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Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c6: Chapter I. Muhammad Shah's Reign after Nadir's Departure

Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c6

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Chapter I. Muhammad Shah's Reign after Nadir's Departure

§ 1. Life-story of the Delhi Empire

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The first Muslim State of Delhi was born at the close of the Twelfth century, and from this centre it continued to expand with varying fortunes for two hundred years till at last it embraced the whole of Northern India and even overflowed into the Southern land beyond the Vindhya range. Thus all Hindustan came to be placed under one civilization, one official language, and during some short spasmodic periods under one sceptre also. Then, at the end of the Fourteenth century came the hopeless decadence of the royal house ; the unifying and protective Central Government disappeared; the Empire was broken up into jarring fragments whose mutual conflicts and the consequent set back to culture and material prosperity fill the next century and a quarter, till 1526, when the Turkish adventurer Bābur laid the foundation of a mightier political structure in India. This new-born Mughal Empire, after a short and all but fatal contest with the Afghān house of Sur, became established beyond challenge under Bābur’s grandson Akbar soon after 1560. In the succeeding hundred and thirty years, its growth in territory, wealth, armed strength, art and industry was rapid, uninterrupted, and dazzling to the eyes of the Asiatic world and even of lands beyond the confines of Asia. The whole of Hindustan and much of the Deccan too bowed under one sceptre; administrative and cultural uniformity was given to all parts of this continent of a country; the artery roads were made safe for the trader and the traveller; the economic resources of the land were developed; and close intercourse was opened with the outer world. With peace, wealth, and enlightened Court patronage, came a new cultivation of the Indian mind and advance of Indian literature, painting, architecture and handicrafts, which raised this land once again to the front rank of the civilized world. Even the formation of an Indian nation did not seem an impossible dream.

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But in the second half of Aurangzib’s reign we first see this natural progress arrested, and then, after a quarter century of heroic struggle by that monarch, when at last he closed his aged eyes in death (1707) we find that decline had unmistakably set in; Indo-Mughal civilization, whose agent was the Empire of Delhi, was now a spent bullet; its life was gone, it had no power for good left in it. But dissolution did not take place immediately after Aurangzib’s death. His wonderful capacity, strength of character, and lifelong devotion to duty had generated a force which held together the frame of the Delhi Government seemingly unchanged for thirty years after him. Whatever might happen in the frontier provinces, the Central Government still stood intact. But with a succession of weaklings and imbeciles on the throne, the downfall of the Empire was bound to come at last. The dry rot in the heart of the Mughal State manifested itself publicly when Bāji Rāo’s cavalry insulted the imperial capital in 1737 and his example invited Nādir Shāh’s invasion and the utter collapse of the Government of Delhi in 1739.

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§ 2. India after Nādir Shāh’s invasion.

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By the end of April 1739 the horrors of Nādir’s conquest came to a natural close in Delhi. Laden with the plundered treasure of the richest empire in Asia, the Persian conqueror left the Mughal capital on his homeward march on 5th May. Eight days later the Emperor Muhammad Shāh held his first public audience after his restoration and coins were once more stamped in his name, replacing those issued for Nādir Shāh in the interval. The Court chroniclers record that on this occasion the nobles offered their presents and the Emperor on his side conferred robes of honour and rewards on them. [D.C.] Thus the usual ceremonies of the imperial darbār were gone through as if no political disaster of the first magnitude had taken place in the meantime. But nobody present could forget that things were not as before the Persian invader's coming. The Emperor and his wazir were there as before, but the second officer of the realm—the Head of the Army, Khān-i-Daurān, had perished as well as Sādat Khan Burhān-ul-mulk, the most powerful of the provincial governors, and the Emperor's personal favourite Muzaffar Khān, besides a host of officers of lower rank but high connections. Ten to twelve thousands of the regular soldiery had fallen on the field of Karnāl and 20,000 people had been put to the sword within the city of Delhi itself. Sack and massacre had devastated lesser towns like Thāneshwar, Pānipat, Sonipat etc. The imperial treasury and the nobles' mansions had been drained dry to supply the indemnity exacted by the victor,—fifteen krores of rupees in cash besides jewellery rich clothing and furniture worth 50 krores more. The imperial regalia had been robbed of its two most famous and costly ornaments, the Koh-i-nur diamond and the Peacock Throne. The imperial family and the proudest peers had been forced to descend to a still lower depth of humiliation. The Khurāsāni leather-coat weaver's son had married his son to a princess of the family of the Pādishāh, and he had dragged to his bed all the handsome wives and maiden daughters of Muzaffar Khan, lately killed in battle. [Ashub, ii. 367 and 375.]

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In the months immediately following Nādir Shāh's invasion Heaven seemed to have taken pity on the sorely afflicted people of Northern India. In the next season there was adequate and timely rainfall, the earth yielded a profuse harvest, and all foodstuffs became cheap and plentiful, "as if to make amends for the people's recent sufferings." (Ashub, ii. 416.) But Nature is not half so much the cause of a nation's misery as Man. To outer seeming, "dignity and splendour returned to the Delhi Court after Nādir had left India, and the Emperor and the nobles turned to the management of State affairs and gave up all sorts of uncanonical practices." (Ibid.) But the moral canker in the Mughal Empire was too deeply seated to be killed by such outward show of piety and obedience to lifeless convention. A Nemesis worked itself out inexorably on the destiny of the Empire from the character of the Emperor and his leading ministers.

