A History of the Mahrattas v1.c24: Chapter XVII
A History of the Mahrattas v1.c24
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Chapter XVII
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A.D. 1740.—The army which entered the Carnatic,¹ under the command of Rughoojee Bhonslay, was composed of troops belonging to the Raja, the Peishwa, the Pritee Needhee, Futih Sing Bhonslay, and various chiefs of less note. The Ghorepurays of Sondoor and Gooty were invited to join, by letters from Shao and the Peishwa; and Moorar Rao,² the grand nephew of the famous Suntajee Ghorepuray, and adopted son and heir of Moorar Rao of Gooty, appeared under the national standard for the first time since the death of his distinguished and ill-requited relation. He demanded his rank as Senaputtee, or commander in chief, of the Mahratta army, but consented to waive it on obtaining a promise of three districts near the Toongbuddra.³ According to Mahratta manuscripts, the whole force which entered the Carnatic amounted to fifty thousand men.⁴ They descended by an unfrequented road; appeared in the rear of Dost Ally, in the neighbourhood of the Damulcherry pass, attacked and slew him, defeated his troops, and took his dewan, Meer Assud, prisoner. They commenced levying contributions all over the province, until bought off by Sufdur Ali, the son and heir of the late Nabob, with whom, before retiring, they entered into a secret compact to return and crush Chunda Sahib, then in possession of Trichinopoly, whose popularity and power had for some time excited the jealousy and apprehension of Sufdur Ali and Meer Assud. No bait could be more alluring to the Mahrattas than Trichinopoly, and the troops only retired two hundred and fifty miles towards Maharashtra, to prepare for the promised conquest and lull suspicion of an attack.¹
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¹ [This expedition to southern India was the outcome of the policy of some of the leading Marāthās who preferred the consolidation of Marāthā power in southern India to the policy, favoured by the Pēshwās, of undermining Mughal power in northern India. (Ranade, p. 249.)]
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² This is the Moorari Row, so often mentioned by Mr. Orme, in his admirable war of Coromandel.
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³ Mahratta MSS.
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⁴ They are stated at 100,000 by Orme; but any large army is reported to be a lack.
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¹ Orme. Wilks.
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Whilst the main body of his army remained encamped on the Sew Gunga, Rughoojee Bhonslay returned to Satara, and endeavoured to prevent Ballajee Bajee Rao’s succession as Peishwa, by proposing Bappoojee Naik² of Barramuttee, a connection, but an enemy, of the late Peishwa, for the vacant office. Bappoojee Naik was possessed of great wealth, and his enmity to Bajee Rao arose from a very common cause, that of having lent money which his debtor could not repay. Rughoojee’s party used the irritated creditor as their tool, and very large sums were offered to Shao, on condition of Bappoojee’s being raised to the vacant Peishwaship.
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² Bramin soucars and money changers assume the appellation of Naik.
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The Pritee Needhee, although adverse to the supremacy of the Peishwa, was yet more inimical to the pretensions of Rughoojee, and as he did not engage in the intrigue, Ballajee Bajee Rao, assisted by his uncle Chimnajee, was at last invested in August, 1740. A more serious cause of uneasiness to Ballajee Bajee Rao arose from his being answerable for his father’s debts, and Bappoojee Naik enforced his demand with all the importunity and harassing pertinacity which is often exercised by the Mahratta creditor.³ From this persecution Ballajee was relieved by the influence and credit of his dewan, Mahadajee Punt Poorundhuree, a service of which the Peishwa ever after retained a grateful recollection.
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³ The mode of recovering a debt is by a species of dunning called tuqazu; the most common practice is to hire a few of those men who make it a trade. They sit at the debtor’s door, follow him wherever he goes, and crave with humility, or demand with insolence, according to time and circumstance. By the invariable rule of the country, the debtor is obliged to subsist the duns thus placed upon him, and as they are adepts in the art of tormenting, protected also by the great power of opinion, they soon contrive to render the debtor sufficiently miserable. But if the debtor be obstinate, and the creditor think himself equal to the task, he may undertake the tuqazu by placing his debtor in dhurna; the creditor seats himself by his debtor, or at his door, during which, whilst the former abstains from food it would be accounted infamous and dishonourable for the latter to eat or drink. Bappoojee Naik practised first the tuqazu, and afterwards the dhurna. I refer my English readers to an account of dhurna
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Rughoojee, on finding his schemes abortive, carried Bappoojee Naik with him towards the Carnatic, and returned to reap the expected harvest at Trichinopoly, accompanied by Sreeput Rao, the Pritee Needhee, and Futih Sing Bhonslay. In regard to the subsequent operations of the Mahrattas in the Carnatic, very little illustrative of what has already been so ably recorded ¹ has fallen within my observation in the Mahratta country. It appears, however, that the Tanjore state, though then agitated by factions, entered into a friendly correspondence with their countrymen, but whether to avert attack or to afford assistance is not mentioned. Trichinopoly surrendered 26th March, 1741, and Chunda Sahib ² was brought a prisoner to Satara, where he remained in custody of an agent of Rughoojee Bhonslay for about seven years; his complete enlargement having been effected in the year 1748. Moorar Rao Ghorepuray was left in command of the fort of Trichinopoly, and a part of his garrison was com-
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¹ Orme and Wilks.
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² Better known in the Deccan by his less familiar name of Hussein Dost Khan. He does not appear to have been confined in the fort, nor to have endured a close imprisonment, but merely to have had an attendant guard wherever he went; a supposition which is confirmed by the facility with which Dupleix appears to have intrigued with him when a prisoner.
