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Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34: Chapter XXVII. Delhi Affairs and Ruhela Campaigns, 1772-1773

Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34

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Chapter XXVII. Delhi Affairs and Ruhela Campaigns, 1772-1773

§ 1. The tasks before the restored Shah Alam

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When the Sun first rose over Delhi after Shah Alam's entry into the capital as Emperor, it beheld a scene of universal rejoicing, because this was the first day of the blessed month of Shawwāl. The thirty days of fasting and prayer had come to an end, and the *Id* festivities were taking place in every mosque, public square and private house. But, besides this happy coincidence, the citizens of all classes expected a new time of prosperity from the return of the Government and the pomp and expenditure inseparable from the residence of the Sovereign and the nobility in their midst. The twelve years of decay depopulation poverty and humiliation borne by the imperial city during her master's exile were over, and Delhi might now proudly raise her head once more as the metropolis of India.

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But the Emperor was in no position then to fulfil these expectations. Indeed, he did not as yet know how to subsist himself. His treasury was empty, his Crownlands were gone out of his possession, his palaces were stripped of their furniture, all the royal stores exhausted long ago, the public buildings were out of repair and even the fort walls were cracked. To add to his burdens, he had run into heavy debt and let the pay of his troops fall into arrears by maintaining a large force during the past ten months for escorting him to Delhi; and over everything else hung the dark cloud of the large subsidy promised to the Marathas for their recent military aid and still unpaid. The task before Shah Alam II in January 1772 was nothing less than the reconquest of a dismembered empire with an empty treasury and in the teeth of powerful usurpers who were entrenched in their provinces by long years of possession and formidable for their veteran armies, well filled treasuries and the prestige of past victories.

§ 2. The ministers of the Delhi Government

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For this task what instruments did the young Emperor see around himself? The former wazir Ghāzi-ud-din Imād-ul-mulk was impossible; the new wazir Shuja-ud-daulah was a perpetual absentee bent solely on raising his fief into a kingdom. No other minister of a sufficient age or experience was within sight. The highest of the courtiers that had gathered round him during his last twelve years' wanderings and exile were Munir-ud-daulah, Saifuddin Muhammad Khan, and Hisām-ud-daulah,—mere diplomats, but neither soldiers nor administrators. They were polished ambassadors for making good terms with the English or the Marathas, but not statesmen of the calibre needed for restoring a fallen monarchy. Hence they naturally came to be eliminated after the return of the Court to Delhi.

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But in the Court of the restored monarch there were two persons of a humbler station than these, who were destined to be the supreme leaders of the State in the coming years and whose long-smouldering rivalry was the greatest misfortune of the Empire and the severest condemnation of Shah Alam's capacity as a ruler of men. These were Mirzā Najaf Khan and Abdul Ahad Khan. During the eleven years that followed Shah Alam's return of Delhi, one person gradually but unmistakably established himself by sheer merit as the supreme guide of the State and the sole dominating figure on the political stage. He was the last notable statesman-warrior that managed the affairs of the Delhi Government before the Emperor became a shadowy puppet and the Empire a mere name. He was the last of the great gifts of Persia to mediæval India. It would have been happier for the country and happier far for the Emperor himself if Najaf Khan's ability had been more promptly recognised instead of his having to wrestle with unworthy rivals for eight years out of these eleven, and if his life had run to the normal span of a man's days on earth instead of being cut off at the age of forty-five.

§ 3. Mirza Najaf Khan, his past history

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Mirzā Najaf Khan* was sprung from a noble Persian family of which the head had the hereditary custody of the key to the sepulchre of the most venerated Imām Ali-al-Rizā at Meshed and more than one member of which had married daughters of the Safavi kings. Najaf was born at Isfahān in 1737, and as a boy migrated to India with his sister who was married to Mirzā Muhasan, the eldest brother of Safdar Jang. He first saw service under this lady's step-son Muhammad Quli Khan (popularly called Mirzā Kuchak), who had been appointed imperial keeper of Allahabad fort. But that fort was usurped (April 1759) and Muhammad Quli was imprisoned and murdered (January 1761) by his jealous first cousin Shujā-ud-daulah. Young Najaf Khan, fearing to be involved in the ruin of his nephew and patron, fled away from Shujā with his bare life to Bengal, where the Nawāb Qāsim Ali Khan enlisted him and gave him three lakhs of Rupees for raising a force. In this Nawāb's service, Najaf Khan with his contingent joined the Bengal army at UndhuāNālā (August 1763), shook off their lethargy and greatly distinguished himself by raiding Mir Jafar's trenches. He next followed the defeated Qasim Ali to Bundelkhand in the expedition undertaken by Shujā's orders for realising tribute from Rajah Hindupat. When Qāsim Ali returned from this expedition, Najaf remained in that province in the pay of different Bundela princes, fighting in their intestine contests. Shujā wrote inviting him to come over with his forces and join in his war with the English. The English generals, Munro and Carnac, too, from the middle of 1764 continued to send him tempting offers to desert Shuja's cause and even to make a treacherous attack upon that Nawāb. Najaf waited till the battle of Buxar (October 1764) and the continuous flight of Shujā had proved to the Indian world that the English were the winning side.

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∗ *Imad-us-sādat*, 108-109, 29. *Siyar*, ii. 317-327, iii.

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⁸⁹ *Ibrat*. i. 119, 149-178. Muna Lal, 87, 106, 127. Broome, 381, 502-531& *CPC*. i. 2342-2688. ii. 840. iii. 112, 164, 830. iv. 473.

