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The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.s1: A Note on Marāthī Literature

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.s1

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English

Contents

A Note on Marāthī Literature

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The Marāthās are typical hillmen, independent and freedom-loving, and their language and literature reflect these characteristics. Marāthī is a rugged tongue, with none of the courtly refinements of northern India, and the early poetic literature is the simple, natural expression of religious emotion. The earliest Marāthī poetry is an offshoot of the *Bhakti* movement which swept over India from the twelfth century A.D., and gave such an impetus to the development of vernaculars. Its essential doctrine is that salvation may be attained, independently of priests, ritual and caste, by devotion to the Divine Name. The Deity, whether manifested as Shiva, or Vishnu in his various incarnations, is Bhagavān, the Adorable, and his devotees are the Bhāgavatas. It has been not inaptly compared to the Protestant Reformation in Europe.

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In Mahārāshtra, the central object of devotion was Vithobā, a local form of Vishnu, who dwells at the famous shrine of Pandharpur. It was upon him that the worship of the poet-saints of the Deccan was focused. The earliest writers in Marāthī (as opposed to the Mahārāshtrī Prākrit) belong to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and flourished under the Yādavas, the last Hindu dynasty of the Deccan. They are Mukundrāj, Nāmdev (A.D. 1270–1350) and Jnāneshvar. Their object was to bring the learning of the pundits down to the level of the common people. Jnāneshvar, who lived at Ālandi near Poona, is commonly believed to have made a buffalo recite the Veda! He wrote a paraphrase of the *Bhagavad Gītā*. Nāmdev, a devotee of Vithobā, was a tailor by caste. He wrote in Hindī as well as Marāthī; some of his poems found their way to northern India, and were incorporated in the *Ādi Granth* of the Sikhs.

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For the next three centuries, with the Deccan under the heel of the Muhammadans, no writer of note appeared. Then in the seventeenth century, the national renaissance which culminated in Shivājī began to gather force. The earliest poet of this period was Eknāth of Paithan, who, though a Brāhman, denounced the caste-system, and went so far as to dine with a Mahār, an almost unheard-of action. He died in 1608. His grandson Mukteshvar, together with Tukārām and Rāmdās, was a contemporary of Shivājī. Shivājī, though formally illiterate, was a fervent admirer of his country's songs and legends, and it is said that more than once he risked capture when going to Poona in disguise to hear a religious recitation. He tried to persuade Tukārām to come to his court. But Tukārām, absorbed in his intense love of Vithobā, cared for none of these things. He was a poor trader by profession, knowing no Sanskrit, and his artless verses are sung in countless village homes all over the Deccan to-day. Rāmdās, on the other hand, was a Brāhman, and was Shivājī's *gurū* or spiritual preceptor. It is said that Shivāji surrendered his kingdom to him, and received it back "in trust from God", and for this reason, the national standard of the Marāthās, the *Bhagwā Jhanda*, was the orange robe of the ascetic. The verses of Rāmdās, full of wise saws, remind us of the Proverbs of King Solomon, and his teaching undoubtedly had a formative effect upon Shivāji. He died in 1681.

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The most interesting products of the period, however, are the *pawādās* or ballads. Their most singular characteristic is that they are unwritten, being handed down from generation to generation by the *gondhālīs*, a tribe or caste of wandering bards who composed and recited them. The *gondhālīs* are devotees of the goddess Ambā Bhavānī, and the recitations are accompanied by an elaborate ritual, in which the goddess herself is supposed to descend upon the reciter. The ballads deal with the deeds of the Marāthā heroes in their struggles against the Muhammadans, such as the slaying of Afzal Khān, the taking of Sinhgarh by Tānājī Mālusre, the battle of Khardā, and the tragedy of Pānīpat. These ballads were intensely popular with the unlettered peasantry, and played a great part in arousing them against their Muhammadan rulers.¹

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¹ About sixty were taken down by Acworth and Shaligram, and ten have been translated into verse by H. A. Acworth, *Ballads of the Marāthās*, Longmans, 1894.

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The period after the death of Shivāji witnessed a great outburst of Marāthī poetry, and it will here be possible only to mention a few leading names. Shridhar was the most beloved of the writers of this time, and shares with Tukārām the palm of popularity in the Deccan to-day. His mission was to make the heroic legends of Hinduism accessible to women and others who knew no Sanskrit. The titles of his works, the Triumph of Rāma (Rāma Vijaya) and the Exploits of the Pāndavas, speak for themselves. He was born at Pandharpur in 1670 and died in 1728. "In every town and village in the Deccan and Konkan, especially during the rains, the pious Marāthā will be found enjoying with his family and friends the Pothi of Shridhar." Moropant, admired by connoisseurs for his verbal ingenuity, does not appeal to western taste. Another writer of great interest is Mahīpati, whose *Bhakta Vijaya* and *Santa Vijaya*, Triumphs of the Devotees and Saints, are a mine of information about the picturesque legends which have grown up round the poet-saints of the Deccan.

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During the eighteenth century, the Marāthā character started to change. Poona was filled with loot from Hindūstān, and the manners and ceremonial of the Moghul Court were introduced. Contact with the western nations, especially the English at Bombay and Surat, was beginning to have its effect. Erotic poetry became popular, and Rām Joshī (1762–1812) was the most celebrated of the writers of *Lavanis* or Love Songs. The conquest of an empire, and the appearance of state-papers and despatches, led to the development of Marāthī prose. *Bakhars* or historical chronicles were compiled, but their barbarous idiom, three-quarters Persian, bears little relation to the elegant, highly sanskritised prose style which arose in the nineteenth century, as a result of contact with western literature.

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THE new emperor was a young man of twenty-one, vicious, dissipated, perfidious, pusillanimous, and utterly worthless. The weakness of his character left him, throughout his short reign, a tool in the hands of others, and his natural instinct led him to prefer, as advisers, those least worthy of being associated in the administration of such territories as were left to him. The great nobles were entirely selfish, devoid of patriotism and honour, and interested only in dividing among themselves the remnant of the dominions of the House of Tīmūr. In this ignoble competition they employed intrigue, assassination, and open violence.

