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The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c44: Chapter XX. Bengal Under Shaista Khan and Ibrāhim Khan

The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c44

Language
English

Contents

Chapter XX. Bengal Under Shaista Khan and Ibrāhim Khan

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I. THE INTERREGNUM, APRIL 1663—MARCH 1664

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The break-down in the internal administration of Bengal which followed Shujā's departure from the province in December 1657 to contest the throne, ended only six years later with Shāista Khan's entry into Rājmahal as subahdār on 8th March 1664. The remainder of Shujā's viceroyalty (two and a half years) was spent in Bihar, when all his attention and resources were concentrated on the struggle with Aurangzīb, so that the government of Bengal was starved of men and neglected. After Shujā's flight from Bengal, Mir Jumla passed a year and a half (May 1660-1 Nov. 1661) at Dacca in peace, but all his energies were absorbed by the necessary preparations for the conquest of Arakan and Assam. Then followed his seventeen months' absence on the Kuch and Ahom wars from which he returned a dead man (31 March 1663). Between this last date and Shāista Khan's arrival lay a period of exactly one year, when this province was ruled by subordinates without a supreme master on the spot, so that disorder and misrule reached their extreme.

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When Mir Jumla set out for Kuch Bihar, he left Ihtishām Khan at Dacca in charge of the military defence of Bengal, without formally giving him the office and dignity of deputy subahdār; the revenue administration continued in the hands of Rāi Bhagwati Dās (not to be confounded with the eunuch Khwāja Bhagwān-dās). It took the officers at Dacca seven weeks to report Mir Jumla's death to the Emperor, who was then in far-off Lahore, *en route* to Kashmir, and receive his orders on the vacancy thus created. By these orders Ihtishām Khan was recalled to Court, and Dāud Khan (the subahdār of Bihār) was transferred to Bengal as acting subahdār, while Dilir Khan was nominated to govern Bengal pending the arrival of Dāud Khan. These orders reached Dacca on 17th May 1663, and Dilir Khan held charge of the province from that date up to 27th September, when Dāud Khan relieved him; and finally Dāud Khan was relieved on 8th March next year by Shāista Khan, who was to govern Bengal for nearly a quarter century.

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The administration of this province in the period immediately after the death of Mir Jumla resembled the reign of mice in a neglected barn. A disgraceful example of the political disorder in the province was supplied at the I’d-ul-fitr, less than a month after the last viceroy’s death. On that day the gathering of the faithful in prayer and the ceremonious ending of the month of fast, were held and the Emperor’s titles proclaimed from the pulpit, not in full congregation at the I’d-gāh, but at three different places in the same village of Khizrpur by the three highest officers, each in proud aloofness among his partisans, by Ihtishām Khan near his office, Dilir Khan (his rival in position, as the second-in-command of the army, immediately below Mir Jumla who was now no more) in his camp, and Munawwar Khan (the grandson of I’sā Khan of Bhāti, and the chief of the Bengal zamindārs’ flotilla) near his residence. (F. ‘I. Continuation, 106 a)

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Shihābuddin Tālish, who had accompanied Mir Jumla in the Assam war, has left a graphic picture of the condition of Bengal as he saw it. First, all the experienced and able officers of the former regimes had either perished in the war of succession and the Assam expedition, or had left the province for the imperial Court. The highly talented Persian émigrés raised to high office by Shujā‘ were dismissed after Aurangzib’s victory. A similar fate overtook many of Mir Jumla’s protegés after his death, as they were Shias like himself.

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Next, as Tālish recounts his painful experience: “The temporary rulers, in the absence of a substantive viceroy, made the most of their brief day of borrowed power by freely indulging in those wicked desires which they had so long kept in check in fear of Mir Jumla. Every one asked for every thing that he fancied, and these officials granted it with the utmost liberality like issuing an order on a river to supply water to a petitioner! This they considered a cheap way of gaining fame. Those men, including the author, who did not supplicate these upstart officials, got nothing. They restored zamindārs to their estates, of which they had been deprived (for treason or revenue default). Some zamindārs, who had clung to their old homes by promising to pay double their normal revenue, now got their old assessment restored. My friends wittily called this interregnum, ‘the Festival of breaking the Ramzān fast’! In truth, a strange confusion overtook public affairs”. (Cont., 109.)

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The game of the subordinate officials who thus found themselves freed from any overseer during this eclipse of the subahdārship, was to squeeze money from the people as quickly as possible. This they did in two ways; first by demanding revenue from all men who had been enjoying rent-free grants of land on personal or religious grounds and most of whom had lost their title-deeds, though their names were borne on the exchequer rolls of the provincial diwān. The second device was a monopoly of trade in the necessaries of life and in some valuable articles of import. Mir Jumla himself had set the example in this evil practice. An official monopoly strangled the retail trade in articles of daily use like salt and betelnuts, while transit duties on the way and tolls at the places of sale inflicted a double burden on the consumers in the humblest market. The European traders who contributed so largely to the industry and wealth of the country, were harassed by petty local officers at every ferry or toll-post, while the governor himself attempted (but unsuccessfully) to make himself the sole agent for the supply of salt-petre to these foreign merchants. Some of his overzealous servants tried to rob the Europeans of their legitimate profit on the foreign articles which they imported, by buying them wholesale at a low price, as soon as their ships arrived, and then conducting the retail sale for the profit of their master at fancy prices.

