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Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38: Chapter XXXII. Regency of Shafi and Afrasiyab, 1782-84

Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38

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Chapter XXXII. Regency of Shafi and Afrasiyab, 1782-84

§ 1. Emperor's helplessness after Najaf Khan's death

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The death of Mirzā Najaf Khan plunged the Court army and people of Delhi into utter bewilderment. Their future appeared impenetrably dark, without a single streak of hope in any corner. There was none to take his place and guard the Empire as he, and Najib-ud-daulah before him, had done. The hereditary Wazir of the empire was a nerveless voluptuary whose mental vacuity could be hardly concealed by his ineffable but superficial polish of manners. The leading Hindu vassal of the State, the heir to the legacy of Mān Singh and Mirzā Rājah Jai Singh, was an imbecile youth engaged day and night in unmanly diversions within his harem. The Ruhela race had been crushed beyond the possibility of producing another leader of men. The Jat royal house was in an even worse state of decay.

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Men, therefore, naturally turned to the late commander-in-chief's lieutenants in their quest for his successor. These were four, his chosen instruments in many an action and his recognised deputies in four different provinces: Afrāsiyāb Khan and Najaf Quli Khan (his two slaves), Mirzā Shafi Khan (his grand-nephew) and Muhammad Beg Hamadāni (the Mughalia leader.) The struggle for power among these four makes up the blood-red history of Delhi during the two years and a half that separate Mirzā Najaf's death from the Emperor's willing surrender to Māhādji Sindhiā as his Regent and commander-in-chief, (April 1782—November 1784.)

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Not one of these captains was of such outstanding eminence and prestige as to exact the unquestioning obedience of the other three. To avert a return to feudal anarchy, the Gosāin Himmat Bahadur very wisely urged Shah Alam to become his own commander-in-chief, go forth at the head of the assembled troops, and win back his lost provinces. The master's own leadership would suppress the mutual jealousies of the subordinate generals and cow the rebels and revenue defaulters into obedience without any need of fighting. But Shah Alam II was not cast in the heroic mould of his ancestors; he fell in with the timid counsels of his sycophants and refused to leave the security and pleasures of his palace for the hardships and dangers of a life of campaigning. [Ibrat. ii. 31-32.] A successor to Najaf Khan as army chief and regent of the empire had, therefore, to be sought out.

§ 2. Najaf Khan's four lieutenants ; their character

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Afrāsiyāb Khan was by birth a Hindu grocer's boy whom Mīrzā Najaf had captured as an orphan, converted to Islam and made his favourite slave and his adopted son in all but the name. But he had none of his master's military capacity, power over men, or passion for strenuous endeavour. He lacked even the born soldier's dauntless courage and therefore could not command the confidence of the army. The Mughalia captains refused to obey a slave; the foreign Muhammadans despised him as India-born and Hindu of blood. His one source of strength was that portion of Mīrzā Najaf's wealth which he had been able to appropriate during his late control of his indolent master's affairs. In addition, the dying Najaf had recommended him to the Emperor as his chosen successor in office and master of his troops and fiefs. For some time after Najaf Khan's death Afrāsiyāb Khan enjoyed the favour of his sister Khadija Sultān Begam, who was universally honoured for her late brother's sake. But when in a few months Afrāsiyāb alienated her, he lost every outside supporter. His new rank and power completely turned his head, and his harshness of speech and violence of temper soon drove all men away from his side, and hastened his downfall.

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∗ Character : *Afrasiyab*, bania boy, no soldier (Gw. v. 25) slave (*Ibr.* ii. 87, 34), bad temper (*Ibr.* 36, 78, 69, 34), demands Najaf's daughter (G. Ali 211.) *Ibr.* 41, 88. *Shafi*, Muna Lal 256, 273 276. BM. 25,021 *f.* 113. G. Ali 161 (temper.) *Najaf Quli*, Muna Lal 255, G. Ali 157, 209. *Ibr.* 43. *Md. Beg*, Muna Lal 271, '73, '74. *Ibr.* ASB ms. ii. 145. *Zain-ul-abidin*, Muna Lal 242. G. Ali 175.

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The second favourite slave and lieutenant of Mirzā Najaf was a Persian named Najaf Quli Khan after his patron. But this officer was constantly sunk in the enjoyment of opium wine and women. His habitual indolence was broken by occasional fits of reckless fighting, but he lacked true generalship and the power of far-sighted scheming. In diplomacy and intrigue he was a mere child and became a tool in the hands of shrewder men.

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The most natural successor of Mirzā Najaf would have been his nephew's son Mirza Muhammad Shafi, who could claim the "royal blood of Persia" and with it the homage of the Irāni party. But throughout Najaf's lifetime he had filled only subordinate posts (except in the recent Sikh campaign) because of his extreme youth, so that at the time of his grand-uncle's death he had acquired neither the force nor the prestige requisite for a Mir Bakhshi. Moreover, he bore a frank unsuspicious character; but that world of intrigue treachery and violence was not a place for a simple good-natured man. The result was that during his short enjoyment of the supreme power all his plans miscarried, he bungled in dealing with his rivals, and the uncongeniality of that atmosphere of universal crooked dealing and hypocrisy so bewildered and irritated him that he burst into frequent fits of temper which alienated his friends. His elder but less prominent brother Zain-ul-abidin Khan was made of a sterner stuff and proved a far abler actor for that stage of fraud and crime.

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The most sinister figure among Mirzā Najaf’s captains was Muhammad Beg Hamadāni, who combined the treachery and ferocity of the Afghan with the martial efficiency and mercenary spirit of the Turkish soldier of fortune. The small bands under Mughalia sardars long settled in India as professional soldiers ready to join the highest bidder, naturally flocked to Hamadāni on account of his known generalship and firmness of character mingled with diplomatic cunning and address, even more than for the sake of his being a brother from *vilāyet*. His nephew Ismail Beg, too, was one of the best generals of the time. But neither of them could hope for any support from Najaf Khan’s Shia sister and personal retainers; they were kept at a distance as mere hirelings unfit to be leaders of the party.

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§ 3. Emperor's policy. General survey of events from 1782 to 1784.

