Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c39.s5.10

v3.c39.s5.10

Himmat Bahadur lacked personal courage and bore a low character for his faithlessness and love of secret intrigue. He had risen very high in Najaf Khan's favour and become that regent's principal adviser and agent in dealing with the Hindu princes. After Najaf’s death, he took Afrāsiyāb’s side in the struggle for the regency, and hence during Afrāsiyāb’s period of power (Oct. 1783—Oct. 1784), Himmat Bahadur was all in all as the manager of the new regent’s policy and foreign relations. Working hand in glove with Nārāyandās, the diwan of Afrāsiyāb’s private estates and household, Himmat Bahadur became the real power behind the throne, without holding any office of State. He bore a deadly hostility to Mirzā Md. Shafi and also to Md. Beg Hamadāni, because these two blocked his patron’s path, and so he contrived the conspiracy for the murder of Shafi (1783). Thereafter, with the object of suppressing the last remaining rival of Afrāsiyāb, he patiently wove his web and induced Mahadji Sindhia to come to Rupbās in support of the Khan.