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After returning from the inglorious though successful campaign against Ahmad Shāh, they were employed in a redistribution of the great offices at the capital and in the provinces. Mu‘īn-ul-Mulk, a son of the late minister, had already secured the Punjab and had been permitted to leave Sirhind for Lahore after promising to remit large sums to Delhi as tribute, a promise which he was never able to redeem. The vacant place of minister was filled by Safdar Jang, the viceroy of Oudh, who governed his province by deputy. Nizām-ul-Mulk, now an old man in a very feeble state of health, had at once marched northward, but had not passed Burhānpur when he heard first of the defeat of the invader at Sirhind and immediately afterwards of the death of Muhammad and the accession of Ahmad Shāh. Turning back, he died on 1 June 1748 close to Burhānpur. His eldest son being at court, he was succeeded in the Deccan, as a matter of course, by his second son, Nāsir Jang.¹ His title of Amīr-ul-Umarā, with its privileges, was bestowed by Ahmad Shāh on Sādāt Khān, entitled Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang, who had already held high office as governor of the capital.

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¹ See chap. xiii, p. 386.

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These offices of state were apportioned by the great nobles without reference to the personal wishes of the emperor, who tried to retaliate by forming a court faction of personal adherents. His attempt to assert authority may be traced to his mother, a woman of humble origin but pernicious activity. At the head of the party was the chief eunuch, Jāvīd Khān, who received high titles and in return for these unmerited honours taught his master to destroy a naturally feeble intellect by drinking to excess. The court party was, in fact, nothing but a cabal of women and eunuchs who pitted themselves against the great officers of state and their armed forces.

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‘Alī Muhammad Khān, the chief of the Rohillas of Katehr, had been a political prisoner, and in the confusion which ensued on Ahmad Shāh Abdālī’s invasion returned to Morādābād, where he completely re-established his authority. Safdar Jang, a Persian Shiah, detested all Afghāns and viewed with alarm the establishment of an Afghān state on the north-western border of his province. ‘Alī Muhammad Khān died shortly after his return, but Hāfiz Rahmat Khān, the father-in-law of his elder son, Sa‘d-ullah Khān, became regent of his territories. An officer appointed from Delhi as governor of Morādābād, but ill supplied with troops and munitions, ventured to cross the Ganges with a small force. The Rohillas whom he first attacked feigned flight, and pursuing them with triumphant shouts, he and his men were drawn into an ambush, where nearly all were slain.

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Safdar Jang now thought of a new device. During the reigns of Farrukh-siyar and Muhammad Shāh the Afghān soldier of fortune, Muhammad Khān Bangash, had gradually acquired the greater part of the southern portion of the Gangetic Dūāb, from Kol, the modern ‘Alīgarh, nearly to the south-eastern boundary of the present district of Cawnpore. In Farrukhābād, the capital which he built for himself, he commemorated the name of his first patron. In this area he was virtually independent and the viceroys of Oudh resented the growth of this Afghān principality on their western border as much as that of the more recently established Rohilla state. Muhammad Khān had died in 1743, but his territories were now governed by his son Qāim Khān, who bore the title of Qāim Jang, and Safdar Jang issued in the emperor’s name an order directing him to attack the rebels in Katehr. Qāim Jang crossed the Ganges and besieged the Rohillas in Budaun, where the impetuous Sa‘d-ullah Khān, elder son of ‘Alī Muhammad Khān, sallied forth to meet him. Qāim Jang’s superior numbers forced the enemy to give way, but by a stratagem Qāim Jang was enticed into an ambush and slain, and his troops fled. The defeat of the Bangash Afghāns and the death of their leader left them a safe object of attack and on 10 December 1748 Safdar Jang, carrying the emperor with him, marched from Delhi for Farrukhābād with 40,000 horse, having also directed Rājā Naval Rāi, his deputy in Oudh, to join him from that direction. The Afghāns were too broken to offer any resistance. Six million rupees were extorted from the mother of Qāim Jang and five of Muhammad Khān’s younger sons were carried off and imprisoned by Naval Rāi in the fortress of Allahābād.

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In 1749 Ahmad Shāh Abdālī invaded India for the second time, but did not advance beyond Lahore, where the governor bought him off by the cession of the revenue of four sub-districts.

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Safdar Jang had left to the Bangash Afghāns only those districts which Farrukh-siyar had assigned to Muhammad Khān, and the remainder were administered by Rājā Naval Rāi. Ahmad Khān, the brother of Qāim Jang, who had succeeded at the instigation of his mother, began to assemble troops in preparation for an attack on Naval Rāi, who warned his master of the preparations and, advancing from Kanauj, entrenched himself at Khudāganj about half-way between Kanauj and Farrukhābād. Safdar Jang left Delhi on 3 August with a large army and sent troops in advance to meet Naval Rāi. The Afghāns, however, on 13 August penetrated the camp of Naval Rāi by surprise, put him to death in his tent, and captured his artillery and the whole of his equipage.

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Safdar Jang had reached Mārahra, about sixty-seven miles north-west of Farrukhābād, when he received the news. His difficulties were increased by the turbulence of his troops who, in consequence of a dispute between a camel driver and one of the leading inhabitants, sacked the town of Mārahra while he halted there. Ahmad Khān turned north. The armies met on 24 September between Sahāwar and Patiālī, and Safdar Jang was completely defeated and he was himself wounded by a musket ball. He retired with his beaten army to Delhi, where he learnt with indignation that his defeat had been received by the court party with joy. His death had been reported and the emperor and Jāvīd Khān had prepared to confiscate his property, as was usual, but had waited until the rumour should be confirmed. His wife had assembled such of his troops as remained in Delhi to defend his property. On his return the emperor and Jāvīd Khān attempted to excuse themselves but failed to satisfy Safdar Jang, who warned the queen-mother, as the prime mover in the plot, that he was still alive and that it would go ill with any who attempted to molest him.

