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Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c40: Chapter XXXIV. The Jaipur State and the Imperial Government, 1778—1787

Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c40

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Chapter XXXIV. The Jaipur State and the Imperial Government, 1778—1787

§ 1. Jaipur history under Rajah Prithvi Singh, 1768—1778

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The reign of Sawāi Mādho Singh of Jaipur which had commenced in December 1750 with the tragic death of his predecessor and the national humiliation at the hands of the Marathas, ended eighteen year later (6th March 1768) amidst a blaze of glory caused by his defeat of the all-dreaded Jat Rajah Jawāhir Singh. His throne passed on to his elder son, Prithvi Singh, a boy of five, and the regency was held by his widowed queen, a daughter of Jaswant Singh Chundāwat, the baron of Deogarh in Mewar.

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During his reign Mādho Singh had raised three low-born favourites to the highest offices in the State: Khush-hāli Rām Bohrā, a Brahmin who had long been the porter of Ganges water to the king, was made prime minister and justified his elevation by his ability and devotion; Raj Singh Kachhwa, a common trooper who owned no horse of his own but was mounted at the cost of the State (i.e., a Ghor-charā or bārgir, as he is called), was made army chief (Senāni); and a Musalman elephant driver named Firuz was appointed receiver-general of the State revenue. Immediately after Madho Singh’s death, his father-in-law Jaswant came over to Jaipur and began to wield the regency on behalf of his grandson in concert with these three ministers.

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A minority is a perilous time among a proud and intractable race like the Rajputs, who cannot tolerate woman’s rule. The Kachhwa nobles chafed under the new administration of their country in which none of them had any lot or part. They conspired to overthrow it and establish their own control over the boy king and his State. These nobles formed two clan-groups; one was that of the Nāthāwats, ranged round the barons of Chomu (the premier peer of the realm) and Sāmod; while the second was formed by the Rājāwats under the barons of Jhalāi and some other places, these being the king’s blood relations and therefore standing nearest in the line of succession to the throne. But these two groups could not always unite even in a common hostility to the interloper from Deogarh and his Brahman ally. Further complication was introduced into the faction-struggle in Jaipur by the rebellion of the ever unruly Shekhāwats (especially the chief of Manoharpur) and the unbridled ambition and selfish treachery of Pratāp Singh Narukā, the baron of Mācheri. During the ten years of Prithvi Singh’s reign (7th March 1768—16th April 1778), the Kachhwa kingdom was free from Maratha incursions and Mughal interference alike, as these two enemies were kept busy by their own troubles ; but for all that this decade was a period of tumult and disruption in the mournful annals of that land.

§ 2. Rise of Pratap Singh Naruka; his doings at Jaipur

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Rāo Pratāp Singh, of the Narukā branch of the Kachhwas, was originally a petty vassal of the Jaipur State, owning only two and a half villages, from one of which he was known as the Mācheri-wālā. But his sleepless ambition and unscrupulous opportunism succeeded so well that before his death (in November 1790) he was recognized by the imperial Government as a Rajah fully independent of his tribal overlord, and he built up a kingdom which to-day embraces 3,158 square miles of territory. This Pratāp Singh early attracted notice by his intelligence and energy, which were in such striking contrast with the other Rajput nobles' opium-bemused stupor, occasionally varied by fits of blind animal fury in the field, that his envious rivals set Mādho Singh against him as a potential aspirant to his throne. The Narukā's life was attempted on the hunting field and he had to leave Jaipur and take refuge with the Jat Rajah. But he regained Mādho Singh's favour by returning to his side and fighting patriotically against Jawāhir in the Jat invasion of 1767-1768. The regency that followed immediately after was his first opportunity; he rapidly seized territories round the nucleus of his poor ancestral acres and built a number of forts, in the undefined borderland between Shekhāwati, Mewāt and the Jat-land. Next he allied himself, now to the Jat Rajah, now to Najaf Khan, as suited his interest for the time being, but was shrewd enough to always take the winning side. The result was that the grateful imperial generalissimo secured for him a confirmation of all his usurpations, the title of Rāo Rājah, a high imperial *mansab*, and a formal recognition of independence of his overlord of Jaipur. The other Narukās now accepted him as the head of their sept. Meantime he had not cut off his connection with Jaipur. Using the Bohrā’s party as his tool, he controlled the administration and gained everything that he desired without bearing the responsibility of any office in the State. His smooth tongue and ready power of deception beguiled every one at the capital, while he went on filching the border lands of the State.

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We shall pass over the humiliating history of Jaipur and its bloody faction fights during the nominal reign of Prithvi Singh and the changes in the Narukā’s position and policy at the capital; he was in the end left in supreme control, as the helpless people realised that he alone could save the royal house from Mughal greed and baronial anarchy alike. Pratāp Singh Narukā used his power to oust the dowager queen’s father and brother from the administration, got Firuz arrested, squeezed Rupees seven lakhs out of him as the price of his liberation, and confined Khush-hāli Rām Bohrā with the consent of the bewildered and helpless queen-mother. But these acts set every one at the capital against him, and the Narukā, in danger of assassination, one night secretly fled away from Jaipur (the second half of 1777).

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Next year Rāo Pratāp Singh was called upon to meet an invasion of his eastern frontier by Najaf Khan, who was bent on recovering the places in Mewāt lately usurped by the Narukā. His relations with Najaf, alternating between war submission and war again throughout the year 1778, have been described in Ch. 30 § 1-2. In 1779 the Mir Bakhshi, with a Jaipur army assisting him, pressed the Rāo Rājah so hard as to compel him to pay a visit of submission and to promise tribute. After Najaf Khan’s withdrawal to Delhi in November 1779, the Narukā chief secured the patronage of Najaf’s local agent, Muhammad Beg Hamadāni, and made him his intercessor with the imperial Government.

