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The Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan..................................................................................................1

Two editions of this book having been absorbed, it has been thought that the time was come for its

reproduction in a form more adapted to the use of students. Opportunity has been taken to introduce

The rise and meridian of the Moghul Empire have been related in Elphinstone's " History of India: the Hindu

and Mahometan Period; " and a Special Study of the subject will Also be found in the " Sketch of the History

of Hindustan" published by the present writer in 1885. Neither of those works, however, undertakes to give a

detailed account of the great Anarchy that marked the conclusion of the eighteenth century, the dark time that

came before the dawn of British power in the land of the Moghul. Nor is there is any other complete English

The present work is, therefore, to be regarded as a monograph on the condition of the capital and

neighbouring territories, from the murder of Alamgir II. in 1759 to the occupation of Dehli by Lake in 1803.

Some introductory chapters are prefixed, with the view of showing how these events were prepared; and an

account of the campaign of 17601 has been added, because it does not seem to have been hitherto related on

a scale proportioned to its importance. That short but desperate struggle is interesting as the last episode of

medi�val war, when battles could be decided by the action of mounted men in armour. It is also the sine qua

non of British Empire in India. Had the Mahrattas not been conquered then, it is exceedingly doubtful if the

The author would wish to conclude this brief explanation by reproducing the remarks which concluded the

"There were two dangers," it was there observed; "the first, that of giving too much importance to the period;

the second, that of attempting to illustrate it by stories such as those of Clive and Hastings which had

been told by writers with whom competition was out of the question. Brevity, therefore, is studied; and what

may seem baldness will be found to be a conciseness, on which much pains have been bestowed."

"The narrative," it was added, "is one of confusion and transition; and chiefly interesting in so far as it throws

light on the circumstances which preceded and caused the accession of the East India Company to paramount

power in India." The author has only to add an expression of his hope that, in conjunction with Mr. S. Owen's

book, what he has here written may help to remove doubts as to the benefits derived by the people of India

Finally, mention should be made of Mr. Elphinstone's posthumous work, "The Rise of British Power in the

East." That work does not, indeed, clash with the present book; for it did not enter into the scope of the

distinguished author to give the native side of the story, or to study it from the point of view here presented.

For the military and political aims and operations of the early British officers in Madras and Bengal,

however, Elphinstone will be found a valuable guide. His narrative bears to our subject a relation similar to

that of the "Roman de Rou" to the history of the Carling Empire of Northern France.

THE country to which the term Hindustan is strictly and properly applied may be roughly described as a

rhomboid, bounded on the northwest by the rivers Indus and Satlej, on the southwest by the Indian Ocean,

on the southeast by the Narbadda and the Son, and on the northeast by the Himalaya Mountains and the

river Ghagra. In the times of the emperors, it comprised the provinces of Sirhind (or Lahore), Rajputana,

Gujrat, Malwa, Audh (including Rohilkand, strictly Rohelkhand, the country of the Rohelas, or "Rohillas" of

the Histories), Agra, Allahabad, and Dehli: and the political division was into subahs, or divisions, sarkars or

The Deccan, Panjab (Punjab), and Kabul, which also formed parts of the Empire in its widest extension at the

end of the seventeenth century, are omitted, as far as possible, from notice, because they did not at the time of

our narration form part of the territories of the Empire of Hindustan, though included in the territory ruled by

Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa also formed, at one time, an integral portion of the Empire, but fell away without

playing an important part in the history we are considering, excepting for a very brief period. The division

into Provinces will be understood by reference to the map. Most of these had assumed a practical

independence during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, though acknowledging a weak feudatory

The highest point in the plains of Hindustan is probably the plateau on which stands the town of Ajmir, about

230 miles south of Dehli. It is situated on the eastern slope of the Aravalli Mountains, a range of primitive

granite, of which Abu, the chief peak, is estimated to be near 5,000 feet above the level of the sea; the plateau

The country at large is, probably, the upheaved basin of an exhausted sea which once rendered the highlands

of the Deccan an island like a larger Ceylon. The general quality of the soil is accordingly sandy and light,

though not unproductive; yielding, perhaps, on an average about one thousand lbs. av. of wheat to the acre.

The cereals are grown in the winter, which is at least as cold as in the corresponding parts of Africa. Snow

never falls, but thin ice is often formed during the night. During the spring heavy dews fall, and strong winds

set in from the west. These gradually become heated by the increasing radiation of the earth, as the sun

Towards the end of May the monsoon blows up from the Indian Ocean and from the Bay of Bengal, when a

rainfall averaging about twenty inches takes place and lasts during the ensuing quarter. This usually ceases

about the end of September, when the weather is at its most sickly point. Constant exhalations of malaria take

After the winter, cacurbitaceous crops are grown, followed by sowings of rice, sugar, and cotton. About the

beginning of the rainy season the millets and other coarse grains are put in, and the harvesting takes place in

October. The winter crops are reaped in March and April. Thus the agriculturists are never out of employ,

unless it be during the extreme heats of May and June, when the soil becomes almost as hard from heat as the

Of the hot season Mr. Elphinstone gives the following strong but just description: "The sun is scorching,

even the wind is hot, the land is brown and parched, the dust flies in whirlwinds, all brooks become dry,

small rivers scarcely keep up a stream, and the largest are reduced to comparative narrow channels in the

midst of vast sandy beds." It should, however, be added, that towards the end of this terrible season some

relief is afforded to the river supply by the melting of the snow upon the higher Himalayas, which sends

down some water into the almost exhausted streambeds. But even so, the occasional prolongation of the dry

weather leads to universal scarcity which amounts to famine for the mass of the population, which affects all

classes, and which is sure to be followed by pestilence. Lastly, the malaria noticed above as following the

monsoon gives rise to special disorders which become endemic in favouring localities, and travel thence to all

parts of the country, borne upon the winds or propagated by pilgrimages and other forms of human

intercourse. Such are the awful expedients by which Nature checks the redundancy of a nonemigrating

population with simple wants. Hence the construction of drainage and irrigationworks has not merely a

direct result in causing temporary prosperity, but an indirect result in a large increase of the responsibilities of

the ruling power. Between 1848 and 1854 the population of the part of Hindustan now called the NorthWest

Provinces, where all the above described physical features prevail, increased from a ratio of 280 to the square

mile till it reached a ratio of 350. In the subsequent sixteen years there was a further increase. The latest rate

appears to be from 378 to 468, and the rate of increase is believed to be about equal to that of the British

There were at the time of which we are to treat few fieldlabourers on daily wages, the Metayer system being

everywhere prevalent where the soil was not actually owned by jointstock associations of peasant

The wants of the cultivators were provided for by a class of hereditary brokers, who were often also

chandlers, and advanced stock, seed, and money upon the security of the unreaped crops.

These, with a number of artisans and handicraftsmen, formed the chief population of the towns; some of the

moneydealers were very rich, and 36 per cent. per annum was not perhaps an extreme rate of interest. There

were no silver or gold mines, external commerce hardly existed, and the moneyprice of commodities was

The literary and polite language of Hindustan, called Urdu or Rekhta, was, and still is, so far common to the

whole country, that it everywhere consists of a mixture of the same elements, though in varying proportions;

and follows the same grammatical rules, though with different accents and idioms. The constituent parts are

the Arabised Persian, and the Prakrit (in combination with a ruder basis, possibly of local origin), known as

Hindi. Speaking loosely, the Persian speech has contributed nouns substantive of civilization, and adjectives

of compliment or of science; while the verbs and ordinary vocables and particles pertaining to common life

are derived from the earlier tongues. So, likewise, are the names of animals, excepting those of beasts of

The name Urdu, by which this language is usually known, is said to be of Turkish origin, and means literally

"camp." But the Moghuls of India first introduced it in the precincts of the Imperial camp; so that as

Urduimuali (High or Supreme Camp) came to be a synonym for new Dehli after Shahjahan had made it his

permanent capital, so Urdukizaban meant the lingua franca spoken at Dehli. It was the common method of

communication between different classes, as English may have been in London under Edward III. The

classical languages of Arabia and Persia were exclusively devoted to uses of law, learning, and religion; the

Hindus cherished their Sanskrit and Hindi for their own purposes of business or worship, while the Emperor

and his Moghul courtiers kept up their Turkish speech as a means of free intercourse in private life. The

Out of such elements was the rich and still growing language of Hindustan formed, and it is yearly becoming

more widely spread over the most remote parts of the country, being largely taught in Government schools,

and used as a medium of translation from European literature, both by the English and by the natives. For this

purpose it is peculiarly suited, from still possessing the power of assimilating foreign roots, instead of simply

inserting them cut and dried, as is the case with languages that have reached maturity. Its own words are also

liable to a kind of chemical change when encountering foreign matter (e.g., jau, barley: when oats were

The peninsula of India is to Asia what Italy is to Europe, and Hindustan may be roughly likened to Italy

without the two Sicilies, only on a far larger scale. In this comparison the Himalayas represent the Alps, and

the Tartars to the north are the Tedeschi of India; Persia is to her as France, Piedmont is represented by

Kabul, and Lombardy by the Panjab. A recollection of this analogy may not be without use in familiarizing

Such was the country into which successive waves of invaders, some of them, perhaps, akin to the actual

ancestors of the Goths, Huns, and Saxons of Europe, poured down from the plains of Central Asia. At the

time of which our history treats, the aboriginal Indians had long been pushed out from Hindustan into the

mountainous forests that border the Deccan; which country has been largely peopled, in its more accessible

regions, by the Sudras, who were probably the first of the Scythian invaders. After them had come the

Sanskritspeaking race, a congener of the ancient Persians, who brought a form of fireworshipping, perhaps

once monotheistic, of which traces are still extant in the Vedas, their early Scriptures. This form of faith

becoming weak and eclectic, was succeeded by a reaction, which, under the auspices of Gautama, obtained

general currency, until in its turn displaced by the gross mythology of the Puranas, which has since been the

This people in modern times has divided into three main denominations: the Sarawagis or Jains (who

represent some sect allied to the Buddhists or followers of Gautama); the sect of Shiva, and the sect of

In addition to the Hindus, later waves of immigration have deposited a Musalman population somewhat

increased by the conversions that occurred under Aurangzeb. The Mohamadans are now about oneseventh

of the total population of Hindustan; and there is no reason to suppose that this ratio has greatly varied since

The Mohamadans in India preserved their religion, though not without some taint from the circumjacent

idolatry. Their celebration of the Moharram, with tasteless and extravagant ceremonies, and their forty days'

fast in Ramzan, were alike misplaced in a country where, from the movable nature of their dates, they

sometimes fell in seasons when the rigour of the climate was such as could never have been contemplated by

the Arabian Prophet. They continued the bewildering lunar year of the Hijra, with its thirteenth month every

third year; but, to increase the confusion, the Moghul Emperors also reckoned by Turkish cycles while the

Hindus tenaciously maintained in matters of business their national Sambat, or era of Raja Bikram Ajit.

The Emperor Akbar, in the course of his endeavours to fuse the peoples of India into a whole, endeavoured

amongst other things to form a new religion. This, it was his intention, should be at once a vindication of his

Tartar and Persian forefathers against Arab proselytism, and a bid for the suffrages of his Hindu subjects.

Like most eclectic systems it failed. In and after his time also Christianity in its various forms has been feebly

endeavouring to maintain a footing. This is a candid report, from a source that cannot but be trusted, of the

"There is nothing which can at all warrant the opinion that the heart of the people has been largely touched,

or that the conscience of the people has been affected seriously. There is no advance in the direction of faith

in Christ, like that which Pliny describes, or Tertullian proclaims as characteristic of former eras. In fact,

looking at the work of Missions on the broadest scale, and especially upon that of our own Missions, we must

confess that, in many cases, the condition is one rather of stagnation than of advance. There seems to be a

want in them of the power to edify, and a consequent paralysis of the power to convert. The converts, too

often, make such poor progress in the Christian life, that they fail to act as leaven in the lump of their

countrymen. In particular, the Missions do not attract to Christ many men of education; not even among those

who have been trained within their own schools. Educated natives, as a general rule, will stand apart from the

truth; maintaining, at the best, a state of mental vacuity which hangs suspended, for a time, between an

atheism, from which they shrink, and a Christianity, which fails to overcome their fears and constrain their

allegiance." Extract from Letter of the Anglican Bishops of India, addressed to the English Clergy, in

The capital cities of Northern India have always been Dehli and Agra; the firstnamed having been the seat

of the earlier Musalman Empires, while the Moghuls, for more than a full century, preferred to hold their

Court at Agra. This dynasty, however, retransferred the metropolis to the older situation; but, instead of

attempting to revive any of the pristine localities, fixed their palace and its environs upon a newand a

If India be the Italy of Asia, still more properly may it be said that Dehli is its Rome. This ancient site

stretches ruined for many miles round the present inhabited area, and its original foundation is lost in a

mythical antiquity. A Hindu city called Indraprastha was certainly there on the bank of the Jamna near the

site of the present city before the Christian era, and various Mohamadan conquerors occupied sites in the

neighbourhood, of which numerous remains are still extant. There was also a city near the present Kutb

Minar, built by a Hindu rajah, about 57 B.C. according to General Cunningham. This was the original (or

old) Dilli or Dehli, a name of unascertained origin. It appears to have been deserted during the invasion of

Mahmud of Ghazni, but afterwards rebuilt about 1060 A.D. The last built of all the ancient towns was the Din

Panah of Humayun, nearly on the site of the old Hindu town; but it had gone greatly to decay during the long

At length New Dehlithe present citywas founded by Shahjahan, the greatgrandson of Humayun, and

received the name, by which it is still known to Mohamudans, of Shahjahanabad. The city is seven miles

round, with seven gates, the palace or citadel onetenth of the area. Both are a sort of irregular semicircle on

the right bank of the Jamna, which river forms their eastern arc. The plain is about 800 feet above the level of

the sea, and is bordered at some distance by a low range of hills, and receiving the drainage of the Mewat

Highlands. The greatest heat is in June, when the mean temperature in the shade is 92� F.; but it falls as low

as 53� in January. The situationas will be seen by the mapis extremely well chosen as the administrative

centre of Hindustan; it must always be a place of commercial importance, and the climate has no peculiar

defect. The only local disorder is a very malignant sore, which may perhaps be due to the brackishness of the

water. This would account for the numerous and expensive canals and aqueducts which have been

constructed at different periods to bring water from remote and pure sources. Here Shahjahan founded, in

1645 A.D., a splendid fortified palace, which continued to be occupied by his descendants down to the Great

The entrance to the palace was, and still is, defended by a lofty barbican, passing which the visitor finds

himself in an immense arcaded vestibule, wide and lofty, formerly appropriated to the men and officers of the

guard, but in later days tenanted by small shopkeepers. This opened into a courtyard, at the back of which

was a gate surmounted by a gallery, where one used to hear the barbarous performances of the royal band.

Passing under this, the visitor entered the 'AmKhas or courtyard, much fallen from its state, when the rare

animals and the splendid military pageants of the earlier Emperors used to throng its area. Fronting you was

the DiwaniAm (since converted into a canteen), and at the back (towards the east or river) the

DiwaniKhas, since adequately restored. This latter pavilion is in echelon with the former, and was made to

On the east of the palace, and connected with it by a bridge crossing an arm of the river, is the ancient Pathan

fort of Salimgarh, a rough and dismal structure, which the later Emperors used as a state prison. It is a

remarkable contrast to the rest of the fortress, which is surrounded by crenellated walls of high finish. These

walls being built of the red sandstone of the neighbourhood, and seventy feet in height, give to the exterior of

the buildings a solemn air of passive and silent strength, so that, even after so many years of havoc, the

outward appearance of the Imperial residence continues to testify of its former grandeur. How its internal and

actual grandeur perished will be seen in the following pages. The Court was often held at Agra, where the

remains of a similar palace are still to be seen. No detailed account of this has been met with at all rivalling

the contemporary descriptions of the Red Palace of Dehli. But an attempt has been made to represent its high

and palmy state in the General Introduction to the History of Hindustan by the present writer.

Of the character of the races who people the wide Empire of which Dehli was the metropolis, very varying

estimates have been formed, in the most extreme opposites of which there is still some germ of truth. It

cannot be denied that, in some of what are termed the unprogressive virtues, they exceeded, as their sons still

exceed, most of the nations of Europe; being usually temperate, selfcontrolled, patient, dignified in

misfortune, and affectionate and liberal to kinsfolk and dependents. Few things perhaps show better the good

behaviour one may almost say the good breeding of the ordinary native than the sight of a crowd of

villagers going to or returning from a fair in Upper India. The stalwart young farmers are accompanied by

their wives; each woman in her coloured wimple, with her shapely arms covered nearly to the elbow with

cheap glass armless. Every one is smiling, showing rows of wellkept teeth, talking kindly and gently; here a

little boy leads a pony on which his whitebearded grandfather is smilingly seated; there a baby perches, with

eyes of solemn satisfaction, on its father's shoulder. Scenes of the immemorial East are reproduced before our

modern eyes; now the "flight into Egypt," now St. John and his lamb. In hundreds and in thousands, the

orderly crowds stream on. Not a bough is broken off a wayside tree, not a rude remark addressed to the

passenger as he threads his horse's way carefully through the everywhere yielding ranks. So they go in the

But, on the other hand, it is not to be rashly assumed that, as India is the Italy, so are the Indian races the

Italians of Asia. All Asiatics are unscrupulous and unforgiving. The natives of Hindustan are peculiarly so;

but they are also unsympathetic and unobservant in a manner that is altogether their own. From the languor

induced by the climate, and from the selfishness engendered by centuries of misgovernment, they have

derived a weakness of will, an absence of resolute energy, and an occasional audacity of meanness, almost

unintelligible in a people so free from the fear of death. Many persons have thought that moral weakness of

this kind must be attributable to the system of caste by which men, placed by birth in certain grooves, are

forbidden to even think of stepping out of them. But this is not the whole explanation. Nor, indeed, are the

most candid foreign critics convinced that the system is one of unmixed evil. The subjoined moderate and

sensible estimate of the effects of caste, upon the character and habits of the people is from the Bishops' letter

quoted above. "In India, Caste has been the bond of Society, defining the relations between man and man,

and though essentially at variance with all that is best and noblest in human nature, has held vast

communities together, and established a system of order and discipline under which Government has been

administered, trade has prospered, the poor have been maintained, and some domestic virtues have

Macaulay has not overstated Indian weaknesses in his Essay on Warren Hastings, where he has occasion to

describe the character of Nand Komar, who, as a Bengali manofthepen, appears to have been a marked

type of all that is most unpleasing in the Hindoo character. The Bengalis, however, have many amiable

characteristics to show on the other side of the shield, to which it did not suit the eloquent Essayist to draw

attention. And in going farther North many other traits, of a far nobler kind, will be found more and more

abundant. Of the Musalmans, it only remains to add that, although mostly descended from hardier

immigrants, they have imbibed the Hindu character to an extent that goes far to corroborate the doctrine

which traces the morals of men to the physical circumstances that surround them. The subject will be found

Greatness of Timur's DescendantsCauses of the Empire's DeclineCharacter of AurangzebProgress of

For nearly two centuries the throne of the Chaghtais continued to be filled by a succession of exceptionally

able Princes. The brave and simplehearted Babar, the wandering Humayun, the glorious Akbar, the easy but

uncertaintempered Jahangir, the magnificent Shahjahan, all these rulers combined some of the best elements

of Turkish character and their administration was better than that of any other Oriental country of their

date. Of Shahjahan's government and its patronage of the arts both decorative and useful we have

trustworthy contemporary descriptions. His especial taste was for architecture; and the Mosque and Palace of

Dehli, which he personally designed, even after the havoc of two centuries, still remain the climax of the

IndoSaracenic order, and admitted rivals to the choicest works of Cordova and Granada.

