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Later Mughals v2.c19.s2: Sec. 120.—Nadir's Massacre at Dihli.

Later Mughals v2.c19.s2

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Sec. 120.—Nadir's Massacre at Dihli.

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At sunrise on Sunday 11th March, the tumult broke out afresh. Nadir dressed himself in armour, mounted his horse and girt around by spearmen carrying daggers also, rode to the Golden Mosque of Roshan-ud-daulah in the middle of Chandni Chawk, opposite the Police Station and close to the Jewel Market. There he ascertained from which wards and classes of men the crimes of the night before had proceeded, and then unsheathed his sword as a signal for the general massacre of the people of those wards.

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His soldiers had so long held their hands back from retaliation solely in obedience to his command. They now hastened with drawn swords to wreak vengeance. Within the doomed areas, the houses were looted, all the men killed without regard for age and all the women dragged into slavery.*

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∗ Hanway (ii. 376)—Many refugees from the neighbouring country, joined by jewellers, money-changers, and rich shopkeepers, headed by the Court physician, took arms in desperation, assembled in a body, and fought

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The destroyers set fire to many houses and several of their victims, both dead and wounded, Hindus and Muhammadans, were indiscriminately burnt together. [*Jahankusha* 357-358.]

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The slaughter began about 9 o'clock in the morning and raged unchecked till about 2 P.M. Then Muhammad Shah in utter humility sent his highest nobles, the Nizam and the Wazir, to beg the victor to abate his anger and pardon his erring subjects. [*Jahan* 359.] Nadir listened to the prayer, because he took no pleasure in wanton bloodshed, and had only ordered the massacre as a measure of self-defence in imaginary fear of a universal rising of the Indian population. [*Harcharan.*]

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The *kotwal* was commanded to go through the city with the heralds of the Persian army, proclaiming to the men to cease their work of slaughter. They immediately obeyed.

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Anandram (who was present in the Wakilpura suburb throughout Nadir's stay in Dihli) says that the houses in the Chandni Chawk, the Fruit-market Square, the Dariba Bazar and the region round the Jama Masjid were sacked. Harcharandas, too, speaks of only 2 or 3 *mahallas* near the Fort and the grain dealers' *mahalla* (Paharganj) which was at a distance from it, suffering havoc. Abdul Karim defines the portion of the city subjected to massacre and plunder, as extending from the fort-gate westwards to the old Id-gah, northwards to the wood market, southwards to outside the Dihli gate in the city-wall. In addition to this area, "in Paharganj where the rising had started, many men were arrested on the suspicion of having caused the tumult and they were brought and beheaded on the bank of the Jamuna." [*Bayan.*]

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The number of persons slain was found, on a subsequent investigation by the *kotwal*, to be 8,000 according to my MS. of Abdul Karim's memoirs, but the copy of the same work used by Sir H. Elliot's translator, Lt. Prichard, reads 20,000. The Persian State Secretary has 30,000; and the Mahratti newsletters (based on distant hearsay) give the number of the

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bravely for some time; but being so little accustomed to the use of arms, only died sword in hand.

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victims as 50,000 in one place and 3 or 4 lakhs in another. Harcharan-das has one lakh; Hanway adds ten thousand to this last figure, and says that 10,000 more committed suicide by throwing themselves into wells. [ii. 376.] All these are popular exaggerations due to distant bazar rumours. Considering the small area affected and the short duration of the havoc, 20,000 is the most probable number of those put to the sword.

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We are told by more than one authority that many respectable Indian householders slew their own wives and daughters to save them from dishonour by the Qizilbash soldiery and then rushed on the enemy's swords or cut their own throats. Many women drowned themselves in the wells of their houses to escape a shame worse than death. But many more were outraged and dragged away as captives, though according to the Persian State Secretary Nadir afterwards ordered them to be restored to their families. [Hanway, Jahan 359; Rajwade vi. Nos. 133 and 167.]

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During the night of the rising two Indian nobles named Sayyid Niaz Khan (the son-in-law of the Wazir) and Shah Nawaz Khan, with Rai Bhan, had attacked the elephant stables of Nadir, killed his superintendent of mahuts and taken away the elephants. They had afterwards shut themselves up in a fort outside the city and resisted capture. Azim-ullah Khan and Fulad Khan were now sent by the Emperor to arrest them. They were produced before Nadir with 470 of their armed followers and were put to death by his order. [Jahan 359.] Abdul Karim, however, holds them innocent of participation in the night's riot, but says that they had merely shot down a number of Qizilbash assailants in the defence of their property and family honour during the massacre. All other authorities represent these two nobles as aggressors. Hanway heard a different version of this incident. According to him [ii. 377], before the massacre of Dihli a party of the Persian forces had been sent to seize the cannon at the palace of an Indian lord. These had been treacherously set upon and murdered by a body of Tartar Mongols [of Mughalpura]. Nadir sent a large detachment who fell upon these people and slaughtered nearly 6000 of them. The Persians brought away the ordnance together with 300 persons of the chief rank among them, who were beheaded and their bodies thrown away on the sand bank (reti) of the Jamuna.

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For some days after the massacre the streets of the doomed quarters of Dihli became impassable from the stench of the corpses filling the houses, wells and roadside, none venturing to approach them in fear. At last the *kotwal* took Nadir's permission and had the bodies collected on the roads and other open spaces and burnt them. [Anandram 50, Ali Hazin 300.]

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After the massacre Nadir ordered the granaries to be sealed up and guards set over them. He also set several parties of cavalry to invest the city and prevent ingress and egress. The city was in a state of siege; the roads were entirely closed. A famine broke out among the survivors of the massacre. Those who tried to leave Dihli and go to the neighbouring villages in quest of food, were intercepted by the cavalry patrols, deprived of their noses and ears, and driven back into the city. After some days a lamenting deputation waited on the Persian king and he at last permitted them to go to Faridabad to buy provisions. [Hanway, ii. 377-378; Rajwade, vi. No. 133.]

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But even the villages were no safer. The Persians marauded for 30 or 40 miles round the capital, plundering the villages, laying the fields waste and killing the inhabitants who resisted. After the battle of Karnal a body of Persians had been sent to raid Thanesar, which they plundered, slaying many. During the Shah's advance to Dihli early in March, Panipat, Sonepat and other towns lying on the way were sacked. [Hanway, ii. 384, 372-373.]

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