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Ahmad Khān, after his victory over the minister, sent his young son Mahmūd Khān into Oudh to plunder the country and marched in person on Allahābād, where his younger brothers were confined, and besieged the fort. Failing to take it, and learning that the minister had taken the field, he plundered and burnt the city and retired to Farrukhābād carrying with him 4000 women captured at Allahābād.

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Meanwhile Mahmūd Khan had crossed the Ganges into Oudh and attacked Bilgrām, but the determined attitude of the Sayyids of that town, of the same stock as the Sayyids of Bārha, saved it. He sent detachments to occupy the *parganas* of Shāhābād and Khairābād and marched to Phāphāmaū, on the Ganges, near Allahābād, whence he despatched a force to capture Lucknow. The Afghāns entered Lucknow, but one of Safdar Jang's officers raised the citizens and drove them out of the city, while other troops from Oudh moved towards Phāphāmaū and Mahmūd Khān fled. The expulsion of the Afghāns from Oudh was now a simple matter, but they still remained dangerous. Safdar Jang now decided to summon to his aid Malhār Rāo Holkar from Mālwā, Jayappa Sindia from Nārnaul, and Sūraj Mal the Jāt. He did this, intent only on his own ends and negligent of the danger of bringing Marāthās into disputes in the neighbourhood of the capital. The Marāthā horse were first sent against Ahmad Khān’s governor of Kol and Jalesar, who was suddenly attacked and completely defeated, and fled to Farrukhābād. Ahmad Khān, on hearing of this, withdrew at once from Allahābād, which he had been again besieging. His army, largely composed of adventurers, deserted him, and he reached Farrukhābād with but a few followers. Safdar Jang and the Marāthās and Jāts marched on Farrukhābād and on their approach Ahmad Khān withdrew from the city to a fort now called Fatehgarh, which he had built on the bank of the Ganges, and appealed to the Rohillas for aid. There was some hesitation on their part in responding. The elders had been on good terms with the minister, since they had defeated Qāim Jang, and even the impetuous Sa‘d-ullah Khān hesitated to join Ahmad Khān, who had not yet avenged his brother’s blood. Ahmad Khān assured him that help at such a time would be ample atonement and Sa‘d-ullah Khān marched, too late, to his aid.

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The Marāthās sacked Farrukhābād and had for some time been endeavouring to throw a bridge of boats across the Ganges, hoping to surround the position held by Ahmad Khān, which was open in all directions on the east of the Ganges. Mahmūd Khān was unsuccessful in preventing this, and on 28 April the Ganges was bridged under cover of the Marāthā guns. Sa‘d-ullah Khān joined Ahmad Khān two days later, and the latter, unwilling to stand a siege in his camp, came forth, and gave battle. The Afghāns were defeated, with heavy loss, and the remnant fled by way of Aonla and Morādābād to Chilkia, at the foot of the Kumāūn hills. The Marāthās occupied Rohilkhand throughout the rainy season of 1751 and were rewarded for their services in this campaign with half the Bangash territory. The power of the Bangash Nawabs of Farrukhābād was now finally broken. Early in the reign Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang had held the provinces of Allahābād and Āgra, but the minister, Safdar Jang, coveted the former, which adjoined Oudh, and transferred to Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang Ajmer, which adjoined Āgra, and took Allahābād. The emperor was obliged to sanction this arrangement, though it was detrimental to his interests. Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang was foolish, irresolute, and a poltroon, but events in Rājputāna gave him an opportunity.

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Bakht Singh of Jodhpur was in rebellion against his nephew, Rām Singh, who had succeeded his father, Abhay Singh, and he appealed for imperial support against his nephew, making specious promises which offered a prospect of the re-establishment of the emperor’s authority. Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang promised him aid and set out for Ajmer. The Jāts meanwhile had extended their dominion northwards and had occupied Nīmrāna, which lay in Zu-’l-Fiqār’s way. Though they were not hostile to the emperor, the fortress was weakly held and a cheap victory appealed strongly to Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang. The garrison was expelled without difficulty, but the simple victor had but embroiled himself disastrously with the Jāts. His illusory success turned his head, and after some hesitation he recalled his advanced guard and marched southward into the Jāt country. Here an advanced guard found the Jāts in force, under Sūraj Mal. At a moment when a little resolution might have ensured the success of a mistaken enterprise his heart failed, and instead of advancing in person to the support of his advanced guard, he ordered it to retire. Its retreat demoralised the rest of his army, which was attacked and defeated by the Jāts. He then thought of fleeing to Delhi and leaving his army, but his officers would not permit this.

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Sūraj Mal, though prepared to defend his own possessions, was loth to detain the imperial officer, and he offered Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang easy terms and undertook to fulfil his obligations to Bakht Singh and to send tribute from Rājputāna. Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang continued his march to Nārnaul, where Bakht Singh resided, accompanied by his Jāt ally. Bakht Singh did not conceal his contempt for an ally of the Jāts and would not permit them to join in the settlement of disputes between Rājputs; and ordered Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang to proceed to Ajmer. Sūraj Mal returned home in disgust and the submissive Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang was joined by Bakht Singh at Ajmer and they marched towards Jodhpur. The combined troops of Rām Singh and Khande Rāo, son of Malhār Rāo Holkar, met them at Pīpār.¹ Bakht Singh warned Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang to beware of the Jodhpur artillery concealed in the centre of the army, but the latter disregarded the warning. Fire was reserved until his army, in close formation, was almost on the guns and was then delivered with terrible effect, causing the whole mass to recoil. The battle was not decided and Bakht Singh’s troops were fresh, but Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang had had enough of fighting and announced his intention of coming to terms. Bakht Singh vainly urged the importance of establishing the imperial authority in Jodhpur, but Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang persisted in his resolve.