The abilities of his son and successor ALAMGIR, known to Europeans by his private name, AURANGZEB,

rendered him the most famous member of his famous house. Intrepid and enterprising as he was in war, his

political sagacity and statecraft were equally unparalleled in Eastern annals. He abolished capital punishment,

understood and encouraged agriculture, founded numberless colleges and schools, systematically constructed

roads and bridges, kept continuous diaries of all public events from his earliest boyhood, administered justice

publicly in person, and never condoned the slightest malversation of a provincial governor, however distant

his province. Such were these emperors; great, if not exactly what we should call good, to a degree rare

The fact of this uncommon succession of high qualities in a race born to the purple may be ascribed to two

main considerations. In the first place, the habit of contracting, marriages with Hindu princesses, which the

policy and the latitudinarianism of the emperors established, was a constant source of fresh blood, whereby

the increase of family predisposition was checked. Few if any races of men are free from some morbid taint:

scrofula, phthisis, weak nerves, or a disordered brain, are all likely to be propagated if a person predisposed

to any such ailment marries a woman of his own stock. From this danger the Moghul princes were long kept

free. Khuram, the second son of Jahangir, who succeeded his father under the title of Shah Jahan, had a

Hindu mother, and two Hindu grandmothers. All his sons, however, were by a Persian consort the lady of

Secondly, the invariable fratricidal war which followed the demise of the Crown gave rise to a natural

selection (to borrow a term from modern physical science), which eventually confirmed the strongest in

possession of the prize. However humanity may revolt from the scenes of crime which such a system must

perforce entail, yet it cannot be doubted that the qualities necessary to ensure success in a struggle of giants

would certainly both declare and develop themselves in the person of the victor by the time that struggle was

It is, however, probable that both these causes aided ultimately in the dissolution of the monarchy.

The connections which resulted from the earlier emperors' Hindu marriages led, as the Hindus became

disaffected after the intolerant rule of Aurangzeb, to an assertion of partisanship which gradually swelled into

independence; while the wars between the rival sons of each departing emperor gave more and more occasion

Then it was that each competitor, seeking to detach the greatest number of influential feudatories from the

side of his rivals, and to propitiate such feudatories in his own favour, cast to each of these the prize that each

most valued. And, since this was invariably the uncontrolled dominion of the territories confided to their

charge, it was in this manner that the reckless disputants partitioned the territories that their forefathers had

accumulated with such a vast expenditure of human happiness and human virtue. For, even from those who

had received their titledeeds at the hands of claimants to the throne ultimately vanquished, the concession

could rarely be wrested by the exhausted conqueror. Or, when it was, there was always at hand a partisan to

be provided for, who took the gift on the same terms as those upon which it had been held by his predecessor.

Aurangzeb, when he had imprisoned his father and, conquered and slain his brothers, was, on his accession,

A.D. 1658, the most powerful of all the Emperors of Hindustan, and, at the same time, the ablest

administrator that the Empire had ever known. In his reign the house of Timur attained its zenith. The wild

Pathans of Kabul were temporarily tamed; the Shah of Persia sought his friendship; the ancient Musalman

powers of Golconda and Bijapur were subverted, and their territories rendered subordinate to the sway of the

Empire; the hitherto indomitable Rajputs were subdued and made subject to taxation; and, if the strength of

the Mahrattas lay gathered upon the Western Ghats like a cloud risen from the sea, yet it was not to be

anticipated that a band of such marauders could long resist the might of the great Moghul.

Yet that might and that greatness were reduced to a mere show before his long reign terminated; and the

Moghul Empire resembled to use a familiar image one of those Etruscan corpses which, though

crowned and armed, are destined to crumble at the breath of heaven or at the touch of human hands. And still

more did it resemble some splendid palace, whose gilded cupolas and towering minarets are built of materials

collected from every quarter of the world, only to collapse in undistinguishable ruin when the Ficus religiosa

has lodged its destructive roots in the foundation on which they rest. Thus does this great ruler furnish

another instance of the familiar but everneeded lesson, that countries may be overgoverned. Had he been

less anxious to stamp his own image and superscription upon the palaces of princes and the temples of

priests; upon the moneys of every market, and upon every human heart and conscience; he might have

governed with as much success as his free thinking and pleasureseeking predecessors. But he was the Louis

Quatorze of the East; with less of pomp than his European contemporary, but not less of the lust of conquest,

of centralization, and of religious conformity. Though each monarch identified the State with himself, yet it

may be doubted if either, on his deathbed, knew that his monarchy was dying also. But so it was that to each

succeeded that gradual but complete cataclysm which seems the inevitable consequence of the system which

One point peculiar to the Indian emperor is that the persecuting spirit of his reign was entirely due to his own

character. The jovial and clement Chaghtai Turks, from whom he was descended, were never bigoted

Mohamadans. Indeed it may be fairly doubted whether Akbar and his son Jahangir were, to any considerable

extent, believers in the system of the Arabian prophet. Far different, however, was the creed of Aurangzeb,

and ruthlessly did he seek to force it upon his Hindu subjects. Thus there were now added to the usual

dangers of a large empire the two peculiar perils of a jealous centralization of power, and a deepseated

disaffection of the vast majority of the subjects. Nor was this all. There had never been any fixed settlement

of the succession; and not even the sagacity of this politic emperor was superior to the temptation of

arbitrarily transferring the dignity of heirapparent from one son to another during his long reign. True, this

was no vice confined exclusively to Aurangzeb. His predecessors had done the like; but then their systems

had been otherwise genial and fortunate. His successors, too, were destined to pursue the same infatuated

course; and it was a defeated intrigue of this sort which probably first brought the puppet emperor of our own

time into that fatal contact with the power of England which sent him to die in a remote and dishonoured

When, therefore, the sceptre had fallen from the dead man's hands, there were numerous evil influences ready

to attend its assumption by any hands that were less experienced and strong. The prize was no less than the

possession of the whole peninsula, estimated to have yielded a yearly revenue of the nominal value of

thirtyfour millions of pounds sterling, and guarded by a veteran army of five hundred thousand men.

The will of the late emperor had left the disposal of his inheritance entirely unsettled. "Whoever of my

fortunate sons shall chance to rule my empire," is the only reference to the subject that occurs in this brief and

His eldest surviving son consequently found two competitors in the field, in the persons of his brothers.

These, however, he defeated in succession, and assumed the monarchy under the title of BAHADUR SHAH.

A wise and valiant prince, he did not reign long enough to show how far he could have succeeded in

controlling or retarding the evils above referred to; but his brief occupation of the monarchy is marked by the

appearance of all those powers and dynasties which afterwards participated, all in its dismemberment, and

most in its spoil. Various enemies, both Hindu and Musalman, appeared, and the Empire of the Chaghtai

Turks was sapped and battered by attempts which, though mostly founded on the most selfish motives,

involved a more or less patriotic feeling. Sikhs, Mahrattas, and Rajputs, all aimed at independence; while the

indigenous Mohamadans, instead of joining the Turks in showing a common front to the common enemy,

In the attempt to put down the Sikhs, Bahadur died at Lahor, just five years after the death of his father. The

usual struggle ensued. Three of the princes were defeated and slain in detail; and the partisans of the eldest

son, Mirza Moizudin, conferred upon him the succession (by the title of JAHANDAR SHAH), after a

wholesale slaughter of such of his kindred as fell within their grasp. After a few months, the aid of the

governors of Bihar and Allahabad, Saiyids of the tribe of Barha, enabled the last remaining claimant to

overthrow and murder the incapable Emperor. The conqueror succeeded his uncle under the title of

The next step of the Saiyids, men of remarkable courage and ability was to attack the Rajputs; and to extort

from their chief, the Maharajah Ajit Sing, the usual tribute, and the hand of his daughter for the Emperor,

who, like some of his predecessors, was anxious to marry a Hindu princess. But the levity and irresolution of

the Emperor soon led to his being, in his turn, dethroned and slaughtered. The race was now quite worn out.

A brief interregnum ensued, during which the allpowerful Saiyids sought to administer the powers of

sovereignty behind the screen of any royal scion they could find of the requisite nonentity. But there was a

Nothing still more absolute than any they could find; and after two of these shadowkings had passed in

about seven months, one after the other, into the grave, the usurpers were at length constrained to make a

choice of a more efficient puppet. This was the son of Bahadur Shah's youngest son, who had perished in the

wars which followed that emperor's demise. His private name was Sultan Roshan Akhtar ("Prince Fair Star"),

but he assumed with the Imperial dignity the title of MOHAMMAD SHAH, and is memorable as the last

The events mentioned in the preceding brief summary, though they do not comprehend the whole

disintegration of the Empire, are plainly indicative of what is to follow. In the final chapters of the First Part

we shall behold somewhat more in detail the rapidly accelerating event. During the long reign of Mohammad

foreign violence will be seen accomplishing what native vice and native weakness have commenced; and the

successors to his dismantled throne will be seen passing like other decorations in a passive manner from one

mayor of the palace to another, or making fitful efforts to be free, which only rivet their chains and hasten

their destruction. One by one the provinces fall away from this distempered centre. At length we shall find

the throne literally without an occupant, and the curtain will seem to descend while preparations are being

Muhammad Shah Chin Kulich Khan, his retirement from Dehli Movements of the Mahrattas

GUIDED by his mother, a person of sense and spirit, the young Emperor began his reign by forming a party

of Moghul friends, who were hostile to the Saiyids on every conceivable account. The former were Sunnis,

the latter Shias; and perhaps the animosities of sects are stronger than those of entirely different creeds.

Moreover, the courtiers were proud of a foreign descent; and, while they despised the ministers as natives of

India, they possessed in their mother tongue Turkish a means of communicating with the Emperor (a

man of their own race) from which the ministers were excluded. The Saiyids were soon overthrown, their

ruin being equally desired by Chin Kulich, the head of the Turkish party, and Saadat Ali, the newlyarrived

adventurer from Persia. These noblemen now formed the rival parties of Turan and Iran; and became

distinguished, the one as founder of the principality of Audh, abolished in 1856, the other as that of the

dynasty of Haidarabad, which still subsists. Both, however, were for the time checked by the ambition and

energy of the Mahrattas. Chin Kulich was especially brought to his knees in Bhopal, where the Mahrattas

wrung from him the cession of Malwa, and a promise of tribute to be paid by the Imperial Government to

This was a galling situation for an ancient nobleman, trained in the traditions of the mighty Aurangzeb. The

old man was now between two fires. If he went on to his own capital, Haidarabad, he would be exposed to

wear out the remainder of his days in the same beating of the air that had exhausted his master. If he returned

to the capital of the Empire, he saw an interminable prospect of contempt and defeat at the hands of the

CaptainGeneral Khan Dauran, the chief of the courtiers who had been wont to break their jests upon the

Thus straitened, the Nizam, for by that title Chin Kulich was now beginning to be known, took counsel with

Saadat, the Persian, who was still at Dehli. Nadir Shah, the then ruler of Persia, had been for some time

urging on the Court of Dehli remonstrances arising out of boundary quarrels and similar grievances. The two

nobles, who may be described as opposition leaders, are believed to have in 1738 addressed the Persian

monarch in a joint letter which had the result of bringing him to India, with all the consequences which will

be found related in the History of Hindustan by the present writer, and in the wellknown work of

It would be out of place in this introduction to dwell in detail upon the brief and insincere defence of the

Empire by Saadat 'Ali, in attempting to save whom the Khan Dauran lost his life, while the Nizam attempted

vain negotiations. The Persians, as is wellknown, advanced on Dehli, massacred some 100,000 of the

inhabitants, held the survivors to ransom, and ultimately retired to their own country, with plunder that has

been estimated at eighty millions sterling, and included the famous Peacock Throne.

The Nizam was undoubtedly the gainer by these tragic events. In addition to being Viceroy of the Deccan, he

found himself allpowerful at Dehli, for Saadat 'Ali had died soon after the Khan Dauran. Death continuing

to favour him, his only remaining rival, the Mahratta Peshwa, Baji Rao, passed away in 1740, on the eve of a

projected invasion of Hindustan. In 1745 the Province of Rohelkhand became independent, as did the Eastern

Subahs of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Leaving his son to represent him at Dehli, the Nizam settled at

Haidarabad as an independent ruler, although he still professed subordination to the Empire, of which he

Shortly after, a fresh invader from the north appeared in the person of Ahmad Khan Abdali, leader of the

Daurani Afghans, who had obtained possession of the frontier provinces during the confusion in Persian

politics that succeeded the assassination of Nadir. But a new generation of Moghul nobles was now rising,

whose valour formed a short bright Indian summer in the fall of the Empire; and the invasion was rolled back

by the spirit and intelligence of the heir apparent, the Vazir's son Mir Mannu, his brotherinlaw

Ghaziuddin, and the nephew of the deceased Governor of Audh, AbulMansur Khan, better known to

Europeans by his title Safdar Jang. The decisive action was fought near Sirhind, and began on the 3rd March,

1748. This is memorable as the last occasion on which Afghans were ever repulsed by people of India until

the latter came to have European leaders. The death of the Vazir took place eight days later. This Vazir

(Kamruldin Khan), who had long been the head of the Turkish party in the State, was the nominal leader

of the expedition, in conjunction with the heirapparent, though the chief glory was acquired by his gallant

son Mannu, or Moinuldin. The Vazir did not live to share the triumph of his son, who defeated the enemy,

and forced him to retire. The Vazir Kamruldin died on the 11th, just before the retreat of the Afghans. A

round shot killed him as he was praying in his tent; and the news of the death of this old and constant servant,

who had been Mohammad's personal friend through all the pleasures and cares of his momentous reign,

proved too much for the Emperor's exhausted constitution. He was seized by a strong convulsion as he sate

administering justice in his despoiled palace at Dehli, and expired almost immediately, about the 16th of

Ahmad Shah The Rohillas Ghaziuddin the younger Perplexities of the Emperor Alamgir II.

SELDOM has a reign begun under fairer auspices than did that of Ahmad Shah. The Emperor was in the

flower of his age; his immediate associates were men distinguished for their courage and skill; the Nizam was

a bar to the Mahrattas in the Deccan, and the tide of northern invasion had ebbed out of sight.

There is, however, a fatal element of uncertainty in all systems of government which depend for their success

merely upon personal qualities. The first sign of this precarious tenure of greatness was afforded by the death

of the aged Nizam Chin Kulich, Viceroy of the Deccan, which took place immediately after that of the late

The eldest son of the old Nizam contended with the nephew of the deceased Saadat whose name was

Mansur, but who is better known by his title of Safdar Jang for the Premiership, or office of Vazir, and his

next brother Nasir Jang held the Lieutenancy of the Deccan. The command in Rajputan, just then much

disturbed, devolved at first on a Persian nobleman who had been his Bakhshi, or Paymaster of the Forces, and

also AmirulUmra, or Premier Peer. His disaster and disgrace were not far off, as will be seen presently.

The office of Plenipotentiary was for the time in abeyance. The Vazirship, which had been held by the

deceased Kamruldin was about the same time conferred upon Safdar Jang, who also succeeded his uncle

as Viceroy or Nawab of Audh. Hence the title, afterwards so famous, of NawabVazir.

Having made these dispositions, the Emperor followed the hereditary bent of his natural disposition, and left

the provinces to fare as best they might, while he enjoyed the pleasures to which his opportunities invited

him. The business of state fell very much into the hands of a eunuch named Jawid Khan, who had long been

the favourite of the Emperor's mother, a Hindu danseuse named Udham Bai, who is known in history as the

Kudsiya Begam. The remains of her villa are to be seen in a garden still bearing her name, on the Jamna side

a little beyond the Kashmir Gate of New Dehli. For a time these two had all at their command; and the lady at

least appears to have made a beneficent use of her term of prosperity. Meanwhile, the two great dependencies

The Rohillas routed the Imperial army commanded by the Vazir in person, and though Safdar Jung wiped off

this stain, it was only by undergoing the still deeper disgrace of encouraging the Hindu powers to prey upon

Aided by the Mahrattas under Holkar and by the Jats under Suraj Mal, the Vazir defeated the Rohillas at the

fords of the Ganges; and pushed them up into the malarious country at the foot of the Kumaon mountains,

where famine and fever would soon have completed their subjugation, but for the sudden reappearance in the

The Mahrattas were allowed to indemnify themselves for these services by seizing on part of the Rohilla

country, and drawing chauth from the rest; consideration of which they promised their assistance to cope with

the invading Afghans; but on arriving at Dehli they learned that the Emperor, in the Vazir's absence, had

surrendered to Ahmad the provinces of Lahor and Multan, and thus terminated the war.

An expedition was about this time sent to Ajmir, under the command of Saadat Khan, the AmirulUmra,

the noble of the Shiah or "Iranian" party already mentioned as commanding in Rajputan, and who was also

the Imperialist Viceroy of Agra. He wasted his time and strength, however, in an attack upon the Jats,

through whose country the way went. When at last he neared Ajmir he allowed himself to be entangled in the

local intrigues which it was the object of his expedition to suppress. He returned after about fifteen months of

fruitless campaigning, and was dismissed from his office by the allpowerful Jawid, Ghaziuddin

Almost every section of the History of Ahmad Shah abstracted by Professor Dowson (VIII.) ends with some

sinister allusion to this favourite eunuch and his influence. The Emperor had nothing to say as to what went

on, as his mother and Jawid were the real rulers. The Emperor considered it to be most suitable to him to

spend his time in pleasure; and he made his Zanana extend a mile. For weeks he would remain without seeing

the face of a male creature. There was probably no sincere friend to raise a warning; and the doom deepened

and the hand wrote upon the wall unheeded. The country was overrun with wickedness and wasted with

misery. The disgrace of the unsuccessful Saadat returning from Ajmir, was enhanced by his vainly attempting

to strike a blow at the Empress and her favourite. They called in the Turkish element against him, and

contrived to alienate his countryman, Safdar Jang, who departed towards his Viceroyship of Audh; leaving

The cabinet of the Empress was now, in regard to Ghaziuddin and the Mahrattas, in the position of a

necromancer who has to furnish his familiars with employment on pain of their destroying him. But an

escape seemed to be afforded them by the projects of Ghaziuddin, who agreed to draw off the dangerous

auxiliaries to aid him in wresting the Lieutenancy of the Deccan from his third brother Salabat Jang who had

possessed himself of the administration on the death of Nasir Jang, the second son and first successor of Chin

Gladly did the Persian party behold their rival thus depart; little dreaming of the dangerous abilities of the

boy he had left behind. This youth, best known by the family affix of Ghaziuddin (2nd), but whose name

was Shahabuddin, and who is known in native histories by his official title of AamadulMulk, was son of

Firoz Jang, the old Nizam's fourth son. He at once assumed the head of the army, and may be properly

described, henceforth, as "CaptainGeneral." He was but sixteen when the news of his uncle's sudden death

at Aurangabad was brought to Dehli. Safdar Jang, returning from Lucknow, removed the Emperor's chief

favourite, Jawid, by assassination (28th August, 1752) and doubtless thought himself at length arrived at the

goal of his ambition. But the young Ghazi, secretly instigated by the weak and anxious monarch, renewed

against the Persian the same war of Turan and Iran, of Sunni and Shia, which in the last reign had been waged

between the uncle of the one and the grandfather of the other. The only difference was that both parties being

now fully warned, the mask of friendship that had been maintained during the old struggle was now

completely dropped; and the streets of the metropolis became the scene of daily fights between the two

factions. Many splendid remains of the old cities are believed to have been destroyed during these struggles.