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The history of the next two years and a half was the history of the dissolving and newly forming combinations among these four generals.

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into which further complication was introduced by the selfish intrigues of the Oudh general Latāfat Ali Khan, the infinitely patient and timid secret diplomacy of the Emperor, and the cunning moves of the ex-regent Abdul Ahad Khan who for a time emerged from confinement and tried to play the supreme part in the administration once again. Finally, all these forces spent themselves by their internecine contests, three of them (Latāfat, Shafi and Afrāsiyāb) were murdered, Abdul Ahad imprisoned for life, Muhammad Beg stripped of all power, and the stage left absolutely clear at the end of 1784 for the supremacy of Māhādji Sindhiā.

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Reduced as the Emperor had been for several years past to impotence, his sole concern was for money,—a regular and copious flow of it,—which could not be expected from the impoverished and mostly alienated Crownlands, nor from the tributes which his vassals were now too strong to pay willingly. At the same time, the large army assembled by Najaf Khan could not get their pay regularly even during that great chief's life time, and after his death the soldiers, with their salaries fallen still more into arrears and starving in the midst of that three years' drought, often broke out in riots, insulting and threatening their officers.

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So, the Emperor put a price on the succession to the post of Najaf Khan. Afrāsiyāb thoughtlessly promised him five lakhs and secured the appointment. The inevitable trouble came when he was called upon to keep his word. For the property and treasure accumulated by Najaf Khan a squabble immediately broke out among Afrāsiyāb Khan, Khadija Sultān (who later supported Shafi) and the Emperor. Shah Alam durst not apply the law of escheat to his deceased Mir Bakhshi's legacy, and he therefore asked instead for a heavy sum of first fruits from the new Mir Bakhshi as well as the surrender of the Crownlands to royal agents. Afrāsiyāb, while basking in Mirza Najaf's favour and enjoying in popular report the title of his adopted son, had managed his master's estates and treasury without ever being called to account. Najaf Khan had been too busy with war and Court management to look after his own private affairs; when he needed any money he used to take the amount from Afrāsiyāb without caring to inquire how much was left. Thus, at his death Afrāsiyāb was reported to have appropriated all his wealth amounting to thirty lakhs of Rupees, besides his horses, elephants &c.

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The late Mir Bakhshi had left behind him two little daughters, but Afrāsiyāb Khan denied to them the least share in their patrimony. These girls remained in Najaf Khan's Delhi residence in charge of his sister Khadija Sultan, who controlled his personal belongings, ready cash and jewels in the house, and old attendants, as well as the artillery that guarded his mansion. But her chief source of influence lay in the respect and devotion with which the entire Indian world, from the Emperor downwards, regarded her by reason of her being the sole representative and nearest blood relation of that great noble. Shortly after his death she formed the plan of giving Najaf's elder daughter (then in her eleventh year) in marriage to Mirzā Shafi, getting the post of Mir Bakhshi and the support of Najaf's old adherents for the bridegroom, and governing the State from behind the *parda* through her nominee.

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Najaf Khan's extensive fiefs and the Crown-lands which he administered as Regent of the empire were held by his agents at the time of his death: the middle Doab (Aligarh and Jaleswar districts) by Afrāsiyāb Khan, Saharanpur with nominal right to the Karnal district across the Jamuna by Mirzā Muhammad Shafi, Shekhāwati and Mewāt with its centre at Kanud by Najaf Quli Khan, and the Agra-Dholpur region including the conquests from the Jats by Muhammad Beg Hamadāni. These districts now threatened to break up into four independent baronics. Besides, Mirzā Najaf's prolonged and mortal illness, followed by the confusion and fighting for the succession to his post, caused a paralysis of government for nearly a year (1782.) Every local chief and petty military fief-holder seized the lands of his neighbours and extended his estates in defiance of law and right. Defeated rebels like the Rajah of Bharatpur came out of the refuge of their forts and began to recover their lost possessions up to the very walls of Agra city. The Sikhs and the Ruhela remnant of Najib-ud-daulah’s house became even more daring than before.

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But the Emperor, his administrative officers and the army were bound to starve unless these Crownlands were brought back to the management of his own collectors and the unauthorised extensions of fiefs were wrested from the hands of the usurping captains. This was a task beyond the power of Shah Alam and the attempts made by his successive regents after Najaf’s death to effect it only led to mutinies and their downfall, till at last a supremely strong regent like Māhādji Sindhiā imposed his will and his master’s authority on these countless rebels,—and that too after a most dangerous and all but fatal challenge to his authority in 1787-1788.

§ 4. Afrasiyab appointed Mir Bakhshi. His difficulties and humiliation

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When the three days of mourning after Mirzā Najaf’s death were over (9th April 1782), the Emperor called to his presence all the leading military officers of his late General and asked them to sit down in the ante-room of the Diwan-i-am and elect a new chief for themselves. They could not agree, as the Mughalia captains refused to obey Afrāsiyāb Khan for being India-born and a slave. The Emperor next paid a visit of condolence to Najaf Khan's sister and invited her to make the choice. She named Afrāsiyāb Khan, that noble was created Regent (*Mukhtiār*) and commander-in-chief (*Mir Bakhshi, Amir-ul-umara*) with the title of Ashraf-ud-daulah. For what had now become the highest office in the State, Afrāsiyāb had to promise a heavy price, namely a fee of five lakhs of Rupees and the monthly supply of one lakh and twenty thousand for the Emperor's household expenses. He scraped together all he could and paid down Rs. 1,87,000 on 11th April, and forthwith received investiture for his office.*

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But his difficulties were only beginning. If he was to make sure provision for the future, he must first recover the Crownlands from the hands of usurpers and also suppress the rebels. Ranjit Singh Jat had utilised the illness of Mirzā Najaf to win back some of the lost lands of his father and to send his raiding bands throughout the Agra district. The local governor, Muhammad Beg Hamadāni was unable to cope with the myriads of Jat horse and appealed to Delhi for reinforcement. The new Mir Bakhshi was urged to march with the Emperor to his rescue. But it meant a large immediate outlay. The unpaid imperial soldiery had so long managed to live in Delhi on credit, but loans would cease as soon as they left on a distant expedition with the risk of death; their families could be left behind at the capital only by being supplied with the means of sustenance for some months in advance. Bringing the neglected cavalry and artillery up to the equipment necessary for a campaign meant heavy expenditure. And the Emperor's personal staff and camp equipage required another large advance before they could be ready to start.

