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Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21: Chapter XIII. Reign of Alamgir II—A General Survey

Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21

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Chapter XIII. Reign of Alamgir II—A General Survey

§ 1. Character of Emperor Alamgir II

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The successor of Ahmad Shah on the throne of Delhi was an old man of fifty-five. He was the youngest son of the Emperor Muiz-ud-din Jahandar Shah, and therefore a grandson of Shah Alam I. Born at Multan on June 6, 1699, he had lost his father at the age of fourteen, in the civil war which gave the crown to Farrukhsiyar. Since then he had passed his days in poverty and neglect, mewed up in the rooms of the "Emperors' grandsons" (*deorhi-i-salatin*) within the Delhi fort. He had been denied any opportunity for learning war or administration, or acquiring practical experience of the open outer world, but had wisely guarded himself from vice by devoting his time to study and meditation. He had chosen for his ideal the Emperor Aurangzib (Alamgir I), whose title he adopted on ascending the throne. Like Aurangzib he loved to read books on history and shunned the usual diversions of royalty, such as dance and song. Like Aurangzib, too, he made it a point to say his five daily prayers in the outer palace mosque and the Friday afternoon prayer in full congregation in the Jāma‘ Masjid of the capital. He knew by rote the administrative rules and practice of the great Aurangzib, and his aim was to follow these to the letter. Condemning the slack and undignified conduct of his two immediate predecessors,—who used to sit in an open sedan chair held up on men’s shoulders when granting audiences,—Alamgir II laid it down that he would hold only regular *darbars* seated on the imperial throne in the Hall of Audience. Imitating the strenuous life of Aurangzib, he used to read all petitions, and even passports, and sign the orders on them. [*TALS.* 4b-5a, *Mux.* 98.]

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A renewal of the first Alamgir’s policy of temple destruction and levy of poll-tax on ‘the infidels’ was rendered impossible by the Maratha grip* on the throat of his namesake, but the Islamic ‘heretics’ did not escape so easily. The Shias form a very small minority among the Indian Muhammadans and they had now no protector at Court. Their former leader Safdar Jang had been the mortal enemy of the all-powerful new wazir Imād-ul-mulk. It was by beating the big drum of Sunni orthodoxy that Imād had been able to rally the Ruhelas and Badakhshis to his standard and overthrow the Shia influence which had dominated the imperial Court since 1743. He now took his revenge on the defeated sect by reviving Aurangzib’s regulation against Shia processions in Muharram. The news of Safdar Jang’s death reached Delhi on 11th October, 1754, and nine days later (on the 3rd of Muharram) this decree of prohibition was issued. “Since the reign of Farrukhsiyar, by reason of the rise of Shia *umara*, the practice of making tombs of the Imāms, which had been forbidden by the former Sunni Emperors, was revived, till it reached the extreme point of display. In every lane and market-place countless stages were built and kettle-drums beaten. The Emperor Alamgir II forbade the making of the tombs of the Imāms and stages. But the practice had been going on for 40 years and could not be stopped.” [*TALS. 25b-26a.*]

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∗ On 25 Oct. 1754, the Emperor issued orders abolishing the taxes on Hindu pilgrims at Gaya and Kurukshetra. [*DC.*] He transferred them to the Peshwa, who appointed his Delhi agent Dāmodar M. Hingané as his tax-collector there, 9 Feb. 1755. [*Rajwade*, vi. 328.] But Benares and Allahabad were under the control of the subahdar of Oudh, who clung to his levy at these holy places.

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But unlike Aurangzib, his great-grandson had no contact with the soldiery, no love for outdoor exercises, such as marching, reviewing troops, or even hunting. His age and the sedentary habits of 55 years made it impossible for him to take to a strenuous life of activity all of a sudden, and he remained a bookworm immured in his closet or harem. The second Alamgir fell short of his illustrious namesake in another signal respect. Alamgir I had been very abstemious in the matter of women and had never indulged himself even to the extent of the Prophet's allowance of four consorts at a time. The second Alamgir, in spite of his being a grandfather and an invalid old man at the time of his accession, turned his belated elevation to sovereignty into an opportunity for making rapid and numerous additions to his harem.

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In February 1756, when Hazrat Begam, the daughter of Muhammad Shah, reached her 16th year, she excited the passion of Alamgir II. The old goat, now verging on sixty, shamelessly demanded her hand for himself and threatened her guardian, the ex-Empress Malika-i-zamani, saying, "Either consent to give her to me in marriage, or I shall take her by force." The girl replied, "I prefer death to [such a] marriage... I regard you as my father, and you too should look upon me in the same light as your three daughters. If you use force, I shall kill myself." The baffled suitor wreaked his vengeance by ordering the gates of the princess's quarters to be closed, so as to force her into isolation from the rest of the palace. Still later, on 1 September 1758, he married Zinat-afroz Begam, when his own health was so broken that he had fainting fits and was unable to move in the midst of a march with his wazir. [TALS. 67, 185-186.]

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The new Emperor was intelligent, sober and decorous in life, but utterly wanting in strength of character and capacity for leadership. He used openly to declare himself a puppet in the hands of his wazir, without any power to guide the government. The crown could give him in the winter of his life only the wealth and pleasure which fate had so long denied to him. He was encumbered with a large family,—five sons and one daughter of his own and six sons of his late brother whom he loved like his own offspring, one grandson and one grand-nephew, fourteen princes in all, who had hitherto shared his palace-prison of poverty and seclusion. These had now to be provided for in a style worthy of Emperor’s children, out of the treasury. But the treasury was empty and the mansab of 30,000 horse or so which was conferred on each of them remained mere orders on paper, without any chance of their being assigned lands yielding the pay of these grades. His queens eagerly snatched at the only sure source of revenue still left in the empire, namely, the salt-marts and grain-markets near the capital, which yielded a regular income from their tolls and import duties. [DC.]