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(dherna) given by Lord Teignmouth in the 4th volume of the Asiatic Researches, and quoted in Mr. Mill’s History of India. I have known the dhurna practised, but never very rigorously; and I do not think that fear of the creditor’s starving himself to death would have much effect on a Mahratta debtor; his stomach would be much sooner affected than his conscience. [The Arabic word takāza (tuqazu), ‘dunning’ or ‘importunity,’ was sometimes applied to the practice of dharnā, which appears from Elphinstone (Diary, in Life, by Colebrooke, i. 174) and Broughton (Letters from a Mahratta Camp) to have been universal among the Marāthās. In Sindia’s camp, according to the latter, there were ‘many Brahmans who hire themselves out to sit dharnā for those who do not like to expose themselves to so great an inconvenience.’ Marco Polo and later travellers describe a curious variety of the practice, for debt, in south India. Sir Henry Maine has shown that the custom once existed in Ireland. Under the Indian Penal Code of 1859 the practice of dharnā is an offence punishable with imprisonment or fine, or both. (For full account with quotations see Yule’s Hobson-Jobson, 1903, ed. Crooke, p. 315.)]
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posed of infantry belonging to the Peishwa. Their expenses were defrayed by Shao; besides which, it was settled that 20,000 rupees of the share of tribute from the province of Arcot should be annually paid to Ballajee Bajee Rao.¹
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¹ Mahratta MSS. and original paper.
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On the death of Bajee Rao the government of Malwa, being considered disposable, was conferred on Azim Oolah Khan; but this appointment proved merely nominal. One of the first acts of the new Peishwa was to forward petitions to Delhi respecting various promises made to his predecessor. These applications were transmitted through Jey Sing and Nizam Ool Moolk. A supply of ready money was what Ballajee most earnestly craved, and fifteen lacks of rupees, as a free gift, were granted by the Emperor. Proposals for an agreement² were then drawn up, in the joint names of the Peishwa and Chimnajee Appa, wherein they request that they may receive the government of Malwa; after which they promise to pay their respects personally to the Emperor; to prevent every other Mahratta officer from crossing the Nerbuddah; to send a body of five hundred horse under an officer of rank to remain in attendance on the Emperor's person; and to ask no more than the gift of money already bestowed. They agree to send four thousand horse for service, who will punish refractory Zumeendars, as far as their numbers may enable them; and they faithfully promise not to sequestrate the rent-free lands or jagheers assigned for charitable or religious purposes. It does not appear that any notice was taken of the application, but Ballajee, whose disposition was naturally conciliatory, was anxious to have the government of Malwa conferred as a right, according to treaty with his father; and with this view, when Nizam Ool Moolk was marching to the Deccan in order to suppress Nasir Jung's disobedience (a subject to which we shall presently advert), Ballajee paid him a respectful visit near the Nerbuddah, and sent a body of his troops to join him.³ At this period he sustained a great loss in the death of his uncle, Chimnajee Appa, which happened in the end of January, 1741. Eleven days previously to the event Kundojee Mankur, under Chimnajee’s direction, had reduced Rewadunda,¹ the last place remaining to the Portuguese between Goa and Damaun. Chimnajee Appa, from his successes against a European nation, has a greater reputation among the Mahrattas, as an officer, than he perhaps deserved. Impressed, from obvious circumstances, with an idea, which however true in most instances, it was dangerous for his countrymen to entertain, he believed that the strength of an army lay in its infantry and guns. To this opinion of the father may probably be traced a prepossession on the part of the son, Sewdasheo Chimnajee Bhow,² then a boy of ten years old, which, strengthened by other circumstances, may have led to the injudicious conduct of that campaign, which twenty years afterwards terminated so fatally on the plains of Panniput.
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² There were several copies of papers similar to the purport of that which is quoted, found in the Poona records; I have selected the one most explicit, which appears to have been the ultimatum.
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³ Khuzaneh Amirah, &c.; and original letter from Ballajee Bajee Rao.
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¹ Mahratta MSS. [Revadanda (Rewadunda) is otherwise known as Lower or Portuguese Chaul; Chaul proper, or Upper Chaul, having been captured in 1740. The two are separated by a creek or salt swamp. Revadanda is rich in Portuguese architectural remains, which include the factory or citadel, a cathedral and a hospital. The fortifications, commenced in 1520, were continually added to between that date and 1721. (B.G., vol. vi; I.G. Bom., 1909, ii. 128-9.)]
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² Bhow, brother, is applied also by Mahrattas to a cousin-german. Hence, as the Peishwa’s cousin, he was commonly styled Bhow Sahib and the Bhow, as well as Sewdasheo Rao Bhow. [The name is properly Sadāshivrāo Chimnājī Bhāu.]
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On the demise of his uncle, the Peishwa returned from the northern districts, and spent nearly a year in civil arrangements at Poona and Satara. Continuing to manifest the greatest apparent respect for the Raja, he obtained from Shao a grant, by which the whole of the territory conquered from the Portuguese was conferred on him, and also, with the exception of Guzerat, the exclusive right of collecting the revenues and of levying contributions north of the Nerbuddah.
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A.D. 1742.—At the present conjuncture the authority thus obtained was of considerable importance. We have briefly noticed in the preceding chapter the rise and progress of Aliverdy Khan in Bengal; the defeat of Moorshed Koolee Khan, and the conduct of his dewan, Meer Hubeeb. It appears that immediately after his master’s defeat, Meer Hubeeb had invited Bhaskur Punt, the dewan of Rughoojee Bhonslay, who was left in charge of the government of Berar during his master’s absence in the Carnatic, to advance into the province of Kuttack; but Bhaskur Punt, having found it necessary to apply for his master's permission, before an answer could be received and the troops prepared, Aliverdy Khan had conquered the province, and Meer Hubeeb had submitted to his authority.¹ Another opportunity, however, soon presented itself to Bhaskur Punt of carrying his arms to the eastward; and no sooner had he set out on his expedition than the Peishwa, eager to establish his power over those territories, for which the authority obtained from the Raja was, as usual, assumed as a right, marched, though late in the season, towards Hindoostan, and made himself master of Gurrah and Mundelah before the monsoon. He was obliged to encamp on the banks of the Nerbuddah during the rainy season, and probably meditated an expedition into Allahabad, when he was called upon to defend his rights in Malwa, invaded by Dummajee Gaekwar and Babboo Rao Sewdasheo.