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He now made a rapid march from Bāndā and joined the English camp before Allahabad (January 1765), after plundering the local revenue-collectors and merchants on the way and seizing Himmat Bahadur's treasure, horses, tents and other equipment in Achalgarh for himself. His local knowledge of Allahabad where he had served in Muhammad Quli's time, enabled him to point out the weak spots of the fort and thus helped the English to capture it quickly (11 February 1765.) He next accompanied Fletcher in the fights with Malhar Rao Holkar (May) and daily rose higher in the favour of the English. His adhesion supplied the English army with that arm which it had hitherto totally lacked and the want of which had neutralised the offensive power of its unconquerable infantry, namely a force of well-mounted expert Mughal cavalry. Therefore, at the treaty of Allahabad (16 August, 1765), Lord Clive guaranteed Najaf Khan an annual pension of two lakhs of Rupees out of the 28 lakhs promised to the Emperor in return for the grant of the *diwāni* of Bengal.

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All these operations had been conducted by the English in the name of the Emperor, and Najaf was retained at their conclusion as a general in the imperial service and their best supported protege and most loyal partisan among Shah Alam's courtiers. At English recommendation he was appointed by the Emperor faujdar of Kora (1766.) This roused the jealousy of Munir-ud-daulah, another supporter of the English interest among the Emperor's counsellors and the most acceptable envoy in negotiating with them. Munir at last got Najaf dismissed from his post at Kora on the false charge that he had failed to collect the standard revenue (21 Feb. 1770.) The English Governor pleaded with the Emperor for Najaf as hard as he could, but Najaf had to live for more than a year in Allahabad in unemployment and distress. His day came when in May 1771 the Emperor set out on his march to Delhi. Such an able captain could not be passed over when the imperial Government had none with even a quarter of his competence and experience. So, Najaf Khan was given Rs. 50,000 for equipping his contingent and followed the Emperor on his march. He soon justified his choice and proved himself the fittest man for the supreme command of the Empire's forces.

§ 4. Character of Mirza Najaf Khan

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When we contemplate the career of Najaf Khan we do not know what to admire most,—his military capacity, his political insight, or his humanity. In none of these points he had an equal among the peerage of Delhi or the vassal princes of the Empire in his own day. Najibud-daulah may have surpassed him in military genius and fought greater battles against mightier antagonists, but the circumstances of his time were different, and he merely carried on the traditional Afghan system of war with supreme thoroughness. Najaf Khan, on the other hand, had received a military education denied to the great Ruhela; he had faced British troops in the field and later fought side by side with them; he knew and appreciated the new warfare which the Europeans had brought into India, and he quickly adapted himself to the change and successfully incorporated into his army alien elements and diverse instruments. He concentrated on fire arms, and assembled ten thousand sepoy musketeers trained in the European system and a heavy park of improved artillery; he enlisted European partisan leaders like Rene Madec, Walter Reinhard and the Comte de Modave, and added to these two arms the best cavalry then available in India, namely the Mughal horse. But he was never, like Daulat Rao Sindhia, the helpless slave of his foreign mercenaries. The result of this successful grafting of the new on the old was that the Marathas Ruhelas and Jats, till then considered invincible, were hopelessly out-classed in their wars with Najaf Khan and the lieutenants who carried on his legacy, till De Boigne confronted them with a still more modernised force before which nothing Indian could stand and which met its doom only from the white troops of another race.

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As a politician Najaf Khan stands even higher. His self-control and calmness in the midst of harassing disappointments and hostile plots won the admiration of a cultured French observer, the Comte de Modave, who wrote from his camp, "I do not know how to describe the composure of mind and tranquillity of Najaf Khan in the midst of these Court intrigues directed against him. He was informed about their smallest details, and amused himself by discussing them with his friends. He used to say that these petty contrivances were the resource of the weak."* In the correctness of his vision into the future he had no rival among his peers.

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∗ Modave, Journal du Voyage..., ms. p. 289 (tr. by me in Bengal Past & Present, 1936.)

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His patience was inexhaustible because he knew his own strength. From the same source also sprang his marvellous moderation, whether we consider the long years during which he persisted in rejecting his lieutenants' demand for marching to Delhi and forcibly removing the mischievous Abdul Ahad Khan from the Emperor's counsels, or study his treatment of his defeated foes. In the hour of victory he never attempted to crush them outright, but followed a policy of compromise and liberal concession which turned his late enemies into grateful and loyal allies, as the great Akbar had so often done. In the end, his successful campaigns left no dormant danger behind them. To the innocent peasantry and traders and the non-combatants of captured cities he extended a humanity of treatment and a generous protection of their property and family honour that were unknown in Asiatic warfare in that age. When we study his character we can understand why his death called forth universal and spontaneous mourning from the people, regardless of their rank or creed.

§ 5. Najaf Khan compared with Najib-ud-daulah

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As the dictator of Delhi and commander-in-chief (Mir Bakhshi) of the forces of the Empire, Najaf Khan naturally invites comparison with Najib-ud-daulah, his immediate predecessor in that office. At the zenith of his career, Najib-uddaulah was for ten years the regent of the Mughal Empire, his position and power undisputed by any Court rival or Muslim potentate in India. His strength lay in the fact of his being the head of a Ruhela clan and the recognised leader of the Afghan race in general throughout Hindustan, while at the same time he was up to 1767 backed, sometimes by the presence but oftener by the prestige and name of his unconquerable patron, the Durrānī Shāh. In India itself he was the Sunni champion besides being the head of the Afghan race. Even without Durrānī backing, he was manifestly the greatest Indian general of his age after the death of Asaf Jāh Nizām-ul-mulk. At the same time his possession of fertile and comparatively undisturbed jagirs in the Doab and upper Rohilkhand, which were carefully managed by his able and faithful land-stewards, ensured for him a large and steady income, so that at the time of his death he was the richest Muslim ruler of North India.

