Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s4: § 7. Timur Shah's administration breaks down. Its causes
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s4
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§ 7. Timur Shah's administration breaks down. Its causes
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Timur governed the Panjab for one year, from May 1757 to April 1758. But this fair prospect of the reign of law and order in the Panjab was soon overcast. Two Afghan troopers when coming from Sarhind to Lahor, were killed in the territory of the fort of Budha Rāmdās. Jahān Khan at once sent some bailiffs to compel the headman of the place to produce the culprits. These men, following the Persian practice, beat him so hard that he was brought to death's door, and saved his life only by escaping at night to some unknown village. The entire Sikh community felt insulted by this outrage on the headman, who was a notable religious guide (Bābā) and a rich revenue farmer too. "From that day the peace and orderly rule which had been recently established in the country disappeared and the Sikhs rose in rebellion on all four sides."
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The mischief was only aggravated by the attempt to allay it. Adina Beg had accepted the governorship of the Jalandar doab on the express condition of not being required to present himself before Timur Shah. But now the viceroy, in despair, pressed him to come to Lahor and devise means for subduing the Sikhs. Adina flatly refused, and when threatened for his contumacy, fled away to the Balwān (? Balsan) hills. "In consequence of it, utter disorder spread throughout the Panjab. The wazir Jahān Khan sent Sarāfrāz Afghan of Attock and Ghufrān Khan as governors to Jalandar and Kashmir respectively, but both of them returned defeated in the course of a month. Utter lawlessness prevailed. Every force that was sent out by Timur was defeated. Even the environs of his capital were not safe. Every night thousands of Sikhs used to assemble and plunder the suburbs lying outside the walls of Lahor ; but no force was sent to repel them, and the city gates were kept closed by way of precaution!"* This was the sad state of things from November 1757 to February 1758. "The Sikhs gathering together, by our [i. e., Maratha] advice, began to upset Abdali's rule ; from some place they expelled his outposts. They defeated Sadat Khan Afridi, plundered all the Jalandar doab, and forced him to flee to the hills. By order of the subahdar, Khwājah Ubaid Khan came from Lahor with 20,000 horse and foot to fight the Sikhs. In the end he was defeated, many of his captains were slain, all his camp and baggage were plundered; all the artillery left behind by Abdali was captured." [*SPD.* ii. 83.]
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∗ Miskin, 165-170. Adina antagonized, — Ghulam Ali, i. 54.
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§ 8. *First Maratha invasion of the Panjab, 1758.*
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Adina Beg had no doubt succeeded in repelling Timur Shah’s general Sarāfrāz Khan in his invasion of the Jalandar doab. But his armed force was only 10,000 men, and he doubted if he would be able to defeat fresh attacks by superior forces of Durrāni troops, or save his people from the atrocities of these ruthless foreign soldiery. So, in helplessness, he opened negotiations with Raghunāth Rao, the Peshwā’s brother, then posted near Delhi at the head of a vast army, and called the Marathas to his defence, promising to pay them one lakh of Rupees for every day of marching and half that amount for each day of halt during their presence in his faujdari.*
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In August 1757 a large Maratha army under Raghunāth Rao with Malhar Holkar and some other generals had arrived near Delhi as the ally and master of the wazir Imād-ul-mulk. They fought and drove Najib-ud-daulah out of Delhi (6 Sep.), and for the next four months roved through the country round Delhi plundering the markets and exacting contributions from the landowners. Their success in taking away Najib’s jagir of Saharanpur emboldened them to talk of advancing to Lahor and wresting that province from Abdali’s son. On hearing of it, Abdus Samad Khan Mohmand, a native of the Peshawar district and Abdali’s faujdar of Sarhind, collected a large force and advanced to Thāneshwar, where he was joined by Najib’s son; but the Deccanis shrank from advancing into the Panjab or even fighting him where he was (Oct. 1757.) Then, after raiding many places in the Gangetic doab, Malhar recrossed the Jamunā (end of December) and laid siege to Kunjpurā (75 miles north of Delhi), plundering the country from Delhi up to Thāneshwar.
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∗ Raghunath Rao's invasion of the Panjab : Miskin, 171-182. Ghulam Ali, i. 55-57. TALS. 151b, 164b-165, 178a (return.) SPD. ii. 41, 78. xxi. 111, 116, 150. xxvii. 148, 220, 218. Mux. 128. Husain Shahi, 44-45.
