Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c39.s4: § 7. Punishment of the treacherous partisans of Afrāsiyāb Khan
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c39.s4
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§ 7. Punishment of the treacherous partisans of Afrāsiyāb Khan
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On 28th November, Jahangir Khan came to Mahadji’s camp and was presented to the Emperor. The fort of Mursan was assigned to Afrāsiyāb’s widows and son with a jagir worth Rs. 1,10,000 per annum. Jahangir Khan was given a jagir of half a lakh, but no fort. The total revenue of the lands now granted to this family was 2½ lakhs. It was a clear condition of the terms granted to him that he “should retain possession of all his private property, but must give an account of all the property belonging to the late Amir-ul-umara." [Anderson, in *PRC.* i. p. 31.] It was admitted on all hands that the accumulations of four successive regents had gone to form the treasure of Afrāsiyāb and had been deposited by him in Aligarh. But now the victors found only Rs. 40,000 there. Jewels of known description which the Emperor had formerly entrusted to Najaf* and Afrāsiyāb for raising money could not be traced among these. The only answer which Jahangir Khan and the Begams gave was to profess their own ignorance and throw the entire responsibility on the late Mir Bakhshi's diwan Narayandas and lieutenant Shujā-dil Khan. [Ibr. ii. 151, *DY*, i. 141.] But it was proved that during the late siege of Aligarh, Jahangir Khan had been constantly smuggling out of the fort all portable valuables to Oudh territory through the trusty old servants of the house,—the maid Annāji, Saif Khan and a Hindu clerk named Bhawāni Prasād.
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Sindhia was exasperated by this faithlessness; moreover, failure to recover the Emperor's jewels exposed him to disgrace before his sovereign and the suspicion that he had himself secreted the richer spoils instead of sharing them with the Emperor. This was the very charge made against the Marathas after the capture of Pathargarh 13 years earlier. Persuasion having failed, Sindhia on 17th December placed Jahangir Khan in confinement and (on the 25th) brought Afrasiyab Khan’s widows under arrest from Mursan to his camp. Their persons and tents were searched by female servants, and some jewels were recovered, (which Sindhia divided with the Emperor.) The captives now delivered to Mahadji the secret letters of Narayandas and Himmat Bahadur urging Jahangir Khan to hold Aligarh and resist Sindhia to the utmost. The late Mir Bakhshi’s diwan was therefore imprisoned, his family, living in Agra city, was arrested, and their property attached [c. 1 January, 1786. DC. Ibr. ii. 151-154.]
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∗ Anderson in his letter of 19th Dec. imagined that it was a "pretence" on the part of Shah Alam; but the contemporary records of Najaf Khan's regency [Br. Mus. Or. 25, 021, *f.* 204 *b*] prove that it was a fact. *H.P.* 446.
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§ 8. Sindhia’s first dealings with the Sikhs, 1785.
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At the beginning of 1785, while Sindhia was trying to secure the peaceful possession of Agra, he had to think also of Delhi and its defence. On 19th January he got his lieutenant Ambaji Inglé appointed faujdar of the district north of the capital and collector of customs, and sent him off with a strong force and the Macheri chief to establish the new regent’s authority in Delhi and protect it from the Sikhs who were expected to make a swoop upon that kingless city. Najaf Quli Khan, who was governing Delhi for Afrāsiyāb, now gave peaceful possession (11th February), and Ambaji posted his own guards at the gates. [DC. DY. i. 128.] The Gujars had been plundering the environs of the capital during the anarchy following the death of Najaf Khan and they had redoubled their disturbances after the murder of Afrāsiyāb. Ambaji subdued them by his rapid and ruthless blows. Surrounding a party of them in a village near Surajpurā, he slew 200 of the men and dragged the rest to Delhi to be executed by the police in public. Then he blockaded a hill near Kālikā, but most of its Gujar population escaped through the cordon at night. After four or five Gujar villages had been sacked and their male population slaughtered, the predatory tribe took to a more peaceful life.
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Then Ambāji marched north on his main mission which was to make a settlement with the Sikhs. He halted at Bakhtāwarpur, 13 miles north of Delhi. Nine Sikh sardars of the Panipat region with whom he had already opened parleys, came and visited him here (27th March).
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It was agreed that two of their leaders,—Dulcha Singh and Mohan Singh—should visit Sindhia and confirm the alliance. The terms of Najaf Khan's pact with them were that they would levy their blackmail (rākhi) from the villages where it had been customary before, but should not raid any imperial territory. [Ch. 31 § 5.] Mahadji demanded that they should give up levying rākhi on any Crownland, but must take possession of the jagirs that he offered them at the expense of the Jaipur Rajah, and that they should serve with 5,000 horse in the wars of the Empire. [*HP.* 373, 381, *contra DY.* i. 111, 134, 135. *Raj.* xii. 41.] This arrangement did not touch the Doab, but provided for the safety of the district from Delhi northwards to Panipat. With these two sardars and a light escort Ambaji made a rapid march to Mathura and interviewed his master (on 10th April.) The Sikh chiefs lived in that camp for some time and were given their *congee* about the 10th of June. [*PRC.* i. 14, 15.]