Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c37.s2: § 3. Financial difficulties of Mirza Najaf as regent. Capture of Kanud fort
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c37.s2
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§ 3. Financial difficulties of Mirza Najaf as regent. Capture of Kanud fort
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The new regent's one engrossing need was that of money. In order to overawe the opposition of Abdul Ahad's party, he had enlisted an army of 30,000 men. The backbone of this force was a well-found artillery and battalions of trained sepoys who could not fend for themselves by loot like the indigenous troopers and rabble infantry, but had to be paid regularly and in cash. And now in the hour of his final triumph he found his treasure-chest empty. The Emperor was starving; the recent ill-fated Patiala expedition of the Kashmiri favourite had emptied the public treasury of what little money there was in it. Najaf had secured the supreme post in the Government by swearing to the Emperor and sealing the oath with his own seal on a copy of the Quran which he handed to Shah Alam, that he would pay the subsistence money of the Emperor and his household move punctually than Abdul Ahad had done. Whence was he to get this money, nearly 1½ lakhs of Rupees a month, besides the pay of the imperial army now entirely in Najaf’s charge—amounting to over three lakhs more? His late victories in many regions,—Jaipur and Macheri, the Jat-land and the Doab,—had gained for him promises of tribute instead of cash, and these promises could be fulfilled only by the pressure of arms.
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Having to attend Court as the head of the entire administration, Mirzā Najaf could not himself go out on tribute-collecting expeditions, nor safely send out his best troops from Delhi for the purpose, as the Sikh danger hung over the north like a constant cloud and the Sikhs had once been Abdul Ahad’s allies. Of his four lieutenants, Afrāsiyāb occupied the middle Doab (Aligarh), Md. Shafi the upper Doab (Mirat), Najaf Quli Mewāt and Rewāri, and Md. Beg Hamadāni was engaged in dealing with Rao Pratap Singh Narokā and the Jat Rajah and subduing the Dholpur-Bari region westwards to the as-yet-unsettled Bharatpur-Alwar-Jaipur frontier. None of them could be withdrawn from his post without running risks. Mirzā Najaf was, therefore, compelled to seek out some other instrument for achieving any new enterprise.
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And one such enterprise of the greatest magnitude and urgency was soon to engross his attention. The Jaipur Rajah was the largest and richest debtor of the imperial Government. We have seen how he had promised a succession fine of 20 lakhs of Rupees and thus obtained investiture (tikā) from the Emperor's own hands on 19th February 1779, and how Himmat Bahadur Gosain had been left at his capital to collect this tribute. But soon afterwards came the monsoon interruption, the Patiala expedition and finally Najaf Khan's march on Delhi with all his forces for seizing the supreme power. The field thus left vacant had been promptly seized by the Jats and the Rajputs. Another invasion of Jaipur had now beccome necessary. But the road to the Kachhwa capital had first to be opened anew. That task was taken in hand in the middle of the year 1780, and its success was rendered easier by Najaf Quli Khan's campaign in the Narnaul-Kanud district earlier in that year.
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Najaf Quli, leaving Delhi at the end of November 1779, marched against Balwant Singh the Rajah of Kanud*, who had usurped many villages in the Hānsi-Hisār district during the late eclipse of government. These belonged to Najaf Quli's jagir. The Khan, on arriving on the spot, found it beyond his power to attack the fort of Kanud, because of the lack of water for many miles around it. So, he resorted to treachery. Pretending friendship, he released the Rajah's villages recently occupied by the invaders, sent him gifts, and invited him to a friendly meeting. The Rajah's son came in response to the invitation and the Mughal general assassinated him with the thirty Rajput nobles in attendance on him. (C. 4 Dec. 1779. DC.) Najaf Quli now promptly advanced to Kanud and laid siege to the fort, after arranging for the transport of water by camels. Trained sepoys under European officers and artillery, from Begam Samru's force, joined the besiegers. Considering that most of the nobles of the State had been massacred with their prince, the fall of the place was inevitable. The Rajputs, however, made a long and desperate defence. Narnaul, from which help was expected, was looted by a detachment from the Mughal army on 5th February, and by the end of that month the besiegers had carried the sap to the edge of the moat of Kanud. On 14th February, four hundred men of the garrison made a sortie and attacked the trenches of Mitrasen Ahir the Rajah of Rewari, inflicting a hundred casualties. A week earlier, seventeen desperadoes had issued from the fort separately, vowing to slay Najaf Quli and perish in the attempt; but the first to rush upon him was arrested. Nawal Singh Shekhawat, who was severely ill within the fort, was sent out in a *pālki* to Singhāna by mutual consent, and there died (*c.* 24 Feb.) The Rāni who was holding the fort in the absence of her husband, at last capitulated on 17th March and was given a few villages for her support.