II. Shaista Khan's Rule, Condition of the Country

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Shāista Khan was already 63 when he first came to Bengal, and his 22 years' residence in this climate completely sapped his health and vigour. In youth he had been remarkable for his military capacity and energy, especially in the Deccan campaign of Shah Jahan (1636). But in Bengal he was a tired old man, who left campaigning to his subordinates,—especially his many able sons,—while he himself spent his days in ease and pleasure amidst his numerous harem. In August, 1666 he had a severe attack of illness. The English merchant William Hedges, who visited him, reported him as "old and very feeble" (Dec. 1683). but that did not prevent him from having a son born to him on 12th November 1682, when he was in the 82nd year of his age. We get from this source a picture of Shāista Khan's life in Dacca in an almost royal style of luxury and splendour. He also sent from time to time very costly presents to his master the Emperor. (A. N. 109, 167. Akh.)

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We possess details of Shāista Khan's remittances to Aurangzib. In 1680, the Emperor took a loan of seven lakhs from him. Next year, the nobleman loyally wrote the debt off, saying that he offered the whole amount as his peshkash. In February 1682, Shāista Khan promised to pay five lakhs annually as the tribute of Bengal as long as the Emperor was out on his Deccan expedition (kharch-iyisāq.) We know that this annual aid continued till 1685 and probably later. In June 1682, one lakh was sent to the Emperor as the Jaziya collected in Bengal. In July 1678, on return from his first viceroyalty of Bengal, he presented the Emperor with 30 lakhs in cash besides 4 lakhs worth of jewels.

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Such extravagance could be maintained only by squeezing the people. His subordinates were left free to raise money for him by every means that they could think of; merchandise was stopped at every outpost and ferry and custom duty charged over and over again in disregard of official permits; cesses (ābwābs) abolished by imperial decree, still continued to be realised in practice. In addition the Nawab practised a monopoly of the sale of salt, betel-nut, and some other prime necessaries of life.¹ Thus, by grinding the masses, he amassed a vast treasure, besides building costly edifices at Dacca, the memory of which still lingers. Indeed, Bengal's only attraction for him was the ease of administering such a soft population and the gold to be had here for the picking.

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¹ Salt and bees' wax were imperial monopolies in Bengal as early as 1676 (Master's Diary, i. 321.)

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The English merchant W. Clavell wrote from Hughli on 15th Dec. 1676.—"The Nawab Shāista Khan obtained Hughli as part of his jāgir . . . His officers oppress the people, monopolise most commodities, even as low as grass for beasts, canes (i. e., bamboo), firewood, thatch etc. Nor do they want ways to oppress those people of all sorts who trade, whether natives or strangers, since whatever they do (at Hughli) when complained of to Dacca, is palliated under the name and colour of the Nawāb's interest . . . There is sent from Dacca 20 or 40 thousand rupees yearly to be employed (by the Nawāb's officers in Hughli) in merchandise, which is distributed among the Hindu merchants of the town, for which they agree to give 25 p. c. per annum . . . And yet the governor (i. e., faujdār) whenever he hath any goods on his hands calls for the Hindu merchants and distributes among them what quantity he pleases, at 10 or 15 p. c. higher than the market and they pay ready money . . . The governor doth get quantities of gold and other goods at under rates out of the Dutch warehouse . . . The goods (are) distributed among the town merchants at extraordinary rates as above mentioned." (Master's Diary, ii. 80-81).

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Streynsham Master wrote to the English Company in London, about Shāista Khan as "a man who is everyday more covetous than other, so that to relate the many ways that are continually invented by his dīwān . . . to bring money into his coffers would be endless".

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On 28 October, 1676 Master wrote that Shāista Khan in his less than 13 years' governorship of Bengal had "got so great a treasure together as the like is seldom heard of now-a-days in the world, being computed by knowing persons at 38 krores of rupees, and his income is daily two lakh rupees, of which his expenses is about one half". (Ibid., i. 32, 55, 327n, 493.) Maāsir-ul-Umarā, ii. 705, speaks of the marvellous stories about his accumulated stores.

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An Assamese traditional history states,—" Shāista Khan used to import by ship salt, betel-nuts and other articles and sell them in Bengal on profitable terms . . . He accumulated 17 krors of rupees. He also sold salt and supāri to the merchants in the city of Dacca. The latter were thus debarred from making purchases and sales on their own accounts." (Bhuyan, Annals, 167). Prince 'Azim-ud-din when governor of Bengal (1698-1707) carried on this private trade (sauda-i-khās), for which he received a sharp reprimand from his grand-father Aurangzib. (Riyāz-us-S. 243).

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It is true that Shihābuddin Tālish asserts that Shāista Khan on his coming to Bengal in 1664 abolished the trade monopolies of his predecessors and the ābwābs forbidden by imperial orders. But the European testimony on Shāista Khan's covetousness and extortions is unassailable. I am inclined to ascribe Tālish's contrary assertion not to his Abul Fazalian habit of lauding his patron up to the skies, but rather to the fact that Tālish's Continuation stops abruptly in the third year of Shāista Khan's viceroyalty and that our author did not live to complete his book or even revise it. It would be reasonable to suppose that Shāista Khan did at first issue orders abolishing the monopolies, but that after a few years his subordinates took advantage of his supine rule to feed his prodigal luxury by raising money in the old wicked ways, and he asked no questions.

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But though Shāista Khan himself lived at the provincial capital in royal magnificence and ease he was no viceroi fainéant; he succeeded in enforcing peace and administrative control; because he was assisted by four exceptionally gifted sons,—Buzurg Ummed Khan the conqueror of Chātgāon (1666) who left Bengal in 1682 to be the subahdār of Bihār; Zafar Khan who succeeded as thānahdār of Chātgāon; Abu Nasar the deputy subahdār of Orissa, and Irādat Khan who conquered Kuch Bihār (1685) and held the faujdāri of Kuch Bihar and Rāngāmāti.¹ One family ruled all divisions of Bengal, and ruled them worthily.