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∗ *DC.* G. Ali iii. 152-154. Muna Lal 237-243. *Ibrat.* ii. 32-36 Afrasiyab's troubles,—*DY.* i. 84, 71, &c. Prince Jahandar Shah,—in Hastings, State of India, appendix.

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Afrāsiyāb could not provide all this money. On the plea of the hot weather and the Emperor's recent attack of fever, he secured an order that Prince Jawān Bakht should accompany the expedition in stead of his father. The prince took his formal leave at Court (c. 15th May) and went into tents outside Delhi, waiting for his army to assemble. Nearly a month passed, but that army did not assemble nor showed any sign of ever assembling, because Afrāsiyāb could not raise the necessary funds. He had already exhausted his cash resources, and when he begged for a loan from Najaf Khan's sister, she gave him a sharp rebuff. So, the Emperor, realising that the expedition could not possibly start, recalled the prince (12th June.)

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Afrāsiyāb's prestige suffered by this public failure within a month of his assuming the regency, and the Emperor's heart was turned against him. And he added to the number of his enemies by calling up Najaf Khan's captains to the capital and demanding that they should bring their assigned quotas of troops to the muster, retain only as much jagir as was justified by the actual strength of their contingents, and relinquish all the excess lands to the State; for otherwise he could not meet his master's demands for money. At once a revolt against his authority broke out. The malcontents won Begam Khadija Sultan over to their side and opposed the new Mir Bakhshi. These distractions, even more than the pride of power, soured the temper of Afrāsiyāb Khan. The plotters looked up to Mirzā Muhammad Shafi (the son of Najaf Khan's nephew) as their leader. Shafi, then posted in the Karnal district, quickly patched up a truce with the Sikhs and set out for Delhi.

§ 5. Afrasiyab counteracts Shafi's rivalry

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At the report of his rival's approach Afrāsiyāb Khan was filled with despair. His first patron, the sister of Mirzā Najaf, had now become his enemy and he must look out for support elsewhere. He publicly renounced all his former connection with Najaf Khan's family and interests and prayed to the Emperor to be regarded as an imperial officer in future. Still further pursuing the policy of placating the Emperor, he gave up the control of the palace fort; Najaf's battalions which had so long garrisoned it were withdrawn (29th June), and the gates were placed in charge of the Emperor's own guards 'the Red Battalion', under Ahmad Ali Khan. Rightly suspecting that Shafi's march upon the capital was due to a secret call from Shah Alam and Begam Khadija, Afrāsiyāb Khan took prompt measures for self-defence. On 16th June he left the Mir Bakhshi's official residence, where he had so long been living with Najaf's sister and family, and removed to Abdul Ahad Khan's house, then under official escheat, taking with himself that deposed old regent from his prison in Najaf's mansion. This was the first step on the path of regaining the Emperor's favour, because every one knew that Shah Alam's heart was unalterably fixed on Ahad. The next step was to restore Ahad to the regency* and his position at the right hand of the Emperor, so that Afrāsiyāb could always have the strongest friend at Court. But such a political resurrection took time. Ahad, knowing himself powerless to effect anything in that stormy world, long refused to take office again. Everything was in confusion in the central Government. The Exchequer was empty, the Emperor and his household were starving. As the Maratha envoy in Delhi wrote at this time, "The soldiers get no money for buying food. Even Najaf Khan's personal guards are fasting; their horses and elephants are dying for lack of fodder. Even the Begam (Khadija Sultan)'s household cannot procure their food every day; at present they have been fasting for three days." [Or. 25,021 f. 112-115. DY. i. 84.]

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∗ Taking advantage of Afrāsiyāb's difficulties, the Emperor succeeded (29 June) in making him withdraw the Mir Bakhshi's guards and gunners from the palace-fort and give up the control of it to the imperial guards (the Lāl Paltan) under the Emperor's own agent Ahmad Ali Kh. DY. i. 84. DC.

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While Afrāsiyāb was busy weaving his web, Shafi arrived near Delhi. Hitherto his position had been irregular: he was a captain who had left his post without orders, and was trying to make an unauthorised entrance into the capital. But the unprincipled wavering character of Shah Alam came to Shafi's rescue. The Emperor rejoiced to see this internecine war among Najaf Khan's lieutenants and expected that it would weaken them all so much that in the end he would be left supreme. Encouraged by a friendly message from his sovereign, Shafi entered Delhi, visited Khadija Begam, who took him into her arms as a son, and promised to marry Najaf's daughter to him, place him at the head of the household and troops of the late commander-in-chief, and secure the Mir Bakhshi's office for him.

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§ 6. The rival generals assemble forces in Delhi city; riots threatened.

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On 14th July Shafi was formally received in audience.* But no post was given to him for a month, as he would not agree to the high price at which the Court had put the regency up to sale. The other two lieutenants of Mirzā Najaf had been summoned to the capital. One of them, Muhammad Beg Hamadāni, was a partisan of Shafi, and had at a hint from Shafi, patched up a truce with the Jat Rajah and then crossed into the middle Doab for plundering Gosāin Himmat Bahadur’s jagirs. This Gosāin was Afrāsiyāb’s right hand man, and Afrāsiyāb’s own jagir in Aligarh was now threatened with invasion. The other, Najaf Quli Khan, marched from the Jaipur border towards Delhi, apparently to join Shafi; but Afrāsiyāb intercepted him at Gurgāon (17 July), won him over by personal entreaty, and brought him to Delhi the next day. The rival forces were thus marshalled:—Afrāsiyāb, Najaf Quli and Latāfat Ali, with the helpless Abdul Ahad in one camp; Shafi, Khadija Begam and all the personal retainers of Mirzā Najaf, with the absent Muhammad Beg Hamadāni in the other. The capital was once more threatened with a civil war to be fought out in its streets. All this time the soldiers were starving and distracted, not knowing who was the lawful authority and not caring to follow any general with fidelity. "Every one wishes to make himself dominant, and great disturbance prevails." [Hingane's report, *DY.* i. 84.]

