Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s5.3

v1.c9.s5.3

It is a mistake to say that Alivardi ceded Orissā to the Marāthas. The terms of the treaty of 1751 clearly show that the province was divided into two parts; of the northern and more civilised corner, which included the important cities of Medinipur and Jalesar, he retained full possession and government; the southern and more sparsely populated portion, including the great trade centre of Balesar, the capital Katak, and the holy city of Puri, was to be governed by his own officers, but its revenue was assigned to the Marāthas, or in other words it became one vast jāgir for them without any change in its territorial sovereignty. This was the theory; but in practice, the weakness of Alivardi's successors, the revolutions at the Court of Murshidābād, and the confusion attending the transfer of real power from the titular Nawāb to the English Company, all enabled the Marāthas to turn their fiscal right over Orissā into full political sovereignty and to annex it to their kingdom of Berār.