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History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c82: Chapter LIX. Disorders in Northern India.

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c82

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Chapter LIX. Disorders in Northern India.

§ 1. Early Jat disturbances near Agra.

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The endless wars in which Aurangzib became involved in 1679 and which were to continue till his death, began very soon to react on the political condition of Northern India. The Emperor left Delhi in 1679 for Rajputana, and thence proceeded to the Deccan two years later. For the remainder of his reign all his sons and highest generals were assembled there. In unvarying succession Northern India continued to be annually drained of its public money and youthful recruits in order to fill the ever-gaping void caused by the Deccan wars. Reports of occasional disasters to the imperial arms, of Prince Akbar's rebellion, Shambhuji's daring raids, and the hopeless entanglement of the Emperor with Bijapur, Golkonda and the Maratha people, reached the bazars and hamlets of Northern India with the usual exaggerations. Years passed away, and yet the Emperor did not return to his capital, nor did any of the princes. The rich old provinces of the empire north of the Narmada were left in charge of second-rate nobles with insufficient troops.

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At the same time, the long caravans of merchandise, State revenue, army provisions, and the families and property of the nobles, so frequently making their way to the far-off South under slender escort, offered an irresistible temptation to robber tribes. The great royal road, leading from Delhi to Agra and Dholpur and thence through Malwa to the Deccan, passed directly through a country inhabited by a people whose predatory instinct can be kept in check only by the terror of superior force. These are the Jats, a race of hardy peasants whose bodily vigour and growing numbers had made them spread rapidly from the north-eastern frontier of Rajputana to the bank of the Jamuna, filling the present Agra, Mathura and Aligarh districts as well as the Bharatpur and Alwar States. Northwards their settlements dotted south-eastern Panjab, and southwards the adjacent parts of Malwa. Whether the Jats were really descendants of the ancient nomadic Getae is uncertain, but though they are to-day essentially agriculturists, their many affinities with the wandering predatory tribe of Gujars have for many centuries made them, equally with the latter, the greatest enemies of public peace and private property. The Jat population in a province requires strong government and constant vigilance on the part of the ruler. As the proverb runs, "The Jat, like a wound, is better when bound."

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In the administrative slackness and military weakness which affected the Mughal Government in consequence of the Deccan wars, the Agra district was the first to feel the truth of this proverb. The ill-guarded wealth of the rich cities and mansions of the metropolitan *subah* and the valuable convoys moving along the king's highway, called forth the cupidity of the Jats, now that the fear of the Emperor's return was daily growing more remote. Here was a surer means of growing rich than by the slow process of painfully tilling a grudging soil under an uncertain rainfall. And such a course of rapine involved little risk, as the weak local troops could not always punish the robbers in the field, nor follow their quickly fleeing bands to the nooks of their wide jungly country.

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The Tenwa clan of Jats had first entered the Mathura and Aligarh districts about 1600 as servants and peasants, but in the next sixty years they had grown powerful enough to make themselves masters of the Joar pargana. Their chief Nandaram had withheld revenue at the end of Shah Jahan's reign, but had been forced to submit in 1660. Nine years later the Jat peasantry rose under Gokla, the zamindar of Tilpat,[*] killed Abdun Nabi, the Mughal faujdar of Mathura, and spread disorder through the Mathura and Agra districts. After nearly a year of fighting, the rising was suppressed with terrible bloodshed by Hassan Ali Khan, the Jat stronghold was taken, Gokla was captured and put to death, and their mud-forts were dismantled. [Vol. iii. ch. 26 and 35.]

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∗ There is a Tilpath, 14 m. s. of Delhi and 3 m. n. of Faridabad. Joar (Jewar) in the Aligarh district is, however, 28 m. s. e. of it (Ind. At. 49 S. E.)

§ 2. Jat rising under Rajaram, 1685-1688.

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Fifteen years now passed in peace. And then the opportunity created by the Emperor's Deccan invasion was seized by two new leaders of the Jats, Rajaram and Ramchehra, the petty zamindars of Sinsani and Sogar.* These were the first to challenge the forces of the empire and train their clansmen in group organisation and open warfare. Every Jat peasant was practised in wielding the staff and the sword; they had only to be embodied in regiments, taught to obey their captains, and supplied with fire-arms to make them into an army.

