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The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c48: Chapter XXIV. Marathas in Bengal

The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c48

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English

Contents

Chapter XXIV. Marathas in Bengal

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I. FIRST MARATHA INVASION, 1742.

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On his return journey from Katak, Alivardi Khan learned at Mubārak Manzil (now called *Shāhin-bāndi*) in the Ārāmbāgh subdivision of the Hughli district, and some 15 miles south of Bardwan, that a Maratha army from Nagpur had passed through Pachet and was raiding the Bardwan district. By a forced march he arrived at Bardwan, on the 15th April, 1742. Here, next morning he found himself encircled by the myriads of Deccan light horse. The Nawab’s position was very critical, as he had only three thousand horsemen and a thousand foot-musketeers with him, but was encumbered with all his baggage, camp followers and family, the main portion of his army having been earlier sent back to his capital. He was forced to halt a week in Bardwan. The Marathas cut off his grain supply, one party of them under Bhāskar Pandit keeping up the investment and another party plundering the country for forty miles around.

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Driven by hunger, Alivardi attempted a break through the Maratha cordon in the north-eastern direction to Murshidabad, *via* Katwā, 35 miles from Bardwan. But the plan was mismanaged, as the camp followers whom he wanted to leave behind, crowded upon his troops in wild panic, and his march became a slow and disorderly movement. At last by four o’clock in the afternoon his advance was entirely stopped in a muddy rice field. His baggage and tents, coming up from behind were looted by the enemy hovering round, and his army had to halt there without food or shelter. A day and two nights passed in this way, and then on the 25th the Nawab cut his way through the Maratha line, with the help of his artillery and musketeers and the brave Afghan cavalry under Mustafa Khan. At Nigun Sarāi, 14 miles short of Katwā, a desperate rear-guard action was fought in which Musāhib Khan fell, but the starving army reached Katwā in safety on the 26th. During this retreat, whenever the Bengal army halted, the Marathas used to halt likewise, just beyond the range of the long muskets while their roving bands plundered and burnt the village for ten miles on each side of the track. Provisions and reinforcements soon reached the Nawab at Katwā.

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Mir Habib, a poor Persian pedlar from Shirāz, had made himself by his ability the right-hand man and deputy of Rustam Jang, the son-in-law of Shujā‘-ud-din, and been raised to the peerage. He now joined the Marathas and guided their plans and operations with all his local knowledge, so as to wreak vengeance on Alivardi as the enemy of his patron. His extraordinary ability and implacable enmity to Alivardi Khan gave to the Maratha incursion into Bengal its long-drawn and murderous character.

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Bhāskar Pandit, finding the Nawab safely escaped to Katwā, at first wanted to return to Nāgpur in order to avoid the rainy season of lower Bengal, But Mir Habib lured him with the prospect of boundless plunder, to make a sudden dash on the Nawab’s capital, during his absence. With 700 select Maratha horsemen the raiding party in one night covered about forty miles and reached Dāhipārā, a suburb of Murshidabad (6th May 1742), burnt its bāzār, and then crossing over to Murshidabad itself plundered it for one day without any opposition, taking three lakhs of rupees from the house of the banker Jagat Seth alone. But Alivardi had hurried up on the heels of the Marathas and arrived to save his capital in the morning of the 7th. The raiders retreated to Katwā, a line of burning village marking their track.

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From the month of June Katwā became the head quarters of a Maratha army of occupation. Mir Habib acted as their chief adviser and agent. Through his friends in Hughli, he secured that town and port for the Marathas by imprisoning its drunken faujdār, Muhammad Razā (early in July), and a Maratha garrison under Shesh Rao was put in there. Thus, the districts west of the Ganges passed into the hands of the invaders. “They set up outposts in many places and occupied the country from Rajmahal to Medinipur and Jalesar.” Shesh Rao was installed as their governor. Unlike other Maratha chiefs he was polite, considerate to others, just and kind. His good administration soon won the landholders and even the European traders of these parts over to his side. Mir Habib acted as the diwan of Bengal on behalf of the Marathas and summoned the zamindars to pay him their land revenue.”

