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Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15: Chapter X

Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15

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Chapter X

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THE PANJAB, 1748—1754.

§ 1. Muin-ul-mulk subahdar of the Panjab; his enemies at home

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When the Emperor Muhammad Shah learnt of the defeat of the Afghan invader and the death of his wazir Qamruddin at Mānupur (11th March, 1748), he appointed the wazir's son Muin-ul-mulk subahdār of Lāhor. This was quite natural, as the late wazir had held the subahdāri of Lāhor in addition to the Chancellorship of the Empire and Muin had greatly distinguished himself in the battle that ended in Abdali's defeat. Muin's orders were to chase the Afghan king out of India and recover possession of the Panjāb.

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This was no easy task, as the civil war between Zakariyā Khan's sons for the governorship of Lāhor and the subsequent Afghan invasion had completely disintegrated the provincial administration, swept away the imperial authority, and introduced anarchy. After the battle of Mānupur, Prince Ahmad and Muin marched towards Lāhor, and arriving on the Satlaj near Ludhiāna halted for 22 days, at the end of which they heard that the Abdali had crossed the Indus at Attock and gone away towards Qandahār, vacating the province. But at the same place came (9th Apr.) a letter of recall from the Emperor and the prince set out (12th April) with the imperial army for return to Delhi, sending Muin as *subahdār* to Lahor under orders of the Emperor. This step left Muin with no resources except his personal contingent,—the remnant that had survived the Afghān onslaught at Mānupur—to support him in controlling the unruly province of Lāhor. In the camp on the Satlaj he went to the tents of the old captains and comrades of his father and begged them to accompany him. But love of family and the attraction of the easy life of the capital prevailed over ambition and gratitude; they refused and returned to Delhi with the heir apparent.

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Muin had no help but to start for his new seat of government with less than 2000 cavalry and a small number of other troops who were personally attached to him. In a few days he reached Lāhor and was welcomed outside it by the former officials and leading citizens of the place. He took up his residence in Fidāi Khan’s mansion beyond the city walls and set about raising troops. The recruits were naturally men of his own race, namely Turks of Central Asia (popularly called Mughlai),* many of whom were roving about in search of employment after the disruption of Nadir Shah’s army. [Miskin. TAh. 10b.]

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The new viceroy was an intelligent and just but lordly and easy-going ruler. He was confronted with enemies within the empire and outside it, but the former were the more formidable of the two. The new imperial wazir, Safdar Jang, was the malignant star in the Delhi firmament. Devoid of far-sighted statesmanship, patriotism or devotion to the throne, he was destined to ruin the Mughal Empire by pursuing a policy of blind self-aggrandisement. His one thought was how to ensure himself in the Delhi Government by raising around himself a ring of dependable clients at Court and in the provinces. The Persian party among the nobles, with Shia recruits of other races, was to be installed in office everywhere. Above all, the dynasty of Muhammad Amin Khan Ahrāri, which had held the wazirship for thirty years, ever since the fall of the Sayyid brothers, must be prevented from making that office its hereditary property with the support of other nobles of the Turki party, such as the Nizām. The late wazir’s son, crowned with the laurels of Mānupur, would prove a formidable rival for the wazirate and the rallying centre of the Turki party, if he could firmly establish himself in the Panjāb and use that martial province as a recruiting ground for the best fighters in India, so as to make his claim to his father’s office irresistible.

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∗ Among these newly enlisted mercenaries were two captains (jamadārs) Sabātuddin and Nāzir Muhammad Beg, who gave to Muin, as presents on the day of their first audience, three Turki boys aged eight years, including Tahmāsp. This Tahmāsp lived to become a Delhi peer and to dictate (in 1780, under the pen-name of Miskin) a most valuable and original account of the occurrences in the Panjāb during the next ten years and in the Delhi Empire for a generation later (Br. Mus. Pers. 8807.)

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The first instrument of this malicious design was Nāsir Khan, ex-governor of Kābul, who was recently living in Delhi in unemployment and official neglect. On removing to Lāhor in search of bread, he was received very kindly by Muin who appointed him *faujdār* of the "four Mahals,"—Siālkot, Pasrur, Gujrat and Aurangabad,—gave him some money, and promised to support him in an attempt to recover Kābul from Abdāli after Nāsir had established his power and prestige in his new charge. The ungrateful wretch, after about a year of service, felt himself grown strong enough to turn against his benefactor. He listened to Safdar Jang’s seductive messages urging him to increase his army, fight Muin, and wrest from his grasp the subahdāri of Lāhor, which would then be formally conferred upon him by a letter patent from the Court through the wazir’s influence! Nāsir by offers of higher pay seduced a thousand Uzbak horsemen of Muin to desert to his side. The plot now leaked out. Muin with great promptitude equipped a force, marched to Siālkot, and after a four hours’ battle drove Nāsir Khan in utter rout to Delhi, “covered with public disgrace” (c. July 1749.) [Miskin 5-6, Muz. 9, 26, TAh. 24b.]

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At the same time Safdar Jang had planted another thorn in the sides of Muin. He had found a useful tool for this purpose in Shahnawaz Khan (Hizbar Jang, the second son of Zakariya Khan), who, though a Turk by birth, had become a Shia like Safdar Jang and sought his patronage. The wazir told him, “The subahdāri of Lahor is your rightful heritage. Prepare yourself to win it by all means. Go to Multan, there increase your army, and expel Muin from Lāhor by force.” The wazir sent Shahnawaz to Multan (c. May 1749), with an imperial letter of appointment as subahdar of that province and some money and equipment of his own. This noble, on arrival at Multan, began to increase his army by seducing Muin’s soldiers with offers of higher pay, and in this way gathered 15,000 men, horse and foot, round his banners with some pieces of artillery.

