The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c49: Chapter XXV. Sirāj-ud-daulah
The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c49
- Language
- English
Contents
- v2.c49.s1 I. Sirāj-ud-daulah, His Position and Character — 21 parts
- v2.c49.s2 III. Fall of Calcutta — 11 parts
- v2.c49.s3 IV. The Black Hole Tragedy — 8 parts
- v2.c49.s4 V. The Conquest of Purnia — 11 parts
Chapter XXV. Sirāj-ud-daulah
I. Sirāj-ud-daulah, His Position and Character
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Alivardi sank into the grave in the midst of darkness and despair. His long years of striving with the Marathas had ended in his admission of utter defeat. And now as he entered his eighty-second year, with a constitution worn out by many years of hard campaigning, death dealt a quick succession of blows at his heart; in the course of one year he lost two sons-in-law and one grandson, leaving two immature youths as his only possible successors. Alivardi had no son, but three daughters only. They had been married to the three sons of his brother the Hāji, who were known from their seats of governorship, the Dacca Nawāb, the Purniā Nawāb, and the Pātnā Nawāb. All his three daughters had been widowed in his life time. The eldest Mihir-un-nisā (Ghasiti Begam) was childless. The second (she of Purnia) had a grown up son named Shaukat Jang and a boy named Mirza Ramzāni. The third (Āminā Begam) had two sons left, Sirāj-ud-daulah, and Mirzā Mahdi.
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Sirāj was his grandfather's darling, because he was born just before Alivardi gained the deputy governorship of Bihar (1733) which was for him the stepping-stone to the throne of these three eastern subahs. His family regarded this new-born child as the bringer of good fortune to the beggarly adventurer from Persia who had started life in Orissa on a monthly pay of Rs. 100 and ended by becoming the master of three kingdoms.
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His grandfather's superstitious affection proved a fatal boon for Sirāj-ud-daulah; it led him through a riotous life to a tragic and dishonoured end. He was given no education for his future duties; he never learnt to curb his passionate impulses; none durst correct his vices; and he was kept away from manly and martial exercises as dangerous to such a precious life. Thus the apple of old Alivardi's eye grew up into a most dissolute, haughty, reckless and cowardly youth, and the prospect of his succession to the government of Bengal, filled all people with alarm.
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About the character of Sirāj-ud-daulah the evidence of the English merchants of Calcutta or that of the famous Patna historian Sayyid Ghulām Husain (the tutor of his rival Shaukat Jang) might be suspected as prejudiced. I shall therefore give here the opinion of Monsieur Jean Law, the chief of the French factory at Qāsimbāzār, a gentleman who was prepared to risk his own life in order to defend Sirāj against the English troops. Law writes in his Memoirs,¹—
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¹ Tr. in Hill, iii. 162.
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The character of Sirāj-ud-daulah was reputed to be one of the worst ever known. In fact he had distinguished himself not only by all sorts of debaucheries, but by a revolting cruelty. The Hindu women are accustomed to bathe on the bank of the Ganges. Sirāj-ud-daulah, who was informed by his spies which of them were beautiful, sent his satellites in little boats to carry them off. He was often seen, in the season when the river overflows, causing the ferry boats to be upset or sunk, in order to have the cruel pleasure of seeing the confusion of a hundred people at a time, men, women and children, of whom many, not being able to swim, were sure to perish . . . Every one trembled at the name of Sirāj-ud-daulah ”.