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∗ Najaf Quli's campaign.—Ibrat. ii. 23-24. DC. Br. Mus. Or. 25,020, ff. 7a-44b. Date of fall of Kanud, CPC. v. 1843.
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§ 4. *Invasion of Shekhawati by Murtaza Khan Barech and of Jaipur by Mahbub Ali Khan, 1780.*
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Immediately after the fall of Kanud, Mirzā Najaf gained a great accession of strength for his Jaipur enterprise. We have already met with Mahbub Ali Khan, the Oudh general, who had acted with the English brigade in repelling the Marathas at Rāmghāt in 1773. During the imbecile rule of Asafuddaulah he left Lucknow in disgust and came to Agra (4th March 1780) with his family and a train of six hundred soldiers, intending to go to Mecca. Such a renowned warrior was not to be thrown away. Immediately on hearing of his arrival, Najaf Khan sent him high offers for luring him into his service, with his seal stamped on a Qurān as witness to his fidelity. Mahbub agreed; he was told to raise an army on his own account and pay it afterwards out of the tribute collected and spoils taken in the campaign. His name drew large crowds of military adventurers and his quota was soon completed.
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Meantime, Himmat Bahadur had not been able to realise the promised tribute at Jaipur even after a year's stay. The Jaipur Government, with a half-witted boy of fifteen on the throne, unchecked by any strong and wise minister, was pursuing a senseless capricious course.* The old diwān Khush-hālī Rām Bohrā by his shrewd diplomacy had turned aside the attack of the Rao Rajah and later that of the Mir Bakhshi. After the settlement made with the Emperor in February 1779, this minister, who had often to be absent from Jaipur on diplomatic missions, appointed Daulat Rām Haldiā (the fugitive ex-minister of Macheri) as his deputy at his master's
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∗ Mughal invasion of Jaipur, 1780-81.—Br. Mus. Or. 25,020, ff. 35-50, 54-345. Or. 25,021, ff. 1-25, 271-284. (best) Raj. xii. 8. DY. i. 20, 31. Gw. i. 94. Mahes. Darbar, i. 7, 9, 10, 12, 19, 51 (important.) Ibrat. ii. 17-23. DC. (only the date of Murtaza's victory.)
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CPC. v. 1843.—It was at first proposed that Najaf should himself lead this campaign, taking the Emperor with himself. Then Prince Akbar Shah was to take his father's place in this army, and the marching tents of the prince and the regent were pitched at Tāl Katora en route for Jaipur on 22 March 1780. The scheme was then abandoned, probably owing to Akbar's illness.
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Court. The ungrateful Haldia quickly made his way into the imbecile young Rajah's heart and gained the regency for himself by ousting his patron, whom he accused of embezzlement. The Bohrā, on his return to Court, was called to a harsh audit and confined in Amber fort to answer a demand for lakhs of Rupees. But Daulat Rām's glory was short-lived; early in 1780 he had to flee for his life and seek asylum with Najaf Khan in Delhi,—a tailor named Rodā-rām taking his place as the Kachhwa Rajah's guiding angel. Just then Mirzā Najaf received Himmat Bahadur's report that the Jaipur Government was hopelessly in default of payment.
