History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c30: Chapter XXIV. The End of Shuja.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c30
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Chapter XXIV. The End of Shuja.
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Preparations were quickly made for invading the eastern bank of the Ganges, and events moved apace. Daud Khan had now arrived at a place on the left bank of the Ganges, some 16 miles north of Rajmahal. A contingent of 2,500 Afghans under Dilir Khan had been sent by the Emperor to reinforce the army in Bengal.[*] These crossed the Ganges (9th January, 1660,) at the ferry of Kadamtal[†] and joined Daud Khan. Another equally necessary sinew of war reached Mir Jumla in the form of seventeen lakhs of rupees from the Court.[‡]
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† Kadamtala is 9 m. due N. N. E. of Rajmahal (Indian Atlas, sh. 112). The Alamgirnamah gives its alternative name as Dodha (which I cannot find in the maps).
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‡ Alamgirnamah, 533 & 534.
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Mir Jumla reinforced.
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∗ Khafi Khan, ii. 93.
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Last year Mir Jumla had attempted to cross the Ganges near Suti and march north-eastwards on Tanda, i.e., to attack Shuja from the south-west. This was a bad plan, as it involved the crossing of one large and many smaller rivers close to the enemy's position and in the teeth of his powerful flotilla. It was rendered impossible by Mir Jumla's lack of boats. This year his plan of campaign was brilliantly novel; he would attack the enemy from the opposite point, i.e., the north-east. He would make a wide detour round the enemy's position. He would cross the Ganges 10 miles above Rajmahal, join Daud Khan near Akbarpur (due east of Sikrigali), pass over the shallow upper courses of the Mahananda and some nullahs, reach Maldah, and then turn sharply south, cross the Mahananda again, swoop down upon Tanda from the east, and thus completely encircle Shuja in his net. All the while he would keep a screen of men in front of the enemy's trenches along the Kalindi river, and deceive him with feints. Shuja's position was a long line, stretching north-west to south-east, from Samdah* (opposite Rajmahal) to his base at Tanda (south-west of the ruins of Gaur). His head-quarters were at Chauki-Mirdadpur, in the middle of this line. There was an off-shoot of defences north-eastwards to Maldah. Mir Jumla's plan, therefore, was to describe a semi-circle round this line, from the north of Rajmahal through Maldah to Tanda or Tartipur. It was only his immense superiority in number (five times the strength of his enemy) that enabled him to carry out such a vast turning movement while holding the western bank of the Ganges in force.
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∗ Samdah is given in Rennell, sh. 2 & 16. Chauki Mirdadpur (Indian Atlas, 112) is 8 m. east of Rajmahal. Tanda is Tarrah in Rennell, sh. 16, about 4 m. west of the
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The Mughal general first posted troops at various points from Sikrigali to Suti, to guard the right bank and prevent a repetition of the enemy's blow of last year. Then, with the help of the 160 boats brought from Patna by Daud Khan, he carried his army over the three streams into which the Ganges was split up near Kadam-tali, some 9 miles north of Rajmahal (15th Jan.—7th Feb.), and joined hands with Daud Khan. But the big *char* (island) of Samdah, east of Rajmahal, remained his headquarters till 29th February.∗ The two generals now co-operated
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∗ *Alamgirnamah*, 534—536; Aqil Khan, 103; Masum, 134*b*.
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Fort among the ruins of Gaur. Tartipur is the *Toorteepoor* of Indian Atlas, sh. 119.
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to distract the enemy and converge on Maldah.
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The rest of the story is soon told. Shuja offered an obstinate resistance along the banks of the Kalindi and the Mahananda. But he was hopelessly outnumbered from the first. The Imperialists were delayed only by their lack of boats, and by the dense jungles and countless nullahs that barred their path; their only losses were from drowning. The enemy were too few to face them in the open plain, and no more pitched battles took place. The details of the marching and counter-marching through this labyrinth of nullahs are neither interesting nor instructive to the student of the art of war. It will suffice to trace the outline only.