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On the eve of Alivardi’s death Sirāj and his cousin Shaukat Jang stood face to face as rivals for the throne of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. But Shaukat Jang lived far away, in Purnia. Sirāj’s nearest and greatest enemy was his mother’s eldest sister Ghasiti Begam, a childless widow. As the best-loved and most domineering daughter of Alivardi, she had used her position of influence to amass a vast fortune, which she kept with herself, in a castle surrounded by a lake called the Moti-jhil, a few miles north of the city of Murshidabad, guarded by her armed retainers, as a threat to the ruler in the capital. But she was a woman, unble to come into the field in person. Hence she had to act through male agents, such as her lovers and managers. It had been her ambition to raise Sirāj’s younger brother Akrām-ud-daulah to the throne, and rule the country as his regent from behind the veil; but that boy had died about a year before Alivardi. She then turned her eyes on Shaukat Jang and invited him to invade Murshidabad. Thus every enemy of Sirāj found a patron in Ghasiti Begam. In fact, the approaching death of Alivardi threatened to provoke a war of succession, which did not turn out so terrible as the war for Aurangzib’s throne 50 years earlier only because the claimants were two worthless youths. But the most formidable enemy of Sirāj was Mir Ja‘far Ali Khan, the commander-in-chief of Alivardi’s army. By reason of his mature age, experience of war, and official position, he was the only man whom Sirāj had reason to dread in a trial of strength : Ja‘far Ali had come to India as a penniless adventurer like his master, but Alivardi had given him the hand of his half-sister (Shāh Khānam), and gradually raised him to a position next only to himself, as the Bakhshi (literally meaning the Paymaster-General, but really the Captain-General of the Forces.) Ja'far Ali had gained an undeserved reputation for valour by the rapid march which enabled him to rescue Saulat Jang near Katak before his defeated and fleeing captors could murder him (1741), and later by a victory over the Marathas in 1746 (Ch. 24, Sec. 7). But his courage entirely oozed out when in February, 1747, he was ordered to make a stand against the Marathas at Medinipur, but fell precipitately back on Bardwan. The soldiers had no confidence in a general with such a record. Worst of all, he was so ungrateful as to conspire for the overthrow and murder of that Alivardi, who had raised him from the dust to the second position in the realm. If Alivardi could kill his benefactor Shuja'-ud-din's heir and seize the throne, Ja'far Ali had the same moral right to kill Alivardi (or his heir) and take the throne; that was his argument. Sunk in gross sensual pleasures and weakened by his addiction to opium and the hemp drug (bhang), he had not even the energy of Alivardi, who was twenty years older in age. In his last years, in the ignominious repose of the throne of Bengal, as "Lord Clive's jack-ass", he developed leprosy,—a loathsome end to a loathsome life.
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Thus Siraj-ud-daulah came to his long-assigned throne in a house divided against itself, with a hostile faction in the army and a disaffected subject population.
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His first task was to disarm Ghasiti Begam by robbing her of her wealth, which was the only source of her strength and influence. Immediately after his accession, he sent a party of soldiers to seize the Moti-jhil palace and its hoarded wealth. Ghasiti Begam had planned resistance, but her lover and captain Nazar Ali fled away, her house was occupied without a blow, and its treasure removed to Siraj's palace in Mansurganj. She herself was insulted and placed in confinement.
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The new Nawab made a change of officers, placing his own partisans in the important posts. The selfish traitor Mir Ja'far was removed from the supreme headship of the army (bakhshi) and the post given to the brave and devoted Mir Madan. Another faithful and capable officer was Mohan Lal, the Kashmiri, whom he made peshkar of his diwan-khanah, with the title of Maharajah, and a degree of influence which turned him in effect into the prime minister. (April 1756).
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Next month, Siraj started for Purnia, whose governor Shaukat Jang had refused to acknowledge Siraj's succession and was known to be intriguing with the Nawab's enemies. On the way, at Rajmahal, about 22nd May he received a dutiful message from Shaukat Jang and recalled the expeditionary troops in order to deal with a danger in his rear. This was the defiance of the English merchants of Calcutta.
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II. SIRAJ-UD-DAULAH ATTACKS CALCUTTA, JUNE 1756.
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The causes of Sirāj's rupture with the English can be now clearly known from the published records and correspondence. First, Mr. Roger Drake, the Chief of their Bengal factories had not followed the usual practice of congratulating him on his accession with a suitable present, as a foreign nation living in the land is bound to do. Secondly, in Alivardi's time when Sirāj had wished to visit the country-house of the English near Qāsimbāzār, the factors had refused to admit him, as it was very likely that the drunken disorderly youth would have damaged and defiled it. But the provoking cause was the question of arresting a fugitive harboured in Calcutta, Krishna Ballav, the son of Rāj Ballav.