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On the one side Bakht Singh and on the other Khande Rāo Holkar withdrew, leaving Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang and Rām Singh to arrange their own terms. Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang accepted 300,000 rupees in ready money and a promise of supplies to be delivered at various stages of his retreat and set out at once for Delhi. The reason for his haste was the news of Safdar Jang’s defeat by Ahmad Khān. He assumed that the minister would at once be dismissed and his folly and conceit encouraged him to hope that he might secure the place, but Safdar Jang had already recovered his position. After Zu-’l-Fiqār’s return to Delhi his failure preyed upon his mind. He begged the emperor to help him to discharge his debt to his troops and, when his request was rejected, began to talk treason among his companions. Finally, he attempted to enter the hall of audience fully armed, to intimidate the emperor. Forbidden to appear at court, he appeared no more in public. His property was confiscated and he was deprived of his rank and of the title of Amīr-ul-Umarā, which was conferred upon Ghāzī-ud-dīn Khān,¹ the eldest son of the late Nizām-ul-Mulk.

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¹ 26° 23′ N., 73° 33′ E.

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¹ His other titles were Fīrūz Jang and ‘Imād-ul-Mulk.

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In the Deccan, Nizām-ul-Mulk had been succeeded in 1748 by his second son, Nāsir Jang. Ahmad Shāh and Jāvīd Khān had from the first disliked Safdar Jang and had intended to confer the post of minister on Nizām-ul-Mulk. They sought to attach the powerful viceroy of the Deccan to the court party and thus escape the domination of Safdar Jang, and accordingly wrote private letters to Nāsir Jang begging him to come to Delhi. He set out with a large army and arrived at Burhānpur in April, 1749, but received another order cancelling the summons. Safdar Jang had probably discovered the design of the court party and had compelled the emperor to abandon it.

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Nāsir Jang was content to return, for his sister’s son Muzaffar Jang, who enjoyed the support of the French, had taken advantage of his departure to rise in rebellion and at the instigation of Husain Dost Khān the Navāit, known as Chanda Sāhib, and with the help of a force of French troops supplied by M. Dupleix, had invaded the lower Carnatic. Nāsir Jang’s campaign in the Carnatic and his murder in December, 1750, have been described elsewhere.² A few months later Muzaffar Jang, who was proclaimed by the French viceroy of the Deccan, shared the same fate, and Bussy recognised as his successor Salābat Jang, the third son of Nizām-ul-Mulk.

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² See chap. xiii, p. 386, and vol. v, pp. 127 *sqq.*

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Nāsir Jang, Muzaffar Jang, and Salābat Jang, as well as their foreign supporters, had all assumed that Ghāzī-ud-dīn Khān, eldest son of the late Nizām-ul-Mulk, had foregone his claim. Ghāzī-ud-dīn, though he had hitherto taken no steps to dispute Nāsir Jang’s accession, early in 1751 demanded of the emperor a commission as viceroy of the Deccan in succession to his father. The issue of orders was delayed by the courtiers’ claim that he should purchase his office with the customary large payment in which they hoped to share and by Ghāzī-ud-dīn’s demand that it should be free of cost.

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This dispute was interrupted by the third³ invasion of India by Ahmad Shāh Abdālī, who crossed the frontier at the end of 1751, and at the same time sent an envoy to Delhi, demanding the cession of the Punjab and Multān. Mu‘in-ul Mulk the governor withstood the invader for four months and would probably have compelled him to retire had it not been for the treachery of Ādīna Beg Khān, who suggested an ill-timed *sortie*, of which notice was given to the invaders, and which failed.

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³ The author of the *Siyar-ul-Mutaākhkhirīn* misnumbers all Ahmad Shāh Abdālī’s invasions, making the first the second, and so on. Ahmad Shāh, as one of Nādir Shāh’s officers, accompanied him on his expedition to India and Sayyid Ghulām Husain Khān Tabātabāī apparently reckons this as the Abdālī’s first invasion.

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As usual the emperor and his courtiers were overcome with terror. Safdar Jang, who had not returned to the capital since his successes against the Bangash Afghāns and the Rohillas, received pressing messages asking him to bring to court Malhār Rāo Holkar and other allies. Before he could reach Delhi the pusillanimous Ahmad had purchased safety by a disgraceful treaty which ceded the Punjab and Multān to Afghānistān. Ahmad Shāh Abdālī thereupon appointed Mu'īn-ul-Mulk as his governor of the Punjab and returned to Kābul.

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Safdar Jang arrived at Delhi in May, 1752, and was furious on discovering that this treaty had been concluded. He had purchased the support of Malhār Rāo Holkar by promises of large subsidies, which he called on the emperor and the eunuch to fulfil. They, however, could not if they would; and relations between the emperor and his minister were irrevocably embittered.

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The crafty Ghāzī-ud-dīn offered a solution of the difficulty. He promised, in return for a free commission, to carry Holkar with him and to close his mouth. The commission was issued and in May, having appointed his son to represent him at the capital, he left Delhi for the Deccan, accompanied by Holkar. Ghāzī-ud-dīn had already secured a promise of the support of Bālājī Rāo Peshwā who was levying contributions from districts of the Deccan in which Salābat Jang's authority was acknowledged. But with help from the French the Marāthās were defeated and Salābat Jang came to terms with them in January, 1752 (see vol. v, p. 135). Two months later Ghāzī-ud-dīn and Malhār Rāo Holkar started from Delhi and were met at Burhānpur by the Peshwā. To secure the fidelity of his Marāthā allies, who were bound to him by no ties save that of interest and were quite ready to change sides, Ghāzī-ud-dīn pledged large concessions (see chap. xiii, p. 388).

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Salābat Jang's position was now difficult. He retained the support of his French allies but financial difficulties embarrassed him and his brother was at the head of an immense army. Negotiations and preparations for taking the field were begun at the same time, but before either had advanced beyond their earliest stages Ghāzī-ud-dīn was poisoned at Aurangābād by his stepmother and Salābat Jang remained in undisputed possession of the viceroyalty of the Deccan.

