Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c16.s6.1

v1.c16.s6.1

In the meantime a complete estrangement had taken place between the Emperor and his Bakhshi and an open conflict between the two was shortly to be precipitated which ended in the ruin of Ahmad. In the months following Safdar Jang’s departure, the star of Imād was steadily in the ascendant. He was the organiser of the imperial victory, he was the vanquisher of Safdar Jang, he had thereafter subjugated the turbulent Jāt population of the district south of the capital, and Malhar Holkar was his constant ally. There was no noble in the empire who could stand against him. His one difficulty was from lack of money. He had exhausted all his ancestral hoards and had saddled himself with debt during the six months’ life and death struggle with the ex-wazir. But the public treasury was empty, revenue had ceased to come in from the provinces. The only course open to Imād was to seize the rents of the Crownlands and the other nobles’ jāgirs in the districts within easy distance of the capital. This fact separated the Emperor from him more quickly than his sovereign’s alarm and jealousy, fomented by Intizām, at his growing power.