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¹ Mahratta MSS.
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This inroad seems to have been instigated by Rughoojee merely to obstruct the Peishwa's progress to the eastward: and on Ballajee's arrival in Malwa the army of Guzerat retired. On this occasion Anund Rao Powar, to whom Bajee Rao never became reconciled after his uniting with Trimbuck Rao Dhabaray, was permitted to pay his respects to Ballajee, and was by him confirmed in possession of Dhar² and the surrounding districts³; a politic measure which not only secured Powar in his interests, but opposed a barrier on the western side of Malwa to incursions from Guzerat. Since the Peishwa's arrival at Mundelah, a negotiation had been going on between him and the Emperor through the mediation of Raja Jey Sing, supported by Nizam Ool Moolk. The chouth of the imperial territory was promised, and a khillut, more splendid than had ever been conferred on his father,⁴ was transmitted to Ballajee. It does not, as may be here remarked, appear that any deed for collecting this general chouth was ever granted by Mohummud Shah; sums of money and convenient assignments were the mode of payment. The object in the pending treaty was, on the part of the Peishwa, to obtain Sunnuds for the promised government of Malwa; on that of the court of Delhi, to procrastinate and to widen the breach between the Peishwa and Rughoojee Bhonslay.
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² [The chiefs of Dhār State are Ponwār (Powār) Marāthās, claiming descent from the Paramāra Rājpūt clan; the founder of the family being Udājī Ponwār, an officer in the paigah, or bodyguard, of Shāhu, who established himself in Dhār in 1723. During the closing years of the eighteenth and opening of the nineteenth century, Dhār was gradually shorn of all its territories by Pindārī raids and the general lawlessness prevalent in Central India, until only the capital and the district surrounding it remained to the chief. In 1819 a treaty was made with the British Government, which restored two of its lost districts. (I.G. Central India.)]
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³ Mahratta MSS.
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⁴ Articles enumerated in an original letter from the Emperor.
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In the meantime, Bhaskur Punt had invaded Bahar: he was induced to make that province the theatre of his first operations, in the expectation of finding the country drained of troops, owing to an insurrection in Kuttack, which had burst forth in consequence of the tyranny and misconduct of the grand nephew¹ of Aliverdy Khan, whom he had left as governor of the province. Aliverdy Khan, as Bhaskur Punt had anticipated, returned to Kuttack for the purpose of quelling the disturbance, which, however, he speedily effected; and in the month of April was already on his march returning to Moorshedabad, when news was suddenly brought to him that the Mahrattas had entered Bahar, emerged from the hills and woods near Ramgurh, turned to the right, and had fallen upon the district of Pachaet in their usual manner of plundering and extorting.
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¹ The notorious Shujah-ud-Dowlah, who afterwards confined the English in the black hole, on the capture of Calcutta, 20th June, 1756. [Sirāj-ud-daula, whom Grant Duff wrongly calls Shujah-ud-Dowlah, was born in 1140 A.H. (= August 1727 to July 1728). He was the grandson of Allahvardī Khān, being the son of the Nawāb’s youngest daughter, a dissolute woman. He revolted against his grandfather in 1750; but Allahvardī Khān showed no resentment, confirmed the youth’s right of succession, and allowed him to control the government. Sirāj-ud-daula, whose proper name was Mīrzā Muhammad (or Mahmūd), succeeded to his grandfather’s throne in 1169 A.H. (= October 1755 to September 1756), and was killed at Murshidābād, after the battle of Plassy in 1757, by order of Mīr Jāfar’s son, Mīran. (O.H.I., pp. 488, 494.) See footnote on page 487 post. Ives (Voyage from England to India, 1773) states that at the time of his death Sirāj-ud-daula had not quite completed his twenty-fifth year. As a matter of fact he must have been twenty-nine or thirty years of age in 1757. (See Add. and Corr. to O.H.I., under p. 488 n., giving reference to Bengal Past and Present, xii. 244.)]
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The Mahratta army consisted of ten or twelve thousand² horse, and report had swelled their numbers to nearly four times that amount.¹ Aliverdy Khan, although only at the head of three or four thousand cavalry and four thousand infantry, resolved to oppose them; but the Mahrattas attacked him with great success, surrounded his army, carried off most of his baggage, and reduced him to great distress. Many of his men deserted or were killed, the whole of what remained amounted only to three thousand, but with these he determined rather to die than submit to the severe demands which the Mahrattas would have exacted. Although sorely harassed for several days, he fought his way and made good his retreat to Cutwa. In one of the first attacks Meer Hubeeb, who was in the army of Aliverdy Khan, having been made prisoner, joined the Mahrattas, and exerted himself so much as to gain the confidence of Bhaskur Punt. That officer proposed retiring for the rains, which Meer Hubeeb opposed, but as Bhaskur Punt could not at first be persuaded to remain, Meer Hubeeb requested command of a detachment, with which he marched to Moorshedabad, rescued his brother, who resided in the city, plundered the banking-house of Juggut Sett Alumchund of the enormous sum of two millions and a half sterling, overtook Bhaskur Punt, and at length succeeded in convincing him that it was better to remain in Bengal, and that it would be preposterous to quit so rich a harvest as he might expect to reap. Accordingly, he wheeled about, and through the aid of Meer Hubeeb obtained possession of the town of Hooghly by stratagem.² Most of the places from Cutwa to the neighbourhood of Midnapoor fell into his hands, and the swelling of the Hooghly alone prevented the Mahrattas from entering the district of Moorshedabad. Whilst affairs were in this state, an officer from the imperial court arrived on the frontiers of the province of Bengal, to demand the arrears of tribute due by the Nabob. Aliverdy Khan represented his situation, and the impossibility of satisfying these just demands, until he could expel the Mahrattas ; he at the same time earnestly solicited a reinforcement. Aliverdy Khan likewise applied to the Peishwa, and with a view of inducing him to invade Rughoojee Bhonslay’s districts in Berar, dispatched a considerable sum as a subsidy for that purpose : the convoy, however, was cut off by the order or connivance of Sufdur Jung, the Governor of Oude.