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The Nawab’s rule ceased in West Bengal, but his authority was maintained east of the Ganges, though even there subjected to occasional raids. “All rich and respectable people abandoned their homes and migrated to the eastern side of the Ganges in order to save the honour of their women.” (Salimullah).

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II. THE MARATHA TERROR IN BENGAL

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CAMPAIGNS, SEPTEMBER—DECEMBER, 1742.

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All over the country from which the Nawab's authority had disappeared, the roving Maratha bands committed wanton destruction and unspeakable outrage. An English factor reported in July 1742, "The Marathas are plundering in Birbhum, which has put a stop to all business, the merchants and weavers flying wherever they can." Another English merchant, Holwell, writes, "They committed the most horrid devastation and cruelties, fed their horses and cattle with mulberry plantations and thereby irreparably injured the silk manufacture. A general face of ruin succeeded: Many of the inhabitants, weavers and husbandmen, fled. The *ārangs* (silk and cloth factories and emporia) were in a great degree deserted; the lands untilled....The manufactures of the *ārangs* received so injurious a blow at this period, that they have ever since lost their original purity and estimation; and probably will never recover them again. Every evil attending destructive war, was felt by this unhappy country in the most eminent degree. A scarcity of grain in all parts; the wages of labour greatly enhanced; trade, foreign and inland, labouring under every disadvantage and oppression¹."

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¹ Holwell, *Interesting Hist, Events*, 2nd ed. (1766), Part I. pp. 121-151. Also letters from Pondicherry to the Fr. Company, 11 Jan. 1746 and 31st Jan. 1747 (N. S.)

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Gangārām, an eye-witness, thus describes the sufferings of the people: "Every class of people took to flight with their property, ....when suddenly the *bargis*² came up and encircled them in the plain. They snatched away gold and silver, rejecting everything else. Of some people they cut off the hand, of some the nose and ears; some they killed outright. They dragged away the beautiful women.......The *bargis* after thus committing all sinful acts, set these women free. After looting in the open, they entered the villages and set fire to the houses......and roamed about on all sides plundering......They constantly shouted 'Give us rupees, give us rupees, give us rupees.' When they got no rupee, they filled their victims' nostrils with water, or drowned them in tanks....It was only after crossing the Bhāgirathi that the people found safety."

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² *Bargis*, the name by which the Maratha raiders are known in Bengal, is a corruption of *bārgir*, meaning the lowest class of Maratha common soldiers whose arms and horses were supplied by the State, as contrasted with *silāh-dārs*, who owned their own horses and equipment.

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Another eye-witness, Vāneshwar Vidyālankār, the Court pandit of the Maharajah of Bardwan writes, "Shāhu Rajah's troops are niggard of pity, slayers of pregnant women and infants, of Brāhmans and the poor, fierce of spirit, expert in robbing the property of every one and committing every kind of sinful act.... Their main strength lies in their marvellously swift horses. If it comes to a battle, they secretly decamp to some other country." The same tale is told by Salimullah in his *Tārikh-i-Bangāla* (written in 1763) and by the French merchants of Chandernagar and the English of Calcutta.

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During the monsoon recess of 1742, both sides waited for reinforcements. Alivardi encamped outside his capital to guard it, and received two large contingents from Patnā and Purniā, while Bhāskar Pandit sent two captains to his master in Nāgpur to press for fresh troops, but he waited in vain. Alivardi decided to attack the Marathas before the drying of the roads and the fall of the river level would restore to the light Deccani horse its natural advantage. Bhāskar was celebrating the Durgā Pujā at Katwā, in the most lavish style with forced contributions from the zamindārs, when Alivardi after a wide detour at night by the north and west crossed the Ganges at Uddhāran-pur, some five miles above Katwā, and the Ajay river, a mile north of Katwā, by two boat-bridges which he had constructed with great secrecy and speed. Early in the morning of 27th September 1742 (the Navami or grand Puja day) two thousand and five hundred picked troops of the Nawab forming his van, immediately on reaching the south bank of the Ajay, formed and charged the sleeping Maratha camp. The surprise was complete; the Marathas fled away without striking a blow; there was little loss of life on either side, but the Marathas lost all their camp and baggage.

