Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c28.s12.10

v2.c28.s12.10

The new Jat Rajah * was in sore need of such a respite. He had gained a throne, but was not yet master in his own house. From the bank of the Hindan Suraj Mal's expeditionary army had hurried back to Dig in about 30 hours, bringing the fatal news with them. The tribal elders met together to decide the succession. Nāhar Singh, the chosen heir of the late king, demanded to be recognized at once. The courtiers disliked Jawahir Singh for his fiery temper, rashness, and want of self-control. Just then came a courier from Jawahir reproaching the chiefs for their cowardly desertion of their master and for their unseasonable deliberation to give him a successor without first thinking of avenging his death. Jawahir would, he said, go alone and attack his father's slayer, and think of the succession afterwards. This reproach at one blow disconcerted the conspirators. Nāhar Singh, too young and constitutionally timid, knew his chance gone and fled away by night to Kumbher, where he gathered his family partisans and wealth together and retired to Jaipur for refuge. Suraj Mal’s brother-in-law and chief minister, Balarām, now proclaimed Jawahir, who arrived at Dig at once, on a fast camel, from Farrukhnagar. Many of the chief officers of State who had so long enjoyed Suraj Mal’s confidence and high offices, refused to render accounts and yield their balances to the young king. Jawahir’s authority was too recent for him to coerce such recusants. When he proposed a war of revenge against Najib, none of them approved it. But Jawahir got his war expenses from his father’s widow Hānsiā, openly taunted his pacific counsellors with cowardice, and threatened to hire foreign soldiers for fighting his battles if his old captains held back. They, therefore, had to join him.