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Najaf Khan, on the other hand, possessed some social advantages which birth had denied to Najib-ud-daulah. That Ruhela had started life in India as a poor uninfluential man, entering service in the humble capacity of a foot soldier. From this small beginning he had risen by sheer merit and unfailing opportunism to the virtual headship of the Empire. But Najaf Khan was a Mīrzā, boasting of the royal blood of Persia and closely connected with the house of the Oudh Nawābs by marriage. All this, however, counted for nothing in practical effect as steps to his rise to greatness. He had no racial backing in India; even the Persian Shujā, his kinsman and brother of the faith, was his personal enemy, while Najaf Khan’s creed made him utterly friendless at the Court of Delhi, where the Shia faction created by Amir Khan and Muhammad Ishāq Khan had been crushed after the failure of Safdar Jang’s rising against his master in 1753.

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In the royal council, the ears of the spineless weak-minded Shah Alam were time after time poisoned by Abdul Ahad Khan and other jealous intriguers against Najaf Khan, in spite of his evident loyalty and devoted services, and Najaf had to turn round and meet the challenge of these domestic enemies while he was entangled with foreign foes. In addition to such repeated thwarting by his Court rivals unknown to Najib-ud-daulah, Mirzā Najaf was also hampered by his lack of funds, as he had no fertile and protected jagirs for supporting his army with, and his victorious campaigns were often abruptly ended by the clamours of his unpaid soldiery.

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§ 6. Zābita Khan provokes war with Emperor.

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We shall now trace the services of Najaf Khan under the newly restored Government of Delhi.

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When the news of Najib-ud-daulah’s death (31 Oct. 1770) reached Shah Alam at Allahabad, he first sent to Zābita Khan,* the eldest son of the departed chief, not only the usual condolences but also a robe of investiture for succession to his father's high office of Mir Bakhshi (Head of the Army) with the attached title of Amir-ul-umāra, and asked him to come with his forces and escort the Emperor to Delhi, where "the throne would belong to the Emperor and the control of the Empire to Zābita Khan," as had been the practice during his great father's regency of ten years. At the same time, the Emperor called upon Zābita Khan to pay the customary fee of succession for his father's estates and office, and settle the accounts of the Crownlands and privy purse estates round Delhi and in the upper Doab held by Najib for so many years. Even in the lifetime of Alamgir II there had been complaints that Najib was realising lakhs of Rupees every year as rent from these lands, but paying only a quarter of them or even less into the imperial Exchequer.

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At the outset the Emperor had no unfriendly feeling towards Zābita, and indeed he had no means of asserting himself against that Ruhela chief whose troops were garrisoning Delhi and guarding the Emperor's mother and heir, while the exiled monarch had no army of his own. Zābita knew his sovereign's impotence and after detaining the imperial messengers for some time, packed them off with a haughty refusal, though he assumed the robe of Mir Bakhshi (29 Dec. 1770). According to Ghulām Ali, Zābita’s natural Afghan stupidity was aggravated by the insolence of youth and the pride of such vast wealth acquired without the least exertion on his part.

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∗ G. Ali, ii. 266, 283. Muna Lal 121-123. Miskin 272-273. DC.

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Thereafter, a rapid shifting of scenes took place on the political stage of the Empire. Shah Alam welcomed Mahadji Sindhia’s secret offer of adhesion and came to terms with the Maratha plenipotentiary in Hindustan; Delhi fort was wrested from Zābita’s agent and occupied by the Marathas in the Emperor’s name; a formal treaty was signed with them for escorting Shah Alam to his capital, and finally the Emperor himself arrived near Farrukhabad on his march to Delhi. Here his first conspicuous success was the exaction of a tribute from the heir of Ahmad Khan Bangash, and this was effected only with the backing of Sindhia’s armed force. The royal counsellors urged Shah Alam to follow this success up by attacking Zābita and compelling him to pay tribute and homage. But the Emperor either quailed from an encounter, or deemed it better policy not to antagonise Zābita, as such a course would drive that rich Ruhela to form a pact with the Marathas and leave the Emperor without a single friend in the world.

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So, Zābita Khan was again gently invited to come and pay his loyal respects and offer the customary congratulatory presents at the foot of the throne during the next Coronation in Delhi. All the other nobles and vassal princes of the realm did this duty, but Zābita Khan continued obstinate in his contumacy, refusing to part with any money. Then the Emperor decided to punish him; the pay of the royal army had fallen into arrears and the soliders were clamouring to be let loose on the Ruhela lands as the only means of relieving their distress. Not a day was to be lost; it was already January and in a few months' time the rising flood of the rivers would make them uncrossable for armies.

§ 7. Marathas force the Ruhela lines on the Ganges below Hardwar

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The campaign was promptly started. A body of imperial troops led by Mirzā Najaf Khan with the Maratha army under Tukoji Holkar, Mahadji Sindhia and Visāji Krishna, crossed into the Doab. Shah Alam himself left Delhi only eleven days after his arrival there, and marched ten miles behind the army, by way of Loni, Bagpat, and Ghausgarh to Chāndpur,* near the west bank of the Ganges, 15 miles due east of Rurki.

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∗ This Chāndpur (three miles east of the Pathri railway stn. on the Hardwar line) should not be confounded with Chandi ghat, situated on the opposite bank of the Ganges and seven miles north of it, i.e., one mile south of Hardwar.

