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The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c38: Chapter X. First Mughal Conquest of Bengal

The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c38

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English

Contents

Chapter X. First Mughal Conquest of Bengal

I. Consequences of the Mughal Conquest on Bengal

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When the conquering Chaghtāī Turks struck at the centre of the Sultanate of Delhi, they generated forces which completely changed the ethnic character of the Muslim population of Bengal and subverted the political life of Orissa. This violent impact sent the ruling Afghan population flying to the eastern extremity of the Ludi empire. Neither Babur during his busy four years on the Indian throne, nor Humayun during his hectic first term of ten years (1530-1540) succeeded in driving the Afghans from upper Hindustan into Bengal, because Bihar remained the easternmost home of the Afghan princes till the triumph of Sher Shah. It was Sher Shah who first read the future aright, and in his far-sighted political wisdom decided to make Bengal, with its proverbial wealth as a support and its equally proverbial bad climate as a barrier, the citadel of the last Afghan power, with the province of Bihar forming a shield on its western border. The forts of Rohtas and Chunar and his own revived city of Patna,—on the strategic point where the Ganges the Gandak and the Son meet together, entirely dominating the great river highway,—formed a screen of the strongest defensive power. If to these Jaunpur could be added, Bengal's western line of defence would run almost up to the Himalayas.

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Sher Shah seized the capital of Bengal in June 1538, and the last Afghan ruler of the province yielded up his realm to the Mughals in 1576, and the last independent local chieftain of that race was killed in Sylhet in 1612. But during this interval Bengal became dotted with small baronies created by Afghan fugitives from upper India and the descendants of the princelings and ministers of the last Afghan Sultans from whom the Mughals had wrested the sovereignty of Bengal. The same Mughal push from the North drove the still unconquered martial power of the Bengal Afghan rulers into Orissa, and that province had at last to see the extinction of its long line of Hindu kings and the establishment of a new Pathan dominion. Though Afghan rule in Orissa was extinguished by Mān Singh (1592), the Afghans who had taken refuge there remained mostly in residence in their hamlets and towns, and today in the mouth of the Orissa people the general name for a Muslim, of whatever race, is Pathan.

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Another very large stream of the defeated Afghans flowed from Orissa, by way of the coast and East Bengal, into the province of Sylhet and greatly augmented the existing rural population of the same faith who had been converted to Islam centuries ago by Shah Jalāl and other missionaries of the crescent. Thus, we find among the old landed proprietors of Bengal even today such historic Afghan clan names as Ghaznavi and Pani, Yusufzai and Sur.

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Up to the middle of the 16th century, Orissa had been a purely Hindu country, both in its royal house and in its population. A clear light is thrown on the territorial demarcation between the two creeds by the Life of Chaitanya, where we read that at the time of that saint's journey to Jagannath-Puri the last outpost of Muslim rule was Pichaldah on the Mantreshwar river, while south of it began Hindu Orissa without a single permanent Muslim settler. All this was changed by Sulaimān Karrānī's invasion in 1568 and the southward rush of Islam into Orissa was intensified after Akbar's victory over Dāud in 1575.

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Mughal conquest opened for Bengal a new era of peace and progress. It re-established that contact with upper India,—and through upper India by the land-route with the countries of Central Asia and Western Asia,—which Bengal had lost first when Buddhism became dead in the land of its birth and next when its Muslim viceroys threw off the overlordship of Delhi. The narrow isolation which thus afflicted Bengal about 1339 was broken once a year by the visit of a ship or two from Malay and far more rarely from Zanzibar, which brought to our shores the commodities and cultural envoys of the outer Muslim world. But with the opening of the 16th century this sea-borne traffic was endangered and all but stopped. Goa became the seat of a European Power planted on the Indian soil (1510) and the Portuguese fleet soon imposed its dominance on the Indian Ocean, subjecting Arab and African, Indian and Malay ships to harassment and tribute. Less than a century after the Portuguese conquest of Goa, Portuguese adventurers and their half-breed progeny,—no longer acting as authorised agents of the Government of Lisbon, but pirating for their own sake,—secured a lodgement in Arracan and Sondip and infested the Bay of Bengal and the lower estuary of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. This all but scared away the entire Asiatic trade with Bengal by the sea-route.

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It was only in 1666 that a Mughal viceroy broke up these foreign pirates' nest by conquering Chatgaon. The imperial peace which had by this time settled on Bengal led to an immense increase of this province’s maritime trade, but almost entirely through European agency. Thus Bengal gained a second line of free communication with the vast outer world, while officials, scholars, preachers, traders, artisans and soldiers continued to flock by the land-route from the heart of the Mughal empire into what had now become a regular well-administered province of that empire. The return current, generated by the same imperial peace and regular administration, was represented by the Vaishnav pilgrims and teachers who went from Bengal to Vrindavan, and beyond Vrindavan even to Jaipur and Kurukshetra; and also by the much thinner stream of Bengal “candidates” for the public service or ambitious cadets of landed families or discontented litigants defeated in the provincial law courts who sought to improve their fortunes by a visit to the royal Court at Agra and Delhi.

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The renaissance which we owe to English rule early in the 19th century had a precursor,—a faint glimmer of dawn, no doubt,—two hundred and fifty years earlier. “These were the fruits, the truly glorious fruits, of Mughal peace.”

II. Dāud Karrani Expelled from Bengal

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Dāud fled to Orissa by way of Sātgānw (Hughli), and the Afghan captains scattered to the north-east and south of Bengal. From his base at Tāndā Muni‘m Khan sent out strong detachments to Sātgānw (Hughli), Ghoraghat (Dinajpur-Bogra), Bakla (Bakarganj), Sonārgānw (Dacca) and Mahmudabad (Jessore-Faridpur) to establish imperial authority. In the Ghoraghat sub-division, Sulaimān Mankali the Afghan jagirdar was defeated and slain by Majnun Khan Qāqshāl and the broken remnants of his followers were driven into Kuch Bihar. In the south, Dāud’s chief adviser Srihari (the father of Pratāpāditya) parted company with his master and took refuge in the maritime wilderness of Khulna. Thus in west, north central and south Bengal no organised Pathan power was left, though as yet no Mughal force or collector was posted in Pabna, Rangpur-Dinajpur, Mymensingh, Bhāwal (north Dacca), Jessore-Khulna or Barisal. Nor in the wilds of Bankura-Birbhum.