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¹ Three other sons are mentioned in Maāsir-i-‘Ālamgiri,—Itiqād Kh. (p. 351, 369), Khudā Banda Kh. (374, 351), and Abdul Mu‘ala (369.)

III. Kuch Bihar and Other Frontier States

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When on 4th January 1662 Mir Jumla set out from the captured capital of Kuch Bihār on the invasion of Assam, he left behind him Isfandiyār Beg as the acting faujdār of the country pending the arrival of 'Askar Khan, the substantive faujdār. But the Mughal officers by trying to enforce the revenue collection system of Upper India, which was utterly strange and unsuitable to the primitive population of Kuch Bihar, drove the country into rebellion. There was also the plunder of the rich by the greedy new officials, as soon as Mir Jumla's watchful eyes were removed from them. The result was that Raja Prān Nārāyan came down from his hill refuge, the people gathered round him, killed Muhammad Sālih the thānahdār of Kānthālbāri who was barring their path, and forced Isfandiyār Beg to evacuate the capital by cutting off his supplies. The detachment under 'Askar Khan fell back to the Ghorāghāt district beyond the southern frontier of Kuch Bihār, while Isfandiyār's troops were absorbed at Baritalā into Mir Jumla's retreating army (26 Feb. 1663). Mir Jumla's death followed soon after and nothing could be done to reconquer Kuch Bihar for a year afterwards. (Con. 110b.) All that 'Askar Khan did during the winter of 1663-64 was to occupy the chakla of Fathpur, outside the embankment of Kuch Bihar but belonging to that kingdom, and wait for the arrival of a new viceroy.

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After Shāista Khan's arrival at Rājmahal (March 1664), the Kuch Raja heard of the new viceroy's design of attacking Kuch Bihar on his way to Dacca and immediately sent to him letters of submission and apology, promising a tribute of 5½ lakhs of rupees as the price of his pardon. The amount was paid by instalments, and 'Askar Khan's force was recalled from the Kuch Bihar frontier. (Cont. 121 b. Akh. yr. 8.)

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We may here conclude the history of Mughal relations with Kuch Bihār till the close of the Nawābi. Rāja Prān Nārāyan, who had opposed Mir Jumla, died in 1666, and thereafter for nearly half a century this little kingdom was convulsed by civil wars, royal tyranny, and internal disorder. From a despatch written by Shāista Khan and received by Aurangzib on 19th April 1685, we learn—"Modh Nārāyan, the zamindār of Kuch Bihar had promised ten lakhs of rupees as his tribute. But taking advantage of the rainy season, when military operations in that country are impossible, he defaulted in payment. When the monsoon ended, I sent my son Irādat Khan (the thānahdār of Rāngāmāti) with 5000 horse and 7,000 foot, to expel him. Modh Nārāyan opposed him from fort Ekduar, but was defeated and driven to Kuch Bihar fort, which was next attacked and taken by storm. The Raja fled away to fort Āhshām, situated on a hill, which will be next attacked by my son. This kingdom yields a revenue of 12 lakhs of rupees ”. (Akh, yr. 28.)

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Kuch Bihar was now placed in charge of an imperial faujdār and continued in occupation till the end of Aurangzib’s reign, the Raja holding only the jungly and inaccessible parts. The Mughals extended their sway over the southern and eastern portions of the kingdom, annexing much of the present districts of Rangpur and western Kamrup. “ Irādat Khan occupied the central chaklas of Fathpur, Qāzirhāt, and Kākinā. The Raja’s officers in charge of these places as well as Tepā, Mānthonā Jhori and other parganas consented to pay tribute to the subahdār of Bengal. Pāngā and Baikunthpur transferred their allegiance to the same authority. In 1711 the chaklas of Bodā Pātgrām and Purbabhāg were ceded to the Muslims ”. All these cessions were confirmed by the Raja in a treaty in 1711. (H. N, Chaudhuri’s Cooch Behar State, 238-241).

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We shall now survey Shāista Khan’s relations with other chiefs. (1) Bahādur Masnad-i-’Ala, the ruler of Hijli, had been imprisoned by Shujā’, had escaped during the war of succession, had been captured again and confined in Rantambhor fort. He offered Shāista Khan one lakh of rupess for restoration to liberty and his estate (Sep. 1667). (2) The Raja of Jaintiā had raided Sylhet town in Mir Jumla’s time, but in 1664 on hearing of Shāista Khan’s arrival, he sent him a letter of submission and the best elephant in his possession through the faujdār of Sylhet, (Cont. 117a). But in November 1682, the Raja renewed his raids and burnt the environs of Sylhet town. Shāista Khan sent his son Irādat Khan to punish him. (3) In October 1682, the Raja of Tipperā led a predatory expedition up to the city of Sylhet. But he was soon afterwards chastised and made amends by presenting three elephants to the Emperor. (4) Early in 1676, Shāista Khan sent an expedition into the hill State of Morang (west of Kuch Bihar and north of Purnea), which made peace by paying tribute (mostly in goods) (M.A. 150.) We need not notice here the tumult caused in certain parts of Bengal and Bihar by a counterfeit Shujā’ and a bogus Zain-ul-’ābidin (Shujā’s son).

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IV. CONQUEST OF CHĀTGĀON, 1666

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The most memorable work of Shāista Khan in Bengal was the conquest of Chātgāon and the breaking of that pirates’ nest, which had long terrorised the water-ways of the Bengal delta.

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A Burmese king of Arakan had wrested the Chātgāon district from the independent sultans of Bengal in 1459. In Jahāngīr's reign the Mughals had recovered the country up to the Feni river, which henceforth formed the south-eastern boundary of Bengal; but the tract near the mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra knew no peace, on account of the weakness of the Mughal Government at sea, the settlement of Portuguese adventurers in Arakan, and their practice of piracy under shelter of the Arakan ruler. In 1617 the Arakanese conquered the island of Sondip from a Portuguese usurper, and thus secured a halfway house for their raids into Dacca and Bāqarganj.