§ 2. Wazir Imad-ul-mulk's incapacity

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The life and activity of such a State, therefore, depended on its wazir, but though Imād-ul-mulk was to all outer seeming a king-maker and his master's master, he was in effect no less impotent for good than his creature the Emperor. He could not govern the State with the power and success of earlier king-makers like the Sayyid Brothers. It was not the case that he had no army or treasure. His own Badakhshi brigade (over 12,000 in number) were the best fighting force in the empire in that age, if only they could be punctually paid and worthily led; and he had, in addition, the Maratha myriads at his beck and call. His parsimonious father's hoarded treasure was worth a *kror* or more, and by enforcing order and good government in the provinces round the capital, the new wazir could in a few years have ensured the regular and full flow of revenue from them to the central exchequer for meeting the daily expenses of the State. But Imād had neither the capacity nor the character required in the regenerator of a fallen State, and during his five-and-a-half years' dictatorship the Delhi empire drifted on to ruin beyond hope of recovery. He was personally incapable, and his pride and selfishness would not allow others to restore the monarchy.

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There has never been a wazir of Delhi whose rule was so barren of good result and so full of misery to himself and to the empire, to his friends and foes alike, as Imād-ul-mulk's. His nominal master Alamgir II was a mere shadow, never daring to assert his own will or express his own judgment, but leaving everything to his wazir's discretion even more absolutely than Farrukhsiyar or Muhammad Shah had done to the Sayyid Brothers. But Imād's whole reign—for that is the correct description of his chancellorship—was marked by utter futility, public misfortune and administrative breakdown. His violent seizure of the wazir's office brought him no glory, strength, or even security. He was subjected to the grossest humiliation ever borne by any wazir, having been dragged through the streets of Panipat by his own soldiers (May, 1755) and seen the women of his harem outraged and exposed to the public gaze by the brutal Ruhelas (August 1757.)

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The highest officer of the empire, he ever lived on a bed of thorns. After his accession to office, his first fear sprang from his deposed predecessor. Intizām-ud-daulah had been robbed of the wazirate, but had not been crushed. He continued to live in the Delhi mansion of his father and grandfather (each the premier peer of the realm in his time), defending it like a castle with a garrison of 600 soldiers within; and whenever the two wazirs, past and present, rode out into the streets in the same hour, their armed retainers scowled at each other like the Montagues and Capulets in the streets of Verona, and a clash between the two parties seemed imminent. Such an ever-present enemy might overthrow Imād any day by joining some powerful ally and securing the Emperor's blessing on his enterprise. The Maratha alliance had been bought by Imād at a ruinous price, but he could not, by reason of his frequent default of payment, count upon their support, and he was on two occasions so unwise as to embark on a futile anti-Maratha policy. The other elements of power in the State were Suraj Mal, Shujā-ud-daulah and Najib Khan. The first of these Imād had antagonized by trying to wreak vengeance on him for his support of Safdar Jang in the civil war of 1753. Shujā hankered after his late father’s wazirate with no less intensity of desire and far greater strength of resources than Intizām, and he had a hereditary friend in Suraj Mal. Najib had been Imād’s retainer since the war with Safdar Jang, but the upstart Ruhela had insulted and bullied the wazir and publicly flouted his authority even before 1757, when Abdali made this Indo-Afghan chief his supreme agent at Delhi. Najib also usurped the wazir’s jagirs and the Emperor’s Crownlands in Saharanpur and Mirat in defiance of the Delhi Government. After Abdali’s retreat in April 1757, Najib became the foremost Muslim potentate in Northern India and used to overshadow the official wazir in the Delhi Government. He subjected Imād to a humiliation which the meanest Indian would resent to the end of his days, by violating his seraglio during his absence.

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The tragedy of Imād’s wazirship in the midst of hostile forces beyond his control, was deepened by his want of political foresight and absence of a wise diplomatic policy. He had originally (i.e., since June, 1754) clung like a helpless infant to the breast of the Marathas, but Deccani armed aid was a very costly thing, 13 lakhs a year being payable for every 5,000 soldiers posted in Delhi,—while Imād’s administrative incapacity and military impotence prevented the regular payment of the cash nexus on which alone Maratha friendship depended. His changes of alliance were equally ill-judged and ill-timed, and in their result left him weaker than before. Through weakness of will or error of judgment he agreed to Abdali's project of ousting the Marathas from the Doab and Shujā from his two subahs (April-June, 1757.) This drew Shujā, Suraj Mal and the Marathas together, and left Imād utterly friendless during the absence of Abdali from India. Worst of all, he offended the dread master of the Durrāni legions more than once.

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§ 3. Imad's policy and movements till 1758.

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We shall here trace in outline the devious course of Imād's policy during the reign of Alamgir II. For the first seven months after that monarch's accession, Imād's preoccupation was to raise the fabulous subsidy so heedlessly promised to the Marathas when hiring their arms to place him on the wazirate. An agreement was at last patched up and by February 1755 the Maratha hordes marched away from the Delhi region to their southern homes. The next few months of 1755 saw the wazir making an effort to reconquer the country north of Delhi from rebel usurpers, but the attempt was nipped in the bud by his cowardice and the mutiny and consequent disbandment of his Turki soldiery (May 1755.) On his return to Delhi from this inglorious and barren expedition, Imād was harassed by suspected palace-intrigues for overthrowing him and making Shujā wazir (June), the repeated open defiances of his authority by Najib, and the eternal bankruptcy of the State. His military and financial helplessness kept him quiescent throughout the second half of this year.

