History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c84.s1.t4: § 5. Shaista Khan's achievements as governor of Bengal.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c84.s1.t4
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§ 5. Shaista Khan's achievements as governor of Bengal.
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With the coming of Shaista Khan as governor the scene happily changed. His first viceroyalty of Bengal extended for 14 years (1664-1677). During this unusually long period of office in one province, he first ensured the safety of the Bengal rivers and sea-board by destroying the pirates' nest at Chatgaon, won over the Feringi pirates and settled them near Dacca, and pushed the imperial frontier southwards to Ramu, beyond Chatgaon fort, as we have seen in Chapter 32.
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His internal administration was equally mild and beneficent. He immediately stopped the resumption by the State of the old rent-free lands which the local officers had begun during the interregnum. He ordered the new Sadr of the province to confirm all the charitable grants and stipends, lying in the Crownlands, for which documentary evidence could be produced. As for the rent-free lands in the fiefs of the jagirdars, they were asked to respect the rights of the grantees if the total land thus alienated did not exceed one-fortieth of the extent of the fief, this proportion being regarded as the charity-tax (zakat) enjoined by the Quranic law. Within his own jagir he made many new gifts in charity. These orders were promptly carried out by his hard-working, honest and polite civil officers.*
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Every day he held open Court for administering justice and redressed wrongs very promptly. This he regarded as his most important duty. In his own jagir he ordered that everything collected by the revenue officers above the fixed rent should be returned to the cultivators. Again, the former governors of Bengal used to make monopolies of all articles of food and clothing and other things and sell them at fanciful rates, which the helpless people had to pay. Shaista Khan restored absolute freedom of buying and selling, and also abolished two illegal exactions of his predecessors, namely, a tax of one-fortieth (zakat) on the income of merchants and travellers, and a custom duty (hasil) from every class of artificers and tradesmen "from the rose-vendor down to the clay-seller, from the weaver of fine linen down to that of coarse stuff." Aurangzib had issued orders for abolishing the zakat and hasil in the Crownlands, and left to the jagirdars free choice in respect of them within their fiefs. "But this just, God-fearing, benevolent subahdar abolished the hasil, yielding 15 lakhs of Rupees a year, which used to be collected in his own jagirs......Thus, the peasants and the merchants were freed from oppression and fiscal innovations......Shaista Khan's profuse charity so thoroughly removed poverty and need from Bengal that few labourers or workmen could be had for hire to do any work." [Continuation, as tr. in *Studies*, 160-167.]
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∗ Described fully in Talish's Continuation, ff. 118a-121a. Translated in my Studies in Mughal India, pp. 156-160.
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In foreign affairs, too, his term was prosperous. In 1669 he suppressed the rising of a bogus Shuja in Morang (a hill State north of the Purnia district), and conquered it in 1676. [*M.A.* 84, 150.] In the latter year the province of Orissa was added to his charge. The long interval of peace thus secured to Bengal was employed by him in adorning his capital Dacca with many fine buildings (especially the *Katra*), as well as in constructing bridges and sarais all over the country. On the whole, he was a generous nobleman of the grand old style. The English, Dutch and French greatly improved their trade in his time.
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After the short regimes of Fidai Khan entitled Azam Khan Kokah, a grasping tyrant, (less than a year) and Prince Muhammad Azam (one year), Shaista Khan was sent back to Bengal again, and reached Dacca in January 1680. His second term covered the nine years 1680 to 1688; the most noticeable event of this period was the war with the English E. I. Co. which has been described in Ch. 60.*
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∗ Shaista Khan in Bengal: Talish, as translated in my *Studies in Mughal India*, (best); *Riyaz-us-Salatin*, tr. 227-228 (very meagre); Stewart's *Bengal*, sec. vi; dates in *M.A.*
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The popular tradition is that during his governorship rice sold in Bengal at the incredibly cheap rate of eight maunds to the Rupee. He repeatedly sent rich presents, including the rare products of Bengal, to the Emperor. [M.A. 109, 167 ; Storia ii. 117.]