Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s7: § 3. Afghan vanguard occupies the Doab
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s7
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§ 3. Afghan vanguard occupies the Doab
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By the 12th of January the Afghan vanguard (under Jahān Khān) had arrived at Pānipat and his master at Karnāl, 20 miles behind him. Here the invaders changed their route and plan of campaign: while a small body of fleet skirmishers was pushed on towards Delhi to feel the way and establish contact with the Ruhela traitors within, Jahān Khān himself with the full vanguard crossed the Jamunā near Pānipat, entered the Doab, and pushed on down the east bank of the river, by way of Kairānā, Jhanjhānā, Shāmli and Kāndhla, driving out the Maratha collectors from these places and slaying the governor of Shāmli who had offered resistance. He then encamped at Luni, daily sending out foragers on all sides. On 16th January, in the afternoon, these enemy bands were first sighted from the walls of Delhi fort, plundering and driving their horses on the river bank opposite. The eastern bank having been thus secured, the central division left behind at Karnāl under Abdali and his wazir pushed on due south towards Delhi and encamped at Narela, where they were joined (16 January) by Najib’s Ruhelas, who had been posted outside the north gate of the capital. The invaders’ front skirmishers penetrated to the northern suburbs like Wazirabad, Kalipahari, etc.
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§ 4. Imad’s helplessness and submission to Abdali ; he is made prisoner.
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We shall now turn to the city and the movements of the wazir. On the 15th he urged for the first time the raising of a rampart round the city! “Men from the Old City, Mughalpura and other places outside the gates went, some to New Delhi (i.e., Shah Jahan’s city), some to the Old Fort, some to the Arab Sarai or the shrine of Nizam-ud-din Auliya. During this alarm the soldiers of Antaji Maratha began to plunder on the river bank (reti.)” [DC.] Next day (16th) at noon the wazir went with a few men out of the palace to the Lahor gate of the city. It was reported that Abdali’s forces had reached Narela, where the Ruhelas of Najib had joined them. “The other captains with their troops got ready and joined the wazir, who merely sat down in the Masjid Pari beyond the Lahor gate, being overcome by terror and cowardice, conscious of his inability to oppose Abdali and incapable of fighting in desperation like a hero.”
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“In the morning of the 17th, Jahān Khan’s foragers again appeared on the other side of the Jamuna and stayed there till noon. The wazir went to the sandy bank of Rajghat, and planted some guns, but there was no cannonier! So, he stood under the *jharoka* balcony, on the river bank, in battle array, merely gazing* at the enemy troopers on the other side, for some hours! All people advised him to go out and fight at least one battle, so as to remove the brand of infamy from their foreheads; the only pacifist was, (characteristically enough,) a Kashmiri, named Ibādullah Khan. In the evening, after the invaders had retired [to their camp], a party of Marathas and other soldiers crossed the river and roved from Patparganj to Mir Zebā’s garden, but there was no Abdali troop there at that time, and they came back to Delhi at sunset.” [TALS. 91a-92b, DC.]
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∗ Imad defended himself before Sayyid Sher-andaz Khan, envoy from Ahmad Bangash to Abdali, thus:—When the [Durrani] Shah drew near to Delhi, I told Najib Khan, ‘We must deliver one battle against the Shah.’ His answer was, ‘Pay me this day two *krores* of Rupees, cash down, and I will fight.’ I replied, ‘Nothing is due to you by the State for your arrears and pay, seeing that... I have handed over to you more than one-half of the [Doab] territories. At a day’s notice whence can I produce such a sum of money?’ Najib Khan and his followers raised a tumult and for a whole day barred exit from and ingress to my house. That very same day a letter came from the Shah inviting Najib Khan to his camp. At midnight Najib came out of Delhi and marched off to the Shah’s camp... I saw that in the realm of Hind there was no defender, I was left alone. [*Ind. Antiquary*, 1907, p. 44.]
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That very night (17-18 January), Najib Khan crossed over from Wazirabad to Jahān Khan’s camp at Luni. His mask was now thrown off; he was openly known to be in concert with the alien invaders. It is impossible for the historian to apportion between Najib and Imād the responsibility for the atrocities endured by the Delhi Mathura and Agra people during this Afghan invasion; if one was a double-dyed traitor, the other was an arrant coward; both were extremely selfish and incapable of patriotism, because India was not their patria.
