History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c36.s4: §5. Imperial hunt.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c36.s4
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- v3.c36.s4.30 — 4 parts
§5. Imperial hunt.
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During these early years passed at *Delhi*, when there was no cloud on the horizon of the frontiers, Aurangzib often devoted himself to the pleasures of the chase in the neighbourhood of the capital or in the Doab, though in old age he condemned *shikar* as the business of the idle (*bekar*). The Court chronicles have preserved full descriptions of the imperial hunt.* Thus we read that in January 1660 he shot five tigers in one day near Garh Mukteshwar; in December 1661 he killed two fighting nilgaus with two successive shots, near Palam and set up three stone monuments (*takhtgah*) on the scenes of this feat of marksmanship; and in September 1663 he bagged two tigresses in one day on the bank of the Chinab at the foot of the Jammu hills. In hawking, too, he was equally successful: in 1660 in about a month the falcons slipped by him killed 258 small bustards besides waterfowl on the Ganges, while in the season 1662 they struck down 150 herons (*kulang*). Another favourite game was the *qamurgha* hunting of the Turks. A large circle of beaters drove the game into the centre, where 355 deer were crowded together (1662). The Emperor himself shot down eight of them (six with matchlocks and two with the bow) and his companions forty others; 31 were captured alive and the rest were set free. At first nearly a thousand more had been enclosed, but even the deer can fight when driven at bay; they fell in a body on the beaters, gored five of the men (two fatally) and, breaking the cordon, escaped.
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∗ *A. N.* 459—464, 645—6, 673—5, 839. Also bare mentions in *Akhbarat*.
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§6. Minor conquests on the outskirts of the empire.
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The early years of Aurangzib's reign saw the expansion of the empire in many directions. First, Daud Khan, the governor of Bihar, annexed Palamau (1662). Next came the conquest of Assam. After the flight of Shuja from Dacca, Mir Jumla, the governor of Bengal, was ordered to punish the Rajahs of Kuch Bihar and Assam, who had raided and seized Mughal territory in North Bengal during the late civil war. He started from Dacca on 1st November, 1661, with a very large army and fleet, and entered the Kuch and Ahom capitals on 19th December and 17th March respectively. But from May to November 1662 he was besieged by floods and the enemy, and his communication with the outer world and the fleet on the Brahmaputra was cut off. The Mughals suffered terrible hardship and loss from famine and pestilence and the night attacks of the enemy. But when the ground became dry again, he resumed the offensive, early in November, and pursued the Ahom king up to Tipam at the mouth of the Namrup hills.
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At the beginning of January 1663 a treaty was signed by the king's agents, securing the retirement of the invaders in return for a large piece of territory and a vast tribute in gold and elephants. Mir Jumla, stricken with a mortal illness in the pestiferous swamps of Assam, died just before reaching Dacca (31st March, 1663). But in November 1667 the Assamese recovered Gauhati and pushed the Mughal frontier back to Dhubri (Rangamati). The Emperor sent Rajah Ram Singh with a large Rajput contingent to recover the province, but after seven years of desultory and futile warfare (1669—1676), Ram Singh was recalled. In February 1679 Gauhati was sold to the Mughals by an Ahom noble, only to be recovered by their Rajah two years later.
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Shaista Khan, the successor of Mir Jumla in the viceroyalty of Bengal, restored security to the great water-ways and rich riverside districts of East Bengal by capturing CHATGAON. He first bought over the Portuguese half-caste mariners (*Firingis*) settled at Chatgaon, whose trade was piracy under the protection of the Rajah of Arracan. Then he wrested the island of Sondip, a halfway house in the Bay of Bengal, from its rebel zamindar (18 Nov. 1665). Lastly the combined Mughal and Firingi fleets defeated the Arracanese navy in two engagements and captured the city of Chatgaon, the nest of the pirates (26 January, 1666). It was annexed to Bengal again.
