Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s9: § 19. Afrāsiyāb meets Māhādji Sindhiā at Rupbās
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s9
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§ 19. Afrāsiyāb meets Māhādji Sindhiā at Rupbās
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However, he resumed his march after the Dasahārā (24th Sep.) and crossed the swollen Chambal river with some difficulty and delay. The fort of Dholpur, then held for Muhammad Beg, quickly capitulated to his incomparably superior force, and he moved about taking possession of the districts of Dholpur and Bāri, driving away Hamadāni’s collectors by the terror of his might and appointing his own agents everywhere. These two districts were fertile and had a standard revenue of five or six lakhs of Rupees. Afrāsiyāb had hoped that Sindhia would be content to act as his cat’s paw, wrest these districts from Hamadāni and then hand them over to him. But when the Maratha chief refused to disgorge his gains, a rupture between the two seemed imminent. Sindhia rightly argued that as he had come there at the Emperor’s call, the regent must pay the salary of his vast force; but Himmat Bahadur, who was the Delhi Government’s agent at his Court, frankly told him that Afrāsiyāb had no money and his own troops were being ruined by his insolvency. These districts were the only assets that Mahadji could lay his hands on. A truce was, however, patched up by the Gosain, and Sindhia agreed to release the districts. He then advanced to Rupbās, nine miles south-west of Fathpur-Sikri, which had been selected as his halting place (22nd October), and there waited for his ally to come and mature the pact.
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Before this, Afrāsiyāb Khan taking with himself all his own troops and guns as well as the advanced division of Sindhia’s forces (6,000 horse) under Ambaji Inglé, and leaving the Emperor and Major Browne in Agra, had set out westwards (on 23rd September) to fight Muhammad Beg and effect a junction with Sindhia. He at first talked of attacking his enemy’s camp by surprise (on 17th Oct.), but was dissuaded by Ambaji, who wisely advised him to wait till his junction with Sindhia should give him an assurance of victory, as his disorderly troopers and treacherous Mughalias were no match for Hamadani’s veterans. So, Afrāsiyāb halted near Khanua (eight miles south-west of Fathpur-Sikri), waiting for Sindhia’s approach.
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Meantime, Muhammad Beg Hamadani had been engaged in fighting the petty chiefs all along the eastern border of the Jaipur and Macheri kingdoms,—Hindaun, Bhasāwar, Bālāheri, Kama and so on. Finding that Mahadji was victoriously pushing on from the south and Afrāsiyāb was advancing from the east, to join their forces near Fathpur, he now called in all his detachments and formed an entrenched camp guarded by artillery near Sayyidpurā, which is three miles east of Pichunā, at a point nine miles south of Bharatpur and eleven miles west of Fathpur-Sikri. This position enabled him to threaten the two roads from Khanua northwards to Bharatpur and westwards to Wer fort and the Jaipur frontier. He felt a justifiable contempt for Afrāsiyāb and begged Mahadji to stand neutral in this contest, as he was confident of defeating that "slave-child" (*ghulām bācha*) even against five-fold odds, if only unaided by the Marathas. In return, Hamadani offered to give Sindhia Agra fort and all the territory south of it after he had crushed his rival. But Mahadji was after much bigger game and rejected this petty bait; he advanced to Rupbās as promised.