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Bhāskar recalled his troops from all their outposts in Bengal, and led the fugitives into the Medinipur district, where he looted and burnt Rādhānagar (a famous silk-rearing centre) and other large places, and took post at Nārāyangarh. A detachment from this army captured Cuttack after slaying its governor Shaikh Ma'sum at Jājpur. But Alivardi marched in person against them and recovered Cuttack, driving the Marathas beyond the Chilkā lake (Dec. 1742). He returned to Murshidābād in triumph on 9th February, 1743.

III. Second Maratha Invasion, 1743; Alivardi's Pact with the Peshwa

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Early in March 1743, Raghuji Bhonslé, the Rajah of Nagpur, himself arrived at Katwā along with Bhāskar Pandit. He was bent upon exacting the *chauth* of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa which the Mughal Emperor had promised to Rajah Shāhu, and Rajah Shāhu had assigned to Raghuji. But in the meantime the Delhi Emperor had appealed to the Peshwā Bālāji Rao, the rival and personal enemy of Raghuji Bhonslé, and the Peshwā had agreed in the preceding November to eject Raghuji from Bengal by force.

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Early in February 1743, the Peshwā entered Bihar from the south with a strong force. His army was irresistible, and "along his route those who gave him blackmail or costly presents, saved their lives and property, while those who attempted defence were killed and their houses were given up to plunder." From Benares, he traversed Bihar by way of Saseram, Dāudnagar, Tikāri, Gayā, Mānpur, Bihār city and Mungir, and then issuing through the hills and jungles of the Santal Paraganas on to the plain of Bīrbhum, took the road to Murshidabad. After oaths of fidelity and friendship had been exchanged between the two, Alivardi met the Peshwā at the village of Chauria-gāchi (on the west bank of the Bhāgirathi some 10 miles south of Berhampur Cantonment) on 30th March. It was agreed at this conference that the Nawab would pay the *chauth* of Bengal to Shāhu Rajah, besides 22 lakhs of rupees to Bālāji for the expenses of his army, while the Peshwā undertook to effect a final settlement with Raghuji who would not trouble Bengal in future.

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Raghuji Bhonslé on hearing of these two allies advancing together against him, decamped from Katwā to Birbhum. Leaving the slow Bengal army behind, the Peshwā made a rapid cavalry dash, overtook Raghuji on 10th April and drove him away into the western hills with heavy loss of men and baggage. As Raghuji passed through Mānbhum and took the road to Sambalpur, the Peshwā after passing through Pachet, gave up the chase and set out for his return to Punā.

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The celebrated Maratha Ditch of Calcutta was dug during this year, to protect the exposed part of the town, at a cost of Rs. 25,000 raised by the local merchants. A mud wall was also raised round Patnā city by its governor. The nine months from June 1743 to February 1744 passed in peace in these eastern provinces.

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IV. THIRD MARATHA INCURSION, 1744.

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At the beginning of March 1744, Bhāskar Pandit again invaded Bengal by way of Orissa and Medinipur. He was furious at losing all the spoils of his raids in the two previous years, and his disappointment was heightened by the knowledge that his master's rival the Peshwā had cleared twenty-two lakhs of rupees easily by a short campaign in Bengal. The sufferings of the innocent people who came in his way were worse than anything undergone by them before.

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Alivardi was utterly bewildered by this revival of the Maratha menace. He had paid Bālāji Rao twenty-two lakhs of rupees for insuring Bengal against all the Bargi raids in future, and here were those human locusts back again after nine months. The reason was that in the meanwhile these two Maratha chiefs had met together at their king's Court and Shāhu had imposed upon them a compromise dated 31st August 1743, by which the portion of Bihar lying west of Patnā and including Shāhābād and Tikāri and yielding 12 lakhs of rupees a year was assigned to the Peshwā, while Raghuji was to enjoy Bengal, Orissa, and the portion of Bihar east of Patnā, and each was strictly forbidden to interfere with the other's sphere of influence.