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The Jaipur Rajah Prithvi Singh died on 16th April 1778, being succeeded by his brother Sawāi Pratāp Singh, a boy of thirteen, and the affairs of that kingdom fell into worse confusion than before. When at the close of the year 1778 the Emperor marched into Jaipur in person, the Kachhwa Court sent Firuz with rich presents and some tribute to Najaf Khan’s camp to make peace. The faithless Narukā chief, then in attendance on the Mir Bakhshi, volunteered to promote his overlord’s interests and introduced Firuz to Najaf Khan, but afterwards lured the envoy to Agra and there got him murdered,* after which he seized all the wealth and other belongings of his victim.

§ 3. Minority of Sawai Pratap Singh: rivalry of the Bohra and Haldia ministers

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The history of the Kachhwa kingdom under Sawāi Pratāp Singh is a sickening tale. Even during the ten years’ rule of his predecessor a rapid decay had set in in that Government. As an eminent Rājasthani historian writes, “This Rajah was a minor, and hence the ladies sitting within the harem dominated the State affairs, with the result that mismanagement prevailed in the public administration” [Vir Vinod, p. 1306.] Matters became even worse at the accession of Pratāp Singh. His father Mādho Singh had, on his death-bed, advised his queen not to dismiss Khush-hālī Rām Bohrā as he was well versed in affairs and loyal to his master. But this minister had made many enemies among the hereditary nobles as he did not care to flatter fools. Their intrigues brought about his arrest and confinement in Amber fort. But in the hour of the country's danger from the treacherous attacks of the Narukā and the open threats of the Delhi Government, Khush-hālī Rām was felt to be the only man who could save it, and he was therefore released and restored to the head of the administration. Thus, we find him prime minister again at the accession of Pratāp Singh in April 1778 and then going on an embassy to the camp of Najaf Khan and to the Emperor's Court in order to make terms both for his own Rājah and the Narukā chief. Soon afterwards, he had to take the aid of an imperial force for punishing the ungrateful Narukā, as we have seen in Ch. 30, § 2.

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∗ Neither the Persian and Marathi records, nor the Rajasthani sources (so far as these last are known to me), give any support to Tod’s allegation that this elephant-driver Firuz played the Mazarin to the queen-mother of Jaipur, the Chundāwatni Rani. The British historian’s second statement that she was poisoned by the Narukā, is similarly without evidence. The Vamsha Bhāskar (p. 3886) merely states that she fell ill of an incurable malady and died some days after her two sons had arrived at her bed-side (probably in 1777). This does not look like poisoning.

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This expedition had a curious after-effect on the internal politics of Jaipur. Three Baniās of Khandelā in the Kachhwa State, named Daulat Rām, Khush-hālī Rām II, and Nand Ram, with their father Chhajju Rām, of the Haldiā family had migrated from the Jaipur Court and gone to Mācheri, where they had risen to the head of the administration and the charge of important forts. But by reason of their having spitefully counselled their new master not pay his debt to the Jaipur State and thus provoked the recent joint invasion, he in his hour of defeat threatened to imprison and plunder them. So the entire Haldiā family took shelter in Najaf’s camp (c. January 1779). Here Khush-hāli Rām Bohra took them under his protection, appointed Daulat Rām as his deputy at his master’s Court during his frequent absences on diplomatic missions, and posted his namesake, Khush-hāli Rām the Haldiā, as his agent in Najaf’s camp (c. March 1779).

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In a few months’ time Daulat Rām contrived to win the Rajah’s confidence and caused his patron the Bohrā to be thrown into prison (end of July. CPC. v. 1573.) But before the year was over, there was another turn in Fortune’s wheel at Jaipur: the Haldiā brothers fell into disfavour and had to flee to Najaf Khan to save their lives. From April 1780 to February 1781, Daulat Rām accompanied Mahbub Ali Khan in his invasion of Jaipur [Ch. 31. § 4], while his brother Khush-hāli Rām II attended at Delhi. This led to the release of the Bohrā, as he was found to be the only faithful and able diplomat left to the Kachhwas. On 8th March 1780, the Bohrā was deputed by the Jaipur Court as their wakil to negotiate with Najaf Khan for the tribute due and to stop the encroachments of the Narukā. But evidently he could do nothing with his limited powers and in the face of constant obstruction behind his back by his rivals at Court. Therefore, as Mahbub Ali’s invasion developed and he began to hammer at the gates of Jaipur, the Rajah bowed to necessity and on 18th October created the Bohrā the supreme regent of Jaipur with full authority over all the sardars, great and small. [Br. Mus. Or. 25,020 f. 50a, 25,021 f. 313b.]

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We may here briefly narrate the course of Khush-hālī Rām’s diplomacy towards the imperial Government at this time. He failed to avert the invasion of his country planned by Najaf Khan, because his master was neither willing nor able to pay the enormous arrears of tribute that had accumulated. As Mahbub Ali Khan advanced conquering, the Jaipur regent offered only Rs. 1,70,000 in cash and the rest in promises (17th Sept.),—an offer which Najaf Khan at once declined as utterly insufficient. Unable to stem the Muslim invasion, the Jaipur Court ordered Rodā Ram (originally a tailor and now the Rajah’s *khawās*) to go forth and oppose Mahbub Ali; but he did nothing. War is not a tailor’s business. Their next step was to solicit the Narukā to come to the rescue of his tribal head (30th Oct.). But the Rāo Rājah declined, saying that he had no faith in the Jaipur Government, as his life had been once attempted in that capital and at another time his lands had been wrested by Najaf Khan at their instance. Then Khush-hālī Rām Bohrā changed his policy, and tried to make terms with Mahbub, even offering to hire his force if he would help the Kachhwa State to recover the lands unlawfully seized by the Rāo Rājah. All this time the Narukā continued to raid and ravage Jaipur territory on the Shekhāwati border, and Khush-hāli Rām I was unable to check him with his weak contingent (March 1781.) Finally Mahbub Ali’s army broke up for want of money and Mirzā Najaf transferred the collection of the Jaipur tribute to Gosāin Himmat Bahadur once again. On 27th April 1781 the Gosāin interviewed the Jaipur Rajah through Khush-hāli Rām I and the following settlement was made: “Himmat Bahadur swore on Ganges water that he would never act against the Rajah of Jaipur. The Rajah made over to Himmat Bahadur *mahals* calculated to yield 12 lakhs of Rupees a year, one half of which was to be remitted to Najaf Khan and the other half spent in maintaining the troops kept there for the work of collection ; the imperialists were to set up their military posts there.”* Next month the Gosāin realised Rs. 75,000 and sent the amount to his master in Delhi, [*f. 335b.*] Daulat Rām Haldiā now returned to Jaipur and was appointed army chief (*bakhshi.*)