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A double invasion of the Jaipur kingdom in over-whelming force was now organised. Murtaza Khan Barech with his Afghan and Baluch followers was to force the northern route through the Shekhāwati country and descend on Jaipur from its north, while at the same time Mahbub Ali Khan was to follow the southern road to Jaipur, marching westwards from Agra viâ Hindaun and Lalsont, and strike at the Kachhwa capital from its south side. Mahbub left Delhi early in May, the traitor Daulat Rām Haldiā guiding him with his local knowledge. A strong imperial division of five battalions of trained sepoys (some under European commandants) and a thousand horse with artillery, besides his own new levies, accompanied the general. When he met Himmat Bahadur at Bayānā, a quarrel about precedence broke out between the two. The soldiers, one and all, voted for Mahbub, and he resumed the march on Jaipur leaving his angry coadjutor behind. His advance was rapid and successful; in the then disrupted condition of the Jaipur State no place resisted him or could resist him long. By making rapid marches he advanced looting the cities in the eastern and southern regions of the Jaipur State and taking many fortalices. Jhalai, Bhandarej, Basi-Toda, Lālbāri, Chatsu and Watka were among his victims, till on 20th October he arrived at the gate of the Kachhwa capital, in which the Rajah had shut himself up. At exactly the same time, his colleague Murtaza Khan had worked his way through the Shekhāwati country to Sri Madhopur, forty miles north of Jaipur.
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Meantime Rajah Sawai Pratap Singh in utter helplessness had set Khushhāli Rām free and appointed him regent with supreme authority (18th October) and sent him to make peace with the Mughal Government at any cost. Mahbub Ali had quarrelled with Daulat Rām Haldiā, in spite of Najaf Khan's reprimand. On 2nd November Khushhali Ram interviewed Mahbub Ali in his tents outside Jaipur, but his offer of tribute was rejected as inadequate and delusive. The Jaipur regent even proposed to hire 6,500 of Mahbub's troops for a daily subsidy and employ them in recovering certain mahals from the Macheri chief. The Delhi general disbelieved his sincerity as he had received information of Khush-hali being in secret league with the Rao Rajah and of his having invited that chief to join in the defence of Jaipur. Mahbub Ali had been living all this time on plunder, constantly moving to new pastures. He next marched east from Tonk (50 miles south of Jaipur) towards Malarna (18 miles north of Ranthambhor fort) where he captured the *garhi* (probably Kirni) of Thakur Shambhu Singh (7th Nov.) and then laid siege to Malarna. His troops captured Barwada (20 m. west of Ranthambhor) on the 9th. The woful situation of the splendid heritage of Man Singh and Mirzā Rajah Jai Singh at this time is thus described in a Marathi despatch of 10th October 1780: "The Turks have seized 32 parganahs of Jaipur and set up their outpost 12 kos from Jaipur city. Fourteen parganahs of the jagirdars (feudal vassals) and two of the ghanims, [together with the 32 above] make a total of 48 parganahs lost by the Jaipur Rajah. Only four parganahs remain under him." [Mah. Dar. i. 19.]
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But the attempt to exact the Jaipur tribute by coercion through Mahbub Ali failed. The Rajah held out within his impregnable fortress, and the invader soon exhausted the resources of the open country, and as he could not pay his troops they began to leave him rather than die of famine in that desert land. To add to Mahbub Ali's disgrace, the negotiations for the Jaipur tribute were taken out of his hands and entrusted to Himmat Bahadur once again. Najaf Khan had been disappointed with Mahbub for his failure to secure any payment in spite of his success in the field. Jaipur agents met Himmat Bahadur, then sulking in his jagir at Vrindavan, bribed him heavily to save their Rajah and sent him off to Delhi where the Gosain gave a fee of Rs. 25,000 to Shivarām Kashmiri, the guiding angel of Najaf Khan, and through him secured an order on Mahbub to make peace with the Rajah of Jaipur, in return for a promise of 21 lakhs of Rupees. The Jaipur envoys offered two lakhs down and the balance by monthly instalments of Rs. 75,000 in future, on condition that the armies under Mahbub Ali and Murtaza Khan should be recalled and all the Jaipur territory seized by them should be relinquished. Najaf agreed except for Narnaul and Hindaun which he wanted to annex.