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The Nawab therefore found that in return for all his expenditure he had got not an assured protector, but only two blood-suckers instead of one. His own situation was well nigh desperate. The invasions of the past two years had halved his income and doubled his army expenses, while his coffers had been exhausted by the heavy tribute that he had to pay to the Delhi Emperor on his own succession and the subsidy exacted by Bālāji Rao in 1743. His Government was bankrupt; his soldiers were worn out by the fatigue of campaigning year after year; he himself was in poor health and unable to take the field. Therefore, a new campaign against the elusive Marathas in the fierce summer heat just then beginning, had to be avoided by all means.

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The best means that suggested itself to his mind was treacherous assassination, which he had practised before with success against the Rajah of the Chakwār tribe. (Holwell, i. 69-71.)

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Advised by his leading Afghan captain Ghulām Mustafā Khan and assisted by the perjured oaths of his supple Hindu diwan Jānkirām, he invited Bhāskar Pandit and his captains to an interview with him for making a peaceful settlement of the question of the chauth of Bengal. The meeting was to take place in a huge tent set up at Mānkarā, four miles south of the modern Berhampur Cantonment station, and the date was the 31st of March 1744. On entering the tent, the unsuspecting Maratha general and 21 of his captains were all massacred by assassins hidden in the double side-screens. Only one captain, Raghuji Gaikwar, who had remained behind on the plea of illness, galloped away with the troops, and all the Maratha detachments vacated Bengal and Orissa.

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This political crime gave the three eastern provinces peace and prosperity for fifteen months. The Rajah of Nāgpur was in no position to avenge the murder of his generals immediately; his money difficulties had grown worse than before, and his old friction with the Peshwā had recurred in many a quarter because each was violating the compromise of August 1743. The Bengal adventure had only added to the Bhonslé’s load of debt.

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But Alivardi’s Government too was at its wits’ end for money. The annual raids had destroyed the resources of the province, while his army bill for defence had been more than doubled and now amounted to one kror and eighty lakhs of rupees a year. So, he was driven to raise money by any means, fair or foul.

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In his financial distress Alivardi put pressure upon the European Companies trading in Bengal. He complained that the English “carried on the trade of the whole world; they formerly used to have but four or five ships, but now brought 40 or 50 sails which belong not to the Company.” He expected the rich merchants and refugees in Calcutta to assist him with a large war contribution for meeting his army bill. The English at last settled his claim by paying 3½ lakhs of rupees, besides Rs. 43,500 for his courtiers. The French at Chandernagar paid Rs. 45,000.

V. Afghan Mutiny, 1745; Raghuji Returns

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A domestic revolution next year turned Alivardi’s strongest allies into his bitterest enemies, and so weakened the defence of Bengal as to tempt the Marathas to return. The army of the Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in the 18th century was filled entirely with Afghans (mostly from Bihar and even Mewat) and Hindu foot-musketeers from Buxar, with some Oudh men. Of these the Afghans were the most numerous and efficient element. Their supreme leader was Ghulām Mustafā Khan, who had hitherto been Alivardi’s right-hand man, and they numbered 9,000 cavalry and a smaller body of infantry. Alivardi had promised Mustafā the governorship of Bihar as his reward if he could carry out the massacre of Bhāskar and the other Maratha generals. But as the Nawab showed no sign of keeping his word, Mustafa began to threaten him. An armed conflict in the capital seemed imminent; but Alivardi seduced some of the other Afghan captains and even a few of the lieutenants of Mustafa. That general at last resigned the Nawab's service, and left Murshidabad with his own contingent in February 1745, on his dues being paid up in full.

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Entering Bihar, the revolted general stormed Monghyr fort and delivered an assault on Patna city on 14th March. His army was now swollen to 14,000 troopers by adventurers from all sides joining such a noted freelance. Zainuddin Ahmad Khan, the son-in-law of Alivardi, defended the capital of Bihar, and at first all seemed lost for him when a musket-shot killed Mustafa's elephant-driver, and that general leaped down from its back. His followers took this to be a sign of his death and they broke and fled away. Patna was saved. Despairing of success against the fort, Mustafa, withdrew from its walls on 21st March, and retreated to the Shahabad district. Alivardi soon came up from Bengal and chased the rebel out of Bihar to Chunar, (April).

