Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c28.s12.43

v2.c28.s12.43

He now became involved with the Marathas in a quarrel which survived long after him and helped to ruin his State. Nāhar Singh, Suraj Mal’s favourite son and Jawahir’s disappointed rival for the throne, held Dholpur as his appanage. He had a most beautiful wife whom the licentious Jawahir coveted. In self-defence, Nāhar Singh strengthened the fortifications of Dholpur, threw himself under the protection of Malhar Holkar (then campaigning against the Rana of Gohad), and inspired by the Maratha general claimed the throne of Bharatpur against Jawahir, whom he denounced as a bastard born of a lowcaste mother and not of a pure Jat queen. The Marathas jumped at this prospect of a war of succession in the Jat kingdom, as in their own words, “there was no other place for money like this in India.”* They had played the same mercenary part in the contest between two brothers for the throne of Jaipur.