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* Sinsani 16 m. n. w. of Bharatpur, and 8 m. s. of Deeg (Ind. Atlas, 50 N. E.). Sogar spelt (Sogghair in the Fr. MS.) is 4 miles due north of Bharatpur and 14 m. e. of Sinsani, and the home of the Sogoria branch of the Jats.

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A French MS. account of the Jats preserved in the India Office, London, (Orme MSS. vol. 216, no. 2, copy in vol. 15, no. 11), and ascribed to Father Francois Xavier Wendel, is the only source that mentions Ramchehra. Churaman is spoken of by Ishwardas (Fatuhat, 135 b) as a son of the brother of Rajaram, but all other authorities known to me are silent about his relationship with the latter. A Persian work used by W. Irvine names Bhajja as the father of Churaman (Later Mughals, i. 322). Life of Churaman (mostly after Aurangzib's death) in M. U. i. 540-548. The fullest history of the Jat wars in Aurangzib's later years is given by Ishwardas (131b-133a, 134a, 137b, 164b), with some confusion of persons and dates, which I have corrected from the authentic but meagre official history, Masir-i-Alamgiri.

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As bases for their operations, refuges for their chiefs in defeat, and storing places for booty, they built several small forts (*garhi*) amidst their almost trackless jungle, and strengthened them with mud walls that could defy artillery.

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Then they began to raid the king's highway and carry their depredations to the suburbs of Agra.

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The bloody suppression of Gokla Jat had become a faded memory in the course of the next 16 years, and by 1686 a generation of Jat young men had arisen who had not tasted the sword of Hassan Ali Khan.

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Rajaram's lawless activities could not be checked by Safi Khan, the governor of Agra. The Jat gangs closed the roads to traffic, and after plundering many villages of the district, Rajaram moved towards Sikandra, wishing to rob Akbar's tomb there of its costly decorations. The faujdar of the place (Mir Abul Fazl) fought him with very inferior forces, and though he was wounded with most of his followers, he succeeded in turning the rebel back, who marched by way of Shikarpur to Ratanpur, sacking both these places.

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Rajaram soon showed even greater audacity. The renowned Turani warrior Aghar Khan was going from Kabul to the Emperor's camp at Bijapur. Near Dholpur, as his troops were marching carelessly and without order, a large party of Jats suddenly fell on his baggage and carried off some carts, horses and women. The Khan, without making any proper arrangement or concerted plan, impetuously galloped in pursuit of the raiders, at the head of a small force, and overtook them five miles off. Here the Jats turned at bay and killed Aghar Khan and his son-in-law with 80 of their followers.[*]

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As early as May 1686, Aurangzib had recognised the gravity of the situation by detaching against the Jats a great general, Khan-i-Jahan Kokaltash Zafar Jang (M. A. 274). Now the success of Rajaram and the failure of Khan-i-Jahan thoroughly alarmed the Emperor, and in December he ordered his son Azam to go there and command the operations in person. But the prince had only reached Burhanpur, when he was recalled to the Emperor's side by the more pressing need of retrieving Mughal prestige before Golkonda (July, 1687). The prince's eldest son, Bidar Bakht, a gallant lad of 17, was however sent (in December, 1687), to assume the supreme command in the Jat war, while Khan-i-Jahan was to continue as his adviser and chief officer [M. A. 298, 311 ; K. K. 316, 395].

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But before the prince could arrive, the Jat leader committed more atrocities. Early in 1688, Mir Ibrahim of Haidarabad (newly entitled Mahabat Khan) was marching to his viceroyalty of the Panjab. Near Sikandra he was encamped on the bank of the Jamuna, when Rajaram attacked him, but was repulsed after a long and stubborn fight with the loss of 400 men, while the Mughals lost 190 in killed and wounded. Rajaram soon returned to the scene, and profiting by the delay in the coming of Shaista Khan, the new subahdar of Agra, he plundered Akbar's tomb,* taking away its carpets, gold and silver vessels, &c., and damaging the building. Khan-i-Jahan did nothing to check him.

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∗ Ishwardas, 164b. The Jat loss in this action is given by him as 200. Khafi Khan (ii. 395), however, says that Aghar Khan rescued his women and then assaulted the garhi in which the Jats had taken refuge, but was shot dead.