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Burdwan was made the advanced base of the invaders, but their supreme commander took post at Tāndā, near the old city of Gaur in he Malda district.

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Then the victors tired of their exertions and “thought only of taking their ease in that country.” But Rajah Todar Mal came to them from head quarters, and urged them to follow up Dāud into Orissa and end the war decisively. The army led by this Rajah advanced from Burdwan to Garh-Mandāran, in the Arambagh sub-division of the Hughli district, midway between Goghat and Basudevpur, and some eight miles due west of Arambagh. Here spies brought the report that Dāud had faced about at Debra-Kasari (not Kasiari, 22 miles south-west of Midnapur city). Todar Mal called up reinforcements from his chief, and on their arrival marched from Mandāran to Koliā.¹ Dāud then fell back on Garh-Haripur, eleven miles south-east of the Dantan station on the B. N. Railway.

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¹ Movements before battle of Tukaroi,—Ak. iii. 169-174; Tabqat 324; Al. Bad. ii. 194. Battle,—Ak. iii. 176-180, Tabqat, 325-326. The fullest study of the battle with a large map of the site is given in my paper in *Bengal Past and Present*, No. 99 (1935) pp. 1-4. The hideously misprinted *Tabaqat-i-Akbari* (Newal Kishore Press lithographed Persian text) gives the name as Goaliar,—clearly a mistake for *Kolia*. There is a place spelt as *Colliah* in Rennell, sheet 7, 23 miles north-east of Midnapur, and almost midway between Mandaran and Midnapur city. Similarly, *Nanjura* has been misspelt as *Khabura, Bachora* etc. in *Tabaqat* and Al Badayuni, and *Debra Kasari* as *Din Kisari, Rin Kasari* etc.

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The Rajah halted with his army at Midnapur. Here Muhammad Quli Barlas died, the Mughal troops were disheartened, disorder broke out among them as they objected to continuing this jungle campaign. So, Todar Mal beat a retreat to Mandāran. Meantime, the Khān-i-Khānān, on being informed of the detachment's retreat to Mandaran and the dissensions in the camp there, had pushed up reinforcements from Burdwan.

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Todar Mal was now in a position to resume the offensive. From Mandaran the entire army advanced to Cheto, where the Khān-i-Khānān himself joined it. It was now learnt that Dāud had fortified his camp at Haripur by digging a deep trench around it and throwing up breastworks, in Afghan fashion. He had also barricaded the regular road from Midnapur southwards at strategic points, and as this road ran through a jungle the advancing Mughal army could be easily ambushed anywhere. The imperial soldiery were disheartened and refused to fight, clamouring for peace with the enemy. Todar Mal and the Khān-i-Khānān harangued and argued with them and cajoled them into a fighting mood. It was dangerous to go straight forward upon Dāud's position, and therefore the Mughal chiefs, helped by men with knowledge of the locality, discovered an obscure circuitous path. This route was improved by pioneers, and then the army, making a wide detour by their left, *i.e.*, south-eastwards, arrived at Nanjura, a village close to the Contai-Midnapur road and 11 miles east of the Dantan railway station.

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Thus Dāud's flank was turned and his rear could be cut by one day's march. He had already sent off his family and impedimenta to Katak and lightened his force. He now advanced from his camp to challenge the enemy at their halting place. The encounter took place on the plain of Tukaroi, nine miles south-east of Dantan and 3 miles west of Nanjura, *i.e.*, 10 miles south of the angle formed by the B. N. Railway line and the branch road to Contai.

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III. THE BATTLE OF TUKAROI DESCRIBED

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3 MARCH, 1575

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The Mughal chiefs had decided not to fight that day, as the stars were inauspicious. They had merely sent out the usual vedettes in front of their camp, when they were surprised to see the enemy rapidly advancing in full force. Muni'm Khan hurriedly ordered his troops to be drawn up in battle array. Dāud precipitated the battle with a furious charge of elephants in a long line under Gujar Khan, upon the Mughal vanguard. "As the tusks and necks of the elephants were covered with black yak-tails and the skins of the animals, they produced horror and dismay; the horses of the imperial van were frightened on seeing these extraordinary forms, and hearing the terrible cries, and turned back. Though the riders exerted themselves, they were not successful and the troops lost their formation." (*Akbarnamah*, iii, 176). Khan-i-'Alam was slain and his division was scattered. The impetus of the victorious Afghan van similarly broke the imperial *iltimsh* and even swept away the centre itself. Muni'm Khan and other officers fought desperately, receiving repeated wounds, but their followers "did not behave well." At last, the tide of fugitives swept away the commander-in-chief up to five miles behind the front. The Afghans of the vanguard, after pursuing him for half-a-mile, turned aside to plunder his camp; they even went beyond it and dispersed in the attempt to overtake the Mughal camp-followers who were trying to escape with their pack animals.

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This ruined the Afghan cause. Dāud durst not follow up Gujar Khan's successful charge by pushing into the opening made by him in the Mughal centre and taking the imperial left wing in flank, as he feared that the retreat of the Khān-i-Khānān was merely a ruse for luring him into the jaws of death between his enemies’ two wings. The Afghan right wing under Sikandar merely made a half-hearted frontal demonstration against the Mughal left wing, but “fled without coming to blows,” because here Todar Mal and other officers held their ground firmly and presented a bold front. When Dāud himself arrived in support of his right wing he could do no better. Meantime, the severely shaken Mughal divisions had been rallied; everywhere brave men had formed themselves into small knots and facing round were attacking the Afghans with arrows from horseback in Turk fashion. One of these missiles killed Gujar Khan, and thereafter the Afghan vanguard melted away in a minute. Muni'm Khan himself returned to the field and completed the rally of his side.