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At this time Himmat Bahadur helped the Jaipur State with his own contingent in defeating and capturing the Maratha mercenary Jaswant Rao Bāble, who had long served the Jaipur State, but being unpaid had tried to make himself forcibly master of Mālpurā and Todā on the ground that these were Solanki colonies and he was a Deccani Solanki (i.e., Chālukya, in Marathi Sulké): Bāblé's son Shambhuji was killed and all his war equipment and other property plundered. [Vamsha Bhās. 3889.] Jaipur hostility to the Rāo Rājah continued and the latter made Muhammad Beg Hamadāni his patron for a money consideration.

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∗ Najaf Khan, on receiving the report of this, angrily cried out, “Always mere words and evasive tricks! No money ever paid.” [Br. Mus. Or. 25,020, *f.* 221b.]

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This brings us to the middle of the year 1781. Immediately afterwards another palace revolution took place at Jaipur; Khush-hāli Rām Bohrā was thrown into prison and Daulat Rām Haldiā was re-appointed prime minister at the end of July 1781 [DY. i. 31.] The Haldiās governed the State for the next five years. But on 15th November, 1784, Khush-hāli Rām II (i.e., Haldiā) was murdered in Afrāsiyāb Khan's camp by an agent of the Mācheri Rājah. Daulat Rām fell from favour and his high office in April 1786 and migrated with his family to Lucknow. The Bohrā now became prime minister again. But his resurrection was short: in January next Daulat Rām returned and became the Rajah's favourite again by pursuing a bold foreign policy. Khush-hāli Rām was staying with Rāyāji Pātil, the tribute-collector left behind by Sindhia, when a murderous assault was made on him by his Rajah's order during a pretended parley. So, when Mahadji arrived at the end of March, the Bohrā sought refuge with him to save his life. [DY. i. 173, 200. HP. 476, 468.]

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§ 4. Character of Sawāi Pratāp Singh: disorder, maladministration and national weakness.

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This eternal seesaw in the choice of the first servant of the State, with its consequent suffering of the people, can be explained only by the character of the Kachhwa Rajah.* Sawāi Pratāp Singh had no brains, but was not harmless and quiescent like most other imbeciles; his folly burst out in capricious violence. Anticipating the decadent Nawabs of Oudh, he used to dress himself like a female, tie bells to his ankles and dance within the harem. His time was mostly devoted to drinking and attending songs and dances. When he issued from his palace, it was only for galloping through the streets or for visiting the temples out of idle curiosity rather than piety. Sometimes he would sally forth at night with the ruffianly companions of his wine-cup, raid the houses of the bankers and jewellers, beat them and snatch away their money! In addition to his unkingly and unmanly vices, his reckless speech and violent temper alienated the proud Rajput nobility and they left his capital for their seats in shame and disgust.

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∗ G. Ali, iii. 231. Br. Mus. Or. 25,020 f. 306, 25,021 f. 8. DY. i. 165. Jodhpur, Letter no. 2. HP. 411, 476.

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The public administration was utterly neglected. The State was ruled by officers who were their own masters and selfishly quarrelled among themselves. The young Rajah gave his personal favour with supreme power over his Government to a tailor named Rodā Rām (popularly called Rodoji,) because this man was in charge of the Rajah's food and drink and thus guarded him against poisoning. The second office in the State, though the first in theory, alternated between the old Brahman diwān Khush-hāli Rām Bohra (whom the Rajah disliked) and Daulat Rām Haldiā, a trader by caste. As a Maratha envoy truly reported, "I hear that the Jaipur Government has no money and no man in its royal family. The regent is a tailor, the second minister is a Brahman, the ex-purveyor of Ganges water. The rest are *baniās*. Thus is the Rajah's administration conducted! He has no troops." [DY. i. 165.]

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As early as June 1781 the nobles of the State had warned Sawāi Pratāp Singh, "Our kingdom is going out of our hands. You should apply some remedy to set it right." The Rajah's reply was, "You are the pillars of my State. Carry out any plan that you consider best." The diwan asked the leading barons to be always in attendance at the capital, pay their due revenue, carry out the orders of the Government and serve the State. The nobles, who were mostly their prince's clansmen and had fought loyally for his ancestors, could not bear the disgrace of taking their orders from the low men who now dominated the Court, and yet the Rajah refused to dismiss the tailor. So, the nobles kept away from the capital, even as late as April 1786, leaving the Rajah to his fate. The Shekhāwat vassals took to a more aggressive course and seized his territory near their estates.