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∗ DC. G. Ali iii. 154-156. Muna Lal 244-253. Ibrat. ii. 36-43. DY. i. 71.

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But the threatening storm did not burst at once. Two months more were to pass in alarms and excursions, plotting and counterplotting at Court, before the contest was put to the arbitrament of the sword. After long negotiations, in which the harem superintendent Nāzir Manzur Ali warmly backed Shafi, the Emperor decided to appoint him Mir Bakhshi, for a fee of five lakhs, on the next auspicious day, which was the first of the sacred month of Ramzān (10th August.) This was a crushing blow to Afrāsiyāb; but he promptly countered it by begging the Emperor to restore Abdul Ahad to the head of his administration. Shah Alam jumped at the prospect of getting his bosom friend back after three years of enforced separation. The appointment of a new Mir Bakhshi was put off, and instead of it Abdul Ahad was received again at Court and reappointed to all his former posts (11th August.)

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Shafi was furious on meeting with this sudden reverse. "He felt that without a fight Afrāsiyāb could not be made to tread the right path; but out of respect for the throne he did not wish to engage in hostilities at the capital." [ML. 252.] With huge rival armies scowling and growling at each other in the same city, and that city without any magistrate or police guard, a conflict could not be long averted. On 21st August, a personal altercation between Jamāl Khan of Afrāsiyāb’s army and Pauli a German mercenary captain on Shafi’s side, spread to their respective followers like a wildfire. They flew to arms and dragging out their artillery barricaded the streets of Delhi, facing each other along a long line from the Kashmiri gate to the Jāmi‘ Masjid, as well as the Tripolia and the neighbourhood of the Kābuli gate. But the Emperor sent his chief eunuch to forbid fighting and the two sides withdrew. So, Delhi knew peace again, but it was for that day only. On the 24th the rival hosts again came out and dug trenches across the city, but again went back to their quarters at the Emperor’s appeal.

§ 7. Shafi’s coup of 10 Sep. 1782; he takes Abdul Ahad and Najaf Quli prisoner, and is appointed Mir Bakhshi and Regent

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At last, to remove this constant threat of riot, the Emperor sent Afrāsiyāb off (3rd Sep.) to his own jagir in the Doab, which had been invaded by Muhammad Beg Hamadāni in the interests of Shafi. Najaf Quli Khan was left as his representative in Delhi. This gay toper was no match for Shafi. He provoked that general by his hostile designs, without taking adequate steps for defeating him or even for self-defence. Najaf Quli removed from Abdul Ahad’s house and occupied that of Safdar Jang in order to be close to the fort and to guide his troops more easily. But his days and nights were devoted to wine and women and he neglected every military precaution. This was Shafi’s opportunity. The month of fasting ended and the Feast of Rejoicing (Id-ul-fitr) was celebrated on 10th September. That night* Shafi sent a strong force with artillery under Pauli to encircle the houses of Ahad and Najaf Quli, and the task was effected without opposition. By that time Najaf Quli was lying senseless with drink; his house contained only a small guard and five pieces of cannon. Waking up at dawn, he maintained a brave defence against heavy odds for a day and a night. Shafi, seated on the steps of the Jāmi‘ Masjid (11th), kept directing the attack and encouraging his troops by scattering handfuls of Rupees every now and then among them.

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Abdul Ahad could offer no resistance. At noon some of Shafi’s soldiers broke into his mansion, and, in order to preserve the sanctity of his harem the aged regent came out and made an abject surrender to Shafi, who sent him into honourable captivity again in Qamr-ud-din’s mansion. His Hindu associate, Rajah Shivarām diwān, was dishonoured and thrown into prison. Najaf Quli’s bravest lieutenant Jalāl Khan Afghān was shot dead when charging through the enemy ranks, and his master’s cause now became hopeless, though Sayyid Ali Khan, a battalion commandant on Shafi’s side, had also fallen. So, next morning (12th Sep.) Najaf Quli went to Begam Khadija to make his surrender, and was placed under surveillance.

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∗ DC. G. Ali iii. 156-160. Muna Lal 254-256. Ibrat. ii 43-46. DY. i. 71. Jahandar Shah in Hastings, State of India, appendix.

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Thus Mirzā Muhammad Shafi was left without a rival in Delhi. On the 15th of the month (September 1782), the Emperor recognised the fact by appointing him Mir Bakhshi with the title of Nāsir-ud-daulah Zulfiqār Jang and also supreme Regent and subahdar of Agra. But a month had barely passed from this when there was another turn in the political kaleidoscope, an entirely new grouping of forces took place, and Shafi was driven out of Delhi! On becoming regent he wisely tried to make friends with his late rivals. He sent friendly letters from himself and the Begam to Afrāsiyāb Khan, who professed to be reconciled and thus secured an order on Hamadāni to vacate Afrāsiyāb’s jagirs and return to his own post. But Shafi alienated Najaf Quli by transferring the jagirs of the latter to his own follower Abdul Matlab Khan. The new army chief was a rather simple downright man, incapable of suppleness or diplomatic finesse; his soldierly brusqueness offended the Court circle,* and the evil was aggravated by his lack of funds. Even the Emperor was at heart his enemy, especially as he failed to release all the Crown-lands in his hands. The eunuch Latāfat Ali, commanding four trained battalions of Purbia infantry, had sworn on the Qurān to be true to Shafi. He now started an intrigue at the instigation of the Emperor, and seduced Pauli and the officers of his contingent.

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Meantime, Shafi had been driven to the verge of madness by his financial difficulties. Two of his battalions mutinied for their pay and planted their guns against his gate. They were pacified by a payment in part, and Shafi determined to extort funds from the Emperor, which led to an open rupture and exchange of angry words between him and his sovereign (9th October.)

