The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.39

v4.c21.39

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.