Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s8.27

v3.c38.s8.27

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.