Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s7: § 9. Siege of Pathargarh
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s7
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§ 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.*
Linked texts (1)
- Selections from the Peshwa Daftar — Marathi