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Later Mughals v2.c19.s1: Sec. 118.—Nadir Shah and the Emperor Enter Dihli Palace.

Later Mughals v2.c19.s1

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Sec. 118.—Nadir Shah and the Emperor Enter Dihli Palace.

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The royal party arrived near the Shalimar garden north of Dihli on 7th March. Saadat Khan had advanced from the city a day earlier to welcome Nadir. On the 7th Luft-ullah went to the garden to wait on his master, who presented him to Nadir. The Persian king expressed great pleasure at Lutfullah’s ready obedience, and taking off a costly coat from his own person invested the Khan with it with his own hands. [Shakir.] Nadir and his army halted in the garden on the 8th, while Muhammad Shah went into the city to prepare the palace for receiving his august guest.

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The fallen descendant of Babar and Akbar rode into his capital on a portable throne (*takht-i-rawan*) in silence and humility; no band played, and no banners were carried before him. [Chronicle.] A few nobles accompanied him,—Ishaq Khan, Bahroz Khan and Jawid Khan.

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Next morning, Friday the 9th of March, the conqueror entered Dihli riding a grey charger. His troops lined the road from the limits of the Shalimar garden to the gate of the fort-palace of Dihli. The Emperor welcomed his conqueror, spread the richest carpets cloth of gold and other rare stuffs on the ground for him to set his foot upon (*pa-andazi*). Nadir Shah occupied Shah Jahan’s own palace-chambers near the Diwan-i-khas, while Muhammad Shah lodged near the *deorhi* of the Asad Burj. [Anandram.] On this day the Emperor acted as the host and placed dinner before Nadir. The Persian army encamped, some round the fort, some on the bank of the Jamuna near the city, and some were quartered in houses throughout the city. [Ali Hazin, *Jahankusha* 355.]

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Saadat Khan had been in attendance on Nadir the whole of this day. At night he was severely reprimanded by the Persian king for his failure to raise the promised ransom and was threatened with personal chastisement if he did not carry out his word soon. It was too much for him. He retired to his own house and took poison.

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The feast of Id-uz-zuha fell on Saturday 10th March. In the morning the name and titles of Nadir were proclaimed as sovereign from the pulpits of the Jama Masjid and other places of prayer. [Siyar, i. 98.] In the afternoon Nadir went on a return visit to Muhammad Shah’s chambers and proceeded to his real business, the exaction of ransom. A little scene was now played in order to throw a veil of outward decency over the pre-arranged act of spoliation. We can easily detect the truth in reading between the lines of the following diplomatic narrative of the Persian king’s secretary [Jahankusha, 355] :—

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“Nadir Shah graciously remarked that the throne of Hindustan would be left to Muhammad Shah, in the terms of the agreement made on the first day, and that the Emperor would enjoy the support and friendship of the Persian monarch, because both were of the same Turkoman stock.

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“Muhammad Shah bowed low in gratitude and gave profuse thanks to the victor for his generosity. He had received no small favour ;—it was the gift of a crown added to the gift of life. As a mark of his gratitude he laid before Nadir Shah the accumulated treasures stores and rare possessions of the rulers of Dihli as presents to Nadir and offerings for his health (nisar). But the gracious sovereign of Persia refused to take any of these things, though the piled-up wealth of all the other kings of the world did not amount to a tenth part of a tenth part of this immense hoard. At last he yielded to the importunity of Muhammad Shah and appointed trusty officers to take delivery of the money and other property.”

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SEC. 119.—DIHLI POPULACE RISE AGAINST THE PERSIANS.