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In the morning of the 18th Aghā Razā and Yaqub Ali came back from Abdali with the message that he desired the Emperor and his wazir to visit him, when the peace terms would be directly discussed. So, three hours before the next morning (19th January), Imād secretly left his mansion on horseback followed by only four attendants, and reaching Badli in 4 1/2 hours entered the camp of Abdali’s wazir Shah Wali Khan, by whom he was most kindly received, and next day (20th) presented to Abdali. The Afghan monarch was wrathful with the Delhi wazir for his having married a dancing-girl’s daughter (Gannā Begam) in preference to his betrothed, the nobly born Umda Begam, whose suit had been pressed by Abdali for the sake of Umda’s mother, Mughlāni Begam. The conqueror also asked with surprise and contempt how the first officer of the empire of Hindustan could make an abject submission without striking even one blow to save the nation’s credit. Imād explained how he had to marry Gannā in order to keep his earlier promise to that girl’s family, whereas Mughlāni Begam had insisted on his divorcing his other wife as a condition of marrying Umda. As for resisting Abdali by arms, it was a task beyond Imād’s power, owing to Najib’s defection, as “except that noble there was within the empire no other renowned commander with an army.” Ahmad Shah then told Imād that his rival Intizām had offered two *krores* of Rupees as a consideration for giving him the wazirship, but that Imād could retain that post if he agreed to pay one *kror* only. Imād replied, “This slave cannot lay his hands upon even one *lakh*. Whence can I produce a *kror*? . . . I cannot collect even a *kror* of broken pebble-stones in Delhi. What chance then of getting Rupees?” So, he then and there resigned the chancellorship of a State that had no army and no treasure. Abdali now issued a rescript conferring the post on Intizām, and carried Imād about in his train as a captive, because he was sure to call his Maratha allies back to Delhi if set at liberty.*
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∗ Imād in *Ind. Antiquary*, p. 45; (some confusion of dates
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§ 5. The invaders occupy Delhi; Alamgir II deposed.
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The encampment of the invaders in the immediate north of the city made it easy not only for Najib’s Ruhelas but also for Shāhdil Khan and two other Afghan captains of Imād to go over to their invading fellow-clansmen. The Sindāgh risala (or Central Asian troopers numbering 12,000) whom Imād had disbanded in 1755 and the Delhi artillery division of cannoniers and musketeers recruited in Oudh and Baksar, 11,000 strong, who were still in open mutiny for their heavy arrears of pay, now sent to Najib, begging him to save them from unemployment and starvation by enlisting them in the Shah’s service. A contingent of Qasur Afghans, about 5,000 in number, led by Usmān Khan Khweshgi, had joined the invader on the way. Thus an Indian force of 25,000 men was added to the 30,000 troops of his own country that Abdali had brought with him.*
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Any opposition from Delhi being clearly impossible, and therefore of the order of events, corrected from DC. and TALS.) SPD. xxi. 96.
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* “The correct number of Abdali’s troops is 30 to 35 thousand men, not more.” “The Pathan has 20,000 men of his own and has engaged 25,000 troops in Delhi” [Marathi reports in Feb. SPD. xxi. 100, 108.] Nur-ud-din Hasan’s Life of Najib.
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The home of the disbanded Sindāgh risala (or Turki troops) was Mughalpura, a suburb north-west of Delhi city. They later negotiated for service under the Marathas. Another captain of Abdali, named Jangbāz Khan Bangash, commanded a force of 3500 or less, out of whom only 600 were Durrāni soldiers, the rest being Indian recruits.
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the Afghan division under Jahān Khan worked its way down the Jamunā from Luni and crossed over to the west bank, some miles south of the capital on 21st January. A small force detached 13 miles further south to Faridabad to bar the trunk road at that point was cut off by Antāji Mānakeshwar, and for a week or ten days the Afghan advance to the south was stayed. But Najib’s army crossed into the Doab (24th) and Abdali himself entered Delhi on 28th January.
