Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c25: Chapter XVII

Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c25

Language
English

Contents

Chapter XVII

v2.c25.1

RAGHUNATH RAO'S NORTHERN EXPEDITION AND EVENTS DURING 1757-1758.

§ 1. Maratha recovery in the Doab ; their difficulties

v2.c25.s1.1

We have seen how by the month of May 1756, all the forces of the Maratha Government had vacated Rajputana and Hindustan north of the Chambal. There was left near Delhi a body of 5,000 horse under Antāji Mānakeshwar, but they were the Emperor's servants whose salary of 13 lakhs a year the wazir had taken it upon himself to pay. There were, besides, small bands of escort with the Maratha managers of Antaji's jagirs in the Doab, (Phaphund, Shukohabad and Etawa), the Hinganes' jagirs further north (in the Bulandshahar and Mirat districts), and the Peshwa's tribute-collectors in the south-east (Kora and Jahanabad.) But all their generals and regular armies had gone back to the Deccan. Raghunath himself had reached Puna on 10 August 1755 after two and a half years of campaigning; and in October 1756 we find him as well as Malhar Holkar at Puna and Dattaji Sindhia due to return there from Ujjain after the Diwāli ceremony. At the end of this year Malhar and some weeks later Raghunath were again despatched to the north.

v2.c25.s1.2

Raghunath reached Indor on 14 February 1757, and at first talked of marching on Delhi, which was in Abdali’s occupation. But we shall see in Chapter 18 why he could not for nearly four months afterwards leave Rajputana nor make any attempt to restore the Maratha power and prestige in the Doab. At last about the middle of May, he detached a force of 20,000 men under Sakhārām Bāpu, with Vital Shivdev, Tātyā Gangādhar (Holkar’s diwan), Antāji Mānakeshwar and the Household troops (*huzarāt*.) They first reached Agra, where they came to terms with the Jats. Suraj Mal, on promising to pay the outstanding balance of the indemnity of 1754, was left in possession of his usurpations in the Agra district and the western border of the Doab (Dankaur &c.) Then the Maratha vanguard crossed the Jamuna and reached Kāsganj on 17th June. As the Maratha horse approached, everywhere there was a panic flight of the agents of the wazir and the Bangash Nawab. The Marathas recovered their former outposts in the Doab with hardly a blow. Antāji Mānakeshwar went to Anupshahar about 2nd July, and a strong Maratha force occupied the Sikandrabad district. It was only at Mirat that Najib’s agents (his cousin and his *bakhshi*) offered fight at the head of 3,000 men, but their opposition was swept away with heavy loss on both sides after two battles (*c.* 10-15 July) with Antaji. A Ruhela contingent, 1,000 strong, which was coming from beyond the Ganges to uphold Najib’s power in Mirat, was scared away from the way by Antaji’s lieutenant who held Hapur. [*SPD.* ii. 79, 76, xxi. 61. 126. *TALS.* 124b-125b. Raj. i. p. 134. *DC.*]

v2.c25.s1.3

Saharanpur, Mirat, Sikandrabad, Shukohabad, Phaphund, Etawa and even southwards as far as Kora-Jahanabad, were all freed from the agents of the Delhi Court or of Najib. The wazir Imād-ul-mulk kept the diwan Nāgar Mal at Anupshahar to entreat the Marathas to make friends with him again. Shujā-ud-daulah had readily agreed to the Maratha proposal to remain neutral during this war in the Doab, as Maratha encouragement had stiffened his opposition to the wazir’s recent attempt to dispossess him of his two subahs by means of the Shāhzādas. But the financial gain of the Marathas was insignificant. Though the Muslim usurpers had been driven away from the region, the normal maintenance of order and the peaceful collection of revenue could not be restored so easily. Thanks to the last four years’ constant change of legally authorized owners, usurpations, political revolutions and foreign invasion, the whole of the Doab had become a No-man’s land, seething with disorder. The eclipse of the legitimate government during Abdali’s invasion and the Ruhela-Maratha contest had tempted every ambitious man to come out with his band, renounce all masters and encroach upon his neighbours’ lands. The Gujars spread in lawless activity through the Dāsna sub-division. The Rajput landlords of this region were a sturdy rebellious lot; almost every village had been fortified with mud walls,—as the English found to their cost in suppressing the Mutiny in 1858,—and the petty Rajahs with their armed bands had seized as much land as they could. Two thousands of such mud-forts were reported in the Doab by the Maratha agents, and their conquest by force would have taken years and a full-sized army and exhaustless gun-munition. [SPD. xxvii. 195, 196, 168, 169, 170. ii. 76.]

v2.c25.s1.4

Hence, the Marathas on their return to the Doab found neither peace nor money, and had even to beg for funds from the Punā Government to save their soldiers from starvation. At the same time the Peshwa was issuing assignments on the hypothetical Doab revenue to every one of his creditors and generals in North India and censuring his local officers there for default of payment. Both Antājī and Bāpu Hingané were accused of peculation of their master’s dues and their properties were escheated! The art of maintaining an empire eternally on credit has not been discovered by any human brain.

