The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c42: Chapter XVIII. Mir Jumla in Bengal, 1659—1663
The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c42
- Language
- English
Contents
- v2.c42.s1 I. The War on the Ganges — 10 parts
- v2.c42.s2 II. Mir Jumla as Governor of Bengal — 11 parts
- v2.c42.s3 III. Mir Jumla's Conquest of Kuch Bihar and Assam, 1661—1663 — 13 parts
- v2.c42.s4 V. Mir Jumla's Last Movements and Death — 5 parts
Chapter XVIII. Mir Jumla in Bengal, 1659—1663
I. The War on the Ganges
v2.c42.s1.1
The pursuing force sent against Shujā‘ by Aurangzib was placed under the nominal leadership of Prince Muhammad Sultān; bur Mir Jumla was “the real commander, vested with the supreme power of control, dismissal and appointment.” The luckless aspirant to the throne of Delhi reached Rājmahal in his flight, about 27th March. Mir Jumla arrived at Patna about 22nd February, 8 days after Shujā‘s departure from that city, frustrated Shujā‘s plan of making a stand at Mungir (19th Feb—6th March) and at Rāngāmāti (10th—24th March)—first, by making a detour through the Kharagpur hills with the help of Raja Bahroz and occupying Mungir (9th March), and, again outflanking Shujā‘ by another detour through Jhārkhand with the assistance of Khwaja Kamāl Afghān, zamindar of Birbhum, and passing through Suri (28th March). Though his army was depleted by the defection of 5000 Rajputs and two Muhammadan generals (end of March) on account of the false rumour of Dārā’s victory at Ajmir (Deorāi), Mir Jumla steadily advanced against Shujā‘, and encamped on the bank of the Ganges at Belghātā, only 30 miles from Shujā‘s base at Rājmahal. That prince evacuated Rājmahal on 4th April, made Tāndā (4 miles west of Gaur) his headquarters and collected the flotilla of Bengal. Mir Jumla immediately occupied Rājmahal (13th April) ; the entire country on the west bank of the Ganges from Rājmahal to Hughli now passed into the hands of the imperialists.
v2.c42.s1.2
Now, with the Ganges separating the rival forces, the war became essentially a naval contest in which Shujā‘ had certain manifest advantages over his pursuer. Mir Jumlā’s army was a purely land force; he had no boats and could not expect to easily procure any on account of the scorched earth policy of Shujā‘, who could command a powerful flotilla. Mir Jumla was also very weak in artillery, having dragged only light pieces from Khajwa, whereas Shujā‘ had many big guns, admirably served by Portuguese and half-caste gunners of Hughli, Tamluk and Noākhāli. Hence Mir Jumla’s posts on the western bank of the river were vulnerable to Shujā‘s flotilla, mounted with artillery.
v2.c42.s1.3
Undaunted by his new difficulties, Mir Jumla moved from Rajmahal to Dogāchi, 13 miles southwards and collecting a few boats, occupied a high island in midstream opposite the Shujāites. But, realising the impossibility of a surprise landing on the opposite bank in the presence of a strong and watchful enemy, he distributed the imperial army along the whole western bank between Rājmahal and Suti, with Prince Muhammad at Dogāchi and himself at Suti.
v2.c42.s1.4
After a few successful coups on small bodies of Shujā‘s men, Mir Jumla met with serious failure on 3rd May, at the hands of the new Shujāite commander, Khān-i-‘Ālām, who had concealed his men and fierce war elephants behind camouflaged ambuscades, in attacking which the imperial detachment and boats sent by Mir Jumla were totally cut off.
v2.c42.s1.5
Before he could launch a fresh offensive, Mir Jumla had to halt and procure boats and materials from Hughli, Murshidabad and Burdwan. He seized all boats coming down the river and made a diplomatic use of his position as the Mughal general in his relations with the Dutch and the English factors as a counterpoise to the Portuguese support of Shujā‘. Finding that a frontal attack would not succeed in dislodging Shujā‘ from his entrenched positions, Mir Jumla devised an encircling strategy against Shujā‘. Accordingly he sent suitable instructions to Dāud Khan, Governor of Bihar, to recruit men, enlist the Mankali and Kākar leaders and some pahalwāns of Dārbhāngā and Mehsi, to collect boats, and then to attack Shujā‘ on the left bank of the Ganges and create a diversion in his own favour.