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Meantime the defiant foe had matured his own plans. Zābita lodged his treasures and the families of all the Ruhela chiefs in Pathargarh (the stone fort of Najibabad) with a small garrison, while he himself took post at Shakartāl with some 4,000 troops and distributed the bulk of his army along the eastern bank of the Ganges from that fort up to Hardwār 38 miles northwards. He hoped to repeat his father's resounding success against Dattaji Sindhia in 1759 and at the same time guard against any incursion into the Najibabad district across the uppermost reaches of the Ganges like Govind Pant Bundele's raid in the November of that year. But Zābita was not Najib, and the Marathas profited by the lesson of Dattaji's failure to leave Shakartāl untouched and to concentrate all their strength on forcing the Ganges in its uppermost and shallowest part. The season too favoured the invaders. It was now the depth of winter and the Ganges water had touched its lowest level.

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Over these 38 miles the Ruhela forces were posted in groups, entrenching the east bank at every known ford and holding it in strength. The Marathas dug trenches opposite them on the west bank, and then very successfully deluded the enemy. They had decided to deliver their blow at Chandighat, just below Hardwār, at the northern extremity; but they caused it to be noised abroad that they would cross several miles further down, and even sent their camp and baggage away from Chandighat and spent several days in seeming idleness and neglect at this vital point. Then after the Ruhelas had been thrown completely off their guard and diverted from the real point of attack, the invaders began their crossing.

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On 23rd February, three hours before sunrise, the Marathas drove their horses into the river at Chandighat, reached the sand bank in midstream unperceived, and advancing to the further bank fell upon the Ruhela trenches sword in hand. The surprise was complete, but the defenders soon rallied, fired their muskets and rockets, and then rushing out pressed the assailants back into the river. Meantime Najaf Khan had reached the island in midstream, and halting his camel-swivels there opened fire at close range on the crowded Afghan ranks opposite. His deadly fire decided the issue. Karam Khan Razzar and four or five other sardars, fighting in the front rank of the enemy, were the first to be shot down. Then the Ruhela army fell back; only Sādat Khan Afridi with a few hundred brave men held the ground against ten thousand imperialists and Marathas who had crossed over by this time. His horse fell under him, he himself was shot in both thighs, but he changed horses and fought on till he was stricken down with more wounds. His men fled away, but his brother Sādiq Khan, though severely wounded, made a reckless charge upon Najaf Khan himself. All people gave way before this wounded tiger, horridly striped with running blood all over his body and growling out the Afghan battle cry ān! ān! The desperado reached the elephant of Najaf Khan, who was roused by the challenge and crying out, “Yes, I am ready for you,” struck Sādiq Khan with his spear, while the servant in the back seat of his *hauda* shot the Afridi down. With him the last trace of resistance ended; the Afghans broke and fled in headlong rout.

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The heads of the fallen Ruhela generals were severed and sent to the Emperor. Ali Muhammad Khan, blind of one eye, a wounded colonel of Zābita’s army, was captured when hiding himself among the bushes on the river bank. The news of this splendid victory, the first in his reign, reached the Emperor in his camp, ten miles in the rear, at noon. The entire credit for it was rightly given to Najaf Khan, and it became the first step of his ladder to supreme eminence in the State. “The Emperor showered favours on him, and stretching his own beard with both hands towards Najaf Khan, cried out, ‘Yet have saved my honour.’”*

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∗ *DC.* G. Ali, ii. 284-296. Muna Lal 125-127. Miskin 276-277. *Ibrat.* i. 203-207. Bihari Lal (tr. by me in *I.H.Q.* 1935, pp. 641 *et seq.*)

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§ 8. Flight of Zabita Khan ; capture of Shakartal.

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The victory was decisive. The Afghan resistance had been shattered at one blow. All was now confusion terror and despair in Zābita Khan’s ranks. Every ford held by his men was abandoned and the contagion even spread to Shakartāl. When the news of the Marathas having established themselves in full force on the eastern bank of the Ganges, with the road to the Ruhela homes open before them, reached Zābita that evening, he went to beg armed aid from his brother-in-law Faizullah Khan, who had encamped with some 4000 men opposite to this fort. “Faizullah who had never seen a battle, in terror declined the proposal to assist in the defence of Shakartāl, but that very night took the road to Rampur, whence after only a night’s halt he fled to the Tarai jungles with his family and treasures, setting fire to his capital.”

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The desertion of his sole ally and the flight of all his troops made Zābita Khan’s position utterly untenable. So, late that night he abandoned Shakartāl and fled away on an elephant with only 40 attendants, to join his ally in the northern hills. Indescribable confusion reigned among the leaderless Ruhelas at Shakartāl: “the whole camp was breaking up in flight, the bazar was deserted, the tents were on fire . . . . . The roads on the eastern bank leading to Najibabad were crowded with Afghan fugitives, who were cursing their Mughalia comrades" [as the cause of the defeat.] Zābita's uncle Afzal Khan was captured.

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The myriads of Maratha light horse now overspread the fair province of Rohilkhand in a resistless flood, because every Afghan chief of note, including Hāfiz Rahmat and the sons of Dundi Khan, had taken refuge in the Tarai with their women and troops, leaving their cities to their fate. The memory of the Maratha incursion in Safdar Jang's cause in 1751 was still fresh and all their great chiefs except two were now dead; and of these two remaining giants of old, Sardār Khan was dying and Hāfiz a brokendown old man disgusted with life by squabbles with his son and brethren.

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After the victory the Emperor marched south down the right bank of the Ganges to Shakartāl, which he reached on 1st March. But there was no prize left in that fort now. Immediately after the flight of Zābita and his army, "the Gujars and Mewātis living in the environs of Shakartāl plundered that masterless tract worse than the Marathas ever did. When the victors arrived at that fort they found only sacked and blazing houses. Only a few pieces of artillery, too heavy to be removed, were secured by the Marathas."*

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∗ DC. Miskin (present) 278-279. Ibrat. i. 207.