§ 8. Emperor's coup, 16th Oct. ; Shafi expelled from Delhi

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The crisis came on 16th October. Early at dawn Latāfat and Pauli marched† with their troops against Qamr-ud-din's mansion where Shafi lived. The Emperor himself rode out to the Jāmi‘ Masjid in order to lend his blessing to the attack. Shafi wisely decided not to resist his sovereign. He fled away towards Agra, taking Abdul Ahad with him, but in his hurry forgetting Najaf Quli, who was promptly set free by Latāfat. All the artillery and material left behind were plundered, but none of the victors ventured to touch Khadija Begam, in spite of the Emperor’s wrath against her. Shah Alam now dismissed Shafi from his offices and recalled Afrāsiyāb to Court. Days passed in fruitless negotiations, but Khadija Begam continued to hold out in Najaf Khan’s mansion with the loyal support of her late brother’s gunners under Ashur Ali Khan.

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∗ The Emperor remarked, on 16 June 1782, "Mirza Shafi has a short temper. Let us see how he agrees with others." Br. Mus. Or. 25, 021, f. 113.

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† DC. G. Ali iii. 161-165. Muna Lal 256-262. Ibrat. ii. 47-49. DY. i. 74, 75.

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The fugitive Shafi with his own troops rode hard from Delhi to Ballabhgarh and thence to Kosi. Here he came to a halt and gained the adhesion of Muhammad Beg Hamadāni and his strong force by appealing to the memory of their late common patron and also promising to give him all the Jaipur tribute, half the artillery and other property of Mirzā Najaf still left in Shafi’s hands, and six lakhs in cash or fresh jagirs. Hamadāni joined Shafi at Kosi, and here all the former captains of Najaf Khan vowed to recognise Shafi as their master. Then the two set their faces (6th November) towards Delhi, expelling the imperial collectors in Hodal district and camping on arrival at Faridabad.

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The close approach of the rebel generals alarmed the Emperor. He was hustled by Latāfat and Pauli into entering his tents near Bārapula for a march against them (12th Nov.) From Faridabad the rebels sent their envoys to him (14th) to offer their protestations of loyalty and to seek his pardon and restoration to their former offices and honours. Shah Alam entrusted his case to his favourite personal servant Kallu Khawās, entitled Muhammad Yaqub Khan, who conceived the over-cunning design of secretly corrupting Hamadāni and using him to destroy Shafi. On behalf of the Emperor, he promised the Mir Bakhshi-ship to Hamadāni if he abandoned Shafi. For confirming this pact it was agreed that Latāfat should meet and give personal assurances and oaths to Muhammad Beg.

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§ 9. Muhammad Beg Hamadāni seizes Latafat Ali and Pauli (17th Nov. 1782.) Shafi is restored to supremacy at Delhi Court.

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This treacherous plot recoiled on the heads of its parents.* Muhammad Beg disclosed it to Shafi. On 17th November he rode out of his camp for the purpose of meeting Latāfat and then going with him to be presented to the Emperor, while Shafi went elsewhere on the pretext of hunting, but kept his ears open for the pre-concerted signal. Near Khwājah Sarāi, on the south side of the Badarpur nāla, Latāfat, Pauli and Yaqub met Muhammad Beg, but Hamadāni made them all prisoners by a treacherous attack at the time of shaking hands. The European alone resisted and was wounded for his pains. The small escort of the three victims fled away from superior numbers, while the main body of their comrades, left behind in the imperial camp, could do nothing after the loss of all their leaders. Muhammad Beg quickly followed up his victory; he pushed a detachment on to Delhi (now left utterly defenceless) with orders to seize the houses and property of Latāfat and Yaqub. But Shafi's brother, who was with the Begam in the city, appropriated their property before the arrival of Hamadāni's men. "A tumult like that of Doomsday raged in Delhi that night."

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∗ DC. G. Ali iii 166-174. Muna Lal 263-267. Ibrat. ii 50-54 and ASB ms. DY. i. 77. Jahandar Shah in Hastings, State of India, app.

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Afrāsiyāb was no soldier; he had been propped up by the strong arm of Pauli and the subtle brain of Latāfat, and with their fall his power at once collapsed. This second turn of the kaleidoscope brought back the old picture, only two of the bits of glass were thrown away. The wretched Shah Alam, after thus once beating his head against the bars of his cage, again lapsed into helpless submission. Muhammad Beg and Shafi wrote protesting their loyalty to him and excusing their late conduct as forced on them by their rival's treachery. The Emperor sent his eldest son to convey his pardon and blessings to them, and then returned to Delhi (24th Nov.) As he entered the fort, in the courtyard of the Diwān-i-‘ām, Shafi, Muhammad Beg Hamadāni, Abdul Ahad and Afrāsiyāb placed the poles of his open sedan chair on their shoulders and conveyed it to the door of his harem enclosure. After this parade of loyalty, they went to pay their respects to Begam Khadija Sultan. Shafi was restored to his post of army chief and the others received robes of honour and gifts.

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Next day Hamadāni blinded Latāfat Ali to prevent him from creating trouble again. Pauli objected to such mutilation and was hacked to pieces. The eunuch Kallu Khawās escaped by paying a large ransom.*

§ 10. Shafi and Prince go to regulate Agra province; their operations there (1783.)

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On 22nd December Mirzā Md. Shafi was given congee for Agra to undertake the pacification and administration of that province. He took Prince Sulaimān Shukoh and Najaf’s sister with him. The prince entered Agra fort on 23rd January 1783. The prestige of his name and the armed strength of the Mir Bakhshi cowed most of the rebels of that part. He spent the next two months there, “enforcing order and doing justice to the people,” and “that region enjoyed peace and orderly government once more.”* Here Major James Browne, who had been sent by Warren Hastings on a mission to the imperial Court, waited upon the Mir Bakhshi (on 27th Feb.) in order to prepare the ground for his visit to the Emperor.

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∗ Najaf Quli had left the Emperor’s side in disgust and alarm and gone back to his fief of Narnaul about 15th Nov. Hamadāni was given congee from Delhi on 10th Dec. 1782.