§ 2. Plan for ousting Najib Khan from Delhi

v2.c25.s2.1

Najib had been the right-hand man of Abdali during the late invasion and had been left by the conqueror as his supreme agent in Delhi, thus replacing the official wazir as the Emperor’s keeper. "The Emperor, after Abdali’s departure, had placed all the districts round the capital under Najib, authorizing him to appoint any collector he liked, provided that the rents came to the imperial exchequer. But Najib appropriated everything, even the yield of the princes' estates and gave their owners one-fourth or one-fifth of what he collected.” For instance, for the *sāir* (transit) duties of this rich and important region he paid only Rs. 25,000 per annum into the public treasury. [*TALS.* 120*b*, *DC.* under 11 May.] The Emperor found that he was no better off under Najib’s dictatorship than under Imad’s, while the Ruhela upstart treated him with a roughness unknown to the nobly-born wazir. He sighed for his old bondage. Imad, too, after the collapse of his recent anti-Maratha coalition under the Abdali’s blessings, humbly made peace with the Marathas and turned them against Najib. The plan of the newly reconciled allies was to expel Najib from Delhi and restore Imād to power there as a creature of the Marathas, so that the imperial Government would again be subservient to every Deccani plan of expansion in North India. Moreover, half the indemnity promised by the imperial Government in June 1754 still remained unpaid, while the annual cost of 13 lakhs for Antaji’s subsidiary troops had fallen into arrears. Therefore, Raghunath himself turned his face towards Delhi. On 7th June, Bapu Mahadev Hingané, the Peshwa’s resident wakil at Delhi, at last came back from his hiding place in Kumbher; he was presented to the Emperor and given the superlative title of *Mahārājā-dhirāj* (15th June.) The Delhi Court thus openly abandoned the recent anti-Maratha policy, and made ready to welcome Raghunath for expelling Najib. [*DC. SPD.* xxi. 120.]

v2.c25.s2.2

§ 3. *Raghunath Rao marches from Rajputana to Delhi.**

v2.c25.s2.3

While Sakhārām Bapu took post at Patparganj, facing Delhi fort, (middle of July) and thus dominated the eastern bank of the Jamuna, Raghunath at last began his march upon Delhi at the end of July. Shamsher Bahadur with the artillery and the advanced division reached Rewari (*c.* 27 July.) His orders were to hold this city to ransom and occupy the Crownlands in the district around, but he found that the land was not in the possession of the Crown but "everywhere under Jat control, with the exception of a few villages held by Kamgar Khan Baluch and Sitārām of Kaliānā’s widow Satbhāni,—both of whom were already on the side of the Marathas." Prince Ali Jah (the Emperor’s second son), who had come a few days earlier to Rewari for wresting the district from the hands of usurpers, was invited by Shamsher Bahadur to a meeting in a garden outside and treacherously made prisoner with his women, (30 July.) The attempt to levy contribution from the Baluch zamindars of this district was fruitless. Raghunath and Malhar, who had left Jaipur territory at the end of July, moved rapidly to Rewari, absorbed Shamsher’s contingent, crossed the Najafgarh *jhil* to Kharwā (7 August), and arrived at Khizirabad (south of Delhi city) on 11th August, and the investment of the imperial capital immediately began.

v2.c25.s2.4

∗ This section is based upon *TALS.* 121*a*, 124*b*-125*a*, 129*a*-130*a*. *SPD.* xxvii 193, 197, 158.

v2.c25.s2.5

Meantime, when the dreaded Abdali was known to be out of India and the prospect of his return seemed remote, Raghunath from Jaipur had called upon Najib Khan (*c.* 10 June) to pay the customary *chauth* as in the reigns of Muhammad Shah and his son, on the ground that the lands assigned to the Marathas in lieu of *chauth* having been occupied by Najib he was responsible for the amount in cash. This letter was accompanied by the arrival of their vanguard consisting of detachments from the contingents of Naro Shankar (from Jhansi) and Sakharam Bapu (from Jaipur) in the Agra district. These men, on coming to the fort of Wer, demanded tribute from Suraj Mal, who agreed to pay it. The subahdari of Agra had been given by the Peshwa to Malhar Holkar, who nominated Vital Shivdev as his deputy there (*c.* 27 May.) From Agra as a base, the Marathas crossed the Jamuna and sent a network of detachments to occupy the Doab up to the bank of the Ganges (June and July), as we have seen in Ch. 16. Though the Marathas avoided Delhi at first, their coming caused great trembling and scarcity of grain in the capital. The wazir joined them. To the demand for *chauth* the Emperor had replied that the Afghan plunderer had left him nothing for payment to the Marathas. Najib advised him to prepare for boldly opposing the Marathas if they offered force.

§ 4. Najib's measures for defending Delhi

v2.c25.s3.1

On 16th July from the walls of Delhi fort a Maratha force was sighted on the opposite bank, plundering the grain dealers engaged in bringing supplies from Shāhdara to the capital. The Maratha headquarters under Sakhārām Bāpu (Raghunāth's dīwān) and Tātyā Gangādhar (Holkar's dīwān) were established at Patparganj. Then the ferries over the Jamuna from Wazirabad in the north of the capital to Khizirabad in its southern suburbs, were closed, "none could come from either bank, and grain in Delhi became very dear," (2 Aug.) Najib Khan had at first sent a part of his own troops (under his brother Afzal Khan and captain Mullā Āmān Khan) with some artillery across the Jamunā to defend the Doab, but recalled them after four or five days on seeing the Maratha occupation of that tract complete, and even wrote to his collectors there to retire peacefully before the Maratha advance. Thus, the Doab was surrendered, and Najib concentrated his forces on the defence of the capital. *

v2.c25.s3.2

Najib had also run a line of trenches at Khizirabad outside the city, to bar the line of invasion from the south, but he had not enough troops to hold these in force and therefore wisely withdrew most of his men from the Old City to the New. A garrison of 2,500 of his own Ruhelas under Mullā Āmān and Qutb Shāh was put in Delhi fort (21 July) and the artillery was planted below the fort, under the walls of Kalāni Bāgh, to oppose the Maratha advance by that open side.

v2.c25.s3.3

∗ TALS. 125b, 128a-130a. DC. SPD. xxvii. 198.