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At the other extremity, the Afghan left wing had attacked and somewhat shaken the imperial right division; Shaham Khan, the commander of the latter, himself “lost firmness on hearing of the boldness of Gujar and of the confusion of the imperial (central) army, and was turning back.” (*Akbarnamah*, iii, 178). But he was heartened by his braver subordinates, and this wing turned and fought the Afghans boldly. “In a short space of time the enemy (in front of them) was driven off and the victors proceeded against the (Afghan) centre.” Threatened in front and left, with his vanguard dispersed beyond recall or sight, Dāud could not maintain the contest long; his ruin was completed when news came of the fall of Gujar Khan and the flight of his division. The entire Afghan army now broke and fled in hopeless rout. The Mughals gave chase slaying and plundering without opposition. “The plain became a tulip-garden from the blood of the slain.”

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Next day, the Mughal generalissimo, then in his 82nd year and suffering from senile decay (according to Abul Fazl), vented his wrath by killing all the prisoners taken and making “eight sky-high minarets with their brainless heads,”—in humble imitation of his master’s progenitor Timur, who had “built his ghastly tower of eighty thousand human skulls.”

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The battle was a decisive victory for the Mughals, though so many of their higher officers were slain and wounded. Dāud Khan fled to Katak, unable to make a stand anywhere before the pursuing column under Rajah Todar Mal. On 12th April he came out of that fort and made a complete submission to the Khān-i-Khānān. (*Ak*. iii. 183-186. *Tabaqat*. 326).

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When Dāud Karrāni laid down his sword at the feet of Muni'm Khan in the darbar tent at Katak, the ceremony merely proclaimed the *de jure* annexation of Bengal to Akbar’s empire; but the actual imposition of imperial peace and orderly Mughal administration on Bengal was still far off. That province remained for many years a scene of confusion and anarchy. The Mughal military officers held a few towns in Bihar and fewer still in Bengal, but these places were only the head-quarters of subdivisions (*sarkars*) and even in them the imperial authority was liable to challenge and expulsion from time to time. Outside these towns lay the vast no man’s land, a constant prey to roving bands of dispossessed Afghan soldiery and Akbar’s officers out on raid for their private gain. The local landlords utilised the eclipse of regular government to encroach on their neighbours’ estates or to satisfy old grudges. There was a Mughal subahdar (*sipah-salar*) for Bihar and another for Bengal, but the authority of each was paralysed by the inadequacy of his forces and the disobedience, greed and mutual jealousies of his subordinates. The history of the years 1575-1594, is a sickening monotonous tale of local offensives with varying results but no final decision, and the temporary expansion and retreat of the imperial power, while the weak and the innocent suffered at the hands of both the parties.

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The most successful of these enemies of peace was Junaid Karrāni (the first cousin of Dāud), who, acting independently from his base in Jharkhand, long troubled south Bihar and formed the rallying centre of rebels and malcontents.

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Muni’m Khan, after his triumph over Dāud at Katak, had to hasten north in order to recover Ghoraghat, where the Mughal outpost had been driven out by Kālāpāhār, Bābu Mankali and other Afghan chiefs who had come back from Kuch Bihar during the viceroy’s absence in Orissa. But the discomfort of life in tents in the swampy plain of Tāndā during the heavy monsoon of Bengal, induced the aged viceroy to reoccupy the ancient capital, Gaur. The damp unhealthy old buildings of that long deserted city bred an epidemic of which his officers and men died in hundreds, while others fled away to Bihar to save their lives. At last, conquering the lure of the fatal city, Muni’m Khan returned to Tāndā, where he died ten days later, on 23rd October, 1575. The conqueror of Bengal was over eighty years of age and his faculties had of late ceased to be in operation. Wild terror broke out among the surviving Mughal officers in Bengal and intensified their former lack of union. Enemies advanced against them from every side, and all the Mughal detachments first fell back on Gaur and then abandoned Bengal altogether,¹ retreating to Bhagalpur *en route* to Delhi!

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¹ *Ak.* iii. 226-229. Al. Bad. ii. 220 Imperial campaign in S, Bihar, *Ak*, iii, 188, in N. Bihar 190-200 (under Muzaffar Kh.)

IV. Khān-i-Jahān's Viceroyalty, 1575-78

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Akbar on hearing of Muni'm Khan's death had conferred the vacant viceroyalty of the province upon Husain Quli Beg entitled Khān-i-Jahān, and sent him off with Raja Todar Mal as his lieutenant (c. 15 November, 1575). The new viceroy ruled for three years; but though he gained many signal victories his regime was troubled by serious internal discord. He was a Shia and a Persian,¹ while most of the other imperial officers in Bengal were Sunnis and Turks. They refused to take their orders from a heretic (rafizi), but Todar Mal with his persuasive tongue, tactful dealing and more potent money gifts, patched up a working truce among them which ensured the reconquest of Bengal.

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¹ Really a Qizzilbāsh, or member of a Turkish tribe long settled in Persia.

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The new viceroy on his arrival found the situation truly alarming: Dāud had risen in Orissa, taken Bhadrak and Jaleshwar and reoccupied the whole of Bengal. Isa Khan had driven away the Mughal flotilla (under Shah Bardi) from the East Bengal rivers. Junaid Karrāni was as usual most active in mischief in south-east Bihar, and Gajapati Shah (the laird of Jagadishpur) had taken to highway robbery in the Arrah district. In Bihar, Muzaffar Khan Turbati alone held his own in the Hajipur district by means of strenuous and bloody fighting. Khān-i-Jahān had great difficulty even in persuading his terrorised officers to turn back from Bhagalpur towards Bengal! However, his personality and Todar Mal's diplomacy at last bore fruit. (Ak. iii. 229-231).