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Then he wrote to Muin asking for a passport to visit his father’s tomb at Lahor! The trick was too transparent. Muin took prompt action. He sent an army under his Bakhshi Asmat Khan and his diwan Rajah Kuramal to Multan, where Shahnawaz was defeated, his army was dissolved, and Kuramal was installed as governor on behalf of Muin (c. Sep. or Oct. 1749.) [Miskin 7-8, Muz. 26, TAh. 25a.]

§ 2. Abdali's second invasion; loss of the four mahals

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Muin had not yet been long enough in the Panjab to establish himself fully in power and to gather adequate military strength. The two recent attempts to oust him had, no doubt, been foiled, but they had caused an immense loss of revenue to him and disturbed the country. In this state of weakness, before he could gain breathing time, it was his cruel fate to be called upon to meet a foreign invasion. It was only natural that when such intestine wars were raging in India’s most important frontier province, and selfishness was totally blinding the highest officers of the realm, and greed of money was the sole guiding motive of her foreign mercenary defenders, the enemy beyond the mountain passes could not be asleep. India’s internal condition was cheering news to Ahmad Abdāli, and in the autumn of 1749 he set out to try his luck once more and to imitate the career of Mahmud of Ghazni on the Indian soil.

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Muin collected his forces, advanced northwards to meet the enemy, and made his base at Sadra, 3 miles east of the modern Wazirabad on the Chenāb. From this place the Afghan position was several miles distant.* Scouts and foraging parties from the two sides daily rode into the intervening belt of land, fought skirmishes, and fell back on their own camps in the evening. This kind of desultory warfare continued for months, and the campaign could not be pressed to a decisive issue, as both sides were weak, Abdali’s expedition being really intended to probe the defensive strength of the imperial frontier. But the scene of war was devastated and the continued strain and hardship began to tell upon Muin’s Mughalia troops. So, at last he made peace through the mediation of a holy man, Maulavi Abdullah (about February 1750.) Abdali was promised 14 *lakhs* of Rupees as the annual surplus revenue of the "four mahals"—Siālkot, Pasrur, Gujrāt and Aurangabad,—which Muhammad Shah had assigned to Nādir Shah by treaty. They were, no doubt, to be still governed by the Delhi Emperor's agents and in his name; but the Afghān, all the same, got the first slice of India proper. [*Siyar*, iii. 30; *Muz*. 27; *Bayan* 248-249; *TAh*. 8; *Miskin* 4.]

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∗ Miskīn's topography seems to be confused. He says that Abdali crossed the Chenab and boldly advanced [this must be eastwards, towards Lahor], and that Muin set out from Lahor and on reaching that river encamped at Sodra, whence the enemy was 15 kos distant [5 kos would be more correct.] Where, then was Abdali's camp, westwards beyond the Chenāb, or south-east of the Chenāb and therefore in Muin's rear [unlikely]? This writer (a boy of nine at that time) has evidently reversed the positions of the two armies, when writing from memory 30 years later. Abdali was at Sodra and Muin some 10 or 15 miles east of him and nearer to Lahor.

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§ 3. *Sikh rebels and raiders, their character.*

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For the next two years the Panjāb enjoyed peace from the side of Afghanistan; but its internal condition was no more tranquil or happy than before. The *subahdār* made frequent tours throughout his charge to suppress refractory local chieftains and predatory villagers. The Sikhs were already becoming a thorn in the sides of the established Government. The disintegration of imperial authority presented a golden opportunity to these born rebels. The martial religion of Guru Govind had knit the Sikhs together into organised bands of soldiers, with perfect brotherhood in their ranks and freedom from the distinctions of caste, social gradation, and food which embarrass and divide the Hindus. They were mostly recruited from the sturdy race of Jat peasantry, hardy, strong-limbed, prolific "like ants and locusts," and accustomed to regard highway robbery as a hereditary and honourable profession. The Panjāb breeds excellent horses, for superior to the dwarfish mares ridden by the Marāthas. Each Sikh marauder was "well mounted and armed with a spear, sword and good matchlock," and they acted in bands under petty chieftains of their own, who had the wisdom to combine with others in the pursuit of the same trade. "The Sikh Uhlan's endurance and rapidity of movement were quite commensurate with his rapacity, enabling him to baffle, if not defy, superior numbers . . . . At a pinch, he could march some twenty or thirty miles a day on no better fare than a little parched gram washed down with pure cold water. A tent he despised, baggage in the ordinary sense of the word he had none . . . Besides his weapons, his whole kit consisted of horse-gear, a few of the simplest cooking utensils, and two blankets, one for himself, and another for his faithful steed . . . . Although his tactics mainly resolved themselves into a prolonged series of skirmishes conducted somewhat after the Parthian fashion, yet in the strife of men contending hand to hand, he was terrible, though helpless against good artillery.” [G. R. C. Williams in *Calcutta Review*, No. 119 (1875.)] In this last respect, as well as in the excellent size breed and fleetness of their horses and their universal use of fire arms, the Sikhs far surpassed the Marāthas as fighters.