v2.c42.s1.6
But before this plan could mature, a blow fell on the imperial army from an unexpected quarter. Prince Muhammad Sultān, left his post at Dogāchi and fled to Shujā‘ on the night of 8th June. The flight of the Prince was due to his love for Shujā‘s daughter and to his resentment against Mir Jumla's control. But Mir Jumla's born leadership of men saved the Delhi army and prevented the least disorder or dispersion. Firmly keeping his men pacified at Suti, the Mir rode to the Prince's deserted camp at Dogāchi, harangued a council of war, and gained the willing obedience of the troops there. Thus the army weathered the storm; it “lost only one man—the Prince”. During the rainy season, Mir Jumla withdrew the posts at Dogāchi, Dunāpur and Suti, and concentrated his army only at two cantonments—one at Murshidabad (Ma‘sumabāzār) under himself, and the other at Rājmahal under Zulfiqār Khan.
v2.c42.s1.7
During the heavy rains and floods of Bengal, the initiative passed to Shujā‘, the master of a fleet. The two imperial camps became isolated by the rains. The exultant Prince of Bengal planned to starve the imperialists by blockading Rājmahal and intercepting supplies between it and Murshidabad and between Murshidabad and Hughlī. Mir Jumla for want of boats could do nothing to relieve Rājmahal. The ravages of flood and famine and the consequent loss of their horses and draught-cattle, reduced Mir Jumla’s men at Rājmahal to dire straits; and the evil was aggravated by discord among the generals there. They evacuated Rājmahal when a raid was made on it by the Shujāites (22nd August). But during July-September, 1659, Mir Jumla’s men occupied Hughli and Midnapur, owing to his supremacy on land.
v2.c42.s1.8
At the end of the rains the rival forces faced each other near Belghātā and Giriyā on the bank of the Ganges. Here a strategic retreat by Shujā‘ to dupe Mir Jumla was followed by the latter’s detour to Shujā’s rear. The imperialists were, however, mown down by the furious cannonade of the Shujāite artillery commander, Mirzā Jān Beg. Without wasting his men and resources, Mir Jumla retired towards Murshidabad, hourly expecting Dāud Khan to effect the planned diversion. To cut off the Mir’s retreat Shujā‘ crossed the Bhāgirathi and reached the ferry of Nashipur on the opposite bank. But, in the night of 26th December, he received the grave news that Dāud Khan had forced a passage across the Kosi by defeating the Bengal admiral, Khwāja Mishki, and was rapidly advancing on Tāndā.
v2.c42.s1.9
Dāud Khan had sailed from Patna on 13th May to Qāzi-Keriā (opposite Bhāgalpur), where, after some naval encounters with Khwāja Mishki, he had been brought to an absolute halt by the flooded rivers, the Kosi, the Kālindi and the Mahānandā. After foiling a move by Shujā’s admiral Khwāja Mishki and general Fidāi Khan to repel him, Dāud Khan made a wheeling movement from Qāzi-Keriā to Mungir in December, occupied Jahāngirā, routed Khwāja Mishki near Colgong, forced a passage across the Kosi and was joined by the Shujāite faujdār of Purnea. Then, crossing the Kālindi, the victorious governor of Bihar marched towards Mālda.
v2.c42.s1.10
Shujā‘ retreated to Suti, being hotly pursued by Mir Jumla, who had long been waiting for this diversion. After an indecisive skirmish the luckless prince crossed to the eastern bank of the Ganges (9th January 1660). Mir Jumla promptly re-entered Rājmahal (11th January) and then with 160 boats brought by Dāud’s son crossed over to Samdah (17th January), which remained his headquarters for six weeks. From here he tried to surround Shujā‘ from the Mālda side and intercept his route of southward retreat. The unsuccessful prince was deserted by his son-in-law Muhammad Sultān, who rejoined Mir Jumla and was doomed by Aurangzib to life-long captivity, in Gwalior fort. While Shujā‘ with sadly depleted forces was solely bent on defending the Samdah front, Mir Jumla frustrated his strategy by deceiving him by leaving a thin screen of men opposite, and himself making a wide detour to the more vulnerable eastern bank of the Mahānandā, and reaching Mālda (2nd March) 1660. His crowning stroke was the fording of that river at an ill-guarded point though with a terrible loss of men in the water. Shujā‘ fled on 6th April from Chauki-Mirdādpur to Tāndā and thence to Dacca. Mir Jumla left for Dacca on 19th April. Too weak either to chastise the zamindars who deserted him or to face the advancing imperial general, Shujā‘ forsook his eastern capital for ever on 6th May, in expectation of help from the Raja of Arakan, and Bengal passed into Aurangzib’s possession with Mir Jumla’s entry into Dacca on 9th May 1660.