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But in the meantime Raghuji Bhonsle had invaded Bengal at the invitation of Mustafa Khan, and Alivardi had to hasten back to that province. Seizing this opportunity, Mustafa Khan came out of his refuge in Oudh territory, and entered the zamindari of Udwant Singh Ujjainia, the owner of Jagadishpur (in Shahabad) who had long been the enemy of the governors of Bihar. But Zainuddin promptly issued from Patna, and on 20th June attacked the Afghan army at Karhani (12 miles S. W. of Koilwar on the Son river). Here Mustafa was shot dead and his army fled away to the village of Magror under Mustafa's son Murtaza Khan.

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In the meantime, Raghuji Bhonsle had invaded Orissa, and captured Cuttack with its governor Durlabhram, the son of the diwan Jankiram. All Orissa up to Medinipur passed into the hands of the Marathas (April). After some fruitless negotiations for terms, Raghuji entered the Bardwan district, where he seized seven lakhs of revenue, and passed into Birbhum to canton for the rainy season, while Alivardi personally guarded Murshidabad.

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In September, Raghuji passed into Bihar, plundering on the way. After fording the Son river, he marched to Magror where he was joined by the remnant of Mustafa Khan's army. He had now 10,000 Maratha light horse and 4,000 Afghan soldiers under him. Looting Bhojpur on the way, he moved on towards Patna, till he came upon the Nawab's army led by Alivardi himself at the Rani's tank near Muhib-Alipur. The Bengal vanguard led by Mir Ja'far surprised the Maratha Rajah in his camp, but the latter escaped.

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A running fight continued for some days (14-20 Nov. 1745), but the Nawab had to halt for some days to refresh his exhausted troops.

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Then, the Marathas led by Mir Habib, doubled back towards Bengal to seize the chance of looting its now-defenceless capital. Alivardi followed close on their heels, his army suffering terrible privations as the Marathas had looted and destroyed all the food supply along their track.

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Following the shorter jungle path, Raghuji appeared before Murshidabad on 21st December 1745. Alivardi arrived there the next day. Then Raghuji fell back on Katwā, but at the Rāni's Tank west of that town, he was defeated after a severe battle and driven away with heavy loss of men and half their baggage. But while Raghuji himself returned to Nagpur, Mir Habib remained in the camp of Katwā with some 2500 Maratha horse and 4000 Afghans. The Nawab and his soldiers alike were worn out by their two hard campaigns and forced marches in Bihar during the last nine months, and had to halt in Murshidabad. In April 1746, however, he set out again and drove the invaders out of Bengal into Orissa, after which Bengal and Bihar enjoyed peace for a time.

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But the Nawab's Afghan captains, Shamsher Khan and Sardār Khan, commanding between them 6000 Afghans, were found to have been conspiring with the Marathas for overthrowing Alivardi's rule, and sharing the three provinces with Raghuji. So, the Nawab dismissed them in June and ordered them to go back to their homes in the Darbhāngā district.

VI. Alivardi's Policy Towards the Maratha Demands

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In October 1746, the Delhi Emperor made a settlement with the Maratha king's envoy, promising to order the payment of 25 and 10 lakhs of rupees annually to Rajah Shāhu as the *chauth* of Bengal and Bihar respectively. Alivardi rightly argued that this payment could be justified only if Shāhu in return for this money effectually kept Raghuji Bhonslé out of Bengal, and not merely ordered his Peshwa to expel Raghuji after Bengal had been raided. As he wrote to the Maratha agent in Delhi, "Raghuji is Rajah Shāhu's servant; now call him back and restrain him. When a man like the Peshwā himself is apprehensive that Raghuji might again invade Bengal, how can I be expected to disband my army and hope to see my country cultivated again? . . . The districts on the (western) bank of the Ganges have been devastated and not a *kauri* is being collected there. If some five rupees are realised from this side (the eastern bank), it has to be spent on my troops. Whence can a revenue come for being sent (to Delhi)? In this state of things, if the Bhonslé army does not make any incursion this year, then at the end of the year I shall disband my levies and whatever revenue is left (after paying them off) I shall send to the Emperor.....Therefore, I am determined to remain prepared for war.”

