Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s7: § 10. Shafi and Prince go to regulate Agra province; their operations there (1783.)
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s7
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§ 10. Shafi and Prince go to regulate Agra province; their operations there (1783.)
v3.c38.s7.1
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.
v3.c38.s7.2
∗ 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.
v3.c38.s7.3
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.
v3.c38.s7.4
∗ 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.