Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21.s5.12

v2.c21.s5.12

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.