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Another success of this period was the acknowledgment of Mughal suzerainty by TIBET.* In 1665 the Mughal governor of Kashmir sent to the ruler of Tibet a mission with a letter from Aurangzib threatening invasion unless he agreed to introduce "the marks of Islam" into his country and publicly profess obedience to the empire. The chief submitted in fear, advanced six miles from his capital to honour the imperial letter on the way, and promised obedience to it. The two demands were carried out; the first by the building of a mosque and the chanting of the call to prayer in a land where they had been unknown before, and the second by the public proclamation of the Emperor's titles and the minting of gold and silver coins bearing his name at the Tibetan capital.* The embassy was honourably sent back with a loyal reply, a golden key emblematic of the surrender of the whole country, and a thousand muhars and two thousand Rupees stamped with Aurangzib's name, as well as some rare products of the country, for presentation to the Emperor.
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Tibet in those times is described rather vaguely as a country more than six months' journey in length and one to two months' journey in breadth. Its armed strength is said to have been more than 12,000 cavalry and infantry, and the State officials were mostly of the Black Qalmaq clan of Tartars.
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∗ A. N. 921—923. Bernier (422—426) describes the reception of a Tibetan embassy by Aurangzib in Kashmir (1663). M. A. 236. Tarikh-i-Kashmiri Azami, 124 b and 131 b. K. K. ii. 185 (useless). The ruler of Tibet is named in the Persian works as Daldan Namjal, sometimes as Daldal Muhamal. The first word may be Dalai.
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This clan invaded Tibet in 1683 and the overlordship which Aurangzib had so easily placed on the land was invoked for its protection. An imperial force was sent under Fidai Khan, the son of Ibrahim Khan (viceroy of Kashmir), who returned after expelling the Qalmaq invaders and bringing away a vast booty with him. The official history, however, says that the imperialists conquered Tibet from its native ruler and annexed it to the Mughal dominions. This was unlikely to have been the case.
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§7. Lawless risings in the provinces.
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The disturbances of internal peace in Aurangzib's reign were of three classes: (a) The outbreaks inevitable during a succession dispute among the princes, when the collapse of civil authority tempts plunderers and ambitious chiefs to enrich themselves by lawless acts without fear of punishment. (b) Hindu risings against the policy of temple destruction which began to be enforced throughout the empire in the 12th year. (c) Revolts of vassal princes. We have also a few sporadic cases of defiance of imperial authority by petty chieftains in out-of-the-way or jungly places, which had not yet been reduced to the orderly condition of the longer settled and more civilized districts of the empire.
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In order to understand the real cause of many of the village disorders in Mughal times, we must bear in mind that the population was dynamic, not static. Internal movements of the people were constantly going on. In different generations different tribes were migrating to new districts and trying to push away the older settlers and make a home for themselves. Or, as it oftener happened, a clan that had entered a district as servants and tenants, in a few generations grew strong enough to overthrow their masters and become the dominant tribe and owner of the land. Thus, the Tenwa Jats first entered Mathura and Aligarh about 1600, but sixty years later they had multiplied so greatly as to make themselves lords of the Joar pargana. Their chief Nandram withheld revenue during the War of Succession, but had to submit to Aurangzib about 1660. (N. W. P. Gaz., ii. 428).
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The first year of Aurangzib's reign was spent in campaigning against his brothers, and the second and third in teaching the enemies of law and order that they had got a master again and that the authority of Government could no longer be safely defied.