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The Sikh enemies of the Mughal empire fell into two classes regionally, each with a different history and line of action, namely, cis-Satlaj and trans-Satlaj,—i.e., those living south-east of the Satlaj, between Ludhiana and Karnal, and those whose homes lay north-west of that river, between Ludhiana and Lahor. The former in time developed into territorial magnates,—the Rajahs of Patiala, Kapurthala, Nabha and Jhind, besides smaller chiefs, by first passing through the stage of robbers of the imperial highway from Delhi to Lahor which ran through their homes. The latter were originally rebels defying the civil administration of the governor of Lahor, and supplementing their assertion of independence with the plunder of their weaker neighbours. In the second stage of Sikh expansion, *i.e.*, after 1761, the cis-Satlaj Sikhs became settled in principalities of their own, while the trans-Satlaj or Manjha Sikhs began to cross the river every year and usually without any co-operation from their local brethren, used to blackmail, rob or burn the villages and unwalled cities of the entire country from Delhi to Mirat, Saharanpur and Hardwar. The third stage began with the new invasion of the cis-Satlaj region by Sikhs from beyond that river under Bedi Singh of Una in 1794 and Ranjit Singh in 1806. But these events would bring us to the British period of Indian history.

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§ 4. Revival of Sikh power after 1739; the course of its growth.

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The complete suppression of the false Guru Banda and his band of ferocious fanatics (1713) had effectually crushed the Sikhs as a rebellious and fighting force for one generation. Then the manifest impotence of the Delhi empire revealed by Nadir Shah’s easy and complete triumph over it, tempted these people to raise their heads once more. While Zakariya Khan’s strong and vigilant rule kept peace in the trans-Satlaj region (belonging to his subah of Lahor) up to his death (1745), the cis-Satlaj region, forming part of the subah of Delhi, began to see a revival of disorder and rapine. In 1740 a large body of Jats and Sikhs gathered together, chose a leader whom they styled Daranat Shah, and marched through the Sarhind district, causing a great disturbance and seizing many villages. It was only a force sent from Delhi under Azimullah Khan that could defeat and disperse them. (*Chahar Gulzar*, 373 *a.*)

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The unusually prolonged life and exceptional ability of Ala Singh Jat (in power from 1714 to 1765) enabled him to found the kingdom of Patiala in the Sarhind district on an enduring basis. His success was crowned at the close of his life when he was recognised as the lawful governor of Sarhind (in 1764.) During the intervening period he was the centre of nearly all the lawless risings in this region. The Rai family of Raikot (converted to Islam in the 13th century) were the leading landowners of this district, till they were eclipsed by the house of Patiala in the middle of the 18th century. They first shook off the authority of the Delhi Government about 1740 and, though defeated and driven out in 1741 by a combination of the imperial faujdar of Sarhind and Ala Singh, soon afterwards recovered their patrimony, gained Ludhiana in 1760, and extended their dominions by an amicable settlement of their respective spheres of influence with the Patiala Rajahs and other Sikh chiefs of the district. Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1767 confirmed Amar Singh, the grandson and successor of Ala, as governor of Sarhind with the title of Maharajah, and the whole of this tract up to Ambala city finally fell into the hands of the Sikhs (Phulkian and their Manjha allies), each chief or confederacy (misl) seizing as many villages as they could. (Ludhiana Gazetteer, 22-24.)

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This was the situation as developed by the course of events after 1761 in the cis-Satlaj region, which in the geography of Mughal India was not a part of the Panjab. We are, however, in this chapter concerned with the Sikh risings in the *subah* of Lahor, i.e., in the region from Lahor eastwards to the Satlaj.

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The political change which began in the Panjab after 1745, promoted a new upheaval of the Sikh element. Zakariya Khan had maintained public contentment and order by his strong and vigilant administration, his love of justice and regard for his subjects. His death, followed by the civil war between his sons and the Abdali invasion, ruined the government of the province and its finances. Muin-ul-mulk no doubt came in 1748 as substantive governor, but his forces were inadequate to bring the whole province back to order and restore the normal administration completely. He had to maintain a large force of freshly arrived recruits from Central Asia with lavish bounties. His household expenditure was also very heavy on account of his lordly and extravagant style of living, as we see vividly illustrated in the memoirs of his page Tahmasp Miskin.

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“He could refuse nothing to his friends” (Muz. 81.) In consequence his income fell far short of his expenses, and the peasants were subjected to severe exaction and oppression. The Sikhs were known to hold it a religious duty to help one another of the faith to the utmost. So, wherever the villagers underwent oppression, they let their hair and bread grow, cried out *Akāl! Akāl!* and embraced the religion of Guru Govind. The other Sikhs came to their help, and thus their religion spread rapidly through the Panjab. As the peasantry were more and more ruined by their rulers, the number of Sikhs multiplied in proportion. This phenomenon became most manifest after Muin’s death and during the incompetent and changeful regency of his widow Mughlāni Begam. [Siyar, iii. 51.]

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§ 5. Muin’s struggles with the Sikhs.

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Even during Muin’s lifetime small bands of Sikhs had been robbing the country and defying the Government in the region east of Lahor, especially in the Batala and Kalanur districts, and punitive expeditions had to be constantly sent out against them, sometimes under the governor in person. The Sikhs in that age were “helpless against artillery,” and hence Muin very thoughtfully had 990 *jizails* made and employed them against the Sikh brigands. His detachments "ran after these wretches (up to) 28 kos, and slew them whenever they stood up to a fight. Whosoever brought a Sikh's head to Muin received a reward of Rs. ten for each man slain. Any soldier who captured a Sikh's horse could keep it as his own. If his own horse perished in the campaign, another was given to him from the Government stables. (Miskin, 12.)