v2.c25.s3.4

The rest of the month of July and the first week of August passed in this state of watching for developments. Then, at the report of Raghunāth’s near approach to the capital, the Marathas on the east bank of the Jamunā began to cross over to the Delhi side by boat near Okhlā in small parties and formed another post some 20 miles south of the city. Patrols sent out by Najib had a brush with their most advanced foragers and drove them back with loss (6th August.) But the invaders returned in greater strength and plundered the neighbourhood of Safdar Jang’s tomb and the Mānkhān quarter of the Old City, and advancing still further looted the houses of Jaisinghpurā and even the horses of Bāpu Hingané. Najib, at the same time, sent his wakil Meghrāj (4th August) to Imād and the Maratha generals at Patparganj, proposing terms, but the latter obstinately demanded the removal of Najib’s troups from the fort and his own evacuation of the city, saying that they had no quarrel with the Emperor himself. So, there was nothing left for it but to fight it out.

v2.c25.s3.5

§ 5. *Raghunath attacks Delhi, 11 August 1757.*

v2.c25.s3.6

It broke out on 11th August, when Raghunath with his lieutenants reached Khizirabad. Sakhārām crossed over from the Doab and joined him. They sent their troops towards the city.* One division, marching towards the Lāl Darwāza, entered the Old Fort and slew Najib’s qiladar of the place, a Pathan named Bakhtāwar Khan, who was a disciple of Qutb Shāh, the popular spiritual guide and fighting ally of the Ruhela clan. Advancing further, they penetrated into Old Delhi and engaged in plunder. Narsinghdās Kāyath’s son bravely withstood them, and with the help of 200 Ruhelas sent out by Najib under Karam Khan, fought for some time, till overcome by sheer weight of numbers and driven in flight up to the Delhi Gate of the New City. Thus Old Delhi was plundered and all its inhabitants scared away.

v2.c25.s3.7

A second Maratha division attacked the river bank south-east of the city, near the garden of Jāvid Khan. Najib sent Qutb Shāh with 2,500 men to oppose it. But Qutb merely fired at the invaders from the Blue Bastion of the city wall, instead of venturing into the open. Najib himself watched the action from the roof of the Delhi Gate. About 3 P.M. the firing ceased, Qutb retired, and went away with Najib’s permission to sack the wazir’s Delhi mansion, in order to avenge the

v2.c25.s3.8

[^ *]: Raghunath’s attack on Najib in Delhi :—*TALS.* 130a-135b. *SPD.* xxi. 136, xxvii. 199, 194. *DC.* (very useful.) Nur-ud-din.

v2.c25.s3.9

slaughter of so many of his disciples and troops in the Old City. The infuriated Ruhelas found the wazir's gates closed from within and guarded by 600 men. They entered by way of the thatched sheds projecting from the walls, slew the defenders, and plundered everything in the house, stripping and dishonouring Imād's women and servants. At last Saif-ud-din Muhammad Khan (the brother of Aqibat Mahmud Khan Kashmiri) pacified Najib, and going to Imād's house removed the miserable ladies to the shelter of Rajah Nāgar Mal's vacant house. Some of these grand dames were placed in the few covered waggons and litters (dolis) that could be secured; all the rest had to walk on foot through the public streets and bazars, with burqas thrown over their persons. This was the greatest outrage that could be done to any Indian householder, not to speak of the hereditary grand wazir of the realm, and it made a reconciliation between Imād and Najib for ever impossible.

v2.c25.s3.10

Imād from the eastern bank crossed over to the Maratha camp in the evening and visited Raghunāth and Malhar for cementing his alliance with the invaders. Next day, a Maratha force again approached the river bank below the fort and retired about 3 P.M., after being fired at from the city walls by Najib's men in the Blue Bastion. Then active operations ceased for a few days.

v2.c25.s3.11

After these futile cavalry attacks on the impregnable stone walls of the capital from the south, bands of Maratha light horse (under Malhar) were sent round the city, towards Nāraina and Sarāi Khwājah Basant (in the west) and other suburbs. Najib closed all the city gates and posted artillery and troops at each of them. The Triple Archway in front of the Lahor and Kashmir Gates was built up with stones and earth, leaving only a narrow passage for traffic. "The grain supply of the city was entirely stopped, and there was a great scarcity of food and consequent suffering. Wheat sold at six seers to a Rupee."

v2.c25.s3.12

§ 6. Malhar assaults Delhi from the north.

v2.c25.s3.13

Malhar Holkar, with Vital Shivdev and other lieutenants and the wazir's troops under Bahādur Khan Baluch and Jamil-ud-din Khan, described a semi-circle round the western side of Delhi and entrenched opposite the Kashmir Gate in the north-east. "A vast force was assembled in this quarter. They took possession of the country up to Sabzi Mandi, the Horse Market, and Wazirabad. Many places in this region were plundered." Mānāji Pāygudé was ordered to entrench opposite the Kābul (or north-western) Gate; he negotiated for hiring the Turki troops of the Sindāgh (4,000 musketeers), who were living in unemployment in the Mughalpura suburb.* The main Maratha camp was now removed to the imperial Artillery Arsenal (Jinsi Topkhānah) near the Idgāh.

v2.c25.s3.14

∗ They asked for an advance of money and some guns and artillerymen. The negotiations did not mature. (SPD. xxi. 136.)

v2.c25.s3.15

On 25th August the fighting was renewed. Two hours before dawn, a Maratha force, accompanied by Bahādur Khān and Nāgar Mal, entered the Qudsia Garden, planted their guns, and attacked the Ruhelas posted in the mansions of Jafar Khan and Ali Mardān Khan. The exchange of fire continued all day, the defenders losing many men.* In the end the Ruhela trenches outside were carried, and they fell back inside the walls. The Qudsia Garden and the Begam Bāgh were captured. The victors occupied the ground won; Bahādur Khan entrenched himself in the garden of Jafar Khan, and Malhar sat down close to the Kashmir Gate. These advanced positions were well within the range of the big guns which Najib dragged to the northern ramparts during the night, and next day, 26th August, seven hundred of Bahādur Khan’s contingent were killed by this fire.

