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Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c10: Chapter V

Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c10

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Contents

Chapter V

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THE PANJAB DOWN TO 1748; FIRST INVASION OF AHMAD ABDALI.

§ 1. Rise of independent dynasties in the provinces

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The dismemberment of the Mughal Empire was immediately preceded in each of its lost provinces by the exceptionally long rule of some exceptionally capable viceroy, who completed his work by founding a dynasty and transmitting his power to his own family though securing outward legal sanction to this hereditary succession by means of gifts to the shadowy Emperor at Delhi. These men formed a striking contrast to the early short term *subahdārs* who were never permitted to govern a province for more than four years in the times when the Pādishāh was a real power in the land.

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In Bengal it was Murshid Quli Khān, (surnamed Jafar Khān Nasiri, Nāsir Jang, Mutaman-ul-mulk), who ruled the province without a break from 1707 to his death in 1727 and left a throne to his son-in-law Shujā Khān. In the Deccan it was Nizām-ul-mulk Asaf Jāh, first appointed to the viceroyalty in 1713, then removed, and finally reinstated in 1725 to hold that realm till his death in 1748 and to bequeathe it to his progeny. In Oudh it was Sādat Khan, appointed in 1723 and succeeded on his death (1739) by his son-in-law Safdar Jang and his line. In the Panjāb it was Saif-ud-daulah I Dilir Jang, who got the *subahdārship* in 1713 and was succeeded in 1726 by his son Zakariyā Khān (entitled Saifuddaulah II); and the latter dying in 1745 left his provinces, Lāhor and Multān, to his sons Yahiyā Khān (surnamed Zakariyā Khān II and Az-ud-daulah II) and Hayātullah Khān (surnamed Shāh-nawāz Khān and Hizbar Jang.) Saifuddaulah I thus founded a dynasty which was extinguished only when his unworthy grandsons quarrelled and failed to save their heritage from Afghān encroachment (1748.) The *subahs* of Gujrāt and Mālwa were lost to the dying Empire by foreign annexation, without the intervention of a long rule by any *subahdār*.

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§ 2. *The good work of founders of dynasties.*

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These founder-viceroys did immense benefit to the people whose happy lot it was to be governed by them. Being strong and capable men, they successfully enforced law and order and fostered the growth of wealth and population in their charge. They saved their subjects not only from robbers and foreign raiders, but also from the illegal exactions of office underlings,—which the lesser *subahdārs* could not do. Thus, of Murshid Quli Khan we read, "Two days in the week he administered justice in person; and was so impartial in his decisions and rigid in their execution that no one dared to commit oppression. . . . The regulations and orders of Murshid Quli Khan were so absolute that the most refractory trembled in his presence and his commands were implicitly obeyed." [Salimullah.]

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Such, too, was the case with Asaf Jāh. His *diwān* Muhammad Hāshim Khāfi Khān [ii. 748] reports from personal knowledge: "The former *subahdār* Dāud Khān (Pani) had laid the foundation of the illegal innovation (*bidat*) of exacting *ziladāri*, amounting to nearly eighty *lakhs* of Rupees, from the *zamindārs* and *ryots* of the *parganahs* of *subahs* Khāndesh, Bālāghāt and others, for himself with the assistance and concert of the Marātha troops,—with whom he was as thick as milk and sugar. Afterwards, (on the Nizam's first coming to the Deccan) when the collectors told him about it and asked his permission to levy this cess, he altogether abolished it. Nay more, he used constantly to urge his revenue officers to write to the *āmils* of the parganahs and mahals of his jāgir that they must remember that no ābwāb or cess forbidden by the Emperor should be collected even to the extent of a farthing (dām.) Such was this great man's compassion on the condition of the common people''.

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Long connection with one province also allowed the growth of personal ties between such a viceroy and his subjects and gave him the same interest in their welfare that a hereditary landlord takes in the prosperity of his tenants and which no temporary farmer of the revenue can feel. With the growth of such a family-connection with the province in their charge, these founder-viceroys came to look upon the governed as their own children. Zakariyā Khān I, when pressed by the departing Nādir Shāh to ask for a personal boon, nobly begged for the liberation of the Indians whom the ruthless conqueror was dragging away with himself to servile labour in far-off Irān. And his house rigorously enforced law and order ever since its coming to power in the Land of the Five Rivers.

§ 3. Lawless tribes of the Panjāb

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The Panjāb had, generally speaking, enjoyed more internal peace than any other frontier province of India during the 17th century. The visits of the Emperors Jahāngir, Shāh Jahān, Aurangzib and Bahādur Shāh I to Lāhor, their marches through this province on expeditions and journeys beyond it, the movements of large armies across the land for the wars in Central Asia, Qandahār and the Khaibar Pass, had all tended to impress the local law-breakers with a wholesome fear of the Emperor's power and respect for the Emperor's peace. The Sikh risings under guru Govind Singh in the 17th century and under Banda in 1710 and 1713 disturbed and desolated some well-defined zones only.

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After Banda and his personal followers had been crushed in 1714, the Sikhs remained quiescent for over one generation and did not disturb the public peace. But there were other lawless classes in that province, predatory by instinct and tribal usage, who were ever on the look-out for an opportunity to plunder cities and caravans and seize the rents of villages. Such were the Ranghars and the Gujars, the brethren of the hereditary Jāt robbers living further east. In the Panjāb the Jāts supplied the main body of recruits to the Sikh fraternity, but their lawless activity as Sikhs revived only after 1750.