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The Mughals advanced; Teliagarhi was easily recovered and its Afghan commandant slain in cold blood. Dāud fell back on Rajmahal and Khān-i-Jahān lay for months facing him in carefully prepared trenches. The stalemate was ended by Akbar ordering his Bihar army to go to the aid of his Bengal forces and sending boats laden with treasure and war material to Khān-i-Jahān. The land line of communication across the Son and through Bhojpur was cleared by detaching the famous general Shahbaz Khan from Court to suppress Gajapati. (Ak. iii. 239).

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On 10th July, 1576, the Bihar army joined Khān-i-Jahān in the camp before Rajmahal, and two days later was fought a stubborn and long-wavering battle in which the Afghans were utterly defeated with the loss of all their leaders: Junaid was killed by a cannonball, Jahan Khan (the governor of Orissa) was slain, and Dāud was taken prisoner and beheaded as a "treaty-breaker;" Kālāpāhār fled away wounded, and so did Qutlu Lohani, the sole survivors. Thus "Bengal came once again into imperial possession." (Akbar-namah, iii, 256). In south-west Bihar, Shahbaz was equally successful; Gajapati was chased from place to place, and forced to abandon his guns, boats and other goods to plunder. The imperialists cut down the Bhojpur jungles and devastated Jagadishpur, capturing Gajapati's family and household property, as well as many of his mud-forts, and the campaign was crowned by the surrender of Rohtas fort to the Emperor on terms. (Ak. iii. 260-266).

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In Bengal, Khān-i-Jahān pushed on to Sātgānw (Hughli) and crushed the Afghan bands roving there, especially that of Mahmud Khan Khas-khel (popularly, called Mati) who kept possession of Dāud's treasures and family. Internal discord broke out among the vanquished, and one leader Jamshid was killed by his rivals. At last Dāud's mother Naulakha and other members of his family surrendered to Khān-i-Jahān in Goas parganah (north Murshidabad). Mati, too, came to offer submission, but was put to death, evidently to enable the viceroy to appropriate Dāud's treasures then in his keeping.

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The viceroy had to advance to Bhawal (the north Dacca district) as his admiral Shah Bardi had turned defiant and two Afghan chiefs,—Ibrāhim Maral and Karim-dad Musazai,—had begun a fresh rising there. All three submitted when Khān-i-Jahān reached the scene. A detachment from his army moving up the Lakhia to Egarasindur, defeated Isa Khan, who fled away after abandoning much material and wealth to the victors. An attack by Majlis Dilāwar and Majlis Qutb (misprint Pratāp) ended in a rout of the Mughal flotilla, but the fugitives reached safety through the help of a loyal zamindar named Tila Ghazi. After this Khān-i-Jahān returned to Sihhatpur, in the suburbs of Tāndā, where he had founded a city, and there he died after a long illness, on 19th December, 1578. (Ak. iii. 327-328, 349, 376-381.)

V. Mughal Captains Mutiny in Bihar and Bengal

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In April, 1579, a new viceroy¹ reached Bengal from Akbar's court. He was Muzaffar Khan Turbati, already known to us for his heroic deeds in Bihar. But evidently his mental powers had now deteriorated and he had lost his former clearness of vision and rapid power of decision. The sad tale of his viceroyalty ended in his murder at the hands of his own mutinous officers after one year only.

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¹ During the interim Bengal had been governed by Ismail Quli, the brother of the deceased Khān-i-Jahān. Muzaffar Kh. Turbati in Bengal,—Ak. iii. 386 (new official cadre, 413), 417-423 (Bihar officers rebel), 429-433. (causes of mutiny against Muzaffar), 427-434, 442-450 (Bengal officers' revolt.) 451-454, 460 (Bihar events during mutiny.) Al. Bad. ii. 289-290.

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Muzaffar Khan’s administration was doomed to tragic failure by a political convulsion which arose from circumstances beyond his control, but whose evil effect was aggravated by his habitual wavering and want of tact. The Mughal empire had now reached a most important stage in its evolution. The wisdom of Akbar perceived that the age of conquest was over and the more beneficent and enduring work of administration must begin. He decided to divide his empire into twelve provinces, called *subahs*, and give to each the same type of regular administration, under the same necessary classes of officers with division of functions in specialised departments. Along with the new viceroy (*sipah-salar*, later called *subahdar*) Muzaffar Khan, he sent from his capital a staff of departmental heads.—Diwan, Bakhshi, Mir ’Adl, Sadar, Kotwal, Mir Bahar and Waqa’navis. These were charged to build up the new administration and to establish official routine in the place of the arbitrary personal rule which necessarily marks every period of conquest and martial law. They were also to settle the revenue by the new method now ordered to be adopted all over the empire and to protect the interests of the State by resuming unauthorised alienations of land and stopping the usual military fraud of false musters for which the remedy was the branding of the horses in every officer’s due contingent.

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During the rule of the Karrānis Bengal had enjoyed a fair amount of internal peace and great wealth had accumulated in the hands of the ruling classes in consequence. All this now became the prey of the Mughal conquerors. The various imperial generals posted at different places in Bengal and Bihar gathered an immense amount of treasure by plunder and extortion and their one thought was, as Abul Fazl admits, how to carry away their pile of gains from this pestilential climate. In fact, their conduct exactly resembled that of Napoleon’s marshals in Spain. The work of the Emperor suffered from their selfish greed and disobedience to the local viceroy, who was not strong enough to coerce them. And now within a few months a storm burst over Bengal and Bihar from the attempt of the newly arrived civil officers to bring the imperial captains there to account and stop their illegal gains. The laudable reforming zeal of these officers was rendered barren of result by their precipitation, insolence of office, lack of moderation and tactlessness,—to which Abul Fazl rightly adds the love of corrupt gain on the part of many of the pay and branding officers themselves. The result was a mutiny of the military officers in these two provinces.—some overt, others concealed,—against the attempt at muster and branding and the restitution of unauthorised revenue collection and land usurpation.