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While thus abandoned by the warriors of his land, Sawāi Pratāp Singh also made Khush-hāli Bohrā his enemy. This old minister had a real affection for his former masters, Mādho Singh and Prithvi Singh. The last-named Rajah had left behind him a son Mān Singh, only six months old at the time of his death. But the little orphan's rights were set at nought by the late king's younger brother Pratāp Singh. To save the child from possible murder, Khush-hāli Rām contrived to send him away to his maternal grandfather's house in Kishangarh. This roused Sawāi Pratāp Singh to fury; he put Khush-hāli Rām in prison and declared Mān Singh a spurious child. But Mān Singh remained a pawn in the hands of those who wanted to save the Kachhwa kingdom by removing a sovereign who only disgraced his throne. Plans were constantly formed and appeals were made to Mahādji Sindhia in the name of the lawful heir of Jaipur to replace Pratāp Singh by Mān Singh with his armed help. The prime mover in these conspiracies was the Narukā Rāo Rājah who aspired to rule the State as guardian of the boy Mān Singh. Khush-hāli Rām Bohra inclined to these plots only when Sawāi Pratāp Singh made his life intolerable, i.e., after 1786. Mahādji, however, never seriously contemplated such a change, and he kept Mān Singh for the rest of his life at Vrindāvan on a jagir given by him.

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§ 5. Jaipur Rajah's tribute to Emperor unpaid.

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Mahādji Sindhia, as Mir Bakhshi, found himself burdened with the duty of collecting from the Jaipur Rajah the enormous dues of two different masters. The Jaipur State had, at different times in the past, bound itself to pay the Marathas large contributions, besides which quite recently (in 1779) the Rajah had promised to the Emperor 20 lakhs of Rupees as succession fine and tribute, payable through the medium of the Mir Bakhshi. Mahādji had to take this claim up among the first tasks of his new office. But the habitual conduct of the Kachhwa Government proved that nothing short of armed coercion and seizure of territory would secure any money from it.

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We have seem in Chapter 18, § 1 that the total contribution promised by the Jaipur Rajah to the Marathas in 1748-51 was 12 lakhs, and that in July 1757 Raghunath Dada and Holkar realised six lakhs out of it. In September 1758 Mādho Singh was coerced into promising 36 lakhs plus 3 lakhs more. Malhar Rao Holkar was unable to collect any portion of these dues either by his expedition of 1759 or by his viceroy at Mangrol in 1761. [§ 7-10.] But in 1765 the Jaipur Rajah made terms with Holkar and paid five lakhs down with bankers' bills for another four lakhs. [Ch. 24, § 12.]

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During the Emperor's march to Rajputana early in 1779, the Jaipur Rajah paid him two lakhs and promised a further sum of 20 lakhs by instalments [Ch. 30, § 3.] When these fell into arrears, Najaf sent Mahbub Ali to enforce payment, 1780-81, but without any success. Hence in March 1781 he sent Himmat Bahadur to Jaipur to try persuasion. The Gosāin secured one instalment of Rs. 75,000 and probably one more. But throughout the three years 1782-'84 nothing was paid by the Kachhwa king, who took advantage of the internal quarrels and weakness of the Delhi Government to defy it.

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Therefore, after crushing Muhammad Beg Hamadāni and making terms with the Rajahs of Bharatpur and Mācheri, Mahādji attacked the Jaipur frontier at Mahewa-Ramgarh. But Khush-hāli Rām Bohrā, now met him with peace offers, taking the place of his murdered namesake the Haldiā, as the agent of Jaipur in the imperial camp. The tribute was settled at 21 lakhs* and the envoy took his leave to raise the money, a Muslim officer of Afrāsiyāb’s service being sent with him (c. 25 Dec. 1784.) But throughout the year 1785 the Jaipur Rajah paid only three lakhs, when he saw the new imperial regent fully absorbed in a struggle with the refractory officers of Afrāsiyāb Khan and not yet firmly in the saddle as the executive head of the Delhi Government.

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∗ Two lakhs in cash and two lakhs in jewels, payable immediately. Ten lakhs by cession of territory, and seven lakhs ordered on the vassal nobles. The sebandi troops stationed for collecting the last item were to be chargeable on these nobles. [HP. 406. DY. i. 133.]

§ 6. Mahādji Sindhia’s first invasion of Jaipur 1786. Settlement of the tribute

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Aligarh capitulated on 20th November, and thus freed from his anxiety, Sindhia began (on 3rd January 1786) his march towards Jaipur, taking the Emperor with himself. Arrived near Dig he halted for over a month (10 Jan.—15 Feb.) trying to secure a peaceful payment through the mediation of the Narukā and the Bohrā. But the hope faded away, and at last the entire camp resumed its advance (on 15 Feb.), arriving near Lalsot on the first of the next month. The Rao Rajah of Mācheri had been sent on to Jaipur in advance. He returned with the Jaipur envoys, Bālāji Mahant (the spiritual guide of the late Rajah Mādho Singh) and the Bohrā minister on 6th March. Mahādji himself paid the first visit to Bālāji and prostrated himself before him. The Brahman in pontifical pride did not rise to welcome him, but graciously stretched his leg forward and the supreme lord of legions rubbed his forehead on the monk’s holy toes (8th March.)

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On the 10th discussions were opened. Last year, out of the tribute settled (21 lakhs), only three lakhs had been paid and certain parganahs (Hindaun &c.) with an estimated revenue of 10 lakhs ceded; these had been occupied on behalf of Sindhia by the Narukā and Najaf Quli Khan. The Jaipur envoy now begged Sindhia to release these lands and also to deduct from the tribute due an estimated compensation for the damage to the crops caused by the imperial army of occupation. [DY. i. 162.] The higgling was long protracted, and at times threatened to end in a rupture because of the double-dealing of the selfish Narukā. If Mahādji had agreed to the moderate sum offered by the Jaipur envoy, it would in all probability have been actually realised through the wise Khush-hāli Rām's influence and exertions. But the Narukā Pratāp Singh, unwilling to promote a peace which would make him disgorge Narnaul and other parganahs, cunningly set Mahādji against any reasonable settlement by advising him to rise absurdly high in his demands (to 60 lakhs), and told him that if he accepted any smaller sum after personally coming all the way from Dig to Jaipur and bringing the Emperor himself in his train, it would lower his prestige! He even suggested that, if the reigning king of Jaipur failed to find such a large sum, he should be deposed and Mān Singh set up on the throne, with the Narukā Pratāp as his guardian and regent, in return for which post he would pay Sindhia 50 lakhs. This selfish man's one aim was to perpetuate his hold on the Kachhwa kingdom by becoming the all-powerful Maratha's agent and representative there. In the course of time Mahādji realised that the Mācheri chief was a deceiver and mischief-maker, saying one thing to him and another to the Jaipur Rajah. [*Ibr.* ii. 156.]

