Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s3: § 3. How Shāh Nizāmuddin starved the Emperor
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s3
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§ 3. How Shāh Nizāmuddin starved the Emperor
v4.c55.s3.1
A friend of General De Boigne, in a letter written from Delhi to Colonel John Murray about July 1794, thus describes Shāhji’s scurvy treatment of his imperial ward: —
v4.c55.s3.2
“Sindhiā sets Shāh Nizām-ud-din over the Pādishāh as the greatest scoundrel they could find. He does not give a farthing of money to the Pādishāh or any of his people. . . . Regularly every day he furnishes the old king with two *seers* of *pilau* and eight *seers* of meat; this with two loaves of bread, about the length each of a cubit, to suffice for five persons,—(namely the Emperor, his doctor, Prince Akbar Shah, a little favourite daughter, and one of his 200 *begams* in turn.) The rest of the royal household, without distinction, Princes and Princesses, nay Queens and all eunuchs and female slaves, have two *seers* a day of barley flour for every three persons, which they are to bake for themselves. . . . The old Nizām of Hyderabad sent the King six years ago 6,000 gold *mohars*. They every farthing got into the Cowrie Father’s hands, and remain there”.
v4.c55.s3.3
S., on 20 April 1795, when his son Bahadur S. succeeded him. Bhawāni evidently bore the title of Kumar Bahadur or Bahadur S. (corrected from *DC.* and *Kālé Akh.*)
v4.c55.s3.4
De Boigne's reply written on 12th March 1795, though discounting a part of the above picture as "somewhat exaggerated," confirms the story of Shāhji's greed. He writes:—"The province (i.e., jāgir) in Shāhji's possession intended for the support of the royal family may produce about seven lakhs per annum. . . . Shāhji takes the greatest part of it for himself, and a great deal must be given to the Marātha chiefs, to be supported and continued in his office." [Compton, 83-86.]
v4.c55.s3.5
Nizām-ud-din's peculation of his sovereign's dues was made more unpalatable by his harshness of speech. In pontifical pride, heightened by his consciousness of power as the confidant of the Emperor's regent, this Cowrie Faqir addressed Shah Alam and his sons with a roughness of tongue which moved the helpless Emperor to tears and the young princes to ill-suppressed rage. The Marātha despatches from Delhi again and again describe Shāhji as sakht-go or harsh of speech, and the Persian news-letters repeatedly mention his chiding of the royal family.