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The men in Bihar set the first example. The Bengal officers bent on rebellion left Tāndā on 19th January, 1580 and nine days later openly declared their rebellion. They were secretly backed by the partisans of Akbar’s brother Mirza Hakim, the ruler of Kabul, whom the malcontents conspired to place on the throne of Delhi as a more orthodox Muslim and a softer tool than the strong and free-thinking Akbar. Muzaffar Khan sent a large force against the rebels, and the two armies lay facing each other across the Ganges at Rajmahal for some time, after which the Bihar mutineers, alarmed by reports of the approach of fresh troops from the Emperor’s Court formed a league with their brethren in Bengal. They got possession of Teliagarhi through Muzaffar Khan’s supine delay. A Bengal rebel force crossed the Ganges at Rajmahal and joined the new arrivals from Bihar.

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After daily skirmishing for 19 days, one morning the imperialists were completely defeated through the superior numbers of the enemy and above all by the imbecile hesitation and inaction of Muzaffar, who had “lost the thread of counsel and became foolish from suspiciousness and want of heart. He neither would himself arrange the troops, nor would give permission to engage to the officers who were everywhere ready for service.” The result was a military disaster; Muzaffar took refuge in the fort of Tāndā, but all deserted such a hopeless leader; and next morning the rebels swarmed into the fort and began to plunder the enormous accumulated treasures of the imperial officers lodged there. On 19th April, 1580, Muzaffar Khan Turbati was put to death by the rebels. The *khutba* was read in the name of Muhammad Hakim Mirza, and new offices, high titles and fiefs were lavishly distributed among the mutiny leaders on behalf of the new sovereign. “Countless vagabonds” were given the title of Khan with flags drums and nominal commands rising up to the grade of 10,000 horse! Baba Qaqshal was appointed viceroy of Bengal and Ma‘sum Khan Kabuli as regent plenipotentiary (*wakil*) on behalf of the absent Hakim. Thus Bengal and Bihar were formally cut off from the empire of Akbar.

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VI. AKBAR RECOVERS BIHAR, 1580

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The rebels hoped that they would now "spend their days in pleasure," but retribution was close at hand. The loyal troops first recovered Bihar.¹ There Bahadur Badakhshi (son of S'aid) had usurped the government of Tirhut, seized the public treasury and proclaimed himself king under the title of Bahadur Shah. But the loyal and brave Muhib Ali Khan of Rohtas, defeated Arab Bahadur and recovered the fort of Patna from rebel hands. At the news of the coming of a fresh army from Akbar's capital, desertion and flight broke out among the mutineers, while loyal officers and penitent rebels joined the advancing royalist army everyday. A vast force of loyalists thus came together near Patna and concord was established by vows among the nobles. Tarsun Khan and Todar Mal were their supreme commanders. Marching very cautiously, in constant readiness for battle, the imperialists reached Mungir (c. 19th May, 1580). The Bengal rebels advanced from Garhi to give battle. But Todar Mal, not being sure whom he could really trust, decided to stand on the defensive, by fortifying his camp round which walls were raised and a moat dug (28th May). On 7th June the rebels appeared outside and began skirmishing. The first success of the imperialists was their capture of 300 enemy boats laden with munitions west of Mungir, and thus their connection with Patna was kept open. Loyal officers harassed the enemy by cutting off their convoys of grain and cattle out at grass. Meantime, Akbar had despatched a fresh army from his side on 26th June. When it arrived in Bihar, the rebel army facing Tarsun Khan and Todar Mal took to flight (25th July). Mungir and Patna were automatically relieved, but the monsoon now stopped the campaign for some months.

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¹ Recovery of Bihar, Ak. iii. 467-477, 485-490. For Gajpati, Al. Bad. ii. 244, 292-193. Renewal of revolt (1582), Ak. iii. 575, 586.

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In south Bihar, an imperial detachment marching from Patna, against Ma'sum Khan Kabuli, took Bihar city, Gaya and Sherghati (end of September). Then Azam Khan Koka, whom Akbar had sent to Bihar joined the army after defeating Dalpat Shah, the successor of Gajapati of Jagadishpur. But jealousy and discord broke out between the two heads of the imperialists here,—Azam Khan and Shahbaz Khan, and the rebels gained some successes The imperial army however was now too strong, and many Bihar rebels began to flee to Bengal in search of safety.

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Todar Mal’s first task was to restore peace and order in Bihar and then only advance for the reconquest of Bengal. But this necessary preliminary was delayed and Mughal arms were paralysed by the presumption and pride of Shahbaz Khan who refused to obey Azam Khan and set up an almost independent Court at Patna, while Azam Khan and Todar Mal stayed at Hajipur. Thus the latter were forced into inactivity and the recovery of Bengal was delayed by two years.

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In Bengal, during this eclipse of the imperial authority, Murad Khan, the faujdar of Fathabad, died and his sons were murdered by a local zamindar (Mukund). Qiya Khan Hasan was poisoned in Orissa and the neighbouring landlords broke out in anarchy. Qutlu Lohani, a leading officer of Dāud, attempted with some success to revive the lost dominion of his master and for some years created a principality of his own in Orissa. He defeated Muhammad Nijat Khan (the faujdar of Hughli) at Salimabad and drove him to seek refuge with Pedro Tavares, a powerful Portuguese captain. He next defeated a second Mughal force near Mangalkot (north of Burdwan city). Another Kiya Khan (surnamed Kank) who had hitherto kept Orissa out of the mutiny, was at last attacked and killed by Qutlu, and that province was lost to the empire.

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But fate was no kinder to the rebels either. Masum Khan Kabuli poisoned his rival Sharafuddin Husain who had moved into Bengal. Also, near Mungir the Bengal leader Bahadur Kheshgi was killed by Sādiq Khan, a loyal commandant; Baba Qaqshal died of cancer. The rebels’ real hope of success grew faint when Shahbaz Khan crushed their most powerful ally Masum Khan Farankhudi near Ajodhya (January, 1581), and it died out altogether when Akbar’s troops entered Kabul (3rd August) and forced Mirza Hakim to flee to the hills.