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Bidar Bakht, on his arrival, infused greater vigour into the Mughal operations. At this time an internecine war was raging between the Shekhawat and Chauhan clans of Rajputs for lands in the Bagtharia and some other parganas. The Chauhans enlisted the support of Rajaram, while the Shekhawats gained the armed help of the Mughal faujdar of Mewat. A severe battle was fought between them near the village of Bijal. The Rajputs grappled with one another in deadly animosity, and many were slain on both sides. In the thick of the contest Rajaram was shot dead by a Mughal musketeer hiding in a tree (4 July, 1688).†

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∗ Ishwardas, 132b. Manucci (ii. 320) adds: "They began their pillage by breaking in the great gates of bronze which it had, robbing the valuable precious stones and plates of gold and silver, and destroying what they were not able to carry away. Dragging out the bones of Akbar, they threw them angrily into the fire and burnt them."

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† This is based upon Ishwardas (134b), with date from M. A.

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³¹¹ The Fr. MS., however, says: "Ramchehra fell into the prince's hands, and Rajaram, dangerously wounded in

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§ 3. Rajah Bishun Singh suppresses the Jats, 1690.

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Bishun Singh Kachhwa, the new Rajah of Amber (Jaipur), was appointed by the Emperor as faujdar of Mathura with a special charge to root out the Jats and take Sinsani as his own jagir. [Ishwar, 133a; the farman appointing him is preserved in Jaipur, as also is another on the same terms issued to Ram Singh just before his death.] He gave the Emperor a written undertaking to demolish the fort of Sinsani [Ishwar, 139a, 135b], as he was burning to distinguish himself and win a high mansab like his father Ram Singh and grandfather Mirza Rajah Jai Singh. Bidar Bakht laid siege to Sinsani. But the campaign in the jungles of the Jat country severely taxed the invading army. The Mughals before Sinsani had to undergo great hardship from scarcity of provisions

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the pursuit, .........died of his wounds shortly afterwards. Ramchehra's head was cut off at Agra and publicly exposed on the great gate in front of the fort, above the bazar."

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The official historian and Ishwardas alike ignore Ramchehra and say that it was Rajaram whose head was cut off and sent to the Emperor at Bijapur, where it arrived on 5th Sep. 1688. (M. A. 312.)

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Bagtharia—There is a Bagthala, 24 m. n. e. of Alwar and 14 m. n. w. of Firuzpur of Gurgaon. (Ind. At. 50 N. W.)

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Bijal—There is a village named Bijwar, on the old bed of the Suabi river, 18 m. s. of Rewari and 4 m. s. of the small town of Shahjahanpur (Ind. At. 49 S. W.) Tijara, 20 m. e. of Bijwar.

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Ishwardas (137a and b) says that Sogar was taken immediately after Sinsani and that 'the rebel' was captured at the former place. This is wrong.

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and water, as the enemy by frequent attacks cut off their grain-convoys and watering parties. Incessant night-attacks kept the siege-camp in perpetual alarm. "The men were prostrated by hunger, and the animals perished in large numbers through weakness." But the besiegers held tenaciously on, and in four months carried their trenches to the gate of the fort, mounted guns on raised platforms, and laid mines. The jungle round the fort was cleared. One mine under the gate was fired; but the Jats having previously detected it and blocked its further side with stones, the charge was driven backwards, destroying many of the artillerymen and supervising officers of the Mughal army. A second mine was then laid and carried under the wall in a month's time. It was successfully fired (end of January 1690), the wall was breached, the Jat defenders lining it were blown up, and the Mughals stormed the fort after three hours of stubborn opposition. The Jats disputed every inch of the ground and were dispersed only after losing 1500 of their men. On the imperial side, 200 Mughals fell and 700 Rajputs were slain or wounded. The remnant of the garrison was put to the sword. [Ishwardas 136b-137a; M. A. 334; Hamid-ud-din's Ahkam, §26.]

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Next year (21st May, 1691) Rajah Bishun Singh surprised the other Jat stronghold of Sogar. "The Rajah hastened there with the imperial army. By chance, as the gate of this little fort was kept open at the time for admitting grain, the invaders entered it at the gallop, slaying all who raised their hands and taking 500 of the rebels prisoner." [Ishwar, 137 *a* and *b* ; *M. A.*, 340.]

§ 4. Rise of Churaman Jat.