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We shall now see how the imperial city fared in the claws of the rapacious foreigner. The capital of an empire which, in name at least, embraced the entire Indian continent, was now absolutely without a single defender or caretaker. In the morning of 19th January 1757, the desertion of Najib Khan, the flight of the wazir, and the withdrawal of the last Maratha soldier became known, and at midnight Rajah Nāgar Mal (the imperial diwan) and the few remaining great men fled away. Next day five military policemen (nasaqchi) from Abdali’s army entered city and made its police prefect proclaim the Shāh’s order that none should molest the poor. This assurance stopped a fresh exodus that had begun.
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On Friday the 21st, while the Emperor was saying his afternoon prayer in the palace mosque, Abdul Ahad Khan (the Third Paymaster) and Saif-ud-din Muhammad Khan Kashmiri (the brother of Aqibat Mahmud) went to Raushan-ud-daulah’s mosque,—with its bloody memories of Nādir Shāh's massacre,—"called the Chief Sadr, the imperial Qāzi, and the muftis there, and caused the khutba to be read in the name of Ahmad Shāh Durrāni. The same thing was done in the Jāmi‘ Masjid. Not one theologian or scholar refused to read the khutba in another prince's name, while the Emperor of the Age was living in the citadel of the capital and had not been slain or made prisoner or expelled!" There is no evidence that this step was ordered by the Abdali king; it was the work of the native sycophants who wished to gain the conqueror's favour by this proof of zeal in his cause! "Alamgir, then seated in the chapel of the fort, heard the news, washed his hands of kingship, vacated the royal chambers (the Rangmahal, the Khwābgāh, &c.), the private portico, and the lower portico, for occupation by his successor, handed over their keys to an officer of Najib, and moved with his entire family to the Shāhburj quarter. Two days later he was ordered to vacate even this refuge, and return to the small commonplace rooms in which he used to lodge before his elevation to the throne. "It was found that these last-named quarters were totally in ruin and unfit for habitation." [TALS. 93b-95b.]
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§ 6. Ahmad Shah Abdali enters Delhi fort. On 23rd January Ahmad Shah himself reached Wazirabad and a detachment of his Qizilbāsh troops took over the charge of Delhi fort from Najib's hands.
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For some days the palace chambers were cleaned and carpeted for the residence of Abdali. In the night of 25-26 he sent Jahān Khan to the suppressed Emperor, telling him, "I bestow the empire of Hindustan on you. Visit me tomorrow in full royal state." Next morning (the 26th) the few nobles, high and low, still left in Delhi, marched with their sovereign lord to Wazirabad and were welcomed and feasted by Abdali. Intizām was now presented and invested with the robe of wazir. The entire Delhi Court returned to the capital the same evening.*
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Next day (27th January) arrangements were completed under Jahān Khan's care for the conqueror's visit to Delhi. It was proclaimed that along his route through the bazar to the fort no Indian should stand in the streets or on the terraces of houses for looking at his *cortege*, and all shops should be kept closed. Early in the morning of Friday the 28th of January, Ahmad Shah rode into the fort, his soldiers lining the route on both sides and firing a salute from their matchlocks. The Emperor advanced up to the Fathpuri mosque in order to welcome his august visitor. Abdali's women, mounted on camels and horses, also came with him and occupied the palace rooms vacated by Alamgir. The escort of the Shāh dispersed through the bazars and lanes, looting many places, while the rich and spacious market of Badalpurā was set on fire in addition to being plundered. The Afghan camp and baggage dismounted in the city round the fort walls. On the 29th the two sovereigns held a Public Audience seated side by side. Abdul Ahad Khan (created Abdul Majid Khan) was appointed diwān of khalsa and tan. A bridge was ordered to be thrown without delay over the Jamunā below the city, and the Hindus were ordered, on pain of fine, to put paint marks on their foreheads to distinguish them from the invader's brethren of the faith.
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∗ "Alamgir II issued from Delhi mounted on a *takht-i-rawān*, with a cloth awning over it, one elephant and one horse carrying his kettle-drums." That was what the full pomp of the 'king of kings' had now shrunk to. Abdali welcomed the Padishah by advancing a few steps, seated him on his own carpet, and then the two exchanged turbans [in sign of brotherhood] and presented robes to each other. [*TALS.* 96, *DC.*]
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§ 7. Abdali's oppression for extorting money at Delhi.
