Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c39.s3: § 5. Mahadji's attitude towards Afrasiyab's family: their duplicity and hostility
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c39.s3
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§ 5. Mahadji's attitude towards Afrasiyab's family: their duplicity and hostility
v3.c39.s3.1
The next step was to gain Aligarh fort. In order to be nearer to this place, Sindhia marched up the river to Mathura (arrival 11th April.) At this holy city, and later at Chir-ghat, 20 miles north of it, he was detained for the next eight months by the long-drawn contest for Aligarh. His hope of securing this place smoothly by persuasion was doomed to a still more cruel disappointment than in the case of Agra. He had from the first treated Afrasiyab's widows and orphan with every consideration. Shortly after the murder of the Khan he had publicly declared to Narayandas, "I intend to plant Afrasiyab's son on the *masnad*, persuade the Emperor to take the boy into his favour, collect the subsidy promised to me, and then go back to the Deccan". [Or. 25,021 *f.* 33a. *HP.* 606]
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This was his design till the middle of November. All his acts showed that he valued his solid new conquests in Malwa more than the empty dignity of the regency of an insolvent empire. Even when the Emperor threw himself upon Mahadji’s neck and entreated him to save the State by undertaking to be its helmsman, the Maratha general hesitated for a full fortnight, till the hopeless disruption around forced his hands and he at last realised that the guidance of such a realm could not be left to an infant of three, with the Kashmiri servants of his household acting vicariously for him. Such a step would complete the downfall of the imperial power and at once bring the English to Delhi as keepers of the Emperor’s person and entitle them to exercise the *de facto* suzerainty of the empire of India in his name,—a policy which was then being openly pursued under Mahadji’s eyes by Major Browne, the British agent accredited to the Delhi Court. But that was the very danger which the Peshwa had been urging Sindhia in letter after letter for three years past to do his best to avert.
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∗ Capture of Agra fort.—*DC.* *HP.* 354, 359, 365, *DY.* i. 128, 130, *Ibr.* ii. 105. Browne's letter. *PRC.* i. 10-12.
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The regency of Delhi was, therefore, forced upon Sindhia, but he manfully shouldered the burden. He had no wish to ill-treat Afrāsiyāb’s family if they acted honestly by the State and delivered without concealment or theft the public property in the late Regent’s keeping. Immediately after his first conference with the Emperor (on 17th November 1784), he had caused the title of Husain-ud-daulah Khādim Husain Khan Bahādur Ghālib Jang to be bestowed on Afrāsiyāb’s son. Next, from Halena (middle of December) he detached an escort to bring this child to the imperial camp with due care and honour. On his arrival, Mahadji paid a formal visit to his tent to offer condolences for his father’s death (18th January 1785.) A little later on the next coronation anniversary (3rd April) the boy was raised by the Emperor at Mahadji’s prayer, to the dignity of Ashraf-ud-daulah II (his father’s title) and granted fiefs worth four lakhs a year. He expected that the child’s guardians would, in return, deal with him in a fair and friendly manner. But they were determined to grasp at everything and cheat the infidel from the South. [DC. Ibr. ii. 96.]
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§ 6. Siege of Aligarh. Surrender on 20 Nov. 1785.
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Arrived near Agra, Mahadji called upon Afrāsiyāb’s family in Aligarh to surrender that fort with the Government property in it. They outwardly professed readiness to comply and demanded another strong place and a jagir for their support, but secretly prepared for resistance.* The qiladar Jahangir Khan (the late Mir Bakhshi’s brother) was receiving secret letters of encouragement and promises of aid from the
v3.c39.s3.7
[^ *]: Siege of Aligarh.—PRC. i. 12-19. HP. 363, 373, 381, 407, 411, 446. Ibr. ii. 105-106, 148. DY. i. 140, 141, 112. DC. G. Ali, iii. 215.