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The district of Mathura had been the jagir of Dara Shukoh. He was a popular ruler, and, as he had patronized pandits and even coquetted with Hinduism by making gifts to temples, his fall was resented by his tenants. After Samugarh, when Dara's troops and officials fled from the district, the villagers took advantage of the absence of administrators, and there was much plundering. On 6th June, 1658, Aurangzib sent a new *faujdar* with a strong force to chastise these lawless men, but it took time to re-establish order in that region. In June 1662, the district of Koil (Aligarh) was so much disturbed that troops had to be sent from the capital to suppress the disorders.[*]
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The Hindu revolts provoked by Aurangzib's bigotry, as well as his dealings with the Sikhs, will be treated in detail in a subsequent chapter. The minor risings may be dismissed with brief notices here. In November 1659 large numbers of Rajputs of the Bais and other clans under a leader named Bahadur Panchkoti rebelled and plundered the highways and villages in Baiswara. Indeed, defiance of civil authority was the normal condition of the Baiswara peasantry, and the public revenue could be rarely gathered without the employment of an armed force. In the closing years of the reign fights between the local officers and the peasantry led by their tribal zamindars were very frequent here. The Sambal Afghans belonging to the Niazai clan crossed from Bannu to the eastern bank of the Indus river in May 1663 and plundered many Mughal outposts; but a large expedition with artillery defeated them, drove them back across the river, and seized booty valued at two lakhs of Rupees.*
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∗ Mathura disturbances, *A. N.* 115; Koil, 752 (text has *Kul*). Minor risings:—Baiswara, *A. N.* 450-451 and *Insha-i-Raushan Kalam* (for last decade of reign); Chakra-sen Bhil, *Pad.* i. 449, *A. N.* 474, 615, and *Akh.* 20/3; Bhupal Singh Gond, *Akh.* year 12, sheets 15, 24, 26, 27, year 13, sh. 9, 15; Mina, *Akh.* 12/5; Uchhrain, *Akh.* 13/8; Kishtawar, *Akh.* 13/8; Allahabad zamindars, *Akh.* 14/2; Bir Singh Gaur, *M. A.* 137, probably same as Nar Singh Gaur of Ishwardas 73a; Alam &c., *M.A.* 146; Hamir-sen, *Akh.* 8/7; Zamindar of Jammu, *ibid.* 10/9; Orissa zamindars *Muraqat-i-Hasan*, 52, 58 (Keonjhur), 116, 130, 181 (Hijli), 127 (all).
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Early in 1660, Chakra-sen, the Bhil zamindar of Ghatakheri near Bhilsa in Malwa, rose against the Government, gave up waiting upon the local subahdar and paying his customary tribute, and seized the neighbouring villages. Bhagwant Singh Hada, an imperial officer whose home was near by, was despatched to punish him, and captured the Bhil's stronghold in May. We next hear of Chakrasen as joining another rebel, Durjan Singh Hada, in Mau Maidanah (?) early in 1677, when forces had to be sent against both. In the same province Bhupal Singh, the son of Alam Singh, a Gond zamindar, rebelled in January 1669, but was expelled by the local officers from near Bhilsa. By October he had assembled 8,000 fighters under his banner, defeated the imperial faujdar of Chaukigarh,* and seized a number of outposts, and his power had grown so strong that the Emperor had to send four high generals against him. In January next Bhupal Singh wrote humbly making his submission and begging pardon. His brother, Murardas, was offered by Aurangzib the zamindari of Chaukigarh on condition of embracing Islam. But Bhupal Singh remained in arms for some time longer and had to be placed under the ban of the empire. Hamir-sen (probably a Bhil) rebelled in Shahabad, in December 1665, and the Rajah of Jammu in April 1667. In October 1669 there was a rising of the Mina tribe near Ajmir, which Ram Singh Gaur put down; but the village of Jandauli in pargana Alipur was ravaged by a Rajput chief.
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∗ The Niazai Afghans were pushed out of Bannu by the Marwals in the 16th century. They then "spread across the Khattak-Niazai hills and colonized the plains upon both banks of the Indus." (Imp. Gaz. iv. 394). A. N. 828 says that they were removed by the Mughal Government from Dhankot (which Aurangzib had renamed Muazzam-nagar) to the west bank of the Indus. The Ain-i-Akbari, ii. 401, (Jarrett), gives Dhankot ferry as "the place where the Indus is crossed for reaching the Bangash country." Erskine locates it near Khushal-garh "or perhaps Kalabagh", which latter is less likely.
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The Rathor State of Idar, on the Rajput border of Gujrat, remained in perpetual turmoil during the reign. Taking advantage of internal discord, Prince Murad Bakhsh had occupied the chief town and stationed a Musalman faujdar there. But during the War of Succession, Punja, the son of the late Rao, had recovered Idar and he held it till his death. Then Mughal rule was restored for some time, though members of the dispossessed family continued to harass the imperialists and raid the villages of the province of Gujrat. In January 1670, one of these Rathor princes* surprised the Mughal outpost of Idar, slew 200 men and carried off much booty. Gopinath Rao expelled Sayyid Kamal, the Mughal faujdar, about 1675, and recovered Idar, where he reigned for 5 years. But the imperialists drove him out to a miserable death in 1680 and held Idar thereafter.
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∗ Chaukigarh, in Bhupal territory, 47 miles south-east of Bhupal city and 16 miles north of the Narmada river; 23° 6 N. 78° 7 E.
