Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c24.s4: § 9. Atrocities of Abdali's troops
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c24.s4
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§ 9. Atrocities of Abdali's troops
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This sudden change of plan needs explanation. We have seen how Ahmad Shah had reached Mahāvan (opposite Mathura) about 15th March. His track had been marked by the same desolation and havoc.* "From Agra to Delhi not a man was left in any hamlet . . . Along the route by which Abdali has come and gone back not two seers of grain and fodder can be had." [SPD. xxi. 99, 111.] The Muslim eye-witness thus describes the Afghan atrocities :—
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∗ Father X. Wendel wrote ten years afterwards, "Suraj Mal looked from a distance at this catastrophe to his Braja, which was totally set on fire and bloodshed by the barbarity of the Durranis, joined to the Ruhelas, who gave quarter to none. It was on this occasion that the environs of Agra, and that city itself were desolated more than ever. We see, even at this hour, the sad marks of it." [P. 75.]
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"The Shah [c. 3 March] issued an order for slaying and plundering. His soldiers were assured that everyone would be allowed to keep whatever plunder he took and would be paid Rs. 5 for every enemy head [brought in.] It was midnight when the camp-followers went out to the attack. One horseman mounted a horse and took ten to twenty others, each attached to the tail of the horse preceding it, and drove them just like a string of camels. When it was one watch (3 hours) after sunrise I saw them come back. Every horseman had loaded up all his horses with the plundered property, and atop of it rode the girl-captives and the slaves. The severed heads were tied up in rugs like bundles of grain and placed on the heads of the captives . . . Then the heads were stuck upon lances and taken to the gate of the chief minister for payment. It was an extraordinary display! Daily did this manner of slaughter and plundering proceed. And at night the shrieks of the women captives who were being ravished, deafened the ears of people. . . . All those heads that had been cut off were built into pillars, and the [captive] men upon whose heads those bloody bundles had been brought in, were made to grind corn, and then their heads too were cut off. These things went on all the way to the city of Agra, nor was any part of the country spared. In addition to all this, five thousand Ruhela foot-soldiers joined the army. Each man procured some thirty to forty buffaloes. The plundered goods, such as jewels and clothes, they loaded upon these buffaloes, and established a market of their own within the camp, where they sold all these things at low prices . . . . Copper and other vessels that had been broken up were strewed along the route of the army and no one stooped to pick them up. Excepting gold and silver nothing was carried away.”
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§ 10. *Cholera epidemic in Abdali’s camp at Mahavan.*
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Such were the unspeakable sufferings of the harmless peasants and traders, whose only crime was their supposed wealth. Then outraged Nature rose up in wrath. Abdali had encamped at Mahāvan 13 miles downstream of Vrindāvan. The river, its level now very low at the height of the dry season, was choked with the half-burnt and unburnt bodies of suicides and slaughtered persons ; and in three weeks’ time the Indian sun did its work. The water reached Abdali’s camp after washing Vrindāvan Mathurā and other places, all upstream, which had been turned into slaughter-houses by his order. A cholera epidemic broke out at Mahāvan and daily 150 of his soldiers began to die of it. There was no remedy, no medicine available ; “it cost Rs. 100 to buy a seer of tamarind, a drink made of tamarind being prescribed with benefit." The loss of horse-flesh was equally heavy in the Afghan army. His surviving soldiers clamoured for returning home. Abdali's hands were forced. He wrote to the Emperor (on 26th March) that he was about to turn back, and he sent off fast riders to recall Jahān Khan and Najib from Agra.* These two rejoined him on the 24th. A second domiciliary visit was paid to Vrindāvan to realize the contribution laid on that city after the raid of the 6th. And in these four days a last despairing effort was made to get something out of Suraj Mal. He had promised a tribute of five lakhs to the Shah and a gift of two lakhs to his ministers, but, thanks to the unlooked for epidemic, he evaded "paying even a kauri." As Abdali's real intentions were not finally known for some time, Suraj Mal's envoys accompanied his camp parleying up to the north-western suburb of Delhi, and when from that place the Afghan army unmistakably set out for their home, fast camel-riders brought the happy news to Suraj Mal, and he unceremoniously turned out of his fort the two negotiators of tribute (Jugalkishor, and an Afghan officer) whom Abdali had left there.
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§ 11. Abdali retires from India, April 1757.