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VII. CAMPAIGN OF 1582

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On 6th April, 1582, Akbar sent off Khan-i-Azam as governor of Bengal.¹ Orders were also sent to the royal armies in Bihar and Oudh to co-operate with him. Meantime, the Bengal rebels had pushed into Bihar and taken Hajipur and several other parganahs from the agents of Khan-i-Azam, then absent on a visit to Court. Bahadur Kuruh, at the head of a band of Qutlu’s Afghans, appeared near Tāndā and was joined by the local rebels. Sādiq Khan bravely defended Patna fort, and even marched out in force to Hajipur, where he fought the rebels (led by Jabbari, Khabita and Tarkhan Diwana) for forty days. An Afghan night attack was defeated on 2-3 April, and next morning Sadiq crossed over to the east bank of the Gandak and defeated the enemy after an obstinate battle,-- 2000 imperialists being here opposed to 5000 of the enemy. Khabita was slain. Tarkhan Diwana’s son, Nur Muhammad, had made a dash from Bengal, by way of Tirhut, to the Saran district, but at the approach of the imperialists he decamped and was caught and beheaded, while another rebel leader Khwajah Abdul Ghafur in trying to retreat was cut off by a jungle tribe (probably the Santals).

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¹ Kh. Azam in Bengal.—Ak. iii. 567, 590-593.

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THE MILITARY GEOGRAPHY OF MEDIAEVAL BENGAL

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In order to follow clearly the strategy of the Mughal campaigns in Bengal, it is necessary to bear in mind that in early times rivers presented a greater barrier to man than mountains; especially the mighty Ganges and Brahmaputra in all the rage of the flood season defied all attempts at crossing them. Not so the low jungly hills of the Santal Parganahs or Chota Nagpur. Thus, while the two forts of Teliagarhi and Sakrigali rendered the route to Bengal along the south bank of the Ganges impassable except to the lord of a mighty fleet armed with naval guns, this position has been again and again turned successfully by a body of picked hardy cavalry making a detour through the hills south of it and striking the Ganges once more beyond Birbhum.

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We must also remember that the south and west of the Midnapur district was covered by a wild jungle and formed a *terra incognita* even in the days of Rennell’s survey (1773). This jungle was pierced by a single narrow military foot-path running from Burdwan to Katak, fringed on the west with jungles and savage tribes and yielding no food for man or horse. This route corresponded to the track of the Bengal pilgrims to Jagannath Puri so well-known before the age of steam locomotion.

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The Tista river which in that age used to flow into the Ganges (*i.e.*, the Padma) through the Pabna district, and the mightier Brahmaputra long kept East Bengal outside the range of effective Mughal occupation and as the home of unsubdued Afghans and independent local Rajahs. This was specially the case with its southern portion. Mughal rule did not yet touch the following areas: the whole of East Bengal; the entire coastal region south of an east-west line drawn through Hughli; the Chota Nagpur jungles; the southeastern part of the Pabna district which was intersected by a labyrinth of channels formed by the lower Karatoya and the then mighty Atrai river and the boundless lagoon called the *Chalan Bil*; the north Rangpur and Jalpaiguri districts.

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The easiest and most frequented route from Bengal to upper India was by land from the Dinajpur or Malda side, along the north bank of the Ganges, across the easy Kosi and Gandak to Chapra, Tirhut, and even Jaunpur. The very name of the district Darbanga (gate of Bengal) is significant of this fact in our provincial geography, and Tirhut was long in the possession of the rulers of Bengal, while South Bihar was during the same period held by quite another power. Thus the cities of Patna and Hajipur, facing each other across the Ganges, often owned two different sovereigns.

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During the Mughal campaigns in Bengal before Man Singh’s time (*circa* 1590), their official capital and military base was Tāndā, about 15 miles south-east of Malda town. From this point it was easy to control the centre north and east of the province through Bogra-Dinajpur (then called the Ghoraghat district), and the south through Burdwan up to Sātgānw (Hughli). South-west of Sātgānw lay the Arambagh sub-division (included in what was then called the Mandāran *sarkar*, corresponding to onr Bankura-Bishnupur), which formed the gateway to Midnapur and Orissa. But the northern sub-division of the present Midnapur district, namely Ghatal, belonged to the subah of Bengal, and its southern portion from the city of Midnapur downwards formed part of the subah of Orissa, being included in the Jaleshwar district (*sarkar*). No district in that age bore the name of Midnapur.

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Behind the impenetrable shield of the Brahmaputra, Isa Khan had built up a great power by practising unfailing tact, suppleness of diplomacy, and purchase of the Mughal viceroy’s forbearance with friendly offers and costly presents as long as possible. It was only in 1602 that the spirited Man Singh, with a well-equipped flotilla at his command, crushed the independence of this deceitful rebel-leader’s son and successor, by attacking his river home.

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VIII. THE THIRD CONQUEST OF BENGAL, 1583

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During 1582, before Khan-i-Azam’s arrival, the local officers had broken the back of the rebellion in Bihar, and now during the closing months of that year strenuous preparations were made for the reconquest of Bengal.¹ The Mughal fief-holders of Allahabad Oudh and Bihar assembled near Hajipur, forming a vast army. Khan-i-Azam advanced via Mungir and Kohlgānw to the Katigāng (a navigation canal near Rajmahal). The rebels came up, on 27th March, 1583 to face him under Masum Kabuli who had made pacts with Qutlu of Orissa and South Bengal and the Qaqshals of North Bengal (Ghoraghat). Khan-i-Azam had already recovered Teliagarhi on 20th March. But the imperialists were overawed by the vast numbers of the enemy, and frantically appealed to Akbar for fresh aids. "For nearly a month the two armies lay facing each other and discharging guns and muskets only." On 24th April an Afghan flotilla-leader who had come up from Faridpur was killed by a cannon-ball, and soon afterwards the sword-arm of the rebels was broken when Kālāpāhār "who was singular for his skill in river-fighting" fell in battle. Dissension broke out between Masum and the Qaqshal clan, and many of the rebel leaders were induced by imperial diplomacy to desert to Khan-i-Azam. The Afghan army melted away. Masum tried to wreak vengeance on the deserting Qaqshal clan by ravaging their seat, the town of Ghoraghat, and attacking their entrenched position near it, but 4000 imperial horse, detached by Khan-i-Azam, rapidly arrived on the spot and raised the siege.