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Shuja had built a wall and a double line of entrenchments along the Kalindi (a branch of the Mahananda) barring Mir Jumla's direct route to Tanda. But the latter made a feint in front, turned the enemy's flank by a swift march northwards, and safely crossed both the easternmost branch of the Ganges and the Mahananda. He now despatched a column towards Maldah on the eastern bank of the Mahananda, (8th February.)¹
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¹ *Alamgirnamah*, 537—541; Masum, 135 *a* & *b*.
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Ruin now stared Shuja in the face. On his west stretched the Mughal lines from Rajmahal to Suti; on his north they occupied various points from Samdah to the Mahananda, and now another force was moving southwards to hem him round on the east and finally to cut off his only line of retreat in the south. At this time Prince Muhammad deserted him and sneaked back into the Mughal camp at Dogachi as secretly as he had left it, (8th February).* The luckless youth was sent closely guarded to his relentless father and doomed to sigh out the remainder of his life in a captive cell of the rock-prison of Gwalior. Only two years before his death did he gain even a limited amount of liberty and transfer to the prison of Salimgarh (Delhi).
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On 29th February Mir Jumla finally left Samdah, and on 6th March he reached Maldah. At Mahmudabad, a few miles below Maldah, he spent a month in active preparation for his crowning stroke. "He bade adieu to ease and rest, spending days and nights in exertion, in order to dispose of Shuja, and prevent the war from being dragged on till the coming of the rainy season,"—which would mean the loss of another year.* A short distance further down the stream was the ferry of Bholahat,† where a detachment under Dilir Khan was entrenched. Four miles below it an obscure ford was discovered, which the enemy had neglected to guard well. The water was shallow for only a thin strip across, but very deep on both sides.
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∗ Alamgirnamah, 542-544, 546; Khafi Khan, ii. 99 & 100.
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Everything being ready, Mir Jumla left Mahmudabad at 3 a.m. on 5th April, united with Dilir Khan's force on the way, and after a march of 10 miles down the bank came to the ford at dawn. The enemy were taken by surprise; they had posted only a small force with some guns on the opposite bank. Without a moment's delay the Imperialists began to ford. The leaders drove their elephants into the water; then the cavalry plunged in. "The soldiers rushed into the river from right and left, front and rear, troop after troop like a succession of waves." All order was gone; many swerved aside to avoid the enemy's shower of shot and bullet. In the rush of so many men and beasts the water was thrown into waves, the sand was kicked away, the two lines of sticks which marked the borders of the ford were knocked off, and the right track was lost. The smoke of gunpowder darkened the sky. Vast numbers went beyond their depth on the two sides. Swimming was impossible for mail-clad troopers on barbed horses. More than a thousand brave soldiers[*] were drowned,—Fatih, the son of Dilir Khan, a heroic Afghan youth of 20, being among them.[†]
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∗ Alamgirnamah, 547 & 548. † Alamgirnamah (544, 545, 547, &c.) spells the name as Baglaghat. From the bearings given it must be Bholahat (Indian Atlas, sh. 119, & Rennell, sh. 16).
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† Graphic descriptions of this disastrous fording are given in Masum, 161a and b; Khafi Khan, ii. 94—97, and Alamgirnamah, 548—551. Aqil Khan, 104, is very brief.
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But even this heavy price was worth paying for the passage across.[‡] It was the decisive move of the campaign. All was now over with Shuja. His men, after some hours' fight, evacuated their trenches on the bank, leaving all their guns behind. Reinforcements under Syed Alam and Prince Buland Akhtar arrived when it was too late, and they fled at the sight of the triumphant Mughals. The Prince hastened to Tanda in distraction. Syed Alam carried the dismal news to Shuja at Chauki-Mirdadpur.
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∗ This is the estimate of the Alamgirnamah (550). Masum has "about 2,000," and Aqil Khan "nearly 3,000 men."