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In short, Alivardi chose the wiser and manlier part of basing the defence of his realm on a strong army under his own control, instead of depending upon a protective force, maintained at his cost, to be sent out by the Peshwā for defending him in the event of Raghuji’s invasion, probably after half the province had been desolated and his subjects kept in perpetual alarm by the manifestly defenceless condition of their ruler. He refused to pay a *chauth* for Bihar (ten lakhs) to the Peshwā separately, when there was no guarantee that Bālāji Rāo on being satisfied as to his own share and the safety of Bihar, would not leave Raghuji a free hand to raid and tax Bengal and Orissa, instead of defending the three eastern provinces together,—which was the Emperor’s object in promising 35 lakhs to Rajah Shāhu. The blackmail for the entire north-eastern region must be one charge payable to one authority, and not two separate amounts payable to two mutually independent enemy chiefs.

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Alivardi’s campaign for the recovery of Orissa from Mir Habib could not start before the end of 1746, as he had to wait for new levies to replace the recently dismissed Afghan contingents of Shamsher Khan and Sardār Khan. At last in November, his general Mir Ja’far, at the head of about 7500 men, marched into the Medinipur district, and about 12th December, defeated Habib’s lieutenant Sayyid Nur in a decisive battle near Medinipur town. But Mir Habib came up from the south of Balesar (about 20th January, 1747) and was soon afterwards joined by a Maratha force under Jānoji Bhonslé (the son of Raghuji) from Nāgpur via Cuttack. At the news of this junction of his enemies, Mir Ja’far fled precipitately back to Bardwan, abandoning the Medinipur district. Soon afterwards, a conspiracy between Mir Ja’far and ‘Ataullah (the faujdār of Rajmahal) to murder their benefactor and kinsman Alivardi, was discovered and the two were dismissed. (*Siyar*, ii. 157).

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Nothing daunted by these losses, Alivardi, now an old man of seventy-one, marched out of his camp at Āmāniganj and defeated Jānoji in a severely contested battle near Bardwan (March 1747). The baffled raiders fled back to Medinipur and the Murshidabad and Bardwan districts were cleared of them, while the Nawab returned to his capital for the rainy season. During the whole of this year 1747, the Marathas remained in undisturbed possession of Orissa up to Medinipur.

VII. Afghans Seize Bihar Government

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At the beginning of the next year (1748) a terrible storm burst upon the Mughal Empire and most tragically on Bengal-Bihar. Ahmad Shāh Durrāni, the heir to Nādir Shāh’s power and army, invaded the Panjab, while the Afghan ex-soldiers of Alivardi advanced from their homes in the Darbhāngā district in North Bihar, took Patnā City, and treacherously murdered its governor Zain-ud-din Ahmad (surnamed Haibat Jang), the son-in-law of Alivardi (13th January, 1748). The Nawab’s elder brother Hāji Ahmad (the father of Haibat Jang) was tortured to death to make him divulge the hiding place of his treasure, and Alivardi’s widowed daughter and her children were dragged into Afghan captivity. For three months (13 January—16 April), Bihar tasted Afghan rule. Afghan tribesmen from all sides flocked to Shamsher Khan’s standard, “they swarmed out of the ground like white ants”,—hoping to restore their lost tribal empire in India.

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On hearing the tragic news from Patnā, Alivardi marched out of Āmāniganj (Murshidabad) on 29th February for Bihar. Near Bhāgalpur he defeated a Maratha force under Mir Habib who was hastening from Orissa to join the rebel Afghans. At Kālā Diārā (or Rāni Sarāi) on the south bank of the Ganges, 26 miles east of Patnā, the Nawab crushed the Afghans and their Maratha allies, on 16th April, and soon afterwards recovered Patna, released his captive daughter, and restored his own government in the province of Bihar. Then he returned to Murshidabad on 30th November. For a whole year (April 1748—March 1749) Bengal and Bihar enjoyed a respite from the bargi visitation; but all Orissa from Medinipur southwards remained in the hands of the Marathas.