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In March 1756 he undertook the ill-judged Panjab adventure which ultimately drew down upon his head the wrath of Abdali in January next. In the second half of the year (July-September 1756), the wazir planned an attack upon the trans-Ganges Afghans of Rohilkhand and Shujā-ud-daulah, but his utter lack of money and the mutiny of his starving soldiery foredoomed the attempt to failure from the outset. In October 1756 came the Durrani conquest of the Panjab and in January 1757 the invader's occupation of Delhi which subjected Imād to dismissal, spoliation and public humiliation at the hands of the Afghan king. But he bought the patronage of the Durrani wazir Shah Wali Khan and was restored to his office. He was, however, too weak to disobey Abdali's order to accompany two Shahzadas of Delhi and march for the conquest of the Maratha possessions in the Doab and the refractory Shujā-ud-daulah's provinces, and if successful in this expedition to conquer Bengal and Bihar afterwards. Vain delusion! This ambitious programme was to be carried out with the aid of Ahmad Khan Bangash of Farrukhabad, a lame invalid who could move about only in a litter and who had not money and clansmen enough to oppose even 5,000 Maratha light horse. When in the middle of June 1757 fresh Maratha hordes poured into the Doab, the wazir’s expedition at once collapsed; his Bangash and trans-Ganges Afghan allies hastened back to their homes, his escort of mercenaries under Jangbāz Khan left him to exact the promised peace contribution from the Oudh ruler, and Imād with his two Shahzada puppets had to beat a hurried retreat towards Delhi (July.)

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There was no help for him but to make it up with the Marathas; he sent *diwan* Nāgar Mal to the Maratha camp to buy their pardon and alliance at any price, and some days later personally visited Raghunath Rao near Delhi (11 August) to cement an alliance for ousting Najib from power. This open reversal of the policy laid down by Abdali and accepted by Imād made the breach between him and Najib complete. The Ruhela at once took ferocious vengeance on Imād’s unoffending wives and daughters who were within his reach in their Delhi mansion, and after this outrage there could never be friendship between Imād and Najib. In September 1757 the Marathas enforced the evacuation of Delhi by Najib and appointed Ahmad Bangash imperial Paymaster General *vice* Najib, but that Ruhela chief retired to his own jagirs in the upper Doab with all his troops and property and remained a potent source of danger ever after. Imād’s new ally, Ahmad Bangash, was more dead than alive, and the empire and the imperial family passed helplessly under Maratha control. From August 1757 to May 1758 large Maratha armies halted in Hindustan and established their nominee at Lahor, but in the middle of June they withdrew from Northern India.

§ 4. Imad turns against Shah Alam and Alamgir II. His downfall

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Meantime, like the abortive expedition of the two Shahzadas into the Doab in the east, two other attempts to restore imperial authority and collect revenue in the Rohtak-Mewat region in the west, under princes Shah Alam (June 1757—June 1758) and Ali Jah (July—August 1757), had ended in total failure. Indeed, Imād’s selfish ambition would not allow any prince the chance of recovering a province and thus acquiring wealth, armed strength, and public prestige; he coerced the tame Emperor into starving and thwarting their enterprises. And his hostility to the eldest and ablest of the Emperor’s sons, Ali Gauhar (Emperor Shah Alam II of the next reign) broke out in an attack on that prince in his Delhi mansion on 19 May 1758. But the latter boldly cut his way out, took shelter with a Maratha general Vithal Shivdev for some time, and when Vithal left him to join Raghunath, Ali Gauhar went into the wilderness in utter destitution and helplessness. By way of the trans-Ganges Ruhela homes he reached Lucknow on 2 January 1759 and with Shujā's help tried to conquer the province of Bihar. But the English defence of the master of Patna and the Emperor's official disavowal of Ali Gauhar's acts (dictated by the wazir) doomed the prince's attempts to utter failure.

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About May 1758, Imad was foolish enough to renew his dream of an anti-Maratha coalition, of which we get the only details in the Marathi State-papers recently published. It ended in nothing. The wazir next (1 August—22 November 1758) led an expedition into the Rewari-Hisar region, dragging the sick Emperor with himself, in order to chase away Ali Gauhar and thereafter to plunder villages and exact revenue. [*TALS.* 182a, 188a.]

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When in January 1759 the Maratha hosts returned to Delhi under Dattaji Sindhia, Imād kept aloof from them and shut the gates of Delhi in their faces, putting the capital in a state of siege. The Marathas established their direct rule over Lahor (April-June), plundered the upper Doab in Najib's hands, and broke with Imād by demanding an impossible ransom for Delhi. So Imād shut himself up within the walls of Delhi throughout this year and gave Dattaji no support in his investment of Najib at Shukartal (July-November.) He even planned to play off Malhar against Dattaji, preferring the polite and accommodating spirit of the former to the brusque and exacting manners of the latter. His administrative failure and daily increasing poverty impotence and humiliation through insolvency, drove him mad, and when he learnt that his sole remaining hope the Marathas had failed to crush Najib after five months of exertion and had also lost the Panjab, and that Abdali was coming again, he in utter desperation murdered his master Alamgir II (29 November 1759.) The reign ended and with it Imād’s office as wazir, though he desperately clung to the name for some years after.