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The land of the five rivers has in our day become one vast granary with an assured if artificial water-supply, and the home of a prolific manly but peacefully prosperous population. But in Mughal Panjāb man had not yet harnessed Nature to his service, and an infinitely smaller population than to-day's could then find a subsistence on its soil. Vast forests overspread the doābs or tracts enclosed by two rivers, where we now see only smiling fields of wheat and cotton, millet and oil-seeds, stretching up to the horizon, broken by rapidly rising cities, the homes of industry and arts. And these jungles afforded safe homes and ready refuges to robber bands. One jungle covered the country from Karnāl (70 miles north of Delhi) to Ludhiāna near the Satlaj as late as 1803. The town of Sarhind was no doubt a centre of population and tillage, but beyond a narrow belt of clearance around it the forest reigned supreme. So, too, after crossing the Satlaj into the Jālandar doāb. Further south the state of things was still worse. A Panjābi Hindu, writing in 1695, thus describes the land: "The sarkār of Dipālpur (the modern Montgomery district) is the home of the Wattu, Dogar and Gujar tribes, who are notorious for their turbulent and rebellious character. Every year the floods overspread the land far and wide, and when the water subsides so many jungles spring up all over this country owing to the great moisture, that a pedestrian has great difficulty in travelling. How then can a rider? It is called the *Lakhi Jangal* (forest of a hundred thousand trees.) The wicked men of this plain, owing to the shelter afforded by the impassable jungle,—which stretches over leagues in length and breadth,—become ambuscaders, highwaymen and thieves. The hand of the imperial commanders cannot reach them for chastisement." (*Khulāsat-ut-tawārīkh* of Sujān Rāi.)

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A strong man was needed to keep such a province in order, and that strong man was found in the person of Abdus Samad Khān.

§ 4. Law and order enforced by Abdus Samad Khan

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Abdus Samad Khān, a Turki immigrant from Samarqand (Ahrār) and a near kinsman of Nizām-ul-mulk and Itimād-ud-daula I., was created a *5-hazāri*, with the title of Dilir Jang and appointed *subahdār* of Lāhor in 1713. His first great achievement was the crushing of the Sikh rising under Banda in 1714, for which he was rewarded by promotion to the rank of a *7-hazāri* and the title of Saif-ud-daulah. Next, in 1718, he destroyed, after a severe contest, Isā Khān, a petty landowner of the Ranghar tribe, who had raised himself to almost princely power and dignity by successful highway robbery. This man's grandfather had laid the foundation of power and wealth by collecting and leading a robber-band. Isā Khān himself, on the strength of this heritage, was courted as a man of consequence. Joining Prince Muizz-ud-din before the battle of Jājau, he was enrolled as a *mansabdār*. Then, in the contest fought out between the four brothers at Lāhor in 1712 he was on the winning side and vastly enriched himself by seizing the treasure-laden carts of the other princes. His patron, on gaining the throne, made him a 5-*hazāri* and the *faujdār* of Lakhi jungle. On the fall of Jahāndār Shāh in 1713, he fought for his own hand, plundered and occupied the neighbouring district, defeating the local *faujdārs*, robbed the trade caravans between Delhi and Lāhor, and thus amassed a vast hoard of wealth and jewels. At the same time he was cunning enough to bribe the Emperor's favourite Samsām-ud-daulah (Khān-i-Daurān) and make him his patron at Court. Emboldened by this high protection, "he looted the people worse than before. The imperial officers who had been assigned *jāgirs* in this region, could not get a penny from their villages as the rents were forcibly collected by Isā Khān. He dominated the country from the bank of the Biās,—where he had built a fort named Darisā--to the village of Thāra on the bank of the Satlaj, in the Sarhind district, and through fear of him* the tiger used to draw its claws back.” (*Māsir-ul-umārā*, ii. 825-828, following Khāfi Khān, ii. 767-768.)

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Abdus Samad Khān, in 1718, sent his subordinate Shāhdād Khān Kheshgi, to root the rebel out. The decisive battle took place near the village of Thāra, the seat of Isā Khān, who fought bravely at the head of 3,000 horse, slew many of the imperialists, and even forced Shāhdād to turn his back. But just then, Isā Khān’s father having been shot dead, he was maddened by rage, and drove his elephant with blind impetuosity on that of Shāhdād, with the result that he was killed and his victory turned into a rout. His son took to a peaceful life and was left to enjoy his zamindari. Shortly after this campaign, the *subahdār* fought and slew another turbulent rebel, Husain Khān Kheshgi of Qasur.

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§ 5. *Zakariyā Khān, governor of the Panjāb.*

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Saifuddaulah I was a patron of the immigrants from Trans-oxiana and settled many of these Turks in the Panjāb by granting them lands and posts in the provincial army. In 1726 he was replaced by his son Zakariyā Khān, created Azuddaulah I Hizbar Jang. In 1739 the latter’s charge was enlarged by the addition of Multān, and he was, on Nādir Shāh’s recommendation, promoted to be a 8-hazāri with the title of Saif-ud-daulah II. He had married a daughter of the wazir Itimād-ud-daulah I., while his eldest son Yahiyā Khān was married to a daughter of that wazir’s son Itimād-ud-daulah II. Zakariyā Khān was a very strong and just ruler, vigilant in supervising the administration and protecting the people from oppression,—for which his fame spread throughout the land and he was idolised by his subjects in a degree unequalled in that age. He continued his father’s good work of putting down the brigand chiefs who used to disturb the country, such as Panāh Bhātti, the terror of the tract from Hasan Abdāl to the bank of the Rāvi, and Mir Mār, whose hunting ground was the doāb between the Rāvi and the Satlaj.

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Zakariyā Khān’s crowning act of nobleness was done for the relief of humble sufferers who had none else to befriend them and who could not do him any benefit in return. Nādir Shāh greatly loved him, and when passing by Lāhor on his withdrawal from India he pressed Zakariyā Khān to ask for a personal favour, but the only boon that he asked of the world-conqueror was the liberation of the artisans and other people of Delhi whom Nādir was dragging away with him to Persia. Nādir agreed, and thousands of Indian homes, far away from the Panjāb were rendered happy by this nobleman's unselfish generosity. [M. U. ii. 106.]

