A History of the Mahrattas v1.c30.89

v1.c30.89

The reader may recollect the manner in which the Moghuls, in the time of Aurunzebe, took possession of a province, and their mode of conducting its administration. To each district there was a Foujdar or military governor charged with its protection and interior order, and a Dewan or collector and civil manager. There were also Soobehdars and Nazims, who were military governors of large provinces, but these were merely gradations of rank, to each of which there was a Dewan. The Foujdar was the active efficient officer, the superiors were mere supervisors. These military governors, when the empire fell into decay, styled themselves Nabobs,¹ and all who could maintain that appellation considered themselves independent, though they embraced every opportunity of obtaining firmans or commissions from the pageant Emperor. The English, at the period of Meer Jaffeir’s death, had Bengal at their disposal, and the Emperor’s person in their power. The youngest son of Meer Jaffeir was made Nabob of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa in February, 1765,² and the East India Company, previously charged with the military protection of this territory, were appointed his Dewan in August following. The Emperor, Shah Alum, with the assigned revenues of Allahabad and Korah for his support,³ the only part of the conquered territories of Shujah-ud-dowlah of which the English thought proper to dispose, continued to reside under the British protection, in hopes that they might be induced to send an army to place him on the throne of his ancestors.