The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c41.s19.3

v2.c41.s19.3

The younger branch of the Kuch Bihar royal house which ruled over Kāmrup (called Kuch Hājo in the Persian histories) lost their independence with Islām Khan Chishti's capture of Raja Parikshit Narayan in 1613, (see ch. 15 sec. v). The deposed ruler died in 1616. His younger brother Bali Narayan (called Baldev in the Persian accounts) fled to the Ahom king Susengphā, with whose aid he was set up as the tributary Raja of Darrang and given the title of Dharma Narayan. After the Ahom victory over Ābā Bakr (1615, see ch. 16 sec. iv) the Mughals had constantly to fight to maintain their precarious hold on the country west of the Bar Nadi and they occupied Hajo town and a few other forts while disorder and anarchy reigned throughout the rest of the district. (Gait, 106-111). In the years following Shah Jahan's accession, the causes of war quickly multiplied. Every enemy of the Mughals, every rebel or revenue-defaulter in the north-eastern corner of the subah of Bengal, sought refuge in Ahom territory and found asylum with its king. On that ill-defined frontier, disputes about smuggling, the harbouring of run-away subjects, poaching on each other's territories, and even the killing of subjects, accumulated, as the Ahom king haughtily refused to extradite escaped criminals or punish his subjects' alleged crimes. (S. Mahant's Buranji, paragraphs 123, 129. Gait, 112). When Islām Khan Mashhadi, the new subahdār, arrived in Bengal (May 1635), Bali Narayan was instigated by Satrajit the disloyal Mughal thānahdār of Pāndu, to profit by the administrative disorder due to the change of governors and push into Hajo and attack its faujdār, ‘Abdus Salām. Under a rule made in Jahangir's last years, every new subahdar of Bengal was bound to send to the Emperor cash and presents worth five lakhs of rupees once in his viceroyalty as his tribute. This amount was expected to be made up of the tribute payable by the local vassals and landholders to the new viceroy in honour of his arrival. Thus every three years,—the average duration of a subahdari in Bengal,—the screw was turned at the top and the leading men of the province were squeezed for satisfying the throne. As elephants were the main and most acceptable produce of Bengal, this rule pressed hardest on the vassals holding jagirs on the Assam frontier on condition of catching elephants by kheda there. These men had been exasperated by the harshness of Qāsim Khan.