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² Mahratta MSS,
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¹ In the Seyr Mutuakhereen their numbers are more moderately estimated at 25,000; but still that exceeds their actual numbers two-fold.
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² [It was when Calcutta was thus threatened that ‘the imperfect fortification known as the Marāthā Ditch’ was constructed (O.H.I., p. 457). The line of the Ditch corresponded nearly with the outside of the existing Circular Road, except at the south-east and south, where the work was never carried to completion. (Yule’s Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. (1903), p. 537, gives quotations from Orme, Macaulay and others.)]
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But whilst thus negotiating for every succour he could devise, Aliverdy Khan wisely placed his chief dependence on his own exertions ; he assembled every man he could command and made vigorous preparations for attacking Bhaskur Punt’s camp at Cutwa, as soon as the season should permit. Before the rivers had fallen he prepared a bridge of boats, which in the night he threw first across the Hooghly and then over the Adjee, which enabled him to gain the opposite bank ; although, in consequence of a break in the fastening which had laced the boats together, fifteen hundred men were plunged into the Adjee and totally lost before the accident was discovered. The Mahrattas, by whom this attempt was quite unexpected, did not oppose the Nabob, but fled eastward, until they had misled their pursuers in the hills and jungles of Bahar, when they again re-entered the district of Midnapoor. But Aliverdy Khan soon recovered their track, and with the most active of his troops continued to pursue them. They seldom turned except to skirmish, and having lost all confidence, in consequence of an indecisive action which took place at Ballasore, they fled from Bengal and returned through the province of Orissa to Berar. Rughoojee Bhonslay had arrived with his army from the Carnatic, some time before his fugitive Dewan appeared, and having resolved to support his pretensions in Bengal, advanced towards the province by the same route as that by which Bhaskur Punt had entered.
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In the meantime, the Emperor, on being apprised of the irruption into Bengal, ordered Sufdur Jung, Nabob of Oude, to drive out Bhaskur Punt ; and at the same time applied to Ballajee Bajee Rao to afford his aid. As inducements to the Peishwa, an assignment on Aliverdy Khan for the arrears of Chouth due from Azimabad ¹ was sent to him by the Emperor, and an assurance of confirming him in the government of Malwa.
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¹ [i.e. Patna, which lies in 25° 37′ N. and 85° 10′ E. on the right bank of the Ganges, a few miles below its junction with the Son-Patna,
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The reward was prized too highly and the service was too desirable to be refused. Having quitted Malwa, the Peishwa proceeded through the province of Allahabad and marched straight on Boglipoor. In order to prevent injury to the country, he avoided high roads in the neighbourhood of cultivation, but to the great alarm of the timid inhabitants, who were in terror of an army even of Mahratta friends, he arrived at Moorshedabad.
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Rughoojee Bhonslay with a powerful army was advancing as an enemy from the eastward, and as Ballajee well knew that princes are most liberal at such seasons, he pressed the settlement of accounts with Aliverdy Khan before he would take the field. Payment being promised, Rughoojee, who had by that time arrived between Cutwa and Burdwan, decamped as soon as he heard that a settlement had taken place and retreated towards the hills. Aliverdy Khan instantly marched in pursuit; but Ballajee, who intended to act according to his agreement, seemed to have a poor opinion of the Nabob's ability to pursue Mahrattas. He therefore took another road, soon passed the Bengal troops, and in a few days overtook, attacked, and defeated Rughoojee's army.¹ Bhaskur Punt, who was at the head of a party in reserve, immediately retreated through Orissa; but Ballajee Rao, after his victory, returned to Malwa, in order to secure the long promised government.
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¹ The best account of Ballajee Bajee Rao's campaign in Bengal, to which I have had the benefit of access, is the Seyr Mutuakhereen, which is my authority for the greater part of the Bengal transactions at this period, assisted, however, in several parts by Mahratta MSS. and letters.
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The conduct of the Peishwa in the late campaign left no reasonable excuse on the part of Mohummud Shah for refusing to perform the engagement; but to save the credit of the imperial name, the feeble palliative of conferring the appointment on the Peishwa, as the deputy of Prince Ahmud, the Emperor's son, was adopted at the suggestion of Jey Sing and Nizam Ool Moolk, through whom the transaction was concluded.²
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² The following is the substance of the firman received by Bajee
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has a long history. It was the Pātaliputra of ancient India, the Palibothra of the Greeks, and the Kusumapura of the early Gupta emperors. The name Azīmābād refers to the fact that Aurangzeb made his grandson Azīm-ush-Shān, the father of Farrukhsiyar, governor of the city, and it is still used by Muhammadans in preference to the Hindu name Patna. (I.G. (1907), xx. 65-70.)]
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The rest of the treaty differs little from the former proposition, made in the joint names of Ballajee and his uncle Chimnajee, as already detailed; but instead of four thousand, Ballajee promised to furnish twelve thousand horse, the expense of the additional eight thousand being payable by the Emperor.¹
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¹ Original papers.
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From the period of Ballajee Rao’s accession, the most friendly intercourse subsisted between him and Jey Sing; several written agreements are preserved, containing mutual assurances of alliance and support. Jey Sing was guarantee for the observance of the treaty with Mohummud Shah, and there is another remarkable reservation for the imperial dignity affixed to the treaty in question, by bringing forward Mulhar Rao Holkar, Ranoojee Sindia, and Peelajee Jadow, as the securities; who in due form declare that should the Peishwa recede from his duties they will quit his service. An absurd pledge for the fulfilment of an agreement from those whose interests lay in dissolving it; and which does not so much prove the consequence to which those commanders had attained as the state of humiliation to which the Emperor was reduced. There might be political design mixed with this plan of security, for feeble governments are full of far-fetched artifice; but the imperial court, if it thus projected its own salvation by dissensions among its enemies, did not reflect on their relative situations, nor perceive that Mahratta combination was likely to be ensured until the Moghul empire was totally subverted.