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Early next month a vast Sikh horde, on return from the middle Doab, threatened Delhi from the north, approaching so close to the capital as to assault the village of Barāri, set fire to the marts at Mālikganj and Sabzimandi, and kill some people in Mughalpurā (8th March.) At the urgent call of the Court, Shafi set out from Sikandra (15th March) for the relief of the capital. But meantime on the movement of Zain-ul-abidin and his troops from Bāghpat to Delhi, the raiders had fled away (12th March.) Shafi therefore gave up his northward march and turned against the Jat Rajah. Ranjit Singh had already made terms with Muhammad Beg Hamadāni, but Shafi refused to honour this settlement. Ranjit was willing to pay the tribute, but not to cede the jagirs of his son Randhir Singh as now demanded. Shafi therefore invaded the Jat country, marching from Agra by way of Fathpur Sikri to Sayyidpur. Making this village his base, he besieged the fort of Bayānā, three miles south of it, and took it by assault, with heavy slaughter, in 33 days (9th May.) Akhegarh and other Jat forts in that region were evacuated by their garrisons in terror and the whole district of Bayānā came under imperial control. A detachment from Shafi's army was meantime fighting the Macheri Rajah's troops near Firuzpur Jharka ; Shafi now went to their aid and began to bombard the strong fortalice of Kanwāri Pahāri (? Pahāri-Kandla.) But soon afterwards he returned southwards for the purpose of meeting Māhādji Sindhiā on the Chambal and maturing a pact with him. Hamadāni met him on the way (10th June), and the quarrel that blazed forth between these two rival generals brought Shafi's hitherto successful work to a close.

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∗ DC. G. Ali iii. 175-177. Muna Lal 268. Ibrat. ii. 55-58, 61-62. These references cover the next section also. Raj. xii. 35.

§ 11. Quarrel between Shafi and Hamadāni

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It is necessary to trace the growth of this quarrel from its origin. We have seen how Muhammad Beg's faithless cunning and ruthless vigour had been the sole instrument in ridding Shafi of his only powerful enemies, Latāfat and Pauli, and restoring him to his supremacy at Court (17th Nov. 1782.) But the hour of victory was also the hour of rupture between the allies. Shafi could not fulfill the exorbitant promises of money lands and war-material by means of which he had bought his ally's support. In addition, Muhammad Beg's pride and ambition were as boundless as his violence and dishonesty. After the *coup* against Latāfat and Pauli, Hamadāni's licentious soldiery were allowed to plunder the innocent imperial subjects in the villages along the road to Delhi and in the capital itself. Shafi rightly objected to it, and on his protests being unheeded he gave up speaking to his ally. Hamadāni retorted by rising in his demands and claiming (a) twelve lakhs worth of fresh jagirs, (b) half the artillery and other property of the late Mirzā Najaf and (c) the transfer to him of the entire imperial claims on Jaipur. Shafi also objected to Hamadāni making himself the mediator of the Macheri Rajah at Court and thus robbing the Mir Bakhshi of the tribute due from him. The quarrel was aggravated by Shafi’s demand for a fair partition of the spoils taken in Latāfat and Pauli’s camps and city residences, and all efforts to patch it up failed. Muhammad Beg therefore left Delhi on 10th December 1782 for his post on the Jaipur frontier practically in open defiance of the imperial Government.

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Arrived at Agra, Hamadāni extorted a forced contribution from the traders and bankers of the city and plundered the poorer people. He next won Ranjit Singh’s support for himself in the coming duel with his late partner, by fixing a reduced tribute on him and stopping the punitive operations against the Jat territory. The Macheri Rajah was already his protege. Thus Hamadāni threatened to set up an independent principality of his own in the Agra-Mewat province and overshadow the authority of the imperial regent there. His army was increased out of all proportion to his rank or his means of paying it. His fame as the ablest general then living drew the Mughalia mercenaries to him as their most promising employer. Herein the greatest danger to the Emperor's lawful Government was coming to a head.

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When Shafi, with Prince Sulaimān Shukoh in his leading strings, reached Agra (January 1783), Hamadāni waited on the prince. Shafi tried to conciliate him by reaffirming his past promises. So, Hamadāni went back towards Jaipur, after exacting a tribute from the Kerauli Rajah on the way.

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§ 12. Shafi intrigues with Mahadji Sindhia for help in crushing Hamadani. Sindhia visits Prince and Shafi (June 1783.)

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Shafi now set himself to weakening his formidable rival. He had already begun intrigues for seducing Muhammad Beg's captains (esp. the Mughalias), and this plan was continued with vigour. His confidants, Afrāsiyāb Khan and Gosāin Himmat Bahadur, confirmed his belief that so long as Hamadāni lived his own position as the head of the Government could not be safe. But Hamadāni could be crushed only with the help of Māhādji Sindhia,[*] whose fame as the friend of the English and the mediator of their treaty with the Peshwa had raised him to the highest place among the indigenous Powers of N. India. Shafi therefore sent Himmat Bahadur to Sindhia's camp in Malwa for contriving this alliance. The negotiations, however, took long to mature.

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∗ BM. Or. 25,021, f. 91-96, 116-187 (newsletters, 2 June-10 July,) best. DC. Muna Lal 272. Ibrat. ii. 62-64. DY. i. 68, 65. Chandra ii. 35, 50. Satara i. 69.

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In order to weaken Hamadāni, Mirzā Shafi wrote in the name of the Emperor to the Jaipur Rajah forbidding him to pay his due tribute to Muhammad Beg. He also attacked Ranjit Singh, in spite of Hamadāni's appeal to save his prestige by respecting the settlement he had already made with that chieftain. The situation became intolerable in consequence of Shafi's vigorous campaign against the Jat Rajah. So, on 10th June 1783, Md. Beg came to Shafi for ending their quarrel by a personal discussion. After angry recriminations between the two, Shafi patched up a truce by promising his approval to Hamadāni's friendly policy towards the Jat and Macheri chiefs, as he was in a hurry to meet Sindhia on the appointed day.