§ 3. Character of Muhammad Shah

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Muhammad Shāh* had come to the throne in 1719 at the age of 17. For seven years before that event he had been kept under confinement in the palace harem and had received no education such as might fit a man to rule a kingdom or lead an army. He possessed natural intelligence and a good deal of foresight; but the fate of his predecessors, who had been set up and pulled down by their wazirs, effectually crushed any desire that he might have once had to rule for himself and to keep his nobles under control. He, therefore, totally withdrew himself from public business, leaving it to his ministers, and plunged into a life of pleasure and amusement, hardly ever going out of Delhi during his 28 years of reign, except to visit parks in the neighbourhood (usually at Loni) and occasionally to see the annual fair at Garh Mukteshwar (a hundred miles east of Delhi). His only two military movements were to follow in his wazir's train in the short and futile campaigns against Nādir Shāh and Ali Muhammad Ruhela.

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∗ Ānandrām 309, Wārid 117-118, Siyar iii. 25, Shākir 33, Chahār Gulzār 397a-398a, TAh. 2b, Ashub ii 420; Bayān, 242-244; TAh. 2.

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At his accession he was a fresh youth, extremely handsome, large and strong of limb. But his sedentary life of inactivity and sexual excess soon impaired his constitution and he became a confirmed invalid by the time he was only forty. The evil was aggravated by his taking to opium, and this drug habit made him weak and emaciated, till at last it became impossible to move him from his palace.

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His sole diversion outside the harem was witnessing animal fights on the sandy bank of the Jamunā below the window of morning salute in the Delhi palace, occasionally varied by the cares of a bird-fancier. We can understand his wish to enjoy from a safe distance the excitement of the heroic and dangerous game of elephant-combats, which his forefathers had reserved as an imperial prerogative. But when we read how Muhammad Shah spent his morning hours not in doing public justice or holding State councils, but in viewing a wrestling match between two bears, or a fight by "three pairs of bears, a goat, a ram, and a wild boar, which were wrapped in tiger skins and trained to attack an elephant" (as he is recorded to have done on 25th April 1743), we wonder whether such spectacles would be considered a worthy diversion by any one outside a nursery unless he were a vulgar country clown, and whether the lord of a hundred and fifty million souls at the ripe age of 41 had no more serious use for his time and no higher tastes. [*Akhbārāt.*]

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When the fires of youthful passions burnt themselves out, a deep melancholy settled on Muhammad Shāh, and towards the end of his life he loved to frequent the society of *faqirs* and to hold long converse with them, discussing spiritual questions like an initiate. Three such hermits became his spiritual guides, and the Court nobles and the common people followed his example.*

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Thus, throughout his long reign the administration was utterly neglected by its supreme head, the nobles divided the land and political power among themselves or fought for these things, as if no master existed over them. Muhammad Shāh would assent to every good advice of his wazir or any other minister, but could never summon up enough courage to take the necessary step; like other weak men he found supreme wisdom in putting off action from day to day, till a crisis precipitated itself and things took their own turn. Such a man was destined to go through life as a puppet moved by his favourites, who were shrewd men with the most charming manners and strength of character, and this was Muhammad Shāh's ignoble fate too.

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∗ "His Majesty gave Shāh Mubārak the title of Burhān-ul-tariqat, Shah Badda that of Burhān-ul-haqiqat, and Shāh Ramz Fasih-ul-bayān, and used often to frequent their company. All the ministers and rich lords followed suit. Other people also imitated, so much so that the bazar craftsmen in the villages of every province put on imitation [initiates'] turbans on their heads and *taqdir* tunics on their backs, till at last even the women took up the fashion." (Shākir, 33.)

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But though he was a mere cypher in respect of his public duties, there were some redeeming traits in his private character. Naturally timid and wavering, he was also free from insolent pride, caprice and love of wanton cruelty. Nor did he lack consideration for others and courage of a certain kind, as was illustrated when, instead of fleeing to Bengal as advised by his friends, he voluntarily went forth into Nādir's captivity in order to save his people and capital from the horrors of violent assault and forcible subjugation to incensed victors. "He never gave his consent to shedding blood or doing harm to God's creatures.* In his reign the people passed their lives in ease, and the empire outwardly retained its dignity and prestige. The foundations of the Delhi monarchy were really rotten, but Muhammad Shāh by his cleverness kept them standing. He may be called the last of the rulers of Bābur’s line, as after him the kingship had nothing but the name left to it." [Siyar, iii. 25.]

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∗ The following anecdote given in *Chahār-Gulzār* (397 *a*) is characteristic :—One night a Baksari foot-soldier placed as guard over the imperial jewel-house dug a hole in its roof, entered it, and stole a jewelled necklet (*kanthi*). When trying to creep out of the hole, he fell down on the floor, broke his leg, and lay there helpless. Next day he was discovered there and taken before the Emperor. Muhammad Shah asked him, "O shameless wretch! You committed theft where you were appointed a watchman. Could you not find any other place more appropriate for stealing in?" The Baksari replied, "My salary for 12 months is

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Such was the head of the State in India in the second quarter of the Eighteenth century. We shall now examine the character of his highest instruments.

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§ 4. Character of Wazir Qamr-ud-din Khan.

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Ever since the death of Aurangzib, the Pādishāh had been a non-entity,—Bahādur Shāh I by reason of his age and softness of nature, and his successors because they were mere puppets set up and moved by their prime ministers. Therefore, the destiny of India’s millions lay in the hands of the wazirs, and the wazir’s character and strength of position alone determined the nature of the administration in an empire of continental vastness.

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The first wazir of Muhammad Shāh after the

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due from Government. It is not fair that my salary should remain in this room and I should commit theft elsewhere. I also thought that there could be no better place than the Emperor's palace for stealing." The Emperor smiled at the reply, paid the man his arrears of salary and retained him in service as a watchman!