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Shahāmat Jang (the eldest son-in-law of Alivardi) had been the governor of Dacca for many years before his death (in Dec. 1755.) Being a sickly imbecile, he had left the management of his affairs to his wife Ghasiti Begam and her favourite Husain Quli Khan. Sirāj, who envied the wealth and power of Husain Quli, accused him of planning to take his life, and as an alleged precaution in self-defence, one day entered Alivardi's darbār with his armed retainers carrying lighted matches for their muskets. The doting old Nawāb pacified his darling grandson as best he could, and (according to Yusuf Ali) advised him to get rid of his enemy in a less crowded place. So, Sirāj caused Husain Quli to be murdered in the streets of Murshidabad (probably about April 1754). The dead man was succeeded as the Dacca Nawāb's deputy by Rāj Ballav, a Vaidya of Vikrampur, who had made a name for efficient and economical administration as superintendent of the Bengal fleet establishment, for the maintenance of which 14 lakhs of rupees a year were assigned. He now became all-in-all at Dacca and the chief agent for Ghasiti Begam's affairs. As soon as Shahāmat Jang was dead, Sirāj brought against Rāj Ballav the charge of having embezzled public money and called for an account of his administration of the Dacca finances. The charge had a plausible look, because both after Mir Jumla's death and in the early years of Murshid Quli Khan, the administrators of the jāgirs of the Bengal army and navy were known to have peculated their collections. Rāj Ballav who happened to be in Murshidabad at the time, was thrown into confinement (March 1756), and Alivardi, who was then on his death bed, just managed to postpone the beheading of the Dacca diwān pending the auditing of his accounts. But men were sent to Dacca to attach Rāj Ballav’s property and family. Krishna Ballav (the son of Rāj Ballav) with the women and treasures of the family escaped to Calcutta, on the pretext of a pilgrimage to Jagannāth. He arrived there on 13th March 1756 and by bribing Mr. Drake the governor secured an asylum. Sirāj-ud-daulah naturally objected to his subject under trial being harboured, in defiance of his authority, in a place within his realm. He sent Nārāyan Dās, (the brother of the chief of his Intelligence department) to Mr. Drake with a letter demanding the surrender of Krishna Ballav, and with instructions to spy out the unauthorized fortifications then going on in Calcutta. Nārāyan Dās entered the town in disguise, and when he was brought before the Calcutta Council, he could produce no diplomatic credentials. So he was at once turned out of the settlement as a spy, (16 April).
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Besides Sirāj’s personal grievances against the English, there was a more serious threat to the Nawab’s power, namely the new fortifications being built at Calcutta. Early in this year the European factories in Bengal received a warning from their head offices at Home of the probability of a war soon breaking out between England and France. (The Seven Years’ War actually began in Europe in May 1756.) The English immediately set themselves to repairing their long-dilapidated defences on the river side (west of the present General Post Office), cleaning the half-choked Marātha Ditch, and throwing up some earth-works in the northern environs (especially a redoubt and a draw-bridge, called Perring’s Redoubt, across the Ditch at Baghbazar.) This was a clear violation of the terms under which the Mughal Government had allowed them to live in Bengal. Alivardi, justly alarmed by Bussy’s ascendancy over the Muslim Powers of the Deccan, had persistently refused to allow the Europeans to fortify or arm their factories in Bengal, telling them, “You are merchants, what need have you of a fortress? Being under my protection you have no enemies to fear.” Therefore, Sirāj had sent a spy to find out the unauthorised fortifications and armament of Calcutta, but this agent had been summarily ejected from the settlement by the governor’s peons.¹
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¹ S. C. Hill calls the Nawāb’s grievances against the English as “pretexts for war”, but admits: (1) “As regards fortifications, it is quite clear that the
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The Nawab had set out from Murshidabad on 10th May for suppressing Shaukat Jang; on the way at Rājmahal he received on the 20th, news of the disgrace of his messengers by Governor Drake, and immediately decided to settle accounts with the English before turning to the Purniā Nawāb.