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The Burmese people are noted for their skill in navigation and river fighting. And now being allied to Portuguese daring and superior firearms, they became irresistible in our eastern waters. The imperial Government could do nothing to oppose them. One subahdār of Bengal, Khānazād Khan (1626) retired to Rājmahal in fear of the pirates, abandoning the defence of Dacca to his subordinates. "As these raids continued for a long time, Bengal became day by day more desolated. Not a house was left inhabited on either side of the rivers lying on the pirates' track from Chātgāon to Dācca. The prosperous district of Baklā (Bāqarganj) was swept clean with the broom of plunder and kidnapping, so that none was left to occupy any house or kindle a light in that region". (Cont. 123b). Latterly the Raja of Arakan ceased to send his own fleet on these expeditions, and left the work to the Feringis who shared their booty with him.

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The pirates had a choice of two routes: "When they came from Chātgāon to ravage Bengal they skirted the imperial frontier post of Bhuluā on their right and the island of Sondip on their left, and reached the village of Sangrām-garh at the southern apex of the Delta of Dacca (some 30 miles from Dacca) and the then point of junction of the Brahmaputra and the Ganges. From this place they sailed up the Ganges, if they wished to plunder Jessore, Hughli and Bhushnā, or up the Brahmaputra if Vikrampur, Sonārgāon and Dācca were their objectives". (Cont. 139.)

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The deep channel parting from a bend of the Ganges some distance east of Tāmluk and running eastwards to Dacca and Chātgāon was called by the English merchants in that age as the Rogues' River, because "the Arakanese used to come out thence to rob and sailed up the river Ganges". (S. Master's Diary, i. 321, map in i. 507.)

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"The Arakan pirates, both Magh and Feringi, used constantly to plunder Bengal. They carried off the Hindus and Muslims they could seize, pierced the palms of their hands, passed thin strips of cane through the holes, and threw the men huddled together under the decks of their ships. Every morning they flung down some uncooked rice to the captives from above, as people fling grain to fowl . . . They sold their captives to the Dutch, English and French merchants at the ports of the Deccan. Sometimes they brought their captives to Tāmluk and Bālesore for sale at high prices . . . Only the Feringis sold their prisoners, but the Maghs employed all whom they could carry off in agriculture and other occupations, or as domestic servants and concubines”. (Con. 122b.—123.)

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It was Shāista Khan’s task to put an end to this terror. At first the prospect appeared hopeless, because the Arakanese were flushed with a long and unbroken course of victories; and “their cannon were beyond counting and their war-vessels more numerous than the waves of the sea”, while the Bengal troops and sailors were utterly terrified and the Bengal flotilla (nawwāra) had been wofully depleted by Shujā’s negligent administration and the losses of the Assam war of Mir Jumla. But Shāista Khan’s energy and persistence overcame every obstacle. A new navy was created, manned and equipped in a little over a year. In the great dockyards that lined the channel passing through the city of Dacca in the quarter known as Tānti Bāzār, boats were built in large numbers, and additional vessels were also procured at the minor ports of Hughli, Jessore, Chilmāri, Karibāri and Bālesore. Crews were assembled, provisions and munitions collected, and expert officers chosen for the higher posts. In a short time 300 vessels were got together, ready in war-trim.

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The first step in the campaign was the conquest of the island of Sondip—only six hours’ sail from Chātgāon. Dilāwwar, a run-away captain of the Mughal navy, who had established himself as king here, was defeated and captured by an expedition from Dacca under admiral Ibn Husain (November 1665.) A still more important gain was the seduction of the Feringis of Chātgāon from the side of the Arakanese. Luckily for Shāista Khan, a feud had just then broken out between the Magh ruler of Chātgāon and the local Portuguese. The entire Feringi colony of the place escaped from it with their families and property in 42 jaliā boats (December 1665) to the Mughal commandant at Noākhāli. Shāista Khan gave their chief captain a bounty of Rs 2,000 and a monthly pay of Rs 500, and their other leaders were all enlisted in the Mughal service.

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In fact the coming over of the Feringis was really the key to the conquest of Chātgāon. Their chief captain urged an immediate attack on Chātgāon, before the Arakanese could recover from the shock of the desertion of their Feringi defenders and get time to bring up reinforcements from Arakan. So, on 24th December 1665, the expeditionary force, 6500 strong, started from Dacca, under the command of Buzurg Ummed Khan, the eldest son of the viceroy. The imperial fleet numbered 288 vessels of all kinds (out of which 21 were large gun-boats or ghurābs and 157 fast-rowing long and slender kosās.) The Feringis with about 40 vessels of their own acted as auxiliaries and bore the real brunt of the fight at sea. The plan of the campaign was that the fleet under Ibn Husain should creep along the coast, while the army should march parallel to it, each supporting the other. Noākhāli was the starting point. Crossing the Feni river at Jagdiā, on 14th January 1666, the army entered Arakanese territory. Farhād Khan leading the vanguard, advanced cutting the jungle along the shore and making a way. The fleet entered the Kumiriā creek, only two marches short of Chātgāon, and landed a body of pioneers, who began to cut the jungle forward in the direction of Chātgāon and behind towards the advancing land forces. These last joined hands on the 21st, and the vanguard moved slowly onward through the dense pathless forest.