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During the parleys, the Jaipur side offered ten lakhs in full clearance of all the arrears and including the present year's instalment of the tribute. But Mahādji said that the arrears had now reached a total of three krores and forty lakhs;—to which Khush-hāli Rām replied, "We have not even so many pebbles. Where can we find that number of rupees?" After much talk it was at last agreed by both sides that the Kachhwa kingdom should pay 63 lakhs (60 lakhs as *peshkash* and three lakhs as *darbar* charges), and out of this amount eleven lakhs were to be paid immediately (cash 7 lakhs, jewels 3 lakhs, elephants and horses 1 lakh),—ten lakhs were to be paid in six months' time, and twenty lakhs were to be provided by the cession of land; and the remaining 22 lakhs were covered by assignments on the revenue of the fiefs of the feudal barons. But the collections already made by the imperialists during their recent occupation were to be set off against the last item. [*DY.* i. 168. Satara ii. 254. *Ibr.* ii. 155.]

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These terms being settled, the Jaipur envoys paid three lakhs in cash and kind, and Khush-hālī Rām took his leave (on 20th April, 1786) to collect the balance of eight lakhs and thus liquidate the first instalment. At Jaipur, the Bohrā squeezed some money out of Rodā Rām khawās,—who had made hay while enjoying the sunshine of royal favour—and assessed the richer citizens individually for forced contributions. Payment was enforced by confinement. His dismissed rival, Daulat Rām Haldiā, then migrated to Oudh with his family. "Khush-hālī Rām, on becoming regent again, restored all the former officials to their posts and imprisoned the new ones [of the Haldiā party], released the bankers and other rich people then in confinement, reassured the citizens and made them reopen their shops." [*HP.* 476. *Aiti. Tip.* vi. 41.]

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The first quota of eleven lakhs having been fully discharged by the end of May, Sindhia left Rāyāji Pātil with a strong force, as well as Najaf Quli and the Mācheri Rajah, in that kingdom for collecting the second instalment of ten lakhs and the assignment for 22 lakhs on the baronial estates, and also for holding the ceded districts. Then he started on his return journey on 4th June, reaching Dig on the 20th. Two days later the Emperor set out for Delhi, and four days after him Mahādji moved to Mathura, where and at Vrindāvan a few miles north of it, he passed the next five months.

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§ 7. Sindhia's anxieties and money difficulties during 1786. His movements in January and February 1787.

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Throughout the year 1785 Mahadji had been worn out by harassing anxiety and opposition, and he had to make his position as Regent of the Empire good by capturing Dig, Agra and Aligarh, and to reopen the Deccan road by suppressing the troublesome Khichis of Rāghogarh. No doubt, at the beginning of 1786 the political sky in the north had cleared and he felt himself free to march to Jaipur and press the Rajah for the tribute due. But this year was a period of no less anxiety to the Maratha nation than the preceding one: their chief in Puna was engaged, with very inferior armed resources of his own and the lukewarm aid of a Haidarabad contingent, in a deadly contest with Tipu Sultan at the head of a superb cavalry and a matchless artillery worked by Frenchmen. And it was only on 26 February 1787, that this war was ended by the treaty of Gajendragarh. In addition to this long and serious entanglement which killed all hopes of his getting any support from his Central Government, Mahadji was involved in difficulties of his own,—a rupture with the British resident James Anderson over Faqir Khair-ud-din (March-May 1786), the revolt of Gosain Himmat Bahadur, and the encirclement of his general Khande Rao Hari in Bundelkhand (Oct.-Nov.) But towards the close of the year the situation had greatly eased, except for his money difficulties which became more and more hopeless.

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The portion of the Mughal Empire that still belonged to the Padishah was yielding no revenue: it had now shrunk into half the middle Doab and the Delhi-Agra districts. But even here much of the land had been alienated by Mirzā Najaf Khan as military fiefs. What little remained under the Crown had not yet recovered from the ravages of fifteen years' anarchy and civil war and the continuous drought of the last three years. Sindhia tried one chancellor after another in his attempt to raise a revenue from Hindustan; but he could as soon have drawn blood out of stone. This failure, which he wrongly ascribed to the negligence or peculation of his diwans, almost drove him mad and he wanted to see if more money would flow from his doing the diwan's work himself! Such an attempt meant in effect that he threw himself into the arms of irresponsible and incompetent low class officials or smooth-spoken cheats. Old men sadly noted this infatuation of the supreme executive head of an empire, but could do nothing to avert his ruin. By the end of 1786, the Emperor's monthly allowance of Rs. 1,30,000 was already five months due, the pay of the troops had fallen still more heavily into arrears. And during his long halt at Vrindavan Mahadji had lavished large sums on the temples and priests—in prayers for the gift of a son and heir.