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The Qāsimbāzār factory of the English was invested by the Nawāb's troops on 24th May, and the Englishmen were made prisoners in violation of a solemn promise, when visiting the Nawab some days later. A few of the factors escaped to their friends' houses. The factory was occupied and looted.
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On 5th June the Nawāb started for the invasion of Calcutta, and using unexpected promptitude, covered 160 miles in eleven days and arrived outside Calcutta on the 16th of June.
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Calcutta was practically in a defenceless condition, when attacked by big artillery served by French deserters and Indo-Portuguese mercenaries. The European portion of the garrison consisted of 70 sick in hospital, 25 absent up-country, and only 180 men available for duty,—of whom the majority were Portuguese. To these must be added 250 men of the militia, consisting of 100 Europeans (mostly withdrawn from the ships) and 150 Armenians and half-castes (Indo-Portuguese.) The commanding officer Captain Minchin and his second in command were extremely incompetent leaders, in whom their men had no confidence. "The guns they had were old and neglected, and very few of them mounted, . . . on the shaky walls . . . Most of the powder had become damp and was useless."¹
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¹ On 11th June Mr. Drake found that he had at his disposal 180 soldiers (of whom only 40 were Europeans), 50 European volunteers, 60 European militia, 150 Armenian and Portuguese militia, 35 European artillery men, 40 volunteers, from the shipping,—in all 515 men. (Hill, I. lxx.)
III. Fall of Calcutta
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On 16th June, an attempt of the Nawāb's army to force the Marātha Ditch over the Chitpur bridge by attacking Perring's Redoubt which covered it, was foiled. But the Thānā fort (near
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British (in Calcutta) had exceeded their rights . . . (2) As regards the abuse of trade privileges, it must be confessed that the British had used the dastaks or passes for goods free of custom in a way never contemplated by the farmāns . . . (3) Concerning the protection given to the servants of the native Government, . . . the case of Krishna Dās, . . . the English had no right to shelter the servants of Government from the authorities in their own country.—It will be seen, therefore, that Sirāj-ud-daulah had a show of reason in all the pretexts he alleged for his attack on the British." (Vol i. liv—lvi.)
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Matiāburuz) after being taken by the British fleet could not be held for lack of men. Meantime, many of the Nawāb’s troops and the looters who hung in the rear of the army, flocked into the town by fording the Ditch. Sirāj himself took up his quarters in Amir Chand’s garden, in the quarter known as Simla.
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The Black Town or Indian quarter of Calcutta in the north consisted almost entirely of bamboo and straw huts. The English decided to defend only the European quarter, (Dalhousie Square and east and south), and first “set on fire the straw-houses within the Lines of defence, to clear the Town as much as possible. The fire spread, and did much damage,” (c. 14th). Again, in the night of the 16th, they set fire to part of the town in order to drive out the Nawāb’s men. Next day, the British destroyed all the native houses to the eastward and the southward, and the Nawāb’s plunderers set fire to the Great Bazar, (the old Bara Bazar, north of the modern Fairlie Place) and other parts of the Black Town, which burnt till morning. “All the British women were brought into the Fort on the 16th, and next day the Portuguese and Armenian women and children crowded into the Fort, (their relatives) the militia declaring that they would not fight unless their families were admitted.” Everything in the Fort was thrown into confusion. All the peons and servants of the Europeans, the porters of munitions and gun laskars fled away in fear, till the British defenders began to starve for want of men to cook their meals.
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The attack on the line of defence began on 18th June. The English prepared for it by a Council order to their soldiers “to give no quarter, as the Fort prison was already crowded.” The Nawāb’s main attack was made on the defences from the east and south (Bowbazar Street Sealdah side, and Esplanade East.) By occupying the strongly built and scattered European houses in these directions, the invaders by their fire drove out the small bodies of the advanced English defenders and rendered the artillery of the Fort ineffective; and even the batteries outside the Fort had to be abandoned to the enemy.
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So the English fell back into a smaller and inner line of defence, covering the old Fort William and a few yards around it (i. e., from Fairlie Place to the southern limit of the General Post Office, and from the Ganges to Dalhousie Square West.)