§ 9. Siege of Pathargarh

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The Marathas, in rapid pursuit of the Ruhelas fleeing from the Ganges bank, invested Pathargarh, the stone fort built by Najib-ud-daulah one mile east of his capital Najibabad. Najaf Khan joined the siege, and the Emperor too arrived there soon after, encamping in the rear, between Sahanpur and Jalalabad, some four miles west of Najibabad. The fort was no doubt strong and well stored with guns and munition, but sufficient provisions had not been laid in, and it contained the wives and children of all the Afghan sardars (who had themselvs fled away to the Tarai jungles.) After a fortnight's exchange of fire, old Sultan Khan who commanded it, offered to capitulate if the lives and family honour of the garrison were assured.

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The Marathas at once accepted the offer, and on 16th March Pathargarh was vacated. "The Marathas took their stand at the gate of the fort. At first the poorer people came out; they were stripped and searched and let off almost naked. The rich people threw caskets full of gems and money from the ramparts into the wet ditch for concealing them. Many noble Afghan families, after coming out of the hands of the Marathas, sought asylum within the circuit of the imperial halting place. But the plunderers of the camp and the Turāni Mughals robbed them of the clothing on their persons which even the Marathas had spared, and they dragged away the women by the hand towards their own tents!" Najaf Khan rescued them and after some days sent them away under escort of his own followers to Jalalabad-Luhari in the north Muzaffarnagar district, which was a large and as yet safe Afghan colony.*

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§ 10. Spoils taken at Pathargarh; quarrel between Emperor and the Marathas.

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The Marathas spent twenty days in seizing the property found in Pathargarh and digging out the buried treasure. Spies reported to them that the inmates had thrown their riches into the wet ditch. It was very deep, and so they drained it by cutting a canal from it to a neighbouring stream and thus recovered the treasure. A quarrel soon broke out between the two allies over the division of the spoils of victory. The Marathas were taxed with breach of the agreement made at the beginning of the campaign. On the imperial side it was alleged that "the faithless Marathas had seized all the artillery and treasures of Zābita Khan, as well as his elephants, horses and other property, and offered only a worthless fraction to the Emperor.” At last the patience of the Emperor was worn out, and on 3rd May “harsh altercations broke out between him and the envoys of the Marathas, and the latter went away in anger.” Next day he sent Rajah Rāmnāth to them to negotiate. However, on the 11th a compromise was patched up through Sindhia, and out of the property officially attached at Pathargarh, one half was given to the Emperor, one fourth to the Peshwa and the remaining quarter divided among the Maratha sardars, but the elephants cash and jewels remained unshared. The Emperor’s demand was for money and Sindhia promised him two lakhs. But this was only a fraction in value of what had been seized. As a Maratha agent reported from Nagina on 9th May, lakhs and lakhs of Rupees worth of booty was appropriated by the Maratha officers without crediting it either to the Peshwa or to the Emperor.

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∗ Pathargarh.—Miskin 281-282. G. Ali, ii. 296 (scanty.) Muna Lal 128. Ibrat. i. 208-210. DC. Bihari Lal (in I.H.Q.) Khare's assertion that all the Maratha women dragged into servility by the Ruhelas from the Bhau's camp at Panipat were liberated at this capture of Pathargarh, finds no support in any contemporary record in Persian or Marathi, nor does he cite any authority. (iv. p. 1888.) "The Marathas defaced the curious workmanship of Najibuddaulah's tomb" at Najibabad, [Atkinson, N. W. P. Gazetteer, v. 352] but did not "demolish it" as Khare writes.

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From the carefully kept account-books of the Peshwas which have been preserved, we get an exact and detailed statement of the gains of the Maratha Government at Pathargarh. The total value of the gold and silver of all kinds including coins, was ten lakhs of Rupees. 2298 horses were found, out of which 1043 were given to the Emperor. Arms and munitions amounted only to three large cannon (each bearing a name), two jizails, seven zamburaks, 1842 cannon-balls, a hundred rockets and 530 maunds of powder, &c. [SPD. xxix. pp. 337-340, 343.]

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Another point of friction was the disposal of Zābita Khan's jagirs which included all the Crown-lands in the Panipat Saharanpur and Mirat districts and which the Marathas claimed by virtue of the imperial grants made to them before the battle of Panipat. [Ch. 13 § 8.] But the Emperor now gave Saharanpur to Fakhruddin Khan (a son of the ex-wazir Qamruddin), and Anupshahar and Karnal to Mahadji Sindhia, that Maratha general having undertaken to bring Shujā-ud-daulah to Court and make him personally support his sovereign. We may here add that the negotiations for making Shujā perform his duties as wazir in person failed. He no doubt exchanged turbans with Mahadji Sindhia in sign of full brotherhood, but it was done in absentia, the turban without the head under it having travelled from Faizabad to Sindhia's camp for being exchanged with the Maratha's cap (pāgoli.) It had been at first settled that Mahadji should go to Faizabad with the Oudh Nawab's envoys--Anupgir Gosain and Elich Khan, personally assure Shujā of his safety and bring him to the Emperor's camp. He actually set out, on 11th May, but after making four marches stopped on account of an irreconcilable breach with Visāji Krishna, and finally gave up the mission in disgust. The two Oudh envoys went back covered with failure.*

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§ 11. Ruhelas sue for peace; terms.