§ 5. Raghunath Rao’s doings in Hindustan, 1754-1755

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We shall next follow the doings of the Marathas during their expedition to the Delhi region at the commencement of this reign.* Raghunath Rao, the Peshwa’s younger brother, had begun his march from the Deccan with a large army in September 1753, and after crossing the Mukandara pass had entered Rajputana at the end of October. Here he moved about for the next two months and a half, collecting promises of tribute from Jaipur, Kota, Bundi and other States. Then from January 16 to May 22, 1754 he was involved in war with the Jat power, especially in futile attacks on Dig and Kumbher. Peace having been at last made with the Jat Rajah, the Maratha army moved on to Mathura (May 23.) From this place their vanguard under Malhar was sent across the river to surprise the Emperor's camp at Sikandrabad (which was effected on May 26.) Raghunath himself with the main army crossed the Jamuna near Mat (10 miles north of Mathura) on May 25 and marched up the east bank of the river to Patparganj, 6 miles s. e. of Delhi, on June 1. Here his presence lent support to Imād-ul-mulk in changing the Emperor and seizing the wazirship. Raghunath next set himself to realize the money promised by Imād.

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∗ SPD. xxvii. 79 (important itinerary), 92. TALS. 16b-21a, 30b-35a. DC.

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This was no easy task, and after five months had been wasted in talk, only partial success was achieved. During the interval Raghunath moved round the capital, encamping for a few weeks at different villages in the environs of Delhi, till he had eaten up the available provisions and exhausted the grass trees and even house-timber of each region. His lieutenant was Malhar Holkar, who encamped at some distance from him in order to distribute more widely the pressure on the forage supply. Bapu Mahadev Hingané, the Peshwa's resident envoy at Delhi, who resided near Jai Singh's Observatory in Jaisinghpura (one mile s. w. of the Ajmir gate), was the medium through whom all proposals about the Maratha contribution, all complaints of aggrieved citizens and officials, and all intrigues of nobles like Intizām were conducted. He took the men first to Malhar and then with Malhar to Raghunath for final decision ; this was the procedure.

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The course of the negotiations for the military contribution will be detailed later along with the history of the events inside the capital. We shall here briefly follow the movements of the Maratha army outside. From Patparganj, Raghunath recrossed the Jamuna and by way of the south and west sides of Delhi, removed to the Shalimār garden, some 6 miles north-west of the Lahor gate (June 17.) From this place he sent off (23 June) Jayapa Sindhia with 4,000 Government troops, besides Jayapa’s own contingent, to Marwar for assisting Ram Singh against Bijay Singh. In the northern suburbs of the city Raghunath spent three months, roving from the Shalimar garden to Basai, the Idgah, the hermitage of Majnun faqir, and Wazirabad, till the middle of September, when he removed his camp to the south of the city and lived there from Sep. 17 to December 9, ranging over the country from the Badarpur *nala*, to Tughlaqabad, Kishandas’s tank, Islampur (3 m. w. of Humayun’s tomb), Mehrauli, Parapula and Chaharbagh. When changing camp from the western to the northern suburbs of Delhi (August 31), the unruly Maratha soldiers plundered and molested the villagers on that side. The suffering yeomen-farmers of the Dahiya clan (a branch of the Jats) living in Jalalpur and other villages near Narela, retaliated, often surprised the foraging parties of the Deccanis, and carried off their mares and other property. So, Malhar fought them, and assaulted and sacked three villages,—Jalalpur, Nahra and Nahri—where their leaders dwelt. But many innocent villages shared the same fate, and the booty carried off from them was offered by the Marathas for sale in Delhi. "The aggrieved villagers assembled under the jharoka window of the palace and complained to the Emperor, who sent them to the wazir, but they got no redress."

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On 12 Nov. Malhar took leave of Raghunath near Badarpur and moved with his own troops to the south-west of the city,—Harin-minar, the Jinsi Topkhanah, Palam, and the outlet of the canal. On the 17th he arrived at Tālkatora, where Raghunath joined him in the evening, alighting near the Hauz-i-khas, in the Chahar Bagh garden of Nāzir Fattu, while Malhar encamped near Shah Mardān and Haidarganj. Here Intizām visited them.

§ 6. Raghunath Rao in the Doab. His retreat from the North

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On 9 December Raghunath and Malhar moved from the shrine of Shah Mardān to Jitpur, on the west bank of the Jamuna, two miles east of Badarpur. Their troops forded the river, * plundering the houses and men at the ferry and even the Brahmans who had come to bathe in the sacred river. They robbed every traveller they met with on the way up to Patparganj (8 m. n. of Jitpur) and other villages on the east bank, fought the imperial collector of pargana Luni, and took away four elephants of the wazir which were out grazing near Ghaziabad. Raghunath himself crossed over at Chhalera (4 m. s. of Patparganj and due east of Okhla) and encamped there for a fortnight. "Destruction descended upon both the marts and the surrounding country ; the grain that used to come to Delhi from these places was cut off, and scarcity raged in the capital." Two of the Hingané brothers were sent by the wazir to pacify Raghunath. On 14 December the wazir's captain, Shahdil Khan Afghan, had a severe conflict with the Marathas in withdrawing his outpost from Khurja, the casualties on the two sides together mounting up to 2,500. |TALS. 36a.|

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On 25 December Malhar came back from the east bank to Hauz-i-khas, while Raghunath, who had moved up from Chhalera to Ghaziabad, started on the 27th by way of Dasna for Garh Mukteshwar, where he bathed in the Ganges (30 Dec.-13 Jan. 1755.) While halting here, he settled the contribution of the Ruhelas, whose chief manager Hafiz Rahmat Khan had arrived on the opposite bank for negotiating. Raghunath obtained a sum in cash and written undertakings for the balance, then turned south to Palwara, Basi (on the Ganges) and Ahar (on the Ganges, 23 miles east of Bulandshahar city), and finally struck due west through the Bulandshahar district, by way of Jahangirabad, Ladhané, Utsar (on the Kali Nadi) and Nagalé, to the Motipur ferry on the Jamuna, due east of Faridabad, arriving there on 2 February. "Everywhere his Deccanis plundered as they moved on. Wherever he went, if a man voluntarily paid something, his village was spared, otherwise it was looted. At his near approach, grain in Delhi became dearer still."

