Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s4: § 12. Alivardi recovers Katak
Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s4
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§ 12. Alivardi recovers Katak
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About the middle of March, 1749, Alivardi went to Katwā and there began to assemble an army for the recovery of Orissā. Some months before this he had detached a column, eight thousand strong, to Bardwān to block the usual road of the Marāthas from the south. When the Nawāb himself reached Bardwān, the men of his portable artillery (*topkhānah-i-dasti*) mutinied for their arrears of pay and created a tumult. The Nawāb in anger dismissed them all and set out against the enemy without any artillery whatever. A few of his officers also ran away at this time, to avoid the hardship and dangers of campaigning in that barren country in the hot weather. But nothing daunted, Alivardi, now 73 years old, advanced towards the enemy in Medinipur. At the news of his approach, Mir Habib set fire to his encampment and fled southwards. The Nawāb, without entering the town of Medinipur, skirted it, crossed the Kānsāi river, and halted on the further side. Then getting intelligence of the enemy being present in the jungles of Medinipur, he sent a detachment which made a night attack and routed them.
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Alivardi continued the pursuit. Advancing to Balesar he learnt that Sābāji and Mir Habib, finding their soldiers powerless to stand up to a fight with the Nawāb’s forces, had fled far away through the jungles of Katak. Alivardi pushed on towards Katak, crossed the two branches of the Baitarani river at Bhadrak and Jājpur, and took post at Barā about 36 miles north of Katāk. Here he received letters from Sayyid Nur, Sarāndāz Khān and Dharmadās (the Captain of the musketeers), who had gone over to the Marāthas and had been left by them in charge of the fort of Barābāti and the district round Katak town, offering to submit to Alivardi whenever he would arrive there.
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But the Nawāb was too old a general to act in heedless haste. He first searched the dense jungle for Mir Habib for some time; but no trace of the Marāthas having been found, he issued from the jungle, left a force to watch the pass leading out of it, and with 2,000 men made a forced march from Barā to Katak, riding all that night and half of the next day, suffering terribly from the heat of the May day sun along a treeless road. At the end of eighteen hours of continuous exertion, with his escort reduced to three hundred worn-out horsemen, the Nawāb arrived before Barābāti at noon (c. 17th May, 1749). No baggage or tent had been able to keep up with him. The garrison agreed to capitulate the next day.
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Next morning, when the officers of the fort came to interview the Nawāb, Sayyid Nur and Dharmadās were made prisoners by previous order of Alivardi, while Sarāndāz Khān who resisted arrest was cut down. The garrison shut the gates and showed fight, and so the Nawāb had to invest the fort. He entered the city of Katak (c. 18 May), and fifteen days later received the surrender of Barābāti. Thus, the reconquest of Orissā was complete. But to the ruler of Bengal Katak was easier to conquer than to hold, with the Marāthas permanently in occupation of its southern and western flanks, innumerable tracks through the jungles leading out of these places, and a single long and difficult route connecting Katak with Bengal which was closed by floods during half the year. Noble after noble declined the governorship of Orissā offered to them by the Nawāb, as they knew that with the small provincial contingent they would not be able to hold out against the Marāthas for a week after the Nawāb had set out on his return to Bengal with his army. At last a thoughtless beggar named Shaikh Abdus Subhān, who was serving in Durlabhrām's squadron, jumped at the prospect of becoming a Deputy Nawāb, and was appointed governor of the province. Alivardi quickly left Katak and hastened towards Bengal, in order to avoid the coming rainy season which would render the innumerable streams across his path impassable. [Siyar, ii. 175—177.]
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§ 13. *Katak reconquered by Marathas, June 1749.*
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But the result was as every body had foreseen. Six or seven days after Alivardi had marched out of Katak, Mir Habib reappeared before that town, defeated and captured the seven days' *nāib-nāzim*, who, however, fought most gallantly against tenfold odds and was severely wounded,—and so the Marāthas recovered the capital of Orissā. Thus, Alivardi's work was undone within a week. But the Nawāb was in no position to return to Katak and expel the Marāthas. His troops had been suffering unspeakable hardship and privation in their homeward march. The June sun was fierce overhead, with no avenue of trees along the roads; then the monsoon burst and it rained heavily day after day, the *nālās* across the road turned into raging torrents; no food could be procured locally. Under such circumstances, the draggled Bengal army reached Balesar on 6th June. It was in no condition or mood to face a new campaign and repeat this labour of Sisyphus. The Nawāb's health was breaking down under his recent exertions. So, he set his face homewards, and reached Murshidābād at the beginning of July. [Siyar, ii.
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178; *Beng. Consult.*, 24, 27 and 29 May, 17 June, 1749.]
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§ 14. *Alivardi at Medinipur.*
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Alivardi’s reconquest of Orissā in the summer of 1749, coming so soon after his recovery of Bihār in April 1748, was a splendid achievement, but it was destined to be his last. The forced march that ensured the fall of Katak without a blow, the blistering sun that had to be endured overhead for weeks together, the muddy roads and rain-swollen streams that had to be crossed, and the scanty and coarse food that a poor jungly province solely yielded, all told upon the body of an old man of 73 who had scorned delights and lived laborious days throughout a long life, and had almost every year since his accession had to meet and defeat some enemy at home or abroad, from the bosom of his family and the circle of his lieutenants as much as from across the frontier. Soon after his return from Orissā, the Nawāb had a serious illness which continued well into October 1749. [*Bengal Consult.*, 18 Oct. 1749.]