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In his return march Ahmad Shah reached Faridabad on 30th March, Najib Khan moving parallel to him along the east bank of the Jamunā and crossing over at Rājghāt to the Delhi side. From Faridabad the Afghan king and his army proceeded rapidly to the northern suburbs of Delhi,—the plain beyond Sarāi Basant and Sarāi Suhail, avoiding the city and marching along the river bank between the fort and the Jamunā. At this place he halted for three days (31 March—2 April) in order to secure his virgin tribute from the imperial family, and here he received a farewell visit from Alamgir II. Then by way of Sonepat (10 April) he reached Tirauri (13th), and after taking 20 lakhs from Ināyet Khan the zamindar of Kunjpurā, pursued his way to Lahor and Afghanistan. Jahān Khan who had been detached (end of March) to demand tribute from the Baluch zamindars of the Rohtak district (near the Najafgarh jhil) and had returned unsuccessful, now led his vanguard. [SPD. ii. 71.]
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∗ TALS. 114b, 109b. Samin in Ind. Antiq. 64-65. Wendel, p. 76. SPD. xxi. 111, xxvii. 147, 155, ii. 71,72.
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§ 12. *Abdali's booty and prisoners from India.*
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The plunder that Abdali carried away from India was valued by contemporary reporters differently, at 3, 4, 9 and even 12 krores of Rupees. The human booty of war included Hazrat Begam (the maiden daughter of Emperor Muhammad Shah.) This princess, on reaching her 16th year, in February 1756, had excited the passion of Alamgir II, who had shamelessly demanded her hand in marriage, but the girl had replied, “I prefer death to [such a] marriage.” And now this tender lamb was to be pounced upon by a fierce Afghan of grandfatherly age, whose two ears had been docked and nose was rotting from a leprous carbuncle. At Abdāli’s demand for her hand, there was wailing and alarm in the imperial harem. The two Dowager-empresses cried out, “We shall slay her and then kill ourselves, but we will not give her to an Afghan.” Fruitless efforts were then made to save her, by bribing Mughlāni Begam to report to Abdāli that the girl was really not handsome enough for him, and later by Alamgir II falsely swearing that she had been betrothed to a Delhi prince.
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But there was no escape for her. On 5th April she was taken, decked as a bride, to Ahmad Shah’s tents; Mālika-i-zamāni and Sāhiba Mahal (widows of Muhammad Shah) and Muhtaram-un-nisā (a daughter of the late Emperor Ahmad and a nursling of Mālika-i-zamāni from her infancy) accompanied the weeping bride in exile out of India. Other Delhi princesses present in the retreating Afghan camp were Alamgir II’s daughter Gauhar-un-nisā the wife of Timur Shah, and Aiffat-un-nisā the daughter of Dāwar Bakhsh and great-grand-daughter of Aurangzib whom Nādir Shah had married to his son Nasrullah in 1739 and whom Ahmad Abdali had taken to his bed after the murder of Nādir. With this party went 16 other ladies of the Delhi harem, but 400 maidservants who were being dragged away with their mistresses escaped from the way and dispersed to their homes. A Marathi letter reports, "The Pathan has taken away the handsome wives of the amirs and of [other] people, and sent them off to Lahor." [*TALS.* 109*b*—111*b*, 113*a*, 112*a*, 114*b*. *DC.* *SPD.* xxi. 118, 98, xxvii. 152. *Raj.* i. 63.]
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The humbler captives fared better. At his farewell interview with the conqueror at Sarā Suhail (2nd April), Alamgir II entreated the Shah to release the poor men and women whom his soldiers had taken into slavery during their Indian campaign. The prayer was granted and thus several thousands of Indians, male and female, were sought out in the Afghan camp and sent back to Delhi with the returning Emperor. Next morning (3rd April) all whose relatives could be found were handed over to their care, the friendless were set free to go wherever they liked. "Among these captives there was no man or woman of any respectable family; they were all villagers." [*TALS.* 112*b*.]
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The imperial capital did not escape a second plunder during the retreat of the Afghans. On 31st March, we read, "In spite of the Shah's prohibition and his appointment of Najib Khan to protect the city, the vast concourse of his *kalaposhes* could not be prevented from looting and exacting money on some new pretext every day. The people were oppressed." Again, on 8-10 April while Sāhiba Mahal was on a final visit to Delhi to remove her belongings, the 2,000 Durrāni musketeers who formed her escort took to plundering the Delhi bazars. [*TALS.* 111*a*, 115*a*.]