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After promoting the peace and prosperity of the province entrusted to his care, Zakariyā Khān died on 1st July 1745. "There was so much grief for him among all people, especially in the city of Lāhor, that for three nights in succession no lamp was lighted in any house. Thousands on thousands followed his bier through the streets, lamenting aloud, beating their breasts, and heaping up flowers on his bier, till at last not a handful of flowers was left in the city." (Anandrām, 139.) Zakariyā Khān had scattered plenty over a smiling land and read his history in a grateful nation's eyes. There cannot be a nobler monument to a governor than this.

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With him ended the happiness of the Panjāb. Zakariyā Khān I left behind him three sons: Yahiyā Khan (surnamed Az-ud-daulah II), Hayātullah Khān (surnamed Hizbar Jang II and Shāh-nawāz Khān), and Mir Bāqi. Yahiyā was a weak effeminate youth, while Hayātullah, a particular favourite of Nādir Shāh, seems to have derived from his dread patron a bloodthirsty oppressive and grasping character. [Ashub, ii. 452.] Soon after their father's death, the two elder brothers returned from Delhi to Lāhor, when Hayātullah demanded a partition of their patrimony. A settlement was delayed and the armed retainers on the two sides came to blows with each other. At last terms were arranged and Hayātullah,, on receiving a certain amount in cash and jewels by way of payment, withdrew to his faujdāri in the Jālandar doāb.

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But this did not bring peace to the Panjāb. The Emperor foolishly put off appointing a governor for that province. He rejected the wazir’s suggestion of giving Zakariyā Khān’s two provinces of Lāhor and Multān to his two sons, as likely to create a hereditary Turāni dominion there. Many emigrants from Central Asia had settled in and around Lāhor under the patronage of the last two viceroys and had built there houses, tombs and gardens, so that “the place had become a home of Mughals like Balkh and Bukhārā.” At last the wazir tried to save these fellow-tribesmen by begging the subahdāri of the province for himself. No more unwise arrangement could have been devised for the most important frontier province of India than an absentee and vicarious governorship. As the wazir’s deputy, however, Mir Mumin Khān, who had been Zakariyā Khan’s ‘man of business’, was appointed, which was an excellent selection. The wazir himself could not pay a single visit to his province.

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All these circumstances conspired "to destroy the peace and prosperity which the just rule of Zakariyā Khān had given to the Panjāb. . . . Disorder broke out. Everywhere lawless men, plunderers and adventurers, who had so long kept themselves in hiding, now came out of their holes and began to desolate the realm. . . . On one side the Rājah of Jammu rebelled, and on the other the Sikhs began to cause tumult and trouble." (Anandrām, 289.) The first deputy governor, Mir Mumin, had not the means of suppressing these disorders. At last, after long persuasion, the Emperor in 1746 agreed to appoint Yahiyā Khān as deputy governor, while the wazir continued as the titular subahdar.

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§ 6. Civil War between Zakariyā's sons.

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Yahiyā retained Mir Mumin as his chief officer, but his own soft character made it impossible for him to govern such a turbulent province. To add to his difficulties, his younger brother Hayātullah came to Lāhor on 21st November 1746, entered his mansion outside the city and called upon Yahiyā to make a complete division of their father's property. The discussion was prolonged, no settlement was made, and the soldiers of the two brothers often fought in the streets, while each of them stood behind his entrenchments in his own quarter of the city. At last Hayātullah’s patience was worn out; his soldiers clamoured for the arrears of their salary which he had no means of satisfying. So, on 17th March 1747, at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon he ordered his lieutenant Adina Beg Khān to reconnoitre his brother’s trenches. This move drew Mir Mumin out in force and a light and indecisive skirmish ensued, after which each side retired to its shelter. Next day, Hayātullah in person delivered a sudden assault; the portable artillery which he carried in front quickly scattered his enemies, and Mir Mumin was captured wounded. Lāhor could not hold out against the victor, because Yahiyā’s fugitive soldiers flocked into the city and mutinied for their pay, which was four or five months overdue. Hayātullah entered Lāhor unopposed (21st March) and seized the property of Yahiyā, who took refuge in the house of his widowed aunt. [Anandrām, 289-292, 304.]

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After thus usurping the government of Lāhor, Hayātullah assured his position by removing from their posts all the old captains “who had grown grey haired in the service of his father and grandfather” and confiscating their houses and property. He then sent his steward to the Emperor with some presents, begging pardon for his acts and requesting that he might be appointed deputy governor of the province under the wazir’s seal! The envoy arrived at Delhi with this strange letter on 3rd September and opened negotiations which the Emperor’s advisers considered it politic to draw out. [Anandrām, 293-295, 300.]

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In the meantime the political horizon of India was overcast and a great danger arose to threaten the throne of Delhi. Nādir Shāh had been murdered on 9th June 1747 and much of his wealth and soldiery had passed into the hands of Ahmad Khān Abdālī, his favourite general. Abdālī had crowned himself king on his way from Nādir’s camp to Qandahār (about 12th June) and laid claim to the heritage of Nādir. His immediate aim was to equip himself with the necessary funds by squeezing that wellknown milch-cow India. And for this a fine opportunity presented itself immediately.

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The civil war between Yahiyā and Hayātullah rent the government of the Panjāb into two, and made that province too weak to resist a foreign invader. In addition to this, Hayātullah who knew that he had hopelessly broken with his Delhi master by ousting the Emperor’s lawful representative and the wazir's son-in-law, looked round for an ally outside India and sent a letter inviting Ahmad Abdāli to come and take the sovereignty of the land. He also embraced the Shia religion, replacing the names of the Timurid Emperors on his official seal by the names of the twelve Imāms. He thus hoped to find allies among the Shia soldiery of Persia. [Ashub, ii. 453, Bayān, 221.]

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§ 7. Last years and death of Nadir Shah.

