Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s6.6

v1.c9.s6.6

Sheo Bhat Sathé, the Marātha governor of Orissā, was a man of restless enterprise and daring ambition. In December 1760, he burst into Bengal and made a dash towards Mungir, passing through the Bardwān and Birbhum districts, the Rājahs of which were suspected of having joined him. This flying column could not go further nor stay there long in fear of the English. Falling back on Medinipur, Sheo Bhat invested Mr. John Johnstone, the English collector of the place, on 22nd January 1761. Johnstone and his sepoys were hard pressed; but the Calcutta Council sent a relieving force with two guns, which promptly arrived on the scene (*c.* 7th February) and the Marāthas immediately decamped, without fighting, towards Katak. Foiled in the field, Sheo Bhat from Katak continued to write letters to Calcutta claiming the *chauth* of Medinipur, which he declared to be a part of the province of Orissā, and urging the withdrawal of the British troops from that town. In April and again in May, the Katak governor threatened invasion if the *chauth* of Bengal was not forwarded to him at once.* The English replied that the Nawāb was writing directly to Jānoji on the subject. (*Calendar P.C.*, i. Nos. 1024, 1082, 1099, 1169, 1109, 1189. *Long, Selections*, i. 552.) The threat was repeated next year in a letter from Sheo Bhat received on 16th February 1762. (*Calendar* i. 1445.) But the Bengal Government was now negotiating with the Court of Nāgpur, and a Marātha envoy Govind Rao Chitnavis arrived at Calcutta early in July to settle the question of *chauth*. Jānoji was distressed by not receiving the twelve lakhs annually from Bengal, and he wrote strongly urging immediate payment. (*Ibid.* 1561, 1536.)