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In the night of the 18th as many women in the Fort as could be accommodated on board were sent to the ships. “The defenders of the Fort were now wearied out . . . The men at the outposts were left to starve as there were no cooks . . . The supply of ammunition had run short.” So, between 1 and 2 o’ clock in the morning of 19th June, Mr. Drake “held an informal Council . . . It was determined to abandon the Fort, but how or when to make the retreat could not be decided upon.”
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The 19th was a day of increasing confusion and agony. The ships alongside Calcutta, on which the hope of a safe evacuation depended, dropped down the stream. On shore the Armenians and Portuguese half-breeds who formed the militia, were too terrified to act. Even the pure European soldiers could be persuaded with difficulty to resume their arms. But on learning that all the remaining powder was damp and useless, a stampede ensued for the boats. The governor Drake and the commandant Minchin, themselves escaped in the last few boats. Some of the ships¹ ran aground and their inmates were made prisoners by the Nawāb’s troops. The ships that escaped “set ashore all the refugees on board who had no connection with the Europeans” and then anchored at Falta, (26 June).
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¹ The Prince George, Neptune, Calcutta, and Diligence.
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Calcutta, thus deserted by its governor and military commander, had still 170 white men, capable of conducting its defence, (not counting the unreliable Armenians and Eurasians). They held a council, suspended their two fugitive heads, and appointed Mr. J. Z. Holwell, the zamindar or magistrate-collector of native Calcutta as governor and military commander, (in the afternoon of the 19th). Holwell tried to make a stand, but the enemy’s musketry from the European houses they occupied took a heavy toll and made it almost impossible to stand upon the ramparts of the invested Fort. This night saw all the houses around burning. The British soldiers now refused to obey their officers, broke open the houses of the runaway members, and made themselves drunk with the liquor found there.
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Sunday 20th June began in utter hopelessness. In the night before, 53 soldiers (chiefly Dutch) out of the small white contingent left had deserted to the enemy. In the fighting from morning to noon, the English lost 25 men killed and 70 wounded, and only 14 men were left to serve the guns, with no laskar or porter. Holwell, “hoping to amuse the enemy till nightfall, when a retreat might be effected, . . . hoisted a flag of truce.” But about 4 o’clock in the evening, the enemy scaled the walls from all sides and the little river-gate of the Fort was burst open by a Dutch sergeant and delivered to the enemy. Some of the defenders were cut down, but Holwell now surrendered, the fighting ceased, and Sirāj-ud-daulah entered Calcutta as victor. But there was no arrest of prisoners; “the Portuguese and Armenians were allowed to go free and disappeared, and several of the Europeans simply walked out of the Fort, making their escape, to Hugli or the ships at Surman’s garden.”
IV. The Black Hole Tragedy
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That Sunday evening, the British who had surrendered were well treated. Their chief Holwell had three interviews with the Nawāb and received an assurance of safety from him. The victorious troops “had plundered the Europeans of their valuables, but did not ill-treat them. But about sunset, some European soldiers had made themselves drunk and assaulted natives. The latter complained to the Nawāb, who asked where the Europeans were accustomed to confine soldiers who had misbehaved in any way. He was told—in the Black Hole . . . and ordered that they should all be confined in it . . .” All the prisoners were crowded into this chamber 18 feet by 14 feet 10 inches, with only one small window, throughout that hot night of June, and in the morning many were found to have perished of suffocation or their wounds. (Hill, I, xc)
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Up to this point the evidence is clear. We see that the English Council had begun the war by ordering their soldiers not to take any prisoners, as they had no safe place to keep them in. Neither had the Murshidabad troops; but they did not follow such an inhuman course, nor did they use their legitimate right under International Law which makes prisoners of war liable to be shot if they assault their guards. With oriental humanity they merely put restraints on the rowdy Englishmen, but in the unsettled conditions of a fort taken by storm, with fires raging outside, they had no time to separate the sheep from the goats, and the prison was left in charge of the common soldiers throughout the night.