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When the fugitive Zābita Khan went to the jungle of Nānakmātā and met Hāfiz Rahmat and other Ruhela chiefs hiding there, his appeal to them for aid in recovering his patrimony fell on deaf ears; all of them were afraid of facing the Marathas backed by the Emperor's authority and personal presence. Zābita in despair sought asylum with Shujā. who marched to Shahabad with Captain Gabriel Harper and welcomed him (12th May) like a brother, out of gratitude to Najib-ud-daulah. A little later, Hāfiz Rahmat came to Shujā at Gopāmau, and negotiations for a settlement began, Shujā acting as the middleman between the Ruhelas and the Marathas. Visāji agreed to make peace for a war-contribution of forty lakhs of Rupees from Hāfiz and Dundi Khan. The Ruhelas were utterly defenceless; Zābita's family and those of all the leading men of his clan were captives in the Emperor's hands; the invaders had overspread Rohilkhand with none to oppose them. In the Tarai a severe epidemic was rapidly thinning the number of the Afghan refugees, "a hundred to a hundred and fifty men were dying daily, and their soldiers were fleeing away to Farrukhabad and other places; those who remained were ailing." On the Nawab of Oudh standing security for the above indemnity, the Marathas withdrew from Rohilkhand, the Ruhela sardars came out of the jungle, and every one took possession of his own lands. A separate peace was made with Zābita Khan, who was restored to his family estates in Najibabad and Saharanpur, and his wives and children were released from captivity. [CPC. iv. 60.]

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∗ *Ibrat.* i. 210. *SPD.* xxix. 277 (completed by 270), 276, 285. Muna Lal 129-131. G. Ali, ii. 297-298.

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Mahadji objected to these terms. The breach between him and Visāji widened so far that he gave up visiting his chief. The Maratha enterprise ended in confusion and failure to realise any money. As the Peshwa's agent wrote from Moradabad on 29th May, "It seems that our political arrangements which had begun to mature in certain places, will be thrown into confusion. Our leaders are not of one mind, but every one acts independently. God only knows what the result of it will be . . . Nobody is paying a pice of the promised contribution, (another letter adds.) Our troops are eager to go back to their homes."

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On the Emperor's wish to return to Delhi becoming known, Visāji and Tukoji pressed him to march on Allahabad instead, for exacting the old tribute of Bengal and Bihar from the English holders of those provinces and also for compelling Shujā to pay revenue to his overlord. But the Emperor knew his own military weakness and the faithlessness of his only allies the Marathas. His chief counsellor in these matters was Najaf Khan, a regular pensioner of the English and a soldier who had personally witnessed the prowess of the British army during 1763-1765. Mahadji Sindhia too supported Najaf's views, and the Emperor therefore adhered to his decision to turn back. One day, Visāji and Tukoji visited Hisām-ud-din, the Emperor's prime minister, and vehemently pressed for the march to the eastern provinces. The dispute grew so bitter that the followers on both sides took up their arms for a fight. But the Emperor forbade the clash and kept Najaf's contingent ready for defending him if necessary. This cooled the ire of the Marathas and they agreed to retreat.*

§ 12. Imperialists plunder Rohilkhand. Return of the expedition to Delhi

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The invaders began their return journey from Rohilkhand at the end of May. The Emperor started from Najibabad, as usual two marches behind his allies. By way of Nihtaur, Sherkot, Seohara, Salimpur and Amroha, he reached the Ganges which he crossed at Puth, and moved due west through the Mirat district *viâ* Bagsar, Hāpur and Lākhan, to Delhi, which was entered on 9th July. Most of the cities in Rohil-Khand, like Aonla, Barily and Rampur had been set on fire by the fleeing Ruhelas; what remained was now ransacked by the Marathas. One city alone, Amroha, held out under its Sayyids, who ultimately saved it by promising a ransom of Rs. 60,000 through Najaf Khan. This amount was realised by cruel distraint by the Mirzā's lieutenant Najaf Quli Khan, "who was a second Yezid in hardness of heart," and paid to the Peshwa. Returning to the Doab, the Marathas laid siege to Khurja, a Jat post, which they took after two months of trench warfare (on 30th July.) At Delhi the Court spent the rest of the month in celebrating the first grand Coronation of the restored monarch, on 29th July. Then followed three months of inaction owing to the monsoons.

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∗ DC SPD. xxix. 271,276. Muna Lal 129-131. Bihari Lal's *Life of Najibuddaulah* (tr. by me in *I.H.Q.* 1935.) Return,—*Ibrat*, i. 210-211. Miskin 282. DC. SPD. xxix. pp. 326-328.

§ 13. Visaji Krishna and Tukoji Holkar quarrel with the Emperor. Delhi forces attack the Jats. Rene Madec joins the Emperor

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On the arrival of winter a storm burst over the Emperor and his city. The Pathargarh expedition had ended in a rupture between the Emperor and the Marathas. The Ruhela chief had been utterly defeated, but the fruits of the victory had disappointed the two allies; the financial distress of neither was relieved by the spoils of war. The Emperor was convinced that the Marathas would neither give him armed help in recovering his lost dominions, nor provide him with a more liberal revenue than Najib-ud-daulah had done. On the other hand, the Marathas legitimately demanded the fulfilment of the terms of his treaty with them (22 March 1771) which they had fully carried out by restoring him to his capital. The 30 lakhs promised to them in that treaty still remained unpaid, and the bankrupt Puna Government was constantly urging its North Indian agents to realise this money. The Emperor having refused to invade Oudh for exacting tribute from its viceroy or to make an incursion into Bihar for its long-outstanding revenue, the Maratha chiefs pointed out that in these circumstances the only person who could produce money in the Emperor's need was Zābita Khan, the inheritor of Najib's immense hoards, and that Zābita could be placated only by pardoning him for his past contumacy and appointing him to his father's office of Mir Bakhshi, with all the family jagirs. As the price of this Maratha intercession and armed pressure for enabling him to gain these objects, Zābita agreed to pay the Peshwa ten and a half lakhs of Rupees. Tukoji Holkar, as the hereditary ally of Zābita, converted Visāji Krishna to this policy; but Mahadji Sindhia refused to promote the interests of the house of Najib-ud-daulah or to take part in the proposed demonstration against the Emperor in support of them.

