History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c42.s5: §6. The Mags of Arrakan wrest Chatgaon from Bengal, 1459.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c42.s5
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§6. The Mags of Arrakan wrest Chatgaon from Bengal, 1459.
v3.c42.s5.1
From the Mongoloid peoples in the north-east of Bengal, we now turn to those in the south-east of the province, where the death of Mir Jumla was soon followed by a brilliant success of the highest value, the conquest of CHATGAON by Shaista Khan.
v3.c42.s5.2
The letter appointing Mir Jumla governor of Bengal had ordered him to chastise the rulers of Assam and Arrakan, after settling the affairs of his province. The Emperor's directions were that, after conquering Assam and restoring imperial prestige in that quarter, the army should march to Arrakan and try to rescue the unhappy survivors of the family of Shuja and get authentic news about
v3.c42.s5.3
Fathpur, Qazirhat and Kankina. The officers in charge of these, as well as Tepa, Manthona Jhori and other *parganas* consented to pay tribute to the *subah* of Bengal. Panga and Baikunthpur transferred their allegiance to the Musalmans." (240.) In 1711 the *chaklas* of Boda Patgram and Purbabhag were ceded to the Muslims.
v3.c42.s5.4
the end of that luckless prince.* Mir Jumla had died at the end of the Assam war. And, so, his second and unaccomplished task devolved upon his successor Shaista Khan.
v3.c42.s5.5
The district of Chatgaon was for many centuries the debatable land between the Muslim rulers of Bengal and the Mongoloid chiefs of Arrakan. Early in the 15th century a fugitive Rajah of Arrakan had taken refuge in Bengal and been restored (1430) to the throne by a Muslim army from Gaur. He had promised to be tributary to his patron, and he and his successors for many generations used to add Muslim titles, like Ali Khan, Sikandar Shah and Salim Shah, to their Burmese Pali names and to issue coins stamped with the Muslim confession of faith (*kalima*). But in the very next reign the Arrakanese threw off their political dependence on Bengal, and a little later (1459) they wrested the whole of the Chatgaon district from the Bengal Sultan, Barbak Shah. The decay of the Pathan monarchy and the anarchy attending the long-drawn Mughal conquest of Bengal in Akbar's reign gave the Arrakanese a free hand, and they now consolidated their authority over Chatgaon and even seized parts of the Noakhali and Tippara districts, up to the Meghna river.
v3.c42.s5.6
∗ The *farman* of appointment is given in Ishwardas, 50 *a*; Fathiyah, 25; Bernier, 179 (order to Shaista Khan).
v3.c42.s5.7
Early in the 17th century, Islam Khan, the viceroy of Bengal, recovered from the grasp of the Arrakanese the country east of the Meghna up to the Feni river, which thenceforth formed the eastern boundary of the Mughals. But here their further progress was arrested and during the next half century the Mag ascendency in the rivers and creeks of East Bengal became complete in consequence of Jahangir’s supine administration, the rebellion of his heir Shah Jahan, and the increase of the Arrakanese naval power by the infusion of a foreign element.*