The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c44.7

v2.c44.7

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.)