v2.c25.s3.16

There was again a suspension of fighting. Najib’s force had now been reduced to less than 2,000 men; he had not a single friend in the city, and the Emperor was secretly intriguing against him. He sought to make terms by sending his wakil Meghrāj day after day to Malhar, whose agent was Mujirām (a bania.) The Marathas demanded that Najib should resign the post of Paymaster-General, which had been promised to Ahmad Khan Bangash, vacate the fort, go to his own jagirs, and pay an indemnity of 50 or 60 lakhs. Najib declined to resign his post or leave the capital unless Imād did the same on his part, and he offered only five lakhs. He preferred death in fight to the dishonour of accepting his enemies' exorbitant demands; he abused the Emperor for his cowardice and treachery and intercepted his letters to Imād. The Emperor was helpless, "neither side would listen to him." Imād continued to fume over the Ruhela outrage on his harem, and Raghunāth grumbled at his august personality being ignored and Najib negotiating with Malhar, whom Raghunāth hated.

v2.c25.s3.17

∗ From Salimgarh two large guns were fired on the assailants, but their shots fell short.

§ 7. Renewed attacks on Najib in Delhi

v2.c25.s4.1

So the war broke out afresh on 30th August. Raghunāth fought against the Delhi Gate (in the south) and Imād against the Lahor Gate (in the north-west.) In the night of 29-30 August, the Marathas opened fire from all sides of the city. "Their cannon-balls reached the Hayāt Bakhsh Garden, the Diwān-i-khās, the Diwān-i-ām, and the imperial Wardrobe, within the palace. Two bastions of the Delhi Gate were demolished. The 31st also passed in this kind of artillery attack from all sides of the city. The Ruhelas made a sortie from the Lahor Gate, drove away the men of Imād and Ahmad Bangash who had advanced from the Idgāh, and returned after plundering the Tobacco Mart and carrying away everything there, even the timber of the houses.” They made another sortie from the Turkomān Gate, killed some soldiers of the wazir’s diwan Dilel Singh, and captured his banner.

v2.c25.s4.2

§ 8. Peace made with Najib, 3 Sep. 1757.

v2.c25.s4.3

But the defenders were hopelessly outnumbered. Famine was raging within the city, and “many men dispersed and only a few remained true to Najib.” At last he bowed to the inevitable. The next two days (1 and 2 September) passed in peace parleys; Malhar tried to soften Raghunath and Imād, while Majd-ud-daulah (Abdul Ahad Khan) pressed Najib hard. At last Najib consented to visit Malhar and accept any terms that the Maratha general might dictate.* On 3rd September first Qutb Shah visited Malhar to settle the preliminaries, aud, then about 3 P. M. Najib himself went to Malhar’s camp at Qudsiabad by boat and was welcomed. He accepted all the terms and returned to the city at night.

v2.c25.s4.4

∗ Najib’s message conveyed by Abdul Ahad Khan to Malhar ran thus: (1) I am your [adopted] son and I shall act as you bid me. You have done me many favours and it is not proper that you should [now] bare your sword against me. If you say so, I shall go away across the Jamuna, and you can entrust Delhi and the empire to the control of whomsoever you please. (2) Bid me and I shall go to the Abdali Shah and arrange a peace between you by delimiting your respective boundaries, which would be respected in future by both parties, so that there might not be war again. (3) I shall depute my son Zābita Khan to serve you

v2.c25.s4.5

The peace became operative on the 6th. Najib issued with his property and war material from Dārā Shukoh’s mansion, left the city and entered his tents pitched at Wazirabad. His Ruhela soldiers vacated the fort, with all their belongings, and the Marathas took post as guards at the gates of the capital. Raghunath set free the captive followers of Najib; the ferries over the Jamunā were opened to traffic and grain again began to come to the city from the marts on the other bank. The triumphant wazir now replaced Najib’s agents by his own men as qiladār of the palace-fort, superintendent of the Private Audience, peshkār of the Emperor, and superintendent of the canal. Ahmad Bangash was made imperial Paymaster-General vice Najib. The completeness of the Maratha supremacy over Delhi is seen from the entry in the official history of the reign, “The Emperor, as requested, sent robes of honour to Malhar to make new appointments at his own discretion”; “the persons thus inducted to office,

v2.c25.s4.6

with a contingent of 5 or 7 thousand men, as a proof of my fidelity. (4) If you do not agree to these terms—but are bent on fighting me, I shall unite the Pār Ruhelas and others and give you a good battle. He will rule the whole realm whom God gives the victory. SPD. ii. 77, supported almost verbatim by TALS. 136b and Nur-ud-din.

v2.c25.s4.7

Peace negotiations,—TALS. 132b-137a. DC. Ghulam Ali, i. 33.

v2.c25.s4.8

after putting their *khilats* on, made their bows to Raghunāth Rāo in his tent.”*

v2.c25.s4.9

Thus Delhi and its sovereign once more exchanged one master for another. Najib’s reign of five months was over. Fighting against all the other forces of the realm, Hindu and Muslim combined,—except the trans-Ganges Ruhelas and the governor of Oudh,—his handful of troops had yielded only to famine, but established their reputation as the most indomitable warriors in India. He avoided paying any money indemnity, and went back to his estates, where he lived in open defiance of the Delhi Government and kept constantly writing to Abdali to come back to India and expel the Deccani infidels from Delhi. [Nur-ud-din.]