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But the number of victims afterwards given out and accepted in Europe (namely 123 dead out of 146 confined¹) is manifestly an exaggeration. For one thing, after the death, evacuation, stealthy walking away already described from authentic records and admitted by Hill, 146 Britishers could not have been left in Sirāj’s hands at 7 p.m. three hours after the surrender. This point was first argued by Mr. Little, Headmaster of the English High School in Murshidabad. Secondly, a floor area of 267 square feet cannot contain 146 European adults. This point was established by Bholanath Chunder, who fenced round an area 18 feet by 15, with bamboo stakes and counted the number of his Bengali tenants who could be crammed into it; the number was found to be much less than 146, and a Bengali villager's body occupies much less space than a British gentleman's. It is nowhere admitted that a list was made of the Britishers surrendering after 4 p. m. that evening, nor even a count of heads made. At the same time as many of the foreigners in the fort as could, escaped by walking away secretly between the surrender and the time of putting the prisoners in the Black Hole. Even Holwell was offered by a friend the chance to escape thus.
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¹ It rose to 200 men in the story told by some English fugitives sheltered in Chandernagar.
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Therefore, 146 Europeans could not have been left in the hands of Sirāj's soldiers at 7 p. m. that fatal evening. The true number was considerably less, probably only sixty. It is a very reasonable supposition that all the former British residents of Calcutta whose manner of death could not be clearly ascertained in that week of confused fighting, administrative breakdown, and loss of home and records, were afterwards set down as "perished in the Black Hole"¹ and their names were blazoned on Holwell's Monument. Holwell and some other leading servants of the Company were removed as prisoners to Murshidabad, but a few days later they were set free, and joined the English fleet at Falta. Only one white woman (Mrs. Carey, the wife of a sea-faring man) entered the Black Hole and she came out of it alive; but "almost all the white women and children of Calcutta were on board the ships that escaped" to Falta. (Hill, I. xcvii).
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¹ Hill, I. xciv. n. gives 56 names, to which Lord Curzon added the names of some who had been killed in fighting. Hill admits (I. xcvi), "In the careless talk of Calcutta the Black Hole and (old) Fort William seem to have been often confounded."
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The capture of Calcutta and other factories in Bengal, inflicted a loss of 95 lakhs of rupees on the E. I. Company, besides 160 lakhs on private persons, though Sirāj found only half a lakh in the Company's treasury. Three days after the surrender, Sirāj-ud-daulah left Calcutta, and after levying forced contributions from the Dutch and the French factories (4½ and 3½ lakhs respectively), reentered Murshidabad, on 11 July, in pompous celebration of his triumph.
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But a cloud began to darken the horizon: news came that the Purnia Nawāb was again preparing for a war of succession and had started intriguing at the Delhi imperial Court. So, at the end of the next month (September) an expedition against him had to be launched by Sirāj-ud-daulah.
V. The Conquest of Purnia
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Shaukat Jang, who succeeded as Nawāb of Purniā on 27 March 1756, had all the vices of his rival Sirāj-ud-daulah,—the same ignorant pride, insane ambition, uncontrollable passions, looseness of tongue and addiction to drink. He had no doubt greater personal courage than his craven cousin and recklessly courted death in battle, but his few loyal and capable servants failed to do him any good owing to his capricious levity and insane obstinacy. Sirāj treated his devoted partisans better, and thus could achieve some success through them.
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Soon after Alivardi's death, Shaukat Jang received a secret letter from Mir Ja'far urging him to invade Bengal and assuring him of the support of himself and many other captains in Murshidabad, who were eager for deliverance from Sirāj's tyranny. But the Purniā Nawāb needed no prompting from others. In his unbridled ambition he planned to dethrone Sirāj. With this aim he started intrigues at the Delhi imperial Court for a farmān granting the three eastern subahs to him, exactly as Shujā'-ud-din had done before Murshid Quli's death. The conspiracy became known and Sirāj started for the conquest of Purniā within a month of his accession, but on the way he turned aside to crush the English merchants of Calcutta, in order to secure his rear. Calcutta having been captured, Sirāj set out for Purniā again when the monsoon ended (c. 24 September, 1756.)