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One expedition led against the Sikhs by Muin himself towards the close of 1752 is thus described by his page: "When the Nawāb Sāhib (i.e., Muin-ul-mulk) was out on an administrative tour, in the Batālā district, he heard that a large body of Sikhs were causing disturbances in that neighbourhood, stopping the roads and ruining the cultivators. He sent Sayyid Jamiluddin Khan with his bakhshi Ghāzi Beg Khan to punish them. These officers marched to the scene, fought the Sikhs and put them to flight. Nine hundred of the Sikh infantry threw themselves into the small fort of Rāmroti, close to Chak Guru Hargovind, which Jamiluddin immediately invested. After a few days the garrison rushed out sword in hand, fell upon the besiegers, and were all slain. (Miskin, 17.) But this slaughter had no more effect than stamping upon a few hundred white ants. Such conflicts with Sikh bands continued till the very day of Muin's death (3rd November 1753)* and grew more numerous after him.

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§ 6. *Abdali's third invasion; capture of Lahor.*

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While the running sore of scattered Sikh risings was thus ceaselessly draining the lifeblood of the Panjāb Government, the province was again assailed by the Abdāli. The annual tribute for the "four mahals" promised by the treaty of 1750 had not been paid even in part. Abdali wrote to Muin from the frontier saying, "This breach of treaty has made me come. Send me 24 lakhs of Rupees for the three years past and then I shall go away." Muin replied that Nāsir Khan, who had administered the four mahals during the first two years, had run away with all the revenue collected during that time, and that he himself could pay the tribute for the only year that he had held that tract. The Abdali was not to be thus put off. In December 1751, he made his third invasion, with a much larger army than ever before. When he arrived on the bank of the Indus, Muin sent him 9 *lakhs* as the revenue of the four *mahals*. Abdali took the money, but continued his invasion. Muin sent his entire family to the Jammu hills for safety. The richer citizens of Lāhor fled in alarm to Delhi and other places. [*TAh.* 30.]

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∗ His page writes, "Wherever he heard of Sikh risings he sent Khwājah Mirzā with troops to suppress them. The Sikhs who were captured alive were sent to hell by being beaten with wooden mallets . . . At times Adina Beg sent 40 or 50 Sikh captives from the (Jālandar) Doāb district; they were killed with strokes of wooden hammers." (Miskin, 19.) Another fight with the Sikhs at which Miskin was present, during the subahdari of Muin's infant, is described in Miskin, 22-23.

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From his capital Muin-ul-mulk hastily advanced to check the enemy on the way. Crossing the Rāvi he marched by way of Shāhdarā to the Bridge of Shāh Daulā, 22 miles north of Lāhor. Here he lay encamped in a strong position protected by numerous artillery, while the scouts on both sides daily engaged in skirmishes.

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Then the veteran Afghan king made a daring move. Leaving his camp standing some distance in front of Muin’s position, he with a picked light force made a wide detour to the right round the latter’s camp, suddenly arrived in the environs of Lahor, and took post near the shrine of Shāh Balādil. Some houses in the suburbs, outside the walls, were plundered. The Afghān vanguard, reported to be 10,000 horse under their king’s lieutenant Jahān Khan, occupied the Faiz Bakhsh garden.

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Muin, finding his rear turned, hastened back towards Lahor. On reaching the bank of the Ravi at Rajghat, he halted and detached Khwajah Mirza Khan with all his corps of 900 Mughalia troops armed with *jizails* across the river to dislodge the Afghans from the garden, which was effected after a long and stubborn fight.

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Next day, the Afghans marched away towards the Shālāmār gardens. Muin then crossed over to the Lahor side of the Ravi and formed an entrenchment outside the city. The war now entered on the stalemate stage. The Abdali could neither storm Lahor on account of his lack of artillery, nor drive Muin out of his trenches, and Muin too had not a sufficiently large mobile force to enable him to sally out and seek a decision with the Afghans in the open. The patrols on the two sides had frequent brushes. Ahmad every day sent out strong detachments which systematically ravaged the country for forty miles on each hand, so that "no lamp was lighted in any house for a distance of three marches and grain became exceedingly dear." (Miskin, 14.)

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No reinforcement reached the defender of Lahor during these four critical months. The Emperor repeatedly wrote to his wazir about the urgency of the case and the dangerous condition of the frontier province, but Safdar Jang took no action, being more bent upon crushing his private foes and settling his own subah of Oudh. The other nobles were too poor to afford any help. In Muin's own camp divided counsels reigned: Bihkāri Khan advocated peace at any price, Kuramal pressed for battle after distributing the proposed ransom among Muin's own soldiers and thus heartening them for the contest, while Adina Beg and Mumin Khan wavered between war and peace from day to day. [*TAh.* 32o.]

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The war dragged on in this manner for a month and a half.* Then came a catastrophe. The Lahor army's long confinement within its trenches made the place foul and unhealthy, denuded the neighbourhood of grass and trees, and exhausted the wells. At last it was decided to shift the camp some ten miles to a better position with a plentiful supply of good water, grass and fuel. Next morning (5th March 1752), the march began at dawn. Adina Beg led the van, Diwan Kuramal the rear, and Muin himself the centre where all the baggage was placed loaded on carts and transport beasts. But the news of the movement had leaked out, and as soon as this huge multitude of soldiers, camp followers and animals began its slow and ponderous march, it was assailed by the mobile Afghan horse in front and rear. The mounds of old brick vacated by Muin's artillery were immediately occupied by the enemy, who began to command the moving columns with their light swivel-guns, while their swift horsemen hovered around. "The order of the Lahor army fell into confusion."

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∗ According to Husaini, p. 31. But *Siyar* iii. 43, *Muz.* 57 and Miskin 16 say that Muin opposed the Abdali for four months; evidently that period covered the entire campaign from the stand at the Bridge of Shah Daula to the fall of Lahor. Abdali's capture of Lahor.—*TAh.* 30a, 32; Miskin, 13-16. The other sources are later or secondary. *Siyar* iii. 43-44, *Muz.* 57-59, Husaini 31-34, Elliot viii. 167-168. Lahore Gazetteer (1883), 27, places the Abdali's camp near the Shālamār gardens, Muin's entrenchments "a short distance from the suburb of Shāhdara" and the last battle near the village of Mahmud Buti.