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At Delhi the quarrel between the emperor and his minister had reached an acute stage. Safdar Jang returned to the city, after the departure of Ghāzī-ud-dīn for the Deccan. He laid the blame for the disgraceful treaty with the Abdālī entirely on the eunuch Jāvīd Khān, but when the first storm of his rage was passed he dissembled, made overtures for a reconciliation, and in August invited the eunuch to a banquet, where he was stabbed to death. The murder deprived Ahmad Shāh of the only adherent whom he could trust and alarmed him for his personal safety. After the death of Ghāzī-ud-dīn his son, Shihāb-ud-dīn Khān, an able, violent, unscrupulous, and utterly fearless youth of eighteen, became a person of importance, and the emperor and Safdar Jang vied for his support. The former conferred on him at once his father’s titles of Ghāzī-ud-dīn Khān Bahādur and Firūz Jang, and the latter obtained for him the high title of Amīr-ul-Umarā, but both were destined to disappointment. Ghāzī-ud-dīn II, notwithstanding his learning, his skill in calligraphy, his knowledge of many languages, his poetic gifts and his valour, was utterly bad and specially forgot his patrons. He first allied himself to the emperor and the court party, and encouraged Ahmad Shāh to require of Safdar Jang the resignation of the command of some appointments which he held in conjunction with the great offices of minister of the empire and viceroy of Oudh.

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The minister was now deterred from taking up arms against the emperor only by fear of incurring the suspicion of aspiring to the throne and thus alienating all. He ignored the demand for the resignation of his minor offices, but Ghāzī-ud-dīn discovered a plan to deprive him of the most dangerous of them. The imperial artillery was stationed in the fort, and by a stratagem Safdar Jang’s officer in charge of it was removed. The guns were then loaded and trained on the palace which the minister occupied. Safdar Jang then begged for leave to depart to his province. In the emperor’s refusal of this permission may be traced the hand of Ghāzī-ud-dīn, who was opposed to a peaceful solution of the difficulty and wished, by driving Safdar Jang into active hostility, to complete his ruin.

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Safdar Jang now raised the standard of revolt and, to avert suspicion from himself, proclaimed as emperor a man of unknown origin, whom he represented to be a prince of the imperial house.

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The civil war, which broke out on 4 May, 1753, and lasted for six months, took the form of incessant combats in the streets and neighbourhood of the capital. Safdar Jang sent his wife and family for safety into the Jāt country and enlisted the aid of Sūraj Mal, raja of the Jāts. Ghāzī-ud-dīn’s principal commander was Najīb Khān the Rohilla, whose hostility to Safdar Jang could be relied upon, and who afterwards rose to the rank of Amīr-ul-Umarā. Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang emerged from his retirement and joined Safdar Jang. Both parties summoned to their aid all the turbulent elements in the capital and the surrounding districts and the Sunnī Ghāzī-ud-dīn imported an additional element of bitterness into the strife by proclaiming the Shiah Safdar Jang a heretic. By this means as well as by bribes he was able to detach from Safdar Jang most of the Sunnīs serving in his troops, and individual heretics were seized in the streets and robbed and beaten, or even murdered. Sūraj Mal plundered Old Delhi, then more populous than Shāh Jahān’s city, and the latter was a scene of continual bloodshed, plunder and murder. Neither party obtained any decided advantage over the other and both at length grew weary of the fruitless and devastating strife. In November they came to terms. Safdar Jang was permitted to retain the provinces of Oudh and Allahābād, and departed for the seat of his government, and Intizām-ud-Daula, son of Qamar-ud-dīn and uncle of Ghāzī-ud-dīn, was confirmed as minister.

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During the six months’ fighting Ghāzī-ud-dīn had summoned to his aid Malhār Rāo Holkar from Mālwā and Jayappa Sindia from Nāgaur, but they did not reach Delhi until peace had been concluded and Ghāzī-ud-dīn now employed them for the punishment of Sūraj Mal. He was deficient in artillery, and discovering, on entering the Jāt country, that without it he could make no impression on the strong fortresses, he asked the emperor to supply him with guns. Intizām-ud-Daula, who knew his nephew’s turbulent and ambitious disposition, warned Ahmad Shāh against the request, and Ghāzī-ud-dīn instigated an attack on the minister’s house, which failed. The timid Ahmad Shāh was now apprehensive of Ghāzī-ud-dīn, and opened communications with Sūraj Mal, who suggested that Safdar Jang should be summoned from Oudh. This suggestion was not adopted, but the emperor and the minister marched from Delhi with the army in order that they might watch the movements of Ghāzī-ud-dīn and, if necessary, unite with Sūraj Mal against him.

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Ghāzī-ud-dīn resented this movement and disliked the proximity of the imperial army. He tried to induce the emperor by intimidation to retire, warning him that a force of several thousand Marāthā horse, whose intentions were unknown, had been seen in the neighbourhood. It happened that Malhār Rāo Holkar, whose son Khande Rāo had been killed in action against the Jāts, bitterly resented the emperor’s refusal to supply the army with artillery, and had secretly left the camp to force compliance or to punish him for refusal. His presence in the neighbourhood of the camp became known, and the emperor, his mother, and the minister, whose cowardice was notorious, without warning any of their intention, entered their litters and fled towards Delhi, leaving the army and the imperial harem to their fate. In the morning the army, without a leader, was helpless before Holkar, who stripped the men of their arms, took their horses, and plundered the camp, capturing the ladies of the imperial harem, whom, however, he treated with respect.

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When the emperor’s flight became known, the siege of Dīg was raised, Jayappa Sindia returned to Nāgaur, and Ghāzī-ud-dīn and Holkar marched to Delhi, where they compelled the emperor to dismiss Intizām-ud-Daula, Ghāzī-ud-dīn himself becoming minister. On 2 June, 1754, Ahmad Shāh was deposed and prince ‘Azīz-ud-dīn, the second but eldest surviving son of Jahandār Shāh, was raised to the throne under the title of 'Ālamgīr II. A week later both Ahmad Shāh and his mother were blinded.