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Mahbub Ali had been planning to force a decision by storming the fortified city of Jaipur so as to bring the defiant Rajah down on his knees, and for this purpose he asked for more troops and guns from Delhi. Mirzā Najaf knew the impossibility of the attempt and wisely forbade it. At last in February 1781, Mahbub Ali, finding it beyond his power to maintain himself longer there and being daily threatened by the mutiny of his unpaid soldiery, marched back to Dig, and leaving most of his troops in camp there, himself went to Delhi to demand payment from Najaf Khan. The regent, as usual, was ready with promises; but Mahbub Ali bluntly told him, "My unpaid soldiers are dispersing from their camp. If such be your wish, say so plainly, in order that these men may not perish uselessly" (3rd May.) Ten thousand Rupees were paid him next day, but it was a mere drop in the ocean of his debt to his army, for whom he had already advanced five or six lakhs from his own pocket and who had now already served for fourteen months. He again and again threatened to go away to Mecca, as he could see no possible work that he might do for Najaf in such circumstances. His soldiers used to throng at the gate of his Delhi residence and make rows for their dues. The regent by repeated entreaties promises and evasions gained time; but the evil day could not be put off beyond 22nd June, when Mahbub finally took his congee for his pilgrimage to the Holy Cities of Arabia. Even then Najaf Khan told him, "Wait at Agra with my sister. I too am coming." His troops were offered employment in Murtaza Khan’s contingent, but as they were no better paid than before they dispersed. Thus a fine army was broken up and a great general ruined for ever. "His levies mutinying for their arrears of pay, looted all his property, and at last Mahbub set out for Mecca as a faqir." [Ibrat. ii. 23.]
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We shall now turn to Murtaza Khan Barech’s part in this invasion of Jaipur. Early in March 1780, his nephew in coming from Narnaul was slain by the Rajputs on the way and his property looted. Mirzā Najaf ordered him to raise a force of his own on the same terms and promises as Mahbub Ali’s, and sent him to penetrate into Jaipur from the north, simultaneously with the latter general’s march by the south-west. Murtaza’s route brought him into conflict with the Shekhawats, the bravest among the clans of Jaipur. They barred his path at a place beyond Narnaul, but after a six hours’ fight with heavy slaughter on both sides, he defeated them (c. 20th July.) Advancing further west and south, he roved about in the region round Udepur (20 miles north of Sri Madhopur), in the very heart of the Shekhawat country, and tried to secure tribute from Sikar, Nawalgarh, Khetri, Singhāna and other baronies by negotiation or threat of arms. On 20th October when Mahbub Ali reached the gate of Jaipur city from the south, Murtaza Khan had made his way to Sri Madhopur, 8 miles north of Ringas railway junction and only forty miles north of Jaipur. But these forty miles he was not destined to cross, and finally he too returned to Delhi covered with debt and failure, early in March 1781. Mirzā Najaf’s finely conceived strategy, though punctually carried out by these two able subordinates, in the end broke down on the rock of finance. The delaying tactics of the Jaipur ministers succeeded, as the craven Rajah shut himself up in his capital leaving all his realm outside open to Mughal spoliation. The capture of Jaipur fort alone would have put the seal and crown on the imperial victory, but that feat was impossible as Malhar Rao Holkar had found out in January 1751.
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Murtaza Khan owed Rs. 1,80,000 to his soldiers, besides having spent a large sum of his own on this expedition. Najaf Khan could now offer him only Rs. 20,000 in cash payable ten days later and the balance at the rate of Rs. 30,000 a month from the Jaipur tribute when (and if) realised. The general was sent off in April to the upper Doab to operate against the Sikhs, and two months later to the Panipat district, but here too he was no better supplied with money, and his soldiers starved as in Jaipur. "They took by force whatever they could from him, and then disbanded." [Ibr. ii. 23.] The history of the Jaipur tribute will be told fully in a later chapter.