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Attacked vigorously in front and rear and threatened on both flanks, Muin sent 300 of his Mughalia *jizail*-men to support Adina Beg and the same number to Kuramal, while he kept Khwajah Mirza with the remaining 300 by his own side. Adina Beg is accused by some contemporary writers of having treacherously neglected to support Kuramal, so that cohesion among the three divisions of Muin's army was lost.* When Kuramal was hastening to his master's defence, a cannon-ball wounded his elephant. As he was changing it for another he was shot down by a bullet, and his troops dispersed in a panic. Thus Muin's rear was entirely uncovered and the exultant enemy attacked his division (the centre.) Here after a heroic resistance, two of his leading officers were wounded. But mercifully the shades of evening now closed on the field of terror confusion and death, and the remnant of the Indian army was saved. Some Afghans entered the city of Lahor pellmell with the fugitives and started plundering. In the thick darkness of that night, neither the citizens nor the soldiers could see anything distinctly, and so every one in his distraction sought safety by flight.

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∗ *Siyar.* (iii. 43), *Muz.* (58), Shakir (78), *Farhat-un-nāzirin* (in Elliot viii. 168.) The last charges Adina Beg with having shot Kuramal from behind.

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Meantime, Muin-ul-mulk had kept his place in the field and said his sunset prayer where he stood. All was not lost, as he still had some 10,000 men within call of him, but without any artillery or ammunition for the jizails. His captains took him with themselves to the Idgah, two miles from his position, in the hope of finding Adina Beg there, but that general had sought his own safety without thinking of his master. Muin had no help now but to grope his way in the darkness and enter the city of Lahor by one of its gates. He put up for the night in the mansion of Mir Amin Khan. Utter confusion raged in the capital of the Panjab during that dreadful night; none knew who else were in the city or who was where.

§ 7. Muin surrenders to Abdali

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With the return of daylight Muin promptly took such measures of defence as were possible under the circumstances; he posted his most trustworthy soldiers to man the walls and dug trenches where the fortifications were weak. Abdali invited him to a conference for settling a peace. Muin fearlessly went there with only three attendants, namely two sons of Jan Nisar Khan and a eunuch. Two of the highest Afghan nobles welcomed him and presented him to their king. Ahmad Shah asked, "What would you have done to me if you had captured me?" Muin replied, "I should have cut your head off and sent it to my master the Emperor." Abdali asked again, "Now that you have held off so long from making a submission, what should I do to you?" The vanquished governor fearlessly gave the answer, "If you are a shopkeeper sell me (for a ransom), if you are a butcher kill me, but if you are a Padishah then grant me your grace and pardon." The answer highly pleased the Afghan king. He embraced Muin, called him his son (Farzand Khān B.) and bestowed on him a robe of honour, an aigrette for the crest, and the very turban he was wearing. (Miskin, 16-17, Husaini 33.)

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Then Muin begged that the favour shown to him might be extended to his people. At his request the Abdali released his Panjabi captives, and posted his provost-marshals in the city to prevent his soldiers from robbing or maltreating the citizens. The people within the walls were already starving through the stoppage of their grain supply on account of the war and siege. Next day Muin returned to his quarters and raised a few lakhs of Rupeès from the city which he presented to the Abdali as the price of a dinner to him and his troops. By the terms of this treaty the *subahs* of Lahor and Multan were ceded to the Afghan king. He left them to be governed by Muin in the same way as before, without disturbing the administrative arrangements in any way. Only the surplus revenue was henceforth to be sent to the Abdali and the final orders in the highest questions were to be taken from him.* He even yielded to Muin’s wise counsels and gave up his first thought of striking coins at Lahor in his own name (Miskin, 16.)

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Similarly the *subah* of Multān passed into the possession of the Abdali and was placed under an agent obedient to him. Large numbers of Saddu-zāi Afghans (fellow-clansmen of Ahmad) were planted here with gifts of land, so that this province became an Afghan colony. (*Husaini*, 33.)

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∗ To save the face of the Emperor, however, the letters of appointment of the governors of Lahor selected by the Abdali were to be issued from the Chancellery of the Delhi Emperor and these two subahs were to continue nominally as included within the empire!

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The victorious Afghan king halted at Lahor and sent his envoy Qalandar Beg to Delhi to secure confirmation of the gains of his sword. This man reached the Mughal capital on 1st April. The terrified Emperor and his ministers at once agreed to the formal cession of the provinces of Lahor and Multan to the Abdali, or in actual effect to pay him 50 lakhs of Rupees a year in lieu of their surplus revenue. On 13th April the Afghan envoy was given *conge* by the Emperor in the Hall of Select Audience and told, "I am standing firmly by my promises, but if your master deviates from his agreement I am prepared for fighting." The envoy placed the letter embodying the peace-terms on his head and assured the Delhi Court, "Whosoever is evil-minded towards this God-given State will be consumed by divine wrath." He and three of his companions received rich gifts and were sent away. [*D. C., S. P. D.*, xxi. 53,55; *TAh.* 33*b*.]

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The only noble who could have opposed such a tame breaking up of the empire and counselled manly resistance was Safdar Jang. But he was far away to the east, entangled in war with the Ruhelas at the foot of the Kumaun hills, and returned to Delhi on 25th April, too late to prevent the treaty. [D. C., TAh. 33b.]

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§ 8. Muin-ul-mulk's last year and death.