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After his conquest of Delhi, Nādir Shāh annexed the *subah* of Kābul and all the portions of the Panjāb and Sindh lying west of the Indus river down to the sea, as well as the province of Tatta or lower Sindh and the ports situated in it. In addition, he received in perpetual assignment the revenue of the four cis-Indus *mahals* of Sialkot, Gujrāt, Aurangābād, and Pasrur, which had hitherto been reserved for feeding the Mughal administration of the perpetually deficit province of Afghanistan. (Anandrām, 80-81, *Siyar*, iii. 30 and ii. 97.) The Emperor's governor of Lāhor signed an agreement to send Nādir twenty *lakhs* of Rupees every year on account of these four *mahals*.

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Thereafter the Court of Delhi enjoyed peace and protection from the side of Persia. Nādir was a great admirer of Timur; he used to carry Timur's autobiography with himself on his campaigns, and he had not the heart to ruin Timur's lineal descendant in India. During the remainder of his life the great Persian conqueror kept up friendly relations with Muhammad Shāh. In the midst of his busy life and arduous campaigns in many a distant land, he did not forget to send presents to the Emperor of Delhi. Thus, 110 mule-loads of melons, grapes and apples were received in December 1740, and 81 Iraqi horses for the Emperor with several others for the leading nobles of his Court arrived at Delhi in May 1746. Muhammad Shāh, in return, sent Nādir 25 *lakhs* of Rupees in December 1740, and 51 healthy young elephants in June 1746. (Anandram, 121 and 168, 115 and 170.)

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The conquest of Delhi was followed by incessant campaigns which shook almost every country of western and central Asia. In the course of these, Nādir's character underwent a rapid decline. He became a fierce tyrant, revelling in wanton bloodshed and cruelty, giving vent to frequent outbursts of fury and insane suspiciousness. A deep melancholy and loss of confidence in his people and officers settled on him, which made him harsh in his attitude towards them. The failure of his Dāghestān campaigns (1742 and 1744) broke the spell of his invincibility. Rebellions henceforth broke out in many parts of his empire; everywhere the rebels set up pretenders to the local thrones and killed the loyal officers of Nādir.

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His treasury having been exhausted by his ceaseless warfare, Nādir now resorted to the cruellest extortion to fill his coffers. Many of his revenue collectors perished under torture to make them yield more and more money. All wealthy subjects lived in dread of their lives. "These rebellions only increased the violence of his temper, and his acts became even more wild", as his secretary admits. People were put to death, mutilated or blinded on the merest suspicion. On the plain outside Isfahān, he burnt alive some Hindus Muslims and Armenians. When in January 1747 he set out from his capital for Khurāsān, in every province that he passed through he built towers of human heads after killing local nobles and commons. Each rebellion was suppressed with ferocious cruelty, but a new one soon broke out in another quarter. In short, "the last years of Nādir Shāh's reign were years of unspeakable misery for his subjects". [Mujmil, 10-40; Sykes.]

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The most influential element in the population of Persia were the Qizilbāshes (literally *Red Heads*, from their red Turkish caps.) These were the descendants of some Turkish tribes long settled in Persia and they formed the best soldiers in the East, often acting as king-makers. Nādir now began to brood over plans for destroying all the Qizilbāshes of note and influence with the aid of his Uzbak and Afghān captains, who had latterly displaced the Qizilbāshes in his trust and favour. He arranged with these foreign mercenaries to summon all the Qizilbāsh chiefs and captains to his presence next day and there massacre them, and then by a sudden attack annihilate their leaderless soldiery, giving up their property to plunder by the Uzbaks and Afghāns.

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The plot, however, leaked out. The Qizilbāsh chiefs, under the leadership of the captain of the palace-guard and Muhammad Khān Qāchār, took prompt action. At midnight before the day appointed for their massacre, they started, in a body of seventy, for Nādir’s tent to forestall the blow. But the terror of the great king paralysed the feet of 57 of the conspirators and they dropped off on the way. Thirteen only entered Nadir’s tents and slew him. [*Mujmil*, 15-20; *Jahankusha*, 461.]

§ 8. Rise of Ahmad Abdali

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This tragedy took place near Kuchān at the extreme north-eastern corner of Khurāsān, on 9th June 1747. The death of Nādir Shāh left the field open for Ahmad Khān Abdāli.* His ancestors had their homes in the Herāt district and belonged to the Saddu-zāi clan of Afghāns. His father and grandfather having been slain in battle, young Ahmad fled for refuge to the Ghilzāi clan in Qandahār. When Nādir Shāh captured Qandahār (in 1737), he took Ahmad into his service as a personal attendant (*yasāwwal*.) The conqueror removed the Ghilzāi clan from their home in Qandahār to Māzendrān and Khurāsān, while he shifted the Abdāli clan wholesale from Herāt and Khurāsān to the Qandahār district, which henceforth became the land of the Abdālis.

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In the service of Nādir Shāh, Ahmad Abdāli greatly distinguished himself and rose to be the chief commander of that king's Abdāli contingent (some six thousand strong.) Nādir used often to say in open Court, "I have not found in Irān Turān or Hind any man equal to Ahmad Abdāli in capacity and character." There is a charming legend that one day Nādir Shāh was enjoying the breeze seated on his golden throne and Ahmad was standing before him at a respectful distance, when the king cried out, "O Ahmad Abdāli! come forward." Ahmad approached, but Nādir said, "Come closer still." When Ahmad had come up, Nādir told him, "O Ahmad Khān Abdāli, remember that after me the kingship will pass on to you. You must treat Nādir's family kindly". Ahmad replied in alarm, "May I be your sacrifice! If you wish to slay me, I am present here. But there is no reason why you should utter such (unfortunate) words as these." Nādir repeated, "I know for certain that you will become an Emperor. Treat Nādir's descendants well". The historian Husain adds that Ahmad Shāh in his days of power was always mindful of his late master's appeal and assisted Shāhrukh Mirzā, the grandson and successor of Nādir. [*Husain Shāhi*, 14-15.]*

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∗ An ancestor of Ahmad Shāh was a disciple of the saint Khwājah Abu Ahmad Abdāl of the Chishti order, and so pleased his master by his devotion that the holy man blessed him and called him *Abdāl*, a word which means a man free from earthly bonds by reason of his close communion with God. The conqueror Ahmad Shah took the title of *Durr-i-durrāni* or 'Pearl among Pears'; and hence his dynasty is also called *Durrāni* [Husain Shāhi, 6.]