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‡ The heavy loss of men, however, did one harm to Mir Jumla. He could not with decency leave the dead uncared for, and so he had to spend the whole of that day in "dredging the river for the corpses of the drowned men" to give them burial. Otherwise, he could have made a dash for Tanda immediately after fording, and captured Shuja's capital in the afternoon of 5th April, while Shuja was still at Mirdadpur, ignorant of Mir Jumla's crossing. Then Shuja would have been caught instead of gaining a day (6th April), for the escape to Dacca. Thus the loss of a single day at this critical time altered the history of the Prince and saved Aurangzib from another act of fratricide.
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The Imperialists were now on the right bank of the Mahananda with nothing but eleven miles of road and the narrow brook of the Bhagirathi (or Bagmati) between them and Tanda. Swift must be Shuja's flight to Dacca, if he did not wish to see the net completely drawn round him and his only path of retreat cut off from the south. Dazed at the news, he held a hurried consultation with Mirza Jan Beg, who gave the only advice possible in this case,—"You should cling to nothing here, but flee at once to avoid capture." So, at nightfall he hastened back from Chauki-Mirdadpur to Tanda.¹
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¹ Masum, 162a.
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Then ensued all the sad and sickening scenes which attend a sudden fall from power and the hurried flight of vanquished princes. Shuja reached Tanda at dawn, (6th April,) alighted in a garden outside the city, and immediately proceeding to the harem ordered his Begams to come away at once "without waiting even to change their dress."* By great exertions and constant supervision he loaded his treasure in two strong boats (*ghurabs*), and a selection from his property and stores in two others, and sent them off. Then leaving Tanda for ever, he went to the river bank at 4 p.m. and embarked. His two younger sons, (Buland Akhtar and Zain-ul-Abidin), his chiefs, Mirza Jan Beg, Syed Alam of Barha, Syed Quli Uzbak, and Mirza Beg, a few soldiers, servants, and eunuchs,—300 men in all,—accompanied him in 60 boats (*kosas.*) This was the sole remnant of the splendid Court amidst which he had ruled three provinces, and the vast army with which he had twice contested the throne of Delhi! The other officers and servants parted from the victim of misfortune, and went their own way.†
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The 6th of April was a very busy day with Mir Jumla. Early in the morning he set out from the fatal ford towards Tanda, but on the way turned sharply to the left to cut off Shuja's retreat at Tartipur on the Ganges. Hastening thither with a light division, he seized 400 loaded boats of the enemy's flotilla, left a detachment in charge, and then with only 400 troopers, made a forced march backwards to Tanda, arriving there at midnight.
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∗ Masum, 162a. Here the work ends abruptly. The author did not complete it. For the remaining portion of this chapter, the *Alamgirnamah* is our sole authority.
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He was not a minute too early. All through that day Tanda had been a scene of wild terror and confusion. The soldiers, deserted by their master, roved about in disorder, plundering his unguarded property. Treasure loaded on 6 elephants and 12 camels, which was being taken by the eunuch Sandal (the custodian of Shuja's toshakkhanah) to the bank for embarkation, was looted by the ruffians, as also were some led-horses of the Prince. "Men ran about in disorderly groups. Great tumult and confusion prevailed. Everyone plundered what he could lay hold of."
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But next day (7 April) Mir Jumla restored order; he seized for the Government all the property he found, and worked hard to recover what the ruffians of the army had looted. The women left behind were taken care of; guards were posted round the harem, and its officers and eunuchs ordered to do their duties as before.[^ *]
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The fugitive Prince could not keep all that he was carrying off. Mughal troops had now hastened to the bank along his route down the river.
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[^ *]: Alamgirnamah, 552-553.
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His two treasure-laden ghurabs were seized at Tartipur, and 30 boats of his flotilla (with many officers and men on board) were captured at Shirpur and Hazrahati. His servants, who had refused to part from their families merely to show an unavailing devotion to a ruined man, now submitted to the victor (9th April), and were graciously taken into the Imperial service. Two of them, Mir Murtaza of the artillery and Ibn Husain* of the flotilla, afterwards covered themselves with glory in the Assam War and the capture of Chatgaon. †
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† Ibid, 554.