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After this signal success in arms, confirmed promptly by diplomacy, Ahmad Shah Abdali left for Qandahar at once at the approach of the Indian summer (April 1752.) Muin-ul-mulk turned again to his duties as subahdar and tried to restore the administration and public order which had been upset by the Afghan invasion. His most pressing task was to collect his dispersed fugitive and starving soldiery together. This done he went on a tour in the Batala district where he suppressed a Sikh band near Chak Guru Hargovind, slaying 900 of these desperadoes. At the end of this prolonged tour, he returned to Lahor and lived there for six months. But the Sikhs gave him no peace. The recent war had demonstrated to all the utter weakness of their governor and stripped the imperial Government of the last shred of prestige. With the coming of the cold weather (October 1753) their raids were renewed. Muin marched out of his capital to Malakpur, 40 miles north-east of Lahor and made a long halt there. From this base he sent out detachments to suppress the Sikhs wherever he heard of their risings. But his efforts to stamp out the epidemic of lawlessness were futile.

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On 2nd November 1753, after hunting in the forenoon, he took a heavy meal at midday, followed it by a *siesta*, and then in the afternoon while out galloping his horse over a field to join his troops, he was suddenly taken ill. The doctors could do nothing with all their devices, and he died in the night of the 3rd under symptoms which created the belief that he had been poisoned. His masterful widow, Mughlani Begam, "won over the soldiery by opening the doors of the treasury and paying the due salaries of the soldiers and officials for three days and nights." Then she brought his corpse to Lahor where it was buried in the tomb-enclosure of Miān Mir (Hazrat Ishān), close to the tomb of the late Nawāb Khan Bahādur.*

§ 9. The governors of the Panjab after Muin

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The news of Muin’s death reached Delhi on 12th November. Next day the Emperor nominated his three year old son Mahmud Khan subahdār of the Panjāb,—"that very important frontier province and one so constantly threatened by Abdālī", as the author of *Tārikh-i-Ahmad Shāhi* points out in justifiable indignation. The baby warden of the north-western marches made his bow for his exalted office in the *Diwān-i-khās*, and was quite fittingly supplied with a deputy (*nāib-subahdār*) in the person of Muin's son Muhammad Amin Khan, then in the second year of his life, for whom a robe of investiture was sent from Court with due gravity. This puppet play lasted for five days, and then on 17th November, Intizām-ud-daulah, the wazir, was appointed absentee governor of the Panjab. The actual administration was entrusted to Mumin Khan as his deputy, with whom Bihkāri Khan was joined. [*TAh.* 85*b*, 87*b*, 88*b*.]

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∗ Miskin, 17, 20-21; *TAh.* 85b (death), 93b (burial.) "Muin was buried near Shāhid-ganj (north-east of the city), where the remains of his tomb may still be seen. In the reign of Sher Singh, the Sikhs dismantled the building, dug out the remains of Mir Mannu, and scattered them to the winds." (*Lahore Gaz.* 28n.)

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But the reality of power lay elsewhere than at the imbecile Court of Delhi. The two deputies at Lahor wisely sent their agent to Jahān Khan, the Afghan viceroy of the Peshawar province, in order to learn his master's pleasure in the matter. At the end of January 1754 a *farmān* and a robe of office were received from the Abdālī, by which Muhammad Amin Khan was appointed *his* subahdār of the Panjāb with his father's title of Muin-ul-mulk, while Mumin Khan was nominated as his deputy. This letter was welcomed with regal honours and the State band played in rejoicing.*

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The actual administration was to be conducted by Mir Mumin Khan, the highest noble of the city and the most trusted lieutenant of the former governor Zakariya Khan, as deputy subahdar. The other officers were reinstated in their respective posts. The Turki general Bihkāri Khān (surnamed Raushan-ud-daulah, Rustam Jang), who had been "the dearest friend and most trusted factotum of Muin" and the virtual ruler and "centre of all affairs in the province in his time", and had naturally aspired to the deputy governorship, was bitterly disappointed.

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Stung to fury by baffled ambition, Bihkāri Khān wanted to seize the government of Lahor by force. He gave up attending the Court of the new subahdār, kept to his own mansion, began to collect troops, mostly the turbulent Afghans of Qasur, mounted guns on the terrace of his house, and displayed open hostility to the Begam's authority. But Mughlāni Begam cleverly bought the support of the Mughlia captains with titles and increase of salary, and even seduced from Bihkari Khan’s party Khawājah Mirza Khan (who had been Muin’s right hand man in his campaigns), by giving him the pargana of Yaminābād. With this general’s help, Bihkāri Khan was arrested and kept confined in the Begam’s palace. His property was given up to plunder by order, and three days after his fall his troops made their submission to the Begam and were taken into her service. (Miskin, 22.)

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∗ *TAh.* 93*b*, 113*a*. After narrating this event, the author of *Tārikh-i-Ahmad Shāhi* remarks, "O the marvel! Such weakness on the part of a sovereign who wore the crown of the realm of Hindustan and whose coins were current throughout the land! All this was the outcome of the wickedness of the Irāni and Turāni nobles."

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§ 10. Misgovernment of Mughlani Begam.

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Thus the threat of civil war in Lahor was ended and unity of command was seemingly restored to the government of the province. But the Panjab is not a country to be ruled by a woman acting for an infant in arms. If we can believe the evidence of the son of the man whom she murdered, the widow lost her character and indulged in foolish pranks. (Ghulām Ali’s *Shah Alam-namah*, 26.) “Owing to the widow regent’s simplicity each officer represented affairs to her in a different way. Eunuchs and slaves ruled the State. The peasants were ruined worse than before. The administration fell into disorder and decay. And the number of the Sikhs increased in consequence.” (*Siyar*, iii. 51.) The infant *subahdar* died in May 1754, displaying the same symptoms of poisoning as his father. And then nothing could prevent utter confusion from bursting upon the Panjab administration and ruin from overwhelming the life and property of the people.