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The condition of the Punjab now appeared to offer Ghāzī-ud-dīn an opportunity for its recovery. Its governor Mu'īn-ul-Mulk, whose appetite might have vied with that of Sultān Mahmūd Bigara of Gujarāt and Shaikh Abu-'l-Fazl, died in November, 1753, from an internal injury caused by riding hard immediately after a surfeit. Ahmad Abdālī permitted an infant son to succeed, the management of affairs remaining in the hands of his mother. Though the son died, his mother made herself feared. She was, however, not fitted to govern a large and impoverished province, and the administration was left to underlings who, beside enriching themselves, levied cruel exactions from the people, thus driving many to join the warlike sect of the Sikhs, who were able to protect their adherents. Anarchy prevailed throughout the Punjab when Ghāzī-ud-dīn, taking with him his puppet emperor, marched from Delhi to regain the lost province.

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This first expedition was a failure. Ghāzī-ud-dīn maintained in his troops a corps,¹ composed of troopers whom he had detached by appeals to cupidity and bigotry, from Safdar Jang, the late minister. When the army reached Pānīpat this corps, which was highly paid, clamoured for arrears due to the members. After much wrangling Ghāzī-ud-dīn agreed to pay them after inspection of the corps by an independent officer. The officer selected was Najib Khān the Afghān, who was known to be fearless, and clamour was renewed. Ghāzī-ud-dīn left his quarters to quell the tumult and was seized by the excited soldiery and dragged through the streets of Pānīpat, with every circumstance of indignity. Though he was roughly handled, and threatened with death, his courage never left him. He turned on his captors with foul abuse and recommended them to slay him quickly, lest they should be slain themselves. The officers, now terrified, endeavoured to pacify him, but he was still further infuriated by a message from the emperor, delivered to them in his hearing, which promised the arrears of pay and extraordinary favours if they would hand their prisoner over as he was. The officers, hoping that they had succeeded in allaying his wrath, sent him back to his own quarters on an elephant, but he hardly gave himself time to rearrange his dress before he remounted the elephant and ordered Najīb Khān and his Afghāns, and the rest of his troops, to attack the corps, massacre the men, and plunder their tents. Ghāzī-ud-dīn then returned to Delhi. When his troops were ready for the field he left again for the Punjab, carrying with him on this occasion not the emperor, but his eldest son, Mīrzā 'Abdullah, 'Ālī Gauhar. 'Ālamgīr II was left in the custody of confidential agents.

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¹ It was known as the *Sīn-dāgh* or "S brand" from the letter branded on the horses.

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Mu'īn-ul-Mulk had been the maternal uncle of Ghāzī-ud-dīn, who was betrothed to his daughter. Arriving at Ludhiāna he requested his aunt to fulfil the contract of marriage. The widow, suspecting nothing, sent her daughter to Ludhiāna, where Ghāzī-ud-dīn married her in due form. He had expected the mother to accompany the daughter, and he was resolved to seize her and thus gain the government of the Punjab. He was already in league with Ādīna Beg Khān, the traitor who had for many years past been at the bottom of every trouble in the Punjab. He sent a picked force under trustworthy officers, who by a forced march arrived at Lahore, more than a hundred miles away, in little more than twenty-four hours. Eunuchs arrested the lady before she was awake, and next day the troops conducted her to Ludhiāna. The government of the Punjab was then conferred on Ādīna Beg Khān, who paid three million rupees for the appointment. Ghāzī-ud-dīn was unable to pacify his infuriated mother-in-law, who heaped abuse on him, and predicted that the outrage would bring him calamity. This impudent aggression aroused the wrath of Ahmad Abdālī, who marched on Lahore. Ādīna Beg Khān fled in terror and hid in the waterless district of Hissār and Hānsī, whither, he hoped, no army could follow him. From Lahore the Afghān advanced by forced marches on Delhi. Even Ghāzī-ud-dīn was alarmed and prevailed on his mother-in-law to intercede for him. As a suppliant, forty miles from the city, he met Ahmad, who at first rated him, but afterwards pardoned and confirmed him as minister. So low was the empire fallen that the disposal of its great offices of state was in the hands of the Afghān. The real offender thus escaped unscathed, but Ahmad Abdālī demanded reparation for the insult to his authority, and an innocent people had to suffer for the fault of a headstrong youth.

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Ahmad Abdālī entered the fort of Delhi on 28 January, 1757, and met 'Ālamgīr II, and on the same day the sack of the city began. The pillage was not accompanied, as during Nādir Shāh's invasion, by massacre, but the people suffered great misery and many of the more respectable killed themselves to escape dishonour. Ahmad stayed in the city for nearly a month, during which time the daughter of prince A'azz-ud-dīn, the emperor's deceased elder brother, was married to prince Tīmūr, eldest son of the invader.¹ After resting his troops in Delhi he sent a force under one of his officers, with Ghāzī-ud-dīn, to punish Sūraj Mal the Jāt for having allied himself with Safdar Jang, and himself followed the troops. Sūraj Mal's forts were not easily reduced and Ghāzī-ud-dīn begged that a force might be sent with him into the Dūāb and Oudh, to collect tribute for the Abdālī, and that two princes of the imperial house should accompany him to provide against any attempt to set up a pretender at Delhi.

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¹ Coin was also struck at Shāhjahānābād (Delhi) in the name of Ahmad Shāh. [Ed.]

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His motive was partly to ingratiate himself with the invader and to get rid of him, but chiefly to secure revenge on the son of his old enemy. Safdar Jang had died on 5 October, 1754, and had been succeeded in Oudh by his son Shujā‘-ud-Daula. The expedition was not a conspicuous success. The army reached Farrukhābād, where Ahmad Khān Bangash presented gifts to the princes and to Ghāzī-ud-dīn and sent a contingent with it into Oudh.