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The irruption of the Uchhrain clan into Sehwan (west of Sindh) early in 1670, the withholding of tribute by the Rajah of Kishtawar south of the Kashmir hills in May, the rising of Hardi and other landowners in the province of Allahabad in the following January (1671), the rebellion of Bir Singh Gaur the grandson of Rajah Bithaldas, (? in Ajmir)
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∗ The Akhbarat, 13/8, calls him Punja. But according to the bardic chronicles relied on by Forbes (Ras-mala, i. 446-448), Punja died in 1658, and his brother Arjundas and then his uncle Gopinath continued to resist the Mughals. Even after 1680 the local Rathors were not pacified.
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in September 1674, and the disturbances caused by Alam, Ismail, and some other Afghan zamindars in Bihar,* next year, were all of a purely local nature and were evidently punished by the provincial officers. The zamindars of Keonjhur and Hijli in Orissa rebelled and withheld tribute at Aurangzib’s accession, and there was a general remissness among the vassals here at that time.
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Besides the natural anarchy of the War of Succession and the revolts against Aurangzib’s anti-Hindu measures, some local disturbances were caused by pretenders setting up for his dead brothers or nephews. A false Dara Shukoh appeared in Gujrat in August 1663, a false Shuja in the Morang hills (west of Kuch Bihar) in May 1669, a second in the Yusufzai country in 1674, and a third in Kamraj (Kashmir) as late as 1704; a bogus Buland Akhtar (second son of Shuja) in the Allahabad province in July 1699, and a counterfeit of the rebel prince Akbar in the Deccan in March of the same year.†
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∗ They are said to have risen in Shahjahanpur and Kantgola. There is a place of the former name 15 miles s. of Patna, and a place called Athman-gola, 28 m. e. of Patna. Rennell (sheets 4 and 9) gives a Katganj on the north bank of the Ganges opposite Athman-gola.
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† False Dara (A. N. 837), Shuja (M. A. 84, Storia, ii. 193, Tarikh-i-Azami, third viceroyalty of Ibrahim Khan), Buland Akhtar (M. A. 405), Akbar (M. A. 404, Ishwardas, 119 b).
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§8. Campaigns against Rajah of Bikaner and Champat Bundela.
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We now turn to rebels of a higher rank, namely vassal princes who had thrown off their allegiance to the crown. The first of them was Rao Karan of the Bhurtiya clan,* the chieftain of Bikaner, who had served in the Mughal army of the Deccan in the last year of Shah Jahan's reign, but had come back to Northern India at Dara's instigation without taking Aurangzib's leave. Afterwards he had put off paying the customary visit of respect to the new Emperor, and sent evasive replies to the royal letters summoning him to the Court. So, in August, 1660 an army, 9,000 strong, was sent under Amir Khan to bring him to reason. Rao Karan was cowed into submission, waited on the Emperor (27 Nov.) and received his pardon. Next January he was created a Commander of Three Thousand nominal rank (with 2,000 troopers) and sent to serve in the Deccan wars.
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The next lawless Rajah to feel Aurangzib's heavy hand was Champat Rai Bundela.† The province of Bundelkhand, immediately south of Allahabad and east of Malwa, continued to be a centre of disorder throughout the 17th century. We have seen (Ch. I §3) how after the war of 1635 the family of Bir Singh Dev was dispossessed and the throne of Urchha given to Devi Singh, a descendant of his eldest brother. The new Rajah could not keep his turbulent clansmen in order and his authority never spread to Eastern Bundelkhand, where a family sprung from a younger brother of Bir Singh’s father ruled as the lords of Mahewa. Their leader was Champat Rai who exercised great local influence by reason of his having been an old and important servant of Bir Singh and his successor. In 1636 he crowned Bir Singh’s infant grandson Prithwiraj and tried to rule the country as regent for his puppet. His depredations led to a fresh Mughal invasion, at the end of which (June, 1642) he submitted and some years later entered Dara’s service. When Aurangzib reached Ujjain after his victory over Jaswant, Champat Rai joined him (April, 1658) and according to three contemporary authors it was this Bundela chief who guided Aurangzib to the neglected ford over the Chambal which enabled the prince to turn the flank of Dara’s position without loss.