The Jats from Bhurtpore came up under Suraj Mal, their celebrated leader, and plundered the environs right

and left. The Vazir's people, the Persian partly, breached a bastion of the city wall, and their victory seemed

near at hand. But Mir Mannu, the famous Viceroy of the Punjab who was Ghazi's near kinsman sent a

body of veterans to aid the Moghul cause; the account is confused, but this seems to have turned the tide. The

Moghuls, or Turks, for the time won; and Ghazi assumed the command of the army. The Vazirship was

conferred on Intizamuddaulah the Khan Khanan (a son of the deceased Kamruldin, and young Ghazi's

cousin), while Safdar Jang falling into open rebellion, called the Jats under Surajmal to his assistance. The

Moghuls were thus led to have recourse to the Mahrattas; and Holkar was even engaged as a nominal partizan

of the Empire, against his coreligionists the Jats, and his former patron the Viceroy of Audh. The latter, who

was always more remarkable for sagacity than for personal courage, soon retired to his own country, and the

The Khan Khanan and the Emperor now began to think that things had gone far enough; and the former, who

was acquainted with his kinsman's unscrupulous mind and ruthless passions, persistently withheld from him a

siegetrain which was required for the reduction of Bhartpur, the Jat capital. The Emperor was thus in a

situation from which the utmost judgment in the selection of a line of conduct was necessary for success,

indeed for safety. The gallant Mir Mannu, son of his father's old friend and servant Kamaruddin, was absent

in the Panjab, engaged on the arduous duty of keeping the Afghans in check. But his brotherinlaw, the

Khan Khanan, was ready with alternative projects, of which each was courageous and sensible. To call back

Safdar Jung, and openly acknowledge the cause of the Jats, would probably cost only one campaign, well

conceived and vigorously executed. On the other hand, to support the CaptainGeneral Ghazi honestly and

without reserve, would have secured immediate repose, whilst it crushed a formidable Hindu power.

The irresolute voluptuary before whom these plans were laid could decide manfully upon neither. He

marched from Dehli with the avowed intention of supporting the CaptainGeneral, to whom he addressed

messages of encouragement. He at the same time wrote to Surajmal, to whom he promised that he would fall

upon the rear of the army (his own !), upon the Jats making a sally from the fortress in which they were

Safdar Jang not being applied to, remained sullenly aloof: the Emperor's letter to the Jats fell into the hands of

Ghaziuddin, the CaptainGeneral, who returned it to him with violent menaces. The alarmed monarch

began to fall back upon his capital, pursued at a distance by his rebellious general. Holkar meanwhile

executed a sudden and independent attack upon the Imperial camp, which he took and plundered at

Sikundrabad, near Bolandshahr. The ladies of the Emperor's family were robbed of everything, and sent to

Dehli in country carts. The Emperor and his minister lost all heart, and fled precipitately into Dehli, where

they had but just time to take refuge in the palace, when they found themselves rigorously invested.

Knowing the man with whom they had to deal, their last hope was obviously in a spirited resistance,

combined with an earnest appeal to the Audh Viceroy and to the ruler of the Jats. And it is on record in a

trustworthy native history that such was the tenor of the Vazir's advice to the Emperor. But the latter, perhaps

too sensible of the difficulties of this course from the known hostility of Safdar Jang, and the great influence

of Ghaziuddin over the Moghul soldiery, rejected the bold counsel. Upon this the Vazir retired to his own

residence, which he fortified, and the remaining adherents of the Emperor opened the gates and made terms

with the CaptainGeneral. The latter then invested himself with the official robes of the Vazirate (5th June,

1754) and convened the Moghul Darbar, from which, with his usual address, he contrived to obtain as a vote

of the cabinet what was doubtless the suggestion of his own unprincipled ambition. "This Emperor," said the

assembled nobles, "has shown his unfitness for rule. He is unable to cope with the Mahrattas: he is false and

fickle towards his friends. Let him be deposed, and a worthier son of Timur raised to the throne." This

resolution was immediately acted upon; the unfortunate monarch was blinded and consigned to the State

prison of Salim Garh, adjoining the palace; and a son of Jahandar Shah, the competitor of Farokhsiar,

proclaimed Emperor under the sounding title of Alamgir II., July, 1754 A.D. The new Emperor (whose title

was due to the fact that his predecessor the great Aurangzeb had been the first to bear it) was in the

fiftyfourth year of his age. He was a quiet old devotee, whose only pleasures were reading religious books

and attending divine service. His predecessor was not further molested, and lived on in his captivity to his

death in 1775, from natural causes, at the age of fifty. Ghaziuddin was at the same time acknowledged as

Vazir in the room of the Khan Khanan. That officer was murdered about five years later, according to Beale

One name, afterwards to become very famous, is heard of for the first time during these transactions; and,

since the history of the Empire consists now of little more than a series of biographies, the present seems the

proper place to consider the outset of his career. Najib Khan was an Afghan soldier of fortune, who had

attained the hand of the daughter of Dundi Khan, one of the chieftains of the Rohilkand Pathans. Rewarded

by this ruler with the charge of a district, now Bijnaur, in the northwest corner of Rohilkand, he had joined

the cause of Safdar Jang, when that minister occupied the country; but on the latter's disgrace had borne a part

in the campaigns of Ghaziuddin. When the Vazir first conceived the project of attacking the government,

he sent Najib in the command of a Moghul detachment to occupy the country, about Saharanpur, then known

as the Bawani mahal, which had formed the jagir of the ExVazir Khan Khanan. This territory thus became

in its turn separated from the Empire, and continued for two generations in the family of Najib. Though

possessing the unscrupulous nature of his class, he was not without the virtues that are found in its best

specimens. He was active, painstaking, and faithful to engagements; when he had surmounted his early

difficulties he proved a good administrator. He ruled the dwindled Empire for nine years, and died a peaceful

death, leaving his charge in an improved and strengthened condition, ready for its lawful monarch. He was

The dominions of Akbar and Aurangzeb had now indeed fallen into a pitiable state. Although the whole of

the peninsula still nominally owned the sway of the Moghul, no provinces remained in the occupation of the

Government besides part of the upper Doab, and a few districts south of the Satlaj. Gujarat was overrun by

the Mahrattas; Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa were occupied by the successor of Aliverdi Khan, Audh and

Allahabad by Safdar Jang, the central Doab by the Afghan tribe of Bangash, the province now called

Rohilkand by the Rohillas. The Panjab had been virtually abandoned; the rest of India had been recovered by

the Hindus, with the exception of such portions of the Deccan as still formed the arena for the family wars of

the sons of the old Nizam. Small encroachments continued to be made by the English traders.

Progress of Ghazi uddin Ahmad Khan enters Dehli Escape of the Prince Ali Gauhar Murder of

No sooner was the revolution accomplished than the young kingmaker took effective measures to secure his

position. He first seized and imprisoned his relation the Khan Khanan, whose office he had usurped, as above

stated. The opportune death of Safdar Jang (17th October, 1754) removed another danger, while the

intrepidity and merciless severity with which (assisted by Najib Khan) he quelled a military mutiny provoked

by his own arbitrary conduct, served at once as a punishment to the miserable offenders and a warning to all

Of such there were not a few, and those too in high places. The imbecile Emperor became the willing centre

of a cabal bent upon the destruction of the daring young minister; and, though the precautions of the latter

prevented things from going that length, yet the constant plotting that went on served to neutralize all his

efforts at administration, and to increase in his mind that sense of misanthropic solitude which is probably the

As soon as he judged that he could prudently leave the Court, the Minister organized an expedition to the

Panjab, where the gallant Mir Mannu had been lately killed by falling from his horse. Such had been the

respect excited in men's minds towards this excellent public servant, that the provinces of Lahor and Multan,

when ceded to the Afghans in the late reign, had been ultimately left in his charge by the new rulers. Ahmad

the Abdali even carried on this policy after the Mir's death, and confirmed the Government in the person of

his infant son. The actual administrators during the minority were to be the widow of Mannu and a statesman

of great local experience, whose name was Adina Beg. This man was a Hindu by origin, a, selfmade man,

It was upon this opportunity that the Vazir resolved to strike. Hastily raising, such a force as the poor remnant

of the imperial treasury could furnish, he marched on Lahor, taking with him the heir apparent, Mirza Ali

Gauhar. Seizing the town by a coup de main, he possessed himself of the Lady Regent and her daughter, and

returned to Dehli, asserting that he had extorted a treaty from the Afghan monarch, and appointed Adina Beg

However this may have been, the Court was not satisfied; and the less so that the success of the Minister only

served to render him more violent and cruel than ever. Nor is it to be supposed that Ahmad the Abdali would

overlook, for any period longer than his own convenience might require, any unauthorized interference with

arrangements made by himself for territory that he might justly regard as his own. Accordingly the Afghan

chief soon lent a ready ear to the representations of the Emperor's party, and swiftly presented himself at the

head of an army within twenty miles of Dehli. Accompanied by Najib Khan, (who was in secret

correspondence with the invader,) the Minister marched out to give battle; and so complete was the isolation

into which his conduct had thrown him, that he learned for the first time what was the true state of affairs

when he saw the chief part of the army follow Najib into the ranks of the enemy, where they were received as

In this strait the Minister's personal qualities saved him. Having in the meantime made Mannu's daughter his

wife, he had the address to obtain the intercession of his motherinlaw; and not only obtained the pardon of

the invader, but in no long time so completely ingratiated himself with that simple soldier as to be in higher

Ahmad Khan now took upon himself the functions of government, and deputed the Minister to collect tribute

in the Doab, while Sardar Jahan Khan, one of his principal lieutenants, proceeded to levy contributions from

From the first expedition Ghazi returned with considerable booty. The attack upon the Jats was not so

successful; throwing themselves into the numerous strongholds with which their country was dotted, they

defied the Afghan armies and cut off their foraging parties in sudden sallies. Agra too made an obstinate

defence under a Moghul governor; but the invaders indemnified themselves both in blood and plunder at the

expense of the unfortunate inhabitants of the neighbouring city of Mathra, whom they surprised at a religious

As for the citizens of Dehli, their sufferings were grievous, even compared with those inflicted twenty years

before by the Persians of Nadir Shah, in proportion as the conquerors were less civilized, and the means of

satisfying them less plentiful. All conceivable forms of misery prevailed during the two months which

followed the entry of the Abdali, 11th September, 1757, exactly one hundred years before the last capture of

the same city by the avenging force of the British Government during the Great Mutiny.

Having concluded these operations, the invader retired into cantonments at Anupshahar, on the Ganges, and

there proceeded to parcel out the Empire among such of the Indian chiefs as he delighted to honour. He then

appointed Najib to the office of Amirulumra, an office which involved the personal charge of the Palace

and its inmates; and departed to his own country, from which he had lately received some unsatisfactory

intelligence. The Emperor endeavoured to engage his influence to bring about a marriage which he desired to

contract with a daughter of the penultimate Emperor, Muhammad Shah: but the Abdali, on his attention being

drawn to the young lady, resolved upon espousing her himself. He at the same time married his son Timur

Shah to the daughter of the heir apparent, and, having left that son in charge of the Panjab, retired with the

Relieved for the present from his anxieties, the Minister gave sway to that morbid cruelty which detracted

from the general sagacity of his character. He protected himself against his numerous enemies by subsidizing

a vast bodyguard of Mahratta mercenaries, to pay whom he was led to the most merciless exactions from

the immediate subjects of the Empire. He easily expelled Najib (who since his elevation must be

distinguished by his honorific name of Najib ud daula, "Hero of the State"): he destroyed or kept in close

confinement the nobles who favoured the Emperor, and even sought to lay hands upon the heir apparent, Ali

This prince was now in his sevenandthirtieth year, and exhibited all those generous qualities which we find

in the men of his race as long as they are not enervated by the voluptuous repose of the Palace. He had been

for some time residing in a kind of open arrest in the house of Ali Mardan Khan, a fortified building on the

banks of the river. Here he learned that the Minister contemplated transferring him to the close captivity of

Salim Garh, the state prison which stood within the precincts of the Palace. Upon this he consulted with his

companions, Rajah Ramnath and a Musalman gentleman, Saiyid Ali, who with four private troopers agreed

to join in the hazardous enterprise of forcing their way through the bands which by this time invested the

premises. Early the following morning they descended to the courtyard and mounted their horses in silence.

There was no time to spare. Already the bolder of the assailants had climbed upon the neighbouring roofs,

from which they began to fire upon the little garrison, while their main forces guarded the gateway. But it so

happened that there was a breach in the wall upon the river side, at the rear of the premises. By this the Prince

and his friends galloped out, and without a moment's hesitation plunged their horses into the broad Jamna.

One alone, Saiyid Ali, stayed behind, and singlehanded held the pursuers at bay until the prince had made

good his escape. The loyal follower paid for his loyalty with his life. The fugitives found their way to

Sikandra, which was the centre of Najib's new fief; and the Prince, after staying some time under the

protection of the AmirulUmra, ultimately reached Lucknow, where, after a vain attempt to procure the

cooperation of the new Viceroy in an attack upon the British, he was eventually obliged to seek the

Ahmad the Abdali being informed of these things by letters from Dehli, prepared a fresh incursion; the rather

that Adina Beg, with the help of the Mahrattas had at the same time chased his son, Timur Shah, from Lahor;

while with another force they had expelled Najib from his new territory, and forced him to seek safety in his

forts in the Bawani Mahal. The new Viceroy of Audh raised the Rohillas and his own immediate followers in

the Abdali's name; the Mahrattas were driven out of Rohilkand; and the Afghans, crossing the Jamna in

Najib's territory to the north of Dehli, arrived once more at Anupshahar about September, 1759, whence they

The ruthless Ghazi was now almost at the end of his resources. He therefore resolved to play his last card,

and either win all by the terror of his monstrous crime, or lose all, and retire from the game.

The harmless Emperor, amongst his numerous foibles, cherished the pardonable weakness of a respect for the

religious mendicants, who form one of the chronic plagues of Asiatic society. Taking advantage of this, a

Kashmirian in the interest of the Minister took occasion to mention to Alamgir that a hermit of peculiar

sanctity had recently taken up his abode in the ruined fort of Firozabad, some two miles south of the city, and

(in those days) upon the right bank of the Jamna, which river has now receded to a considerable distance. The

helpless devotee resolved to consult with this holy man, and repaired to the ruins in his palanquin. Arrived at

the door of the room, which was in the N.E. corner of the palace of Firoz Shah, he was relieved of his arms

by the Kashmirian, who admitted him, and closed the entrance. A cry for aid being presently heard was

gallantly responded to by Mirza Babar, the emperor's soninlaw, who attacked and wounded the sentry, but

was overpowered and sent to Salim Garh in the Emperor's litter. The latter meanwhile was seized by a savage

Uzbek, named Balabash, who had been stationed within, and who sawed off the defenceless monarch's head

with a knife. Then stripping off the rich robe he cast the headless trunk out of the window, where it lay for

some hours upon the sands until the Kashmirian ordered its removal. The date of this tragic event is between

the 10th and 30th of November, 1759 (the latter being the day given by Dowson, vol. viii. p. 243). The late

Minister, IntizamudDaula, had been murdered by order of his successor three days earlier. A grandson of

Kam Bakhsh (the unfortunate son of Aurangzeb) was then taken out of the Salim Garh and proclaimed

Emperor by the sonorous title of "Shah Jahan II." But he is not recognised on the list of emperors, and his

reign such as it was lasted but a moment. Ghazi (or Shahab) uddin attempted to reproduce the

policy of the Sayyids by governing behind this puppet; but the son of the murdered emperor proclaimed

himself in Bihar (v. inf.), and Ahmad the Abdali moved against Ghazi, as we shall see in the next chapter.

Discretion was the only part of valour left, and the young and unscrupulous politician fled to Bhartpur, where

As this restless criminal here closes his public life, it may be once for all mentioned that he reluctantly and

slowly retired to Farukhabad, where he remained till Shall Alam came there in 1771 (inf. p. 98); that being

driven from thence at the Restoration he once more became a wanderer, and spent the next twenty years of

his life in disguise and total obscurity; till being accidentally discovered by the British police at Surat, about

1791, he was, by the GovernorGeneral's orders, allowed to depart with a small sum of money to Mecca, the

refuge of many a Mohamadan malcontent. Returning thence he visited Kabul, where he joined one of the

Dehli princes in an attempted invasion of India. The prince went mad at Multan, and Ghazi, leaving him

there, went on to Bandelkhand, where he received a grant of land on which he chiefly passed the remainder of

his days. He died in 1800, and was buried at Pakpatan in the Panjab (v. Journal of the As. Soc. of Bengal, No.

The vengeance of the Abdali, therefore, fell upon the unoffending inhabitants of the capital once more

they were scourged with fire and sword. Leaving a garrison in the palace, the Abdali then quitted the almost

depopulated city, and fell back on his old quarters at Anupshahar, where he entered into negotiations with the

Rohillas, and with the Nawab of Audh, of which the result was a general combination of the Musalmans of

Hindustan with a view of striking a decisive blow in defence of Islam. But these events will form the subject

THE Mahratta confederacy was in 1759 irresistible from the borders of Berar to the banks of the Ganges. On

one side they were checked by the Nizam and Haidar, on the other by Shujaauddaula, the young ruler of

Audh. Between these limits they were practically paramount. To the westward a third Mohamadan power, the

newlyformed Daurani empire, was no doubt a standing menace; but it is very possible that, with Ahmad

Shah, as with the other Moslem chiefs, arrangements of a pacific nature might have been made. All turned

upon the character and conduct of one man. That man was Sadasheo Rao, the cousin and minister of the

Mahratta leader, the Peshwa, into whose hands had fallen the sway of Mahratta power. For their titular head,

the descendant of Sivaji the original founder, was a puppet, almost a prisoner, such as we, not many years

The state of the country is thus described by a contemporary historian, quoted by Tod: "The people of

Hindustan at this period thought only of personal safety and gratification. Misery was disregarded by those

who escaped it; and man, centred solely in self, felt not for his kind. This selfishness, destructive of public, as

of private, virtue, became universal in Hindustan after the invasion of Nadir Shah; nor have the people

become more virtuous since, and consequently are neither happy nor more independent."

Ahmad Khan (known as "the Abdali"), whom we are now to recognise as Ahmad Shah, the Daurani emperor,

returned to Hindustan (as stated in the last chapter) late in the summer, and marched to Dehli, when he heard

of the murder of Alamgir II. The execrable Shahabuddin (or Ghaziuddin the younger) fled at his approach,

taking refuge with the Jats. Mahratta troops, who had occupied some places of strength in the Panjab, were

defeated and driven in. The capital was again occupied and plundered, after which the Shah retired to the

territory of his ally Najib, and summoned to his standard the chiefs of the Rohillas. On the other hand the

Mahrattas, inviting to their aid the leaders of the Rajputs and Jats, moved up from the South. They possessed

The main force of the Mahrattas that left the Deccan consisted of 20,000 chosen horse, under the immediate

command of the minister, Sadasheo, whom for convenience we may in future call by his title of "the Bhao."

He also took with him a powerful disciplined corps of 10,000 men, infantry and artillery, under a

Mohamadan soldier of fortune, named Ibrahim Khan. This general had learned French discipline as

commandant de la qarde to Bussy, and bore the title, or nickname, of "gardi," a souvenir of his professional

The Bhao's progress was joined by Mahratta forces under Holkar, Sindhia, the Gaikwar, Gobind Pant, and

others. Many of the Rajput States contributed, and Suraj Mal brought a contingent of 20,000 hardy Jats.