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overthrow of the Sayyid brothers was Muhammad Amin Khān (surnamed Itimād-ud-daulah I), the son of the Nizām’s grandfather’s brother. He was installed in office in November 1720, but died only two months later (16th January 1721), men said as a divine chastisement for his having helped to shed the blood of the Prophet’s kith and kin (the Sayyids of Barha). Nizām-ul-mulk succeeded him, but being thwarted by the false and fickle Emperor and his unscrupulous confidants, he at last resigned in disgust, in 1724. The next wazir was Qamr-ud-din (entitled Itimād-ud-daulah II),* the son of Muhammad Amin Khan. He was a great drunkard, but, happily for the people, an extremely indolent man. For the quarter century (1724-1748) that he held the supreme office in the realm, the administration merely drifted along, under this harmless kind old man, who always foresaw the trend of affairs and the effect of every measure, but never had the courage to tell the honest truth to his master or dissuade him from any wrong course on which his heart was set. In fact, he considered it supreme wisdom merely to keep his post and do as little work as possible.

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And yet the condition of the empire, even before Nādir Shāh gave it the death stab, was such that only a wise, strong and active wazir, exercising dictatorial power, could have saved it. On the contrary, king and minister alike were now more dead than alive. As the historian Wārid, whose youth had been nurtured in the dignified and strenuous reign of Aurangzib, wrote in the bitterness of his heart about the times of Muhammad Shāh, "For some years past it has been the practice of the imperial Court that whenever the officers of the Deccan or Gujrāt and Mālwa reported any Marāthā incursion to the Emperor, His Majesty, in order to soothe his heart afflicted by such sad news, either visited the gardens—to look at the newly planted and leafless trees,—or rode out to hunt in the plains, while the grand wazir Itimād-ud-daulah Qamr-ud-din Khān went to assuage his feelings by gazing at the lotuses in some pools situated four leagues from Delhi, where he would spend a month or more in tents, enjoying pleasure or hunting fish in the rivers and deer in the plains. At such times Emperor and wazir alike lived in total forgetfulness of the business of the administration, the collection of the revenue, and the needs of the army. No chief, no man, thinks of guarding the realm and protecting the people, while these disturbances daily grow greater." [Mirāt-i-Wāridāt, 117-118.]

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∗ Ashub ii. 422, Siyar iii. 13 and 24-25, Chahār Gulzār 398b.

§ 5. Factions at Court

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With a foolish, idle, and fickle master on the throne, the nobles began to give free play to the worst forms of selfishness. They found it necessary to form parties of their own for their support and advancement, and even for their very existence. The controlling and unifying centre of the government having ceased to function, disintegration became inevitable in the Court itself. The instinct of self-preservation drove the nobles to group themselves in factions according to race, to divide the administration among themselves, and to gird themselves around with a body of clients from among the vassal princes and the provincial governors. The Court was divided into two armed camps of Turānis and Irānis, each with its hand ever on the hilt of its dagger, and this civil dissension spread throughout the realm.

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Itimād-ud-daulah II, as became an emigrant from Samarqand, was the patron of the Turānis, while his rivals and enemies perforce joined the opposite party, composed of the Persians, whose leadership after the death of Sādat Khan (March 1739), was taken by Abul Manṣur Khan Safdar Jang, the *subahdār* of Oudh. And the history of the later Mughals, from 1736 onwards is only the history of the duel between these parties. After 1765, when Oudh became a dependency of the English and the Nizām entirely dissociated himself from Northern India, the imperial Court continued to be the same scene of struggle, though the competitors for power now were mostly Afghāns or individual adventurers of other races, rather than parties knit together by tribal connection.

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§ 6. Cause of empire's ruin.

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Where the king has no inborn capacity to rule a realm, government by a responsible prime minister is the only alternative, unless administration is to disappear from the country and the State to break up. But no *fainéant* Mughal Emperor would give his wazir the same chance of working that George II gave to Walpole or Pitt with the happiest results for both king and people. Muhammad Shāh, like Farrukh-siyar, was too imbecile and inconstant to inaugurate any statesmanlike policy, conduct operations in the field, or control his officers; but he had cunning enough to countenance and even initiate conspiracies among his personal favourites against the publicly responsible wazir and secretly to lend the prestige of his name to the rebellions of the wazir's rivals. Therefore, an honest and capable wazir, under such a sovereign, would soon discover that if he insisted on administrative vigour and purity or tried to force honesty and consistency of policy on the Emperor, he would be only courting his own death, and that if he wished to escape the fate of the Sayyid brothers he must give up all noble ambitions and statesmanly projects and swim with the current, leaving the realm to drift. He would probably console himself with the belief that if the State escaped a catastrophe in his own time, he had done enough for one man.

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In the Court of Delhi as it stood after Nādir Shāh’s departure, Qamr-ud-din Khan Itimād-ud-daulah was the wazir or Chancellor as before. The office next in importance, namely, that of the Army Chief (*Mir Bakhshi*) with the title of Amir-ul-umarā, had been recently bestowed upon Asaf Jāh Nizām-ul-mulk, a cousin of the wazir.

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Both of them continued at these posts during the remainder of the reign. The head of the imperial household, called the *Khān-i-sāmān* (Lord High Steward) was Lutfullah Khan; but he died at this time and was succeeded (on 21 May) by Dānishmand Khān, who lived for only twenty days more and then gave place to Saduddin Khān (12th June). This last-named noble also held the office of *Mir Atish* or Chief of Artillery, which gave him control over the imperial palace within the fort and consequently charge of the Emperor’s person and treasures. But his influence was less on the administration of the Government than on the Emperor's mind by reason of the constant personal association with the Emperor which his office ensured. The same was the position of the Diwān of Crownlands.