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On 23rd October Afrāsiyāb visited Mahadji in his camp at Rupbās, and next day the Maratha chief returned the compliment. On 26th Oct., Afrāsiyāb paid a second visit to Sindhia, who presented to him the English officers in attendance on him,—Lt. James Anderson, Clerk and Stuart. The two principals held a secret discussion for hours together on their future plans. Afrāsiyāb passionately appealed to Sindhia to regulate the crumbling imperial State; he called Mahadji his father and urged him to save him by crushing Hamadāni. At a whisper from the diplomatic Himmat Bahadur, the Mir Bakhshi now promptly gave up those two disputed districts as a present to his new mother, Sindhia's wife! Thus everybody's face was saved, and Mahadji gladly cemented the alliance. It was agreed that the Marathas would blockade Muhammad Beg's camp, cut off its food supply and starve him into complete submission.*
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Already Mahadji's diplomacy had woven a net round Hamadāni. That free-booter had made every neighbour his enemy, and they hastened to help at his overthrow, now that the great Sindhia had come to attack him. Ranjit Singh of Bharatpur had been soliciting Sindhia to restore the fort of Dig to him for a tribute, and he was now doing everything in his power to please Mahadji. Rāni Kishori again came to the great man to supplicate for Suraj Mal's house, as she had done after the fall of Dig in 1776. Jat and Rajput troops invested Hamadāni's camp from the north and west, while Mahadji and Afrāsiyāb decided to advance and complete the ring on the east and south sides. Sindhia's camp and baggage remained with him at Rupbās, but he sent (on 31st October) Rayaji Patil and Jivaji Bakhshi with his advanced division of cavalry across the Utangan to take up a position a little west of Khanua, nearer to Hamadāni's camp. It was agreed that Afrāsiyāb's cavalry and guns would advance from their base at Khanua on 2nd November, join Rayaji's division and launch the offensive. Extreme scarcity raged in Hamadani's camp; many of his followers left him, several died of starvation, and he prepared for a desperate sortie rather than perish through hunger.
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∗ Br. Mus. Or. 25,021, f. 26-28 (news-letters). Ibrat. ii. Aiti Tipanen, v. p. 10. DC. Sadashiv Dinkar's letter of c. 17 Nov. in Atti. Sfuta Lekh, ii. No. 18.
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§ 20. Zain-ul-abidin murders Afrasiyab, 2 Nov. 1784.
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But the fate of Afrāsiyāb Khan was not to be decided by battle*. In the pride of undivided power he had given Mirzā Najaf's family and old servants the greatest provocation imaginable by demanding the hand of that chief's maiden daughter. As she had been betrothed to Shafi shortly before that general's assassination, this proposal from her father's slave was resented as a burning insult by Shafi's brother Zain-ul-abidin Khan. Emboldened by the nearness of the formidable Maratha army, Zain matured his plan of revenge on the insolent upstart more successfully than in his first attempt of April before.
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On 1st November, Afrāsiyāb Khan rode out of his camp at Khanua early in the morning with all his troops and captains, reconnoitred Muhammad Beg’s position, and returned after selecting the plain near Sayyidpurā (2½ miles west of Khanua) as the site of the decisive battle with his rival. Next day, he rode out to the place, but returned after putting the battle off to the following day. Dropping into Himmat Bahadur’s tent on his way back, he dismissed most of his tired followers and himself spent an hour there playing chess and bragging of the victory to come on the morrow. Then he returned to his own tent and sent away his remaining officers, with the exception of Zain and four others who lingered sitting down on the carpet. It was now past 11 o’clock, and Afrāsiyāb, quite at ease, took his coat and turban off and called for his luncheon to be served. A Mughal retainer of Zain who had mingled with the Mir Bakhshi’s servants, now handed him a petition, and as he was reading it the man stabbed him with a dagger from his shoulder down to his breast. The wounded general started up from his seat “like a half-slaughtered fowl”, tottered a few steps and then fell down senseless. The assassin was cut to pieces by the servants. In the confusion following the first blow, Zain-ul-abidin rushed out of the tent and mounting a fleet horse galloped to Māhādji’s camp where he reported that some one had killed Afrāsiyāb and that he had come there for safety lest he should be killed in suspicion for the crime. (2nd Nov.)
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∗ Murder of Afrasiyab.—Aiti Sfuta Lekh, ii. No. 18. B.M. 25,021, f. 30. Ibrat. ii. 88-89. G. Ali iii. 211-212. Muna Lal, 290. Chandra D. ii. 54, Forrest (Cal. ed.) iii. 1129. Browne's letters to G.G., 2 and 3 Nov. (I.R.O.)