Hinduism was uniting for a grand effort; Islam was rallied into cohesion by the necessity of resistance. Each

party was earnestly longing for the alliance of the Shias under Shujaa, Viceroy of Audh, whose antecedents

The Bhao had much prestige. Hitherto always victorious, his personal reputation inspired great respect. His

camp, enriched with the plunder of Hindustan, was on a scale of unwonted splendour. "The lofty and

spacious tents," says GrantDuff, "lined with silks and broadcloths, were surmounted by large gilded

ornaments, conspicuous at a distance..... Vast numbers of elephants, flags of all descriptions, the finest

horses, magnificently caparisoned .... seemed to be collected from every quarter .... it was an imitation of the

more becoming and tasteful array of the Moghuls in the zenith of their glory." Nor was this the only

innovation. Hitherto the Mahrattas had been light horsemen, each man carrying his food, forage, bedding,

head and heel ropes, as part of his accoutrements; marching fifty miles after a defeat, and then halting in

complete readiness to "fight another day." Now, for the first time, they were to be supported by a regular park

of artillery, and a regular force of drilled infantry. But all these seeming advantages only precipitated and

Holkar and Suraj Mal, true to the instincts of their old predatory experience, urged upon the Bhao, that

regular warfare was not the game that they knew. They counselled, therefore, that the families and tents, and

all heavy equipments, should be left in some strong place of safety, such as the almost impregnable forts of

Jhansi and Gwalior, while their clouds of horse harassed the enemy and wasted the country before and round

him. But the Bhao rejected these prudent counsels with contempt. He had seen the effect of discipline and

guns in Southern war; and, not without a shrewd foresight of what was afterwards to be accomplished by a

man then in his train, resolved to try the effect of scientific soldiership, as he understood it. The determination

proved his ruin; not because the instrument he chose was not the best, but because it was not complete, and

because he did not know how to handle it. When Madhoji Sindhia, after a lapse of twenty years, mastered all

Asiatic opposition by the employment of the same instrument, he had a European general, the Count de

Boigne, who was one of the great captains of his age; and he allowed him to use his own strategy and tactics.

Then, the regular battalions and batteries, becoming the nucleus of the army, were moved with resolution and

aggressive purpose, while the cavalry only acted for purposes of escort, reconnoissance, and pursuit. In the

fatal campaign before us, we shall find the disciplined troops doing all that could fairly be expected of them

On arriving at Dehli, the Bhao surrounded the citadel in which was situated the palace of the emperors. It was

tenanted by a weak Musalman force, which had been hastily thrown in under the command of a nephew of

Shah Wali Khan, the Daurani Vazir. After a brief bombardment, this garrison capitulated, and the Bhao took

possession and plundered the last remaining effects of the emperors, including the silver ceiling of the divan

khas, which was thrown into the meltingpot and furnished seventeen lakhs of rupees ( �170,000).

Ahmad, in the meantime, was cantoned at Anupshahr, on the frontier of the Rohilla country, where he was

compelled to remain while his negotiations with Shujaa were pending. So came on the summer of 1760, and

the rainy season was at hand, during which, in an unbridged country, military operations could not be carried

on. All the more needful that the time of enforced leisure should be given to preparation. Najib, the head of

the Rohillas, was very urgent with the Shah that Shujaa should be persuaded to take part against the

Mahrattas. He pointed out that, such as the Moghul empire might be, Shujaa was its Vazir. As Ahmad Shah

had hitherto been foiled by the late Nawab Safdar Jang, it was for his majesty to judge how useful might be

the friendship of a potentate whose predecessor's hostility had been so formidable. "But," added the prudent

Rohilla, "it must be remembered that the recollection of the past will make the Vazir timorous and suspicious.

The negotiation will be as delicate as important. It should not be entrusted to ordinary agency, or to the

The Shah approved of these reasonings, and it was resolved that Najib himself should visit the Vazir, and lay

before him the cause which he so well understood, and in which his own interest was so deep. The envoy

proceeded towards Audh, and found the Vazir encamped upon the Ganges at Mahdi Ghat. He lost no time in

opening the matter; and, with the good sense that always characterized him, Najib touched at once the potent

spring of self. Shia or Sunni, all Moslems were alike the object of Mahratta enmity. He, Najib, knew full well

what to expect, should the Hindu league prevail. But would the Vazir fare better? "Though, after all, the will

of God will be done, it behoves us not the less to help destiny to be beneficent by our own best endeavours.

Think carefully, consult Her Highness, your mother: I am not fond of trouble, and should not have come all

this distance to see your Excellency were I not deeply interested." Such, as we learn from an adherent of

The nature of these negotiations is not left to conjecture. The narrative of what occurred is supplied by Kasi

Raj Pandit, a Hindu writer in the service of the Nawab Vazir, and an eyewitness of the whole campaign. He

was present in both camps, having been employed in the negotiations which took place between the

Mahrattas and Mohamadans; and his account of the battle (of which a translation appeared in the Asiatic

Researches for 1791, reprinted in London in 1799) is at once the most authentic that has come down to our

Shujaauddaulah, after anxious deliberation, resolved to adopt the advice of his Rohilla visitor. And, having

so resolved, he adhered honestly to his resolution. He sent his family to Lucknow, and accompanied Najib to

Anupshahr, where he was warmly received by the Daurani Shah, and his minister Shah Wali Khan.

Shortly after, the united forces of the Moslems moved down to Shahdara, the huntingground of the

emperors, near Dehli, from which, indeed, it was only separated by the river Jamna. But, the monsoon having

set in, the encounter of the hostile armies was for the present impossible. The interval was occupied in

negotiation. The Bhao first attempted the virtue of Shujaa, whom he tempted with large offers to desert the

Sunni cause. Shujaa amused him with messages in which our Pandit acted as gobetween; but all was

conducted with the knowledge of Najib, who was fully consulted by the Nawab Vazir throughout. The Shah's

minister, also, was aware of the transaction, and apparently disposed to grant terms to the Hindus. Advantage

was taken of the opportunity, and of the old alliance between Shujaa and the Jats, to shake the confidence of

Suraj Mal, and persuade him to abandon the league, which he very willingly did when his advice was so

haughtily rejected. It was the opinion of our Pandit, that a partition of the country might even now have been

effected had either party been earnest in desiring peace. He did not evidently know what were the Bhao's real

feelings, but probably judged him by the rest of his conduct, which was that of a bold, ambitious statesman.

From what he saw in the other camp, he may well have concluded that Najib had some farseeing scheme on

foot, which kept him from sincerely forwarding the proposed treaty. Certainly that astute Rohilla was

ultimately the greatest gainer from the anxieties and sufferings of the campaign. But the first act of hostility

About eighty miles north of Dehli, on the meadowlands lying between the Western Jamna Canal and the river

(from whose right bank it is about two miles distant), stands the small town of Kunjpura. In the invasion of

Nadir Shah, it had been occupied by a force of Persian sharpshooters, who had inflicted much loss on the

Moghul army from its cover. Induced, perhaps, by the remembrance of those days, Ahmad had made the

mistake of placing in it a garrison of his own people, from which he was now separated by the broad stream

of the Jamna, brimming with autumnal floods. Here the Bhao struck his first blow, taking the whole Afghan

garrison prisoners after an obstinate defence, and giving up the place to plunder, while the main Afghan army

At length arrived the Dasahra, the anniversary of the attack of Lanka by the demigod Ram, a proverbial and

almost sacred day of omen for the commencement of Hindu military expeditions. Ahmad adopted the

auspices of his enemy and reviewed his troops the day before the festival. The state of his forces is positively

given by the Pandit, as consisting of 28,000 Afghans, powerful men, mounted on hardy Turkoman horses,

forty pieces of cannon, besides light guns mounted on camels; with some 28,000 horse, 38,000 foot, and

about forty guns, under the Hindustani Musalmans. The Mahrattas had more cavalry, fewer foot, and an

artillery of 200 guns; in addition to which they were aided, if aid it could be called in regular warfare, by

clouds of predatory horsemen, making up their whole force to over 200,000, mostly, as it turned out, food for

On the 17th of October, 1760, the Afghan host and its allies broke up from Shahdara; and between the 23rd

and 25th effected a crossing at Baghpat, a small town about twentyfour miles up the river. The position of

the hostile armies was thus reversed; that of the northern invaders being nearer Dehli, with the whole of

Hindustan at their backs, while the Southern defenders of their country were in the attitude of men marching

down from the northwest with nothing behind them but the dry and warwasted plains of Sirhind. In the

afternoon of the 26th, Ahmad's advanced guard reached Sambalka, about halfway between Sonpat and

Panipat, where they encountered the vanguard of the Mahrattas. A sharp conflict ensued, in which the

Afghans lost a thousand men, killed and wounded, but drove back the Mahrattas on their main body, which

kept on retreating slowly for several days, contesting every inch of the ground until they reached Panipat.

Here the camp was finally pitched in and about the town, and the position was at once covered by digging a

trench sixty feet wide and twelve deep, with a rampart on which the guns were mounted. The Shah took up

ground four miles to the south, protecting his position by abattis of felled timber, according to his usual

practice, but pitching in front a small unprotected tent from which to make his own observations.

The small reverse of the Mahrattas at Sambalka was soon followed by others, and hopes of a pacific solution

became more and more faint. Gobind Pant Bundela, foraging near Meerut with 10,000 light cavalry, was

surprised and slain by Atai Khan at the head of a similar party of Afghans. The terror caused by this affair

paralysed the Bhao's commissariat, while it greatly facilitated the foraging of the Shah. Shortly after, a party

of 2,000 Mahratta horsemen, each carrying a keg of specie from Dehli, fell upon the Afghan pickets, which

they mistook for their own in the dark of night. On their answering in their own language to the sentry's

challenge, they were surrounded and cut up by the enemy, and something like �200,000 in silver was lost to

the Bhao. Ibrahim and his disciplined mercenaries now became very clamorous for their arrears of pay, on

which Holkar proposed that the cavalry should make an immediate attack without them. The Bhao ironically

acquiesced, and turned the tables upon Holkar, who probably meant nothing less than to lead so harebrained

During the next two months constant skirmishes and duels took place between parties and individual

champions upon either side. In one of these Najib lost 3,000 of his Rohillas, and was very near perishing

himself; and the chiefs of the Indian Musalmans became at last very urgent with the Shah to put an end to

their suspense by bringing on a decisive action. But the Shah, with the patience of a great leader, as steadily

repressed their ardour, knowing very well that (to use the words of a modern leader on a similar occasion) the

enemy were all the while "stewing in their owngravy." For this is one of the sure marks of a conqueror, that

he makes of his own troubles a measure of his antagonist's misfortunes; so that they become a ground, not of

Meanwhile the vigilance of his patrol, for which service he had 5,000 of his best cavalry employed through

the long winter nights, created almost a blockade of the Mahrattas. On one occasion 20,000 of their

campfollowers, who had gone to collect provisions, were massacred in a wood near the camps by this

The Bhao's spirit sank under these repeated blows and warnings, and he sent to the Nawab Vazir,

Shujaauddaulah, to offer to accept any conditions that might still be obtainable. All the other chiefs were

willing, and the Shah referred them to the Rohillas. But Najib proved implacable. The Pandit went to the

Rohilla leader, and urged on him every possible consideration that might persuade him to agree. But his clear

good sense perceived the nature of the crisis. "I would do much," he said, "to gratify, the Nawab and show

my respect for his Excellency. But oaths are not chains; they are only words, things that will never bind the

enemy when once he has escaped from the dangers which compel him to undertake them. By one effort we

Proceeding to the Shah's tent he obtained instant admission, though it was now midnight. Here he repeated

his arguments; adding that whatever his Majesty's decision might be was personally immaterial to himself.

"For I," he concluded, "am but a soldier of fortune, and can make terms for myself with either party." The

blunt counsel pleased the Shah. "You are right, Najib," said Ahmad, "and the Nawab is misled by the

impulses of youth. I disbelieve in the Mahratta penitence, and I am not going to throw you over whom I have

all along regarded as the manager of this affair. Though in my position I must hear every one, yet I promise

While these things were passing in the Moslem camp, the Mahrattas, having exhausted their last resource by

the plunder of the town of Panipat, sent all their chiefs on the same evening to meet in the great durbartent.

It was now the 6th of January, and we may fancy the shivering, starving Southerners crouched on the ground

and discussing their griefs by the wild torchlight. They represented that they had not tasted food for two days,

and were ready to die fighting, but not to die of hunger. Pan was distributed, and all swore to go out an hour

As a supreme effort, the Bhao, whose outward bearing at durbar had been gallant and dignified, had

despatched a short note to our Pandit, who gives the exact text. "The cup is full to the brim, and cannot hold

another drop. If anything can be done, do it. If not, let me know plainly and at once; for afterwards there will

be no time for writing, or for speech." The Pandit was with Shujaa, by the time this note arrived the hour

was 3 A.M. and he handed it to his master, who began to examine the messenger. While he was so doing,

his spies ran in with the intelligence that the Mahrattas had left their lines. Shujaa, at once hastened to the

Ahmad had lain down to rest, but his horse was held ready saddled at the entry. He rose from his couch and

asked, "What news?" The Nawab told him what he had heard. The Shah immediately mounted and sent for

the Pandit. While the latter was corroborating the tidings brought by his master, Ahmad, sitting on his horse,

was smoking a Persian pipe and peering into the darkness. All at once the Mahratta cannon opened fire, on

which the Shah, handing his pipe to an orderly, said calmly to the Nawab, "Your follower's news was very

true I see." Then summoning his prime minister, Shah Wali, and Shah Pasand the chief of his staff, he made

Yes, the news was true. Soon after the despatch of the Bhao's note, the Mahratta troops broke their fast with

the last remaining grain in camp, and prepared for a mortal combat; coming forth from their lines with

turbans dishevelled and turmericsmeared faces, like devotees of death. They marched in an oblique line,

with their left in front, preceded by their guns, small and great. The Bhao, with the Peshwa's son and the

household troops, was in the centre. The left wing consisted of the gardis under Ibrahim Khan; Holkar and

On the other side the Afghans formed a somewhat similar line, their left being formed by Najib's Rohillas,

and their right by two brigades of Persian troops. Their left centre was led by the two vazirs,

Shujaauddaulah and Shah Wali. The right centre consisted of Rohillas, under the wellknown Hafiz

Rahmat and other chiefs of the Indian Pathans. Day broke, but the Afghan artillery for the most part kept

silence, while that of the enemy, losing range in its constant advance, threw away its ammunition over the

heads of the enemy and dropped its shot a mile to their rear. Shah Pasand Khan covered the left wing with a

choice body of mailed Afghan horsemen, and in this order the army moved forward, leaving the Shah at his

usual post in the little tent, which was now in rear of the line, from whence he could watch and direct the

On the other side no great precautions seem to have been taken, except indeed by the gardis and their vigilant

leader, who advanced in silence and without firing a shot, with two battalions of infantry bent back to their

left flank, to cover their advance from the attack of the Persian cavalry forming the extreme right of the

enemy's line. The valiant veteran soon showed the worth of French discipline, and another division such as

his would have probably gained the day. Well mounted and armed, and carrying in his own hand the colours

of his own personal command, he led his men against the Rohilkhand columns with fixed bayonets, and to so

much effect that nearly 8,000 were put hors de combat. For three hours the gardis remained in unchallenged

possession of that part of the field. Shujaauddaulah, with his small but compact force, remained stationary,

neither fighting nor flying, and the Mahrattas forebore to attack him. The corps between this and the Pathans

was that of the Daurani Vazir, and it suffered severely from the shock of an attack delivered upon them by the

Bhao himself at the head of the household troops. The Pandit, being sent through the dust to inform Shujaa of

what was going on, found Shah Wali vainly trying to rally the courage of his followers, of whom many were

in full retreat. "Whither would you run, friends," cried the Vazir, "your country is far from here."

Meanwhile, on the left of the Mohamadan line, the prudent Najib had masked his advance by a series of

breastworks, under cover of which he had gradually approached the hostile force. "I have the highest stake

today," he said, "and cannot afford to make any mistakes." The part of the enemy's force immediately

opposed to him was commanded by the then head of the Sindhia house, who was Najib's personal enemy. Till

noon Najib remained on the defensive, keeping off all close attacks upon his earthworks by continuous

discharges of rockets. But so far the fortune of the day was evidently inclined towards the Mahrattas. The

Mohamadans' left still held their own under the two Vazirs and Najib; but the centre was cut in two, and the

Of the circumstances which turned the tide and gave the crisis to the Moslems, but one account necessarily

exists. Hitherto we have had the guidance of GrantDuff for the Mahratta side of the affair, but now the

whole movement was to be from the other side, and we cannot do better than trust the Pandit. Dow, the only

other contemporary author of importance if we except Gholam Hosain, who wrote at a very remote place

is most irremediably inaccurate and vague about all these transactions. The Pandit, then, informs us that,

during those earlier hours of the conflict, the Shah had watched the fortunes of the battle from his tent,

guarded by the still unbroken forces on his left. But now, hearing that his right was reeling and his centre was

defeated, he felt that the moment was come for a final effort. In front of him the Hindu cries of Har! Har! Jai

Mahadeo! were maintaining an equal and dreadful concert with those of Allah! Allah! Din! Din! from his

own side. The battle wavered to and fro like that of Flodden as described by Scott. The Shah saw the critical

moment in the very act of passing. He therefore sent 500 of his own bodyguard with orders to arise all

ablebodied men out of camp, and send them to the front at any cost. 1,500 more he sent to encounter those

who were flying, and slay without pity any who would not return to the fight. These, with 4,000 of his reserve

troops, went to support the broken ranks of the Rohilla Pathans on the right. The remainder of the reserve,

10,000 strong, were sent to the aid of Shah Wali, still labouring unequally against the Bhao in the centre of

the field. The Shah's orders were clear. These mailed warriors were to charge with the Vazir in close order,

and at full gallop. As often as they charged the enemy in front, the chief of the staff and Najib were directed

The forward movement of the Moslems began at 1 P.M. The fight was close and obstinate, men fighting with

swords, spears, axes, and even with daggers. Between 2 and 3 P.M. the Peshwa's son was wounded, and,

having fallen from his horse, was placed upon an elephant. The last thing seen of the Bhao was his

dismounting from another elephant, and getting on his Arab charger. Soon after the young chief was slain.

The next moment Holkar and the Gaikwar left the field. In that instant resistance ceased, and the Mahrattas

all at once became helpless victims of butchery. Thousands were cut down; other thousands were drowned in

escaping, or were slaughtered by the country people whom they had so long pillaged. The Shah and his

principal commanders then retired to camp, leaving the pursuit to be completed by subordinate officers. Forty

thousand prisoners are said to have been slain. Among the prisoners was Ibrahim, the valiant and skilful

leader of the gardis. Though severely wounded, he was taken care of in Shujaa's tents, where his wounds

received surgical attention. Shujaa also endeavoured to extend protection to the head of the house of Sindhia.

A subordinate member of the clan, the afterwards celebrated Madhoji who was to become in his turn

master of the whole country fled from the field; and the late Colonel Skinner used to describe how this

chief in whose service he at one time was would relate the mental agonies he endured on his light

Deccanee mare from the lobbing paces and roaring breath of a big Northern horse, on which he was pursued

Jankoji, the then head of the family, was killed next day, a victim to the enmity of Najib, whose policy

included relentlessness. Ibrahim Gardi was taken from Shujaa by a mixture of force and fraud. He was put

into the charge of the Afghan Vazir, and died in that charge a week after. A headless body, supposed to be

that of the Bhao, was found some twenty or thirty miles off. The body, with that of the Peshwa's son, received

the usual honours of Hindu cremation at the prayer of the Nawab Shujaa. Several pretenders to the name of

this Oriental Sebastian afterwards appeared from time to time; the last was in captivity in 1782, when Warren

After these things the allies moved to Dehli; but the Daurani troops became mutinous and quarrelsome; and

they parted on ill terms. Shujaa marched back to Mahdi Ghat, whence he had come six months before, with

the titular appointment of Vazir of the Empire. The Shah, having written to the fugitive Shah Alam, to salute

him as emperor, got what money he could out of the exhausted treasury and departed to his own country.

Najib Khan remained at Dehli under the title of Najibuddaulah, with a son of the absent emperor as

ostensible regent. Having made these dispositions, Ahmad the Abdali returned to his own country, and only

Such was the famous Campaign of Panipat, the first disaster, on a great scale, of the power of the Mahratta

confederacy, and the besom which swept the land of Hindustan for the advent of the British.