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The first naval battle was fought on 23rd January, when admiral Ibn Husain sailed out of the Kumiriā creek and attacked the light squadron of the Maghs in the open sea near the mouth of the Kāthāliā channel. The Feringis led the Mughal van and their onset decided the day; the Maghs jumped overboard from their heavy gun-boats (ghurābs), which the imperialists captured, while their light jalias fled away. The advancing Mughals were stopped by the main Magh fleet, consisting of large ships called khālus and dhums, which had come out of the Hurlā creek. After watching the enemy for the night, the imperialists, next morning (24th January) advanced to the attack, "firing their guns and placing their biggest ships in the front line and their smaller and faster boats in the rear. The Magh fleet, heavily outnumbered, again took to flight, and retreated into the Karnafuli river (about 3 P. M.). where they drew up their ships in line between the town of Chātgāon and an island in midstream. The opposite (or southern) bank of the river was defended by three bamboo stockades filled with musketeers and artillery, who opened fire on the Mughal fleet. Ibn Husain landed a party which took and burnt the stockades after a stiff fight, while his ships sailed up the river and dashed themselves upon the Magh fleet. A great battle was fought, in which the Feringis and the Bengal zamindār Munawwar Khan distinguished themselves. Several of the Arakanese ships were sunk by gun-fire or ramming, and the remainder (135 vessels) were captured.

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The victors rested in their ships that night a little below the town. Next day (25th January) the fort of Chātgāon was besieged and bombarded. The garrison, rendered helpless by the annihilation of their navy, resisted bravely for one day. Early in the next morning (26th) they capitulated to Ibn Husain. But the disorderly followers of Munawwar Khan, who had entered the fort in search of plunder, recklessly set fire to the houses and burnt down much of the town and its property. Next morning, the commander-in-chief Buzurg Ummed Khan, who had hastened by the land-route with the army, made a triumphal entry into the fort. The prize taken was of little money value. It consisted of three elephants, 1026 pieces of brass and iron cannon (mostly small pieces carrying one lb or even smaller shot), many match-locks and camel-swivels, and much ammunition, besides two thousand Maghs taken captive and sold as slaves. But the most glorious fruit of the campaign was the release and restoration to home of many thousand Bengali peasants who had been kidnapped before by the pirates and held here in serfdom.

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Chātgāon became the seat of a Mughal faujdār and its name was changed to Islāmābād by order of the pious Emperor.

V. Interval: Prince Muhammad ‘Azam as Subahdār of Bengal

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The one year’s Bengal viceroyalty of Prince Muhammad ‘Azam Shāh (who came to Dacca on 29th July 1678 and left it finally on 12th October 1679), reads more like a tale of the “ Arabian Night ” than a page of sober history. This prince, the best-loved son of Aurangzib, was inordinately vain, passionate, and thoughtless. His undoubted power of command and personal courage were neutralised by his recklessness and incapacity for planning. The popular story of the day was that he begged for the subahdāri of Bengal, because he was a king’s son, and another king’s son, his paternal uncle Shujā‘, had governed that province before! The only incident recorded during his subahdāri was the securing of Gauhāti fort by bribing its Ahom custodian (February 1679); but this much-lauded “conquest” continued in Mughal hands for three years only, having been recovered by the Ahom king without a blow from the dying faujdār Ibn Husain in mid August 1682 (*Akhbarat*¹).

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¹ S. Mahant’s Buranji, 279, describes some skirmishes.

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No vassal chief durst raise his head, no commoner durst complain to the Emperor, and no official news-reporter had the imprudence to write anything against the maladministration of the Pādishāh's son. His lordly contempt for all other men is well illustrated in the stories of his doings at Dacca that reached Assam and were recorded there shortly afterwards. The Pādishāh Buranji in the Assamese language, tells us, "Sultan 'Azam destroyed the quarters of Shāista Khan and erected his own residence on the same site . . . There were emporiums of salt worth Rs 152,000 at several places on the bank of the Bangsāh river (? Burigangā) which Shāista Khan could not transport (away.) . . . The kotwāl proposed to the Emperor's son about this salt, 'I want to deposit the salt in the royal store-house. The place will be cleared as the salt depots occupy a large area of land'. To this 'Azam replied, 'Shāista Khan is a subject of ours. It will look odd if we appropriate his goods. To transact business with his commodity by sale or distribution befits a mean person. So, you should destroy the depots and pour the salt into the river'. The kotwāl did so." (Two other cases of unjust exaction by him are given here.)

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The Assamese chronicle continues, "The Pādishāhzāda appointed Mir Maulā his diwān and handed over his duties to the diwān and Malukchānd the huzur-navis, and passed his days in hunting on horseback . . . Thus did 'Azam rule in Bengal. He neglected the duties entrusted to him by the Emperor; he simply roamed about hunting on horse-back". (S. K. Bhuyan, Annals of the Delhi Pādshāhate, 169-172).

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The prince's servants took advantage of such a supine master and acted as they liked. The English merchants at Hughli wrote (on 16 Aug. 1679),—"We heartily wish that your news of our Prince's going to (the) Deccan came out true, his officers in these parts abusing all without control, the Prince himself being wholly addicted to his pleasures, without minding anything. his coffers in the interim filling apace, he having picked up in this last year's time, as is said, upwards of a million of pound sterling" (=over 80 lakhs of rupees). The terror and disorder created by his officers is best illustrated by the following letter of the Dacca factors, written on 13th October 1679:—"Prince 'Azam Shāh left the city on the 6th, and on the 12th began his journey towards Rājmahal; 'twas feared there would have been a general plunder about the time of the Prince's departure, but it proved not so; that Shāista Khan was made subah of Bengal, his son Buzurg Ummed Khan being sent his offtalle (?) or deputy to take possession of the Government, and is on his way making great speed to Dacca". (Master's Diary, ii. 248n, 268).