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Finally leaving Vrindavan on 17th November, he arrived on the bank of the Jamuna at Chirghat, 15 miles northwards, close to the fortalice of Shergarh. As the Mewatis were disturbing the country to his west, he made a march in that direction and reached Nandgāon (15 miles south-west of Shergarh) about the 10th of December next. Here James Anderson took leave of him (13th Dec.) on retirement to England. Shortly afterwards Mahadji marched north-westwards into Mewat in order to overawe the rebels there, especially Murād Beg, a Mughal officer of the Najaf Khani service, whom Sindhia wanted to remove from the possession of Kishangarh fort (13 miles west of Firuzpur-Jhirka) and the governorship of Mewat. This having been peacefully effected, he turned north to Pinjor, 8 m. north of Hodal (c. 30th Dec.) so as to be nearer to Delhi and more speedily conclude his negotiations for bringing the Emperor to his camp, and also to check the Sikh raids into the north Delhi tract. An expedition against Ghulam Qadir, the successor of Zābita Khan, for the purpose of wresting the Saharanpur district from him, was also contemplated. In fact, Mahadji's mind was not yet made up: he meant to shape his policy according to the actual conduct of the Jaipur Government. In the neighbourhood of Hodal he lay encamped for the next two months. And here he received his two Delhi agents—Shah Nizāmuddin and Ladoji Deshmukh, whom the Emperor had sent (on 6th February 1787) to dun him for his outstanding allowances, now amounting to Rs. 8,40,000. It was no easy matter for Sindhia to find such a sum, and he detained the envoys for three weeks, after which he sent them back (27th Feb.) with bankers' bills for two lakhs payable at sight, assignments for five lakhs on the revenue of Mirat and other mahals, and a promise to pay up the balance of Rs. 1,40,000 in two months. The next day Sindhia set his face southwards for Dig, where he celebrated the Spring Carnival on 4th March, and then on the 16th of that month began the invasion of Jaipur in person.

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§ 8. How the Jaipur Government provoked invasion in 1787.

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When in June of the previous year Mahadji had retired from the Jaipur kingdom, he had left behind him Najaf Quli Khan and the Rao Rajah of Macheri to collect the promised tribute. Both of these agents were lukewarm in his cause, the first through habitual indolence and self-indulgence, and the second through the selfish design of enlarging his own State at the expense of Jaipur. Of his own men Sindhia had quartered a contingent under the faithful Rāyāji Pātil there, to collect the sums assigned upon the vassals of the Kachhwa kingdom. This force, a little over 5,000 Deccani horse, could do nothing decisive when matters came to a fight.

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The fact was, the Jaipur Rajah had no wish to pay anything. "Every time after great effort and the assembling of an army against him, a little money could be collected from him." [G. Ali, iii. 231, Ibr. 162.] Experience had also taught Sindhia that he could not put the necessary pressure upon the Rajah by means of his agents and that if he expected any substantial result he must go there in person.

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In addition to this persistent default, Rajah Sawai Pratap Singh had sent his ex-diwan Daulat Ram Haldia to Lucknow (May 1786) to intrigue for the hiring of an English force against the Marathas. This agent spent eight months there, and though the new Governor-General Lord Cornwallis definitely forbade any English intervention in the quarrels of the Indian States, some local British officials (like Kirkpatrick), out of alarm at Sindhia's designs in the Doab, encouraged Daulat Ram's hopes of armed aid from their Government. In January 1787, Haldia returned to Jaipur and was installed as prime minister once more, while Khush-hālī Rām Bohrā, who stood for friendly relations with the Marathas, fell out of favour. The Bohra's greatest crime in his master's eyes was his kindness to Mān Singh, the dispossessed legitimate heir, whom he was accused of trying to instal on the throne by the aid of Mahadji. [DY. i. 173, 220. PRC. 86.]

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Meantime Sindhia had proposed to the Jaipur Court a marriage between his little daughter and their young Rajah, but it was declined on account of the difference in caste between them. The Rajputs refused to recognise the Maratés as Kshatriyas of equal purity.

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With the return of Daulat Ram to power and on the strength of the rumours which he brought that the English were concentrating their forces in the Doab against Mahadji's eastern frontier, the Jaipur Government took up a vigorous policy of resistance. A close defensive alliance was formed with the neighbouring Rajah of Jodhpur, and the Kachhwa vassals everywhere were ordered to refuse payment of the sums assigned on them to Mahadji by last year's treaty and to resist the Marathas by force. The Rajah shut himself up in his capital and prepared to stand a siege, abandoning the idea of fighting the invaders in the open. The tortoise drew his head into his impenetrable shell and lay in motionless security there, shutting his eyes to his realm outside which lay bare to the invader's fury.

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Rayaji Patil and his colleagues had at first gained some successes and occupied some of the outlying parts of the Kachhwa kingdom. Then came the Rajput reaction. Towards the end of December 1786, he lost 700 men in an abortive assault on a local mud-fort. The situation became steadily worse after the return of Haldia, and at the end of February Mahadji had to send up a strong force under his Bakhshi Jivā Dādā to support Rāyāji. [*DY.* 173, 216, 199. *Ibr.* ii. 168. *PRC.* i. 80.]

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This brings us to March 1787. In the middle of that month Mahādji definitely set out on the invasion of Jaipur, for he had at last become convinced that nothing short of annexation of a portion of Jaipur territory would enable him to secure payment of the enormous contributions which the Kachhwa Rajah owed to the Emperor and to the Peshwa. We see repeated here the intolerable position of Dalhousie when confronted with the eternal default of the Nizām in paying for his subsidiary force.

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It was, however, after long hesitation that Mahadji chose to draw the sword. The Emperor, fearful of his own safety, wrote again and again urging his Regent not to advance beyond Dig with the bulk of his army, lest the English should swoop down upon defenceless Delhi and enthrone some princely puppet of their own, as they had already done in Bengal and Oudh. Such a suspicion was strengthened by the recent massing of English troops on the Doab frontier of Oudh, as far as Farrukhabad where no European infantry had been seen before this. [*DY.* i. 213, 220. G. Ali iii. 231. *ML.* 301. *PRC.* i. 99.]

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At first, so long as Sindhia did not lose all hope of getting any money from Jaipur through his agents, his chief concern was to protect the north Delhi region from the Sikhs by sending a strong force there under Ambaji Inglé and also to hire the Sikh leaders for an invasion of Saharanpur in order to exact tribute from Ghulam Qadir Khan. But Ambaji totally failed in the second part of his mission, and the fear of British intervention from the Fathgarh camp made Mahadji finally give up his ambitions in the upper Doab. [PRC. i. 77, 78.]