It appears that, at this period, the Shahzada had applied to Colonel Clive for an Asylum in Calcutta, while the

Colonel was at the same time in receipt of a letter from the minister at Dehli the unscrupulous

Ghaziuddin calling on him to arrest the prince as a rebel and forward him to Court in custody. Clive

contented himself by sending him a small present in money. About the same time, however, Clive wrote to

Lord Chatham (then Prime Minister, and Mr. Pitt), recommending the issue of orders sanctioning his

demanding the Viceroyship of the Eastern Subahs on behalf of the King of England; an application which he

guaranteed the Emperor's granting on being assured of the punctual payment of fifty lakhs a year, the

estimated fifth of the revenues. "This," he says, "has of late been very illpaid, owing to the distractions in

the heart of the Moghul Empire, which have prevented the Court from attending to their concerns in those

distant provinces." Although nothing came of these proceedings, they are here noted as the presage of future

The English Shujaauddaulah Shahzada enters Bihar; his character Ramnarayan defeated M.

Law Battle of Gaya March towards Hindustan Massacre of Patna Flight of Kasim and Sumro

Battle of Buxar Treaty with British Text of Treaty Establishment at Allahabad Emperor's

THE events related in the foregoing introductory chapters had led to a complete obscuration of the Timuride

family and power. Whether or no that dynasty was to resume its sway once more depended entirely on the

turn that events were to take at this crisis; and chiefly on what might happen in the eastern provinces of Bihar

and Bengal, where a new power was rapidly making itself felt. To that quarter, therefore, general attention

was henceforth drawn; and the new power the English began to be, by common consent, treated as

arbiter of the future. The Nawab of Audh was also an important element in the problem, as it then appeared;

and the return of the ruler of Kabul to the plains where he had so lately struck a blow that seemed decisive,

1759. When in 1759 the heir to what was left of the empire of Hindostan had gallantly cut his way

through the myrmidons sent against him by the ruthless Minister, he crossed the Jamna and took refuge with

Najibuddaulah, the Afghan, who was then at Saharanpur in the FiftyTwo Parganas. But finding that noble

unable to afford him material support, and still fearing the machinations of his enemy, he gradually retired to

Lucknow, intending perhaps to wait there until the return of the Abdali leader might afford him an

The present viceroy of Audh was Shujaauddaulah, the son of the famous Safdar Jang, whom he equalled in

ability, and far exceeded in soldierly qualities. On his first succession to his father's now almost independent

fief he was young, and content with the unbounded indulgence of those bodily faculties with which he was

largely endowed. He is described as extremely handsome, and above the average stature; with an acute mind,

somewhat too volatile; and more prone by nature to the exercises of the field than to the deliberations of the

cabinet. But neither was the son of Safdar Jang likely to be brought up wholly without lessons in that base

and tortuous selfishness which, in the East even more than elsewhere, usually passes for statecraft; nor were

those lessons likely to be read in ears unprepared to understand them. Shujaa's conduct in the late Rohilla war

had been far from frank; and he was particularly unwilling to throw himself irredeemably into the cause of a

ruined sovereign's fugitive heir. Foiled in his application to the Viceroy of Audh, the Shahzada (Prince) then

turned to a member of the same family who held the Fort and District of Allahabad, and was named

Mohammad Kuli Khan. To this officer he exhibited an imperial patent in his own name for the lieutenancy of

Bahar, Bengal, and Orissa, which were then the theatre of wars between the British traders of Calcutta and

the family of the usurping Viceroy of those Subahs, Aliverdi Khan. The Prince proposed to Mohammad Kuli

that they should raise the Imperial standard and reduce both competitors to their proper level. The governor, a

man of ambition and spirit, was warmly encouraged to this scheme by his relation, the Viceroy of Audh (for

reasons of his own, which we shall speedily discover, Shujaa highly approved of the arrangement); and a

powerful official, named Kamgar Khan, promised assistance in Bihar. Thus supported, the Prince crossed the

frontier stream (Karamnassa) in November, 1759, just at the time that his unfortunate father lost his life in the

1760. In the distracted state of the country it was more than a month before the news of this tragedy

arrived in camp, which was then pitched at a village called Kanauti, in Bihar. The Prince immediately

assumed the succession, and, as a high aim leads to high shooting, his title was to be nothing short of

"sovereign of the known world," or SHAH ALAM. He is recorded to have ordered that his reign should be

reckoned from the day of his father's "martyrdom"; and there are firmans of his patentoffice still

forthcoming in confirmation of the record. He was at once recognised as emperor by all parties; and, for his

part, he wisely confirmed Shujaauddaulah as Vazir; while he intrusted the command of the army in

Hindustan, in the room of the assassin Ghazi, to Najibuddaulah, the Abdali's nominee.

Having made these arrangements he proceeded to collect revenue and establish himself in Bihar. He was at

this time a tall, portly man, forty years old, or thereabout, with the constitutional character of his race, and

some peculiarities of his own. Like his ancestors, he was brave, patient, dignified, and merciful; but all

contemporary accounts support the view suggested by his whole history, and debit him with defects which

more than balanced these great virtues. His courage was rather of the nature of fortitude than of that

enterprising boldness which was absolutely necessary in his situation. His clemency did great harm when it

led him to forgive and ignore all that was done to him, and to lend his ear and his hand to any person of

stronger will who was nearest to him at the moment. His patience was of a kind which ere long degenerated

into a simple compromise with fortune, in which he surrendered lofty hopes for the future in exchange for

immediate gratifications of sense. In a word, writers unacquainted with English history have combined to

produce a picture which bears a strong likeness, both in features and position, to that of Charles the Second of

The Eastern Subahs were at this time held by Clive's nominee, Mir Jafar Khan, known in English histories as

Meer Jaffier, and the Deputy in Bihar was a Hindu man of business, named Raja Ramnarayan. This official,

having sent to Murshidabad and Calcutta for assistance, attempted to resist the proceedings of his sovereign;

but the Imperial army defeated him with considerable loss, and the Hindu official, wounded in body and

alarmed in mind, retired into the shelter of Patna, which the Moghuls did not, at that time, think fit to attack.

Meantime, the army of the Nawab having been joined by a small British contingent, marched to meet the

Emperor, who was worsted in an engagement that occurred on the 15th of February, 1760. On this the

Emperor adopted the bold plan of a flank march, by which he should cut between the Bengal troops and their

capital, Murshidabad, and possess himself of that town in the absence of its defenders. But before he could

reach Murshidabad, he was again overtaken and repulsed by the activity of the English (7th April), and, being

by this time joined by a small body of French under a distinguished officer, he resolved to remain in Bihar

These French were a party of about one hundred officers and men who had refused to join in the capitulation

of Chandarnagar three years before, and had since been wandering about the country persecuted by their

relentless victor Clive. Their leader was the Chevalier Law, a relation of the celebrated speculator of the

Regency; and he now hastened to lay at the feet of the Royal adventurer the skill and enterprise of his

followers and himself. His ambition was high and bold, perhaps more so than his previous display of abilities

might well warrant. But he soon saw enough of the weakness of the Emperor, of the treachery and low

motives of the Moghul nobles, to contract the hopes his selfconfidence had fostered. To the historian

"As far as I can see, there is nothing that you could call government between Patna and Dehli. If men in the

position of Shujaauddaulah would loyally join me, I could not only beat off the English, but would

The very first step in this ambitious programme was never to be taken. Whilst the Emperor with his new

adherents (and a hundred Frenchmen under even such a leader as Law were as strong as a reinforcement

of many thousand native troops under a faithless Moghul)whilst these strangely matched associates were

beleaguering Patna, Captain Knox, at the head of a small body of infantry, of which only 200 men were

European, ran across the 300 miles between Murshidabad and Patna in the space of thirteen days, and fell

upon the Imperial army, whom he utterly routed and drove southward upon Gaya. The Imperial army was

now commanded by Kamgar Khan; for Mohammad Kuli had returned to Allahabad, and been murdered by

his unscrupulous cousin Shujaa, who seized upon the province and fort. The Emperor, as is evident from his

retreating southward, still hoped to raise the country in his favour, and his hopes were so far justified that he

was joined by another Moghul officer, named Khadim Hossain. Thus reinforced, he again advanced on Patna

opposed by Knox, who in his turn had been joined by a Hindu Raja named Shatab Rai. Another defeat was

the result, and the baffled sovereign at length evacuated the country, and fled northward, pursued by the

whole united forces of the British and the Bengal Nawab. The son of the latter, however, being killed in a

thunderstorm in July, the allied armies retired to cantonments at Patna, and the pertinacious Imperialists once

more posted themselves between that place and the capital, at their old station of Gaya.

1761. Early next year, therefore, the AngloBengali troops once more took the field, and encountering the

Imperialists at Suan, near the city of Bihar, gave them a fresh overthrow, in which Law was taken prisoner,

fighting to the last, and refusing to surrender his sword, which he was accordingly permitted to retain.

Next morning the British commander paid his respects to the Emperor, who was now quite weary of the

hopeless struggle he had been maintaining for nearly two years, and who willingly departed towards

Hindustan. He had by this time heard of the battle of Panipat, and of the plans formed by the Abdali for the

restoration of the empire; and there is reason to believe that, but for the jealousy of Mir Kasim, whom a late

revolution (brought about by the English) had placed in the room of Mir Jafar, the Emperor would have been

at once reinstated at Dehli under British protection. Before he went he created Mir Kasim Subahdar; and the

fiscal administration also vested in him, the English having so determined. The Emperor was to have an

1762. As affairs turned out there was much to be done and suffered by the British before they had another

opportunity of interfering in the affairs of Hindustan; and a strange series of vicissitudes impended upon the

Emperor before he was to meet them in the palace of his fathers. On his way to the northwest he fell into the

hands of the ambitious Nawab Vazir of Audh, who had received the Abdali's orders to render the Emperor all

assistance, and who carried out the letter of these instructions by retaining him for some two years in an

honourable confinement, surrounded by the empty signs of sovereignty, sometimes at Benares, sometimes at

1763. In the meanwhile the unscrupulous heroes who were founding the British Government of India had

thought proper to quarrel with their new instrument Mir Kasim, whom they had so lately raised to the

Masnad of Bengal. This change in their councils had been caused by an insubordinate letter addressed to the

Court of Directors by Clive's party, which had led to their dismissal from employ. The opposition then raised

to power consisted of all the more corrupt members of the service; and the immediate cause of their rupture

with Mir Kasim was about the monopoly they desired to have of the local trade for their own private

advantage. They were represented at that Nawab's Court by Mr. Ellis, the most violent of their body; and the

consequence of his proceedings was, in no long time, seen in the murder of the Resident and all his followers,

in October, 1763. The scene of this atrocity (which remained without a parallel for nearly a century) was at

Patna, which was then threatened and soon after stormed by the British; and the actual instrument was a

FrancoGerman, Walter Reinhardt by name, of whom, as we are to hear much more hereafter, it is as well

This European executioner of Asiatic barbarity is generally believed to have been a native of Treves, in the

Duchy of Luxemburg, who came to India as a sailor in the French navy. From this service he is said to have

deserted to the British, and joined the first European battalion raised in Bengal. Thence deserting he once

more entered the French service; was sent with a party who vainly attempted to relieve Chandarnagar, and

was one of the small party who followed Law when that officer took command of those, who refused to share

in the surrender of the place to the British. After the capture of his illstarred chief, Reinhardt (whom we

shall in future designate by his Indian sobriquet of " Sumroo," or Sombre) took service under Gregory, or

Broome, however, adopts a somewhat different version. According to this usually careful and accurate

historian, Reinhardt was a Salzburg man who originally came to India in the British service, and deserted to

the French at Madras, whence he was sent by Lally to strengthen the garrison of the Bengal settlement. The

details are not very material: Sumroo had certainly learned war both in English and French schools.

After the massacre of the British, Kasim and his bloodhound escaped from Patna (which the British stormed

and took on the 6th of November), and found a temporary asylum in the dominions of Shojaauddaulah.

That nobleman solemnly engaged to support his former antagonist, and sent him for the present against some

enemies of his own in Bundelkand, himself marching to Benares with his Imperial captive, as related in the

1764. In February, 1764, the avenging columns of the British appeared upon the frontier, but the Sepoys

broke into mutiny, which lasted some time, and was with difficulty and but imperfectly quelled by Colonel

Carnac. Profiting by the delay and confusion thus caused, the allies crossed into Bihar, and made a furious,

though ultimately unsuccessful attack upon the British lines under the walls of Patna on the 3rd of May.

Shujaauddaulah, the Nawab of Audh, temporarily retiring, the Emperor resumed negotiations with the

British commander; but before these could be concluded, the latter was superseded by Major (afterwards Sir

Hector) Monro. This officer's arrival changed the face of affairs. Blowing from guns twentyfour of the most

discontented of the sepoys, the Major led the now submissive army westward to Buxar (Baksar), near the

confluence of the Karamnassa with the Ganges, where the two Nawabs (for Kasim and the Audh Viceroy had

now united their forces) encountered him to be totally routed on the 23rd October, 1764.

The Emperor, who had taken no part in the action, came into the camp on the evening of the following day.

By the negotiations which ultimately ensued, the British at last obtained a legal position as administrators of

the three Subahs, with the further grant of the Benares and Ghazipur sarkars as fiefs of the Empire. The

remainder of the Subah of Allahabad was secured to the Emperor with a pecuniary stipend which raised his

But the execution of these measures required considerable delay, and some further exercise of that

pertinacious vigour which peculiarly distinguished the British in the eighteenth century.

Shujaauddaulah fled first to Faizabad in his own territories; but, hearing that Allahabad had fallen, and that

the English were marching on Lucknow, he had recourse to the Pathans of Rohilkand, whose hospitality he

afterwards repaid with characteristic ingratitude. Not only did the chiefs of the Rohillas harbour the Nawab

Vazir's family at Bareilly, but they also lent him the aid of 3,000 of their troops. Further supported by the

restless Mahrattas of Malhar Rao Holkar, a chief who always maintained relations with the Musulmans,

1765. It may be easily imagined that what he failed to do with the aid of Mir Kasim and his own territory,

he did not effect with his present friends as an exile; and Kasim having fled, and Sumroo having entered the

service of the Jats of Bhartpur, the Vazir consented to negotiate with the English; the latter, under strong

pressure from Clive, who had lately returned to India, showing themselves perfectly placable, now that it had

become impossible for them to insist upon the terms, so distasteful to an Eastern chief, which required the

surrender of his infamous guests. General Carnac, who had resumed the command, gave the Nawab and his

allies a final defeat near Cawnpore, and drove the Mahrattas across the Jamna. The treaty confirming the

terms broached after the battle of Buxar was now concluded, and Audh, together with part of the Doab, made

over to the Nawab Vazir Shujaauddaulah, who, being thus reinstated as a feudatory of the British Diwans,

returned to his own country, leaving Shah 'Alam at Allahabad as a British pensioner.

The terms accorded to the Emperor will be seen from the counterpart issued by him, part of which is

" + + + Whereas, in consideration of the attachment and services of the high and mighty, the noblest of

nobles, the chief of illustrious warriors, our faithful servants and loyal wellwishers, worthy of royal favour

the English Company, we have granted to them the Diwani of the Soobahs of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa,

from the beginning of the spring harvest of the Bengal year 1171, as a free gift and fief (Al tumgha), without

the association of any other person, and with an exemption from the payment of the tribute of the Diwan

which used to be paid to this court; it is therefore requisite that the said Company engage to be security for

the sum of twentysix lakhs of rupees a year for our revenue (which sum has been imposed upon the Nawab),

The Nawab was to continue Subahdar, the Company was to be his colleague for purposes of civil and fiscal

administration, they were to support the Nawab's (Nizamat) expenses, and to pay the tribute (Nazarana) in his

The Emperor's establishment during the next few years is thus described by a British officer who enjoyed his

intimacy: "He keeps the poor resemblance of a Court at Allahabad, where a few ruined omrahs, in hopes

of better days to their prince, having expended their fortunes in his service, still exist, the ragged pensioners

of his poverty, and burden his gratitude with their presence. The districts in the king's possession are valued

at thirty lakhs, which is onehalf more than they are able to bear. Instead of gaining by this bad policy, that

prince, unfortunate in many respects, has the mortification to see his poor subjects oppressed by those who

farm the revenue, while he himself is obliged to compound with the farmers for half the stipulated sum. This,

with the treaty payment from the revenues of Bengal, is all Shah Alum possesses to support the dignity of the

The following further particulars respecting Shah 'Alam's Court at this period are furnished by Gholam

Hossain, and should be noted here as relating to personages of some of whom we shall hear more anon.

Mirza Najaf Khan, the Imperial General, was a Persian noble of high, even of royal, extraction, and destined

to play a conspicuous part in the events related in a large portion of the remainder of this history. It will

suffice, for the present, to state that, having been a close follower of Mohammad Kuli, he joined the British

after that Chief's murder (Vide Sup. p. 68) and was by them recommended to the Emperor for employment.

He received a stipend of one lakh a year, and was nominated Governor of Kora, where he occupied himself in

the suppression of banditti, and in the establishment of the Imperial authority. Under the modest state of

steward of the household, Maniruddaulah was the Emperor's most trusted councillor and medium of

communication with the English. Raja Ram Nath, whom we saw accompanying the prince in his escape from

Dehli, continued about him; but the chief favourite was an illiterate ruffian called by the title

Hissamuddaulah, who stooped to any baseness whereby he could please the selfindulgent monarch by

pandering to his lowest pursuits. The duties of the office of Vazir were delegated by Shujaa to his son Saadat

Fallen as the Emperor truly was, and sincerely as we may sympathize with his desire to raise the fortunes of

his life, it might have been well for him to have remained content with the humble but guaranteed position of

a protected Titular, rather than listen to the interested advice of those who ministered, for their own purposes,

In this chapter I have been partly referring to Mill. Not only is that indefatigable historian on his strongest

ground when describing battles and negotiations of the British from civil and military despatches recorded at

the India House, but in treating of the movements of the native powers he has had access to a translation of

the very best native work upon the subject the Siarulmutakharin which was written by Ghulam

Hossain Khan, a Musalman gentleman of Patna, himself an eyewitness of many of the scenes described. His

account of the capture of Law, for example, given at length in a footnote to Mill's short account of the action

of Gaya after which the affair occurred, is full of truthfulness and local colour.

Since, however, the events were already amply detailed, and the best authorities exhausted in a standard work

accessible to most English readers; and since, moreover, they did not occur in Hindustan, and only indirectly

pertained to the history of that country, I have not thought it necessary to relate them more minutely than was

required to elucidate the circumstances which led to the Emperor Shah Alam becoming, for the first time, a

Those who require a complete account of the military part of the affair will find it admirably given in

Broome's Bengal Army, a work of which it is to be regretted that the first volume alone has hitherto been

made public. Of the value of this book it would be difficult to speak too highly. Coming from the pen of an

accomplished professional man, it sets forth, in a manner no civilian could hope to rival, the early exploits of

that army of which the author was a member. It may be well to note, in concluding this chapter, what appears

to have been at this time the legal relation of the British settlers in Bengal towards the Government of the

Empire. In 1678 the Company's Agents had obtained a patent conferring upon them the power of trading in

Bengal. In 1696 they purchased from the Nawab the land surrounding their factory, and proceeded to protect

it by rude fortifications. A number of natives soon began to settle here under the protection of the British; and

when the Nawab, on this account, was desirous of sending a judicial officer to reside among them, the factors

staved off the measure by means of a donation in money. The grant of land and permission of a formal kind

for the fortifications followed in 1716 on Mr. Hamilton's cure of the Emperor Farokhsiar. During all this

period tribute continued to be paid (nominally at least) to the Emperor; but in 1759, by espousing, as stated in

the beginning of this chapter, the cause of Mir Jafar, the British committed acts of open rebellion against the

Sovereign. By the treaty of Benares, however, they returned to their nominal allegiance, and became once

more subjects, tenants and even subordinate officials of the Great Moghul ( Vide Judgment of Lord

Brougham in the case of the Mayor of Lyons v. East India Company). Elphinstone (Rise of Brit. Power,

438��) finds this "treaty difficult to explain." But the fact is that all the contemporaneous powers concerned

looked upon the Empire as the legitimate source of authority; and not only then but for many years after. The

British had no legal status until they received the Emperor's grant; and to think of the arrangement as "a

Najibuddaulah and Jawan Bakht The Jats Bhartpur State Suraj Mal Najib attacks Jats

Negotiations Death of Suraj Mal Jats attack Jaipur Return of the Mahrattas They attack

Bhartpur Rohillas yield Death of Najib State of Rohilkand Zabita Khan Mahrattas invite

AT the conclusion of Part I. we saw that the Abdali ruler of Kabul had returned to his own land, soon after

the battle of Panipat, in 1761, having recognized the legitimate claims of the exiled heir to the throne (1764),

and placed that prince's eldest son, Mirza Jawan Bakht, in the nominal charge of affairs, under the protection

of Najibuddaulah, the Rohilla (Indian Afghan). A better choice could not have been made in either case.