II. Mir Jumla as Governor of Bengal
v2.c42.s2.1
On receiving the news of Shujā‘s flight to Arakan, Aurangzib appointed Mir Jumla as Governor of Bengal in the mansab of 7000. That province was now sorely in need of an able administrator of the type of Mir Jumla, a man of lofty integrity, impartial justice and devotion to the welfare of the subjects. Aurangzib asked the Mir to efficiently administer the province, by pacifying the people, chastising the unruly, regulating the artillery and especially the nawwāra (flotilla), securing the safety of traffic on the roads and issuing well-planned regulations concerning various other matters, as well as the effective chastisement of the habitually refractory zamindars of the province and particularly the rulers of Assam and of the Maghs, who ill-treated and oppressed the Musalmans. Fresh honours were bestowed on him on the 44th birthday of Aurangzib (15th July, 1660). The new Viceroy received the titles of Khan-i-Khānān and Sipahsālār and his rank was further enhanced by 5000 troopers of his 7-hazāri command being made du-āspa seh-āspa.
v2.c42.s2.2
Mir Jumla held the viceroyalty of Bengal for nearly three years (9th May, 1660—31st March, 1663). But he was present in the province for barely a year and a half, being absent on campaign in Kuch Bihar and Assam from November, 1661. He reversed Shujā‘s change, by transferring the capital of Bengal from Rājmahal to Dacca for keeping the Arakanese and Portuguese pirates in check. While at Dacca, he collected the revenue from the peasants with wisdom and moderation. As the jāgīrs of the mansabdārs were situated in different parganas, and there were many co-partners, the ryots there were subject to oppression, the method of collection of revenue was wasteful and the parganas became desolate. Mir Jumla confirmed in his own jāgīrs many virtuous freeholders (aimadārs) and stipend-holders and some others who had received farmāns from the Emperor. But Qāzi Rizavi, the Sadar, cancelled other persons' madad-i-ma‘āsh grants and pensions in the crownlands and jāgīrs, and resumed their lands to the State. The aimadārs were ordered to till the lands and pay revenue. But as the hard-pressed aimadārs did not cultivate the lands, there was no gain in revenue. The zakāt (one-fortieth of the annual income) continued to be collected from merchants and travellers and customs (hāsil) from artificers, tradesmen and khushnashin (well-to-do men), Hindus and Muslims alike. In many parganas the officers of the crownlands or the jāgīrdār or the zamindār used to seize the property and even the wife and daughters of any person, ryot or newcomer, dying without leaving any son. Suspecting Mullā Mustafa, the Qāzi of Dacca to be a bribe-taker and the Mir‘Adl to be a parasite, Mir Jumla expelled them from the town and personally administered justice in both religious and secular affairs.
v2.c42.s2.3
He assisted the Orissa governor Khan-i-Daurān in subduing Bahādur Khan, the rebel zamindār of Hijli (6th May, 1661) who had escaped from prison during the civil war. After the Mir's death, the Balasore factors observed (28th April, 1663) that the Governors " in these parts ", on account of the " long absence and distance " of the Nawāb (Mir Jumla) have been insolent and illimitable in their exactions that they had very much impaired the trade here." They expected a remedy of it if the Khan-i-Khānān had lived. Mir Jumla put pressure on the Dutch to send a ship to Arakan in pursuit of Shujā‘. Fully alive to the gravity of the Magh menace to Bengal, he made a plan for undertaking a campaign to subdue them, but had to postpone the project till the conclusion of his expedition against Kuch Bihar and Assam.
v2.c42.s2.4
During Mir Jumla's absence in Assam a severe famine visited Bengal, which lasted in some form for two years. The price of grain rose owing to the high rate of zakāt or compulsory alms, the virtual suspension of movements of merchants on account of internal insecurity, the grasping habits of the chowkidārs and the oppression of the rāhdārs (toll-collectors). The distress of the people became so acute that, in the words of Tālish, “ Life appeared to be cheaper than bread, and bread was not to be found ”.