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§ 7. Muhammad Shāh governed by favourites.

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But with a timid and unwise sovereign like Muhammad Shāh and an ease-loving negligent wazir like Qamr-ud-din, it was not the high ministers of State that counted so much in shaping the policy of the empire and the fate of the people as the household officers about the Emperor's person and his favourite companions, whose influence was constantly exerted and supreme over his mind.

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Throughout life Muhammad Shāh had never thought out any problem or made a decision for himself. He had always been led by his favourites. In early youth he had emerged from the bondage of the Sayyid brothers only to fall completely under the tutelage of a vulgar woman named Koki-ji and her associates, Raushan-ud-daulah of Pānipat and Shāh Abdul Ghaffur.

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These three fell from favour and were sent into disgrace in 1732. Thereafter, for seven years the Emperor's feeble mind was dominated over by Samsām-ud-daulah Khān-i-Daurān and Samsām’s brother Muzaffar Khān without a rival. When Samsām and Muzaffar died (1739), they were succeeded as the Emperor’s guiding angels by Amir Khān and three other men brought to the Emperor’s notice by Amir Khān, namely, Muhammad Ishaq, Asad Yār, and (four years later) Safdar Jang. The life and character of these men therefore deserve study with some fulness.

§ 8. Amir Khan : His character

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In the highest place among the Emperor’s confidants and personal favourites stood Amir Khān II, Umdat-ul-mulk, a son of that Amir Khān I Mir-i-mirān who had been Aurangzib’s famous governor of Kābul during twenty-two years. He belonged to a very high family which was honoured in Persia as well as raised to supreme eminence in India. His father’s mother was a daughter of the Empress Mumtāz Mahal’s sister and his paternal uncle was Ruhullah Khān I, the ablest Bakhshi of Aurangzib’s times, while his own sister was married to Ruhullah Khān II, another Bakhshi of that reign. In spite of such notable connections and incentives to emulation, Amir Khān II never showed any capacity for civil government or war, nor rose to any higher post than the Third Paymastership. But he was a darling in private life. His remarkable and varied personal accomplishments and cleverness drew scholars and artists to him, while his power of extempore versification, apt reply, eloquent and lucid exposition of every subject, and above all his command of *bon mots* and unfailing skill in jesting made his conversation irresistibly fascinating and gave him boundless influence over the frivolous Muhammad Shāh’s mind. Some foundation was given to his reputation for wisdom by his versatile general knowledge of many things and his power of quickly mastering the details of any kind of work. But his real capacity was insignificant. In the end pride led to his tragic downfall. His complete sway over the Emperor’s mind turned his head and he came to despise and insult the highest nobles of the realm, as is well illustrated by his reply to the wazir and the Nizām, "So long as the shadow of my master’s grace is over my head, I am prepared to confront Gabriel and Michael, not to speak of peers like you." [Shākir, 86, *Siyar*, iii. 13.]

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§ 9. Muhammad Ishaq Khan I.

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Muhammad Ishaq Khān I, surnamed Mutaman-ud-daulah, was still dearer than Amir Khan to the Emperor. His father, who had emigrated from Shustar is Persia to seek his fortune in India, did not rise very high. Ishaq himself was for long a petty subaltern in the imperial artillery on a cash salary of Rs. 200 a month. He was an accomplished speaker and ready versifier in Persian, which was his mother tongue, and his elegance of taste, perfect manners and innate discretion made him easily take the foremost place in society far above his official rank. He attached himself as a private companion (*musāhib*) to Amir Khan II, both being Persians by race and Shias by faith, and soon won his heart. Amir Khan could not help praising this jewel of a companion to the Emperor, who asked to see him. Muhammad Ishaq was presented; the Emperor was charmed with his accomplished manners and smooth tongue and immediately enlisted him among his personal attendants (*khawās.*) Ishaq was day and night present with Muhammad Shāh during the terrible period of Nādir's invasion. While the Emperor was staying in the Persian conqueror's tents at Karnāl, Ishaq's speech and judgment, in a man occupying such a low position, so favourably impressed Nādir that he asked Muhammad Shāh, "When you had Muhammad Ishaq, what need was there for you to appoint Qamr-ud-din as wazir?"

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When the Pādishāh stole back to Delhi from his camp at Karnāl in deep humiliation, Ishaq accompanied him on the same elephant and tried to keep up his spirits. By this time he had completely cast his spell over the Emperor's heart and his rise was startlingly rapid. On 3rd June 1739, from superintendent of the royal gardens at Delhi he was promoted inspector of the Crown Prince's contingent, and soon afterwards reached the summit of his greatness as Diwān of the Crown-lands with the rank of a 6-hazari and the title of Mutaman-ud-daulah, besides a plurality of minor lucrative posts, and finally (on the 8th of November) received the highest insignia of honour called the māhi and murātib. But his meteoric career ended as rapidly in his death within a few months (18th April 1740).

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Ishaq was a devoted and sincere well-wisher of the Emperor and honestly gave him very sound advice regardless of his own interests. [Siyar, ii. 100]. He enjoyed the Emperor's greatest confidence and favour and never abused his power. His eldest son, Mirzā Muhammad, who succeeded to his title as Ishaq Khān II, (Najm-ud-daulah) in 1740 and seven years later (13th Aug. 1747) to his post of Diwān-i-Khālsa, gained the Emperor's trust and personal affection in an even greater degree than his father and "became the Emperor's life as it were," so much so that Muhammad Shah used to say, "If Muhammad Ishaq Khan had not left Mirzā Muhammad behind him, I do not know how I could have survived him.” Other sons of the first Ishaq Khān rose to high rank in the Emperor's service and his daughter (later known as Bahu Begam) was married, by the Emperor's express command, to Safdar Jang's son and heir Shujā-ud-daulah and became the mother of Nawāb Asaf-ud-daulah of Oudh. [Siyar, iii. 3, Chahār Gulzār, 387 b.]