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The Peishwa returned to Satara to pay his respects and go through the form of producing his accounts of the revenue. These accounts were made out by the Peishwa, as a general in command of a body of the Raja’s troops; the receipts, disbursements, and balance were set forth; and it is a remarkable fact that after the Rajas of Satara had become perfect ciphers
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Rao upon his appointment. From the Emperor Mohummud Shah, 22d Jummadee Ool Uwul, in the 24th year of the reign. ‘The dignity of the Shahzadu’s Deputy in Malwa, together with the income attached to that situation, having been conferred on you, proper arrangements must be made in that province, so as to afford the subjects, paying revenue to government, due favour and protection, and to punish all such as are evil disposed and disaffected. You must prevent the use of intoxicating drugs and spirituous liquors; and you must administer justice equally, so that the strong shall not oppress the weak, and that no species of violence be tolerated.’ (Original from the Poona Records.)
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in the Mahratta government, the Peishwa’s accounts continued to the last to be made out in the manner described.
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A.D. 1744.—But other reasons of great importance required Ballajee’s presence at this juncture. Rughoojee Bhonslay after his defeat had sent Wukeels to the Peishwa, assuring him of his sincere desire of reconciliation and of his being now fully convinced that the plans of Bajee Rao were those best suited to his own and the real interests of the Mahratta nation. He continued the same professions with apparent sincerity, but as he was on full march towards Satara, the Peishwa thought it necessary to be on his guard, particularly as Dummajee Gaekwar was also approaching. The Pritee Needhee had become infirm by sickness, but his Mootaliq, Yemmajee Sewdeo, was an active, able man, adverse to the Peishwa’s supremacy,¹ and although not leagued with Rughoojee, was intimately connected with the faction of Dhabaray. Under these circumstances, Ballajee Bajee Rao had to make his election between a war with the Mahratta chiefs or the resignation of Bengal to Rughoojee Bhonslay. The question did not admit of hesitation, he chose the latter; but it being understood that the country north of the Maha-Nuddee, as well as the Nerbuddah, was comprehended in his agreement with the Emperor, he made a merit of conceding his right of levying tribute to Rughoojee, and a secret compact, in which the Raja was used as mediator, was finally concluded.
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¹ [The Pratinidhīs were Deshasth Brahmans, while the Pēshwās were Konkanasth (Chitpāvan) Brahmans. The imprisonment of the Pratinidhī Dādobā, alias Jagjīvanrāo, by Bālājī Bājīrāo, at the time of Shāhu’s death, marks the end of Deshasth Brahman political influence in the Deccan. The Deshasths, as their name implies, are the Brahmans of the desh or country above the Western Ghāts in which Marāthi is spoken, though they are now found in many other parts of Western India and in the Baroda, Indore, Gwālior and other states. Many of the Marāthi poets were Deshasth Brahmans. The majority follow secular employment as agents, writers, accountants, merchants, cultivators, and add to their names the honorary affix of Pant, Rāo, Dēsāi, Dēshpānde, Dēshmukh, Kulkarni, Pātel, according to their position and the former occupations of their families. Generally speaking, they are of darker complexion than the Konkanasths (Chitpāvans). Their ancestors may have availed themselves of the old Brahmanical law authorizing a Brahman to marry the daughter of a Sudra, as well as of the three upper classes, the issue of such marriage having been admissible to Brahmanhood in the seventh generation. (Wilson, Indian Caste (1877), ii. 18, 19.) See footnote on the Chitpāvans, pp. 370–1, ante.]
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The object of the contracting parties seems avowedly to have been, not so much an alliance as an agreement to avoid interference with each other. The Raja's authority was in this instance convenient to both. A sunnud was given to the Peishwa, conferring on him his original Mokassa; all the jagheers bestowed on himself, or acquired by his father and grandfather; the governments of the Concan and Malwa; and the shares of revenue or tribute from Allahabad, Agra, and Ajimere; three talooks in the district of Patna, twenty thousand rupees from the province of Arcot, and a few detached villages in Rughoojee's districts. On the other hand, it was settled that the revenues and contributions from Lucknow, Patna, and Lower Bengal, including Bahar, should be collected by Rughoojee Bhonslay. The latter was also vested with the sole authority of levying tribute from the whole territory from Berar to Kuttack.
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It was agreed that Dummajee Gaekwar should be obliged to account to the Peishwa for the amount of the contributions he had levied in Malwa, but nothing was urged at this time respecting the large arrears due by Dhabaray to the head of the government. It does not appear that any settlement was concluded, but Dummajee seems to have remained some time in the Deccan, although his presence was much required in Guzerat. The Peishwa's southern and eastern boundaries in Hindoostan were well defined, by the Nerbuddah, the Soane, and the Ganges; but the sunnud delivered on this occasion authorized him to push his conquests to the northward as far as practicable.¹
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¹ Original papers and Mahratta MSS.
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With these domestic arrangements of the Mahrattas, Nizam Ool Moolk had no interference. We have already mentioned that he quitted Delhi in consequence of the meditated rebellion of his son Nasir Jung. On returning to the Deccan in the beginning of 1741, Nizam Ool Moolk used every endeavour to induce his son to submit without coming to hostilities. At last Nasir Jung sent messengers to treat, which so alarmed his partisans that most of them endeavoured to make the best terms they could. Nizam Ool Moolk gradually drew them over, continued to use fair words towards his son, until, in an emotion of generosity Nasir Jung hastily sent back the whole of the park of artillery. This concession might have obtained an unreserved pardon, but as soon as Nizam Ool Moolk had him in his power he wished to humble him completely. Nasir Jung, assuming the garb of a fuqeer, retired in penitence to Rozu near Doulutabad, but his father continued to manifest the same stern behaviour; till at last the young man was so much piqued that he listened to the suggestions of Futih Yab Khan, one of his companions, by whom he was persuaded that he might still compel his father to submit to any terms.