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∗ *TAh.*, 3b, has a marginal addition :—"This Ahmad at first served Nādir Shāh as his pipe-bearer, and was one day sitting down outside the lattice-door near the Diwan-i-am of Delhi fort where Nādir was then in residence, when Nizām-ul-mulk Asaf Jāh, who knew the art of reading a man's future from his face, looked at him and predicted that he would become an Emperor. On this

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After murdering Nādir at midnight, the Qizilbāsh conspirators planned to keep the fact a secret from the rest of the army till next morning, in order to attack his favoured Afghān troops by surprise, crush them and plunder their camp, and then seize all the property of the late king without a sharer. But so great a secret could not be kept. Ahmad heard of it before morning, stood on his defence during the rest of the night, and early next morning marched in battle array towards Nādir’s tent. There he found the Qizilbāsh soldiers and camp-followers engaged in indiscriminate plunder. The Uzbak and Afghān contingents at once plunged into the game and ‘‘in four hours from the dawn no trace remained on the ground of the tents and property of Nādir Shāh. Everything had been dispersed and had disappeared’’. [Mujmil, 20-21; Jahānkushā 461.]

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The Afghān soldiers, seeing their patron dead and themselves surrounded by hostile rivals in a foreign land, marched away rapidly from Kuchān in a compact body for self-defence against any Qizilbāsh attack. At the end of the third day, they halted and held a council. Their captains said among themselves, "On the long journey before us we need a man whose commands all shall obey. It would be difficult, nay impossible, for us to reach Qandahār with the entire body of our women children and servants, in the face of the hostility of the Persians, unless we have a supreme chief. We must obey such a leader with all our power, whatever happens." All the Abdālis took this view and chose Ahmād as their commander, hailing him as Ahmad Shāh. (Mujmil, 74.)

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¹ speech being reported to Nādir, he, knowing the Nizām’s powers as a soothsayer, cut off both ears of Ahmad with his dagger, remarking, ‘When you become Emperor, this will remind people of me.’ ’ ’ ! !

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Spiritual blessing was also secured by the new king. Three days before the murder of Nādir, Ahmad had met on the way a darvish from Lāhor named Shāh Muhammad Sābir,* who had prophesied to him, "On your forehead I read the marks of royalty." The holy man then proved his supernatural powers by a miracle. After the death of Nādir, Ahmad did not forget to take the saint with him in his flight. At the first halt the darvish pressed Ahmad to make himself king. The Khān pleaded his incompetence and lack of materials befitting royal grandeur. But the holy man was not to be so put off. Piling up a small mound of earth, he seized Ahmad's hand and seated him on it saying, "This is your throne".

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∗ Shāh Sābir was the grandson of Ustā Halālkhor, a well-known farrier of Kābul, adored by the Turānis as a darvish. (Siyar, iii. 16.)

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Then strewing some barley-shoots on his head, he declared them the aigrette on his crown and styled him Durrāni Pādishāh, or ‘Pearl among kings’. [Siyar, iii. 16; Husain Shāhi, 17-18, 20; Bayān, 225; Mujmil, 74.]

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§ 9. Ahmad Abdāli gains Qandahar and Kabul.

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Arrived at Qandahār, Ahmad published the news of Nādir Shāh’s death. The Ghilzāi Afghān whom the Persian king had left as his governor in this fort, plotted to kill Ahmad by treachery. But the blow was anticipated. Abdāli killed the leading conspirators and took possession of Qandahār, where he crowned himself with full pomp and struck coins in his own name. (Mujmil, 75; Siyar, iii. 16.)

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The Afghān tribesmen flocked to Ahmad Abdāli’s standards in the hope of finding a national hero who would lead them on to a career of successful rapine as in the days of Sultān Mahmud of Ghazni. The various bodies of Nādir’s soldiers scattered in different places in the Panjāb and Afghānistān were drawn together by Taqi Khān Shirāzi (Beglar-Begi) and induced to enter Abdāli’s service. In these ways a band of 40,000 hardy warriors (only a minority of them being Qizilbāshes) soon gathered under Ahmad.

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He then looked out for money to maintain them and found it very soon.

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After arranging for the administration of Qandahār and taking oaths of allegiance from all the Abdāli tribesmen, Ahmad set out to conquer the provinces of Afghanistan from Nādir’s officers. He first took possession of Ghazni after some fighting and installed his own governor there. Nāsir Khan, a hereditary servant of the Delhi empire, had been forced by Nādir Shāh to continue as his governor of Afghanistan when that country was ceded to Persia by the treaty of 1739. In May 1747 he had left Kābul for Khurāsān at Nādir’s call to deliver the accumulated revenue of Kābul, Peshāwar and Sindh, amounting to 30 lakhs of Rupees. When he reached the neighbourhood of Qandahār, the news of Nādir’s murder had already spread abroad, and this treasure was looted and divided among themselves by some neighbouring tribal chiefs. But soon afterwards Ahmad arrived there, arrested these chieftains and forced them to disgorge the money.

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Abdāli sent Nāsir Khān back to Kābul to act as governor on his behalf, but Nāsir’s heart was averse to this service, and he left Kābul for Peshāwar (his winter headquarters) in order to be within easy reach of Delhi. Abdāli then advanced north and took unopposed possession of Kābul, from which Nāsir’s deputy had fled away.