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The immensity of the booty taken away from India can be understood from the enormous size of the transport required for it. "Abdali’s own goods were loaded on 28,000 camels, elephants, mules, bullocks and carts, while 200 camel-loads of property were taken by Muhammad Shah’s widows who accompanied him, and these too belonged to him. Eighty thousand horse and foot followed him, each man carrying away spoils. His cavalry returned on foot, loading their booty on their chargers. For securing transport, the Afghan king left no horse or camel in any one’s house, not even a donkey. The guns he had brought for taking the Jāt forts, he abandoned because their draught-cattle had to be loaded with his plunder, and the Jāt Rajah took these guns away into his fort. In Delhi not a sword was left with anybody." [*SPD.* ii. 71.]
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By Abdālī’s direction, the Emperor conferred on Imād-ul-mulk the full powers of wazir, *vice* Shah Alam (3rd April), while Najib Khan was appointed his supreme agent in India and the real master of the Delhi Government. [*TALS.* 115*b*, *DC.*]
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§ 13. Abdali sends two Delhi princes to recover the Doab and Oudh.
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Ahmad Shah Abdali was throughout life determined not to make India his home, nor to personally conduct the government of Delhi. He therefore sincerely desired to restore the Mughal Emperor to real power and wealth by winning his provinces back from the refractory governors and placing them in charge of loyal officers who would support their sovereign with the provincial revenue and troops. Shujā-ud-daulah, who held the rich *subahs* of Oudh and Allahabad, was the hereditary enemy of the Emperor, his wazir Imād and Abdali's agent Najib Khan alike, and the hereditary ally of the hated Marathas and the ever-rebellious Jāt Rajah. He had kept aloof from Abdali during this invasion of 1757. His dominions also barred the way to the still richer lost provinces, Bihar and Bengal. Abdali's first scheme of wresting Shujā's provinces by means of Ahmad Bangash was dropped on account of Ahmad's manifest incapacity and military impotence. Then, by the advice of Imād, it was decided to transfer these eastern provinces to two of the Emperor's sons* and send them with a small Afghan force to occupy the country, because it was hoped that the prestige of the blood imperial would deter rebellious chiefs from opposing them by arms.
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The Emperor was requested to send to Ahmad Shah's camp near Mathurā two of his sons, after formally appointing them subahdars of Oudh (cum Allahabad) and Bengal (cum Bihar.) On 14th March he gave leave of departure to his son Hedāyet Bakhsh and his nephew and son-in-law Mirzā Bābā with letters-patent for the governorships of Bengal and Oudh respectively, but nothing else. They reached Abdali's camp on the 19th with a poorer retinue and escort than even the lowest nobles of former times. They had no money for raising an army, and Abdali could not spare any large detachment of his own troops to support this adventure. He therefore planned that the princes should first go to the Doab (the Bulandshahar district), join Ahmad Bangash the Nawab of Farrukhabad, drive out the Maratha posts there, establish their own revenue collection, and with the resources thus gained enlist more men, advance further east, oust Shujā from his provinces, and then proceed to the golden land of Bengal. To them Imād-ul-mulk was attached as guardian and diplomat, and Jangbāz Khān as commander of the escort with a miscellaneous force of 3,000 men stiffened by 600 Durrāni soldiers, and Najib's brother Sultān Khan and son Zābita Khan.
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∗ Expedition of the two Shahzadas with Imād into the Doab :—Samın in *Ind. Antiq.* 1907, 64-69 (unreliable), *TALS.* 106b, 109a, 117b-118b, 121a-124a, 127b. *DC.* *SPD.* xxvii. 146, 160-190. xxi. 111-138. *Gul-i-R.*, 52-54.
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This party arrived at Agra on 23rd March; Jahān Khan left that city for his master's camp that very night, and the princes, after being welcomed by the imperial officers of the locality, crossed the Jamunā on the 25th, and by way of Firuzabad (28th) reached Mainpuri on the 31st. Here Ahmad Bangash respectfully waited on them (4th April) and took Mirzā Bābā with himself to Qādirganj in the north-west, while Hedāyet Bakhsh moved south-eastwards to Etāwa, from which the Maratha collector fled away. “The Durrāni contingent merely plundered the ryots of the place instead of establishing a settled administration there, because Ahmad Shah’s soldiers knew nothing but looting. The prince gained no revenue there. Mirzā Bābā remained at Qādirganj till the 20th, Ahmad Bangash supplying his shameful want of tents dress and other materials. Then came the news that Shujā-ud-daulah had sent a force under Anupgir Gosāin against the two princes and that this force was coming to loot Farrukhabad. So, Ahmad Bangash hastened back to his own city and Mirzā Bābā arrived there soon afterwards and Hedāyet from Etāwa on 6th May. The trans-Ganges Ruhelas too came in a large body under Hāfiz Rahmat Khan and encamped on the other side of the river, opposite Qādirganj... The wazir Imād tried hard to win Hāfiz over and gain his armed support. He crossed the river and visited Hāfiz on the 30th, and the two princes did the same next day and enjoyed Hāfiz’s hospitality for four days.”