v2.c25.s4.10

§ 9. *Sufferings of the Delhi people during 1757.*

v2.c25.s4.11

The Afghan conqueror’s haughty agent had been expelled from Delhi, but the agony of the imperial city showed no sign of ending. It had been squeezed dry of its wealth twice by Abdali and his troops in the first quarter of the year 1757; Najib’s war requisitions had kept up the strain in July and August, and Maratha cannon had damaged its palaces and bastions; the high price and scarcity of foodstuffs had continued throughout, and now during the two months of September and October “a shaking fever raged with violence through the entire city, and left the eyes affected. Then came an epidemic of brain fever * in the following March and April. Grain became very dear, mung dāl was so scarce that only half a seer could be had for a Rupee, māsh dāl 5 seers, and wheat 9 seers ; even medicines became very dear and scanty on account of the exactions of the Marathas.” |DC.| Inside the walls, “theft and dacoity prevailed greatly owing to the break-down of the Emperor’s administration. Respectable men like Sayyids, Mughals &c., who formerly used to earn a living by service as soldiers, now found no employment, while those in service could not get their salaries. The jāgirdārs received nothing from their jāgirs, which other men had usurped. Every one [of these classes] took to burglary in the houses of the city, collecting large gangs armed with muskets. Their leaders were two Turki soldiers. The head of the city police was accused of shielding the burglars and sharing their spoils ! To crown this long-drawn agony came a visitation of earthquake on 21st November, 1757. The first shock, felt about one o’clock in the afternoon, was a severe one, followed by six lighter tremours. Then, about 9 P. M. "it was so violent that Doomsday seemed at hand." | *TALS.* 148 ; *DC.* |

v2.c25.s4.12

∗ *TALS.* 138a-139a, *DC.* Najib’s halting place was “the plain of Jahānnumā, close to the *Bārādāri* of Abhay Singh,” *i.e.*, in Jaswantpurā. Antāji Mānakeshwar was appointed imperial faujdar of the environs of the capital.

v2.c25.s4.13

∗ “Boils known as Kanphora became epidemic. When the boils appeared, their pus passed into the patient’s stomach and killed him.” Shakir, 90.

v2.c25.s4.14

During the three weeks' war with Najib, Raghunath was not free from anxiety that the Abdālī forces in the Panjab might attempt to relieve their ally in Delhi. He again and again urged the Peshwā to send Dattaji Sindhia to the north with instructions to keep his eye constantly fixed on Attock for news of Abdālī's return. At the same time one of his officers, Mānāji Pāygudé, scouted north of Delhi up to Thāneshwar to find out if any Afghan force was coming from Sarhind.

v2.c25.s4.15

§ 10. Further movements of Raghunath and Malhar from Sep. 1757.

v2.c25.s4.16

After Delhi city had been placed in the friendly hands of Imād, Raghunath and Malhar on 18th September 1757 moved rom Barāri Ghat in the north of the city, westwards to the Bāsi hillocks, liberated their captive Prince Ali Jāh, and sent to Musā Khan Baluch (son of Kām gār demanding tribute for his possessions in the Rohtak district. The latter paid a sum through his manager Satbhāni (the widow of Sitarām Khazānchi of Kaliānā) and took a lease signed by the Maratha chief for the possession of the villages. The Marathas now planned to conquer the Panjab from Abdali's men. But on hearing that Abdus Samad Khan, the governor of Sarhind, had collected a large force to bar their way and that Najib's son, after being ousted from Saharanpur and other places in the upper Doab by the Marathas, had joined Abdus Samad, Raghunāth gave up the plan of conquest, “knowing a war with Abdali’s troops to be beyond his power.” [TALS. 142b-146a.]

v2.c25.s4.17

Backed by Abdālī, Qutb Shāh the right-hand man of Najib had expelled the Marathas, early in 1757, from the Saharanpur district and taken possession of it. But in May, the wazir’s partisans Kāmgār and Bahādur Khan Baluch defeated Qutb in the Gohānā pargana and drove him wounded and with broken forces east of the Jamunā to Kairānā. After the Dasaharā celebration (22 October) Raghunāth and Malhar marched into the Doab, crossing the Jamunā at Khizirabad and withdrawing their outposts from the environs of Delhi and Shāhganj. “Some sort of composure came to the city.” On 26th November they crossed the Hindan and encamped on its eastern bank. From this place, six days later Raghunath himself marched to Garh Mukteshwar to bathe in the Ganges, plundering all places on his route as during his first pilgrimage of January 1755; none of Najib’s local officers ventured to oppose him. Similarly levying ransom and plundering villages all along, Malhar with his own division advanced north through the Doab, by way of Luni, Bāghpat (Rs. 20,000 levied), Barāut (Rs. 17,000 ransom), and the Saharanpur district. Najib retreated before the flood of invaders, sending his family camp and baggage from Saharanpur to the eastern side of the Ganges. The whole of the Saharanpur district, villages and towns, was mercilessly sacked as being Najib’s jagir. At the plundering of Jhunjhānā many men were slain. [*TALS.* 120a, 147-150b.]

v2.c25.s4.18

Turning from the desolated villages round Saharanpur, Malhar crossed the Jamunā at Rāmrā Ghat, looted Karnāl and Tilāuri, and sat down before Kunjpura demanding tribute. Nejābat Khan, the zamindar of this fortalice, was helpless, as the country outside had been devastated as far as Thāneshwar. He agreed to pay five lakhs,—three lakhs to Malhar, one to Ahmad Bangash, and half a lakh to Dilel Singh, the wazir’s diwan.

v2.c25.s4.19

Then the Maratha general crossed the Jamunā back into the Saharanpur district with Ahmad Bangash. It was now near the end of January 1758. [*Ibid.*, 150.]