VIII. Last Struggles with the Marathas

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In March 1749, Alivardi set out for reconquering Orissa. At the news of his approach, Mir Habib set fire to his encampment near Medinipur and fled southwards. Fighting a few light skirmishes only, as the enemy constantly fled further and further, the Nawab reached Cuttack on 17th May, 1749. The fort of Bārābāti capitulated to him a month later, and thus the reconquest of Orissa was completed. But no Bengal noble would agree to accept the governorship of Orissa, such was their terror of the Maratha power and despair at their own military weakness. The worthless man who was at last left in charge of Cuttack by Alivardi was defeated and captured by the Marathas under Mir Habib only a week after Alivardi had marched out of that city, (June 1749). After undergoing terrible privations and hardships owing to the bad roads and flooded rivers during the monsoon, Alivardi reached Murshidabad at the beginning of July,—his work in Orissa entirely undone and his health broken down.

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A long illness disabled him till the middle of October; thereafter he marched to Medinipur and formed a permanent encampment there in order to close the path of Maratha raids from Orissa into Bengal. Here his attempt to prevent frauds in his military accounts almost caused another mutiny among his captains. At the end of February 1750 the Marathas resumed their raids into Bengal. On 6th March Mir Habib arrived near Murshidabad and plundered the country round. So, Alivardi quickly fell back from Medinipur to Bardwan, the raiders disappeared into the jungles of West Bengal, and the Nawab returned to Medinipur (April), where he built permanent quarters for himself in order to guard that frontier post.

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But in June 1750 a mad attempt of his spoilt grandson, the boy Siraj-ud-daulah to seize the government of Patna which his murdered father Haibat Jang had held before, sent Alivardi hurrying to Bihar in tropical rain and heat, and at Patna the old Nawab fell seriously ill. He returned to Murshidabad by boat, under medical treatment (September.) But there was to be no rest for him. At Medinipur his agents Mir Ja'far and Rajah Durlabhrām were in such mortal terror of the Marathas, that Alivardi, though far from restored to normal health, had to go there in person (December) and fight and drive away Mir Habib. He then returned to Katwa in February, 1751.

IX. Peace Treaty; Orissa Ceded

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Both sides were now eager for peace. Mir Habib had gained nothing from the barren province of Orissa in these years and his raids into Bengal had been always foiled by Alivardi's vigilance and vigour. Alivardi himself was now 75 years old and felt the weight of age and many years of hard campaigning. His troops were thoroughly worn out and his treasury exhausted. So, after negotiations with Maratha agents the terms were settled; the draft treaty was approved by the Court of Nāgpur, and finally in May 1751, a peace was signed on the following conditions :

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1. Mir Habib would now become a servant of Alivardi and act as deputy-governor (*nāib-nāzim*) of Orissa on his behalf. He should pay the surplus revenue of the province to Raghuji's army as their salary.

v2.c48.s6.3

2. From the Bengal revenue twelve lakhs of rupees annually would be paid to Raghuji as the *chauth* of that province.

v2.c48.s6.4

3. The Maratha Government agreed not to set foot in Alivardi's dominions again. The frontier of Bengal was fixed at and including the river Suvarna-rekhā near Jalesar, and the Marathas bound themselves not to cross it again. (Thus the southern part of the district of Medinipur was finally joined to Bengal.)

v2.c48.s6.5

A year after the conclusion of this treaty, Mir Habib was murdered by the Maratha troops of Jānoji (24 August 1752.) Mir Habib's post as deputy governor of Orissa was given to Musālih-ud-din Md. Khan, a courtier of Raghuji; Alivardi lost even his theoretical control over Orissa, and it became a Maratha province in deed, though according the theory of the treaty it was to be held as a vast *jāgir* whose revenue alone was assigned to the Marathas, without any change in its territorial sovereignty.

v2.c48.s6.6

The loss of Orissa to the Mughal empire was the one permanent result of the Maratha invasions. Another was that the *Bargis* showed the way for the organised looting of Bengal and Bihar to the Upper India robber bands calling themselves *sannyāsis* and selves not to cross it again. (Thus the southern part of the district of Medinipur was finally joined to Bengal.)

Cites (1)