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Shujā‘-ud-Daula met the invaders of his province at Sāndī, near Bilgrām, and after two unimportant affairs of outposts was reinforced by Sa‘d-ullah Khān of Rohilkhand, who had now become his friend. The arrival of this new force and Sa‘d-ullah Khān’s advocacy of Shujā‘-ud-Daula’s cause put an end to hostilities and the aggressors retired after receiving 500,000 rupees in cash from Shujā‘-ud-Daula and vague promises of more. Ghāzī-ud-dīn retired to Farrukhābād, where he halted to await the departure of Ahmad Abdālī.

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Ahmad had been conducting a campaign in his own manner. After a siege of three days he had taken the Jāt fort of Ballabhgarh, twenty-four miles south of Delhi, and had put the garrison to the sword. He had sent another force to Muttra, where the massacre of a large assembly of unarmed pilgrims showed his zeal for Islām. Further enterprises of a like nature were stopped by the fierce heat of the Indian summer, and a pestilence, accompanied by great mortality, which broke out in his army decided him to return. Near Delhi he was met by ‘Ālamgīr II, who complained bitterly of his treatment by Ghāzī-ud-dīn. Ahmad Abdālī promoted Najīb Khān, who accompanied ‘Ālamgīr, to the rank of Amīr-ul-Umarā, and committed the helpless puppet to his protection. Najīb Khān received at the same time the title of Najīb-ud-Daula.

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Ahmad Abdālī received, before leaving India, a strange appeal. Two widows of Muhammad Shāh bitterly resented the turbulence of Ghāzī-ud-dīn and the cowardice of the courtiers, which had caused them to fall into the hands of Marāthās. Fearing worse consequences one of them begged Ahmad to marry her and to remove both from the danger of dishonour. In spite of their age, their high rank and their distress aroused the conqueror’s compassion. He accordingly married one and took both ladies with him to Afghānistān.

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On Ahmad Abdālī’s departure from India, Ghāzī-ud-dīn threw down the gauntlet to his former servant, Najīb Khān, by appointing Ahmad Khān Bangash Amīr-ul-Umarā and, summoning to his aid Raghunāth Rāo, brother of the Peshwā, and Malhār Rāo Holkar, marched on Delhi and besieged the emperor and Najīb-ud-Daula in the fort.

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This action had been expected and some time before the departure of Ahmad Abdālī, the emperor had granted assignments to his eldest son, ‘Ālī Gauhar, to the west of Delhi, and had sent him into these districts with secret instructions to raise an army for opposing Ghāzī- ud-dīn if he marched on Delhi. The participation of the Marāthās had not been expected and ‘Ālī Gauhar, who was not strong enough to attack the combined forces, did nothing.

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When the siege had lasted forty-five days, Najīb-ud-Daula purchased the protection of Holkar, and retired to his estates north-west of Delhi. The emperor could no longer resist, and Ghāzī-ud-dīn, with Ahmad Khān Bangash, entered the fort and resumed control of the emperor and the administration. His first act was to compel ‘Ālamgīr to send a force to recall his son to the capital. Vithal Rāo, a Marāthā officer who had remained near Delhi after the retirement of Raghunāth Rāo and Holkar, warned the prince that the order had been wrung from his father and advised him to disregard it, and ‘Ālī Gauhar, on this advice, crossed the Jumna into the Dūāb and occupied several *parganas*, but Vithal Rāo was induced by a heavy bribe to advise the prince to return to the capital. ‘Ālī Gauhar entered Delhi with his troops but refused to live in the fort, and lodged in a private house. He soon found himself unable to pay his troops and Ghāzī-ud-dīn advised him to send them to the districts allotted for their payment as revenue could not be collected without their assistance. The prince was once more compelled to comply, but retained at Delhi a bodyguard and some of his most trustworthy officers. Ghāzī-ud-dīn, assembling ten or twelve thousand troops on the pretext that he intended to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Nizām-ud-dīn Auliyā, surrounded the house in which the prince lodged. Some of his men forced an entrance, but ‘Ālī Gauhar, who possessed the courage of his race, caused the outer wall of the house nearest to the Jumna to be breached, and at the head of his men cut his way through the minister’s troops and rode to Vithal Rāo’s camp across the river. Vithal Rāo was now overcome with shame for having advised the prince to place himself in the power of Ghāzī-ud-dīn, and pitched tents for him near his own camp, but it was only with great difficulty that the prince reached them, for some of the minister’s troops barred his way. He would have been slain or taken but for the devotion of a gallant Sayyid who kept the pursuers employed. The Sayyid fell but the prince reached his tents and Vithal Rāo escorted him to Farrukhābād, where he was well received and supplied with money. From Farrukhābād the prince marched to Sahāranpur and took refuge with Najīb-ud-Daula, who protected him for eight months and then, fearing complications with the minister, advised him to attempt the reconquest of Bengal, where the imperial authority had long been disregarded and British influence was paramount. ‘Ālī Gauhar accepted this advice and marched first to Oudh, leaving his lieutenant to enlist troops and collect supplies. Shujā‘-ud-Daula met the prince near Lucknow, on 19 January, 1758, and received him hospitably; but, anxious to rid himself of so inconvenient a guest, supported Najīb-ud-Daula’s advice to attempt the recovery of Bengal, and was relieved when he marched on to Allāhābād.

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The relief afforded to Bengal by the expulsion of Raghūjī Bhonsle in 1743 had been ephemeral. Bālāji Rāo Peshwā, having obtained his reward, had immediately entered into an agreement acknowledging Raghūjī’s right to collect *chauth* and *sardeshmukhī* in Bengal, Bihār and Orissa; and in 1744 an army of 20,000 Marāthā horse invaded Bengal. ‘Alī Vardī Khān craftily invited all the principal officers to an entertainment, which they were induced to attend by a false oath sworn by Mustafā Khān, an Afghān officer, on a brick wrapped in a cloth which was supposed to contain a copy of the Korān. On 14 April the twenty-one who attended were treacherously murdered and the single superior officer who had been left in charge of the camp tried to lead the army back, but the peasantry, exasperated by recent depredations, allowed few stragglers to escape.