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∗ Raghunath " in the Doab and return :-TALS. 35b-41a ; DC. SPD. xxvii. 79, 106.

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At Motipur Raghunath crossed the Jamuna (8 Feb. 1755), and by way of Badarpur and the southern side of Gurgaon city (14 Feb.), marched rapidly through the Jhajjar district, Kanaud, Narnol, Singhana and Sambhar to the Pushkar lake, where he arrived on 3rd March. Meanwhile Malhar Holkar, who with other Deccani generals had received on 21 Dec. robes of farewell from the imperial Court—16 for the men and 6 for the ladies—had come back to Hauz-i-khas (25 Dec.) and thence moved *via* Naraina, s. w. of Delhi (7 January) to the Rewari and Pataudi districts, levying tribute from the Gujar and Baluch landlords throughout the month of January. Early next month, being reassured by Raghunath's safe return from the Doab and the reconciliation of Intizam (a Maratha protégé) with the wazir, Malhar set out for Rajputana, and quickly reached Lohagarh in Shekhawati, whence he began to dun Mādho Singh of Jaipur for the long overdue Maratha tribute. Thus at the end of the first week of February 1755, the Delhi region was freed from the Maratha army of occupation and grain again became cheap in the imperial city.

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§ 7. Money contribution levied from Delhi by Raghunath Rao, 1754.

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The first and most pressing problem of Alamgir II’s reign was how to keep the wazir’s word to his Maratha allies. They had been induced to come to Imad’s help, leaving the profitable Jat enterprise in which they were engaged, only by the promise of a large reward, in addition to the subsidy already due for their support during the late war against Safdar Jang. The Peshwa’s lack of money was daily growing more and more unbearable. The Jat campaign had yielded only two lakhs in cash after keeping the entire Maratha army of the north* locked up in that kingdom for over four months. In Malhar’s surprise of the imperial camp at Sikandrabad, the gain of the Marathas had been insignificant, a few elephants only, as all the other property had been quickly seized and carried away by plunderers, especially the Jats, whose homes were nearer and who were present there in vaster numbers than the small Maratha contingent detached on this raid under Malhar. Therefore, after that surprise, Malhar refused to release the captive ladies of the imperial harem, unless the outstanding dues of the Marathas were paid. Imad and Aqibat Mahmud stood security for this money, amounting to forty lakhs, as the only means of saving the honour of the imperial family. [SPD. xxi. 60, xxvii. 90.]

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∗ At that time the monthly pay of a Maratha trooper was Rs. 12 (i.e., Rs. 10-15.) Hence, 20,000 horsemen cost 12 lakhs in the five months of the Jat campaign. SPD. xxvii. 81.

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The Peshwa’s instructions to his brother were to squeeze as much money as possible out of the Delhi Government,—75 lakhs or at least 50 lakhs. Imad on being appointed wazir (2 June 1754), was agreeable to paying 25 lakhs as the customary *nazar* for this high office. But Raghunath’s insensate greed overreached itself. After long discussions, through Malhar Holkar he fixed the Maratha dues at the impossible figure of 82 1/2 lakhs, out of which forty lakhs were promised to be paid down and the balance after some time. Both parts of the undertaking were impossible of realization in the then condition of the Delhi empire. By methods which will be described later, about nine lakhs were actually collected and paid to the Marathas at the end of September and bankers’ bills were given for 17 1/2 lakhs more, but the remaining 13 1/2 lakhs of the first moiety remained absolutely unsecured and without the least hope of its being provided in the near future.

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The realization of the second moiety, 42½ lakhs, was out of the question. As the resident Maratha envoy at Delhi wrote to his master (Oct. 1754), “For these 13½ lakhs we are daily dunning the wazir. There is no money in the Emperor’s house, there is not a pice with the wazir, their soldiers are dying of starvation, daggers and knives are being plied every day. In such a state of things we are pressing for our money. No cash, no jewel is available. In the last resort the wazir is asking us to take assignments for 13½ lakhs on the revenue of the lands round Delhi which were set apart for feeding the Emperor and the wazir.”

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This second alternative had to be followed. On 25 October the Emperor issued written orders giving to the Marathas assignments totalling Rs. 42½ lakhs on the revenue of Bengal, Barily, Bairat, Sambhar, Kora and some other mahals. [DC.] But as these bills were not honoured, lands in the Gangetic Doab were ultimately alienated to the Marathas and the unwelcome presence of their predatory army removed from the environs of the capital, at the beginning of February 1755.*

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§ 8. Exaction of money in Delhi city, 1754.

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We shall now turn to the events within Delhi during the first year of this reign. The task that confronted Imad-ul-mulk immediately after his becoming wazir was to find money for paying the subsidy of 40 lakhs promised to his Maratha supporters and the salary of his own troops and the Emperor's artillery-guards and personal servants, which had fallen into arrears for three years. But the treasury and palace-stores had been exhausted during the last reign. The first victims of the new sovereign's rapacity were the brother and sister of the ex-Queen-mother Udham Bai and their children, who had been raised to princely wealth and rank during her son's rule. Their jagirs were confiscated, their ladies were squeezed out of their cash and jewels, pressed to reveal the hiding places of their treasure, and finally driven out of the palace to live in Khaw-aspura, where the widows of former sovereigns were lodged in poverty and neglect. The fallen wazir Intizam-ud-daulah was similarly deprived of his jagirs and of such other property as lay outside his fortified mansion. In this way three lakhs of Rupees was collected and sent from the palace, secretly at night, to the wazir and paid to the Marathas 10 June.