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After spending twelve days in settling matters at Tanda and organising an administration for the conquered districts, Mir Jumla left it for Tartipur (19th April). Thence he set off next day by land to Dacca.‡
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On 12th April, Shuja reached Dacca, a bankrupt in fame and fortune. But it was to be no asylum to him. The zamindars were all up against him, and he was too weak either to chastise them or to face Mir Jumla, who was coming hot foot on his trail. He had already begged succour from the pirate king of Arracan, but no reply had yet come. The near approach of the Imperialists, however, left him no choice. On 6th May, he bade farewell even to his eastern capital, and with his family and a few faithful nobles and servants glided down from Dacca to Dhapa, 8 miles southwards. Next day he reached Sripur (probably short for Srirampur.) At every stage soldiers and boatmen deserted him in large numbers; even his old ministers and confidential servants forsook their doomed master. On the 8th, shortly after leaving Sripur, he met 51 Magh and Feringi boats (jalbas), sent by the Governor of Chatgaon by order of the king of Arracan.
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∗ The Alamgirnamah, 554, speaks of Ibn Husain as the daroghah of the artillery. But in Shihabuddin Talish's work he is repeatedly described as the daroghah of the nawwara. Evidently he changed his branch of the service after entering into Mughal pay.
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Next morning starting from the parganah of Lakhi-deh (=Lakhipur), he halted 8 miles from the fort of Bhalua,* and made a mad effort to secure its surrender by inviting its commandant to an interview and then treacherously imprisoning him. But the party sent by him with the captive commandant's letter ordering his men to surrender the fort, was attacked and captured by the garrison.
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∗ Dhapa is given as Daapeka Kella in Rennell, sh. 12. Sripur is evidently Serampur, and Lakhideh Luckipour of Rennell, sh. 9. Bhalua is Rennell's Bullooah, 10 m. S. E. of Luckipour.
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On 11th May a Magh general arrived from Chatgaon with three more ships. Seeing Shuja's power hopelessly broken and his fortune gone, he refused to support his wild plan of an assault on the fort of Bhalua. An open quarrel broke out between the fallen Prince and his barbarous allies. They frankly told him, "Our king had ordered us to help you in fight, if you had any chance of success or held a single fort. But you cannot take even Bhalua unaided! So, you had better at once start in our ships for Arracan, or we shall leave you alone and return to our country." The cup of Shuja's misery was now full. He abandoned all hope and steeled his heart to accept the former of these terrible alternatives and embark for Arracan.∗
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∗ For the last month of Shuja's stay in India our only authority is the *Alamgirnamah*, 556—561. There are a few additional details in Talish's *Continuation*.
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The news spread consternation among his family and followers. The piracy of the Arracanese of Chatgaon in the rivers of East Bengal had made them too well-known to the people. Whole districts in Noakhali and Baqarganj had been depopulated through their ravages.
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and remained deserted even so late as 1780, when Rennell drew his maps. Their daring attacks, ferocious cruelty, uncouth appearance, barbarous manners, lack of religion and caste, and practice of eating unclean animals,—all made the people of East Bengal, Hindus and Muslims alike, regard them with a mixture of terror and loathing, to which history affords the only parallel in the Hun invasion of the Roman Empire and the Cossack raid into France after Leipzig. The dread of captivity under them was enhanced by the unknown dangers of their mysterious country, which was believed to be full of pestiferous jungles and separated by the perilous ocean from all civilised lands.*
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And now Shuja was to go there! But to him it was a lesser evil than to fall into Aurangzib's hands. The fate of his father and two brothers made him shun the idea of surrender. Shah Jahan, the kindest of fathers, was pining away in dishonoured old age as a prisoner in the very fort where he had once held Court as the "King of Kings." The liberal and accomplished Crown Prince, Dara Shukoh, had been brought in chains to Delhi, paraded through the streets with every mark of humiliation and then, after the mummery of a trial, murdered by slaves. The gallant and generous Murad Bakhsh had been sentenced to captivity by his disinterested helper, his “darvish brother” Aurangzib! The handsome young and heroic Sulaiman Shukoh had been hunted into the land of hills and snow.