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But there was no rest for Alivardi. On recovering from this illness, he disported himself for a few days, by deer hunt at Mihirpur (24 miles due east of Palāshi), and then marched to Katwā. After assembling his army here, he advanced *via* Bardwān to Medinipur (December, 1749). Meantime, Mir Habib had come to Balesar about 15th October, with Mohan Singh and the Marātha force, while the Pathāns (under Mustafa Khān’s son Murtazā) who formed his rearguard, arrived two days later, making a total of 40,000 men. [Bengal Consult., 26 Oct. 1749; Siyar, ii. 179.]
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This year Alivardi decided to form a permanent cantonment at Medinipur, so as to keep the path of Marātha raids into Bengal from Orissa always closed. In the camp at Medinipur the Nawāb tried to check abuses in his army, with the consequence of alienating his troops. There was gross peculation through collusion between the captains and the pay-clerks. A muster was held when it was found that in general only one-fourth of the troops paid for by Government were actually kept in service. In one officer’s command the robbery of public money was so outrageous that out of the 1,700 men for whom he had been drawing pay regularly year after year, only eighty were really present and all the rest were “dead musters”. When the Nawāb cut down the allowances of the officers to the actual strength of their contingents, they became highly discontented, and the reform had to be stopped. (Siyar, ii. 180.)
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While this internal trouble was raging in the Medinipur cantonment, towards the end of February 1750, a body of several thousand Marāthas slipped past him and plundered the country as far as Rājmahal, whence they turned towards Murshidābād. About 6th March, Mir Habib at the head of 12,000 horse arrived four miles from that city, and had a skirmish with Mir Jafar’s troops, who were driven back nearer to the capital. For some days the two armies lay facing each other, but the Marāthas continued to send out parties daily to burn and plunder all around them. (Qāsimbāzār factory letters, 4th and 9th March 1750.) At this news, Alivardi quickly fell back from Medinipur to Bardwān, but on hearing of his march the raiders turned aside and took refuge in the jungles of West Bengal. The Nawāb halted at Bardwān, in diwan Mānikchānd’s garden outside the city, for some time, and then returned to Medinipur (April 1750.) The baffled Marāthas had shown themselves here, but disappeared before the Nawāb’s arrival. Permanent quarters for the officers and men and mansions for the Nawāb were now built here and the ladies of the harem were summoned from Murshidābād, as no officer would undertake the perilous post of *faujdār* of Medinipur and the Nawāb was therefore compelled to stay there in person.
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§ 15. Sirājuddaulah assaults Patna city, June, 1750.
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But a fresh trouble was brewing for Alivardi. His darling grandson and intended heir, Sirājuddaulah, was instigated by Sayyid Mahdi Nisār Khān (the paternal uncle of the historian Ghulām Husain and a discontented ex-officer of the Nawāb’s army), to make a dash on Patna, seize the government of the province from the Nawāb’s agent, and make himself independent. The foolish and capricious lad, took leave from the camp at Medinipur, on the pretext of visiting the palaces and gardens at Murshidābād, and slipped out of that town with his wife. Arrived at Patna, he with Mahdi Nisār Khān delivered an attack on the city. The defenders hesitated to fire on their future master and the apple of the eye of their present sovereign. Some of the assailants got inside through an old drain for rainwater near the western gate, called the khirki of Begampurā, threw the gate open and admitted Sirājuddaulah. In the fighting in the narrow streets of Hājiganj the loyal troops were steadily driven back and Sirāj’s followers seemed to be on the point of capturing the entire city, when first Amānat Khān, then Mirzā Madāri Beg Deccani, and finally Mahdi Nisār were killed. At this fall of their leaders the rebels lost heart and fled out of the city. Sirāj took refuge in a private house safe and sound, to the intense relief of Rājah Jānakirām and the garrison of the city, (c. 27 June, 1750.) [Siyar, ii. 182—185.]
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Meantime, immediately on hearing of Sirāj’s flight from Murshidābād towards Patna, Alivardi had started from Medinipur after him, though the rainy season had begun and the roads were becoming impassable. Halting only one day at Murshidābād, he hastened to Bihār, and when arrived at Ghiyāspur (midway between Bārh and Fatuā) heard of the attack on Patna and Sirāj’s lefeat. With infinite tenderness he soothed the mind of the young rebel and restored him to all his favour, and then set off with him back to Murshidābād. At Patna the old Nawāb was seized with a high burning fever, but he could not stop there, in view of the threat of the Marāthas to Medinipur and the incompetence and cowardice of the agents left by the Nawāb there. So, the sick Alivardi glided down the Ganges in a boat, attended by physicians, and after reaching Murshidābād and undergoing further treatment recovered (in September.)