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The Court and chief men of Lahor called Muin-ul-mulk's son-in-law, Khwājah Musa Khan Ahrari,[*] to the vacant subahdarship, but all power lay in the hands of Mughlani Begam and was exercised by her eunuchs. Mir Mumin, the deputy governor, could do nothing. The government of the Panjab now visibly broke up; every one set up for himself, law and order disappeared from the realm, even the viceregal palace was looted. This brought first the Maratha and then the Afghan on the scene as the actual ruler, as we shall see later. [Miskin, 23; Siyar, iii. 51, Muz. 81.]

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∗ Muin's son-in-law is thus called in Siyār and Muz. (which, however, wrongly call Muin's son Mir Mumin.) Miskin calls the son-in-law Mumin Khan, the son of Khwājah Musa Kh. of Bukhārā, but distinguishes him from Mir Mumin, the old first noble of Lahor and long deputy governor of the province.

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CHAPTER XI.

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REBELLION OF SAFDAR JANG, 1753.

§ 1. Character of Safdar Jang : his defects

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It was only in a fit of extreme exasperation, when feeling himself opposed to a blind wall in all his acts, that Safdar Jang was tempted to remove his rival by means of the dagger. But if he hoped for a clear field for his administrative activities from this crime, he was soon to be undeceived. The immediate effect of the murder of Jāvid Khan is thus graphically described by the Court historian : "When the news reached the Emperor, he was greatly perplexed, but durst not do anything. Khwājah Tamkin, the wazir's agent, came to the fort with a large force, secured an audience with the Emperor through the nāzir Roz-āfzun Khan, and offered the wazir's excuses for this audacious act, reassuring His Majesty in every way and professing his readiness to carry out every order of the Emperor. . . . The Emperor and his mother grieved deeply. It is said that Udham Bāi put on white robes and discarded her jewels and ornaments (like a widow.) But the Emperor said not a word to anybody on this subject." [*TAh.* 41.] The Queen-mother raged, though in secret, like a lioness robbed of her mate, and fell completely into the hands of two far more formidable enemies of Safdar Jang than the late eunuch. Jāvid Khan was a lowborn upstart, despised by the nobility and the populace alike, and actuated solely by a vulgar greed of wealth which he sought to gratify by means of his plurality of offices and hold upon the Emperor. He had no administrative or territorial ambition; and indeed this kind of activity was impossible for a eunuch who had constantly to attend the harem at the capital. But Intizām-ud-daulah had the highest social position and family prestige among the Mughal peers, and Imād-ul-mulk possessed the greatest organising power, penetrating intellect and iron will of any man then living; and these two now became the leaders of the Court party.

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Safdar Jang had not a single friend left to him in the Court circle. Salābat Khan was under confinement, Najmuddaulah was dead, and the two enemies who now had the Emperor's ears could not be mollified by money bribes as Jāvid Khan used to be. Nor could this defect of the wazir's position be made good by his own character. Safdar Jang was neither a good general nor a born leader of men. Personal valour he no doubt possessed, but it was nullified by his rashness and haughty disregard of the counsels of wiser men. He was incapable of forming far-sighted plans, executing combined movements, promptly mastering the changing situation on a battle field, or retrieving a disaster by the force of iron determination and cool personal guidance.

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He was of so lordly a disposition and so careless of money that he spent on the wedding of his son forty-six lakhs of Rupees, while the marriage of the eldest and favourite son of the most magnificent of the Mughal Emperors, a century earlier, had cost thirty lakhs only. [Imād, 36.] He was, no doubt, well served by Hindu secretaries and business managers who raised large revenues for him from his fertile province; but their efforts were neutralised by his extravagance. Nor had he the true leader's instinct of choosing capable servants and allowing himself to be guided by their counsel. Political foresight and diplomatic sagacity alike he lacked, and he could not build up any strong coalition, without which no one could maintain himself in power at the Court of such a fickle and faithless sovereign. In short, Safdar Jang had neither the sagacity nor the spirit necessary in a wazir called upon to maintain the Delhi empire of that age. A number of talented Shia officers gathered round him and remained devoted to him to the end; but they were mere individuals, attracted to him by the ties of religion or family, and not the successive links in a complete and well-joined chain of administration. Thus, in the end, in spite of his splendid opportunities, the natural wealth of his provinces, and the excellence of his soldiers individually, his career ended in failure. The historian is bound to pronounce that Safdar Jang was far inferior in character and capacity to Ali Mardan and Sadullah, Mir Jumla and Ruhullah and other Persian immigrants who had adorned the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzib, or even to Mirza Shafi Khan of the generation next to his.

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Intizām-ud-daulah, Khān-i-Khānān,* the eldest son of Muhammad Shah’s wazir Qamruddin, had inherited his father’s ease-loving disposition. A timid unenterprising man, he always shrank from fight and sought safety by burying himself within his mansion, at the least threat of danger. He had neither natural capacity nor taste for a military life and could never handle even a small force in peace or war. As wazir of the Empire for 15 months (March 1753—May 1754), he covered himself with utter disgrace by his incapacity and cowardice. But his widowed mother Sholāpuri Begam (a daughter of Jān Nisār Khan of Aurangzib’s reign), who had ruled her husband’s household, now established her influence over Udham Bāi and became the medium of the palace-plots for overthrowing Safdar Jang. [Siyar, iii. 46; Imād, 22.]