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∗ For the Bengali view of the Arracanese, see Shihabuddin Talish's Continuation as translated by me in "The Feringi Pirates of Chatgaon," J. A. S. B., June, 1907.
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No! better, better far the cruelest death in the most barbarous of foreign lands than such an end as that of Dara or Murad. Farewell to Hindustan, with all its wealth, joys and culture, if Aurangzib was to be its king. Shuja’s mind was soon made up. Others might stay behind, but for him Hindustan was a home no longer.
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So, on 12th May, 1660, he finally left the province which he had ruled for twenty years and the country where he had spent 43 years of his life, and sailed for Arracan with his family and less than forty followers. History has preserved some account of these men who were faithful unto the last. Ten of them were Syeds of Barha under Syed Alam, and twelve others were Mughals under Syed Quli Uzbak;* the rest were evidently servants. To the Syeds of Barha belonged the hereditary right of occupying the place of honour in the Emperor's line of battle.* It was only fitting, therefore, that Syeds of Barha were found ready also to stand by their master's side in the hour of his supreme misfortune and danger.
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∗ Alamgirnamah, 561; Khafi Khan, ii. 110.
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Mystery shrouds the end of the ill-fated Prince whose history we have pursued so long. The author of the *Amal-i-Salih*,† writing in 1671, says, "Up to this time none knows anything about Shuja's fate in Arracan. It is utterly unknown in what country he is and what he is doing, or whether he has been sent to the realm of the dead." Sixty years later, Khafi Khan was no better informed.‡ He remarks, "In Arracan all traces of Shuja disappeared,—none [in India] got any sign of him." Nothing save the vaguest rumour passing through many intermediaries ever reached Aurangzib. For years afterwards wild tales came to India of Shuja having gone to Persia; and sharpers counterfeiting his son Buland Akhtar appeared in different parts of India. One such was arrested near Allahabad as late as 1699. A false Shuja headed a rising near Murang in 1669 and another in the Yusufzai country in 1674.*
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∗ Irvine's *Army of the Indian Mughals*, p. 225. † Kambu, 21 *a*.
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To remove the uncertainty, Aurangzib desired that Mir Jumla, the new Viceroy of Bengal, should after conquering Assam lead an army into Arracan to recover Shuja’s family if possible.† When Shaista Khan, Mir Jumla’s successor, conquered Chatgaon from the Maghs (1666), he evidently got no certain news of Shuja, or it would have got into the official history. The European traders who had free access to Arracan were likely to be best informed, and I believe that the truth lies in what they have recorded of Shuja’s fate.
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† Shihabuddin Talish’s Fathiyya-i-ibriyya, p. 25.
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From this source we learn, “Many dwellers in Arracan, Mogul and Pathan,... showed themselves inclined towards him [Shuja]. He planned an outbreak intending to slay the king and take his kingdom, and then advance once more to test his fortune in Bengal.” The king of Arracan heard of the plot and “planned the assassination of Shah Shuja. Shah Shuja with a few men fled into the jungle. The Maghs...pursued the poor prince,...cutting his body into pieces.”
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∗ Masir-i-Alamgiri, pp. 405 and 84. Orme’s Fragments, p. 50.
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This story is based on the report of a Dutch merchant named Jan Tak to Aurangzib. The official records of the Dutch factory first state that on 7th February, 1661, when Shuja's house was surrounded by the Arracanese, he set fire to it and escaped with his family and followers towards Tipperah. But they finally take a different view and assert, "Although there can be no certainty, the fact is that he was killed in the first outbreak," and that his followers concealed the fact and spread the false news that he had fled into the jungle.∗
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∗ *Storia*, i. 374—376, esp. the footnote.
Linked texts (2)
- ʿAmal-i Ṣāliḥ — Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Kambōh 1659, Persian
- Tārīkh-i Shāh Shujāʿī — Muḥammad Maʿṣūm 1659, Persian