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§ 10. Asad Yar Khan.

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Another protege of Amir Khān was Asad Yār Khān, a native of Agra. After filling some very subordinate offices, he was introduced to the Emperor by Amir Khān on 3rd June 1739, and immediately created a 5-hazāri and Dārogha of harkārahs or Postmaster-General and Head of the Intelligence Department. In time he rose to the rank of a 6-hazāri with the title of Asad-ud-daulah and the māhi and murātib insignia of the highest grade of the peerage (8 Nov.)

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Though his education in the arts and sciences had been elementary, he had a very agreeable well-balanced nature and could compose impromptu verses in Persian, which were pleasant to hear though not marked by scholarship. Benevolent and discreet, he never shut his doors on the crowds of suitors who daily thronged the audience chambers of the great, but had a kind word for every one. Well-born persons, however poor and low of rank, were treated by him like friends and brothers. His perfect courtesy and consideration for others made all men like him. Though Amir Khan in the end turned hostile to him out of envy and got his troops (*Shamshir-dāgh*) disbanded by influencing the Emperor, Asad Yār continued grateful for the Khān’s early favours, and sold his own jewels and household goods to discharge the dues of Amir Khan’s unpaid and mutinous troops and thus saved his former patron from insult and outrage. [*Chahār Gulzār*, 383; *Siyar*, iii. 11.]

§ 11. Safdar Jang

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Mirzā Muqim, entitled Abul Mansur Khān and Safdar Jang, was the nephew and son-in-law of the late S'ādat Khān Burhān-ul-mulk and succeeded to his *subahdāri* of Oudh immediately after his death (1739). He was now at the maturity of his powers, being about thirty-five years of age, and maintained the best equipped and most martial contingent of troops in the Empire next to the Nizām’s. The most valuable core of his army consisted of six to seven thousand Qizilbāshes (*i.e.*, Turks settled in Persia) who had once belonged to Nādir Shah’s army, but elected to stay on in India. Safdar Jang was extremely lavish of money on his army and would pay any price, without the least thought, in order to secure famous captains or good soldiers. Irānian Turks (popularly called 'Mughals' in India) were the best fighting material then available in Asia; these were his special favourites and he paid them Rs. 50 a month per trooper against Rs. 35 only which India-born horsemen drew. When he reviewed his forces, if his eyes were struck by a soldier's look of smartness or efficiency, he would on the spot raise his pay, by Rs. 10 for a trooper and Rs. 2 for a foot-soldier. In addition to giving high pay, he took care to supply his men with complete equipment and good arms and to keep them in comfort.

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The fame of his liberality and personal care for his troops spread abroad and large numbers of recruits flocked to his standard for enlistment. According to one writer, "his Mughal troops numbered 20,000, but among these were many Hindustanis, who dressed themselves as 'Mughals,' spoke the Persian tongue, and drew the [higher] pay. This was especially the case with men from the district of Jadibal in Kashmir, who were all Shias," like Safdar Jang himself. In short, he came to be looked upon as the sword arm of the Shia party in India. His character will be described in the course of the history of the next reign when he dominated the stage for five years. [Imād-us-Sādat, 31, Ashub, ii. 419-420.]

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Such being the real state of things at Court in the last nine years of Muhammad Shāh's reign, we can more easily understand the shape that events took during that period.

§ 12. Imperial administration breaks down

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When Nādir Shāh left India, the administration of the Mughal Empire seemed to have been dissolved by the shock of the foreign invasion. In provinces where there was no strong governor public peace disappeared as the people lost their wonted fear of a Government which was now so utterly discredited. Predatory instincts, so long kept in check by Mughal rule or imperial prestige, now asserted themselves in the very heart of the Empire. Thus, we read in the *Chahār Gulzār* (f. 373a) that in the year following Nādir's invasion a large number of Jāts and Sikhs gathered together, marched towards Sarhind and created a great disturbance there, by setting up one Darānāt Shāh as their chieftain and seizing many villages. They were subdued only after an expedition had been sent from the Court under Azim-ullah Khān. In another corner of India, when the Peshwā Bālāji Rāo's agent was conveying the money that the Nawāb of Bengal had paid to him as subsidy for armed help against Raghuji Bhonslé (1743), this agent, though escorted by some troops of the governor of Patna, was attacked and robbed of his money at Saserām, by a Persian soldier of fortune who had entered the Oudh *subahdār's* service. (Siyar, iii. 7.) In the Ganges-Jamunā Doab, Ali Muhammad Ruhela, a former retainer of the local governor, “daily increased his power during the neglect following Nādir Shāh’s invasion, when no noble of the Court gave a thought to him. He used to plunder the districts in his neighbourhood and brought the whole country up to the Kumāun hills under his control. Strong in the strength of his fort (of Bangarh), he attacked the imperial territory and dreamt of rivalling Sher Shāh and Salim Shāh.” (Ashub, ii. 423-424.)