The young regent was prudent and virtuous, as was usual with the men of his august house during their

earlier years, and the premier noble was a man of rare intelligence and integrity. Being on good terms with

his old patrons, Dundi Khan Rohilla, and the Nawab of Audh, Shujaauddaulah, and maintaining a constant

understanding with Malhar Rao Holkar, whom we have seen deserting the cause of his countrymen, and thus

exempted from their general ruin at Panipat, Najibuddaulah swayed the affairs of the dwindled empire

with deserved credit and success. The Mahratta collectors were expelled from the districts of the Doab, while

Agra admitted a Jat garrison; nor did the discomfited freebooters of the southern confederacy make any

farther appearance in Hindustan for eight years, if we except the share borne by Malhar Rao, acting on his

The area on which these exertions were made was at first but small, and the lands directly swayed by

Najibuddaulah were bounded, within 100 miles south of the capital, by the possessions of the Jats, who,

Of the rise of this singular people few authentic records appear to exist. It is, however, probable that they

represent a later wave of that race, whether true Sudras, or a later wave of immigrants from Central Asia,

which is found farther south as Mahratta; and perhaps they had, in remote times, a Scythian origin like the

earlier and nobler Rajputs. They affect Rajput ways, although the Rajputs would disdain their kinship; and

they give to their chiefs the Rajput title of "Thakur," a name common to the Deity and to great earthly lords,

and now often used to still lower persons. So much has this practice indeed extended, that some tribes use the

term generically, and speak of themselves as of the "Thakur" race. These, however, are chiefly pure Rajputs.

It is stated, by an excellent authority, that even now the Jats "can scarcely be called pure Hindus, for they

have many observances, both domestic and religious, not consonant with Hindu precepts. There is a

disposition also to reject the fables of the Puranic Mythology, and to acknowledge the unity of the Godhead."

(Elliot's Glossary, in voce "Jat.") Wherever they are found, they are stout yeomen; able to cultivate their

fields, or to protect them, and with strong administrative habits of a somewhat republican cast. Within half a

century, they have four times tried conclusions with the might of Britain. The Jats of Bhartpur fought Lord

Lake with success, and Lord Combermere with credit; and their "Sikh" brethren in the Panjab shook the

whole fabric of British India on the Satlaj, in 1845, and three years later on the field of Chillianwala. The

Sikh kingdom has been broken up, but the Jat principality of Bhartpur still exists, though with contracted

limits, and in a state of complete dependence on the British Government. There is also a thriving little

principality that of Dholpur between Agra and Gwalior, under a descendant of the Jat Rana of Gohad,

so often met with in the history of the times we are now reviewing (v. inf. p. 128.) It is interesting to note

further, that some ethnologists have regarded this fine people as of kin to the ancient Get�, and to the Goths

of Europe, by whom not only Jutland, but parts of the southeast of England and Spain were overrun, and to

some extent peopled. It is, therefore, possible that the yeomen of Kent and Hampshire have blood relations in

The area of the Bhartpur State is at present 2,000 square miles, and consists of a basin some 700 feet above

sea level, crossed by a belt of red sandstone rocks. It is hot and dry; but in the skilful hands that till it, not

unfertile; and the population has been estimated at near threequarters of a million.

At the time at which our history has arrived, the territory swayed by the chiefs of the Jats was much more

extensive, and had undergone the fate of many another military republic, by falling into the hands of the most

prudent and daring of a number of competent leaders. It has already been shown (in Part I.) how Suraj Mal, as

Raja of the Bhartpur Jats, joined the Mahrattas in their resistance to the great Musalman combination of 1760.

Had his prudent counsels been followed, it is possible that this resistance would have been more successful,

and the whole history of Hindustan far otherwise than what it has since been. But the haughty leader of the

Hindus, Sheodasheo Rao Bhao, regarded Suraj Mal as a petty landed chief not accustomed to affairs on a

Escaping, like his friend Holkar, from the disaster of Panipat though in a less discreditable way, for he did

not profess to take the field and then fly in the midst of battle, as the other did Suraj Mal took an early

opportunity of displacing the Mahratta Governor of the important fort of Agra, and at the same time,

occupied some strong places in the Mewat country. The sagacious speculator, about the same time, dropped

the falling cause of Ghaziuddin, whose method of statesmanship was too vigorous for his taste, and who,

as has been above shown, retired soon after from a situation which he had aided to render impracticable. But

a criminal of greater promise, about the same time, joined Suraj Mal. This was none other than the notorious

Sumroo, who had wisely left his late protector the Nawab of Audh, at the head of a battalion of Sepoys, a

Thus supported, the bucolic sagacity of the Jat Raja began for the first time to fail him, and he made demands

which seemed to threaten the small remains of the Moghul Empire. Najibuddaulah took his measures with

characteristic promptitude and prudence. Summoning the neighbouring Musalman chiefs to the aid of Islam

and of the empire, he took the field at the head of a small but welldisciplined Moghul army, and soon found

In this campaign the premier was so fortunate as to obtain solid assistance from the Biloch chiefs of

Farokhnagar and Bahadurgarh, who were in those days powerful upon both banks of the Jamna up to as far

north as Saharanpur on the eastern, and Hansi on the western side. The actual commencement of hostilities

between Suraj Mal and the Moghuls arose from a demand made by the former for the Faujdarship (military

prefecture) of the small district of Farokhnagar. Unwilling to break abruptly with the Jat chief, Najib had sent

an envoy to him, in the first instance, pointing out that the office he solicited involved a transfer of the

territory, and referring him to the Biloch occupant for his consent. The account of the negotiation is so

characteristic of the man and the time, that I have thought it worth preserving. The Moghul envoy introduced

himself in conformity with Eastern custom by means of a gift, which, in this instance, consisted of a

handsome piece of flowered chintz, with which the rural potentate was so pleased that he ordered its

immediate conversion into a suit of clothes. Since this was the only subject on which the Jat chief would for

the present converse, the Moghul proposed to take his leave, trusting that he might reintroduce the subject of

the negotiations at a more favourable moment. "Do nothing rashly, Thakur Sahib," said the departing envoy;

"I will see you again tomorrow." "See me no more," replied the inflated boor, "if these negotiations are all

that you have to talk of." The disgusted envoy took him at his word, and returned to Najib with a report of the

interview. "Is it so?" said the premier. "Then we must fight the unbeliever; and if it be the pleasure of the

But before the main body of the Moghuls had got clear of the capital, Suraj Mal had arrived near Shahdara on

the Hindan, within six miles of Dehli; and, had he retained the caution of his earlier years, he might have at

once shut up the Imperialists in their walled city. But the place being an old huntingground of the Emperor's

the Thakur's motive in coming had been chiefly the bravado of saying that he had hunted in a royal park, and

he was therefore only attended by his personal staff. While he was reconnoitring in this reckless fashion, he

was suddenly recognised by a flying squadron of Moghul horse, who surprised the Jats, and killed the whole

party, bringing the body of the chief to Najib. The minister could not at first believe in this unhopedfor

success, nor was he convinced until the envoy who had recently returned from the Jat camp identified the

body by means of his own piece of chintz, which formed its raiment. Meanwhile the Jat army was marching

up in fancied security from Sikandrabad, under Jowahir Singh, the son of their chief, when they were

suddenly charged by the Moghul advanced guard, with the head of Suraj Mal borne on a horseman's lance as

their standard. In the panic which ensued upon this ghastly spectacle, the Jats were thoroughly routed and

driven back into their own country. This event occurred towards the end of the year.

Foiled in their unaided attempt, they next made a still more signal mistake in allying themselves with Malhar

Rao Holkar, who, as we have seen, was secretly allied to the Musalmans. At first they were very successful,

and besieged the premier for three months in Dehli; but Holkar suddenly deserted them, as was only to have

been expected had they known what we know now; and they were fain to make the best terms that they could,

and return to their own country, with more respectful views towards the empire and its protector.

But the young Thakur's thirst of conquest was by no means appeased, and he proceeded in 1765 to attack

Madhu Sing, the Rajput ruler of Jaipur, son of the Kachwaha Raja Jai Singh, who had lately founded a fine

city there in lieu of the ancestral site, Amber. Descended from Kusha, the eldest son of the Hindu demigod

Rama, this tribe appears to have been once extensive and powerful, traces of them being still found in regions

as far distant from each other as; Gwalior and the Northern Doab. (Vide Elliot, in voc.) In this attempt

Jowahir appears to have been but feebly sustained by Sumroo, who immediately deserted to the victors, after

his employer had been routed at the famous Lake of Pokar, near Ajmir. Jowahir retreated first upon Alwar,

thence he returned to Bhartpur, and soon after took up his abode at Agra, where he not long afterwards was

murdered, it is said at the instigation of the Jaipur Raja. A period of very great confusion ensued in the Jat

State; nor was it till two more of the sons of Suraj Mal had perished one certainly by violence that the

supremacy of the remaining son, Ranjit Singh, was secured. In his time the Jat power was at its height; he

swayed a country thick with strongholds, from Alwar on the N.W. to Agra on the S.W., with a revenue of two

Meantime the Mahrattas, sickened by their late encounter with Carnac (p. 73), and occupied with their own

domestic disputes in the Deccan, paid little or no attention to the affairs of Hindustan; and the overtures made

to them by the Emperor in 1766, from Allahabad, were for the time disregarded, though it is probable that

they caused no little uneasiness in the British Presidency, where it was not desired that the Emperor should be

At this period Najib, as minister in charge of the metropolis and its immediate dependencies, though skilfully

contending against many obstacles, yet had not succeeded in consolidating the empire so much as to render

restoration a very desirable object to an Emperor living in ease and security. Scarcely had the premier been

freed from the menace of the Eastern Jats by his own prowess and by their subsequent troubles, than their

kindred of the Panjab began to threaten Dehli from the west. Fortunately for the minister, his old patron, the

Abdali, was able to come to his assistance; and in April, 1767, having defeated the Sikhs in several actions,

Ahmad once more appeared in the neighbourhood of Panipat, at the head of 50,000 Afghan horse.

He seems to have been well satisfied with the result of the arrangements that he had made after crushing the

Mahrattas in the same place six years before; only that he wrote a sharp reprimand to Shujaauddaulah for

his conduct towards the Emperor. But this, however well deserved, would not produce much effect on that

graceless politician, when once the Afghan had returned to his own country. This he soon after did, and

Profiting by the disappearance of their enemy, the Mahrattas, having arranged their intestine disputes, crossed

the Chambal (a river flowing eastward into the Jamna from the Ajmir plateau), and fell upon the Jaipur

country towards the end of 1768. Hence they passed into Bhartpur, where they exacted tribute, and whence

they threatened Dehli in 1769. Among their leaders were two of whom much will be seen hereafter. One was

Madhoji Sindhia"Patel" the other was Takuji Holkar. The first of these was the natural son of Ranoji

Sindhia, and inherited, with his father's power, the animosity which that chief had always felt against Najib

and the Rohillas. The other was a leader in the army of Malhar Rao Holkar (who had lately died), and, like

his master, was friendly to the Pathans. Thus, with the hereditary rivalry of their respective clans, these

foremost men of the Mahratta army combined a traditional difference of policy, which was destined to

paralyze the Mahratta proceedings, not only in this, but in many subsequent campaigns.

1770. Aided by Holkar, the Dehli Government entered into an accommodation with the invaders, in which

the Jats were sacrificed, and the Rohillas were shortly after induced by Najibuddaulah to enter into

negotiations. These led to the surrender to the Mahrattas of the Central Doab, between the provinces held by

the Emperor to the eastward, and the more immediate territories administered in his name from Dehli. These

latter tracts were spared in pursuance of the negotiations with the Emperor which were still pending.

Soon after these transactions the prudent and virtuous minister died, and was succeeded in his post by his son,

Zabita Khan. It is not necessary to enlarge upon the upright and faithful character of Najibuddaulah, which

has been sufficiently obvious in the course of our narrative, as have also his skill and courage. It would have

been well for the empire had his posterity inherited the former qualities. Had Zabita, for instance, followed in

his father's steps, and had the Emperor at the same time been a man of more decision, it was perhaps even

then possible for a restoration to have taken place, in which, backed by the power of Rohilkand, and on

friendly terms with the British, the Court of Dehli might have played off Holkar against Sindhia, and shaken

The preceding record shows how superior Najibuddaulah's character and genius were to those of the native

Hindustani nobles. It may be interesting to see how he impressed a European contemporary, who had

"He is the only example in Hindustan of, at once, a great and a good character. He raised himself from the

command of fifty horse to his present grandeur entirely by his superior valour, integrity, and strength of

mind. Experience and abilities have supplied the want of letters and education, and the native nobleness and

goodness of his heart have amply made amends for the defect of his birth and family. He is now about sixty

years of age, borne down by fatigue and sickness." (Mr. Verelst, to the Court of Directors, March 28th,

Since this prominent mention has been made of the Rohillas, and since they are now for a short time to play a

yet more conspicuous part in the fortunes of the falling empire, it will be well to give a brief description of

It has been seen how Ali Mohammad rose in the reign of Mohammad Shah, and had been removed from

Rohilkand by the aid of Safdar Jang, the Viceroy of Audh. On the latter falling into disgrace, Ali Mohammad

returned to his native province about A.D. 1746. In the next two or three years he continued successfully to

administer the affairs of the fair and fertile tract, but, unfortunately for his family, died before his heirs were

capable of acting for themselves. Two relations of the deceased chief acted as regents Dundi Khan, the

early patron of Najib, and Rahmat Khan, known in India by the title of Hafiz, or "Protector." Safdar Jang

continued to pursue them with relentless purpose; and although the important aid of Ahmad, their foreign

fellowclansman, and the necessity of combining against the Mahrattas, prevented the Audh Viceroy's

hostility from taking any very active form, yet there can be no doubt but that he bequeathed it to his

successor, Shujaa, along with many other unscrupulous designs. The Rohilla Pathans, for their part, were as a

In 1753 the elder son of Ali Mohammad had made an attempt to remove the Protector and his colleague from

their post. It was not successful, and its only result was to sow dissensions among the Rohillas, which caused

their final ruin. In 1761, however, they bore a part in the temporary overthrow of the Mahrattas at Panipat;

and during the next seven years the Rohilla power had passed the frontier of the Ganges, and overflowed the

Central Doab, while the Najibabad family (who had a less close connection with local politics, but were

powerful kinsmen and allies) had possession of the Upper Doab, up to the Siwalik Hills, above Saharanpur.

In 1769, as we have just seen, Najib, though well disposed, was unable to prevent the Central Doab from

passing under the Mahratta sway, and he died soon after its occupation occurred. Dundi Khan also passed

away about the same time; and the Protector Rahmat was left alone in the decline of his everdarkening days,

to maintain, as best he might, an usurped authority menaced by a multitude of foes.

Zabita Khan, the son and successor of the late minister, and himself an Afghan or Pathan by race, did

nevertheless for a time contribute to the resources of the Protector, his coreligionist and quasi countryman.

He may, therefore, be reckoned amongst the Rohillas at this period; and, as far as extent of territory went, he

might have been an ally of some importance. But territory in imbecile hands and with foes like the Mahrattas

was anything but a source of strength. While these indefatigable freebooters spread themselves over the

whole Upper and Central Doab, and occupied all Rohilkand excepting the small territory of Farakhabad,

to the south of the latter and north of the former Zabita khan, instead of endeavouring to prepare for the

storm, occupied himself in irritating the Emperor, by withholding the tribute due at Allahabad, and by

violating the sanctity of the Imperial zenana at Dehli by intrigues with the Begams.

Thus passed the winter of 177071, at the end of which the Mahrattas swarmed into the Doab, and occupied

the metropolis; only respecting the palace, where the Prince Regent and the Imperial family continued to

reside. Zabita, having organized no plan, could offer no resistance, and escaped towards his northward

By the connivance of his hereditary ally, Takuji Holkar (as Grant Duff supposes), he left the field open for

the Deccani marauders to treat directly with Shah Alam for his restoration to the throne of his father.

NOTE. The authority chiefly followed in the portion of this chapter that relates to Rohilla affairs, has been

Hamilton's "History of the Rohillas," a valuable collection of contemporaneous memoirs, although not always

quite impartial. Captain Grant Duff's research and fairness are beyond all praise, wherever transactions of the

Mahrattas are concerned. The sketch of Jat politics is derived from the SiarulMutakharin and the

TarikhiMozafari; but it is as well to state, once for all that the native chroniclers seldom present anything

like complete materials for history. A credulous and uncritical record of gossip combined with a very scanty

analysis of character and motive characterizes their works, which are rather a set of highlycoloured pictures

without proportion or perspective, than those orderly annals from which history elsewhere has chiefly been

Agency of Restoration Madhoji Sindhia Zabita attacked Mirza Najaf Khan Flight of Zabita

Treaty with Rohillas Zabita regains office Mahrattas attack Dehli Desperation of Mirza Najaf

Mahrattas attack Rohilkand Opposed by British Advance of Audh Troops Reemployment of

Mirza Abdul Ahid Khan Suspicious conduct of Hafiz Rahmat and Rohillas Tribute withheld by

Hafiz Rahmat Battle of Kattra Death of Shujaauddaulah Campaign against Jats Najaf Kuli

IT would be interesting to know the exact terms upon which the Mahrattas engaged to restore the Emperor to

his throne in the palace of Shahjahan. But, since they have even escaped the research of Captain Grant Duff,

who had access to the archives of Punah, it is hopeless for any one else to think of recovering them. The

emissary employed appears to have been the person of indifferent character who, like the Brounker and

Chiffinch of the English restoration of 1660, had been usually employed in less dignified agencies.

Unacquainted with this man's name, we must be content to take note of him by his title of Hissam, or Hashim

Ud Daula. The Mahrattas were, amongst other rewards, to receive a present fee of ten lakhs of rupees

(nominally expressible at �100,000 sterling, but in those days representing as much, perhaps, as ten times that

amount of our present money), nor would they stir in the matter until they received the sum in hard cash. It is

also probable that the cession of the provinces of Allahabad and Korah formed part of the recompense they

Though the Emperor, if he guaranteed this latter gift, was parting from a substance in order to obtain a

shadow, yet the very receipt of that substance by the others depended upon circumstances over which they

had (as the phrase is) no control. Early in the year 1771 the Emperor had sent to the authorities in Calcutta, to

consult them on his proposed movements; and they had strongly expressed their disapprobation. But

Shujaauddaula, for reasons of his own, earnestly, though secretly, encouraged the enterprise. The Emperor

set out in the month of May, at the head of a small but wellappointed army, amongst whom was a body of

sepoys drilled after the European fashion, and commanded by a Frenchman named Medoc, an illiterate man,

but a good soldier. The commandinchief was held by Mirza Najaf Khan. A British detachment, under

MajorGeneral Sir Robert Barker, attended him to the Korah frontier, where the General repeated, for the last

time, the unwelcome dissuasions of his Government. The Emperor unheedingly moved on, as a ship drives

on towards a lee shore; and the British power closed behind his wake, so that no trace of him or his

Government ever reappeared in the provinces that he had so inconsiderately left.

