The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.s1.13

v4.c21.s1.13

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.