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Months before this Mirzā Shafi had appealed to Sindhia through Himmat Bahadur, "Let us once meet together for clearing our hearts towards each other. Najaf Khan was your sworn brother. He is now dead, and after him you are as a father to me. Do act as my guide." Sindhia held off for a long time as his hands were full with other business. But in June he agreed to meet Shafi if that general left Muhammad Beg Hamadāni behind and came alone with only the prince and Najaf's sister. The Mir Bakhshi, after his meeting with Hamadāni at Nagar (15 miles west of Dig), hastened to Agra, took the prince and Najaf's sister out of it with himself, and by way of Fathpur Sikri and Kagarol reached Basai, 16 miles north-west of Dholpur (22nd June.) Muhammad Beg encamped six miles behind him. Mahadji, leaving his army engaged in the siege of Gwalior fort, came up to the south bank of the Chambal with a light escort. Shafi, stationing his camp and troops eight miles behind, advanced with a small party to the opposite bank, near Dholpur.

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On 27th June, 1783, Sindhia paid his first visit to Shafi. Three days later the Maratha chief rode out to the imperial camp and was presented to the prince by the regent. The British Resident David Anderson and his assistants were introduced by Māhādji to the prince. Major Browne, in the train of the Mir Bakhshi, was introduced by Shafi to Sindhia. Four days were passed here in cementing the alliance, through the mediation of Himmat Bahadur. Sindhia also visited Begam Khadija and offered his condolences on the death of her great brother. Shafi exchanged turbans with Māhādji, professed entire obedience to his orders, and entreated him to come to Delhi for restoring order to the confused imperial administration and making some permanent good arrangement for the maintenance and defence of the Emperor. Māhādji, in reply, promised to go to Delhi after the rainy season, by which time he hoped to bring his Gwalior and Gohad enterprises to a happy termination. The party broke up on 1st July, Sindhia going back to his trenches before Gwalior and the imperialists to Dig (where the prince arrived on 18th July.)

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§ 13. Hamadani murders Md. Shafi, 23 Sep. 1783.

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When Mirzā Shafi invited Māhādji Sindhia and made friends with him, Hamadāni realised that the Mir Bakhshi was utterly faithless and co-operation with him was impossible. He then broke out into open independence, disobeying Shafi's orders and plundering his subah of Agra. The Mirza recalled Afrāsiyāb to his side and took counsel with him how to put down this "chief of mischief-makers". That unscrupulous intriguer deceived his employer, and under the pretence of conciliating Muhammad Beg formed a secret pact with him for murdering Shafi by treachery, because Shafi alone stood between Afrāsiyāb and the Mir Bakhshi-ship. Shafi, an open-hearted unsuspicious soldier, was easily deluded. It was reported by Afrāsiyāb that the rebellious general was ready to wait upon the prince and make a full submission, but before doing so he was asking for a friendly meeting with Shafi in order to receive personal assurances of his safety during his visit to the imperial camp. This was agreed to by Shafi, against the advice of his friends. Muhammad Beg came up with his army and halted eight miles from the imperial camp in Dig.*

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The interview was fixed for the 23rd of September. Muhammad Beg was the first to advance, from his own camp to the place of meeting, some five miles outside Dig. Shafi, on his own part, issued from the fort with a small escort, about four hours before sunset. As he mounted his horse, his turban fell down from his head. Disregarding the omen and the alarmed cries of his attendants, he changed to an elephant's back and continued the journey. On the way his spies reported that, contrary to custom, Hamadāni had arrived in full force. But the plain gallant soldier still pushed on and went up to Muhammad Beg who was seated on an elephant amidst a ring of his chief followers on five or six other elephants.

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As Shafi stood up on his mount to give his embrace, Muhammad Beg seized both his hands in his own. Shafi, who was a delicate youth, could not wrest himself free; and while he was thus struggling helplessly Hamadāni's nephew Ismail Beg, who was seated on another elephant, jumped on to the Mir Bakhshi’s mount and plunged his dagger into the victim’s bowels. Shafi’s relation, Md. Amin Khan, who was seated behind him, grappled with the assassin and the two rolled down to the ground. But a servant of Muhammad Beg now finished the business of Shafi with his dagger. Md. Amin was killed, and so also was Dāud Beg Kurchi, another devoted follower of the Mir Bakhshi, who had offered fight. The main army of Hamadāni now rapidly arrived on the scene. The two sides exchanged fire for a short time, and then the outnumbered and leaderless imperialists broke and fled. Afrāsiyāb, who had arrived last, was the first in the retreat. Thus perished, in the prime of youth, Mirzā Muhammad Shafi, the last fighting army chief of the empire, a victim of the blackest treachery. The situation created by this crime is thus aptly described by the Maratha envoy, “Muhammad Shafi is dead. All Hindustan is lying bare. No sword for fighting is left in India.” [*DY.* i. 91.]

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∗ DC. Ibrat. ii, 64-66. Muna Lal 274-277. G. Ali iii. 177-180. DY. i. 91. Parasnis, Aitihasik Sfuta Lekh, ii. No. 18. Conspiracy to murder Shafi, signed agreement, see BM. 25,021 f. 30.

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§ 14. *Afraisiyab Khan appointed Mir Bakhshi again, Oct. 1783.*

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The news of the murder of Mirzā Md. Shafi reached Delhi in forty hours, early in the morning of 25th September. Afrāsiyāb Khan’s complicity in the crime was suspected but could not be proved. Moreover, there was no other great noble in sight worthy of filling the deceased army chief’s place. Above all, Shah Alam and Abdul Ahad trembled in fear lest Major Browne, the English agent in Shafi’s camp, should form a collusion with Afrāsiyāb and crown Sulaimān Shukoh as his puppet with the promise of English armed support. Not a moment was therefore to be lost in securing Afrāsiyāb through his constant friend Abdul Ahad. Mirzā Najaf’s old diwan Rajah Manirām and his loyal adherent Md. Quli Khan sent to the Emperor an offer of three lakhs of Rupees if he gave Shafi’s posts to his brother Zain-ul-abidin. But the danger from Afrāsiyāb’s defection was supreme, and he was immediately appointed Mir Bakhshi and commanded to come back to the Court with the prince as soon as he could manage to do so. [DY. i. 92, 94.]