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∗ *SPD.* xxvii. 89, 90. *DC.* *TALS.* 5b-6b, 12a, 27.

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This was a mere drop in the ocean. The immediate dues of the Marathas and the imperial soldiery exceeded one kror. Plans were formed for collecting this huge amount by forced contributions * from the nobles and the public servants. The very proposal raised a tumult in the capital; the rich were too powerful to be fleeced, and nothing could be collected. Then Nāgar Mal (the diwan of Crownlands), in consultation with Bapu Rao Hingané, attempted to levy the money from the traders and the common people of all the markets. On this question, Nagar Mal and his head assistant Majlis Rai quarrelled and almost came to blows in the camp of the Marathas, but Malhar managed to pacify them. The wazir posted guards to control the exit from every rich man's house and ordered a levy on the traders and artisans. The bazars were closed in protest, thousands of citizens assembled under the palace balcony (*jharoka*), crying to the Emperor against the oppression. The Emperor was powerless; he sent word to the wazir to redress the wrong, but Imad would not listen to him. Two days passed in this way, and then the Emperor threatened to starve himself to death unless justice was done to the people. Then the wazir withdrew his demand for money, and the trouble ceased for the time (end of June.)

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∗ Contribution from the Delhi people: *TALS.* 9b-11b, 17a-19a, 25, 27a. Also *DC.*

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But how were the Maratha claims to be satisfied? By the end of August, the wazir's utmost effort had pro ced only 9 lakhs paid in cash to the Marathas and a promise of 17 lakhs payable from the revenue of Bengal and the *nazar* expected from the two new Bakhshis,—which actually yielded nothing. The Marathas lost patience, and "the wazir made a hot effort to raise money from the people of the city, the Emperor yielding his consent to the measure on condition of the poor not being touched." The exaction at last began on 7th September, under Samsām-ud-daulah (the Mir Bakhshi) and other officers, and the city was divided among the collectors and lists made of the houses to be taxed. This attempt also ended in failure, though the people suffered greatly.

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"Some fools had persuaded the wazir that if only Rs. 2 was realized from every person, a *kror* would be yielded. But though in the actual collection Rs. 5 or even Rs. 10 was taken from each man, not even one lakh was collected, because nothing was taken from any person who was in any way connected with the wazir, but only the shopkeepers and artisans were taxed! Then a new collection was ordered. From the rich thousands of Rupees were demanded, but the heirs of the rich founders were now beggars and could pay nothing. Many people were seized and beaten. A great tumult raged throughout Delhi. All the grain marts and bazar shops were closed. Thousands of common people and the head merchants of the city and of the marts in the suburbs assembled under the Emperor's window, clamouring for justice and saying that they had been forced to pay three times already and yet another demand for contribution was now being made...with intolerable beating.... At last on 20th October the wazir was induced to call off the levy and peace was restored to the citizens." [TALS. 25.] The forced contribution ceased, and the wazir had to satisfy the Marathas by alienating to them 22 villages in Saharanpur and some others from the Crownland and privy purse estates.

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§ 9. *Constant lawlessness and military rowdiness in Delhi.*

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This surrender of territory allayed only one evil. It did nothing to meet the just demands of the palace servants and the imperial soldiery whose salaries had remained unpaid for three years. Men with arms in their hands and trained to act in concerted bands cannot be expected to starve in silence in the midst of a wealthy and masterless city. Anarchy reigned in Delhi after Alamgir II's accession in a worse form than before. The Marathas had been paid lakhs and lakhs, but the Mughal army could not actually get even half a month's salary in three years, in spite of the solemn promises of the wazir, and this fact exasperated the imperial soldiery beyond endurance; they daily plundered houses in the city on their own account. The powerful nobles put their mansions in a posture of defence, and the middle class,—especially the Hindu officials and traders, —alone suffered. *|TALS. 20b.|*

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Only three weeks after the Emperor's accession, the wazir's artillerymen made a row for their pay in his mansion, stopping ingress and egress and dragging out his chief manager, Aqibat Mahmud Khan, whose dress they tore off. Only an order on a banker could pacify them (21 June, 1754). Imad blamed Aqibat for having brought this public humiliation on him, because that all-powerful servant used to control all his affairs and receive and dispose of all his revenue without his master's knowledge. So, he called Aqibat in the evening (of 24 June) for a consultation, severely censured him, and had him stabbed to death by his Afghan captains. The ex-favourite's corpse was thrown down on the sand-bank below the wazir's garden.* The same day the captive Ahmad Shah and his mother were blinded. With the approval of Imad, his rogue of a Kashmiri henchman Aqibat had forged a letter purporting to have been written by the ex-Emperor and sealed with his private seal, calling upon Intizam to rescue his former master from prison, take him to the Rajputs and with their help restore him to the Delhi throne, when the wazirship would be conferred on Intizam again. After repeated pressing, the reluctant consent of Alamgir II was secured and his rival was blinded soon after nightfall. But the moving spring of this atrocious deed had himself been killed two hours before! Divine justice sometimes acts with lightning speed. The next day, the other soldiers of the wazir assembled before his house, clamouring to be paid their arrears as the artillerymen had been. The streets were blocked and the city gates had to be closed on account of the crowd and tumult.

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∗ Murder of Aqibat Mahmud,—TALS. 6b, DC. Muz. 101. Blinding of Ahmad Shah : TALS. 8a ; Mux. 99, DC.