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∗ His original name was Mir Nizamuddin Khan, and he subsequently got his father’s titles of Qamruddin and Itimadud-daulah, but will be called Intizam throughout this book.

§ 2. Character of Imād-ul-mulk

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Imād-ul-mulk’s father was Ghāziuddin Khan Firuz Jang, the eldest son of the Nizām Asaf Jah. An extremely reserved and godly man, Firuz Jang spent his days in the company of theologians and his nights in vigil, and ordered the life of his household with the strict rod of a puritan. These qualities he seems to have inherited from his mother, who was the Sayyid-born daughter of a pious Shaikh of Gulbarga. He married Zeb-un-nisa (popularly known as Sultan Begam), a daughter of the wazir Qamruddin. Their son was Shihābuddin, who afterwards gained the titles of Imād-ul-mulk, Ghāzi-ud-din Khan Bahādur, Firuz Jang, Mir Bakhshi, Amir-ul-umara, Nizām-ul-mulk Asaf Jāh, and finally in June 1754 became the wazir of the Empire. Born at Narwar in June 1737, Imad was brought up by his pious father with incredible strictness; he spent his days exclusively with tutors and *mullahs* and the Muslim Sabbath with eunuchs, being never allowed to mix with boys of his own age or to attend any performance by dancing girls, though this was the universal amusement of all classes in that age and almost a matter of course at every social gathering. The result was that his intellect passed through a forced precocious flowering. He mastered several languages, including Turkish, and learned to write with neatness the seven different styles of Arabic penmanship. As a scholar, he was versed in many branches of knowledge and a poet of some note in his time. His intellectual attainments, however, did not weaken his power of action. Unlike his passive retiring father, he was brave in battle, enterprising in action, and a born leader of men in a degree surprising in a lad not yet out of his teens. But all these splendid gifts were vitiated by an utter lack of the moral sense, a boundless ambition, a shameless greed of money, and a ferocious cruelty of disposition that made him one of the monsters of Delhi history. His father's simplicity of life and aversion to pleasure had accumulated a vast hoard out of which seventy lakhs in cash and jewels were utilised by Imad most wisely and successfully in his war with Safdar Jang [Imād, 61-62; Siyar, iii. 46.]

§ 3. Safdar Jang's administrative incapacity; causes of his downfall

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For seven months after the murder of Jāvid Khan, Safdar Jang was the first minister of State without a rival and without any rebellion or foreign invasion threatening the realm. If he had possessed any real capacity or statesmanly vision, he could have used this interval of peace to restore the administration and strengthen the national defence. But he did nothing to reorganise the army, cement alliances or improve the finances. Worst of all, by his lack of far-sighted policy, greed of money and office, and reckless pride, he frightened the Emperor, alienated the other nobles, and disgusted the people of Delhi.

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He had employed his position as chancellor to take for himself the most fertile and easy jāgirs and the property of deceased nobles whenever the Government could venture to enforce the law of escheat. He had done this at first by going into shares with Jāvid Khan, but after that eunuch’s death as a sole monopolist. All other nobles starved and laid their unemployment and hardships at his door, but they had to fret in silence for want of any friend or champion. Safdar Jang as wazir was officially in supreme control of the finances. He selfishly seized all the revenue that came in and spent it on his personal contingent, so that the troops of other officers of State and even the Emperor’s palace-guard and artillery remained unpaid for years together, and the starving soldiery frequently rose in mutiny, rioted in the streets, mobbed their officers, blocked the gates of the palace or of the Paymaster's house, preventing ingress and egress and cutting off their inmates' supply of food and drinking water for days together. Such was the visible fruit of this dictator's administration.

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At the same time, while the wazir could not save his master from starvation or insult by his own troops, he was unable to defend the capital from outrage and plunder. The Marathas looted the environs of Delhi and even threatened to break into the city itself, and Safdar Jang could not remove them by force or bribery. In the district round Delhi, not to speak of distant provinces, highway robbery went on unchecked; the strong man collected the rents in the weak man's estate without fear. In a realm in the critical condition of Delhi at that time, the first minister of State frequently absented himself from the seat of the Government in order to look after his own interests in Oudh or Rohilkhand; the central administration naturally ceased to function and things drifted on without plan or aim.

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By trying to grasp at everything Safdar Jang ultimately lost all. Moderation in the hour of victory would have perpetuated his power. In an age when every public office was regarded as an heirloom, and the son claimed his dead father's post, not on the ground of his being the best candidate available but as the late incumbent's legal heir, Safdar Jang, himself a "new man", raised a host of enemies by trying to keep every office of power or emolument out of the hands of the Turāni chiefs and their followers. He forgot that the Turanis had been in supreme control of the administration for three generations, and they had built up a strong circle of subordinates, clients and dependent vassals. No true statesman can afford to ignore the real elements of power (*realen macht-factoren*) in the world in which he moves; he must come to terms with them, in the spirit of living and letting live. But this Safdar Jang could not do; he had not a single friend among the older nobility now that Ishaq Khan was dead and Salābat Khan in disgrace. With insane folly he had alienated Alivardi Khan, the governor of Bengal and Bihar, though united to him by religion. His policy of restricting the admissions to the Emperor's audience in his own interests and his boisterous attitude to the other servants of State filled the Emperor with a sense of humiliation and fear about his personal safety. As the Court historian writes, "The monarchy was utterly ruined. The Emperor, seeing the wazir's love of disturbance, promotion of the mean, and villainy of spirit and his own helpless condition, resigned all authority in the State to him and passed his days in pleasure in the harem. . . This wazir was a desolator of the realm and an impoverisher of his master." [*TAh. 44, 48a.*]

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