Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s3.21

v2.c22.s3.21

At the same time, the Afghan king promised to Mughlāni Begam the Jalandar doab, Jamu and Kashmir as her fiefs. She sent agents to these places to establish her own government, and invited Adina Beg to come out of his retreat and administer the Jalandar doab as her deputy. But she was soon undeceived. Ahmad Shah had annexed the Sarhind district as the dowry of Alamgir's daughter Muhammadi Begam, who had been married to his son Timur Shah, and at the time of withdrawing from India he decided to leave this prince as his viceroy in the Panjab.* An independent authority like Mughlāni could not be allowed to hold the Jalandar doab and thus interpose a break between Lahor and Sarhind, nor could the Panjab province be shorn of its northern hill territories, Kashmir and Jamu. He, therefore, revoked his gift and told Mughlāni to take instead jāgirs worth Rs. 30,000 a year elsewhere from Timur Shah. This she refused to do, but followed Ahmad Shah to the bank of the Chenāb, vainly imploring him to give her the territories first promised. Thence, by way of Siālkot she returned to Lahor, where this unreasonable woman passed some time, dunning Timur and exasperating his wazir Jahān Khan by the violence of her wrangling. Her obstinacy only humiliated her and brought down upon her head poverty and scorn in a city which she had once ruled with sovereign power. A beggar cannot dictate the nature of her alms.