VI. Shāista Khan's Second Governorship, 1679—1688; War with the English

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Shāista Khan's second term as subahdār of Bengal (Oct. 1679—June 1688) was disturbed by a friction with the English traders which ended in their making war on the Mughal Empire. The causes of discord between the two sides had been multiplying for a long time past.

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The English East India Company had established their first factory in Bengal at Hugli in 1651. For some years before it they had been making their purchases and sales in Bengal from their Agency or Head Factory at Balesore in Orissa (founded in 1642), through subordinates who used to visit a few centres in Bihar and Bengal periodically every year. At first their transactions in Bengal were on a very limited scale and unprofitable. Before 1651, their annual investment in this province was less than one-tenth of the value of the Dutch Company's. The Civil War in England (1642-1648) and the war between Holland and England under the Protectorate (1652-'54), ruined the business of the old E. I. Co., and the London Directors of the latter Company at one time issued orders for abandoning the trade in Bengal and "the Bay" altogether. But after 1660, when Aurangzib's final triumph over his rivals restored peace in India and the Restoration of Charles II settled affairs in Great Britain, the English trade with Bengal began to improve rapidly. By 1680 the Company's exports from Bengal had risen to £ 150,000 in value, and next year to £ 230,000.

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But in August 1682, when William Hedges arrived at Hugli as the first governor and Agent of the English Company in Bengal (which was now removed from the control of Madras), he found the trade almost brought to a standstill by the lawlessness and greed of the Mughal officials. "The several affronts, insolences, and abuses daily put upon us by Bālchānd (the customs-collector at Hugli and Shāista Khan's favoured instrument of extoration), being grown insufferable, the Agent and Council made use of diverse expedients for redress of their grievances; but all means proving ineffectual, it was agreed that the only expedient now left was for the Agent to go himself in person to the Nawāb and Diwān at Dacca . . . to make some settled adjustment concerning the customs". Hedges spent six weeks in Dacca, and his Diary, which has been edited by Sir H. Yule (1888), gives a graphic account of the life and court of Shāista Khan and the condition of the country and the people as observed by him. But nothing resulted from this mission; Shāista merely promised that he would request the Emperor to give the English a *farmān*, and the local officials at Hugli continued to stop the Company's boats and seize their goods.

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At last the English traders lost all patience with the corrupt and lawless Mughal Government. ‘Hedges and others urged upon the (Directors of the) Company that trade in Bengal would never prosper till they came to a quarrel with the native authorities, got rid of the growing exactions, and were established in a defensive settlement with ready access to the sea”. This resolve was to bear fruit in the foundation and fortification of Calcutta before the 17th century was over.

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The Court of Directors obtained from King James II permission to retaliate their injuries by hostilities against Shāista Khan and Aurangzib, and in 1686 ships with troops were sent to India from England for making a vigorous attack upon both sides of the Indian peninsula. Only three of these ships reached Bengal. The English troops arrived by driblets towards the end of 1686, and were quartered in Hugli and near it. These preparations for war could not be concealed from Shāista Khan; he concentrated 3,000 foot and 300 horse at Hugli to guard the town (Wilson, i. 90-96).

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When feelings were thus strained on both sides, it was easy for a small incident to precipitate war. On 28th October 1686, three English soldiers of the Hugli factory, when visiting the bāzār of the town for making purchases, were attacked and wounded. The English captain made a sally to rescue them, but his advance was stopped and the huts surrounding the factory were burnt down by the Mughal faujdār 'Abdul Ghani, who also opened fire with his artillery on the English ships. But reinforcements arrived soon after, and the English stormed the Mughal battery and advancing into the town burnt down much of it. Their ships continued the work, by bombarding the town and sending landing parties to sack it. Early in the day the faujdār fled away in disguise. The English lost two men killed and several wounded, and their old factory and its godown were burnt. But on the Mughal side about 60 men were killed and a great number wounded, while four to five hundred houses and a great number of boats were burnt down. (*Ibid*, i. 97).

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The Hugli faujdār sought the meditation of the Dutch merchants of Chinsurā and opened negotiations with the English, but it was a trick for gaining time to call up reinforcements. The English used the respite to pack their stores and prepare for evacuating Hugli. Shāista Khan on hearing of the sack of Hugli sent vast detachments of cavalry there and ordered the English to be seized. On 20th December the English left Hugli with all their property, and sailing down the river for 24 miles, halted at the hamlet of Sutānāti (the centre of the coast-line of modern Calcutta), from which place their Agent, Job Charnock continued the negotiations with Shāista Khan, who merely temporised. In February 1687 the subahdār threw off the mask and threatened the English with expulsion. On 9th February Charnock left Sutānuti and captured the imperial forts at Thānā (modern Garden Reach, facing Mātiā Burj), a few miles west of Calcutta and down the Ganges, and seized the island of Hijli, on the east coast of the Medinipur District (Contāi sub-division), where the English established themselves after landing their men and guns. Next month (March) a detachment of 170 English soldiers and sailors landed at Balesore, took the Mughal fort and burnt down the two towns, called Old and New Balesore.

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About the middle of May 1687, ‘Abdus Samad, a lieutenant of Shāista Khan arrived before Hijli with 12,000 men, to expel the English. From the mainland in the west his heavy batteries fired across the Rasulpur river on the English position in the island and drove their ships from their anchorage. On 28th May, a body of 700 Mughal cavalry and 200 gunners crossed the river above Hijli, seized that town and set it on fire. But the deadly malaria of the climate did ‘Abdus Samad’s work. Of the small English army, two hundred had died of disease, and only a hundred men, weakened by fever, survived, while only five were left alive out of thier forty officers. Their provisions also ran out. But they tenaciously held on and continued the fight. At last ‘Abdus Samad sued for peace. On 11th June, the English evacuated Hijli, carrying away all their artillery and munitions.