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Meantime, Shaukat Jang had secured from the unprincipled imperial wazir Ghāzi-ud-din I'mād-ul-mulk permission to wrest Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from Sirāj, by promising him a bribe of one kror of Rupees,—just the same game as Alivardi's. He had already assumed the title of 'Alampanāh (Emperor). When Sirāj's agent Rāi Rās Bihāri reached Rājmahal and sent to Shaukat Jang the letter of Sirāj asking him to give Rās Bihāri peaceful possession, the mad lord of Purniā wrote back ordering Sirāj to vacate the throne of Murshidabad for him and go and live at Dacca as his deputy !
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Sirāj's forces were swelled by the junction of Rām Nārāyan (the deputy governor of Patna) and many Bihar zamindārs, and outnumbered the Purniā army as two to one. But Shaukat Jang's chances of making any effective defence were ruined by his thoughtlessness and pride.
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The advanced division of the invading army, led by Raja Mohan Lal, crossed the Ganges at Rāimahal, and by way of Hayātpur and Basantpur Golā (i.e., skirting the eastern bank of the old Kosi) entered South Purnia and arrived at Manihari. The second half of the Bengal army and the Bihar auxiliaries under Raja Ram Narayan followed some distance behind.
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Meantime Shaukat Jang’s forces had arrived and taken up an entrenched position at Nawabganj, four miles north of Manihari. Here the deserted old bed of the Kosi river (known as the Sonra), formed a hair-pin bend, about 30 miles south of Purnia town and ten miles north of the Ganges. This loop of stagnant marshes supplied a natural barrier to the Purnia troops, on the north, east and south. Shaukat Jang’s army was only half the size of his rival’s force, and to add to his misfortunes, his past conduct had so thoroughly estranged his generals from him and the faithful old leaders from his unworthy favourites that they encamped in distant isolation from one another, thus making concerted action impossible. Shyam Sundar, a Bengali Kayastha, commanded the field artillery of Shaukat Jang; but he issued from the jhil and took post in the plain without any natural defence before him, a mile in front of his side on their east. Some four miles west of him, behind the jhils lay the quarters of the regular cavalry and other troops under the old captains of Purnia, in a position where any help from their own artillery was impossible. The Nawab’s tents were pitched in the centre, about a mile west of the artillery and three miles east of his cavalry.
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BATTLE OF MANIHARI, 16 OCTOBER 1756.
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The clash of arms took place on 16th October. One-third of the day had already passed when the flags of Siraj-ud-daulah’s advanced division (under Mohan Lal) were seen moving into the plain outside the village of Manihari, about three miles south of the Purnia troops. Leaving their tents and baggage on the bank of the Ganges, in the rear, the invaders drew up their forces carefully and in proper order. At first there was the usual futile long distance cannonade. But after two hours bigger guns arrived on the Bengal side and their shots began to fall near the trenches, and a few occasionally inside them.
v2.c49.s4.9
Shaukat Jang kept frantically sending courier after courier to his captains, three miles away on his right, with orders to issue from their trenches and charge the Bengal army, but they sent back replies declining to make any such wild movement, as they would be mown down by the Bengal artillery while trying to cross the big swamp in front of them, without any artillery protection.
v2.c49.s4.10
Some hours passed in this kind of wrangling. At last, some highborn Shia' captains, stung to the quick by Shaukat Jang's taunts, set out to deliver a charge. They had crossed only half the jhil and were still struggling with the mud in loose broken formation, when the Bengal artillery and musketeers began to shoot them down from their safe position on the opposite bank. No reply to this fire was possible. Many of the Purnia troops were slain and wounded; many who had reached the other bank were captured; the rest broke, recrossed the jhil and fled away without having once had the chance of drawing their swords.
v2.c49.s4.11
The Bengal army now made a general advance and the field was soon swept clear of the enemy. Shaukat Jang stood on his elephant in a drunken and dazed condition, with only 15 or 16 attendants. But a musket shot killed him, his jewelled turban rolled down to the ground, and the contest was over. By the time the battle ended it was sunset, and so, there could be no pursuit. The fugitives (including the historian Ghulam Husain) escaped to their homes without any molestation. [Siyar, text 215-224, eye-witness's account.]