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This close approach of the Marathas to Sarhind greatly alarmed Abdus Samad Khan. He was at that time absent from his headquarters on a punitive expedition against Alā Singh. At the end of March 1757, when the front division of Abdali’s army under Prince Timur was transporting the plundered wealth of Delhi to Lahor, this Alā Singh in concert with other Sikh robbers had barred his path at Sanāwar (between Ambala and Patiala) and robbed him of half his treasures, and again attacked and plundered him at Māler Kot. So great had been the success of these brigands that rumour had magnified it into the prince’s captivity and even death at their hands. When, next month, Abdali himself with his main army retreated by this route, Alā Singh had shrunk from provoking him. In December Abdus Samad invaded Sunām (40 m. s. w. of Patiala) in the territory of Alā Singh, and imposed a fine on him. Hearing of Malhar’s approach the faujdar quickly settled that business, hastened back to Sarhind (12 January 1758), and set himself to repairing its fort walls and digging defensive trenches round the city. But Malhar turned back from Kunjpurā after exacting five lakhs, and Sarhind was saved. Just at this time, when Malhar’s women were on a visit to Thaneshwar and Kurukshetra for a religious bath, a local force of Abdus Samad besieged them in Shāhābād, but the Maratha escort fought well, slew many of the Afghans, and captured their horses (middle of January.)*
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A month later the Maratha invasion of the Panjab began. Their main army under Raghunāth and Malhar,—whose strength rumour swelled to two lakhs of men,—reached Sarhind and laid siege to it, while their raiding bands spread all over the district, plundering the villages around. Adina Beg with his own troops and a hired force of professional Sikh freebooters from the west of the Satlaj, crossed that river and joined the Marathas before Sarhind. After a few days’ exchange of gunfire, Abdus Samad found his position untenable. In trying to escape he was wounded and captured, along with Jangbāz Khan and other Afghan captains, but well treated by Raghunāth (21 March. DC.) “The Marathas and Sikhs so thoroughly looted Sarhind city that none of its inhabitants, high or low, male or female, had a cloth left on his person. Pulling the houses down, they carried off the timber and dug the floors up for buried money.” [TALS. 164b. Miskin, 173.]
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∗ Rajwade, i. page 85. TALS. 150b-151a.
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Flushed with this easy victory, the allies advanced towards Lahor. In the meantime, at the first news of the defection of Adina Beg and the movement of the Marathas, Jahān Khan had got a force together and advanced to Batālā in eight days. From this place he detached 2,000 horse under Yusuf Khan to enter the doab and scout for intelligence, each day roving 20 miles on the right or left side of the road, or in front. After some weeks this force learnt that Sarhind had fallen; they rapidly withdrew from the doab, and in two days recrossed the Biās at Rahila ghat, and joined Jahān Khan. That general fell back on Jalalabad, where he halted for eight days, but on learning that the Marathas had crossed the Satlaj and entered the doab, he made a forced retreat to Lahor in four days.
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§ 9. Marathas occupy Lahor and expel Afghans.
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It was impossible for Timur Shah to defend Lahor against the myriads of Marathas; the fort was out of repair and insufficiently provisioned with food and material; the Sikh population throughout the province was hostile, his reliable troops, Afghans and Persian Turks, numbered only a few thousands, and there was no hope of relief from Ahmad Shah who was troubled by risings in Khurāsān and had to go there in person with all his forces. So Timur decided on flight (c. 19 April.) Setting up a temporary camp on the other bank of the Rāvi, he and his Durrāni followers loaded their property in carts and sent it by repeated trips from the city to this camp. Every one was busy in preparing for the exodus; none thought of making a stand or guarding the city. Next day news came that the vanguard of the invaders under Adina Beg and Mānāji Pāygudé had crossed the Biās and arrived twelve miles north of Lahor. That day at noon Timur abandoned his capital and crossed over to the camp, his wazir following him. Throughout that day of evacuation, utter confusion and terror reigned in the masterless city; but Tahmāsp Khan (pen-name Miskin), a former page of Muin-ul-mulk, on his own initiative shut the city gates and patrolled the streets all night.