v2.c25.s4.20

Raghunāth and Malhar next met together and adopted the plan of withdrawing their forces from the Doab, abandoning a part of that tract to the wazir, and concentrating their efforts on the conquest of the Panjab. Crossing the Jamunā again from Saharanpur and plundering Thāneshwar on the way, they took Sarhind (21 March 1758) and finally Lahor (*c.* 20 April), as we have seen in chapter 14. During their absence, Najib drove out the wazir’s agents and recovered Barāut, Saharanpur and other places which had formerly belonged to him! As Najib had failed to pay the five lakhs promised on 3rd September 1757, the wazir imprisoned his envoy Meghrāj on 8 May 1758, and two days later issued an imperial rescript appointing Vital Shivdev faujdar of Saharanpur *vice* Najib, in the vain hope of thus supplanting the Ruhela! [*TALS.* 151*b*, 164*a*, 165*b*, 177*b*, *DC.* *SPD.* xxvii 225, 224.]

v2.c25.s4.21

§ 11. *Raghunath and Malhar return from the Panjab and leave for the south, 1758.*

v2.c25.s4.22

After the conquest of Lahor, Raghunath left the old and experienced local magnate Adina Beg Khan as his governor of the Panjab and set out for Delhi. "During their return march, Raghunāth and Malhar, as was their wont, demanded money from every village and revenue-collector on the way, and plundered the place if it was not paid. They reached Sonepat on 14th June and two days later turned south-westwards to Buāna, and thence to Farrukhnagar and Rewari (arrival 20 June), *en route* to Mālwa and the Deccan.* Thus the main Maratha armies retired from Delhi and the northern provinces, a year after their arrival in June 1757, with the following gains to their credit:—

v2.c25.s4.23

(i) the restoration of the former Maratha possessions in Etāwa and other places in the lower Doab, but not Sikandrabad nor the country north of it, (ii) the nominal ownership of the Panjab with the promise of an annual tribute of 75 lakhs from Adina Beg Khan,

v2.c25.s4.24

∗ Raghunath bathes at Thāneshwar (5 June 1758), leaves Navlāi, 32 m. s. w. of Ujjain, for Maheshwar ghāt on the Narmada (19 August), crosses the Kāsāri-ghāt and reaches Punā (*c.* 16 September.) *DC.* *SPD.* ii. 95, xxvii. 229.

v2.c25.s4.25

(iii) a friendly settlement with Suraj Mal, by which the Jāt was confirmed in his annexations and also allowed to hold the fort of Agra, on condition of punctually paying the instalments of his old promised tribute,

v2.c25.s4.26

and (iv) the Emperor's agreement to pay 13 lakhs annually on condition of the Marathas keeping 5,000 horse in Delhi for his protection, this subsidy to be paid only so long as the subsidiary force was present there. *

§ 12. Raghunath Rao's acts and policy critically examined

v2.c25.s5.1

This long expedition of Raghunath Rao caused the wildest exultation among the ignorant sycophants of the Maratha Court, and their baseless praise has been echoed by equally ignorant historians of that people in our own days, as "carrying the Hindu paramountcy (Hindu-pad-Padshahi) up to Attock." On a calm examination Raghunath's vaunted achievement is found to be politically a hollow show and financially barren. The full force of the Maratha State, with the exception of the Peshwa's personal retainers and the Sindhia family contingent,—had been concentrated in Northern India for two years under him, and Raghunath came back from this enterprise without having secured a pice for the Punā treasury but saddled with a debt of 80 lakhs to bankers, besides the arrears due to his troops. Politically, his failure was even more fatal. His reckless annexation of the Panjab made a war *à l'outrance* with Abdali inevitable. At the same time he estranged Najib Khan beyond hope of reconciliation, and for the sake of whom? The impotent and faithless Imād-ul-mulk and the invalid poltroon Ahmad Khan Bangash! This was the most ruinous diplomatic alignment of forces possible, and it was due mainly to Raghunath's folly. He scornfully rejected Malhar's advice to keep Najib in hand by following a policy of "live and let live" in the Doab; and he paid no heed to Najib's offer to act as a friendly mediator and make a permanent settlement by amicably marking out the Maratha and Abdali spheres of influence in Northern India. The blame must be shared by the Peshwā in an even greater degree, as the supreme authority. The provocatively advanced frontier which he sanctioned, required a large well-equipped force to be kept constantly on the spot to defend it; and yet the Peshwa did not realize that suzerainty involves such a responsibility. No Maratha soldier could stand the winter of Lahor, and no first-rate Maratha chieftain (like the Peshwa's brother or cousin) was regularly posted as Warden of the North-western marches ; no, not even a secondary general like Holkar or Sindhia. This policy bore its natural fruit on 14th January 1761.

v2.c25.s5.2

∗ *SPD.* xxi. 148. The Peshwa had fixed Rs. 12 as the monthly salary of a trooper. But Antaji Manakeshwar, who commanded the contingent, rightly pointed out that, considering the high prices in Delhi, a cavalryman could not feed himself and his charger there on less than Rs. 25 a month. If therefore the full strength was maintained, the 5000 men would have consumed 15 lakhs, leaving no surplus to be sent to the Puna treasury.

v2.c25.s5.3

§ 13. Prince Ali Gauhar's campaign in the Rewari-Rohtak districts, May 1757—March 1758.

v2.c25.s5.4

Prince Ali Gauhar (entitled Shah Alam II)* was the eldest and ablest of the Emperor's sons, and the fortunes of the Delhi royalty would probably have been restored if he could have had a free hand in reforming the administration and collecting an army and treasury of his own. But the disloyal selfishness of the wazir Imād-ul-mulk would not let him do so, and indeed pursued him with such deadly hostility for over a year that at last the heir to the throne was driven out of the neighbourhood of Delhi and had to "set his face towards the wilderness." Abdali had at first (19 Feb. 1757) appointed this prince Chancellor of the Empire, but the latter "had been given no territory for his maintenance and hence he had no money and no troops. He got no control over the administration and could effect no improvement in the collection of revenue or the transaction of public business." So, after a few days Abdali set him aside for Imād.

v2.c25.s5.5

∗ TALS. 108b, 119b, 126, 143a-145b. DC. Ghulam Ali, i. 30, 37-42. Siyar, iii. 59.