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But the Mughal official history is silent as to the name of the guide, and it does not support the incredible assertion of the Bundela family-bard, Lal Kavi, that Aurangzib rewarded Champat’s invaluable services by creating him a Commander of Twelve Thousand. We only know that later in the year Champat and his second son Angad were sent to serve in the Mughal army posted in the Panjab. But when Shuja was advancing to Khajwah and the wildest rumours spread through the empire, Champat deserted, and returning home took to his old game of robbery. During the unrest caused by the desertion of Jaswant at Khajwah and Dara's march on Ajmir, Champat made extensive raids and rendered the Malwa road extremely unsafe for travellers. The Emperor sent an army under Subhkaran Bundela and other Rajput officers against the rebel (10 Feb., 1659); but at first their efforts failed, and Champat, taking advantage of the jungles and broken ground of the country long evaded capture and lived by robbery. But the Mughal army was reinforced by a contingent under Rajah Devi Singh Bundela, and the jagirdars and local troops of Malwa were also ordered to assist him. Everybody's hands were now turned against Champat, who fled from place to place closely followed by the imperialists. In fear of capture he could not stay anywhere long, but hid himself in the day-time and changed his abode every night. His followers dwindled away, as his losses in skirmishes could not be made up.
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Most of the local Bundela chieftains joined in the hunt after him, to prove their loyalty to the throne. His brother and helper, Sujan Rai, lost his fort of Vedpur and committed suicide to escape arrest. Champat, daily tortured by ague and attended by only 25 retainers, was surprised near Urchha and forced to flee to Sahra in the Sarangpur district of Malwa, whose Rajah* (a chief of the Dhandhera clan) he had befriended in the days of his influence at Shah Jahan's Court. But even here, after a long and exhausting march, suffering from fever and hunger, he was driven off by the approach of the enemy. The outlaw gave himself up to despair and ran blindly onwards like a hunted animal. His mind became confused; nowhere could he find a way of escape. Even his own daughter (the wife of a local chief, Jnan Shah) refused asylum or food to his son Chhatra Sal, though he had been fasting for the last three days and was sinking with fatigue. The Dhandhera clan of Sahra were afraid of imperial wrath for having harboured the outlaw and now thought only of buying the forgiveness of Government by arresting and giving up their guest and refugee. Two hundred armed horsemen were sent by Sahib Rai Dhandhera to dog the steps of the unhappy fugitive under the pretext of forming his body-guard.
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At last about the middle of October 1661, Champat Rai finding capture by these false friends imminent, and unable to defend himself in the extreme agony of fever and weakness, stabbed himself to death, and so also did his constant companion in life, Rani Kali Kumari. His severed head was sent to Aurangzib, as the peace-offering of the Dhandheras.
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∗ Rao Karan of Bikaner, A. N. 570—572, 599—600, 603, 606.
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† Champat Rai, *Chhatra-prakash*, cantos 5-8, (inaccurate trans. in Pogson's *Boondelas*, pp. 20-43); A. N. 78 (joins Aurangzib at Ujjain), 92, 163, 217 (sent to Lahor), 301, 630-633; M. U. ii. 510 (life); Abd. Hamid, ii. 221, 303 (campaign against him in Shah Jahan's time), 304 (enters Dara's service). For full details, Irvine's *Later Mughals*, ii. 219-227. Mahewa is 59 miles west of Mahoba.
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∗ Chhatra-prakash is evidently wrong about this chief, whom it calls "Rajah Indraman of Sahra," because it is clear from the Persian accounts that (i) Indraman was released from prison in 1657 by Aurangzib and not by Champat and (ii) he did not die shortly before Champat, but lived for several years afterwards. (M. U. ii. 265).
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Thus perished Champat Rai, but his son Chhatra Sal lived to be long a thorn in the side of the Mughals. This gallant youth escaped from his father's enemies, and a few years afterwards he was, at the request of Jai Singh, enlisted in the Mughal army and employed in the war with Shivaji (1665). But the service of the Emperor galled his spirits; he secretly visited Shivaji, who exhorted him to protect Hinduism and resist Aurangzib's policy of religious persecution. Chhatra Sal then deserted from the Deccan, reached Bundelkhand (1671), and took to a life of rebellion and robbery. His history will be told in a later chapter. [Ch. 61.]