Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s5.3

v1.c13.s5.3

Safdar Jang had publicly assumed the wazir’s office on 20th June 1748. Within five months of it his enemies struck their first blow at him. On 20th November he was returning from the Idgah plain after the public prayer and had almost reached the entrance to the vaulted arcade leading to his own residence (once the mansion of Prince Dara Shukoh) close to the canal in the Nigambodh quarter of the city (north of the modern Calcutta Gate of Delhi Fort), and the holiday crowd in that narrow street had checked his movement, when a sudden discharge of light pieces (rahkala) rocket and carbine from a shop on the right hand side struck his cortege. His horse and two or three servants riding before him were fatally wounded; Safdar Jang himself fell down but escaped without injury. A search revealed that these fire-arms had been planted behind a screen on the projecting terrace of a shop, trained at the level of a rider going through the street below, and their fire had missed the wazir by inches. It was the work of a very skilled artilleryist, but he could not be detected in spite of all inquiries. The room was found deserted and closed from behind, evidently an instant after the discharge. The popular belief was that the miscreant had been set on by Intizām-ud-daulah and afterwards concealed by him. Safdar Jang ordered that the quarter of the city to be sacked. The sparks from the rocket had burnt the thatched roofs of the shops in that street, and now the wazir dismantled all the houses from the steps of the canal to his own mansion. Hindu monks had been living on the river bank in this Nigambodh quarter from time immemorial; they were now ejected and the wazir's men took up residence there. [TAh. 17b;