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At about nine o'clock next morning, 500 Maratha horsemen and a hundred Mughalia troopers of Khwājah Mirzā under ‘Āshur Ali Khan, appeared at the Delhi gate of Lahor. Miskin at once opened the gate and entrusted the city to their care. A day later Khwājah Mirzā himself arrived with 1,000 Mughalia and 10,000 Maratha horse. But early in that morning Timur Shah had marched away from his camp towards Kābul, after setting fire to the heaps of apparel and other things that he could not carry off, and leaving behind him a small rear-guard under Mir Hazār Khan. Khwājah Mirzā crossed the Rāvi and attacked this force, which fled while fighting, but was enveloped by the cloud of Maratha light horse and its leader taken prisoner. At this Timur quickened his pace. Jahān Khan at first halted at Sarāi Kānchi, 36 miles north-west of Lahor; but Khwājah Mirzā, whose force had now been trebled by reinforcements from Lahor, came up with him. Lack of artillery prevented him from storming the sarāi, and taking advantage of this respite, Jahān Khan slipped out of the place, and found safety by crossing the Chenāb near Wazirabad. The depth of the river and the hurry of the flight prevented Timur Shah from taking to the other side any but his Durrāni clansmen. All his other troops,—Uzbak, Qizilbāsh and Afghan, as well as his entire camp and baggage, were left behind on the eastern bank of the Chenāb and fell into the hands of the Marathas and their Panjabi allies. "The spoils were shared between the Marathas and Adina Beg. Khwājah Mirza and his troops thus became very rich. Every day some Central Asian horses came to hand. He enlisted the captured Uzbak and Qizilbāsh soldiers and officers in his own army." [Miskin, 179.]
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The Marathas did not venture to carry the war across the Chenāb, because the river was too deep for fording and the country beyond it was mostly tenanted by Afghan supporters of the Durrānī cause.* Lahor was captured about 10th April 1758. Raghunāth passed one entire month there. He wisely realized that as his own troops could not be induced to garrison a province so distant from their home and subject to such severe winter, and as the universal rebellion of the Sikhs made its direct administration by Maratha officers impossible, the only means of keeping the Panjab in nominal allegiance to the Maratha power and getting any revenue out of it was to entrust it to Adina Beg, who had a very old understanding with the Sikhs and possessed the experience of many years' successful administration of that country. So, Adina Beg was given the viceroyalty of the Panjab on promising on annual tribute of 75 lakhs of Rupees. After this settlement, the Maratha chiefs and their soldiers marched back towards Delhi, arriving at Sonepat on 14th June. Adina Beg went back to his home in the Jalandar doab, leaving his son-in-law Khwājah Mirzā Khan to govern Lahor as his deputy.†
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∗ Not a single Maratha soldier crossed the Chenāb. The assertion that the Maratha standards were carried up to the Indus at Attock, is an ignorant boast.
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† *SPD.* xxvii. 218. *Muz.* 128. From this point the historian loses the primary source for Panjab history, namely, the autobiography of the ‘Eye-witness’ Miskin, who now left Lahor in the company of Adina Beg and henceforth wrote of Lahor affairs only on hearsay. Death of Adina Beg and administration of Khwājah Mirzā: Miskin 182, 194. *TALS.* 190b-191b. *SPD.* ii. 96.
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But this nominal Maratha domination gave no peace to the Panjab. Adina Beg Khan enjoyed his highest glory for five months only. On 13 October 1758 he died after a prolonged illness and in the fulness of years. Immediately afterwards, confusion broke out in the Panjab at the disappearance of the strong and clever hand that had held the realm in order for so many years. The wazir Imād-ul-mulk tried to escheat the dead subahdar's property to the State, but he was prevented by a Maratha force which the retreating Raghunāth had hurriedly sent up from Malwa (November.) At Lahor, Khwājah Mirzā Khan now engaged in governing the province as substantive subahdar. "The Sikhs were such rebels and robbers that the governor could not cope with them." Maratha armies one after another reached Lahor and its districts and took up their posts. Beyond the Jhilam some Afghans and Gakkhars in concert looted the Gujrat pargana and crossed over to the east bank of this river. Khwājah Mirzā with a band of Sikhs came up from Lahor, defeated and drove them back across the river. He followed them to the other bank and entrenched. But the Afghans and Gakkhars reappeared in vaster numbers and defeated him there. On hearing that Maratha armies were marching up from Lahor to his aid, the Afghans shrank from coming over to the eastern bank of the Jhilam again, (evidently in December 1758.)
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The Sindhias in the Panjab, 1759.
