Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s6.1

v1.c13.s6.1

Balarām Jāt (popularly called Balu) was the son of a petty revenue-collector (chaudhuri) of Faridabad, 18 miles south of Delhi. Supported by his family connection with Badan Singh, the Jat Rajah of Bharatpur, he extended his power by seizing the neighbouring villages and ousting their lawful owners and the local magistrates. Such a thorn could not be tolerated in the road between Delhi and Agra. So, when Balu Jat’s men expelled the imperial outpost at Shamspur, the wazir sent another force there. But it was boldly resisted by the Jat, and Safdar Jang himself marched against him. The wazir had only reached Khizirābād (probably on 30 June 1750) when Balarām in terror came and made a humble submission through the Maratha envoy, and was sent back to his home after a few days, on his promising to be the wazir’s follower. He built a mud fort and named it Ballamgarh, (five miles south of Faridabad) and by leasing the revenue-collection of Palwal and Faridābād (which lay in the Nizām’s jāgir) soon made himself a district governor and noble (rāi.) [TAh. 22b-23a; D.C. But Chah. Gulz. 402a differs.]