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¹ Bengal campaigns in 1583.—Ak. iii. 600-602, 619-625 (Shahbaz Kh. fights).

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Khan-i-Azam detested the climate of Bengal, and at his constant pressing Akbar on 18th May, 1583 ordered his transfer to Hajipur where his fiefs lay, and the appointment of Shahbaz Khan then in Patna as his successor in Bengal. Azam at once left for Bihar without waiting for his relief to arrive. Bengal was then left in charge of a subordinate officer, Wazir Khan, for nearly five months. Qutlu seized this opportunity and broke off his delusive peace parleys. Therefore, the imperialists marched from Sherpur (south of Bogra town) to Burdwan, crossed the Damodar river to its south bank, and stood in battle array facing Qutlu's entrenchments (end of June). Here the Afghan commander Bahadur Kuruh was defeated c. 15th July, but the imperialists had not the spirit to follow up their victory by a pursuit into Orissa.

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From Tāndā two detachments had been sent out, one northwards to Ghoraghat to protect that home of the now loyal Qaqshals and keep out rebel bands coming once again from the Kuch Bihar side or the Mymensingh district, and another southwards to Burdwan and beyond to Sātgānw, to watch the Orissa frontier where the Pathan power had revived under Qutlu Lohani. Early in October 1583, the northern army under Tarsun Khan, then occupying Tajpur, was threatened by Masum Kabuli who had advanced from his refuge in Isa Khan's country, and raided up to within 14 miles of Tāndā (then defended by a depleted garrison.) Tarsun was beleaguered at Tajpur, but Shahbaz Khan now at last hurried up from Patna and drove Masum away (end of October). The new viceroy recalled to his side a part of the Orissa detachment. Admiral Shah Bardi had died and 3000 of his artillery-men (including Portuguese mercenaries) entered Shahbaz’s service. Shahbaz advanced from Tāndā; a rebel force under Baba Bhakari which was threatening Mahi Santosh (south Dinajpur) dispersed at his approach. Even Masum Kabuli, who had been holding delusive parleys with him from the east bank of the Jamuna fled away (c. 15th November). The fugitives were pursued, overtaken and defeated with the loss of their elephants and other property. The imperialists reached Ghoraghat; Masum took refuge in Bhati and Jabbari in Kuch Bihar, and Shahbaz plundered their homes in Sherpur making prisoners of their families and 150 noted men among the Pathans. Some more desultory fighting followed.

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IX. CAMPAIGN OF 1584

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Shahbaz Khan, followed up his success by entering Isa Khan’s country of Vikrampur,¹ though the violence of the rainy season was not yet over. He wished to force him to keep his promise of surrendering Masum Kabuli whom he was harbouring. Advancing by way of Khizrpur (one mile north of Narayanganj), the Mughal viceroy took possession of Sonārgānw and plundered Kātrābhu, the home of Isa Khan, “a populous city”, and then marching up the Lakhia river to its point of junction with the Brahmaputra, took Egārasindur, and established a fortified base at Tok, opposite to Egārasindur and on the western bank of the Brahmaputra. Isa Khan who had come back from Kuch Bihar, and Masum Kabuli faced him, and there were daily skirmishes on land and water. A weak detachment sent by Shahbaz under Tarsun Khan to make a demonstration against Bajitpur was surprised by the enemy and cut off; Tarsun was captured wounded and beheaded.

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¹ Ak. iii. 645-651, 658-660, 696, (Isa Kh. and East Bengal war.) Isa Kh’s origin, 647.

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For seven months Shahbaz Khan lay at Tok, in the bend formed by the Lakhia, the Brahmaputra and the Banār rivers. He sent to Isa Khan demanding either the surrender or the expulsion of Masum Kabuli, but the ruler of Bhati only gained time by delusive promises. Shahbaz Khan’s inordinate pride alienated all people, his officers too practised violence; hence the rebellion flamed up again. Then came the floods. One dark night the Afghans cut the embankment of the Brahmaputra in 15 places, so that Shahbaz’s camp and batteries were submerged. After a stubborn fight he just managed to beat this attack off. Isa Khan next made a prisoner of Sayyid Husain the imperial thanahdar of Dacca, and proposed terms through him. Shahbaz then fell back to Bhawal, halfway on the road to Dacca. The negotiations were again broken off and a battle took place on 30th September, 1584, in which Shahbaz on being deserted by his discontented and envious subordinates was forced to leave Bhawal and retreat towards Tāndā, abandoning all his accumulations and many of his men as prisoners.

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After this disastrous end of the first Bhati campaign of the Mughals, Isa Khan prudently stayed at home, while Masum advanced to Sherpur (Bogra) and other Afghans raided up to Malda city.

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The southern division of the Bengal army under Wazir Khan, had meanwhile continued facing Qutlu near Burdwan. When that Pathan chief at last retreated, the Mughals pursued him up to Tukaroi; but Qutlu made his submission by sending a present of 60 elephants with his nephew. These reached Akbar on 11th June, 1584. Wazir Khan was now ordered back to Tāndā, and Sādiq Khan to Patna. (Ak. iii. 653.)

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CAMPAIGN OF 1585

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Akbar, on learning of the failure of Shahbaz Khan in East Bengal, sent strong bailiffs to urge his Bengal and Bihar officers to act in close concert and put Isa Khan down. Shahbaz was turned out of his fief in Bihar and conducted to Bengal, arriving at Tāndā on 28th December, 1584. Masum was easily driven away and the country up to Sherpur recovered (end of January, 1585), that rebel leader being compelled to take refuge in Fathabad parganah. Another great rebel Dastam Qaqshal was chased back to Shahzadpur in the Pabna district. (Ak. iii. 672-674.)

