Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s5.1

v1.c9.s5.1

Mir Habib was succeeded by Musālih-ud-din Muhammad Khān, a courtier of Raghuji, as *nāib nāzim* of Orissā. But though legally a representative of Alivardi Khān, he acted in all matters as a servant of the Marātha Rājah, and had no real control over the administration such as Habib had exercised. (Siyar, ii. 190). Thus, in a few years Orissā passed entirely out of the hands of the subahdār of Bengal and Bihār, and became a Marātha province. This was the one permanent result of the Bargi invasions. Another was that the Marāthas showed the way for the organised looting of Bengal and Bihār to the up-country robber bands calling themselves sannyāsis and faqirs, whom it required the genius of a Warren Hastings to suppress.