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The result of these operations was that the new Jat leader went into hiding in 'nooks and corners' unknown to the imperialists. The tribesmen returned to the peaceful work of cultivation and the district enjoyed peace for some years after. But in 1695, when Prince Shah Alam reached Agra, the Jats were again causing trouble. [*M. U.*, i. 542.] Their next leader was Churaman, the son of Bhajja, a brother of Rajaram. This Churaman had a genius for organisation and using opportunities, and succeeded in founding a dynasty which still rules over Bharatpur. "He soon built other...places for retreat and the safe-keeping of booty......Most likely he was aided in this work by the wealth secreted by Rajaram and others of his ancestors. Being more enterprising than those who had preceded him, he not only increased the number of his soldiers, but also strengthened them by the addition of fusiliers (musketeers) and a troop of cavalry, whom he shortly afterwards set on foot...and having robbed many of the ministers of the Court on the road, he attacked the royal wardrobe and the revenue sent from the provinces." (Fr. MS., 41.) But this full development of Churaman's power was witnessed after the death of Aurangzib. The wars of succession among that Emperor's sons and then among Bahadur Shah's descendants were to be golden opportunities to the Jat leader.

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About 1704 he recovered Sinsani from Mughal possession. It was, however, wrested from the Jats a second time, on 9th October 1705 by Mukhtar Khan, the governor of Agra.*

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§ 5. Pahar Singh Gaur disturbs Malwa, 1685.

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During the Emperor's prolonged absence in the Deccan, while the Jats were raiding the great royal road from Delhi to Bijapur at its northern end, another body of rebels disturbed its middle portion, which passed through Malwa. Private feuds very often ended in outbreaks which went beyond their original subjects of dispute and developed into revolts against the imperial Government and public peace.

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Pahar Singh Gaur, a Rajput zamindar of Indrakhi in western Bundelkhand, was serving the Emperor as faujdar of Shahabad Dhamdhera† in Malwa. He was a man of matchless bravery and as chivalrous as he was brave. A zamindar of the neighbourhood named Lal Singh (of the Khichi Chauhan clan) was driven to despair by the exactions and oppression of his overlord, Anurudh Singh Hada (the Rajah of Bundi), and bought the alliance of Pahar Singh by offering him the hand of his daughter. Pahar Singh, who ranked low in Rajput society on account of his being a *Chamar Gaur*,* jumped at the proposal of such an ennobling match, and immediately rode out with his 5000 expert troopers to the villages of Lal Singh and sent word to Anurudh Singh to spare his vassal. The Hada Rajah replied scornfully, "You presume to make a display of your force to prevent me from taking my tribute! When an ant puts forth wings, it is a sign of its approaching death." The Gaur leader, on getting this reply, sent a challenge to Anurudh to prepare for battle, but the latter arrogantly said that such a foe was unworthy of his sword and that a few of his armed vassals would be sufficient to drive him away. But the Hada vanguard was defeated and driven back on their Rajah's camp by the heroic charges of Pahar Singh, and the boastful Anurudh fled on horseback without having time to tie his turban on his head. Pahar Singh refused to pursue him, replying to his counsellors in these noble words: "It is against the rules of chivalry and heroism to strike a man who has turned his back." But the Bundi Rajah's camp and baggage, worth lakhs of Rupees, fell into the victor's hands, who then returned home (early in 1685).

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∗ M. A., 498; Inayetullah's Ahkam, 7b. Churaman's history after the death of Aurangzib is given in full in Irvine's Later Mughals, i. 322-326; ii. 120-124.

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† Indrakhi, 43 m. east of Gwalior. It should not be confounded with Indragarh, which is 35 m. south-west of it and 30 m. n. of Jhansi. Shahabad is 90 m. n. of Sironj and nearly the same distance s. s. w. of Gwalior.

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∗ Beames's *Memoirs on...Races*, i. 105: "They are ashamed of their name, as it presumes a connexion with Chamars." A Lal Singh Khichi is reported as in rebellion in Itawa, in *Akhbarat*, 6 Nov. 1695.

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The Emperor, on hearing of it, ordered the victor to send the booty to him. Pahar Singh refused, and then openly broke with the imperial Government, taking to a life of rebellion and plundering in the villages of Malwa. At this time that province was being administered, in the absence of Prince Muhammad Azam, by Rai Muluk Chand, the assistant (peshdast) to his diwan. He carried out the Emperor's order to suppress the rebel, and attacked Pahar Singh at the village of Udaipur, some 28 miles south-east of Sironj.