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While this peaceful meeting was being held in the palace, a scene of the opposite character opened in the city. Nadir’s soldiers and camp-followers, mostly Turks, Kurds and Mongols, were wandering carelessly through the streets and bazars of Dihli as their king was in possession of the city. Suddenly, about four o’clock in the evening (Saturday, 10th March), some idle talkers and mischief-makers started the rumour that Nadir Shah had been treacherously shot dead at the instigation of Muhammad Shah, by a Qalmaq woman-guard of the palace when he was returning from his visit to the Emperor.* [Anandram 44, Siyar i. 98.] As all had heard that Nadir would go to the Emperor's quarters that day, the story found ready belief. None cared to verify the news by a visit to the palace, though its gate was open and people were passing in and out of it on business. [Ali Hazin.] The rumour spread like wild-fire, and soon afterwards the hooligans and low people of the city armed themselves and began to attack the Persian soldiers and followers who were strolling through the streets alone or in groups of two and three. Their small number, their ignorance of the local language, and their unfamiliarity with by-ways of the city put them at a disadvantage and they were slain. The rumour of the murder of their chief took the heart out of the Persians and they could not make any organized stand. The rising spread with the success of the rioters and the weak defence of the Persians. All night the murderous attack raged; it slackened after 3 o'clock next morning (no doubt owing to the exhaustion of the fighters), but revived with new energy at daybreak, which was the 13th bright lunar day of Falgun or the commencement of the Holi festival, when the lower classes of Hindus are particularly excited and often intoxicated. [Chronicle and Raj. vi. 131.]

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Among the authorities Harcharan-das alone says that the citizens rose in tumult when they were driven to desperation by the violent attacks of the Persian soldiers on their property and women. This statement goes against the probabilities of the case, because the time was only one day after Nadir’s arrival, when the amount of the ransom and the manner of levying it were still being discussed, and Nadir was not the man to allow a premature fleecing of the citizens or relax the discipline of his army in a foreign town. All other writers represent the Indian mob as the aggressors. The higher classes and all good men held aloof; but they took no active step to pacify or control the hooligans, because the old Government agency for maintaining order had been dissolved, the gentry were too much divided by caste creed race and profession to combine and organize a voluntary police at a moment’s notice, and their centralized autocratic Government had not developed their powers of initiative and self-help by giving them any opportunity of corporate action and municipal self-government.

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∗ This was a familiar stage-device of the story-tellers of Dihli. The captive Shah Jahan was said to have formed a similar plot against Aurangzeb in Agra fort. Details of the alleged murder of Nadir Shah varied in the popular mouth. The following rumour reached Aurangabad, as we find in a Mahratti news-letter [Raj. vi. No. 134] :—"Nadir Shah breaking his oath faithlessly imprisoned the Emperor and his nobles, though the Pathans who had joined him urged him not to do it. At the time of Nadir's entrance into Dihli there was a rising of the Pathans round him. Qasim Khan Pathan and his brother, who were waving peacock feather fans over Nadir and his Wazir on their howdas, slew both of them with their daggers at the gate."

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Hanway heard what seems to me to have been the most probable account of the origin of the riot, namely that Tahmasp Khan sent several Persian mounted military police (nasaqchi) to the granaries of the Paharganj ward ordering them to be opened and the price of corn fixed; that the corn-dealers not being satisfied with the rate, a mob assembled; Sayyid Niaz Khan and several other persons of distinction put themselves at their head and slew the Persian horsemen, and then the report was spread that Nadir had been murdered, which increased the tumult. [ii. 375.]

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According to Ali Hazin, seven thousand Persians were slain that night. But Abdul Karim gives the more probable figure of 3,000.*

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When early in the night the first reports of the attacks on his soldiers were brought to Nadir, he refused to credit them and censured the complainants by saying that the wretches in his army had brought this false charge against the citizens in the hope of getting from him an order to plunder and slay them and thus satisfy their wicked greed. But the reports persisted and gradually became more alarming. He now sent out a sergeant to find out the true facts. The man, on leaving the fort-gate, was killed by the mob. A second agent suffered the same fate. Then the Persian king ordered a thousand musketeers to enter the streets and disperse the mob. But by this time the disturbance had spread over too large an area for these few men to succeed in quelling it.

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∗ Ali Hazin says that some of the Indian nobles who had begged from Nadir Qizilbash guards for their mansions gave them up to the mob to be slain and even killed them with their own hands. But Abdul Karim tells the more probable tale that these guards were preserved and their presence saved those houses from the vengeance of Nadir’s soldiery in the next day’s massacre and even the poor householders in their neighbourhood escaped sack by appealing to them.

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On learning this, Nadir ordered that his soldiers should remain collected in their respective posts for the rest of the night, without spreading out or sallying forth to punish the Indians. They were not even to fight unless their posts were attacked. The gates of the wards of the city were watched by strong Persian pickets, and the rioting bands were isolated in their respective quarters and prevented from combining or marching elsewhere. [Jahankusha 357, Harcharan, Bayan 46-47, Ali Hazin 298-299, Anandram 44.]

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