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But Khwājah Mirzā's worst enemies were at home. "The Qizilbāsh captains of Timur's army whom he had captured [and afterwards enlisted] made a coalition with the Marathas. From among them, their leading captain, Mirzā Ahmad Khan, made himself subahdar of Lahor, and the second highest, Sālih Khan, that of Multān. They paid some money to the Marathas in cash and promised more, and placed Khwājah Mirzā and his brother Khwājah Said Khan in confinement." [Miskin, 194.] This anarchy in the Panjab and ruin of the Maratha interests there induced the Peshwā to send a strong force to that province under the able and spirited Dattaji Sindhia. This general reached the eastern bank of the Satlaj in the first week of April 1759 and halted at Machhiwārā for about three weeks. Here Adina Beg's son came and saw him and paid some money on account of the tribute due from his father. By his advice, Dattaji sent Sābāji Sindhia* with an army to Lahor to take over the governorship of the province directly into Maratha hands. "On finding that in Lahor and around it the Sikhs were predominant and commanded a vast force, making the conquest of the Panjab difficult, Dattaji turned back towards Delhi." [*TALS.* 205*b*.]
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∗ A Marathi letter from Delhi [SPD. ii. 100] written 2 May says that Jankoji recalled Sābāji from Lahor and ordered Naro Shankar there. But we find Sābāji actually serving as governor of the Panjab till the expulsion of the Marathas in October next. TALS. 205b says that Jankoji crossed the Satlaj and entered the Jalandar doab; but the Marathi records prove that he turned back from Machhiwara to Delhi without crossing the Satlaj.
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§ 11. *Final Abdali conquest of the Panjab.*
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This second Maratha occupation of Lahor lasted barely six months, but the terror of the vast forces of Dattaji lying within easy call of Sābāji, caused that governor to be obeyed by all the chiefs and landholders of the province. At the end of August Sābāji beat back an invasion of Jahān Khan from Peshawar. The Afghan general lost his son and many of his troops in killed and wounded, and himself retreated with wounds across the Indus. [*DC.*, but Raj. vi. 378 credits the Sikhs with achieving this victory.] But the scene changed early in October next, when news came that a strong Durrāni army under Jahān Khan as commander-in-chief had crossed the Indus and was marching towards Lahor. By this time Dattaji was inextricably involved in the siege of Shukartāl, 70 miles east of Pānipat, and Sābāji finding himself too weak to confrout the Afghans fell back from Lahor. The advance of the invaders was rapid and unopposed. Arriving at Wazirabad, Jahān Khan sent out his troops to raid on all sides. The capital of the Panjab was without a governor or a garrison. Jahān Khan sent 3 or 4 of his men ahead to Surat Singh, a banker of Lahor, with a letter bidding him stamp coins and read the *khutba* in the name of Timur Shāh and issue a proclamation warning all people not to oppress any citizen.
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Sābāji with his main force fell back precipitately, by way of Batālā, Jalandar and Sarhind towards Shukartāl, without halting anywhere.* Consternation and flight raged in Sarhind. Sadiq Beg Khan, who had been the Maratha faujdar of Sarhind, and Adina Beg's widow and sons fled away from their places to Delhi at the report of the advance of the Afghans.
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The entire province of the Panjab was abandoned to the Afghans, but not without a severe loss of men to the Marathas. Though Sābāji did not stand up to a fight, his detachments, dispersed throughout the country, could not be withdrawn in absolute safety ; a general and several soldiers of the Marathas who had lagged too long behind near Lahor, were overtaken and cut off by the Afghan vanguard. One corps of 6,000 Maratha horse and foot posted in Multan retreated to the east of Lahor without loss. But in the Jalandar doab the disappearance of all authority tempted its notoriously lawless peasants to rise against these fugitives. When only a part of this force had crossed the Satlaj the villagers fell upon those left behind and plundered them of 4,000 camels (worth Rs. 40 each), and of most of their horses, treasure and other property. Only a thousand horses and ponies escaped capture, and 500 well-born Maratha cavaliers had to march on foot through this loss of their mounts. But though the Marathas failed, the Sikhs opposed the invaders, and in a severe battle with them the Afghans triumphed only at the cost of 2,000 of their own men. [Raj. i. 146.] After establishing his government in Lahor, the Abdali king resumed his march and entered Sarhind on 27 November 1759. Thus, the Panjab was finally lost to the empire of Delhi.
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∗ *TALS.* 211*b* and 213*b* and *SPD.* ii. 116 say that he retreated without halting or fighting. But an encounter between his troops and the Durrāni vanguard is mentioned in Govind Pant Bundelé's letter of 8 Nov. (Raj. i. 142) and *Mux.* 175. Miskin (202) shows that it was the Maratha rear-guard that was cut off by the advancing Afghans.
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CHAPTER XV
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THE AFGHAN INVASION OF 1757.
Linked texts (1)
- Selections from the Peshwa Daftar — Marathi