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This second regency of Afrāsiyāb Khan lasted for barely 13 months and was closed by an exactly weighed out measure of retribution falling upon him on 2nd November 1784. Nothing remarkable occurred during this interval and the affairs of the central Government drifted on in still greater confusion and weakness under his effete rule, while the star of Māhādji Sindhia rose steadily in the Indian firmament, till at the close of the year 1784 he became the foremost potentate in Northern India in the eyes of all.

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After Shafi had been slain, Afrāsiyāb Khan brought back the dead chieftain’s disheartened troops to their camp and made a demonstration of grief with vows of vengeance on the murderer in the presence of Begam Khadija Sultan. Having thus cleared his character, he induced Hamadāni by a secret pact to go back quietly to his jagir of Dholpur-Bāri, paying him some money and confirming him in his possessions as well as his right to the entire tribute payable by Jaipur, and also promising to secure for him the Emperor’s pardon in good time.* [DY. i. 93.]

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Afrāsiyāb’s first task after gaining the regency was to take over the administration of Agra from Shafi’s agents and to suppress the rebels in that region. So, he marched from Dig to Agra, taking the Begam and all the camp and property of Shafi with him. At Sikandra he formally welcomed (on 18th October) the imperial letter of appointment and robe of office despatched to him from Delhi. His own servants were posted in Dig, Agra, and other places, so long held by Shafi’s men. This work took time, and it was the 14th of December before he could reach Delhi with the prince. At the imperial Court the day of Afrāsiyāb’s exaltation was also the day of exaltation of his patron Abdul Ahad. This senile old Kashmiri favourite was now (10th November) given the titles of Sharf-ud-daulah, Umdat-ul-mulk, Madār-ul-mulk, Abdul Majid Khan Bahādur, Fath Jang (in addition to his former ones of Majd-ud-daulah, Bahrām Jang), with the *mansab* of 9,000 *zāt* 9,000 troopers *do-āspa seh-āspa*; and if we add his two *barāwardi* the total held by him was raised to 24,000 *zāt*! He took vengeance on Najaf Khan’s house by imprisoning that chief’s devoted servants Rajah Maniram and Mahdi Quli Khan (14 Nov.) and attaching their property.

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∗ DC. G. Ali iii. 208-211. Ibrat. ii. 67-79. Afrasiyab's doings and the Court occurrences from 28 Oct. to 20 Nov. in BM. Or. 25,021, f. 39-88 (news-letters.)

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§ 15. Sikh raid into the Doab. Afrāsiyāb marches there (Dec. 1783) and conciliates Mirzā Zain-ul-abidin and Zābita.

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Meantime, a Sikh invasion in unusually large numbers had burst into the upper Doab.* “Owing to the famine, many petty Sikh sardars of the region round Pātiāla, numbering 30 to 35 thousand horse and foot, with their wives and children, crosssed the Jamuna at Buriyā ghāt and entered the Doab for filling their stomachs. They looted the villages round Saharanpur and other cities and penetrated to Deoband.

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“From this side Bhāg Singh, Bhagel Singh and other [loyal] Sikhs who enjoyed *rākhi* from the Doab, with Zābita Khan’s force, two paltans and Nāhar Singh Gujar’s contingent, united and marched towards Ghausgarh. But in an ensuing battle Zābita was defeated and driven back, and the raiders pushed on towards Mirat.” [DY. i. 96.] They found a new ally in Zain-ul-abidin Khan, whose anger at the murder of his brother had been aggravated by Abdul Ahad’s vindictive transfer of Zain’s jagirs in the Mirat district to his own son-in-law Qutbuddin.

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∗ DC. G. Ali, iii. 182-185. Ibrat. ii. 68-69. DY. i. 96, 98, 124.

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For repelling this invasion and also suppressing the local rebels who had risen during the recent anarchy, Afrāsiyāb was sent to the Doab within a week of his arrival at Delhi. Prince Sulaimān Shukoh and Najaf Quli Khan (created second Bakhshi on 5th Nov.) accompanied him. Four battalions of sepoys, a thousand Mughalia horse, and a thousand Sikh auxiliaries were added to the new Amir-ul-umara’s force. They marched up to the village of Mud-barāl, 8 miles from Mirat, crushing or dispersing the rebels on their way. Zain came up from Bāghpat, intending to offer battle; but Afrāsiyāb conciliated him and induced him to visit him and Begam Khadija, under protection of the troops of the neutral Begam Samru (23rd December). Zain was next presented to the prince and the three generals vowed to act in concert in the Emperor’s service. Zain’s demand for the restoration of the eleven mahals in Mirat was left to the Emperor’s decision. For some weeks after this the now reconciled generals halted at the Suraj Kund in Mirat town. Here Afrāsiyāb called up Zābita Khan (15th January 1784), presented him to the prince, and made an understanding with him to hold the upper Doab against the Sikhs. Then they returned to Delhi on 28th January. [DY. i. 98, 124.]

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§ 16. Major James Browne in Delhi; failure of his plans.

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A violent quarrel immediately broke out between the Emperor (tutored by Ahad) and his commander-in-chief. Afrāsiyāb was quite unable to pay the large fee he had promised for the succession to Muhammad Shafi, nor could he supply the monthly expenses of the Emperor's family and household (over one lakh a month). He complained that he had not been given charge of the revenue collection of all the Crownlands which his predecessor Najaf Khan had held. The Emperor insisted on keeping these in his own hands lest he should be starved. When Afrāsiyāb proposed to raise funds by taking the Emperor on a tribute-collecting expedition against the Rajah of Jaipur, the project failed for want of the money necessary for equipping it. Thus, things kept moving in a vicious circle. The tension was increased by Afrāsiyāb's fear that as soon as he would leave the capital on a distant campaign, without taking the Emperor or a prince with him as his hostage, Abdul Ahad would bring an English force from Oudh into Delhi as the Emperor's protectors and kick away Afrāsiyāb. Abdul Ahad had long held friendly correspondence with Warren Hastings, and at this time that Governor-General's special envoy, Major Browne, was in Delhi* intriguing hard against the pro-Maratha party at Court and forming a coalition of nobles in favour of an English alliance. However, the Kashmiri was too weak to take sides openly against Afrāsiyāb, and the anti-English policy triumphed.

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