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After a severe battle the rebel was slain (Nov. or Dec. 1685.) His head was cut off by the victor and sent to the Emperor, who on viewing it remarked, "A sparrow decked in a handful of feathers has struck down a high flying falcon!" Muluk Chand was, however, rewarded with increase of rank (500) and the title of Rai-i-raian, the highest that a Hindu civilian could then hold.*

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§ 6. Rebellion in Malwa by Pahar Singh's sons.

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But the rising continued under Pahar Singh's son Bhagwant, who collected a large body of fierce peasants and began to plunder the country round Gwalior, entirely closing the roads to traffic. Muluk Chand marched to Gwalior with his troops and was reinforced by some officers detached from the Agra province. Bhagwant Singh, who had gone towards Kalpi, now turned back and halted at the village of Bijurra (4 miles south-east of Antri). The imperialists marched out of Gwalior to Antri, 12 m. s. of it. A pitched battle was fought on the spacious plain near the village of Chiruli (6 m. s. e. of Antri.) Bhagwant, who had been encouraging his men from the rear, while the battle was at its hottest, made a sudden charge at the head of 500 fresh men, and cut his way to the elephant of Muluk Chand. The imperialists broke and fled; their general's elephant was driven away, though he continued shooting arrows behind him; the Gaur soldiers plundered all the baggage, horses, etc., of the Mughals, and returned to their base to secure the booty. Bhagwant Singh, though victorious, was thus left almost alone in the field. Some of the Mughal officers who were still maintaining their ground, now joined together and charged Bhagwant in a compact body. After a brief but severe contest the defeat was marvellously turned into a victory; the rebel chief was killed; Muluk Chand turned his elephant back to the lately lost field, cut off Bhagwant's head, and came back to Gwalior (March 1686). But in the very night of his return he died of cholera. [Ishwardas, 94a-97a (full); M. A., 266, 273 (dates only)]. His orphan son visited the Emperor and was given a civil post in recognition of his father's services. [I. O. L., 1344, 20a.]

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∗ The Emperor's letter to Azam reporting this victory and describing Muluk Chand's rewards, in I. O. L. 1344, 15b= Ruqat No. 18.

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But the trouble did not end even then. Devi Singh, another son of Pahar Singh, joined Chhatra Sal Bundela, and took to plundering the imperial territory and molesting the people in Bundelkhand. [Ishwar, 119b.] In 1690, Gopal Singh,* the grandson of Pahar Singh, assembled a large army and captured the fort of Indrakhi, belonging to Bakhtawar of the Bhadauria clan. The dispossessed zamindar appealed for protection to Safdar Khan, the faujdar of Gwalior, who did nothing for him. The Emperor severely reprimanded this officer and compelled him to proceed against the rebels. Safdar Khan, therefore, rode in force against a petty fort near the village of Gujwara† in the pargana of Palwa, to which he laid siege. On the sixteenth day, while he was making preparations for delivering an assault next morning, the rebels made a night-attack on the siege-camp. The Khan, fighting in front of his men, was killed by a musket-shot in his navel (May 1690). [Ishwar, 135b, 138a; M. A. 335.]

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† Goojurra, 15 m. e. of Antri railway station. Palwa, not found.

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But two years later the Gaur rebels submitted.

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∗ Gopal Singh Gaur must not be confounded with Gopal Chaudhuri of Sironj, who rebelled on release from captivity (about 1704), [Inayet's Ahkam, 3b,] nor with Rao Gopal Singh Chandawat.

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Gopal Singh and five other kinsmen of Pahar Singh waited on Shaista Khan, the governor of Agra, paid a tribute of Rs. 85,000 in cash and kind, and were restored to their mansabs and deputed to serve in Kabul. [Ishwar, 149a.] On 6 Nov., 1693, Kirat Singh, a son of Pahar Singh, brought 250 Gaur recruits to the Emperor and was paid Rs. 25 for each. [Akhbarat, year 36.] In August 1695 we find Devi Singh serving the Emperor in the Deccan as qiladar of Machandragarh. [Akhbarat, 39.]

§ 7. Gangaram's rising in Bihar.