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Nizam Ool Moolk, according to his custom, had cantoned his troops for the rains; a part at Aurungabad, and the rest at different towns in the neighbourhood. Futih Yab Khan suggested to Nasir Jung that they must first seize some strong fort, and undertook to surprise Molheir, of which Mutuwussil Khan, Nasir Jung’s brother-in-law, was governor. Futih Yab Khan succeeded in the enterprise, and Nasir Jung immediately joined him. Nizam Ool Moolk did not expect this attempt, but made no preparation in consequence. Apprised of his supineness, Futih Yab Khan proposed to surprise him in Aurungabad. Nasir Jung advanced from Molheir with seven thousand horse, reached Doulutabad before intelligence of his march had been received, and had he pushed on would probably have succeeded in taking his father prisoner. He seems, however, to have been seized with some compunction for the part he was acting, and passed the day in prayer at the shrine of a celebrated Saint; whilst Nizam Ool Moolk, apparently serene, but much alarmed, was calling in his detachments; his gun bullocks were all at a distance grazing, and very few men were in readiness; but he immediately pitched his tents and moved out from the city. Before next morning, which was the 23d July, he had a respectable force drawn up, with which he coolly awaited the approach of his son, who advanced at the head of his followers and was repulsed. Finding his troops giving way, Nasir Jung impetuously charged his father’s standard, pushed on towards his elephant, and slew three of his bravest attendants, one after the other. The driver of his own elephant being killed, Nasir Jung sprang into his place; when his brother-in-law, Mutuwussil Khan, approaching him, drew an arrow to the head, which must have transfixed him, had not his son Heedayet Moideen Khan, who sat on the same elephant, stayed his hand and saved his uncle’s life: at that moment Syud Lushkur Khan, an officer of experience, who knew Nasir Jung, and the pride as well as the generosity of his disposition, pushed his elephant close by the side of his, saluted him and respectfully made room on the seat of his elephant; when, overcome by this act of courtesy, Nasir Jung took the place and was thus carried prisoner to Aurangabad. Shah Nuwaz Khan, who, as well as Sur Lushkur Khan, was destined to act a conspicuous part in Deccan affairs, had embarked with his friend Nasir Jung in this desperate enterprise, stood by him to the last, and must have been cut down, but one of his friends in the army of Nizam Ool Moolk, after Nasir Jung was taken, opening a way by which he might escape, called to him to desist and save himself. He followed this advice, and to the concealment and obscurity in which he was for seven years obliged to live, Indian history is indebted for his valuable biography, the Muasir Ool Oomrah.
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Nizam Ool Moolk was exceedingly gratified by his son’s preservation, but he threw many of his adherents into confinement, and to mark his sense of Nasir Jung’s rebellion, imprisoned him for a short time in the fort of Kandhar, near Nandere, but relieved him before proceeding on an expedition to the southward: his motives for that undertaking we shall now explain.
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Whilst the affairs of Bengal occupied the Mahrattas, the attention of Nizam Ool Moolk was directed to the Carnatic, and in his protracted absence from the Deccan may be perceived the reason of his conciliatory conduct to Ballajee Rao, in aiding his pretensions to the government of Malwa. The murder of Sufdur Ali, Nabob of Arcot, by his brother-in-law, Mortiza Khan, in 1742; and the general confusion existing in the Moghul territories south of the Kistna presented a favourable opportunity for Nizam Ool Moolk’s interference to establish his power and to restore tranquillity to the country. He accordingly marched from Hyderabad at the head of an immense army in January, 1743, and upwards of a year was spent in concluding the arrangements he had contemplated. To obtain possession of Trichinopoly was an object of importance, but as matters stood with the Mahrattas, as the acquisition was much prized by them, it must have been an affair of some political management. The family of Ghorepuray, however, were never firmly united with their countrymen after the murder of Suntajee; it is true they would rather have joined the Mahrattas, but superior advantages and the chance of plunder would induce them to fight on the side of Moghuls or Europeans. Moorar Rao was recognized as Chief of Gooty by Nizam Ool Moolk,¹ and evacuated the Carnatic with all his troops in August, 1743.²
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¹ Orme and Wilks.
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² Orme.
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The Mahratta armies which assembled at Satara, in the beginning of 1744, were probably contemplated with some anxiety by Nizam Ool Moolk, whose march was soon directed towards Hyderabad, having left Anwar-ud-deen Khan, at his own request, in charge of the government of the Carnatic Payeen Ghaut, and appointed his own grandson, Heedayet Moideen Khan, better known by his title of Muzuffir Jung, to the Carnatic Bala Ghaut (or Carnatic Proper), conferring on him the district of Adonee in Jagheer, and fixing his head station at Beejapoor, whilst that of Anwar-ud-deen continued, as in the time of Daood Khan and the Newayeteh Nabobs,³ at the long established capital of Arcot. Nizam Ool Moolk, finding he had nothing to apprehend from the Mahrattas, directed his attention to affairs of internal government and reduced several forts, the Killidars of which were in rebellion.
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³ The Newayeteh Nabobs is the appellation by which Sadut Oollah Khan, Dost Ally, and Sufdur Ali are known in the Deccan. The Newayetehs are a distinct race of Mahomedans, and said to have been driven from Arabia to seek refuge on the western shores of India in the eighth century. See Wilks, vol. i, p. 242. [The name by which this mixed race is known on the Bombay coast is Navāit, Nāiata, or Nāitia, and they correspond closely in origin to the Māplas of Malabar and the Labbais of the Coromandel coast. According to a tradition current among the Konkani Muhammadans, who are the modern representatives of the Navāits in Bombay, they are descended from Arabs who fled to India in A.D. 699 to escape the persecution of Hajjāj-ibn-Yūsuf, Governor of Irāk, and settling on the western coast from Cambay to Goa, inter-married with Hindu women, whom they converted to Islam. Those who went further south to the Malabar Coast claim to have proselytised one of the Zamorins of Calicut. Between the ninth and sixteenth centuries they intermingled with other Persian and Arab immigrants and absorbed fresh bands of Arab refugees who escaped from the fury of the Karmatians (A.D. 923-6) and from the tyranny of Halaku the Tartar (A.D. 1258). Garcia da Orta (A.D. 1530) speaks of them as trading at Bassein, and describes them as foreign Moors who had married Hindu women of the coast. The name is variously derived from Sanskrit Nava, ‘new,’ meaning ‘new convert,’ and from Nāit, the name of an Arab clan. The Bombay Gazetteer, however, gives the meaning of the name as ‘shipmen’ or ‘sailors.’ (B.G., ‘Gujarat Musalmans,’ 14, 15.)]