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§ 14. Failure of the princes’ expedition. Marathas reappear.
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But the negotiations for an offensive alliance dragged on for a long time and promised no agreement, because the Ruhelas shrank from provoking another attack of Shujā and the dreaded Marathas for the sake of a master who was impotent to help them. Sadullah Khan, the successor of Ali Muhammad Ruhela, was a personal friend of Shujā and worked at cross purposes with Hāfiz. Imād returned to the princes' camp after a visit to the Ruhela headquarters for talking their leaders over.
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Meantime Shujā-ud-daulah himself had arrived on the scene "with a numerous army and countless guns"; he declared that he was a loyal servant of the princes, and would only attack his enemies Imād-ul-mulk and Ahmad Bangash if they did not leave the Shāhzādas' side. The princes marched towards him on 8th June and Shujā too crossed the river Garrā near the village of Sāndi and formed an entrenched camp 14 miles from the position of the princes. While negotiations for a tribute went on between the princes and Shujā, and Jangbāz Khan fought two skirmishes with the Oudh vanguard, the situation was suddenly changed by the arrival of a new Maratha army under Sakhārām Bāpu at Kāsganj, only two marches from Farrukhabad, on 17th June. Immediately the nascent coalition collapsed; a settlement was speedily made with Shujā: "the matter was settled at 15 lakhs, five of which were to be paid down and the balance after a year; half of these five lakhs was to be paid to Jangbāz Khan for his expenses, and the other moiety was to be divided into five equal shares of Rs 50,000 each, for the two princes, the wazir, the Bangash Nawab, and Yahiya Khan (the Paymaster of Mirzā Bābā’s force.) *
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Ahmad Bangash, taking Mirzā Bābā with him, hastened back to his capital (24th June) ; the wazir and Hedāyet Bakhsh followed the next day. Shujā and the Ruhela chiefs went back to their homes. At Farrukhabad the two princes had to dismiss all the soldiers they had recently enlisted for the purpose of controlling the subahs assigned to them. Their adventure ended in utter failure and great loss of money, without gaining an inch of territory or a Rupee of revenue. Even the war-indemnity promised by Shujā was not paid beyond the first lakh. Jangbāz Khan, exasperated at not getting the means for meeting his soldiers’ dues during these three months of campaigning, ravaged the country,† and going to Barily extorted the balance of the indemnity from Rajah Mān Rāi, the diwan of Sadullah Khan, who had been Shujā’s intermediary in the late peace talks.
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∗ *TALS.* 122b-123b. The Maratha envoy with Shujā estimates the Oudh army at 15-16 thousand men and 3-4 hundred guns (9 June), and again at 25,000 men and 7-800 guns (19 June.) We learn from a Marathi despatch that the Peshwa’s envoy with the wazir forced peace on the two sides by leaving the settlement to the Peshwa’s arbitration (25 June.) *SPD.* xxi. 127, 130, 132.
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† “Jangbāz Kh. after settling the tribute of Shujā, took a bond for 2½ lakhs from Hafiz and other Ruhelas, and remained on the further side of the Ganges [for realizing the money.]” Report received in Delhi about 21 July. *TALS.* 127b. *Ind. Ant.* p. 69.
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On 4th July the princes started from Farrukhabad on return to Delhi, in the same humble guise and abject poverty in which they had set out from the capital on 15th March. By way of Aligarh (15 July) and Sikandrabad (21 July) they arrived within eight miles of Delhi on the 23rd, but by that time so great was the Maratha predominance along the Jamunā that Najib had to issue from the capital and make a demonstration of force on the west bank to ensure the safe crossing over of the princes! They had absolutely nothing to show as their achievement. Within a few weeks of their starting from Agra they had lost even that imperial city. When Abdali set out on his return, Suraj Mal finding the field clear, re-established all his outposts by sending back his men, who had fled away before the Afghan advance, to occupy them. The Jat detachments even re-entered their old posts on the eastern bank of the Jamunā, along the edge of the Doab. And the Marathas, secure in the friendship of the Jats in their rear, asserted their predominance in the Doab once again. This second expansion of Maratha power will be treated in the next chapter.