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Further east, in the province of Bihar, the imperial authority was defied by Gangaram.* This poor Nagar Brahman of Gujrat had first secured a small post in the accounts department at the recommendation of the historian Bhimsen, and afterwards became diwan of Khan-i-Jahan Bahadur. When the Khan went to the Deccan as viceroy in 1680, he sent Gangaram to manage his estates (jagirs) in Allahabad and Bihar. The sudden rise of this obscure Hindu excited the jealous hate of the other servants of the Khan, who had been displaced from his favour; and they conspired to poison his ears against his absent diwan, by charging him with peculation. Gangaram, on hearing of it, at once went to his master and by his explanations regained his esteem. But as soon as he was back in his charge, his rivals renewed their tactics and with greater success. The unruly peasantry of Khan-i-Jahan's jagirs in North India did not pay rent except under coercion, and Gangaram had to keep a large army to enforce his revenue collection. This fact was misrepresented by Khan-i-Jahan's courtiers as a proof of Gangaram's design for independence and self-aggrandisement. The Khan's suspicion was deepened, and he summoned the diwan to his presence. Gangaram, disgusted with such a light-minded master and despairing of his life and honour, flew to arms. Collecting some four thousand soldiers he plundered the city of Bihar and advancing laid siege to Patna. The governor Saif Khan was a coward and miser; he had kept less than his due contingent of troops and allowed the fortifications of the city to fall out of repair. The rebel set up a bogus Prince Akbar and called upon the people to rally round his standard. (March 1681.) But he had neither the skill nor the material necessary for taking a walled city, and turned to the more profitable work of plundering the neighbouring villages, while the governor shut himself up in the fort. At length imperial reinforcements arrived from Dacca and Benares and raised the siege of Patna. Gangaram was wounded, but he turned away from the city and engaged in dispossessing many of the zamindars of that district and seizing their wealth and lands. The Emperor dismissed Saif Khan, 1682. [M. A. 226.]

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∗ Based on *Dilkasha*, i. 175 and Stewart's *Bengal*, sec. vi. M. A. 205 says that his rising was in subah Allahabad, Ishwardas, 119b, in Kalpi, (both wrong).

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After some time Gangaram entered Malwa and in concert with Rajput rebels plundered Sironj.* (Oct. 1684). He died shortly afterwards at Ujjain. [Dil. i. 176.]

§ 8. Gopal Singh Chandawat.

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Rao Gopal Singh Chandawat, the zamindar of Rampura in Malwa, was serving in the Emperor's army in the Deccan. He had sent his son Ratan Singh home to manage his affairs. This wicked youth made himself master of the zamindari, drove out his father's agents, and stopped sending the revenue to Gopal Singh. The Emperor paid no heed to the father's complaints; Ratan Singh became a convert to Islam, through Mukhtar Khan the governor of Malwa, and thus secured from the Emperor the grant of his ancestral estate, which was newly named Islampura! At the news of it, Gopal Singh left the Mughal army, returned home, and tried to raise a body of men for recovering Rampura (June 1700). But the Malwa governor's forces, assisted by Ratan Singh, marched against him, and he had to flee into the territory of Udaipur (Feb. 1701.) [*Dil.* ii. 130*a* ; *Akh.*]

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∗ Orme MSS. 126. Dharamgaon to Surat, 18 Nov. 1684. Here Gangaram is spoken of as a "Rajput belonging to the Rana." Bhimsen adds that he was then going to the Deccan in order to win a mansab by fighting for the Emperor. Akhbarat, year 40, records on 5 May 1696, "Gangaram Dawa, son of Chand Bundela, reported as looting the zamindari of Urchha." This was a different man.

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But the Maharana could do nothing for him, and at last Gopal Singh in despair made his submission to the Emperor. He was introduced with his wrists tied together like a captive's, but was ordered to be unbound, restored to his mansab, and appointed faujdar of Kaulas (in Haidarabad) ; but his ancestral estate was not given back to him. [*Dil.* 145*b*. and *Akh.*]

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Early in 1706, Gopal Singh again fell into extreme poverty, on his being deprived of the faujdari of Kaulas. He then joined the Marathas for a living, [*Akh.* 5*a*], and accompanied them in the sack of Baroda in the month of March in that year. [*Ibid.* 156*a*.]

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