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Secure in the possession of Delhi, the conqueror began the exaction of a money tribute. Before this, stray groups of his soldiers had robbed houses and wayfarers here and there, but that was unauthorized occasional looting and a few of the looters had been brutally punished by way of example. Now a methodical official spoliation of the fallen capital was ordered. Abdali was pressed for time. He must realize the spoils of war as quickly as possible, in order to avoid the Indian summer and also to allow the Marathas no time for assembling and bringing up a large army from the Deccan. He expected a vast sum, worthy of the richest capital in Asia.* While Intizām was urged to collect the two *krores* promised by him, the screw was put on other rich men also. Imād was ordered to deliver to the Shāh all the jewels he had removed from the palace stores during his two and a half years of dictatorship, and on his pleading poverty he was abused and subjected to “an extreme degree of dishonour.” [*DC.*] His house had been escheated from the first and he naturally replied, “I have given you all I possessed. Whence can I produce more?” At this, Abdali’s officers rebuked and insulted him, beat his head servants with sticks as only heartless Afghans know how to beat, and dishonoured them in many ways. They also bastinadoed Sangi Beg and Abdur Rahman Khan, the chief officers of Intizām’s household, and Basant Khan, the eunuch in charge of the Emperor’s harem. Other palace eunuchs and noblemen’s servants were subjected to similar violence to make them yield money.
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But even this did not bring in any large sum. So, the torture was extended from the servants to the masters. Intizām-ud-daulah, who had recklessly promised two *krores* for the wazirship, was taken to the Shāh’s presence, shown a wooden triangle fixed in the ground, and told that unless he produced one *kror* that day he would be tied down to it and bastinadoed. At that time, beyond the ring on his finger he had not even one Rupee to dispose of. So, he stood trembling by the side of the triangle, his face white as a sheet. When asked to point out the hiding place of his father’s hoarded treasure in his mansion, he replied that his mother Sholāpuri Begam alone knew the secret. This old lady, the daughter-in-law of one grand wazir, the widow of another, and the mother of a third, was summoned and told that unless she showed the spot, iron pins would be driven in underneath the nails of her fingers. She fainted at the threat, and on recovery pointed out the room of the buried hoard. After six hours of digging by a hundred pioneers, 16 lakhs in coins, besides golden silver and gem-studded vessels, were found under the floor (4th February.) A search was conducted in the new wazir’s harem under Jahān Khan’s supervision and these august ladies were stripped and hustled like beggar-women (6 Feb.) The mansion of Samsām-ud-daulah (late Paymaster General) was similarly dug up in search of buried treasure (7 Feb.) and the city kotwal’s house was robbed of all its wealth (13 Feb.) “The Afghans broke open the houses of the people who had fled away from the city, including that of Hirānand Jauhari, the prince of merchants, and appropriated everything they found there." |*DC.*; *TALS*. 100*b*, Samin in *Ind. Antiquary*, p. 47.|
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∗ Abdali’s exactions and atrocities in Delhi,—*DC.*, *TALS.* 99-102a. Imād in *Ind. Antiq.*, 1907, 47-48. *Husain Shahi* 36-37. *SPD.* xxi. 99, 104, 118, xxvii. 144. Imād secured as his patron Shah Wali Khan the Durrani wazir (one of his female relatives being in the latter’s harem.) Intizām bought the support of the Durrani sardar Jahān Khan, the rival of the wazir. When Intizām failed to pay his promised tribute, Jahān Khan felt humiliated before his master and therefore severely chastised Intizām. [*Husain Shahi*, 36. *Ind. Ant.* 45.]
