to protect the Konkan and overthrow Kānhojī Angria, the hereditary admiral of the Marāthā fleet, who had taken the opportunity afforded by these disorders to ally himself with Kolhāpur, advance up the Bhor Ghāt and seize the forts of Rājmāchī and Lohāgarh, commanding this important highway into the Deccan. But the Peshwā was a mediocre general, and he suffered himself to be defeated and captured. Angria now threatened to march on Sātārā. Shāhū was in despair, and “looked around him to discover a fit person to recover his conquered districts”. He applied to the Pratinidhi, but that officer excused himself on the ground that “the army was not at his devotion”. Then, in the words of the Marāthā chronicler,

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¹ The story of his early years, told by Grant Duff (I, 316), has been modified by later researches. See Kincaid and Parasnis, 202 *sqq.* and Sardesai, *Main Currents of Maratha History*, p. 102.

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he sent for the Eight Pradhāns, communicated to them the accounts he had received, and desired them to take the necessary measures for checking these depredations. They all remained silent. He then looked towards Bālājī, who got up and addressed the Rājā, saying, “If you will give me orders, through your good fortune they will be carried into effect.” Upon this the Rājā placed his hand on Bālājī’s head and desired him to take the troops. The Mahārājā gave him the entire administration of affairs with the robes of the Peshwāship. His fame and greatness were daily augmented; the Eight Pradhāns of the State became subject to him.

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The new Peshwā set about his task with a will. Being himself a Konkanī and an old friend of Angria’s, his task was a comparatively easy one. He arranged a meeting with the Marāthā admiral at a spot not far from the modern town of Lonāvlā, and soon came to terms with him. He persuaded him to release the unfortunate ex-Peshwā, Bahiro Pant Pingle, and to transfer his allegiance from Kolhāpur to Shāhū; in return, he undertook to get him confirmed in the title of *Sarkhel* (admiral) and to allow him to retain possession of Rājmāchī and other strongholds. At the same time, he joined him in attacking Angria’s hereditary enemy, the Sīdī, who was deprived of many of his conquests in the Konkan. This was Bālājī’s first great diplomatic triumph. Kānhojī Angria, however, until his death in 1729, remained an ally rather than a vassal of the Peshwās. The Angrias behaved like independent rulers, making war at will upon their neighbours, the Sīdīs, the Portuguese and the English, and levying what they chose to call “the *chauth* of the Sea” upon coastal traffic. Several expeditions sent against these pests from Bombay were repulsed with loss, until, in 1755, Clive and Watson, co-operating with the Peshwā’s land forces, overthrew their stronghold at Gheria or Vijayadurg, and put an end to their power.¹

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