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On 16th August, 1687 Shāista Khan issued a letter permitting the English to build a fort at Uluberiā (20 miles south of Calcutta) and renew their trade at Hughli. So, Charnock with his ships returned, but halted at Sutānuti (September). But a new difficulty arose on account of the English war on the Mughal shipping on the Bombay coast (by Sir J. Child) and Shāista Khan finally withdrew his concessions. A year was wasted in this way, and on 8th November 1688 the English evacuated Calcutta a second time, abandoning all their stations and business in Bengal.

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Their new Agent, the naval Captain Heath (who had superseded Job Charnock), now sailed to Balesore, stormed the Mughal fort (29th November), and seized New Balesore town, committing unspeakable atrocities on the inhabitants, Christians and non-Christians, men and women alike. On 23rd December, he sailed away to Chātgāon, wishing to seize that town and make it an independent fortified base of the English in the Bay of Bengal. But at last giving up this idea, he sailed away for Madras (17th February 1689), abandoning all his Bengal projects.

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By this time Shāista Khan had left Bengal (June 1688), and Aurangzib, too, had issued orders for conciliating the English and restoring their trade in his dominions, which made a fair addition to his customs revenue. The next governor of Bengal wrote to the supreme Agency at Madras to send a discreet envoy to Dacca for making a settlement with him. This letter was received on 3rd January 1689. On 2nd July Ibrāhim Khan, immediately after coming to Bengal as viceroy (in the place of Khan-i-Jahān Kokah, dismissed after eleven months’ tenure), wrote to the Madras Council inviting the English to return to Bengal and promising them fair treatment, and this letter was received on 7th October.

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At last in February 1690, peace was finally concluded between the Mughal Government and the English on the West Coast, and on 23rd April the Emperor wrote to Ibrāhim Khan to let the English trade freely in Bengal as before. (Stewart’s Bengal, app. vii and vi). So, the Madras Council decided to send Job Charnock back to Bengal as Agent. He arrived at Sutānuti on 24th August 1690. This was the foundation of Calcutta. In the same year the French made a humble but independent settlement of their own at Chandernagore, in a purchased village.¹

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¹ Foundation of Chandernagore,—F. Martin’s Memoire, iii. 93, 117, 149, 294. Kaeppelin, 321. Job Charnock’s death and family,—Martin’s Memoire, iii. 296. Yule, Hedges’ Diary, vol. 2, lxxxviii, xc. also vol. 1. 52 (Indian wives.)

VII. Shaista Khan's Fame in Bengal

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Captain Charles Stewart, the first modern historian of Bengal, wrote in 1813—“By the Muhammadan historians² Shāista Khan is described as the pattern of excellence; but by the English he is vilified as the oppressor of the human race . . . During the Government of Shāista Khan the commerce of the English, notwithstanding his harsh conduct to Europeans, continued to flourish : . . . His memory is to this day spoken of with the highest respect in that province. It is related that during his government, grain was so cheap that rice was sold at the rate of 640 lbs (i.e., eight maunds) weight to the rupee : to commemorate which event, as he was leaving Dacca, he ordered the western gate through which he departed, to be built up, and an inscription to be placed thereon interdicting any future governor from opening it, till he had reduced the price of grain to the same rate : in consequence of which injunction, the gate remained closed till the government of Nawāb Sarfarāz Khan. Several of the public buildings erected by Shāista Khan are still to be seen at Dacca.” (*Hist. of Bengal*, Sec. vi).

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² Stewart’s sole authority here is the Riyaz-us-Salatin (written in 1788 ) which adds, “Shaista Khan governed Bengal with generosity, justice and care for the welfare of the peasantry. He granted villages and plots of land, free of revenue, to the widows of respectable men, to persons of good birth and the indigent. When complaint was made to Aurangzib about this prodigality, Shāista Khan went to the Court and explained satisfactorily that these grants did not reduce the State revenue in any way”—(evidently he had given away waste land that had yielded no revenue before), pp 222-223. The Biblio. Indica Persian text is hopelessly corrupt here; I have given the sense of it. But in reality, Shāista Khan’s profusion of expenditure did upset the Bengal budget. At the end of his first term in 1678 the provincial diwan reported to the Emperor that this subahdar had drawn and spent one kror and thirty-two lakhs of rupees in excess of his tankkha grant. Again, during his second term (1683), it was reported that he had overspent 52 lakhs, (Maasir-i-Alamgiri, 170 and 234).

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As for the cheapness of grain during his viceroyalty it need not excite any surprise. About 1632, Father Sebastien Manrique during his travels in Bengal, found rice selling at five maunds to the rupee (Luard’s *Manrique*, i. 54), and Dacca being in the centre of the “rice bowl” of Bengal, grain was naturally still cheaper there than in central Bengal.

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In fact, Shāista Khan’s fame in Bengal was due to the easy Oriental way of gaining popularity with the vulgar,—by living in a regal style of pomp and prodigality, supporting a vast parasite class of useless servants and hangers on, and practising indiscriminate charity to an army of pretended saints and theologians, loafers calling themselves religious mendicants, and decayed scions of good families who had learnt no trade or honest means of livelihood. This is exactly the picture that we get of his policy when we rightly interprete Shihābuddin Tālish’s uncontrolled eulogy of Shāista Khan’s truly noble and generous soul. (*Con.* 117*a*-121*b*).