v2.c25.s5.6

In May 1757 the prince went to the Baluch settlements south-west of Delhi to get something out of his jagirs in that region. At Jhajhar its zamindar Hasan Ali Khan (a nephew of Kāmgār) evaded payment of tribute to him. The prince sent a force against Kaliānā, the seat of the late Sitārām Khazānchi's widow Satbhāni and sons (Devidat and Shambhunath.) They submitted and signed undertakings to pay tribute for their estate. Hasan Ali now followed their example. The prince next advanced northwards to the Hisār district; but the villagers evacuated their homes and took refuge in the hills in order to escape from his soldiery who lived solely on plunder. As the result of it, utter want of provisions forced his troops to disperse. The prince turned aside to Kanaud (16 m. n. of Nārnol), put a small garrison there, and came to Nārnol which was vacated by the Jaipur Rajah's officers. But his plunder of this unresisting town excited indignation and the Jaipur troops cut off the prince's outpost at Kanaud. Reinforcements, 4,000 strong, now came from Jaipur to the local officers, and they hemmed Shah Alam in in a fortalice in the neighbourhood. The prince fled to Rewari and Farrukhnagar abandoning his artillery because the draught-oxen were seized by the Rajputs, and his own followers deserted him to return to Delhi. Musa Khan Baluch (the heir of Kāmgār) who had paid to the Marathas and taken a lease from them, was forced to promise revenue to the prince also !

v2.c25.s5.7

Shah Alam next attacked Auliya Khan Baluch of Dādri (in the Rohtak district) and secured a promise of 50 lakhs as tribute (6 March 1758); he then came to Jhajhar to restore his outpost which the local Baluch zamindars had driven out in his absence. Meantime, the wazir had made the puppet Emperor issue orders for recalling the prince and counteracting his measures in that district. The news of this official antagonism emboldened the Baluches still further, and they robbed the prince's baggage outside Jhajhar, while his soldiers plundered the villages around. A sort of compromise was then made and on 16th March Shah Alam started on his return to Delhi with all his hopes ruined, his only gain being the doubtful one of the town of Jhajhar, while its fort still held out against him. [TALS. 152b-154a.]

v2.c25.s5.8

§ 14. Imad's plots against Ali Gauhar.

v2.c25.s5.9

Near the jhil of Masaudabad (Najafgarh) the despairing heir to the throne was visited by Vital Shivdev, a lieutenant of Raghunath, whom he bribed to support his cause with his contingent (26 March.) The two proceeded to Khizirabad and thence to Patparganj. The news alarmed Imād, who sent a force under Bālābāsh Khan Badakhshi to bring the prince away in any way he could. A battle followed, in which many of the Badakhshis were slain and Bālābāsh fled away to the garden of Jugalkishor. This reverse utterly bewildered the wazir; in impotent rage he abused the Emperor as the secret instigator of Shah Alam’s disobedience. He put all the other princes in confinement within the fort and strictly forbade every communication between the palace and outside. “The Emperor remained a helpless and silent spectator of it.” In fear of an attempt to wrest Delhi fort from his hands with Maratha aid, the wazir brought Intizām-ud-daulah away from his mansion (30 March) and kept him under surveillance in the fort. Many other nobles were watched with similar jealousy, so that even Ahmad Bangash, the head of the imperial army, had to enlist new troops for defending himself against any coup intended by his friend and patron the wazir! He paid his official visits to the Court only under full escort. [TALS. 154b-158b.]

v2.c25.s5.10

At the same time, Imād kept negotiating with Vital Shivdev, through Rajah Dilel Singh, to tempt him to abandon Shah Alam’s cause. Vital was promised six lakhs and solemnly assured that the prince would be left unmolested in his jagirs of Jhajhar and Kaliānā. So, the two returned from Sikandrabad, after plundering Bulandshahar, to Khizirabad (21 April.) The treacherous Imād continued to write to the prince through the passive Emperor, bidding him visit the fort. But the bird refused to enter the snare; Shah Alam marched round the capital to Wazirabad in the north (8 May.) At last, deluded by the oaths and assurances of the wazir's envoys, the prince came inside the city and took up his residence in Ali Mardan Khan's mansion (14 May), but he kept all his followers, 2000 in number, with him, while Vital encamped in Qudsiabagh, north of the Kashmir Gate. "The Emperor (in fear of the wazir) durst not send any servant to inquire after his son's health and comfort, though he had taken up his residence in the capital." [Ibid., 162-166.]

v2.c25.s5.11

§ 15. Imad attacks Ali Gauhar in Delhi, 1758.

v2.c25.s5.12

After neutralizing Vital Rao with a large bribe, the wazir at last on 19th May, 1758, got all his troops under arms on the pretext of escorting him during a pilgrimage to Qutb-ud-din Auliya's shrine, but sent the force under Bālābāsh Khan to invest Ali Mardan's house and arrest the prince. * The battle raged from 3 P. M. throughout the night, Shah Alam making a spirited defence under his own command and checking the assaults with the fire of long flint-locks from the roof. The big guns of Salimgarh cannonaded the besieged house. One division of the wazir's army, led by Sayyid Jamil-ud-din, was routed. But numbers at last told on the small body of exhausted defenders ; several captains of the prince were slain, and next morning (20th May) the wazir's troops forced their way in. But Shah Alam with only a hundred devoted followers charged them sword in hand, slashed right and left, cut his way out through the mansion of Jafar Khan, Qudsiabad and Jaswantpurā, and found safety in Vital's camp. A charge of the Marathas drove his pursuers back, but all his property and war material left in Ali Mardan's house were plundered by the wazir's men and he was reduced to absolute penury. Next day, the wazir, yielding to Vital's threat, restored the small portion of the plunder which had reached his hands, or could be traced by the police in the city, and also paid Vital the six lakhs promised. Then the wazir, through his helpless tool the Emperor, proclaimed Shah Alam a rebel in arms against the lawful Government!

v2.c25.s5.13

∗ Imad's attack upon Ali Gauhar in Delhi,—TALS. 167-170. DC. Ghulam Ali, i. 43-49. Shakir 93-94. Miskin 199. SPD. xxvii. 220, 224. Siyar, iii. 60.