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The late Ruhela campaign had suddenly raised Mīrzā Najaf Khan to the highest credit at Court and the greatest influence over the Emperor's mind, who now ordered him to raise troops and form a new army worthy of the Crown. For this purpose, the revenue of several districts north and west of Delhi was assigned to him and he sent his collectors there,—Najaf Quli to Hansi-Hisar, Niyāz Beg (Turāni Mughal) to Saharanpur, Muhammad Beg Hamadāni to Jalalabad-Luhari (i.e., Ghausgarh in north Muzaffarnagar), Afrāsiyāb Khan to Sonepat and Pānipat. The former disbanded veterans of the imperial army as well as youths aspiring to the profession of arms, came to Delhi in crowds as the news spread that a new army was to be raised under the Emperor's banner. Very soon an excellent force of about seven thousand men was enlisted, besides a contingent of foreign Muslim cavalry (called Mughalia, i.e., Persians and Turks) who belonged to Najaf Khan's personal following. Miskin describes the recruits as "strong and handsome youths, well mounted and of the Hindustani breed, wonderful to look at,"—but, as the result showed, they proved too raw and undependable in their first battle (in December next.)

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The rise of Najaf Khan excited the jealousy of Hisām-ud-din, and that worthless favourite plotted with Tukoji Holkar and Visāji to get Zābita pardoned by the Emperor and appointed as Mir Bakhshi under Maratha patronage and thus set him up as a counterpoise to Najaf Khan in the official headship of the army of the Empire. Shah Alam rejected this demand, and his refusal brought down a Maratha attack upon Delhi at the end of the year.

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As usual in India, the rainy season enforced inactivity on all parties. At its close the imperial forces invaded the Jat territory stretching south of Delhi and took a number of small mud forts. But the Jat Rajah made peace with the Marathas by agreeing to a money contribution, and being thus relieved of one enemy, sent his forces to oppose the imperialists. His vanguard was led by René Madec with a newly equipped well-armed force of 3,000 men and eight field guns, besides Jat cavalry. At Madec’s approach the imperialists fell back and all these Jat posts were recovered without a blow. The Emperor then promptly concluded his long drawn negotiations for seducing Madec. The French partisan leader was promised Rs. 40,000 per month with power to add to his contingent of 3,000 men up to any number he might consider necessary; and a patent for the title of Nawab Shams-ud-daulah Bahadur Qaim Jang, six-hazari (both zāt and sawār) was sent to him. Madec assures us that in this act of desertion his object was purely patriotic. In leaving the Jat service abruptly he was sacrificing much of his property lodged in his house in Bharatpur as well as the sum of two lakhs of Rupees, being the arrears of his pay due from Nawal Singh; but he was at this heavy cost carrying out the instructions of M. Chevalier, the French Chief of the Chandernagar factory, for establishing a French force and French influence at Delhi as a set-off to the British conquest of Bengal.

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Madec left the Jat service without giving notice, and had therefore to fight his way through strong opposition up to the gates of Delhi. His march was conducted with remarkable skill, courage and tenacity, and at its end he entered Delhi on 15th November 1772, and was welcomed by the Emperor with ceremonies and honours which entirely turned the head* of the ex-sailor and rough adventurer. Madec's arrival happened to be timed to a crisis in the affairs of Shah Alam; only a month after the French captain's entrance into Delhi, "the fortunes of the Empire came to be decided under the walls of the capital", as he justly observes in his memoirs.

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∗ Madec writes in his Mémoire: "The third day [17th Nov. 1772] I went to the Emperor's audience...in the same order in which I had made my entry into the city,---(described before as, "I can say without ostentation that my entry into Delhi had the air of a triumph and that I entered there more like a monarch than a private person.")...The Emperor invested me with a robe of very rich cloth of gold with all the ornaments, namely a girdle, a turban and an aigrette set with precious stones...In cosidering the state of grandeur in which I found myself...I could hardly believe that it was not a dream."

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§ 14. Maratha attack on Delhi.

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Visāji Krishna and Tukoji, after their recommendation to the Emperor in favour of Zābita Khan and the Jat Rajah had been rejected,* assembled their forces in the Doab and made a move towards Delhi at the end of the monsoons, arriving within eight miles of the capital on 21st November. The Emperor held a consultation with all his nobles. Fazl Ali Khan was detached with the two battalions of sepoys supplied by the English, to go and entrench the eastern bank of the Jamuna near Shahdara. But the Marathas approached the capital from the south. They crossed over to Khizirabad, a village on the Jamuna west bank, some ten miles south-east of the Turkmān gate of Delhi.

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Najaf Khan from the outset counselled a bold resistance. But the Emperor's cause was ruined by his personal cowardice and weakness of character which made him a puppet in the hands

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* When the Maratha chiefs demanded the subsidy promised in 1771, the Emperor replied, "During the recent (Ruhela) campaign you have seized all the spoils and looted all the country. What have I gained except hardship and a debt of lakhs of Rupees? What has been my gain from your adhesion? Even Mirza Najaf has spent on his own troops the 80,000 Rupees that was realised at Amroha." [Ibrat i. 215.] To the Maratha demand in favour of Zābita Khan and the Jat Rajah, his reply was, "I know my rights. I am the Sovereign and the Jats and Ruhelas are rebels who have usurped territories under obedience to me." [Madec.]