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There were many similar scenes of rowdiness by the starving soldiery* throughout this reign, *e.g.*, on 10 August 1754, when half a month's pay was promised, but even that pittance could not be actually paid; on 14 Aug., when the High Diwan Nāgar Mal was stoned by the Emperor's personal servants and had to be carried away to safety under cover of his followers' shields; on 5 September, when the musketeers of the fort garrison closed both of its gates, stopping all traffic; on 2 October, when the Badakhshi cavalry of the wazir made a violent demonstration, their officers claiming from the wazir's diwan lakhs of Rupees as their due, but refusing to bring their troops to the muster or to render accounts of the rents they had already realized from the jagirs assigned to them in lieu of pay, and the tumult was pacified only by putting their insolent commander Zāhid Beg in prison; on 23 October, when the Badakhshis again assembled, surrounded the wazir's mansion, mobbed their bakhshi and dragged him out of his *palki*, while the wazir sneaked into the fort by a back door; on 18 November, when these Mughlia troops again rose in lawless violence, occupying the Jāma Masjid and the Qudsia Masjid all the day and looting the bakers' and sweetmeat-sellers' shops, and could be dislodged only by opening fire upon them from the fort-walls with some slaughter. Their crowning act of outrage was mobbing the wazir and dragging him on foot through Panipat city on 3 May 1755, as will be described at the end of this chapter.

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∗ Rowdiness of unpaid soldiery,—*TALS.* 8*a*, 12*b*, 13*b*, 18*a*, 22*b*, 26, 32*a*, 29*b*-30*a*, 37*b*, 75*b*-79*a*. Also *DC*.

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The wazir's artillerymen, who had been promised payment in eleven days as the result of their clamour on 21 October 1754, again crowded before his mansion after the expiry of the term, entered it, fought a eunuch who barred their path and plundered his property. One day they stopped the visit of Sholapuri Begam, the wazir's grandmother, and insulted the wazir himself. "The trouble daily increased. Another day the mutineers entered the wazir's mansion and carried away the food lying cooked ready for him and his family. Many people's property was looted during these disorders." "On 28 December Rs. 5 per trooper and Re. 1 per foot-soldier, [i.e., only one week's pay] were granted to the fort artillery, this being the first payment ever made in the seven months since the Emperor's accession. No other regiment got anything." On 23 July 1756 we read of a similar tumult created by the troops of the deceased Mir Bakhshi Samsām-ud-daulah, whose burial they hindered till their dues were promised. At the same time the wazir's musketeers posted in the fort, took forcible control of it, stopped ingress and egress, and defied their master. Then taking some light pieces out of the ramparts, they planted them under strong pickets at many places in the city, such as the Jāma Masjid, and held the city gates in force.

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The Emperor was then at Luni; two of his wives, whom he had summoned from Delhi fort, could only evade the artilleryists holding the gates by walking on foot covered with common *burqas* (like servant maids) from their *harem* to outside the fort-gates; then they crossed part of the road mounted on bhishtis’ bullocks and disguised in bhishti-women’s robes, and from the city went to Luni in more worthy vehicles. The Persian chronicler adds, “The Emperor was greatly delighted to hear of this [trick]. The shame of it was not felt by him. In the end the affair could not be kept a secret and became known to the public.” *[TALS. 76b-78a.]*

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At last on 29 August 1756, the artillerymen, despairing of getting their dues by any other means, “absolutely closed all the entrances into the fort. So, the supply of grain, meat, vegetables and water to the inmates of the palace-harem was cut off from the morning.... After noon they opened the back gate, allowing some people to come in and stopping others at their caprice. At last the son of Jagjivandas (the Delhi agent of Jagatseth of Bengal) and Bālgovind Sāhukār personally undertook to satisfy their claims, by Najib-ud-daulah’s mediation.... Their accounts were produced and their dues admitted to be for ten months and a few days.” Taking an advance from Balgovind, the Mir Atish cleared the dues of the men employed *within* the fort and the gates were fully opened on 12 September. But the artilleryists *outside* Delhi fort, under their captains Rao Māu and Harjiu Singh, at not getting their own dues, mutinied and tried to block the fort-gates from outside. Then they were paid in part, and the tumult ceased. |TALS. 78-79.| The sickening tale need not be carried any further.

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§ 10. Sufferings of the people of Delhi from lawlessness and anarchy, 1754.

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Within the capital itself the Badakhshi soldiers of the wazir plundered the houses of the rich citizens without fear or check. In August 1754, Kishanchand Sud, a high accounts officer, was carried off by Bāqi Beg Khan, a captain of this Turki corps, to Mughalpura, put to torture by being suspended from a beam and asked to pay five lakhs. He underwent this treatment for fifteen days, but none sought to rescue him. He ultimately secured his release, we know not at what price; but on 7 June next year his house was plundered by the wazir's troops, though he contrived to escape by a back door.* On 14 Nov. 1754 Nāgar Mal, the High Diwan, abandoning his own house in the city, fled for refuge to Bāpu Hingané in Jaisinghpura. Imād sent a party to escheat the property of the fugitive, but the Marathas who had been sent to guard the house resisted the invaders. From Jaisinghpura Nāgar Mal sent a small Maratha force to bring his family away from their asylum in Samsām-ud-daulah’s house. But the wazir’s Badakhshis opposed these men, slaying twelve and wounding many of them and taking away their arms and mares. Then the victors went to Nāgar Mal’s house, expelled the Maratha guards from it, and finally cleared Pahārā Mal’s garden house, which was the residence of many Marathas, of every Deccani found there. Thus, not a Maratha was left within the walls of Delhi or in the marts around it. *TALS.* 30*b*-31*b*. *DC.* The wazir immediately took away Nāgar Mal’s two diwanships, but when he returned to Court a month later restored these offices to him.