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Mustafā Khān’s reward was not, in his estimation, commensurate with his services and he rose in rebellion in Bihār, where he attacked Haibat, ‘Alī Vardī Khān’s lieutenant.

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This atrocious crime greatly enraged Raghūjī Bhonsle, but he was detained at Nāgpur throughout the year 1744 by a disputed succession in a Gond principality. Next year, having ascertained that conditions were favourable, he invaded Orissa and without difficulty occupied Cuttack and captured the inefficient governor. From Cuttack Raghūjī sent a message to ‘Alī Vardī, demanding thirty million rupees as the price of evacuating Orissa. ‘Alī Vardī evaded answering until he heard that the rebel Mustafā Khān was dead, when he returned a provocative reply to which Raghūjī answered by overrunning the country as far as Burdwān. When the rainy season was over he marched into Bihār in response to an invitation from the remnant of the Afghān rebels, who had been driven into the Kaimūr hills on the north bank of the Son. They joined him near Arwal on the east bank of the Son, within forty-five miles of Patna. ‘Alī Vardī advanced to Bankipore, and surprised the Marāthās at Muhibb‘alīpur on the eastern bank of the Son, about eight miles above Arwal. The advantage lay, on the whole, with the Muslims, but the engagement was not decisive and for some days the armies engaged in purposeless skirmishes. Then Raghūjī suddenly marched off, intending to reach Murshidābād and sack the town before ‘Alī Vardī Khān could return. ‘Alī Vardī Khān turned back and marched rapidly, but the more mobile Marāthās were a day before him and, though they could not enter the town, plundered and burnt the neighbouring villages and marched on towards Katwa, still followed by ‘Alī Vardī Khān, who defeated them in a battle a few miles to the south of that town.

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Raghūjī now returned to his own country, but left at Midnapore, to guard the approaches to Orissa, a force of two or three thousand Marāthās under Mīr Habīb, and six or seven thousand Afghāns under Murtazā Khān.

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In 1746 Mīr Muḥammad Ja‘far Khān, known as Mīr Ja‘far, was appointed governor of Orissa with an injunction to recover it from the Marāthās. He defeated and drove southwards the garrison of Midnapore, but refrained from pursuing them lest he should provoke Raghūjī Bhonsle to invade Bengal in force. Later, hearing that Jānojī, Raghūjī’s son, was marching on Cuttack, he fled panic-stricken to Burdwān. Jānojī followed him northward, but Mīr Ja‘far had been reinforced and the Marāthās were defeated. They returned in the following year and were again defeated near Burdwān by ‘Alī Vardī Khān, who pursued them to Midnapore but failed to overtake them and retired to Murshidābād for the rainy season.

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Early in 1748 Haibat Jang engaged in Bihār a force of Afghāns who had been dismissed by ‘Alī Vardī Khān owing to suspicions of their loyalty. It was believed that they might safely be employed in Bihār, where their opportunities for communicating with the Marāthās would be fewer; but the officers, on the occasion of their first reception, assassinated the governor, in revenge for the treatment which they had received from his father-in-law, ‘Alī Vardī Khān. They then plundered the town and seized the government of the province. A large force was soon collected and the leader, knowing that he could enjoy no safety so long as ‘Alī Vardī Khān retained the government of Bengal, made preparations for conquering that province.

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‘Alī Vardī Khān was again engaged with the Marāthās south of Katwa when this alarming news reached him. On 1 March, 1748, he marched towards Patna, leaving a sufficient garrison to protect Murshidābād. The Marāthās followed him, hanging on his flanks and rear, and gave his army no rest. When he met the Afghān rebels about eight miles to the west of the town of Bārh, on the Ganges, he was obliged to attack them while the Marāthās were still threatening his rear. His small army seemed doomed to destruction, but a fortunate discharge of artillery and musketry killed or wounded the three Afghān leaders early in the day, and this produced its usual result. The great host, largely composed of raw levies, fled in all directions. The Marāthās, fearing lest the victorious army should turn on them, dispersed, and ‘Alī Vardī Khān, entering Patna, appointed Sirāj-ud-Daula, his daughter’s son by Haibat Jang, governor of Bihār with Rājā Jānkī Rām as his guardian and deputy, and followed the retreating Marāthās.

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Jānojī Bhonsle had been recalled to Nāgpur by the news of his mother’s death and ‘Alī Vardī seized the opportunity. He marched to Cuttack, reoccupied the town, captured the citadel, put to death the officers who had held it for Raghūjī, and expelled the Marāthās.

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Their expulsion was, however, temporary and they returned to the province almost immediately. Again, in 1750, they were defeated at Midnapore, but it was as useless to defeat them in the field as it was to expel them, in face of the mobility of irregular troops living on the country and independent either of a base or of lines of communication. The Muslims, after a victory in the field, often found the beaten enemy immediately laying waste the country in their rear, and were obliged to hasten to save their capital from pillage.

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The Marāthās claimed the right to levy *chauth* and *sardeshmukhī* in the three provinces of Bengal, Bihār and Orissa, and they had for some time been anxious for a composition. They proposed that Orissa should be absolutely ceded to them in place of the rights claimed in all three. ‘Alī Vardī Khān admitted no right, but he could not exclude the Marāthās, who treated the provinces as an enemy’s country, and destroyed what they could not carry off. The viceroy’s advisers had long urged him to purchase peace for his unfortunate people. He had hitherto scornfully rejected this advice, but he was now seventy-five years of age, his health was failing, he had for twelve years been engaged in ceaseless and fruitless warfare, and a great part of his territory lay waste. He gave way and in November, 1751, ceded Orissa, salving his pride by the fiction of appointing Mīr Habīb Raghūjī’s agent, as *his* governor of the province. He also saved the district of Midnapore, which had hitherto been included in Orissa, and fixed the Subarnarekha river as the boundary of the Marāthā province. Orissa thus passed finally out of the hands of the viceroy of Bengal and the land had peace.

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