History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c49.s4: §4. Death of Jaswant; Mughals occupy Marwar.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c49.s4
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§4. Death of Jaswant; Mughals occupy Marwar.
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On 10th December, 1678, Maharajah Jaswant Singh died at Jamrud when commanding the Mughal posts in the Khaibar Pass† and the Peshawar district in general. The news reached the Emperor at Delhi in the fourth week of the month, and he immediately formed his plans with regard to the State of Jodhpur. True, Jaswant had left no son to succeed him. But his elder brother Amar Singh,—disinherited and banished from Marwar by an angry father,—was now represented by his grandson Indra Singh, the Rao of Nagor and a loyal grandee of the imperial Court.* If Aurangzib had wished to preserve the life of the Jodhpur State, he had only to invest Indra Singh with the lordship of the Rathor clan. But for more than five months after Jaswant's death no successor was appointed to his vacant throne.
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∗ Khafi Khan, ii. 259. *Storia*, ii. 234. Tod, i. ch. 13, ii. ch. 7. In a letter written in 1659, Aurangzib speaks of Jaswant as "the infidel who has destroyed mosques and built idol-temples on their sites." (*Adab*, 263a.)
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† He was never viceroy of Afghanistan or even governor of Kabul city, but merely *thanadar* of Jamrud.
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On the contrary, immediately on hearing of Jaswant's death Aurangzib took steps to seize his kingdom. Muslim officers were appointed as *faujdar*, *qiladar*, *kotwal* and *amin* of Jodhpur, and the whole country was brought under direct Mughal rule. On 9th January, 1679, the Emperor himself set out for Ajmir, in order to be close enough to Jodhpur to overawe opposition and direct the military operations that might be necessary. High officers, like the wazir Asad Khan, Shaista Khan, and Prince Akbar, were summoned from their provinces to reinforce the Emperor at Ajmir. (M.A. 171-173.)
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∗ *M. A.* 175, speaks of Indra Singh as the son of Rao Rai Singh and grandson of Amar Singh. Also *M. U.* ii. 236, and *Dilkasha*, 165. *Ishwardas*, 74b, and a rejected MS. of *M. A.* call him the son of Amar Singh. Tod names him 'Rutna the son of Umra.' But *M. A.* is correct.
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But this overwhelming display of force was unnecessary. The death of Jaswant had thrown the Rathors into confusion and dismay. The State was without a head. Jaswant's highest officers and best troops were absent in Afghanistan. At first no resistance could be offered to the vast and well-directed Mughal armies that poured into the land. Khan-i-Jahan Bahadur with a band of high officers was sent on 7th February to occupy the country, demolish its temples, and seize the late Maharajah's property. On 1st March a detachment under Khidmat-guzar Khan entered the hill-fort of Siwanah, where the Rajahs of Marwar used to keep their treasures, and searched for them. But as the quest yielded nothing but a few old cloths, another officer was sent with masons to dig under the fort-walls, new mansions and courtyard, in search of buried treasure! The *diwan* of Crownlands was deputed to Jodhpur to make an inventory of Jaswant's property and prepare a statement of the revenue of the different districts of the State.*
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Some days before ordering the last steps, Aurangzib had learnt (on 26th February) that two of Jaswant's widows had given birth to two posthumous sons at Lahor.† But the Emperor was not to be moved from his policy of annexing Marwar by any regard for the law of legitimate succession. The arrangements for occupying the country being complete and national resistance seeming hopelessly impossible, he returned from Ajmir to Delhi (2nd April). On that day the invidious poll-tax on the Hindus was imposed again after a century of abeyance.*
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∗ M.A. 172; Akh. 22/1 (official records). † M.A. 173; Ishwardas, 73b.
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Next month Khan-i-Jahan returned to Court after taking possession of Jodhpur city and demolishing its temples. He was granted a special audience and highly praised for his services. "The cart-loads of idols he had brought away were ordered to be cast down in the Armoury Square of Delhi fort and under the steps of the Jama Mosque, to be trodden upon." Indra Singh Rathor, the chieftain of Nagor, and grand-nephew of Jaswant, was invested as Rajah of Jodhpur in return for a succession fee of 36 lakhs of Rupees (26th May), and sent to Marwar. But the Mughal administrators and generals in occupation of the country were retained there, evidently to help the new Rajah in taking possession of his State.†
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† M.A. 175-176. Ishwardas, 75a, says that the Emperor angrily dismissed Khan-i-Jahan for recommending that Jodhpur should be given to Jaswant's new-born son.
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The force massed at Ajmir was dispersed as the imperial policy seemed to have completely triumphed. Marwar, however, was far from being settled. "At the death of the Maharajah the head of every Rajput house in Marwar, out of the proud ambition of asserting his leadership, got ready to create disturbance and mischief.”* These troublers of peace might in time have been put down by efficient rule and the steady pressure of Mughal force. But a new actor now entered the scene to disturb and eventually to defeat the imperial policy. This was Ajit Singh, the son of Jaswant.
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∗ M.A. 174; Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 313; Ishwardas, 74a.