§ 16. Ali Gauhar's wanderings after escape from Delhi

v2.c25.s6.1

From the northern suburbs of Delhi the prince, still accompanied by Vital Shivdev, marched again to the Baluch country in the south-west. At Farrukhnagar he fought (30 May) Mirzā Khan and other relatives of the zamindar Musā Khan Baluch and routed them.

v2.c25.s6.2

∗ TALS. 175-192a. DC. Siyar, iii. 60-61. Ghulam Ali 47-53, 59-66. SPD. ii. 95.

v2.c25.s6.3

Then, taking a promise of Rs. 2,60,000 from the defeated party, he went to Pataudi, where he received many gifts and provisions sent by Suraj Mal Jāt in charge of his son Ratan Singh.* During the first half of June 1758 Shah Alam with Vital’s help continued roving in that region,—Farrukhnagar, Rewari, Nāhra, Dādri,—plundering the villages and levying contribution wherever he could. On 16th June Vital parted company with him at Dādri, under strict orders of recall from his chief Raghunath, who had been won over by Imād to oppose Shah Alam’s interests.

v2.c25.s6.4

Vital had received orders to bring the prince away with himself; but he left him with a small escort under his own son and told him to go wherever he pleased. “Shah Alam, after bidding farewell to Vital Rao, marched beyond Dādri on 16th June, turned his face to the path of the wilderness in sole reliance on God, and told his followers that they were free to accompany him or not as they liked. Most of them left him.” By way of Churkhi he went to Hisār, where he found the Bikānir Rajah’s reply refusing to give him an asylum in his kingdom, a refusal softened by a purse of Rs. 10,000. At Hisār he gathered many military adventurers and some money, and resuming his march on 25th July reached Kunjpurā on the 31st. Then crossing the Jamunā, he reached Muzaffarnagar and was conducted by Najib's brother and eldest son with all honours to Jansath and lodged there. Here many Bārha Sayyids joined him. Najib himself welcomed the prince at Miranpur (c. 20 August) and gave daily subsistence to his troops, but he refused to go to war with the wazir and the Marathas for the sake of his master's son. Unable to effect his purpose here, the prince, after making an addition to his harem, marched from Miranpur across Ruhelkhand to Oudh, where Shujā-ud-daulah received him with full ceremony on 2nd January 1759. Shah Alam's adventures in concert with this ally will form a separate chapter, because they did not affect the history of Delhi or of the imperial Court, but concerned only an outlying and lost province.

v2.c25.s6.5

∗ The wazir sent Nāgar Mal to the Jāt camp at Palwal to induce Suraj Mal not to side with Shah Alam (3 June.)

v2.c25.s6.6

§ 17. Imad's campaign in the west of Delhi, 1758.

v2.c25.s6.7

We may complete this episode of Delhi history by briefly describing the wazir's activities during the period.[*] When Shah Alam, abandoned by Vital Shivdev, entered the Hisār district, Imād decided to oppose him by arms. But his Maratha allies having left for the Deccan, the wazir was compelled to fight the prince out with his own resources. He dragged the Emperor along with himself in order to give validity to his acts and also to prevent the capture of the Emperor's person by his enemies during his absence. A long time was lost in making a start from Delhi, as nothing was ready for a campaign for want of money. At the end of July 1758, the Emperor reached Kot Kalān (4 miles from Jhajhar) and the wazir Bahādurgarh. But by that time their prey was already beyond the Jamunā. So, the wazir set himself to exacting tribute from the villages and fighting them in case of default. From 10th August his troops began to range through Jhajhar, Dādri, Kaliānā and other places on the Rohtak—Gurgaon border, and collected over two lakhs of Rupees, till they reached Hisār on 22nd September. In this region the sturdy villagers from behind their mud walls, frequently offered stout resistance, and fought the wazir; they could be subdued only by turning artillery upon them. On 19th September, when the Emperor and wazir were separated during their march by following two different routes, the people of Bhiwāni, matchlock in hand, shut their sovereign out of their village, while the local robber population carried off many of the carts laden with baggage from both divisions of the imperial army.

v2.c25.s6.8

∗ TALS. 182a-188a.

v2.c25.s6.9

The wazir next attacked Bhatner, the seat of Muhammad Amin Khan Bhatti. But Amin Khan, strong in the strength of his fortress, the river Ghaghar, dense jungles, and abundance of soldiers,—continued to defy him. Every day the Khan's men sallied forth from their fort and plundered all people who had occasion to leave the wazir's camp. Thus the invaders suffered from great dearth of food and drinking water.

v2.c25.s6.10

Then Ālā Jāt came, waited on the wazir, and supplied provisions. The Bhattis even made a night attack on the Delhi camp, slaying and wounding many men and carrying away much property. The sufferings of the miserable imperialists were aggravated by a great storm of hail and rain which burst upon their camp at 3 P. M. on 30th October and continued far into the night. The Emperor's residential tent fell down from the weight and he was buried under it. No servant was present to erect it; so he cut the canvas with his dagger and crawled out, crying out to his still buried sons, who shouted back to indicate exactly where they were. At last all the camp gathered round the tent, the Emperor and his sons were rescued and took shelter in a large waggon (rath), but, horrible to relate, men and women were mingled together! Then the wazir patched up some sort of peace and returned towards Delhi. At Bhawāna, the Emperor's tent caught fire, but he at last reached his capital on 22nd November 1758.

Linked texts (1)