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Mughal officers now under Sindhia and even from Himmat Bahadur, which stiffened his back, and he sent frantic appeals for help to the Nawab of Oudh and Sir John Cummings, the general commanding the English brigade at Anupshahar. To the Nawab Wazir he wrote, "If this strong fort on the Oudh frontier is secured by the Deccanis, it would be a standing menace to your dominions, as it would be very easy for them to raid Oudh territory from it. If you help me to keep this fort and the little territory now held by me, I shall give you half of the hoards within it accumulated by Najaf and Shafi, Afrāsiyāb and others during their lifetime. I shall also pay your military expenses. If you wish for it, I shall deliver this fort to the English and live as a mere zamindar of this tract paying you revenue." [Ibr. DY. i. 171, 140.]
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Sir John Cummings, on his own initiative, marched from his cantonment (1 April) and took post at Atrauli, sixteen miles north-east of Aligarh, to watch the Maratha movements. He even admitted Jahangir Khan to an interview and thus backed him in his defiance of his master's authority. This unexpected and unjustifiable threat of British intervention caused the greatest alarm and perplexity to Sindhia and correspondingly emboldened his enemies on all sides. He protested to his Resident James Anderson, who secured an order from the Governor-General recalling Cummings to his own station. Cummings withdrew to Karanbās (21st April), and thus one threatening cloud blew over.
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Mahadji had at first sent Mirzā Anwār Beg (the brother of his favourite confidant Mirzā Rahim Beg) to the Doab to see if Aligarh would be peacefully vacated; but this officer's escort, a thousand horse only, was too small even to protect him, and his fears grew tenfold when he heard of the English brigade coming to the aid of Jahangir Khan. So, he did not venture to approach even within 20 miles of that fort (early April 1785.) Meantime Agra had fallen. Sindhia now conciliated Shujā-dil Khān and his cousin Bayazid with costly gifts and sent them to Aligarh to try their influence on their kinsman Jahangir Khan. They returned unsuccessful. Next, the fear of embroilment with the British troops being then over, he detached a force of 5000 horse under Rayaji Patil to attack Aligarh. But by this time the summer was well advanced, there was a great scarcity of water for ten miles round Aligarh. In May a severe epidemic of cholera desolated the country, "men fell down dead while walking on the roads." Worst of all, Sindhia had exhausted his funds and could not discharge the heavy arrear salaries of his army; "no soldier who was not paid his dues would agree to march across the Jamuna on this campaign."
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However, Rayaji at last arrived on the scene and opened the siege. Jahangir Khan boldly assumed the offensive, as the best form of defence ; he made repeated sorties and attacked the Marathas. On 20th July he sallied forth from the walled city of Koil,—three miles distant from the fort of Aligarh,—and fell upon the Maratha army. Rayaji, after a desperate hand to hand fight, in which he lost 400 men in killed and wounded, repulsed the attack and advancing stormed Koil, from which the disheartened garrison fled away, abandoning all of their forty pieces of cannon and other war material. This city now became the besiegers' base and they advanced closer to Aligarh, running trenches towards its walls. The situation in early August is thus described in a Marathi despatch, "The fort is blockaded ; our piquets are posted one kos off all around it. But it is a strong place and can hold out for a long time." The exceptionally heavy and ceaseless rain of this year's monsoon troubled the besiegers worse than the summer heat had done before. The Jamuna rose in high flood, interrupting the boat traffic between Mahadji's camp and the besieging army. Jahangir Khan continued to make sallies and raid the siege trenches. Sindhia retaliated by confiscating his property and imprisoning his relatives wherever found. [Ibr. ii. 148.]
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As the siege of Aligarh dragged on into winter and Sindhia's prestige suffered in consequence, he decided to bring the Emperor out of Delhi and try the effect of his personal appearance before the defiant fort. So, on 12th October, he left Mathura and on 10th November met the Emperor, who had come from Delhi at his entreaty, at Banchari (five miles north of Hodal). On the 17th of that month the two together came to the camp at Chirghat, 20 miles north of Mathura, and there halted for nearly two months.
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Jahangir Khan now found resistance useless. He made terms through Lachhman Rao and vacated Aligarh fort, which Sindhia’s men occupied on 20th November. The spoils found there included 65 large pieces of artillery, one mortar (for throwing shells), 1,600 maunds of powder and 1,000 maunds of lead, besides a few sacks of grain,—but only Rs. 40,000 in cash and jewels (which sum was divided equally between the Emperor and his regent.)