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Ever since his accession to the throne, Ahmad Abdālī had been issuing invitations to the Afghān clans all over the country to join him and help to recover the lost sovereignty and empire of their race. Many of these tribal chiefs flocked to his standard to share in the alluring career of plunder under such a born general and national leader. From Kābul Ahmad sent an advanced detachment to occupy Peshāwar and plunder the country up to Attock on the Indus. At the news of the invaders’ approach, Nāsir Khān evacuated Peshāwar, crossed the river and took refuge in the land of Chach Hazāra; but he was driven out of this district by another Afghān force under Ahmad’s commander-in-chief Sardār-i-Jahān, and fled to Lāhor (Nov.) giving up all his property to plunder.

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Abdālī now established his own rule in Peshāwar, which city served as a very convenient starting point for the invasion of Hindustan, with the man-power of Afghanistan behind him and no great physical obstacle in front. The Khaibar Afghans quickly gathered round him and a plan of invasion was matured. [Anand, 300-302; Siyar, iii. 16-17; Bayān, 224.]

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§ 10. *Abdali invades the Panjab and captures Lahor.*

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Meantime, at the news of Abdālī’s march towards Peshāwar, Hayātullah had issued from Lāhor and taken up an entrenched position on the bank of the Rāvi, appealing to the Emperor to send him reinforcements, which never came.

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Leaving Peshāwar about the middle of December 1747, Ahmad Abdālī crossed the Indus by a bridge of boats, and the Jhilam and the Chināb by the same device, and arrived near Lāhor on 8th January 1748, his track being marked by a line of sacked and burning villages. Twelve thousand picked horsemen followed him, the core of them being composed of 6,000 devoted and veteran soldiers of his own clan who had accompanied him from Persia. A number of Afghān adventurers from the frontier also joined him on foot, in the hope of plundering the rich plains of India. This raised the invading force probably to 18,000 men, but they were absolutely without cannon.

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Abdālī’s religious guide Bābā Sābir entered Lāhor alone, avowedly to visit his mother who was living in that city, and also to make a pilgrimage to the local saints’ tombs, but really to deliver to Hayātullah an invitation from Abdālī to join him. His fame as a magician had preceded him, and people talked how his spells had turned a number of toy tents and horses into real cavalry and war equipment for Ahmad immediately after Nādir’s death. It was now reported that Sābir had come to Lāhor in order to render the Mughal artillery powerless by his charms. So formidable an enemy could not be suffered to escape. He was at once arrested by order of Hayātullah, and next day put to death by a subordinate officer without the governor’s knowledge. [Bayān 225, Siyar iii. 17-18, Anand 325.]

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After this Abdāli could no longer think of conciliating Hayātullah. On 10th January his soldiers forded the Rāvi one by one and reached the Shālamār garden four miles east of the city. Next day they appeared in force on the plain of Shāh Balādil and the hermitage of Shāh Husain. The advanced posts of the defenders were two, the small fort of Hazrat Ishān held by Hayātullah’s pay-master and an entrenchment close to the hermitage of Shāh Balādil (in the Parvizābād suburb)* commanded by Mirzā Asmatullah and Lāchin Beg. These two divisions, totalling 16,000 men, now issued to the plain to meet the enemy. The Afghāns sent out only a thousand mounted musketeers, who galloped up to the Mughals, fired their pieces, and as quickly rode back beyond range. The battle raged in this manner till evening, neither side being able to make an advance from its position. About sunset, the Indian troops, regarding the fighting as over for the day, set out to return to their trenches in the careless disorder that usually marks their retirement, when the Afghān horsemen delivered a sudden attack, charging them at full speed and firing such sharp volleys from their muskets that the imperialists were completely taken by surprise and driven off the field in hopeless rout. The paymaster and other captains, without making any attempt to rally their men in the redoubt or the trenches, fled at once to the shelter of the walled city. Adina Beg alone stood outside the city during the first quarter of the night, firing his guns to keep the exultant Afghāns back from advancing nearer than the Hazrat Ishān. Then he came back to his master and reported the situation. Hayātullah found Lāhor untenable and fled away from the city at midnight,* and his officers and soldiers followed his example, each man only thinking how to save himself.

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∗ *Hazrat Ishān* is the saint Miān Mir. The fighting took place in the tract east of old Lahor which is thus described in the Lahore Dist. Gazetteer (ed. 1883), p. 149: "From the city walls to Shālamār Miān Mir and Ichra—a circle with a radius of some three or four miles—the ground is strewn with débris interspersed with crumbling mosques, tombs, gateways and gigantic mounds."

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∗ Siyar, 18, ascribes the defeat to the inaction of Adina Beg who did not support the bakhshi in the attempt to expel the Afghans from the trenches, and his cowardice in retreating to the 14

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The rich capital of the Panjāb lay utterly undefended. Next morning (12th January) Mir Mumin and other faithful officers of the late Zakariyā Khān, who had been kept in confinement by Hayātullah, went on a mission of entreaty to Abdālī’s tent. For a ransom of 30 lakhs of Rupees, the Afghān victor agreed to spare the city from a sack, and sent his provosts to keep his soldiers back from entering Lāhor. A good deal of plunder, however, unavoidably took place in the collapse of all government.

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The capture of Lāhor more than doubled the strength of Ahmad. Not only did he gain immense wealth in the form of the city’s ransom (Rs. 22 lakhs immediately paid) and the property of the governor and his family, but he was thus enabled to equip himself with all the imperial artillery and military stores in the fort, of which he had brought none from Peshāwar. Further,

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city in broad daylight. TAh., 4b, passes over the whole fight, merely stating that Hayatullah sent a force under Jumla Kh. Afghan of Qasur, who instead of opposing the Abdāli went over to him, and so Hayatullah being unable to fight fled away. I follow Anandram, a resident of Lahor.

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This Jumla Kh. was left by Abdāli in Lahor as his governor when marching to Sarhind. [Anand, 332.]