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But there was no army under the Emperor to enforce peace and order. During Nādir’s invasion many of the imperial troops had fallen in the battle of Karnāl or in the massacre of Delhi, and the survivors had dispersed to all sides in order to escape from the prevailing disorder and scarcity of food. Thus, Muhammad Shāh on his restoration found himself practically defenceless. Asad Yār Khān, a new favourite and a very wise and thoughtful man, convinced him of the urgency of the case and secured his permission to enlist 10,000 soldiers on a monthly salary of Rs. 50 for each trooper and infantryman taken together. The horses of this cavalry were ordered to be branded with the mark of the sword and hence the entire corps was called the *Shamshir-dāgh risāla*. (1740) [Chahār Gul. 373a.]

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§ 13. *Amir Khān’s plot to overthrow the wazir.*

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Amir Khān and his protege Ishaq Khān having been installed in the Emperor’s supreme confidence (1739), these Persian Shias began to work for the overthrow of the Turāni Sunni nobles, whose leaders were the two highest officers of the realm, *viz.*, the Wazir Qamruddin and the Bakhshi Asaf Jāh Nizām-ul-mulk. The Emperor had long been harbouring a distrust of his Turāni nobles, and their conduct during the late Persian invasion had only confirmed his belief in their utter selfishness and disloyalty. He therefore lent a ready ear to the counsels of Amir Khān. The plan hatched in the secrecy of the innermost circle of the palace was to remove Qamruddin from the wazirship and appoint Amir Khān, who persuaded the Emperor that he himself could fill that office with greater success and benefit to his master.

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But how to bell the cat? The richest and best-armed noble in the realm, the Nizām, was the cousin and ally of Qamruddin, and common danger was sure to knit them together still more closely. It was, therefore, decided to effect the change of wazirs after the Nizām had left the Court for his viceroyalty of the Deccan and had gone too far off to assist his cousin in Delhi. On 3rd April 1740, the Nizām set out from Delhi to march to the Deccan where his presence was demanded by the increasing Marāthā pressure on his son and deputy Nāsir Jang. But he halted outside the capital at Jaisinghpura for some days in order to complete his preparations for the journey.

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Amir Khān could hold himself no longer. He talked high in his private circle as if the wazirship had been already bestowed on him,* and he spoke with insolent contempt of Qamruddin. His words were reported by tale-bearers to the wazir, who easily divined the nature of the plot against him, and wrote to the Nizām a full report of the state of affairs at Court and sought his advice. The Nizām replied counselling his cousin not to court the fate and infamy of the Sayyid brothers by taking up arms against his ungrateful master, but to resign, leave the worthless Emperor to his own devices, and accompany the Nizām to the Deccan.

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∗ I disbelieve the story in Siyar (ii. 99) that as soon as the Nizām marched out of Delhi, Muhammad Shāh secretly invested Amir Khān with the badge of the wazir's office (a golden pen-case) and that Amir Khān's reckless impatience revealed the secret.

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The Delhi exchequer was empty, the secret hoards of the palace had been carried away by the Persian conqueror, the provinces were withholding their tribute and the managers of the Crown-lands their due revenue. Thus the Court of Delhi was faced with starvation. In trying to squeeze money out of the nobles, Amir Khān precipitated the crisis. He advised the Emperor to enforce the old rule of escheating the property of deceased nobles. Badr-ud-din, a son of the wazir Qamruddin, having recently died leaving property worth 12½ lakhs of Rupees, Amir Khān on behalf of the Emperor demanded from the wazir the rent-roll of the jāgirs of his late son, with a view to resuming the grant. The wazir sent him a note of warning, saying, "If in recompense for his servants' sacrifice of their lives for him, the Emperor resumes their jāgirs, what hope of promotion and support can his hereditary slaves, devoted to him till eternity, have?" To this Amir Khān replied insolently, "So long as the shadow of my master rests on my head, I am prepared to confront Gabriel and Michael, not to speak of two lords like you and Asaf Jāh"! (Shākir, 84.)

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§ 14. *Emperor's fear and hesitation, and fall of Amir Khān.*

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The plot was fully unmasked by this time. Qamruddin immediately left Delhi, joined the Nizām in the suburbs, and wrote to the Emperor, "I have never been, nor will I ever be, disloyal to my sovereign. But as I have lost his favour, I beg to resign my post and leave it to him to get my work done by some one more in his confidence."

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This letter and the news of the junction of the wazir and the Nizām in anger with him thoroughly cowed the chicken-hearted Muhammad Shāh. In utter perplexity and alarm he summoned Amir Khān and Ishaq Khān for counsel. Then ensued an amusing scene truly characteristic of the empire's degeneration. Amir Khān insisted on their past agreement. The Emperor remained silent and then sent Amir Khān away for the day. He next took Ishaq Khan apart to his private chamber and urged him with the most solemn oaths to give him without fear or favour the counsel that he considered really best for the State. Ishaq Khān had been raised from obscurity by Amir Khān and had promised him never to give the Emperor any counsel opposed to the policy of his first patron. He was now in a dilemma and remained silent. Muhammad Shāh again took the strongest oaths and asked for his honest advice. Ishaq explained the conflict between his duty to his two patrons and begged to be excused from giving any answer. Then for the third time the Emperor asked for his advice and with still stronger entreaty. So, Ishaq Khān had no help but to reply. He said, "Although Amir Khān is an *āmir* and the son of an *āmir* and possessed of bravery and skill in making arrangements, yet he is known to the nobility and populace of Hindustan as light in character and manner. I and certain other nobles were raised to the peerage (*mansab*) only yesterday. But Asaf Jāh and Itimād-ud-daulah are regarded by all the leading people of Hind with eyes of expectation, and obedience to them is considered as a gain and a blessing. In my humble opinion it is inexpedient to break with such chiefs in reliance upon men like us. You are the best judge of your own interests."