From this date two great parties in the Empire are clearly defined; the Musalmans, anxious to retain (and

quarrel over) the leavings of the great Afghan leader, Ahmad Abdali; and the Mahrattas, anxious to revenge

and repair the losses of Panipat. The Audh Viceroy acts henceforth for his own hand ready to benefit by

the weakness of whichever party may be worsted; and the British, with more both of vigour and of

Arrived at Farrukhabad, the Imperial adventurer confirmed the succession of that petty state to the Bangash

chief, whose father was lately dead, and received at the investiture a fine (peshkash) of five lakhs of rupees.

He then cantoned his army in the neighbourhood, and awaited the cessation of the periodical rains. The

Mahratta army, some 30,000 strong, was still encamped at Dehli, but Madhoji Sindhia, the Patel, waited upon

the Emperor in his cantonments, and there concluded whatever was wanting of the negotiations. The Emperor

At that time of year Dehli enjoys a climate of great loveliness; and it may be supposed that the unhappy

citizens, for their parts, would put on their most cheerful looks and the best remnants of their often plundered

finery, to greet the return of their lawful monarch. The spirit of loyalty to persons and to families is very

strong in the East, and we can imagine that, as the long procession marched from Shahdara and crossed the

shrunk and sandy Jamna, Shah Alam, from the back of his chosen elephant, looked down upon a scene of

hope and gaiety enough to make him for the moment forget both the cares of the past and the anxieties of the

1772. Whatever may have been his mood, his new allies did not leave him to enjoy it long. Within three

weeks of his return to the palace of his forefathers, he was induced to take the field; and he set out northward

at the head of 90,000 men, the greater number of whom were Mahratta horsemen. It has already been shown

that Zabita Khan had escaped to his own estates a year before. The Bawani Mahal (comprising fiftytwo

pergunnahs, now included in the districts of Saharanpur and Muzaffarnaggar) contained three strongholds:

Pathargarh on the left, Sukhartal on the right of the Ganges, and Ghausgarh, near Muzaffarnagar. The first

two had been built by the late minister, Najibuddaulah, to protect the ford which led to his fief in the

northwestern corner of Rohilkand, for the Ganges is almost always fordable here, except in the high floods.

The last was the work of Zabita Khan himself, and its site is still marked by a mosque of large size and fine

proportions. Upon these points the first attacks of the Imperialists were directed. Ghausgarh was hurriedly

evacuated at their approach to be completely plundered; and Zabita was soon driven to take refuge in his

eastern fort of Pathargarh, nearest to any aid that the Rohilkand Pathans might be able and willing to afford.

The open country, and minor strongholds and towns were left to the mercy of the invaders.

Although this campaign was dictated by a Mahratta policy, yet the small Moghul nucleus bore a certain part,

being ably commanded by the Persian, Mirza Najaf Khan, who has been already mentioned as Governor of

Korah, and of whom we shall hear frequently during the account of the next ten years.

This nobleman, who bore the title "Mirza" in token of belonging to the late royal family of Persia, evinced the

same superiority over the natives of India which usually characterized the original immigrants. He had

married his sister to a brother of the former Viceroy, Safdar Jang, and attached himself to the late unfortunate

Governor of Allahabad, Mohammad Kuli Khan, a son of his brotherinlaw (though whether his own

nephew or by another mother does not appear). On the murder of the Governor by his unscrupulous cousin

Shujaa, Najaf Khan succeeded to his place in the favour of the Emperor, and commanded, as we have seen,

To the combined armies Zabita opposed a spirited resistance; but the aid of the Rohilla Afghans (or Pathans,

as they are called in India) was delayed by the menacing attitude of Shujaa; and the Mahratta and Moghul

armies having crossed the Ganges by a mixture of boldness and stratagem, Zabita Khan fled to the Jat

country, leaving his family and the greater part of the treasures amassed by his father to fall into the hands of

This occasion is especially memorable, because among the children of Zabita was his eldest son, a beautiful

youth, named Gholam Kadir Khan, whom the Emperor is said, by tradition, to have transmuted into a haram

page, and who lived to exact a fearful vengeance for any illtreatment that he may have received.

At the approach of the monsoon the Emperor, dissatisfied at not receiving the whole of the share of the spoils

promised him by his covetous allies, returned to the metropolis. The Mahrattas (who even during his presence

in the camp had paid him but scanty respect) now threw off the last shreds of disguise, and appropriated all

the profits of the campaign. They at the same time restored to Zabita Khan whom they hoped hereafter to

make into a serviceable tool the members of his family taken at Pathargarh; receiving in exchange a

ransom of a lakh and a half of rupees, which was advanced to them on Zabita's account, by the Viceroy

The rainy season of 1772 was spent by the Emperor at Dehli; by the Mahrattas at Agra and in the

neighbourhood. They would willingly have proceeded to complete the reduction of all Rohilkand, but that

Mirza Najaf flatly refused to join or sanction such a course; seeing clearly that it must involve a collision with

Shujaauddaulah, who was supported by the British alliance, and of whose traditional policy the annexation

of the province formed an essential part. The Rohillas, on their part, occupied themselves in negotiations with

the Audh Viceroy, in the hope of reconstructing the Mohamadan League, which had once been so successful.

The result of which was a treaty, drawn up under the good offices of the British general, Sir R. Barker, by

which the protector, Hafiz Rahmat Khan, bound himself to join Shujaa in any steps he might take for the

assistance of Zabita Khan, and pay him forty lakhs of rupees, in four annual instalments upon condition of the

Mahrattas being expelled from Rohilkand. This treaty, which proved the ruin of the Rohillas, was executed

The next step in the destruction of these brave but impolitic Pathans was the outbreak of several violent

quarrels, in which brother fought against brother and father against son. Zabita Khan, meanwhile, being

secretly urged by the faithless Shujaa, had made terms for himself with the Mahrattas, who engaged to

procure not only his pardon but his investiture with the office of Premier Noble, formerly held by his father,

Najibuddaulah. Their barefaced boldness in restoring Zabita Khan's family and appropriating the ransom

With the view of paving the way for the removal from power of Mirza Najaf, they next addressed themselves

to creating disturbances in the country around Dehli. For they knew that this would at once alarm the

Emperor and involve the Mirza in difficulty and danger; and they foresaw in the result of such intrigues an

easy method of ruining one whom they justly regarded as an obstacle to the recall to office of their protege

Zabita. They accordingly instigated Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Bhartpur Jats, to prefer a claim to the fief of

Balamgarh, held by a petty chieftain of his own nation. This chief solicited aid from the Emperor against his

powerful rival; and in the end of the year 1772 Mirza Najaf Khan, who henceforth figures in the native

histories by his newlyacquired title of Zulfikaruddaulah, sent a force under a Biloch leader to the aid of

the Balamgarh man. The Mahrattas, on the other hand, sent a force from Agra, which joining with the

Bhartpur Jats, forced the Imperialists to retreat towards the capital; but the Patel, disapproving of the Rohilla

element contributed to this confederacy by the presence of Zabita Khan, retired towards Jaipur, where he

occupied himself in plundering the Rajputs. Takuji Holkar and the other Mahratta chiefs, feeling strong

enough to dispense with his aid, and anxious, for reasons of their own, to fulfil their promise to Zabita,

advanced towards Dehli, but were met at a place called Baddarpur, ten miles south of the city, by a force

under the minister himself. In the action which ensued, the Moghul force which, though well disciplined and

well led by Mirza Najaf, seconded by M. Medoc and some efficient native officers, was numerically weak,

fell back upon Humayun's tomb, within four miles of the palace of New Dehli. Here ensued a series of

skirmishes, which lasted four days; till the Mirza having had a nephew slain, retreated to the new town by

way of Daryaoganj, followed by a strong detachment of the enemy. He still obstinately defended the palace

and its environs; but Hissamuddaulah (whose backstair influence has been already mentioned) went in

person to the Mahratta camp the following day, and informed them, as from his master, that the brave

minister would be sacrificed by his weak and ungrateful master. Holkar and his train of black and unkempt

pygmies swarmed insolently into the palace, where they dictated their own terms. The Mahrattas, who were

anxious to return to the Deccan, were not disposed to make difficulties; their main terms were the restoration

to the office of premier noble of Zabita Khan, and the cession of those provinces in the Lower Doab which

had been under the direct sway of the Emperor, while he enjoyed British protection. These terms being

granted, they picked a quarrel with Mirza Najaf Khan, about a payment which he was alleged to have

guaranteed them during the Sukhartal campaign, and obtained an order from the Emperor banishing him the

court. These events occurred at the end of December, just a twelvemonth after the unfortunate monarch's

1773 Finding Zabita Khan in office, and the pander Hisam in high favour, the heroic axminister, having

still with him a strong and faithful escort of Moghul horse, together with the remains of the trained infantry,

and having sent to Saharanpur for his adopted son, Afrasyab Khan, who had some squadrons with him for the

protection of that district, threw himself into a fortified house outside the Kabul Gate of the city. The forces

of the new Minister surrounded him, while the Mahrattas looked on with curiosity, which seems to have been

tempered by admiration for his heroism; and the next day he formed one of those desperate resolutions which

have so often been known to influence the course of Asiatic politics. Putting on all his armour, and wearing

over it a sort of shroud of green, in the fashion used for the graveclothes of a descendant of the Prophet,

Najaf Khan rode out at the head of his personal guards. As the small band approached the Mahratta camp,

shouting their religious warcries of "Allah Ho Akbar," and "Ya Hossain," they were met by a peaceful

deputation of the unbelievers who courteously saluted them, and conducted them to camp in friendly guise.

It can only be supposed that the news of the Peshwa's death, which had recently arrived from Punah, and the

unsettled state of the Rohilla quarrel combined to render the Mahrattas indisposed to push matters to

extremity against a man of Najaf Khan's character and influence, and thus gave rise to this extraordinary

scene. The result was that the exminister's excitement was calmed, and he agreed to Join the Mahrattas in an

attack on Rohilkand. One cannot but remark the tortuous policy of these restless rievers. First they move the

Emperor upon the Rohillas; then they move the Rohilla, Zabita Khan, upon the Emperor; and then, having

united these enemies, they make use of a fresh instrument to renew the original attack. With this new ally

they marched upon Rohilkand by way of Ramghat, below Anupshahar, where the Ganges is fordable during

the winter months; and at the same time parties of their troops devastated the Doab.

Meanwhile the British, finding that the Emperor was unable to protect the provinces about Allahabad, which

they had put into his charge, made them over to the Viceroy of Audh, to whose management they had been

attached previous to the negotiations that followed the battle of Buxar, and between whose dominions and

those of the British they formed the connecting link. They had been abandoned by the Emperor when he

proceeded to Dehli, contrary to the remonstrance of the Bengal Council, and though his own lieutenant had

reported, and with perfect accuracy, that he could not regard the order to give them up to the Mahrattas as a

free act of his master's. It would, indeed, have been an easy step towards the ruin of the British to have

allowed the Mahrattas to take possession of this tract, and so form a permanent lodgement upon the borders

of the possessions in Bihar and the Eastern Subahs which the British held by the indefeasible and twofold

tenure of conquest, and of an Imperial grant. And it so happened that the necessary transfer could not be

carried out without an armed demonstration for the expulsion or coercion of the usurping Mahrattas. The

expenses of this expedition were naturally met by the Viceroy. Judged even by modern standards, this cannot

but be regarded as a perfectly legitimate act of selfdefence. It is, however, thus characterized by Macaulay:

"The provinces which had been torn from the Mogul were made over to the government of Audh for about

half a million sterling.'' The British having joined their forces to those of the VazirViceroy Shujaa,

accordingly marched to meet the invaders. Hafiz Rahmat, whom we have lately seen treating with those

powers, now became anxious about the moneypayments for which he had engaged, in the usual reckless

Oriental way, and entered into negotiations with the Mahrattas. In this scheme, the sudden arrival of the

British and Audh armies surprised him and he was forced to abandon it for the present and join the allies in

an advance against the Mahrattas, who precipitately retired on Etawa, and thence to their own country in

It has been already seen that Mirza Najaf Khan was a family connection of Shujaauddaulah, and an old

friend of the British general; and, on the retreat of his Mahratta supporters, he came over to the allied camp,

The allied armies moved on to Anupshahar, accompanied by the exminister, who was attended by his

faithful Moghuls. This town, which had, as we have seen, been a cantonment of Ahmad the Abdali, was

particularly well situated for the advanced post of a power like the British, seeking to hold the balance among

the native states of Hindustan. To the north were the fords of Sukhartal, by which the Najibabad Rohillas

passed from one part of their dominions to another; to the south was the ford of Ramghat, leading from

Aligarh to Bareilly. It remained a British cantonment from this time until some time subsequent to the

occupation of the country in general, in 1806; after which the town of Meerut was found more central, and

Anupshahar ceased to be a station for troops. It is a thriving commercial entrepot in our days, though much

menaced by the Ganges, on whose right bank it stands. The only memorial of the longcontinued presence of

a British force is now to be found in two cemeteries, containing numbers of tombs from which the

At this station Najaf Khan took leave of his patrons, having received from Shujaauddaulah the portfolio

(or, to use the Eastern phrase, the pencase), of Deputy Vazir, and from the British General a warm letter of

recommendation to the Emperor. It was especially magnanimous on the part of the Vazir to let bygones be

bygones, since they included the murder, by himself, of his new Deputy's kinsman and former patron

Mohammad Kuli Khan, the former Governor of Allahabad; and it was not an impolitic, though probably

unintentional, stroke on the part of Sir R. Barker to lend his assistance towards introducing into the direction

of the Imperial councils a chief who was as strongly opposed to the Rohillas as to the Mahrattas.

Armed with these credentials, and accompanied by a small but compact and faithful force, the Mirza

proceeded to Court to assume his post. The newlycreated premier noble, Zabita Khan, took refuge with the

Jats; but Hisamuddaulah, who had been for some time in charge of the local revenue (DiwaniKhalsa)

was dismissed, put under arrest, and made to surrender some of his illgotten wealth. An inadequate idea

may be formed of the want of supervision which characterized Shah Alam's reign, by observing that this man,

who had not been more than two years in charge of the collections of a small and impoverished district,

disgorged, in all, no less than fifteen lakhs of rupees. He was succeeded in his appointment by Abdul Ahid

Khan (who bears henceforth the title of Majaduddaulah), while Manzur Ali Khan, another nominee of the

minister's, became Vazir, or Controller of the Household. Of these two officers it is only necessary here to

observe, that after events showed the former who was a Musalman native of Kashmir as a character

marked by the faithlessness and want of manly spirit for which the people of that country are proverbial in

India. The latter was to turn out either a very blundering politician, or a very blackhearted traitor.

Title and lucrative office were now conferred upon the Kashmirian, Abdul Ahid, whose pliant manners soon

enabled him to secure a complete influence over his indolent master. Najaf Khan seems to have been equally

deceived at the time; but afterevents showed the difference between the undeceiving of a wornout

Such were the first fruits of Najaf's alliance with the Viceroy of Audh; the price was to be paid in the

bestowal of the Imperial sanction upon the final destruction of the Rohilla Pathans. It has been already seen

how this province, which ran up between the personal domains of the crown and the fief of the Viceroy of

Audh, had been seized, first by Ali Mohammad, and latterly by his son's guardian, the Protector Rahmat

Khan. But ever since Ali Mohammad's wars with the late Vazir, Safdar Jang, the rulers of Audh had probably

coveted the province, and the retreat of the Mahrattas and their occupation in domestic pursuits in the Deccan

afforded just the occasion for which Shujaauddaula was waiting. Much eloquent indignation has been

vented by Macaulay and Mill on the subject of the accession to this campaign of the British Governor, Mr.

Hastings. As I am not writing a history of British administration, I shall only observe that the Emperor,

whose servants the British professed themselves, had conferred the authority usurped by Rahmat Khan upon

the Vazir, with whom they had been for some years in alliance. As allies of both parties they were clearly at

liberty to throw in their help against the common enemies of both, especially when these chanced to be their

own enemies also. The Mahrattas were the foes of all rulers on that side of India; and the Rohillas were either

in collusion with the Mahrattas or unable to oppose them. It was essential, if not to the safety of the

possessions of the VazirViceroy, at least to British interests in Bengal, that a band of faithless usurpers

should not be allowed to hold a country which they could not, or would not, prevent from affording a high

road for the Mahrattas at all seasons of the year. That view, perhaps, commended itself to the House of Lords

when they finally acquitted Mr. Hastings, after a protracted trial, in which some of the ablest of the Whig

orators had been engaged against the accused. It is easy for historians, writing long after the passions, the

temptations, the necessities of the moment have ceased to press, to criticize the acts of the past by the "dry

light" of pure reason and abstract morality. But the claims of necessity should not be ignored in delivering

It is perhaps a mark of the good sense and justice of the English nation that, when they had considered the

matter calmly, they should have come to the conclusion that to condemn Hastings would be to condemn their

own existence in India. Such a conclusion would logically require their retirement from the country _ a step

they did not feel at all called upon to take. This appears the moral of the acquittal. Even Macaulay, who

objects to the decision of the Peers acquitting Hastings as inadmissible at the bar of history nevertheless

confesses that it was generally approved by the nation. At all events, this particular affair was dropped out of

But, however important to the existence of the British in India might be the possession of this frontier

territory by the strongest ally they could secure, the conduct of the Emperor (or rather of Mirza Najaf, in

whose hands he was not quite a free agent) remains the special subject of inquiry in this place. I think,

however, that both the minister and his master were quite justified in wishing to transfer the province of

Rohilkand from the hands of Rahmat to those of the Vazir. It has been already seen that the Pathan usurpers

of that province had always been foes of the Moghul power, since the first rebellion of Ali Mohammad, with

the solitary exception of the campaign of 1761, when they joined their Abdali kinsman at Panipat. It has also

been seen that the fords by which the Ganges could be crossed in the cold weather were in their country, but

that they could never hold them; and that, lastly, they were known to have been lately in treaty with the

Mahrattas, without reference to the interests of the Empire. Eastern politicians are not usually or especially

scrupulous; but, when it is remembered that the Rohillas were feudatories who had neither the will nor the

power to be faithful, it must follow that here were substantial considerations of vital importance to the Dehli

Government, sufficient to give them a fair inducement to sanction the enterprise of one who was their chief

Of Shujaa's own motives there is not so much palliation to offer. He had often received aid from the Rohillas,

and was under personal obligations to them, which ought to have obliterated all earlier memories of a hostile

character; and, whatever grounds the Emperor may have had for consenting to an attack upon the Pathans, or

the British for aiding the same, none such are likely to have seriously actuated the Vazir in his individual

character. If he thought the Rohillas were inclined to negotiate with the Mahrattas, he must have seen how

those negotiations had been broken off the instant he came to their assistance; and if he wished to command

the movements of the Mahrattas, he might first have endeavoured to strengthen the hands of the Imperial

It must, however, be added although the Vazir's character was not such as to render him altogether entitled

to such justifications that the latter of those engagements had been better fulfilled by himself than by the

Pathans. For while, on the one hand, he had driven the Mahrattas out of the country, the Protector Rahmat

Khan, on his part, had neither collected the wage of that service from the other chiefs, nor paid it himself.

Moreover, the Vazir's proceedings were only directed against the usurping Protector and his actual adherents;

and he was joined by Zabita and some Rohilla chiefs, while others, among whom were the sons of the late

Dundi Khan, held aloof altogether, and Faizula Khan, the son of the first founder of the Rohilla power, Ali

Mohammad, and in every way the most respectable of the clan, though he would not desert an old friend in

his hour of need, yet strongly disapproved of his proceedings, and urged him to fulfil his compact and pay the

Vazir's claim. The bribe by which Zabita had been detached from the confederacy, was an assignment of the

district in the neighbourhood of Meerut, which had cleared itself of Mahratta occupation under the late

1774. In October, 1773, the fort of Etawa fell, and the last Mahratta forces were driven from the Doab.

The next two or three months were occupied in vain negotiations on the part of the Vazir with the Rohillas;

and in more serious combinations with the Imperial Government, and with the British. And in January, 1774,

the allied armies moved forward. On the 12th of April the British entered Rohilkand; the Protector, when

finally summoned to pay what he owed, having replied by a levee en masse of all who would obey his

summons. At the same time, the Emperor ordered out a column which he accompanied for a few marches;

and issued patents confirming the Vazir Shujaauddaula in his Doab conquests, as also in the grant already

made by the British of Korah and Allahabad. This latter circumstance removes all ground for calling in

question the cession of those provinces by their temporary masters, and shows that the Emperor was

conscious of his own inability to hold them, or to grant them to enemies of Audh and of England.