v2.c42.s2.5
This warrior-viceroy could not deal effectively with certain administrative problems of Bengal, the solution of which had become urgently necessary, especially the rebuilding of the flotilla (nawwāra). With a view to reorganising the navy, Mir Jumla abolished the old system of management, but before he could start a new one, he had to set out on the fatal Assam campaign. Many naval officers and men died in the course of that war and the flotilla was utterly ruined by the time of the death of Mir Jumla. This led to an aggravation of the menace of piracy of the Maghs and the Portuguese and Shāista Khan had to create a virtually new flotilla.
v2.c42.s2.6
The basis of Mir Jumla’s financial system in Bengal was monopoly. He endeavoured to become the sole stockist of all articles of necessity and then sell them at enhanced prices. About 1660 he offered to supply the English factors every year with as much saltpetre as they required. On the eve of the Kuch Bihar and Assam campaigns he exacted Rs 25,000 (out of a total demand of Rs 50,000) from the grain merchants of Dacca as something like the excess profits tax of modern times, by adopting severely coercive measures. The city bankers forewarned by such severity, offered a sum of 3 lakhs.
v2.c42.s2.7
A dispute arose between the government of Mir Jumla and the English factors, as the latter refused to pay either the Rs 3,000 demanded (1658) by the Governor of Hughli in lieu of annual customs, or the anchorage charges demanded in the next year by the faujdār of Balasore. In 1660-1 the exasperated English agent at Hughli audaciously seized a country vessel of the Mir as a security for the recovery of their debts. The incensed Governor demanded reparation and threatened to destroy the out-agencies, to seize the factory at Hughli and expel the English from the province. However, on the advice of the Madras authorities, Agent Trevisa restored the boat and apologised to the Governor. But the latter continued to exact the annual payment of Rs 3000.¹
v2.c42.s2.8
¹ “The Nabob (Mir Jumla) doth indeavour to ingrosse all commodities in Bengal (whereof we hinted something to you two year ago ”. Madras to Company (29th June, 1662) E. F. I. XI, 67; see Cont. 127a; his exaction in Dutch records, quoted in Moreland, Akbar to Aurangzib, 292.
v2.c42.s2.9
Every year Mir Jumla used to utilise the services of the English and their ships in sending his articles (e.g., gumlac) to Persia without paying any freight or customs. By way of investing his capital and getting goods in return he lent large sums of money (Rs 76,000) to Trevisa, the English agent in Bengal. A part of the loan was not cleared before the death of the Governor.
v2.c42.s2.10
While the Dutch offered help to Mir Jumla against Shujā‘, the English factors followed a policy of ‘wait and see’. The Mir ordered the Governor of Balasore to send up Trevisa to Hughli and to levy a duty of 4% on all English exports, besides anchorage duties on their ships. By end of November, 1659, the trade of the English was practically brought to a standstill. Finally, after an agreement with Trevisa for the restoration of his seized junk and the settlement of the question of compensation by arbitration, Mir Jumla granted him a dastak or parwana (9th February, 1660) confirming the privileges previously granted to the English by Shah Jahān and Shah Shujā‘.
v2.c42.s2.11
As Governor of Bengal, Mir Jumla continued his earlier policy of diluting firmness with opportunism in his dealings with the English. He used the junk incident as a lever for securing the English company’s help in his measures against the fugitive Shujā‘. But, as his claims re: the junk were not satisfactorily settled, he stopped their trade at Qāsimbāzār and in the Bay (middle of 1660). At his command Trevisa met him at Dacca; and 15,000 mds of saltpetre procured from Patna by the English but so long lying frozen, were released for shipment in Bengal. He also used the services of Englishmen, such as Mr. Dortson (or Captain Durson) and Thomas Pritt, Dutchmen, Portuguese, and their ships for his military and other purposes. Certain Muscovites (and Armenians also) served in the Mughal army in Mir Jumla’s Kuch Bihar and Assam campaigns.