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On hearing this, Muhammad Shāh fell back from his purpose and decided to conciliate Itimāduddaulah and Asaf Jāh. Next day Amir Khān, on coming to the Emperor, found him entirely changed from their previous agreement. Muhammad Shāh told him, "It is not wise to antagonise the Turāni nobles, who have such absolute power. The best policy is to conciliate them. You, in loyalty to me, ought to refrain from doing anything that may excite their anger or hostility.'' (Siyar, ii. 99-100.)

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The wazir-to-be discovered that he was not to be. Amir Khān's game was lost; he found that in hoping to oust Qamruddin with the Emperor's support he had been leaning on a broken reed. Only one way was left for saving his master and himself; it was an abject surrender. He was sent to the two nobles, as from the Emperor, with his wrists tied together with a handkerchief like a culprit's, and delivered this message from his master, "This man has offended against you. Do what you like with him.'' The defeated plotter excused himself by laying all the blame on the wicked advice of Ishaq Khan and other courtiers! The two nobles considered such a man as beneath their contempt, but the Nizām commanded him, under the guise of advice, to leave the Court: "Now that differences have arisen between you and the wazir, it is best that you should go away from the Court to your province of Allahabad for some time.'' (Ashub, ii. 418, Siyar, ii. 100.)

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Thus Amir Khān was removed from the society of the Emperor where he had so long been only making mischief. He delayed his departure from the capital as long as he could under various pretexts, in the hope of something turning up in the meantime, but the Nizām was inexorable and refused to leave Delhi before Amir Khān had been actually expelled. Nearly four months were thus wasted. At last Amir Khān set out for Allahabad, and then the Nizām began his southward march from the Jaisinghpura suburb (27th July 1740.) In the meantime Ishaq Khān had died on 18th April, and the Emperor's Court was purged of the Irāni intriguers.

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§ 15. Maratha invasion of Bengal Bihar and Orissa, steps taken by the imperial Government.

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Three uneventful years passed in this state, and then the political chess-board underwent a dramatic change. While on the North-western frontier profound peace and even safe defence were purchased by the cession of the trans-Indus provinces to the king of Persia, a new danger arose in the east. From April 1742 the Marāthas of Nāgpur began to make annual raids into Bengal Bihār and Orissā which were to continue for nine years and end only with the loss of Orissā to the Empire. The danger even threatened to overflow from Bihār westwards into Allahabad at a time when the Emperor had secured peace on the south by the virtual surrender of Mālwa to the Peshwā. In the autumn of 1742, the Emperor, in response to the Bengal *subahdār’s* urgent appeals for aid, ordered Safdar Jang (the *subahdār* of Oudh) to march into Bihār, and if necessary into Bengal also, and restore the imperial authority there by expelling the Marāthas. As the price of this service, Safdar Jang’s possessions were increased by handing over Chunār fort to him. The inner meaning of this affair needs explanation.

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In his enforced exile from the royal presence, Amir Khān had been spending three years at Allahabad and constantly writing to the Emperor and brooding over the means of regaining his position at Court. His success depended on his getting on his side an able general at the head of a powerful army who might naturally serve as a counterpoise to the Nizām. This sword-arm of the Persian Shia party he discovered in his near neighbour Safdar Jang, the *subahdār* of Oudh, and he now turned all his plans to enhancing his power, as he had once elevated Ishaq Khān I. Taking advantage of the Marātha invasion of the eastern provinces. Amir Khān played upon the imbecile Emperor’s greed to push his own plan through. Since the viceroyalty of Murshid Quli Khān (1707-1727), the province of Bengal Bihar and Orissa had practically become independent under his family. Though the surplus revenue was regularly sent by the *subahdār* to the imperial Court, yet he was his own master in the matter of the appointment and control of officers and the expenditure of public money. Alivardi Khān (officially entitled Hisāmuddaulah Mahābat Jang), who had seized the viceroyalty of Bengal by killing Murshid Quli Khan’s grandson Sarāfrāz Khān (c. 10 April 1740), delayed in sending to the Emperor the property of the last two subahdārs (Shujā Khān and Sarāfrāz Khan) which had legally lapsed to the State and which would have been most welcome at the starving Court of Delhi. This was Amir Khān’s opportunity. He wrote to the Emperor, “Now that Alivardi Khān, the slayer of his master, is entangled with the Marāthas and has no force to spare, if you order Safdar Jang he will easily conquer that province for you. Safdar Jang is a loyal servant and will pay you the tribute of the province every year.” (Imād, 33.)

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Muhammad Shāh agreed and wrote to Safdar Jang to that effect. The Oudh subahdār marched into Bihār, causing more alarm than relief to the people whom he came professedly to rescue. But by that time (January 1743) Alivardi had gained the upper hand of the invaders and no longer needed help from others. So, Safdar Jang returned from Patna to his own province (early in February.) This futile and short march was represented to the Emperor as a great achievement and a proof of Safdar Jang’s military capacity. Amir Khān induced the Emperor to summon him and Safdar Jang to Court. Similar invitations were issued in August 1743 to the other leading nobles of the provinces and Rājahs, to come to Court and advise the Emperor how to meet the annual Marātha threat to the eastern provinces. [Siyar, iii. 5; Imād 34.]

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§ 16. Persian influence becomes supreme at Emperor’s Court, 1744.