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At Jaipur, too, his earlier hopes faded away as completely, and this enforced on him a policy of active aggression. In December 1786 the power of that kingdom had reached its low ebb from the lack of a policy and a leader to enforce it, dissensions among the nobles in the capital, and a temporary coolness with its only ally the Jodhpur Rajah whom Sindhia’s agents had approached with success. Matters came to such a pass that in the middle of January next the discontented and long unpaid generals of the Kachhwa State agreed to open the gates of the capital and admit the Maratha troops for a bribe of Rs. 80,000. But the plot did not mature. Daulat Ram Haldiā returned from Lucknow a few days afterwards, the pro-Maratha faction among the Rajah’s nobles was crushed and Haldiā became prime minister once more, bent on pursuing an open anti-Maratha policy (c. 20 January.) The quarrel with Jodhpur was quickly made up and armed preparations for defence were pushed on. Rāyāji Pātil’s position was rendered still weaker by the enemy’s busy seduction of his faithless Mughalia contingent with promises to pay their arrears of salary. He, therefore, wrote “daily urging his master to advance speedily to his support.” [Ibr. ii. 163. PRC. i. 71, 82.]

§ 9. Sindhia’s march into Jaipur; attempts at compromise

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Mahadji took prompt action. Leaving Dig on 16th March and making daily marches without a halt, he reached Dāosā on the 24th. This place lies 32 miles east of Jaipur; the advanced division of the Maratha army under Rāyāji, stood near Sangāner, seven miles south of the Kachhwā capital. But seemingly diplomacy had not yet been exhausted. Peace envoys from Jaipur attended Mahadji’s camp discussing the amount of their tribute. But there was a conflict of counsel in his inner circle: the ever-sober Rānā Khan and the practical Rāyāji Pātil pressed him to accept a moderate tribute by way of compromise and retire immediately from Rajputana so as to avoid the increasing summer heat and to overawe his many secret enemies by occupying a more central position like Mathura. But the Rao Rajah and Khush-hali Ram appealed to his vanity by pointing out that after coming to the gates of Jaipur in person he could not, consistently with his dignity, retire with only the small tribute which had been offered to his servants before. The Macheri chief knew that if Sindhia got only a trifle from Jaipur he would try to recoup himself for the heavy expenses of this expedition by seizing Macheri territory. And Khush-hali Ram Bohra knew that with the coming back of his Haldia rival he had lost all his posts and property in Jaipur and could not return there and remain alive. These two therefore fed Mahadji’s ambition and pride by assuring him that at his mere appearance before the gates of Jaipur that city would fall in terror of his arms and that he would be able to annex the whole Kachhwa kingdom to his own dominions which would then stretch in unbroken extent from Ujjain to Delhi and from the Ganges to Ajmir. Faced by these two rival policies, Mahadji Sindhia seemed to have lost for a time his political vision and sense of reality. “He came under unlucky stars and his eyes were clouded by sloth,” as his admirer Khair-ud-din admits. He cried out in exasperation at the Jaipur Rajahs persistent breach of faith that he would “empty the Jaipur capital of its defenders and seize it, as he had done Gwalior and Gohad.” [Ibr. iii. 3, DY. i. 210.] The Rao Rajah and Khush-hali Ram and the other Jaipur refugees, having wormed their way into Mahadji’s confidence, proposed to him to make Mān Singh Rajah of half the Kachhwa kingdom as a Maratha *protegee* and rival to Sawai Pratap Singh. They themselves would act as his regents and recompense Sindhia for his armed aid by giving him bonds for the regular payment of the fixed tribute in future. [DY. i. 201.]

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In another way, too, a peaceful settlement was rendered impossible by the stiffening of the Jaipur attitude, as allies began to gather for the defence of that State. Pratap Singh, through his favourite Rodā Rām (ex-tailor), informed Sindhia, "The arrears of past tribute amount to 12 lakhs. Out of this, take four lakhs down, two lakhs more will be paid in July, and the remaining moiety of six lakhs will be discharged by the assignment of land." But he did not really mean to keep his word; on 7th April his envoys abruptly left the Maratha camp without coming to any settlement or even taking formal leave. [*DY.* 201, 211. *PRC.* i. p. 169.] Mahadji in anger expelled every Jaipur agent and news-writer from his camp and next day made a rapid march westwards to Bhānkri, which is only 13 miles from Jaipur, in order to increase his pressure on the Rajah. His vanguard, under Rayaji, now advanced from his post at Sanganer seven miles south of Jaipur to the gates of that city.

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But this distant demonstration of force produced no result. The tortoise would not move nor even stretch its neck out of its shell. So, Mahadji stooped to invite the Jaipur envoys back to his camp at Bhānkri. They returned on 14th April, but the terms they offered were even more unsatisfactory than before and no Regent of the Empire could accept them with honour: "The Jaipur Rajah offered four lakhs immediately and demanded the surrender of Khush-hali Ram Bohra to him, after which he would clear the balance of the tribute. Mahadji refused to set off against his claims anything on the ground of damage to crops (*pāi-māli*) by his troops, or to surrender the Bohra. Hence a rupture took place.” [Hingane’s despatch, *DY.* i. 220. *PRC.* i. p. 169.]

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CHAPTER XXXV

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THE LALSOT CAMPAIGN, 1787.

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§ 1. Second stage of campaign: Mahadji retires from before Jaipur, May 1787.