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At the beginning of March 1585, the irreconcilable Bengal officers were by order of Akbar divided into two armies,—Wazir Khan and Sadiq Khan being sent off against Masum Kabuli, while Shahbaz Khan remained in North Bengal for keeping the local evildoers down. On the last day of that month, Masum was defeated in a naval battle and put to flight, his two forts at Trimohani—the junction of the Ganges the Jamuna and the Saraswati (i.e., Tribeni near Hughli) (Ak. iii. 693) being taken. Tahir Ilanchaq, the disturber of Tajpur (west Dinajpur), scored a success over the imperialists, and Tarkhan Diwana raided up to Tāndā and tried to fire its suburbs, but was driven away, (dying later in Morang). But Yusuf bin Mati Afghan cut off young Habib Ali, the son of the brave Muhib Ali Rohtasi, in a small encounter.

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In fact the inordinate pride and mutual jealousies of the imperial commanders in the eastern provinces prevented cordial union among them in suppressing the rebellion. Akbar’s repeated admonitions had no effect. So, at last, he clearly separated the two charges; Sadiq Khan got Bengal and Shahbaz was given Bihar. The latter at once left Bengal in anger, and so also did S’aid Khan and other Bihar generals. This depletion of the imperial strength in Bengal encouraged Isa Khan to put off his actual submission, though he prudently sent to Akbar the elephants and guns that had fallen into his hands during the late disaster to Shahbaz Khan. The officers of the extinct house of Karrāni again advanced from their base in Orissa, moving bands of Afghans out of work gathered round them, and they began to plunder the Burdwan district. An imperial force under Sadiq, Wazir Khan and Muhib Ali advanced to the bank of the Ajay, forded it and defeated the enemy on 10th June, 1585, slaying 1300 of them, mostly in the pursuit. Dastam Qaqshal had reappeared and laid siege to Ghoraghat, but was defeated and driven away. (*Ak.* iii. 675, 693-698.)

X. Shahbaz Khan Pacifies Bengal : 1586-87

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Clearly the campaign of 1585, though conducted by a new set of officers, had achieved no better result than before. Therefore, under fresh pressure from Akbar, Shahbaz Khan returned to Bengal¹ on 30th January, 1586, and this time by following a policy of conciliation and liberal gifts he won over most of the Afghans. Isa Khan, when threatened by a detachment from Shahbaz’s army, had no longer the heart to fight, and made peace by restoring the territory which Sadiq Khan had surrendered to him in the previous peace, and sending rare presents and using soft language. Masum Kabuli sent his son to Akbar’s court and was himself directed to go to Hijaz on pilgrimage for a time. Many of Qutlu’s followers abandoned that chief and he was left to enjoy Orissa in peace, as Shahbaz was not prepared for a long war yet. The official history of Akbar records that “the conquests now extended up to the port of Sātgānw”—and no doubt the *de jure* authority of the imperial Government over all Bengal was acknowledged. Even the Burmese ruler of Arracan sent many presents.

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¹ Shahbaz Kh. in Bengal (1586).—*Ak.* iii. 721-722, Said Kh. posted to Bengal and Mān S. to Bihar, 801.

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Wazir Khan died of diarrhoea on 1st August, 1587, and S‘aid Khan was (on the 26th of that month) ordered by the Emperor to go from Bihar and take charge of the Bengal subah. The province of Bihar was put in charge of Kumar Man Singh, and he was given his *congee* for his new province on 17th December, his jagirs in the Panjab being replaced by others in South Bihar, especially the Rohtas region. Payinda Khan Mughal, from whom these Bihar fiefs were now taken away, was given an equivalent in Ghoraghat.

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With the year 1587, a new chapter opened in the internal history of Bengal. By a royal decree of 24th November, 1586, Akbar ordered for each province of his empire the same uniform cadre of official heads, namely a governor (called *sipah-salar*), a deputy governor (to hold charge during his chief’s absence at court), a revenue minister (*diwān*), and an inspector-general of forces (*bakhshi*), besides a civil judge (Sadr), a criminal judge (*qazi*) and a police prefect (*kotwal*). The first officers in Bengal were Wazir Khan and Muhib Ali (governors), Karamullah (*diwān*), and Shāhbāz (*bakhshi*), and in Bihar, S‘aid Khan and Md. Yusuf Khan, Rai Patradas and Abdur Razzāq M‘amuri respectively. (*Ak.* iii. 779.)

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RAJAH MAN SINGH KACHHWA VICEROY

I. Man Singh Governor of Bihar

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The work done by Man Singh in Bihar is admirably summed up by Akbar's official historian in one short but fully eloquent sentence: "The Rajah united ability with courage and genius with strenuous action; he administered the province excellently; the refractory became obedient." (*Akbarnamah*, iii, 872). His hand first fell upon Puran Mal the Rajput Rajah of Gidhaur, who had declared independence during the recent eclipse of Government in the province and whose lands lay across the eastward route from Patna. Man Singh marched upon Gidhaur, and easily captured its mud-fort with all the Rajah's treasure. Puran Mal then submitted and gained his pardon by offering a tribute of many noted elephants and valuable articles and betrothing his daughter to his conqueror's brother Chandra-bhān Kachhwa. Sangrām Singh, the Rajah of Khargpur (near Mungir), was next cowed into making submission and paying tribute.

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From this point, Man Singh returned to Patna and marched south against Anant Chero of the Gaya district, from whom much plunder was taken. During the viceroy's absence his eldest son Jagat Singh ably guarded Patna. Taking advantage of Man Singh's pre-occupation in the southern districts, two Muslim rebel leaders from Bengal made raids into Purnia and Darbhanga and penetrated to fourteen miles of Hajipur. Young Jagat Singh boldly advanced at the head of the local militia against the invaders, who fled away abandoning their collected booty to the imperialists. Man Singh sent the most valuable portion of the spoils of these wars and 54 elephants to the Emperor, who received them at Lahore on 3rd April, 1590. (*Ak*. iii. 872.)

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