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The Mahrattas were too much occupied in their own schemes to think of taking advantage of the Nizam’s absence. Rughoojee Bhonslay was intent on recovering his lost footing in Bengal, and the Peishwa, in order to excuse himself to the Emperor for not acting against Rughoojee, remained in the Deccan. Rughoojee had returned to Berar in the rains, but as soon as the season opened, Bashkur Punt, Alee Kurawul, and several officers of note,¹ supported by twenty thousand horse, were sent into Bengal by the route of Orissa. Aliverdy Khan prepared his troops, but on pretence of coming to an agreement, opened a negotiation with Bashkur Punt, invited him to a ziafut or entertainment, with twenty of his principal officers, and most treacherously murdered them. One Surdar, named Rughoojee Gaekwar, who remained in charge of the camp, was the only one out of twenty-two principal officers who escaped this perfidious massacre: he conducted the retreat of the army to Berar by the same route they had come, but many of the Mahratta stragglers were cut off by the exasperated peasantry.
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¹ Mahratta MSS.
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An opportunity, however, soon occurred of renewing the incursions. An insurrection against Aliverdy Khan’s government by the Afghans in his service obliged him to leave Orissa in some degree exposed, and in charge of a Hindoo governor. Rughoojee Bhonslay, apprised of the state of the province by certain Gosaeens whom he entertained as spies, invaded Orissa, obtained possession of several districts, and demanded thirty millions of rupees as the price at which he would spare the remainder and quit the country. Aliverdy Khan contrived to amuse him until he had suppressed the rebellion, when he sent a vaunting message to Rughoojee, which put an end to all negotiation. After the rains hostilities commenced, but ceased for a time after a partial defeat of the Mahrattas at Cutwa²; Rughoojee being obliged to return to his own territories in consequence of a disputed succession to the principality of Deogurh in Gondwaneh, where the sons of a Raja named Bukht Boolund, converted by Aurungzebe to Mahomedanism, had quarrelled, and one of them, named Wullee Shah, not only confined his two brothers, Akbar Shah and Boorhan Shah, but, on being assisted by Neelkunt Shah, another Hindoo renegado, Raja of Chandah, Wullee Shah refused to pay either chouth or surdeshmookhee to the Mahrattas; Akbar Shah was desirous of obtaining assistance from the Nizam, but Boorhan Shah courted the Mahrattas.
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² Seyr Ool Mutuakhereen and Stewart’s History of Bengal.
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The insurrection of Wullee Shah and Neelkunt Shah ended in the subjugation of their territory. Deogurh and Chandah were both annexed to the possessions of Rughoojee, but Ruttunpoor was assigned to Boorhan Shah, the brother of Wullee Shah, with an income for his support, and his posterity still reside at the Court of Nagpoor in the enjoyment of a part of it. Akbar Shah died a pensioner of the Nizam’s government.¹
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¹ Mahratta MSS.
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A.D. 1745.—Shortly after Rughoojee had entered Bengal during the Afghan insurrection, Ballajee Bajee Rao arrived at Belsah ² in Malwa, from which place he addressed letters to the Emperor, full of assurances of perpetual fidelity, but excusing himself from paying his respects in the royal presence. He expressed surprise at Aliverdy Khan’s inactivity in not repulsing Rughoojee, which the Emperor in his reply accounts for by charging Ballajee with not having stopped the Ghauts in Rughoojee’s rear as preconcerted. But the agreement which had taken place with Rughoojee precluded all interference; the Peishwa evaded the discussion, and on pretence of business in the Deccan, after making his annual collections, speedily returned to Poona.³
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² [i.e. Bhīlsā, the principal town of the Isāgarh subdivision in Gwālior State. Near it lie the famous Buddhist antiquities, for a description of which see Marshall, *A Guide to Sanchi*, Calcutta, 1918; Cunningham, *The Bhilsa Topes or Buddhist Monuments of Central India* (1854), and Maisey, *Sanchi and its Remains*, &c., with an introductory note by Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham (1892). The name Bhīlsā appears to be derived from Bhāilla, or ‘Lord of Life,’ the form under which the Sun was worshipped locally in Central India during the Middle Ages. (Crooke, *P.R.* and *F.L.I.*, 8.)]
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³ Original Letters, and Mahratta MSS.
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A.D. 1746.—In the following year he sent his cousin, Sewdasheo Chimnajee Bhow, accompanied by Sukaram Bappoo,⁴ the Carcoon of Mahadajee Punt Poorundhuree, on an expedition into the Carnatic, to punish some of the Deshmookhs who had driven out the Thannas of the Peishwa’s old creditor, Bappoojee Naik Barramutteekur. That person, by the interest of Rughoojee Bhonslay, had obtained the chouth and surdeshmookhee between the Kistna and Toongbuddra in farm from the Raja, for the annual sum of seven lacks of rupees; but the opposition he experienced, and the heavy charges for maintaining the troops, totally ruined him in a few years. The expense of the present expedition, which he was compelled to defray, added to his embarrassments, but he would not consent to relinquish the contract in favour of the Bhow, as was proposed to him. Sewdasheo Chimnajee levied contributions as far as the Toongbuddra and reduced the fort of Bhadur Benda, to which the Mahrattas had a claim of long standing.¹ On Sewdasheo Chimnajee’s return from this expedition, he was invested by the Raja with the same rank as had been enjoyed by his father,² and being ambitious and bolder than his cousin the Peishwa, he began to assume considerable power. He chose as his Carcoons Wasdeo Joshee and Rughoonath Huree, two able men who had been brought up under Kanhoojee Angria.