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Nothing was now left to Sindhia but to throw his sword into the scale. But even for a trial of arms his relative superiority had vanished during this delay. Thanks to Daulat Ram’s vigorous action, the Jaipur Rajah had had time to assemble his feudal levies, numbering about 20,000. His ally of Jodhpur sent to him 5,000 of the wild Rathor horse, and 5000 mercenary Naga musketeers under his general Bhim Singh. [DY. 201, 200.] Worst of all, the Jaipur diwan was meeting with success in seducing the old Najaf Khani troops, both Mughalia horse and Hindustani sepoys, now under Sindhia’s banners. The allied Rajputs now put a bold face on, and issuing from the capital (1st May) encamped some miles south of it, in order to bar any further Maratha advance. Their Rajah himself joined this camp on the 2nd. “Sindhia became at length convinced that he had grasped at too many objects together, and he secretly acknowledged his indiscretion in having underrated the strength of the Rajput confederacy and overvalued . . . the fame and dread of his power.” [Kirkpatrick in PRC. i. p. 180.] So, he judged it unsafe to remain near Jaipur, and adopted the plan of seizing the forts of the Kachhwa Rajah's vassals and annexing their baronies. [DY. 201, 200, 220.]

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Recalling Rāyāji Pātil from his advanced position near Sangāner, Mahadji (on 5-7 May) fell back from Bhānkri to Sawlia twenty miles southwards. This place is only 20 miles to the west of Lalsot. He publicly declared that in thus falling back his object was to draw the Rajputs into the open country where he would be able to engage them with greater advantage. But the Rajputs were rightly exultant at this movement of their enemy. The strategic march to the rear had exposed the weakness of Mahadji; with all his vast forces and artillery and European-led battalions, he had been forced to retreat without obtaining a single Rupee from their Rajah. The enemy army had by this time swollen to 40,000 men. All the country was up in tumult; outside the Maratha camp the roads could not be traversed in safety; all caravans were being looted on the way. [DY. i. 200. PRC. i. pp. 180-186.]

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By this move Sindhia had interposed himself between the main Jaipur army (now at Sangāner) and the southern districts of that kingdom. He next marched through the latter region, raiding and levying contribution, and seizing forts like Jhālāi, Navai &c., till he reached the Banās river near Sārsop, close to the Bundi frontier. Meantime, his Hindustani and Mughalia troops continued to desert him everyday, though in small numbers. On the 6th of May, two eminent captains, Zulfiqār Ali Khan and Mansur Ali Khan, secretly went over to the enemy with their forces. The climax came on the 25th of that month when the greatest Mughalia general, Muhammad Beg Hamadāni joined the Rajah of Jaipur, to the intense terror and despair of the Maratha army. He was promised Rs. 3000 a day and given a royal welcome by his new master who made him the leader of the defence, as his unquestionable ability and fame deserved. [DY. i. 220, 221. DC.]

§ 2. Third stage of campaign: Muhammad Beg Hamadani's desertion; Sindhia retreats eastwards

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Muhammad Beg's defection enforced a total change of plan on Mahadji. He could not trust a single Hindustani soldier after this. It now became a question with him how to save his life and the honour of his women who had come with him. Even more painful was the blow to his prestige; a retreat into safety was still possible, but such a confession of failure would make him the laughing stock of Hindustan and of the Puna Court alike and dissolve his newly created power over the imperial Government. He therefore sent off urgent orders to Khande Rao Hari and Ambaji Ingle to hasten to his aid with their divisions and appealed to the Emperor to issue from Delhi and join his camp in order to lend the prestige of his name to his Regent's acts. He fell back from the neighbourhood of Sārsop to Piplāi, 15 miles south-east of Lalsot, arriving there on the 4th of June.

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As soon as the invading army began its retreat, the Rajputs advanced from Sanganer and and on the 10th of that month their Rajah occupied Madhogarh, 17 miles north-west of Lalsot. Two days later they pushed a strong detachment on to Daosa, thus blocking Sindhia's northern path of retreat, viâ Balahari and Dig, to Agra and Delhi, and menacing the kingdom of his ally the Rao Rajah of Macheri, which was thus laid utterly bare of defence.

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The Jaipur Rajah having come out of his capital gave Sindhia the opportunity of a fight in the open for which he had been longing. The Rao Rajah gave assurances that by a bold dash on the now poorly guarded Kachhwa capital the Marathas could seize it or secure its evacuation by corrupting its garrison. For a fortnight after Muhammad Beg's defection the enemy took no vigorous offensive, but wasted their opportunity in idle talk while their slender money resources were quickly drained and a quarrel broke out with their Rathor allies about the promised war expenses. [PRC. i. 115, 118, 119.]

§ 3. Fourth stage: Sindhia advances again, reaches Lalsot

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Sindhia therefore determined to put a bold face on it. Giving up all ideas of retreat, he countermarched towards the enemy position, arriving a few miles south of Lālsot (probably at Bhaiā kā Bāgh) on 15th June. On the same day the Rajput force at Dāosa pushed a detachment southwards to occupy Ramgarh, which is only 6 miles north-west of Lalsot, thus threatening to oppose the Maratha advance through the latter pass and to pin the invaders down to the dry circuitous route south of it for their communication with Agra.

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But though Mahadji had boldly turned at bay, he was really not in a position to risk an action. There was constant and increasing desertion from his North Indian contingent owing to famine prices (wheat selling in his camp at six seers to the Rupee) and his long default in paying their salary. His own faithful Deccani troops cherished a rooted distrust of their North Indian allies and ever stood on the guard against any treacherous attack from that side of the camp. Every one said that on the day of action these Hindustanis would go over to the enemy and turn suddenly upon their professed comrades. Sindhia was therefore forced to put off an action and bide his time till he should be joined by the trusty detachments he had recalled to his aid. These were two: Khande Rao's division in Bundelkhand, consisting of 10,000 hard-bitten veterans and the two disciplined sepoy battalions of De Boigne with their excellent artillery,—and Ambaji Ingle's army, then posted in the Karnal district, nominally 15,000 strong with guns. The latter was also expected to bring with himself a strong force of hired Sikh cavalry. Ambaji started from Patiala on 7th June but was greatly delayed on the way by heavy rain and local hostility, so that it was as late as the 16th of the next month when he could ride into Mahadji’s camp, and that too after leaving his entire force straggling several days’ march behind, near Kot-Putli. [PRC. i. 117, 122, 124, 129.]

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