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§ 8. *Agony of Delhi under the Afghan terror.*
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As for the common people, a levy house by house for the entire city was decreed, the town was divided into sections for convenience of assessment, offices for collection were opened, and the entire work put in charge of Yahiya Khan, a son of the celebrated Zakariyā Khan of Lāhor and for a short time his successor as subahdar of that province, but living in unemployment and poverty since 1748. "The richer men were summoned by name by means of letters. In every ward of the city a *kalaposh* sardar was stationed with his troops. Counting the houses, he demanded from each householder more than he could possibly pay. Great beating and extortion went on. Men, in fear of torture, wanted to sell their ornaments utensils and clothing, but found no buyer. Gold sold at Rs. 8 to 10 a *tola* [=180 grains], pure silver at 2 tolas a Rupee, and alloyed silver at three. Utensils [of copper or brass] sold at 3 seers to the Rupee. Many citizens took poison on account of their poverty, many died under torment from wounds or burns being inflicted on their bodies. Even men who paid the levy, had their floors dug up and their houses plundered. Not a man in the city could escape this calamity. This trouble raged from the 4th to the 20th of February, when at last a rumour arose that the Shāh was about to march away, and the collectors were urged to speed up the collection. Then they made a second demand on those who had paid already and the beating and slaying began again! Many houses that had at first escaped were now plundered." [TALS. 100b-101a.]
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Mughlāni Begam, the widow of Muin-ul-mulk of Lahor, acted as Abdali's informer regarding the secrets of every Delhi noble's family and property and the beauty of the inmates of the imperial harem. Thus, the conqueror's desire for Hazrat Begam, the youthful daughter of Muhammad Shāh, was kindled. As a Marathi newsletter reports, "In Delhi many men have been slain and many women ravished. Some of the females have committed suicide [with daggers], others have drowned themselves. Wherever handsome Hindu women were reported, Abdali sent his men and brought them away to his quarters." [SPD. xxi. 104, TALS. 100b-101a. DC.]
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The gold and silver thus collected was coined in the mint with Abdali's name on them. The first fruits of the spoliation of Delhi were loaded on all kinds of transport and promptly sent out of Delhi towards Afghanistan, in charge of Abdali's son Timur Shāh, who had been married to Alamgir II's daughter Zuhra Begam (also called Gauhar-āfroz or Muhammadi Begam)
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a few days before.* In commandeering the transport needed by him, a fresh plunder of the citizens took place.
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§ 9. Abdali marches south from Delhi.
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Abdali on 19th February made further changes among the Delhi ministers. Intizām was found to be of little use, and so the wazirship was conferred upon the Emperor's eldest son Ali Gauhar, with Intizām as his deputy, while Imād, who had now been pardoned through the intercession of Shāh Wali Khan and Mughlāni Begam, was given a most dignified sinecure as Wakil-i-mutlaq (or Supreme Regent), “with no business to do and no power,” Najib Khan was created Mir Bakhshi or head of the army of the empire, Yaqub Ali Khan Lord Chamberlain, and Badr-ud-daulah Chief of Artillery and commandant of the Delhi palace. Finally, in his camp near Mathurā, on 18 March the Afghan king restored Imād to the wazirship in recognition of his courage and zeal shown in the Jat campaign.
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Najib had crossed over to Dankaur with his followers on 24 January, and now moved down the east bank of the Jamuna to protect Abdali's left flank during the campaign south of the capital. In the night of 20-21 February, Ahmad Shah in his own presence married Imād to Umda Begam* and next day left Delhi on a campaign in Agra and the Jat country. On Friday the 25th of that month, the *khutba* was once more read in the name of Alamgir II. [*TALS.* 103. *DC.*]
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∗ DC. says that he was married in the night of 30-31 Jan. and began his return march on 10 Feb. But TALS., 101b, gives 14 Feb. as the date of the marriage. Timur's retreat : SPD. xxi. 98, 108.
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Even the departure of the Afghan king from Delhi did not bring full security to the miserable capital. "On 22 February Ahmad Shah marched out towards Khizirabad, but the exactions continued in the city as before, and a host of people were ruined. Next day Alamgir went to the Shāh and entreated him to spare the Delhi people from the ravage of his soldiery. Abdali sent back 200 horsemen with the Emperor to the city to beat and drive out to his camp all *kalaposhes* found anywhere in Delhi. This brought peace to the city in the afternoon (23 Feb.)