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All this time despair and consternation had been raging in the camp at Medinipur. The Nawāb’s illness was believed to be fatal in view of his extreme old age. In fact, Mir Jafar and Rājāh Durlabhrām, who had been left by the Nawāb in command at Medinipur, were utterly incompetent and thoroughly shaken in spirit by their previous unfortunate encounters with the Marāthas. The situation at Medinipur became so critical, that the Nawāb had to set out for that place soon after his recovery from the fever, though he was still weak and far from having regained his normal health (December 1750). Here he fought Mir Habib and drove him into the western jungles. After some pursuit the enemy were compelled to flee towards Katak. The Nawāb then returned to Katwā (February 1751), putting off the recovery of Orissā to the next winter. [Siyar, ii. 187.]
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§ 16. Peace treaty with Marathas, 1751.
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Both sides were now eager for peace. Mir Habib and the Marāthas realised that it was useless to continue such a harassing war, which brought them no ultimate gain. Raghuji was more involved in debt than ever before; as a financial speculation his invasion of the eastern provinces had failed. Even Orissā, which he had now been occupying for some years, was such a poor province and the Marātha occupation of it was so often interrupted by their expulsion from it, that his income from the conquest had not covered his expenses. When in 1749 his son Sābājī beat a hurried retreat from that province to Nāgpur, his soldiers pressed Raghuji hard for their heavy arrears of salary, and the Rājah had not the means of satisfying them or any other creditor. A friendly arrangement with the Nawāb would give the Marāthas an assured income without the expense of collecting it fitfully and by force.
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Alivardi Khān was now 75 years old, and felt the weight of age and the approach of death. His troops were thoroughly worn out by their incessant campaigns and forced marches against domestic and foreign enemies; his subjects in Western and Southern Bengal had been utterly impoverished by the yearly raid and destruction of the Bargis. His Government was wellnigh bankrupt, and both he and his subjects required years of peace to recuperate. So, he listened to his well-wishers and permitted Mir Jafar to act as an intermediary and open peace negotiations with the Marāthas, (March 1751.) Mir Jafar sent two of his men to Habib, who welcomed the proposal and despatched his own agent Mirzā Sālih with the Bengal envoys to Mir Jafar, who introduced him to the Nawāb, then at Katwā. The party proceeded in the Nawāb's train to Murshidābād where the terms were settled. The draft treaty was referred to the Court of Nāgpur and finally in May or June 1751 a peace was signed on the following conditions :
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(1) Mir Habib would now become a servant of Alivardi and act as *nāib-nāzim* (deputy governor) of Orissā on his behalf. He should pay the surplus revenue of the province to Raghuji’s army as their salary.
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(2) From the Bengal revenue twelve *lakhs* of Rupees a year would be paid to Raghuji as *chauth* for that province.
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(3) The Marātha Government agreed not to set foot in Alivardi’s dominions again. The frontier of Bengal was fixed at and including the river Suvarnarekha* near Jalesar, and the Marāthas bound themselves never to cross it again. Thus the district of Medinipur was once more joined to Bengal. (*Siyar*, ii. 188).
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§ 17. Murder of Mir Habib, 1752.
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Now at last Mir Habib, after long years of ceaseless toil, bloodshed, plunder and devastation of these provinces, attained to his life’s ambition ; he became the master of a province. But he did not long enjoy his new power and dignity. In his speedy and tragic downfall the author of *Siyar*- *ul-mutākhkharin* sees the hand of divine justice. As he writes, "When poor Mir Habib, after so much exertion was on the point of eating the fruit of the tree of his oppression, he was seized with retribution for his cruelty to the innocent multitudes who had been ruined in the raids of his troops and the Marāthas, and he passed away in irretrievable disappointment and loss." (ii. 190). A year after the conclusion of the peace, Jānoji arrived at Katak as his father's representative and took charge of the Marātha army. The Marātha Brāhmans were chafing under Mir Habib's rule, and refused to take their orders from him any longer as he was now Alivardi's officer and not Raghuji's. Habib as a good administrator could not have allowed the extortion and peculation dear to the hearts of Marātha officers in a newly conquered province, and his honesty and care for the people made him hateful to these blood-suckers. They pressed Jānoji to call upon Habib to render an account of the income and expenditure of the province and of the division of the *chauth* of Bengal between the Marātha and Afghān soldiers, during his fourteen or fifteen months of stewardship. Jānoji agreed, as he could not brook a rival to his authority in the person of Alivardi's agent. So, a plot was formed to get rid of Habib. Jānoji invited Mir Habib and his chief followers, to the number of 40 or 50, to his tent, conversed with them pleasantly for the rest of the day, and about sunset took leave to go out and perform his evening *pujā*. Immediately afterwards, the Marātha soldiers crowded into the tent, encircled Mir Habib, and told him that he would not be allowed to leave the tent before he rendered accounts and gave bonds for the money that he had misappropriated. Habib argued with them for some time, and then at last realised that the whole thing was a plot for killing him. So, about midnight he and his followers drew their swords and tried to cut their way through the Marāthas, but were all killed,* (24 Aug. 1752.)
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∗ Misprinted as Sona-makia in *Siyar*, ii. 188.