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he seized all the horses and camels that he could find in and near Lāhor, mounted his Afghān footmen on the horses and his swivel-guns on the camels, and in this way added five or six thousand hardy men to his mobile division, with a good number of rapidly portable light artillery.

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Thus completing his preparations and feeling confident that he could now face the regular army of Delhi on equal terms, he started from Lāhor on 19th February, at the head of 12,000 men, leaving his own governor in that city, and marching eastwards to Sarhind on the road to Delhi. [Anand., 312, 325-332; Bayan 227; Siyar, iii. 17-18; Husain Shāhi, 25.]

§ 11. Slackness and indecision of Delhi Court

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Let us now see what the imperial Government had been doing in the meantime in the face of this terrible danger. The Emperor had received many and early warnings of the coming invasion, but infatuation had seized his Court, and even the fresh memory of the loss and humiliation suffered in consequence of Nādir's invasion could not awaken any of his officers to a sense of their duty and the needs of the situation. Irresolution, conflict of counsel, procrastination and inertia now marked the measures of the Delhi Government to an even more shameful extent than when the Persian conqueror was threatening it.

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As early as 1st September 1747, Muhammad Shāh had received from Amīr Beg (Nāsir Khān’s deputy at Kābul) the copy of a proclamation issued by Abdālī on 15th July, appointing Muhammad Hāshim Afridi the chieftain (“mālik and grey-beard”) of all the Afridi tribesmen in the Peshāwar district. (Anandrām, 298.) About the middle of November followed the report of Abdālī’s occupation of Kābul and of the appearance of a detachment of his troops near Attock, oppressing and plundering the entire district. Close on its heels came the news of the invader’s capture of Peshāwar and the flight of Nāsir Khān to Lāhor.

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The situation which resulted at Lāhor from Hayātullah’s usurpation of its government put the imperial Court into the greatest perplexity. The usurper held the lawful deputy governor Yahiyā Khān in his hands, and the despatch of a force from the capital to oust him might drive him to kill his captive, who was also a son-in-law of the wazir. Therefore, by the wazir’s advice the Emperor had temporised with Hayātullah, sent him smooth messages, and even held protracted parleys with the envoy sent by the rebel to Delhi to negotiate for the grant of the subahdāri to him. The situation was made more critical by Abdālī’s conquest of Qandahār and Kābul, which naturally raised the fear that if he invaded India the least sign of disfavour at the Delhi Court would drive Hayātullah into the arms of the invader. Therefore, the Delhi Government, instead of boldly facing the danger and crushing the rebel at Lāhor by a prompt and vigorous attack, found wisdom in doing nothing but talking indecisively and letting matters drift.

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Even when the Emperor learnt that the invaders had taken Peshāwar and their advanced troops had appeared near Attock (early in November), he did not realize the seriousness of the threat tc Lāhor. True, he sent his advance tents out of Delhi one day’s march towards the Panjāb on 23rd November; but he fixed a date fully three weeks later (14th December) for actually starting from his capital. He was confirmed in his blindness by the report that the Afghān raiders had gone back from Attock to Peshāwar. The news was very grateful to his indolent and weak character. He had lived in Delhi now for 28 years since his accession, without ever going more than a few miles outside his capital (except on two occasions only.) He had grown extremely ease-loving, and in addition was now suffering from the effects of the opium habit.

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At this time he fell ill again and the doctors forbade him to be moved.

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What was to be done to meet the danger from the north-west? On this question there was a sharp division of opinion at his Court. Seasoned captains told His Majesty that unless he led the army in person, the ease-loving soldiers of Hindustān would not face the veterans of Irān. The carpet-knights of the Court, who had never seen a battle, bragged that the Afghān upstart did not deserve the honour of the Shāhān-shāh taking the field in person against him and that any one of his nobles could bring him back a captive tied hand and foot. [Mujmil, 99.] The wazir, who was wiser, warned the Emperor that if he wished to achieve victory he must march out of Delhi and go at least to some place nearer to Lāhor, such a Pānipat or Karnāl, and thence send the army on under the wazir to meet the invasion. "The Emperor in speech agreed to this counsel, but he could never resolve on such action and constantly put off the date fixed for his starting." (Anandrām, 308-312.) Nothing was therefore done. Inaction is the course dearest to imbeciles.

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§ 12. Army sent from Delhi to oppose Abdali.

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On 22nd December Muhammad Shāh learnt that Abdāli had begun his march from Peshāwar towards Lāhor with a strong force. But even then the urgency of the case was not brought home to his mind. By this time his malady had progressed too far to permit him to move, and yet he would not allow his only son, Prince Ahmad, to go in his place at the head of this expedition. So, all the State treasuries were emptied and 60 *lakhs* of Rupees were thus collected which were distributed among the nobles to enable them to equip themselves for this campaign. That aged drunkard and smooth-tongued advocate of utter inaction, the wazir Qamruddin Khān, was appointed supreme commander, with Safdar Jang (*subahdār* of Oudh), Ishwari Singh (Rājah of Jaipur and chief of the Rajput feudatories), and Nāsir Khān (late governor of Kābul) as his assistants.

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Even after this, the delay made by them in moving was disgraceful. The wazir was given formal leave to depart on 8th January 1748, but he had to halt for 4 or 5 days to enable the artillery to join him. Ishwari Singh had asked for the fort of Rantambhor, which the Emperor refused, and the Rājah grew lukewarm in his zeal and put off his own march as long as he decently could.