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§ 10. *More oppression and extortion at Delhi by the Afghans.*
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The peace, however, was shortlived. The main Afghan army had withdrawn, but bands of soldiers from it continued to revisit the city under orders to secure transport, guns, or provisions for the Shāh’s camp in the south, and utilized this opportunity and the absence of their master to rob on their own account. On 15th February the Delhi chronicler records, “The Mughalias and *nasaqchis* engaged in plunder, and all day and night cries of distress were heard.” Next day, “the same state of things continued ; many wards of the Old and New cities were burnt and some remained safe. Intizām and Jahān Khan went out and set fire to Khori-ganj and other places.” On the 19th, “Three Turks and Peshwari-bachchas entered the female apartments of the people in search of horses, opened the chambers, and carried off whatever furniture they could find. They even seized the householders and pressed them to find out and supply porters [for the Shāh’s march], but afterwards set them free on receiving money.” [*DC.*] Again, “on 28th February a thousand *kalaposhes* came to Delhi fort for removing four large cannon to the Shāh’s army. They seized the bullocks of the passers-by and thus collected about a hundred cattle. Then going to the river-bank they plundered the people who were coming across the river and the washermen of their clothes. Wherever they heard of ropes, bamboos, or wooden beams in any shop bazar or house, they took them away... The plundering by the *kalaposhes* had stopped the coming of grain from Shahdara to Delhi. ... On 5th March the *kalaposhes* left the city, and much grain having come from Shahdara, wheat sold at 91/2 seers against 7 seers before. The cheapness increased daily.” [*TALS.*, 104-105b.]
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∗ At first immediately after entering Delhi, Abdali had angrily ordered that Imād's wife Gannā Begam should be marched away from Delhi and taken to Balkh, and she actually reached Bādli on this exile. But on 22 February, he, at the entreaty of Imād, recalled her from the way and placed her under the orders of her rival Umda Begam. [*Ind. Ant.* 1907, pp. 46-49.] But *DC.* records under 21 Feb. that Imād, after his marriage with Umda, divorced his other wives and handed over Gannā to Mughlani Begam to be treated as a bond-maid. *See Appendix.*
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§ 11. *Afghan massacres all over the country.*
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The week from 28 February to 6 March was the period of the Spring Carnival (*Holi*), when in every Hindu house there is rejoicing and playful bombardment with coloured powder and water, singing and dancing day and night. Even the Emperor and his wazir used to disport themselves in this festive season. “But this year,” as the Court historian of the reign writes, “not one man celebrated these rejoicings. Every one was sunk in grief and misery.” [*TALS.* 105b.] Holi was no doubt played in Mathurā and Vrindāvan, but there the dye so profusely poured was the life-blood of Hindus. But before we follow the invader in this southern campaign, we shall trace the course of the war in the country around during the period of his stay in the capital. From Delhi as a centre Ahmad Shah continued to send out parties to forage in the Doab on the east and the Faridabad district on the south, the bridge of boats thrown over the Jamunā below Delhi facilitating the crossing and quick return of these detachments. In the middle of February the desolation created by them in the Sikandrabad district (modern Bulandshahar) is thus described by the eye-witness Ghulām Hasan Sāmin of Bilgrām :—“Sikandrabad was full everywhere of fugitives from the environs of Delhi. Thence to Anupshahar (a four days' march) in every village that we passed, not a sign of an inhabitant was to be seen, and along the route unnumbered dead bodies were lying. Anupshahar too was crowded with fugitives from Delhi, to such an extent that it was difficult to force a way through its lanes... The Shāh had ordered a general slaughter in parganah Dāsna, the zamindari of Rai Bahadur Singh." |*Ind. Ant.*, 1907, pp. 15-16.|
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The same scene of slaughter and rapine met the eye in the region south of Delhi after Antaji Manakeshwar's opposition had been crushed at Faridabad on 1 February. A traveller who reached Delhi from Agra on 8 Feb. reported, "All the nobles of Delhi who had fled to Agra, have migrated from that city also, on hearing rumours of the coming of the Durrāni troops; all places from Delhi to Faridabad are without a lamp, the Jāts are plundering the caravans of the fugitives, and near Faridabad 2,000 corpses are lying on the ground stripped of all their clothing." [*DC.*] From each halting place of the Afghan vanguard lines of skirmishers spread out, right left and in front, in the shape of a fan.* Their superb Khurāsāni horses easily covered 50 or 60 miles a day, and after scouting and foraging they fell back on their camp in the evening. Thus the path of advance was cleared for the invaders.
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∗ When Jahān Khan reached Agra (21 March), one corps under Sarwar Kh. penetrated further south of Dholpur, while