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of his ministers and these ministers were moved solely by mutual jealousy and selfishness. Hisām-ud-din had recently supplanted Saifuddin Muhammad Khan as the Emperor's chief adviser and confidant, which was a poor requital for Saifuddin's services in 1771 in securing the Maratha alliance, wresting Delhi fort from Zābita's men, and conducting the Emperor to his capital. Hisām was mortally jealous of Najaf, the man of the sword and the darling of the army. The ministers moved at cross purposes to each other, while their master wavered between them. As the French captain noted with surprise, "The Emperor assembled such troops as he had; but he did not do what he ought to have done on the occasion,—he did not appear at the head of his army." Najaf's counsel prevailed for the time and war was decided upon. The Marathas from the gate of Delhi repeated their demand on behalf of Zābita Khan, but it was again rejected by the Court.

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On 7th December Mirzā Najaf went in force towards Bārapula to fight the Maratha army; he stood ready till midday, but neither side advanced to the encounter, and so Najaf returned to the city in the afternoon. The imperialists used to issue daily from the walls, march two miles south into the Old Fort (Purāna Qila) and stand in battle order; a little skirmishing sometimes took place, and at last the two armies retired to their respective camps. The sandy bank (reti) of the Jamuna below the Old Fort was entrenched and held by the imperialists, but this position was really untenable against the myriads of Maratha light horse. After skirmishes of a more extensive kind on the 10th, 12th and 16th, the decisive engagement came off on Friday the 17th of December.[*]

§ 15. Battle of Purana Qila

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Both sides fixed upon this date for a pitched battle. It was the first conflict in Hindustan in which European-trained and European-led sepoys and artillery were employed on the Emperor's side, but superior generalship, even more than superior numbers, decided the issue against him, for no fault of the Europeans. Early in the morning the imperialists marched out of the city and drew up their ranks facing the south a cannon shot beyond the Old Fort, their left flank resting on the Jamuna and their right on some ruined fortifications (Firuzabad.) "The corn-fields, surrounded by high hedges, served as so many entrenchments. . . It was a very advantageous position, allowing of a vigorous defence," as Madec noted. But all these advantages were lost through the inexperience of the imperial forces and the absence of unity of command on their side. Their first line was composed of the Mughalia cavalry under Qalich Beg Khan, “drawn up in platoons according to the terrain”, on the right. Next, to the east, stood Madec with his three battalions of sepoys and eight guns. The extreme left was formed by two battalions of English sepoys under Gangārām and Bhawāni Singh commandants with four pieces of artillery. In the second line, behind a row of imperial guns, stood Mirzā Najaf with his personal contingent, all on foot. Far away in the rear, close to the river bank at the south-eastern corner of the New City, Ghāziuddin Khan’s mansion was occupied by the reserve under Hisām, who had entrenched the plain below the Blue Bastion and ranged 30 heavy pieces of artillery there.

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∗ DC. Madec's Mémoire. Ibrat. i. 214-217. Muna Lal 135-138 G. Ali iii. 4-6. Miskin, 283. Battle,—CPC. iv. 122, 138 DC. Miskin 284. G. Ali, iii. 7-12. Muna Lal, 138-140. Ibrat. i. 217-218. Madec (best).

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The battle began with the usual exchange of gun fire, in which two powder chests on the imperial side exploded, killing some 400 men. Then the Marathas came on to the fight. As they advanced, they quickened their pace and menaced the Mughalia cavalry (the extreme right of the defence.) These men were shaken even before being assailed. The Marathas had now halted to receive the expected charge of their enemy, but on seeing the wavering in the Mughal ranks they promptly seized the opportunity and themselves charged. The Mughal cavalry was heavily outnumbered (about five to one), and being unaided by any momentum of attack, at once broke and fled. On their heels, one compact division of the Maratha horse passed with lightning speed behind the imperial battle line and galloped towards the city.

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At the same time, the Maratha right wing advanced against the imperial left. "These *paltans*, through ignorance and mismanagement, fired off their muskets while the Maratha horse were still beyond range, and before they could reload the enemy were upon them, trampling and cutting them down. The remnant of these sepoys made a right turn and came to rest upon Madec's division." Thus the imperial left, like the right, dissolved away at the first impact.

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The battle now gathered round the centre. Here Madec had been attacked in front and rear and completely enveloped. He had formed his men into a square in the nick of the time, thanks to the energy and alertness of his second in command Mons. de Kerascao; but in effecting this change of formation he had to give some ground and abandon three pieces of cannon and two munition carts. By a judicious fire on all the four faces he succeeded in keeping the enemy back. Mirzā Najaf himself had been caught at a disadvantage and broken. The Maratha centre, disregarding the fire of the wretched imperial artillery, had swept through his line of guns, routed Najaf's followers, and forced him with a handful of his personal guards to take refuge in Madec's square. Early in the day his nephew Mirza Ahsan had been mortally wounded by a cannon-ball.

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And now the French square alone stood in the field like a solitary island in the midst of a raging sea of horseman. But it was an island built on granite. From noon up to three hours of the night, Madec held his position, keeping the enemy at a distance and preventing them from dragging his three guns away. In the meantime, the Maratha left wing, pursuing and slaying the fugitive Mughal horse, had reached the gates of Delhi and looted Madec’s camp and baggage resting under its walls. As he writes, “I lost five elephants, all my horses, camels, tents, carriages and quantities of other effects. The royal favourite Hisām, who held the neighbouring ramparts with his heavy artillery, did not advance one step either to reinforce Najaf Khan in the field or even to save my camp close in front of him.” He was openly accused of firing blank charges in order to complete the ruin of his rival Najaf, and his soldiers were seen joining the Marathas in the pillage of Madec’s unguarded camp. Shortly after this, Hisām fled into the city with his troops, abandoning his trenches.

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