III. Mir Jumla's Conquest of Kuch Bihar and Assam, 1661—1663
v2.c42.s3.1
The Assam expedition of Mir Jumla unfolded itself like a Greek tragedy. Here all the wisdom and energy of a superman were foiled by an invisible Fate. His splendid conquests of two large and rich kingdoms within the space of three months were snatched away from him and the thread of his life was cut off amidst misery and chaos not by any human foe, but by the elemental forces of flood, famine, and pestilence. The unbroken triumphs of his life brought to him in the end only dust and ashes. Hence his admiring historian Shihāb-ud-din Muhammad Tālish has rightly named his narrative of Mir Jumla’s last wars as Fathiyya-i-i’briyya, or conquests that serve as a warning about the emptiness of human glory.
v2.c42.s3.2
This district of Kāmrup had once been an integral part of the Kuch Bihar kingdom, but it was separated from its parent State in 1581 in order to form an appanage for a younger branch of the Kuch royal family. When that branch was expelled from Kāmrup and the district was annexed by the Mughals (1612), the Raja of Kuch Bihar began to look wistfully at this lost possession of his house. Hence, when the rumour spread that Shah Jahan was dead and Shujā‘ had left Bengal with his troops for contesting the throne, and the province was threatened with a worse civil war and dissolution of government than that during Shah Jahan’s incursion of 1624, Prān Nārāyan, the Raja of Kuch Bihar (r. 1633-1666) sent his minister Bhabanāth Kārji to recover Kāmrup. Crossing the Sankosh river on its eastern boundary, Bhabanāth attacked Durlabh Nārāyan (the son of Uttam Nārāyan), a Mughal vassal and the zamindar of Barnagar in the modern Goālpārā district, north of the Brahmaputra. The latter was defeated, and fled away to the Ahom kingdom. Mir Lutfullah Shirāzi, the imperial faujdār of Gauhati, sent his son Jhārunā (Zākirullah ?) to oppose the invader, but without success. Just at the same time the Ahom nobles posted on the Bengal frontier, began to collect boats and build bridges for an invasion at Kajali (where the Kalang river falls into the Brahmaputra on its south side.) Lutfullah, too weak to meet the attack of such immense numbers from two sides at once, fled away to Dacca, and Gauhati was captured by the Ahoms without a blow. Thus the Mughal authority was wiped out on both banks of the Brahmaputra. This happened in March 1659. After some months of skirmishing and futile negotiations for a partition of conquests, between the Kuch and the Ahom kings, the Kuch Bihar forces were driven out of Kāmrup and both banks of the great river passed into Ahom hands, by the month of March 1660.
v2.c42.s3.3
After the expulsion of Shujā from Dacca, Mir Jumla was appointed governor of Bengal (June 1660) and ordered to punish the kings of Kuch Bihar and Assam. He made his war preparations on a grand scale, and left Dacca on 1st November 1661, with an army of 12,000 horse and 30,000 foot, a vast flotilla of war boats and supply vessels and a powerful artillery. Many European sailors and gunners—mostly Portuguese with some Dutch and English also, accompanied him. On land and water alike the imperialists were irresistible.
v2.c42.s3.4
Advancing slowly by cutting the dense bamboo groves on the way, the Mughal army entered the capital of Kuch Bihar on 19th December and found it deserted by its Raja and people in terror. The kingdom was annexed to the Mughal empire, coins were struck in Aurangzib’s name, and the city’s name was changed to Alamgir-nagar. After making arrangements for the peaceful administration of the Kuch country and leaving Isfandiyār Beg to garrison the capital, Mir Jumla set out for the conquest of Assam on 4th January 1662. On account of the jungles and numerous nālās to be crossed on the way, his daily progress did not exceed four or five miles. The soldiers had to go through unspeakable hardship and fatigue, which the viceroy-commander-in-chief shared with the meanest private. The Ahom army, devastated by cholera and paralysed by the jealousy of its other generals for a royal favourite (Bez Dalai Phukan) who had been put in authority at Gauhati, continually retreated before the invaders, and wherever it made a stand was defeated with heavy slaughter. Several of the feudal barons of Assam living on that side deserted to the Mughals. In a river-battle fought in the night of 3rd March 1662, the Ahom naval power was annihilated and 300 of their boats were seized.
v2.c42.s3.5
In this way, Mir Jumla triumphantly marched into Garh-gāon the Ahom capital on 17th March. Raja Jayadhwaj, (r. 1648-1663) had fled away to the eastern hills abandoning his capital and all his property. The spoils taken by the Mughals here were immense: 82 elephants, 3 lakhs of rupees in cash, 675 pieces of artillery, 1343 camel-swivels, 1200 Rāmchangis, 6750 match-locks, 340 maunds of gunpowder, over a thousand boats, and 173 stores of paddy.
