Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s3.10

v1.c13.s3.10

The insolvency of the imperial Government made it impossible for it to pay the soldiers, whose salary fell into arrears for 14, 18, and finally 36 months. The starving troops mutinied and made riotous disturbances in the streets of Delhi, attacking the military paymasters and blocking the gates of the palace or the ministers' mansions so as to prevent ingress and egress and reduce the inmates to starvation. After the death of Amir Khan, his contingent, whose pay was due for 14 months, assembled at his gate and prevented his burial for four days, until their claims were satisfied. The monotonous tale of such riots by one or other class of soldiers in almost every month, with its sickening details, runs through the entire history of the reign of Ahmad Khan written by a loyal courtier and the terse *Delhi Chronicle*. Shākir Khan of Pānipat, a devoted hereditary servant of the house of Bābur, thus describes the tragic situation :