VIII. The Mughal Buildings of Dacca

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It would be convenient to notice here the old Mughal buildings of Dacca and its environs, many of which are associated with Shāista Khan. Twenty years after his final departure from Dacca, the political capital was removed to Murshidābād, and then desolation and ruin fell upon the once proud city named after Jahāngir. The pitiless forces of Nature hastened the process. In a land where no building stone is visible within 400 miles and no hard wood grows on the soil, all structures had to be built of brick with lime mortar. In an age when cement was unknown, and in a climate where 92 inches of rain fall every year (mostly concentrated in three months) and the summer heat is excessive, and the frequent earthquakes of the Assam hills often extend to it, the life of these structures was short. As Sir Charles D'Oyly has observed,—"In the climate of Dacca, alternately humid with excessive rains and the floods of the Ganges, and glowing with the fervours of an Indian sun, vegetation is rapid and abundant. If a bird drop a seed, or the wind waft one where it may find permanent lodgement among the chinks of a building, it presently puts forth fibres which soon become roots and branches, clinging among the stucco and fissures, and finding nourishment, as it were, in the midst of sterility. The mosque of Saif Khan has thus been o'er-canopied with the foliage of the banian, which will one day perhaps bury it in the depth of forest gloom . . . It was originally surmounted by three domes; but during the rainy season of the year 1811, the damps and storms co-operating with the superincumbent weight of foliage, drove in the roof".

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Besides mosques, no brick house was constructed for residence. The usual type of brick building was the Katra, or square enclosed by boundary walls on the four sides and entirely open in the middle. Cloisters ran along these walls, under roofs of brick or lean-to thatched covers. There was no separate brick building in the centre for the viceroy or the grandees. They ran up bamboo and grass houses, i.e., bungalows, some of which were very elegant and costly, especially in the decoration of their walls and windows. In these the great men and their families lived in summer and the monsoons, while they spent the dry season (winter and spring) in tents pitched in the middle of the Katra.¹ The bungalows had to be repaired every year before the monsoon started, and none of them lasted for more than ten or fifteen years.

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¹ Tavernier, who visited Dacca in 1666, wrote, "As for the residence of the governor, it is enclosed by high walls, in the midst of which there is a place constructed entirely of wood. It is usual to reside under tents, pitched in a large court within the enclosure."

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The natural ruin which overtook the edifices of Dacca at the end of the Nawābi period has filled sensitive observers with melancholy thoughts. Here are Sir Charles D'Oyly's reflections on the Remains of a Bridge near the Tāntee Bāzār,—"To the noise of mariners and ship-wrights which once resounded along the nala—to the bustle and pomp of commerce and princely equipage—has succeeded a degree of loneliness and silence : A sentiment of pensive serenity possesses the scene . . . In the midst of such a scene as this, passion is lulled; and the imagination, willingly enthralled by feelings of melancholy pleasure, is instinctively led to compare the vicissitudes of human power and opinion, and the mutabilities of human art, with the permanence of nature itself! Here the Ganges flows on, as it has ever flowed, with silent majesty, whilst the multifarious works, which the art and industry of man have erected on its banks and across its channels, have successively fallen into its stream, or are crumbled to dust.” (*Antiq. of Dacca*).

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The same contrast struck the observant eyes of Bishop Heber ten years later (1824) :—“Two-thirds of the vast area of Dacca are filled with ruins, some quite desolate and overgrown with jungle, others yet occupied by Mussalman chieftains, the descendants of the followers of Shah Jahāngir and all the ‘Lions of War, Prudent and Valiant Lords, Pillars of the Council, Swords of Battle,’ and whatever other names of Khan, Amir, or Umra the Court of Delhi dispensed in the time of its greatness . . . Of the 3,00,000 inhabitants who roost like bats in these old buildings, or rear their huts amid their desolate gardens, three-fourths are still Mussalmans.” (Heber’s *Narrative*, 2nd ed. iii. 296).

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Time and political change have almost entirely destroyed the vestiges of Mughal Dacca, and their very names and appearance would have been lost to posterity but for a happy chance. In 1808, a highly gifted artist and sensitive observer of architecture, Sir Charles D’Oyly went to Dacca as Collector and lovingly sketched the architectural remains of the Muslim period. Very beautiful steel engravings of his drawings by John Landseer, were published with descriptive letter-press, in London in six parts, (1824-1830) under the title of *The Antiquities of Dacca*, including “Some Account of the City of Dacca” in 30 pages, which latter was enriched with vignettes after Chinnery. From this work the following list of the old buildings, with the artist’s description and comment has been compiled :—

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1. The Great Katra, “a stupendous pile of grand and beautiful architecture, situated on the eastern bank of the river, near the centre of the city . . . The turrets are lofty, and of an octagonal form. It is divided into a vast number and variety of apartments, in which the poorest class of natives now take shelter.” The Persian inscription in bold and beautiful semi-Tughra character set on it, tells us—“Sultan Shah Shujā‘ was employed in the performance of charitable acts. Therefore Ābul Qāsim Tabātabāi Husaini āl-Samnāni, in hopes of the mercy of God made a canonical *waqf* of this building of auspicious structure, together with 22 shops adjoining, subject to the condition that the administrators of the *waqf* should spend the income arising from their rent, in repairs and in relief of the poor. If a poor man alights here, no rent should be charged from him for his lodging . . . This inscription was written by Sa’duddin Muhammad al-Shirazi, A. H. 1055” (A. D. 1645).

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(2) Mosque of Saif Khan said to have been begun by Rājā Mohan Singh as a Hindu temple in the reign of Jahāngir, but later completed by Saif Khan as a mosque. It is faced inside and outside with flat tiles covered with sentences from the Quran in embossed characters. “In the architecture of this edifice—its panel-work, pointed arches, and hexagonal minarets—a composed variety is beautifully conspicuous. The ornaments are seen where the most classical taste would probably have placed them . . . It was originally surmounted by three domes”.

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