v2.c42.s3.6
IV. VICTORIOUS MUGHALS BESIEGED IN AHOM CAPITAL, 1662
v2.c42.s3.7
But by his lightning advance the Mughal general had conquered only the soil of the capital, and neither the king nor the country. So, in view of the early and heavy rains of Assam, Mir Jumla halted there. The fleet under admiral Ibn Husain had to stop at Lakhau, some eighteen miles north-west, where the anchorage was deep enough for the big gun-boats. The viceroy with the main army went into quarters at Mathurāpur, a village on a higher ground, seven miles south-east of Garhgāon (31st March 1662), while the Ahom capital with its countless spoils of war was held by a strong garrison under Mir Murtaza. Many outposts were set up on land, while from Lakhau the line of communications was kept open westwards to Gauhati and from Gauhati south to Dacca. The Ahom forces were concentrated in the mountains south of Garhgāon and the huge island of Majhuli west of that city.
v2.c42.s3.8
Early in May the rain began to fall in torrents, the rivers rose in flood, and Mir Jumla was cut off from his fleet and base of supplies. In fact, during the entire rainy season, the Mughal army in Assam lived in a state of siege; each of its posts stood like an island surrounded by the flooded country, the few raised paths (āli) being held by the enemy. In their cantonments, on some days the tents were flooded and horse and man had to stand knee-deep in water. For lack of proper fodder, cavalry horses and draught cattle alike perished by the thousand.
v2.c42.s3.9
During this state of "siege by water", the Ahoms drove out several of the Mughal outposts, and then concentrating near Garhgāon kept the imperialists there in perpetual alarm by their frequent night attacks.
v2.c42.s3.10
As the monsoon grew to its full violence, it became impossible for the imperialists to issue from any outpost or send support to it. Mir Jumla, therefore, withdrew all his thānas. The Ahom king recovered all his country east of Lakhau, and the Mughals held only Garhgāon and Mathurāpur, besides the harbour of Lakhau. Despair seized the hearts of the Hindustani soldiers thus stranded in Assam.
v2.c42.s3.11
The vigour of Ahom attack was now redoubled; their king came down from the Nāmrup hills (in the extreme east) and took post only four days' march from Garhgāon; he appointed the Bāduli Phukan as his prime minister and commander-in-chief and sent him to destroy the foreign invaders. But his attacks on Mathurāpur and Garhgāon were beaten off—especially two assaults in force on the capital on 8th July and 12th July, though the garrison had to be ever on the alert. But from the middle of July the defenders began to make vigorous sorties and destroy the enemy posts in the neighbourhood. The imperialists were thus gaining repose and confidence again, when in August a terrible epidemic of fever and flux broke in Mathurāpur. Hundreds of soldiers and followers perished daily; (Dilir Khan's corps of 1500 Afghans was reduced to 450 men.) In the Mughal camp no suitable diet or comfort or even medicine was available for the sick; all had to live on coarse rice. The Hindustani and Turki cavaliers languished for want of wheaten bread, their horses died of eating rice. At last life at Mathurāpur became unbearable, and the army evacuated it for Garhgāon (on 17th August), abandoning many of their sick comrades for lack of transport.
v2.c42.s3.12
The exultant Ahoms renewed their attacks on Garhgāon and there was fighting every night outside that fort. But Mughal vigour triumphed in the end, and after the crushing defeat of a night attack on 15th September the Ahoms grew quiet. But the refugees from Mathurāpur had infected the garrison of Garhgāon, where the pestilence now reached its extreme, to which famine of every foodstuff except coarse rice was added. Mir Jumla lived and fed like the commonest soldier, though he had a store of delicacies.
v2.c42.s3.13
By the end of September the worst was over; the rain decreased, the flood went down, the roads reappeared, and in a few days the long-suffering garrison received cheering news from their fleet at Lakhau. In truth, through all these dark months of alarm, suspense and despair, the Mughal navy under Ibn Husain had saved itself and thus saved the army beleaguered in far away Garhgāon, by maintaining its mastery of the Brahmaputra and safeguarding the communications with Bengal. Ibn Husain reestablished the outpost at Devalgāon (halfway to Garhgāon) and Mir Jumla pushed up a detachment under Abul Hasan which joined hands with the navy at Devalgāon. Large quantities of provisions sent from Lakhau by land and water under escort, reached Garhgāon on 24th and 31st October respectively, and plenty now took the place of famine. The land having dried, the Mughal cavalry again became irresistible, and Raja Jayadhwaj and his nobles fled to the hills of Nāmrup a second time.