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Amir Khān reached Delhi on 5th November 1743 and at once re-established his old ascendancy on the Emperor’s mind. Safdar Jang arrived some eight days later, rode into the city at the head of 10,000 splendidly dressed troopers with full pomp, and was lodged in Dārā Shukoh’s mansion within the walls. The Persian influence was now supreme at Court and the Turāni party went down. The post of Mir Ātish (Chief of Artillery) was very important, as its holder guarded and controlled the Emperor’s person family and treasures within the palace of Delhi. On the death of the last incumbent Sāduddin Khān (on 20 June 1743), this office had been conferred upon his son Hafizuddin, a Turāni and a protege of the wazir. But now, on 11th March 1744, it was taken away from him and given to Safdar Jang, at Amir Khān’s suggestion, as Muhammad Shāh had lost all faith in his Turāni nobles. Safdar Jang, by virtue of his office, now took up his residence in the palace-fort and pluralities began to come thick upon him.

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His influence henceforth swayed the Emperor’s counsels as against the wazir’s. And the first manifestation of it was the imperial campaign undertaken against Ali Muhammad Khān Ruhela, the lord of Aonla and Bangarh whose patron was the wazir (1745), as will be described in Chapter II.

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The Shia influence now rapidly extended itself at Court. Late in 1745 the Emperor dictated a marriage between Safdar’s son and heir Shujā-ud-daulah and the sister of his greatest favourite Ishaq Khan II Najmuddaulah. This illustrious lady was Bahu Begam, the tragic heroine of the impeachment of Warren Hastings for the ill-treatment of the Begams of Oudh. On 12th July 1747, Najmuddaulah was appointed *diwān* of the Crownlands, the post held by his father at his death. [*Chahār Gul*, 393; *Imād*, 35.]

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§ 17. Asad Yār Khān’s disgrace and death.

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But in this very year 1745 died one of the main pillars of the Persian party at Court, Asad Yār Khan. His project of raising a new army, the *Shamshir dāgh*, 10,000 strong, had been wrecked on the rock of finance. This force cost 30 lakhs of Rupees a year. But after Nādir Shah’s retirement, many of the dispersed soldiers of the old imperial army gradually returned to their master’s standards, and the State income soon proved insufficient to meet the army bill. So, the Emperor at first decided to discharge half the new *Shamshir dāgh* corps.

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Amir Khān on his return to power showered all his favour on his new protege Safdar Jang and displayed a mean jealousy of Asad Yār Khān whom he himself had once raised from obscurity to the Emperor’s notice. On 24th September 1744, he caused Asad Yār to be removed from the absentee governorship of Kashmir in order to make room for Safdar Jang. He next induced the Emperor to disband the *Shamshir dāgh* altogether on the ground of retrenchment. The soldiers' salary was then in arrears for nine months. When Asad Yār begged the Emperor to pay the sum due (Rs. 22½ laghs), Amir Khān objected to the payment saying that the men had enjoyed their salary for 4½ years but done nothing for the State. The weak Emperor therefore refused to clear their arrears. The soldiers, on hearing of it, marched round the palace in a riotous crowd and meeting Amir Khān, on his way to the audience, in the streets, abused him heartily and pelted him with brick-bats.

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Asad Yār at last pacified them by taking the responsibility for their arrears of salary on himself and discharged this self-imposed obligation by selling his household goods and jewels. (*Chahār Gulzār*, 373 *a*—384 *a*.) His troubles only ended with his death, *c.* 15 April 1745.

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§ 18. Murder of Amir Khan, 1746.

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His former patron and later persecutor outlived him only twenty months. Amir Khān had never been remarkable for wisdom or self-control, and now unlimited sway over the Emperor's counsels without the public responsibility of any official duty completely turned his head. During the recent campaign against Ali Muhammad Ruhela there was a widespread public expectation that he would soon replace Qamruddin as wazir. In his insane pride, he acted as if he had already become his master's master and a king-making wazir like Sayyid Husain Ali. He began to press his advice and demands upon the Emperor with disrespectful vehemence and to treat the other nobles with contempt as no better than the rabble. Even personal friends and favourites of Muhammad Shāh, like Ishaq Khān II and his brothers, suffered public scorn at his hands. The worm turned at last. One day Muhammad Shāh’s devoted head eunuch Roz Afzun Khān (the Superintendent of the Palace) ventured to protest against some act or word of Amir Khān as discourteous to their master; immediately there was a scene at Court, the timid Emperor quailed before the torrent of Amir Khān’s rage and threats and yielded to his demand that Roz Afzun should be dismissed and a creature of Amir Khān appointed in his place. This change would have made the Emperor the helpless slave of Amir Khān. So, at his instigation Roz Afzun Khān set an aggrieved servant of Amir Khān to stab him to death, on his way to the select Audience, near the lattice-door of the Diwān-i-ām (25 December, 1746.)

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The soldiers of Amir Khān’s contingent, whose salary he had left unpaid for fourteen months, immediately after his death surrounded his mansion and would not allow his burial to take place till their dues were satisfied. Four days passed in this way, till the corpse began to suffer natural dissolution. Then Safdar Jang took it on himself to discharge this debt, and gave to the soldiers two hostages for the payment, when at last they allowed the Khān’s body to be consigned to the grave. And yet this man, though he was childless, had been thus starving his soldiers and servants, while he had 50 to 60 *lakhs* of Rupees worth of jewellery hoarded in his house. These were now taken by the Emperor at the unfair valuation of ten *lakhs* only. (*Siyar*, iii. 14-15; *Bayān*, 207.)

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During the short interval of five months that lay between the death of Amir Khān, the reigning favourite at Delhi, and the crowning of Ahmad Abdāli after Nādir Shāh’s death, nothing of importance happened at the imperial Court to vary the tale of the growing disintegration of government and the deepening insolvency of king and nobility.

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Two months after Asad Yār Khān’s death, Zakariyā Khān, the able governor of the Panjāb, passed away. This event introduced a most momentous change into the fortunes of the Delhi monarchy, which will be narrated in Chapter V.

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