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At long last this huge army, numbering with its camp followers more than two hundred thousand souls and encumbered with heavy artillery, began its slow and ponderous march from Delhi, halting frequently on the way. It had not yet reached Narela (16 miles north of Delhi), when the news came that Abdāli had already taken Lāhor and was raising fresh troops there. The Delhi army was overcome with terror of the enemy. The generals sent a deputation to the Emperor, begging that he should despatch his son to lead them. There was no help for it now; the Emperor agreed. Prince Ahmad started from Delhi on 31st January. Overtaking the main army near Sonpat, he quickened its pace. Karnāl was rapidly crossed (19th February) because of the bad omen of its having witnessed another foreign invader's triumph over the Delhi forces nine years earlier! Here it was learnt that Ali Muhammad Ruhela, the imperial *faujdār* of Sarhind, had deserted his station and fled to his home, Aonla in the Barily district, so that the most important outpost between Lāhor and Delhi was left without a defender. The prince, therefore, pushed on as fast as he could and arrived near Sarhind on the 25th.

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The enemy had not yet been sighted nor had any news of his movements reached the imperialists. But he could not be far off. In this situation the Delhi army made an incredible blunder which can be explained only by the utter fatuity of its chiefs and the hopeless degeneration of public life in India in that age. As a sufferer, Anandrām Mukhlis, writes, "The nobles displayed an astounding ignorance and neglect. They made no attempt to collect intelligence; they did not care to guard their communications with Delhi in the rear, nor the route for the coming of provisions to their camp, but left Sarhind in this state (of negligence.) The enemy's cavalry would have met with no obstacle on the way if it had made a dash on Delhi".

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The women of the wazir's harem and all the heavy baggage, treasure, and surplus stores and carts of this huge army were left in the small fort of Sarhind with a garrison of 1,000 horse and foot under a eunuch of the wazir, while the army advanced towards the Satlaj. The straight route between Sarhind and Lāhor crosses that river at Ludhiāna, but as the water-level was lower at the ford of Machhiwārā, 22 miles above Ludhiāna, the imperial chiefs decided to make a detour via Machhiwārā, thus leaving the customary and shorter road far to their left. And yet they did not send any detachment to hold Ludhiāna, nor even posted scouts there to watch for the enemy's appearance. Worse than that, the advancing army immediately lost touch with its depot at Sarhind, as it did not care to maintain a lengthening chain of outposts from that base to itself.

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As against such incredible infatuation and military incompetence, the enemy displayed unusual alertness and activity. Abdālī’s force consisted of about twelve thousand* mounted men, without heavy artillery, but extremely mobile and armed with nearly a thousand light pieces (swivels, jizail) placed on camels which could move as fast as the cavalry. In addition, the ruthless vigour of this veteran lieutenant of the Persian Napoleon maintained strict secrecy about his movements. "Abdālī had ordered his troops to slay every Indian whom they might find in their camp or in the plains, so that not a single spy of the wazir or of any other noble who went out to scout returned alive". (Mujmil, 101.) Thus, quite in the dark about the enemy’s position and intentions, the doomed Indian army marched out of Sarhind on 27th February and reached Bharaoli (14 miles north of that town and eleven miles short of Māchhiwārā.) While halting here, the imperialists were astonished to learn that Abdālī had cut into their rear, seized Sarhind, annihilated its garrison, and got possession of all their treasure artillery and women left there. We shall now see how this happened. [Anand., 313-15, 322-324, 333-337 ; Bayān, 228,232 ; TAh. 4b.-5a.]

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∗ According to Ānandrām (p. 332) Abdālī left Lahor with nearly 30,000 men. Six to seven thousand men had accompanied Abdālī from Peshāwar to Lahor acc. to Ashub, ii. 454, (25,000 acc. to Ānandrām, 312.)

§ 13. Abdali captures Sarhind

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After leaving Lāhor on 19th February, Abdāli had forded the Satlaj at Ludhiāna (1st March) and pushed on to Sarhind (40 miles south-eastwards) in the course of the following night. Early next morning he delivered an impetuous attack on the utterly surprised garrison of the fort. The fire of his camel-swivels drove the defenders away from the walls. Then the Afghāns by one rush reached the gate of the fort, broke it open and entered within, pillaging slaying and burning the thatched houses in the fort and the city. The imperial musketeers soon exhausted their powder and shot and were then butchered; the women were reduced to slavery. It is difficult to exaggerate the effect of this victory on the whole campaign. All the rockets, military stores, treasure &c. of the Delhi army except what was carried by the troops in the field, fell into Abdāli’s hands and immensely strengthened him. The imperialists were correspondingly depressed; their rear was cut into and the invader was reported to be on the march to Delhi with a clear path before him. The alarm reached the capital (about 10th March); the Emperor ordered a detachment to go with artillery to Sarāi Bādli, 7 miles northwest of Delhi, and block the invader's route. The ordinary citizens made a rush to flee from the city and thus escape a repetition of Nādir's massacre, but the police, under orders, shut the gates to keep them in. Many citizens however sent their women outside in disguise. [TAh. 6a.]

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After taking Sarhind, Abdāli wisely sent his booty, tents and heavy baggage to Lāhor, in order to lighten his force. Then he entrenched his camp in the imperial garden outside Sarhind, put a garrison of 4,000 to defend it as his base, and sought the imperialists out. [Anand. 337, Siyar 19, Mujmil 102.]

§ 14. Delhi army at Manupur

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The news of the loss of Sarhind was brought to the prince’s camp late on 2nd March by ten Persian scouts whom Safdar Jang had sent out. But the wazir, blinded by conceit, would not believe it, as none of his own spies had returned. Therefore, the imperial army lost one precious day in sending out fresh scouts to verify the report. When the news was found to be too true, "it so alarmed the chiefs and soldiers of India that they were on the point of dispersing without offering battle.” (*Mujmil*, 103.) The prince immediately beat a hurried retreat from Bharaoli towards Sarhind and reached Mānupur, a village ten miles north-west of the latter city, where the enemy were sighted. Here the imperialists halted and began to entrench themselves as a measure of defence. Guns were ranged round the tents of the prince and the other generals, their wheels being chained together in the Turkish fashion, ditches were dug and the earth heaped up to form ramparts, and *sangars* (musket-houses) were built at suitable points.

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