V. Mir Jumla's Last Movements and Death
v2.c42.s4.1
Mir Jumla now resumed the offensive, to track the Raja down to his lair in Nāmrup, moving by land and water. Leaving Garhgāon on 16th November 1662, he reached the Dihing river in four days, and then marched by way of Salāguri to Tipam on the other bank of that river (18th December). This was destined to be the furthest point of his advance.
v2.c42.s4.2
On 20th November he had a fainting fit, but he clung tenaciously to his purpose and continued to lead the army. The Bāduli Phukan came over to the Mughals and was made their viceroy for Eastern Assam. More Ahom nobles followed this disloyal example. But on 10th December Mir Jumla was struck down by a burning fever to which pleurisy was soon added. His soldiers and officers alike refused to advance further into that baleful country and plotted to leave him there and return home. Dilir Khan quieted them and at the same time induced Mir Jumla to make peace with the Ahom king and return to Bengal. The terms agreed to were: (1) The Ahom king would deliver immediately a war-indemnity of 20,000 *tolas* of gold, 120,000 *tolas* of silver, and 40 elephants. (2) During the next twelve months he would deliver the balance of the indemnity. viz., three hundred thousand *tolas* of silver and 90 elephants in three equal instalments. (3) All Assam west of the Bharali river on the north bank of the Brahmaputra and west of the Kalang river on the south was to be annexed to the Mughal empire. Thus the Mughals were to get more than half the province of Darrang, so rich in elephants, and Dimāruā, Beltalā and the kingdom of the Nāk-kāti Rāni adjoining the Gāro hills. (4) Jayadhwaj would send a daughter to the imperial harem. (5) From the second year after the treaty, he would pay an annual tribute of twenty elephants. In addition, all Mughal subjects carried off by the Ahoms were to be released, and the sons of the four highest nobles of Assam were to be surrendered to the governor of Dacca to be held as hostages for the full execution of the treaty.
v2.c42.s4.3
The Ahom princess, hostages and some gold, silver and elephants as part of the indemnity having reached Mir Jumla's camp, he set out on his return on 10th January 1663, travelling by pālki owing to his illness, which daily increased. At Baritalā he embarked in a boat and glided down the river towards Dacca, dying on 31st March near Khizirpur, a few miles short of Dacca.
v2.c42.s4.4
The Mughal thanas were safely withdrawn from the country restored to the Ahom king, and the retreat of the army and navy alike was effected skilfully and cautiously, without any loss. On paper Mir Jumla's last campaign was a success, though he lost his life in it. The shock of the Mughal invasion impaired the fabric of the Ahom State, the feudatories became refractory to their Raja, the population was woefully thinned by war, famine and plague, and Jayadhwaj himself died a broken down man only eight months after Mir Jumla's return. But Kuch Bihar had been recovered by its Raja and the Mughal garrison expelled while Mir Jumla was isolated at Garhgāon.
v2.c42.s4.5
For sometime after Mir Jumla's death (on 31st March 1663), Ihtishām Khan continued to be in charge of the general administration in Bengal and Rāi Bhagwati Dās of revenue affairs. After Ihtishām's departure for the imperial court with the late viceroy's property, Dilir Khan was commissioned to act as the Governor of Bengal till the arrival of Dāud Khan from Bihar, and the last-named to officiate as the Governor, pending the arrival of the permanent incumbent, Shāista Khan. Mir Jumla's death was followed by a general wave of laxity and disorder in the government of Bengal. Even the expedition for the recovery of Kuch Bihar was postponed. The death of Mir Jumla, whose parwāna had regulated the E.I.C's affairs both in Bihar and Bengal and protected the English traders against all claims of customs, naturally raised the question of the legality of their right to this exemption, as his parwāna now ceased to operate, and as the old farmān of Shah Jahan on which they based their claim had not been confirmed and renewed by Aurangzib. Freed from the wholesome restraint of Mir Jumla, the officers in Bengal and Bihar began to demand customs from the English.