History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c42.s4: §5. Mughal relations with Kuch Bihar after 1663.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c42.s4
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§5. Mughal relations with Kuch Bihar after 1663.
v3.c42.s4.1
We now turn to the history of the other Mongoloid peoples with whom the empire came into conflict after the death of Mir Jumla. At the time of his retreat from Assam (Feb. 1663), the Mughal garrison expelled from Kuch Bihar was waiting under Isfandiyar Beg at Ghoraghat, and another force was left with Askar Khan outside the kingdom with orders to recover it. The death of the Nawab threw the enterprise into delay; the officiating viceroy, Daud Khan, neglected to send up reinforcements, and all that Askar Khan could do was to confirm his possession of the *chakla* of Fathpur outside the wall (*al*) of Kuch Bihar, which had been wrested by the Mughals early in the war.*
v3.c42.s4.2
In March 1664, Shaista Khan, the new governor of Bengal, reached Rajmahal, and announced his design to conquer Kuch Bihar on his way to Dacca. At the news of it, the Koch Rajah made his submission, offering to pay 5½ lakhs of Rupees as indemnity. The terms were accepted, and the Mughal army was ordered to withdraw from the Kuch frontier as soon as two instalments of this money were paid. We know that the tribute reached the imperial Court on 6th December 1665.†
v3.c42.s4.3
† *Fathiyah*, *Continuation*, 121 b; *Akhbarat*, 8th year, 14.
v3.c42.s4.4
Rajah Pran Narayan died in 1666, and thereafter, for nearly half a century, the State was paralysed by civil wars, royal oppression and internal disorder. The Mughals took advantage of it to extend their sway over the southern and eastern portions of the kingdom, conquering much of the present districts of Rangpur and western Kamrup, and forcing the Rajah in 1711 to confirm these gains by treaty.‡ The historian Ishwardas (123a) says that about 1685 Bhawanidas, son of Todar Mal, a deputy of the viceroy of Bengal, seized the capital of Kuch Bihar and expelled the Rajah, but that he perished with his entire army of 4,000 cavalry in a fire and the Rajah then recovered his city. No other authority supports this statement.
v3.c42.s4.5
∗ *Fathiyah*, 80 (why the Mughals were expelled from Kuch Bihar), 168, 170-171 (Mir Jumla's last dispositions for reconquest of Kuch Bihar); *Continuation*, 110 b.
v3.c42.s4.6
‡ H. N. Chaudhuri's *Cooch Behar State*, 238-241. "In 1687 the Mughals under Ibadat Khan occupied the three central *chaklas* of