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⁴ Sukaram Bhugwunt Bhokeel, Koolkurnee of Hewra, and the descendant of Puntojee Gopinat, who betrayed Afzool Khan into the hands of Sivajee, was the principal minister at the period when the British Government first took an active part in the politics of the Poona Durbar, and is best known by his familiar name of Sukaram Bappoo. [Warren Hastings wrote to Sakhārām Bāpu in 1775, ‘I have heard of your wisdom and capacity from everywhere, therefore trust in your person that you will not fail to get the business done through your interest.’ The letter appears on page 246 of Forrest’s Selections (*Marāthā Series*), Bombay, 1885.]
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¹ Mahratta MSS.
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² Second in command under the Peishwa.
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The Peishwa himself concluded a new and more specific agreement with the Rajas of Bundelcund, by which, after deducting the district of Ryhlee, which had been wholly ceded to the late Peishwa, one-third of the territory, estimated at sixteen and a half lacks of rupees,³ was made over to Ballajee Bajee Rao, besides a like share from the profits of the diamond mines of Pannah.
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³ Rupees 16,51,636. (Original papers.)
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The Peishwa during this period of comparative tranquillity in the Deccan gave encouragement to agriculture, protected the villagers and grain merchants, and improvement was everywhere visible. But events occurred about this time in Hindoostan, the Deccan, and Carnatic, which were the forerunners of fresh troubles and great revolutions in every part of India.
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The season of 1747-48 is memorable in Hindoostan by its being the period of the first invasion of Ahmed Shah Abdallee, king of the Afghans, who are distinguished in India by the various appellations of Dooranee, Abdallee, and Giljya.¹ Ahmed Abdallee, the person who was now their acknowledged sovereign, was son of a chief of a tribe of Afghans named Abdallee, settled in the province of Herat, when it was conquered by Nadir Shah. Ahmed from being the prisoner became a military follower of Nadir, and was gradually promoted to considerable rank. On the assassination of Nadir Shah, Ahmed left the Persian army with the whole of his tribe, who were in camp, and retiring to Herat, which he occupied, was soon acknowledged as king by the whole Afghan nation, and now possessed the eastern half of the dominions of Nadir Shah.
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¹ I mention these names as necessary in common conversation with the natives of India. A native of Maharashtra, for instance, only knows them by the name of Giljya, whilst Afghans, generally, are merely distinguished as Patans.
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One of the nephews of Kummur-ud-deen Khan the Vizier, who had taken charge of the governments of Mooltan and Lahore in prejudice to his elder brother, was advised by a treacherous Moghul, named Adina Beg Khan, to unite his fortunes with the rising Ahmed Shah Abdallee, an advice which he had no sooner begun to put in practice than Adina Beg informed his uncle of the circumstance, and the nephew ashamed of his conduct returned to his allegiance; but the traitor, Adina Beg, had already gone so far in the negotiation with Ahmed Shah, that the latter was not to be interrupted in his progress; his troops advanced, and he obtained possession of Mooltan and Lahore, almost without resistance, and proceeded towards Delhi. He was, however, at this time successfully opposed by the Moghul army sent forward by the Emperor under his son, Prince Ahmed, and the Afghan army retreated towards Cabul. On this service Kummur-ud-deen Khan the Vizier having been killed, his son, Meer Munnoo, received the governments of Mooltan and Lahore, and set out to take charge of those provinces. Prince Ahmed returned towards Delhi, but before he reached the capital the Emperor had breathed his last. On the Prince's accession to the throne, by the title of Ahmed Shah, in the end of April, he bestowed the office of Vizier on Sufdur Jung, Nabob of Oude.² He had offered the Viziership to Nizam Ool Moolk, but he excused himself on account of his great age, and only survived Mohummud Shah a very short time, having died at Burhanpoor, in his 104th year, on the 19th June, 1748.
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² Seyr Mutuakhereen.
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Nizam Ool Moolk left six sons, namely, Ghazee-ud-deen, Nasir Jung, Sulabut Jung, Nizam Ally, Mohummud Shureef, and Meer Moghul. The two first were of the same mother, all the others were of different mothers. Ghazee-ud-deen being at Delhi, where he held the rank of Umeer Ool Oomrah, at the time of his father's death, Nasir Jung assumed the government.¹
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¹ Khuzaneh Amirah, &c.
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A few months after the death of Nizam Ool Moolk, the Emperor wrote a letter with his own hand, inviting Nasir Jung in a very pressing manner to come to court, and the latter had arrived at the Nerbuddah, when the invitation, for some reason not satisfactorily explained, was withdrawn. This circumstance appeared at the time fortunate to Nasir Jung, as news of an alarming nature had just reached him of a rebellion, headed by his nephew Muzuffir Jung and aided by Chunda Sahib, with a body of French troops. Very shortly afterwards intelligence was received of the defeat and death of Anwar-ud-deen, Governor of the Carnatic Payeen Ghaut, at the battle of Ambour, on which Nasir Jung applied to Rughoojee Bhonslay for a body of his troops, promising to grant some cessions of territory as the reward of their service.² He also summoned the whole of the Moghul dependants and tributaries in the Carnatic to be prepared to join his army as he advanced to the southward. Moorar Rao Ghorepuray, as Jagheerdar of Gooty, the Raja of Mysore, the Nabobs of Kurpa, Kurnoul, and Savanoor, and Mohummud Ally, second son of the late Anwar-ud-deen, with his supporters, the President and Council of the English settlement at Madras, were the principal authorities who joined, or sent their troops to accompany Nasir Jung.
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