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∗ TALS. 16b, 54b; DC. He appropriated all power as mustaufi of the Emperor and naib diwan of khalsa, after Abdali's departure in April 1757, and caused great discontent by transferring the jagirs of the smaller mansabdars to the Emperor's sons, for which he was murdered in the streets, 16 April 1757, by some of these officers. (116a-117a.)

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We read that in September 1754, the wazir’s soldiers were engaged in plundering the house of every man whom their informers represented as well dressed and well fed. They seized the householder and his women and would release them only after the payment of a ransom. No redress could be had even by appealing to the highest authority. “One day the wazir’s Afghan captain Subhān Khan with his company began to loot the house of Hakumat Rāi, the father-in-law of the daughter of Thākurdas (the head assistant of the Emperor’s harem superintendent). Thākurdas complained to the wazir, who sent Saif-ud-din Muhammad Khan to stop it; but this officer entered into a concert with Subhān Khan, severely beat Hakumat Rāi, and even threatened to dishonour Thākurdas himself, and the house was plundered of all its contents.” [*TALS.* 20.]

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A Muslim victim fared better. On 3 September, Imād caught some Badakhshis in the act of robbing the house of the brother-in-law of Muzaffar Khan. He cut off the nose of the leader of the gang, who happened to be a sergeant in the regiment of Bāqi Beg Khan. At this the other Badakhshis of the corps were displeased. Next day, as the wazir was entering the fort, a Badakhshi musketeer fired at him from his post before the gate. The wazir reprimanded all the captains of this force. [*TALS.* 17*b*-18*a*.]

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§ 11. *Delhi Government turns bankrupt.*

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The utter bankruptcy of the Government makes us only wonder that it did not collapse even earlier. All the provinces except Bengal had long ceased to send any revenue to the central Government, some having become independent under their subahdars and others having been usurped by Afghans Jats and Marathas. Thus, the territory still obeying the Emperor's authority was reduced to a belt round the capital, *viz.*, the upper Doab or the Mirat Division on the east and the Rohtak and Gurgaon districts on the west. Here, as nearest and most easy to control, the Emperor had originally reserved to himself the rent of a number of villages for meeting the salaries of his household servants and palace guards (especially the Delhi garrison artillery) and the cost of clothing and feeding himself, his family, and State pensioners like the captive offsprings and widows of former Emperors. These lands formed his Crownlands (khalsa) and privy purse estates (sarf-i-khas.) But, because they were nearest the capital and their revenue was least irregular and easiest to collect, they roused the greed of his wazir, whose cowardice and incompetence prevented him from subduing and administering his jagirs more distantly situated.

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The main prop of the empire’s centre was the newly recruited body of Central Asian mercenaries, called Badakhshis or popularly Sindagh. They were 12,000 strong, large-limbed, well-fed, well-accoutred men, mounted on powerful high-priced horses of Khurasan breed, and cost much more than double the salary of a similar number of Indian soldiers, their pay-bill amounting to eight lakhs of Rupees a month. When their pay fell into arrears they took to plundering houses and holding rich men to ransom in Delhi, with the wazir’s permission, as is asserted by the Court chronicler of Alamgir II. They constantly demanded their pay and refused to bring their troops to the muster or to render accounts of the revenue they had already collected from the landlords in Mewat and other parganahs where they had been sent for rent-collection. In the very presence of the wazir they abused his finance manager, while their commander Zāhid Beg Khan drew his dagger and wounded one of Imād’s generals. Zahid Beg was put in prison and the tumult ceased for the time, (2 Oct. 1754). The wazir, in order to stop this constant clamour, made some of the privy purse mahals over to the Badakhshis. [*TALS.* 41b, 22b, 29a.]

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“The parganahs in the province of Delhi and some other provinces, which had been made Crownland, and out of whose revenue the Emperor’s personal servants received their pay, had now gone out of his hands. Saharanpur, whose revenue had been assigned to jagirdars, was seized by Najib Khan Ruhela ; the Jat Rajah had seized the mahals near Agra ; Madho Singh of Jaipur had taken possession of Narnol and that side. Not a single mahal remained under the *khalsa* (Crownlands department.) In addition to this, the wazir used to give the mahals of the privy purse in lieu of payment now to the Badakhshis, now to the Marathas... So, there was no money for the Emperor’s own meals and those of the ladies of his harem, whose only source of maintenance was the rent of the privy purse estates. The Emperor repeatedly pressed [this point] on the wazir, who signed orders for the release of these lands, but at heart wished to devote their revenue to the payment of his own troops. So he released Mirat and Luni only. Wafā Beg Khan (a Mughalia captain) enjoyed parganah Bāghpat, and now Mirat and other privy purse mahals were given to the Marathas. The wazir ruined the whole realm.” [*TALS.* 22, 28-29.]

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The wazir brought the Emperor and his family to the point of starvation by alienating the privy purse estates to the Badakhshis and the Marathas. But there was nothing left for giving relief to the other sections of the army, such as the fort artillery, the musketeers of the guard (men from Oudh and Baksar), and the personal retinue and household officers of the Emperor, whose pay was equally overdue. These latter struck work and rioted in the city and the fort, creating scenes of the greatest humiliation and suffering to the Emperor and his wazir.

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§ 12. Humiliation and sufferings of the imperial family.

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The hopeless poverty of the Emperor subjected him to deepening distress and insult. Only a month and a half after his accession, he had no conveyance left for the State procession to the place of the Id prayer.* The contrast between his miserable plight and the magnificence of his ancestors became painfully manifest when he held his birthday Court in the Diwan-i-am. The Peacock Throne of Shah Jahan, resplendent with gold and gems, had been lost, and its place was taken by an imitation in wood, with the figures of gold chasing and gems represented by paint !

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