On the 23rd of the same month (April) the British army completely surprised the camp of the Protector, who

was defeated and slain, after a brave but brief resistance at Kattra. Faizula was pardoned and maintained in

his own patrimonial fief of Rampur (still held by his descendants), while the rest of the province was

occupied, with but little further trouble, by the Vazir, in strict conformity to an Imperial firman to that effect.

The army of the Empire, under Mirza Najaf Khan, the Deputy Vazir, had not arrived in time to participate

actively in this brief campaign; but the Vazir acknowledged the importance of the moral support that he had

received from the Empire by remitting to court a handsome fine, on his investiture with the administration of

the conquered territory. He also gave the Mirza some reinforcement, to aid him in his pending operations

against the Jats of Bhartpur. Zabita Khan was at the same time expelled from his lately acquired fief at

Meerut, but was again put in charge next year; a proof, were proof required, of the weakness of the Home

administration of Majaduddaulah, who (it need hardly be said) received a bribe on the occasion.

Anticipating a little, we may notice that the Viceroy of Audh, at the very climax of his good fortune, met the

only enemy whom neither force can subdue nor policy deceive. Shujaauddaulah died in January, 1775; and

as it was not possible for so conspicuous a public character to pass away without exciting popular notice, the

following explanation of the affair was circulated at the time; which, whether a fact or a fiction, deserves to

be mentioned as the sort of ending which was considered in his case probable and appropriate. It was

believed that, the family of Rahmat Khan having fallen into his hands, Shujaauddaulah sent for one of the

fallen chief's daughters, and that the young lady, in the course of the interview, avenged the death of her

father by stabbing his conqueror with a poisoned knife. "Although," says the author of the

SiarulMutakharin, who is the authority for the story, "there may be no foundation of truth in this account,

The editor of the Calcutta translation of 1789 asserts that he had satisfactory proof of the truth of this story.

The Viceroy died of a cancer in the groin; and the women of his Zanana, who were let out on the occasion,

and with one of whom he (the translator) was acquainted, had made a song upon the subject. They gave full

particulars of the affair, and stated that the young lady she was only seventeen had been put to death

The death of the ViceroyVazir, however occasioned, was a serious blow to the reduced Empire of Dehli,

which was just then beginning to enjoy a gleam of sunshine such as had not visited it since the day when Mir

Mannu and the eldest son of Mohammad Shah defeated the Abdali, in 1743. Had the career of

Shujaauddaulah been prolonged a few years, it is possible that his ambitious energy, supported by British

skill and valour, and kept within bounds by Mirza Najaf Khan's loyal and upright character, would have

effectually strengthened the Empire against the Mahrattas, and altered the whole subsequent course of Indian

But Shujaa's son and successor was a weak voluptuary, who never left his own provinces; and although the

Mirza, his deputy in the Vazirship and real locum tenens, received for his lifetime the reward of his merits,

yet he was unable of himself to give a permanent consolidation to the tottering fabric.

It has been seen that he was meditating a campaign against the Jats, whom Zabita's recent fall had again

thrown into discontent, when summoned to Rohilkand, in 1774. In fact, he had already wrested from them the

fort of Agra, and occupied it with a garrison of his own, under a Moghul officer, Mohammad Beg, of

Hamadan. Not daunted by this reverse, Ranjit Singh, the then ruler of that bold tribe the Jats, advanced upon

the capital, and occupied Sikandrabad with 10,000 horse. The forces left in Dehli consisted of but 5,000 horse

and two battalions of sepoys; but they sufficed to expel the intruder. He shortly afterwards, however,

returned, reinforced by the regulars and guns under Sumroo; but by this time the Mirza was returned from

Rohilkand, and after the rains of 1774, marched against them, aided by a chief from Hariana, named after

himself Najaf Kuli Khan, who brought into the field some 10,000 troops. This man, who was a good soldier

and a faithful follower of the minister, was a converted Hindu, of the Rathur tribe; a native of the Bikanir

country bordering on Rajputana Proper to the south, and to the north on Hariana and other states immediately

surrounding the metropolis. Having been in service at Allahabad, under the father of Mohammad Kuli, the

connection and early patron of the Mirza, he became a Mohammadan under the sponsorship of the latter, and

ever after continued a member of his household. At the time of which I write, he had been appointed to the

charge of districts returning twenty lakhs a year, with the title of Saifuddaulah.

The departure of the Mirza for this campaign was extremely agreeable to the Diwan, Majaduddaulah, for

he never lost an opportunity of prejudicing the Emperor's mind against this powerful rival, in whose recent

appointment to the office of Naib Vazir, moreover, he had found a special disappointment. Indeed, Shah

Alam, between these two ministers, was like the hero of medi�val legend between his good and evil angels;

only differing in this, that in his case the good influence was also, to a great extent, the most powerful. What

the wily Kashmirian might have done in the way of supplanting the Mirza, if the latter had been signally

worsted, and he himself had been otherwise fortunate, cannot now be certainly conjectured, for a fresh revolt

of Zabita's summoned the Diwan to the northward, whilst his rival was successfully engaged with the Jats. In

this expedition Majaduddaulah displayed a great want of spirit and of skill, so that Zabita became once

more extremely formidable. Fortunately at this crisis Dehli was visited by an envoy, soliciting investiture for

the new Viceroy of Audh, Asafuddaulah. Accompanying the embassy was a force of 5,000 good troops,

with a train of artillery, the whole under command of the deceased Shujaa's favourite general, Latafat Khan.

This timely reinforcement saved the metropolis, and allowed of a settlement being made with the incorrigible

Zabita, which preserved, to some extent at least, the dignity of the Government (Vide next chapter).

Meanwhile the Imperialists had found the Jats, under their chieftain, intrenched near Hodal, a town sixty

miles from Dehli, on the Mathra road. Dislodged from this, they fell back a few miles, and again took up a

position in a fortified village called Kotban, where the Mirza endeavoured to blockade them. After amusing

him with skirmishes for about a fortnight, they again fell back on Dig, a stronghold, to become the scene of

still more important events a few years later. Dig the name is perhaps a corruption of some such word as

Dirajgarh is a strong fort, with a beautiful palace and pleasuregrounds adjoining, on the shores of an

artificial lake, fed by the drainage of part of the Alwar Highlands. Observing that the sallies of the Jats had

ceased, the Mirza left their camp at Dig in his rear, and marched to Barsana, where a pitched battle was

1775. The van of the Imperialists was commanded by Najaf Kuli. In the centre of the main line was the

Mirza himself, with battalions of sepoys and artillery, under officers trained by the English in Bengal, on the

two wings. In the rear was the Moghul cavalry. The enemy's regular infantry 5,000 strong, and led by

Sumroo advanced to the attack, covered by clouds of Jat skirmishers, and supported by a heavy

cannonade, to which the Mirza's artillery briskly replied, but from which he lost several of his best officers

and himself received a wound. A momentary confusion ensued; but the Mirza, fervently invoking the God of

Islam, presently charged the Jats at the head of the Moghul horse, who were, it will be remembered, his

personal followers. Najaf Kuli, accompanied by the regular infantry, following at the double, the Jats were

broken; and the resistance of Sumroo's battalions only sufficed to cover the rout of the rest of the army, and

preserve some appearance of order as he too retreated, though in somewhat better order, towards Dig. An

immense quantity of plunder fell into the hands of the victors, who soon reduced the open country, and

closely invested the beaten army. Such, however, was the store of grain in the Fort of Dig, that the strictest

blockade proved fruitless for a twelvemonth; nor was the Fort finally reduced till the end of March, 1776,

when the garrison found means not improbably by connivance to escape to the neighbouring castle of

Kumbhair with portable property on elephants. The rest of the Thakur's wealth was seized by the victors

his silver plate, his stately equipages and paraphernalia, and his military chest, containing six lakhs of rupees

which may perhaps be regarded as not very inferior, in relative value, to a quarter of a million sterling of

In the midst of these successes, and whilst he was occupied in settling the conquered country, the Mirza

received intelligence from Court that Zabita Khan, emboldened by his easy triumph over the Diwan,

Majaduddaulah (Abdul Ahid Khan), had taken into his pay a large body of Sikhs, with whom he was about

The enterprising minister returned at once to Dehli, where he was received with high outward honour. He

was, on this occasion, attended by the condottiere Sumroo, who, in his usual fashion, had transferred his

battalions to the strongest side soon after the battle of Barsana. Sumroo's original patron, Mir Kasim, died

about the same time, in the neighbourhood of Dehli, where he had settled, after years of skulking and misery,

in the vain hope of obtaining employment in the Imperial service. The date of his death is given by Broome

(Hist. of Beng. Army, p. 467) as 6th dune, 1777: it is added that his last shawl was sold to pay for a

windingsheet, and that his family were plundered of the last wreck of their possessions. But the detail of this

NOTEThe following is the text of the supplemental treaty of 1772, as given by Captain Hamilton. (The

former portion having provided in general terms for an alliance, offensive and defensive.) "The Vuzeer of the

Empire shall establish the Rohillas, obliging the Mahrattas to retire, either by peace or war. If at any time

they shall enter the country, their expulsion is the business of the Vuzeer. The Rohilla Sirdars, in

consequence of the above to agree to pay to the Vuzeer forty lakhs of rupees, in manner following viz.,

ten lakhs, in specie, and the remaining thirty lakhs in three years from the beginning of the year 1180

Fussulee." Only redundant or unimportant phrases have been omitted: there is not a word of payment to the

Mahrattas. The contention that the Vazir of Oudh was only surety for the payment to the Mahrattas is not

very pertinent. For the Mahrattas did not quit Rohilcand till the Vazir expelled them, and the money was not

paid. But, as we have seen, the gloss is unsupported. Besides Hamilton, TarikhiMozafari and Francklin's

Vigour of Mirza Najaf Zabita rebels Emperor takes the Field, and the Rebellion is suppressed

Sumroo's Jaigir Abdul Ahid takes the Field Unsuccessful Campaign against the Sikhs Dehli

threatened, but relieved by Najaf Mirza's arrangements Popham takes Gwalior Begum Sumroo

Death of Mirza Najaf Consequent Transactions Afrasyab Khan becomes Premier Mirza Shaffi

returns to Dehli Is it Peace? Murder of Shaffi Action of Mr. Hastings Flight of Shahzada

Madhoji Sindhia goes to Agra Afrasyab's Death Tribute claimed from British Death of Zabita

1776. THE splendid exertions of Mirza Najaf, though not yet at an end, might have been expected to give

the Empire a breathingtime wherein to recover its strength. If we except the British in Bengal, it was now

the most formidable military power on this side of India. No more than three fortified places remained to the

Jats of all their once vast possessions. The Mahrattas had been occupied in the Deccan by the events that

followed upon the death of their Peshwa, Madho Rao; and the whole of their forces were temporarily

withdrawn during the course of the year, by order of his successor. Najaf held viceregal state at Agra,

surrounded not only by his faithful Moghuls and Persians, but by two brigades of foot and artillery, under the

command, respectively, of Sumroo and of Medoc. The Mirza's chief Asiatic subordinates were Najaf Kuli

Khan his adopted son, the converted Hindu, otherwise Saifuddaulah; and Mohammad Beg of Hamadan:

two officers of whom frequent mention will be found in the progress of this narrative. Mirza Shaffi, the

minister's nephew, also held a high command. Shah Alam lived the life of ease which had become a second

nature to him, at Dehli, surrounded by able servants of the Mirza's selection. One of these, indeed, soon

obtained an apparent ascendancy over the indolent monarch, which was destined to afford another instance of

the wisdom of that maxim invented of old in the East, "Put not your trust in Princes." The only enemy who

could disturb the repose of what may be termed the Home Districts was Zabita Khan, who still exhibited all

the faithlessness so common with his race, and a turbulent disposition peculiar to himself. Finding all present

hope of aid from the Jats and Mahrattas at an end (and instigated, it was suspected, by his late unsuccessful

opponent, the Financial Minister, Abdul Ahlid Khan), Zabita, as stated at the close of the preceding chapter,

turned to the Sikhs: a people who, in the decay of the Empire, had established themselves in the Sirhind

territory, notably in Pattiala, and in Jhind. These pushing warriors of whose prowess, both against and for

the British, modern history tells so much gladly accepted the invitation of the Pathan insurgent, and,

crossing the Jamna in considerable numbers, joined his force at Ghausgarh, the fort between Saharanpur and

Muzafarnagar, of which mention has been already made. It is even stated by Francklin (though, as usual,

without specification of authority) that the Pathan on this occasion embraced the religion of the Sikhs, a sort

1777. This conduct was justly regarded by the Mirza as a gross instance, not merely of disloyalty, but

what in his eyes was even worse of impiety. In the opinion of a stern soldier of Islam, such as the Persian

Prince had always shown himself to be, the act of joining with unbelievers was unpardonable. He therefore

despatched a strong force against the combined rebels, under the command of an officer named Abdul Kasim

Khan. Nothing daunted, the Confederates drew out their troops in front of the fort of Ghausgarh, and at once

engaged the Imperial troops, whom they at the same time outflanked with a large body of horse, who got into

the rear of the Imperialists without being perceived. Placed between two attacks, and deprived of their leader

by a stray shot, the latter soon gave way, and Zabita, having pursued them for some distance, returned to his

stronghold triumphant. On this Mirza Najaf Khan resolved to take the field with all his power, and ere long

presented himself before Ghausgarh, accompanied by the Emperor in person. The Mirza was aided in this

campaign by the force of 5,000 men, with artillery, contributed by the new Viceroy of Audh, as part of the

peshkash, or fine for the investiture, and for the succession to the office of Vazir of the Empire, which had

been held by his father, and which he desired to retain against the counterclaims of the Nizam and of other

competitors. (Vide last chapter, p. 115.) The Pathan had, however, evacuated the fort on receiving notice of

their approach, and retreated with his allies to their country beyond the Jamna, closely followed by the

Imperial forces. An attempt at negotiation having been contemptuously rejected by the CaptainGeneral,

Mirza Najaf Khan, the two armies engaged on the famous field of Panipat, and the action which ensued is

described (with manifest exaggeration) as having been only less terrible than the last that was fought on the

same historic ground, between the Mahrattas and the Musalmans, in 1761. Beyond this the native historians

give no particulars of the battle, which raged till night, and with not unequal fortunes, if we may judge from

the result for on the following morning Zabita Khan's renewed applications to treat were favourably

received; on which occasion his estates were restored, and a double matrimonial alliance concluded. The

Mirza himself condescended to take the Pathan's sister as his wife, while his godson (so to speak), Najaf Kuli,

was promised the hand of Zabita's daughter. The pardon of this restless rebel was attributed to the

intercession of Latafat, the General of the Audh Vazir, who is said to have had a large bribe on the occasion.

Peace being thus restored to Hindustan, the Minister revisited Agra, where he proceeded to provide for the

The English sought his alliance; but the negotiation failed because he would not surrender Sumroo.

Asafuddaulah, Viceroy of Audh, was recognized as titular Vazir; a trustworthy chief, Maulah Ahmad Dad,

was appointed to the charge of Sirhind; Najaf Kuli Khan held the vast tract extending from that frontier to the

borders of Rajputana; and Sumroo was placed in charge of the country adjoining Zabita Khan's lands, in the

centre of which he fixed his capital at Sardhana, long destined to remain in the possession of his family, and

where a country house and park, familiar to the English residents at Meerut, still belong to the widow of his

last descendant. This territory, nominally assigned for the maintenance of the troops under the adventurer's

command, was valued in those days at six laths of rupees annually; so that the bloodstained miscreant,

whose saturnine manners had given him a bad name, even among the rough Europeans of the Company's

battalion, found his career of crime rewarded by an income corresponding to that of many such petty

1778. The beginning of this year was marked by a bloodless campaign, to which Majaduddaulah led

the Emperor. The Rajputs were the object of the attack, and they were rigorously mulcted. The Mirza's

personal share in this matter was confined to that of a peacemaker. He probably disapproved of the campaign,

which had been undertaken in a spirit of rivalry to himself; and by obtaining terms for the Rajputs he made

new ties while displaying his own power. He accompanied the return of the expedition to Dehli, where his

Mirza Najaf Khan then departed once more to Agra, the seat of his administration and his favourite abode.

But his repose was not of long continuance, and he was soon called upon for fresh exertions; the Sikhs having

risen against Maulah Ahmad Dad, the Faujdar of Sirhind, whom they defeated and slew. On the receipt of

this intelligence the Emperor had deputed Abdul Ahid Khan known to us by his title of Nawab

Majaduddaulah with an army nominally under the command of one of the Imperial Princes, to indict

signal chastisement upon obstinate offenders. If the surmise of the native historians be correct that Abdul

Ahid Khan had been privy to the late combination between the Sikhs and Zabita Khan against Mirza Najaf

the fact of his being sent against them, without any objection from so wise and loyal a minister as the

Mirza, can only be accounted for by citing it as a proof of the peculiar danger to which great men are

exposed, under an Eastern despotism, of reposing their confidence in secret enemies. That Abdul Ahid was

even then plotting against his patron will be seen to be likely from his subsequent conduct, and certainly

derives no confutation from the circumstance of his being a native of Kashmir, a country the faithlessness of

The Prince, whose standard was the rallying point of the army, is variously named as Jawan Bakht,

Farkhanda Bakht, and Akbar; the former being the name of the Prince whom we saw acting as Regent during

the Emperor's residence under English protection at Allahabad, the later that of the future successor to the

titular Empire. Whoever it may have been, the outset of the expedition promised him success, if not

distinction. The Imperial host, 20,000 strong and with an efficient park of artillery. came in contact with the

enemy at Karnal; but Majaduddaulah preferred negotiation to fighting, and induced the Sikhs to pay down

a sum of three lakhs, and pledge themselves to the payment of an annual tribute. Joining the Sikh forces to his

own, the Majaduddaulah next proceeded northwards, but was brought to a check at Pattiala by Amar

Singh, the Jat chief of that state. Here fresh negotiations ensued, in which the perfidious Kashmirian is said to

have offered to allay himself with the Sikhs for the destruction of Mirza Najaf Khan, on condition of being

supported by them in his endeavours to be made Prime Minister in the room of that statesman. Whether the

Jat leader had profited by the lesson lately read to his brethren of Bhartpur, or whether he was merely

actuated by a desire to try conclusions with the Kashmirian, having penetrated the cowardice of his character,

is matter for conjecture. Whatever the intrigue may have been, it was soon frustrated. A large Sikh

reinforcement profited by the time gained in the negotiation to advance from Lahor; the Karnal force deserted

the Imperial camp, and a general onset was made upon it the following morning. Led by a halfhearted

commander and an inexperienced Prince, the Imperialists offered but a faint resistance; but their retreat was

covered by the artillery, and they contrived to escape without suffering much in the pursuit, and indeed

without being very closely followed up. It is interesting to observe, among the names of the Sikh Sirdars,

who played this game of "diamond cut diamond" with the Kashmirian, that of Ranjit Singh, afterwards the

wily Egbert of the Panjab Heptarchy, and the firm friend of Britain for nearly forty years.

This disastrous campaign occurred in the cold weather of 177879, and the victorious Panjabis poured into

1779. Meanwhile, Mirza Najaf Khan remained in contemptuous repose at Agra, only interrupted by a

short and successful dash at some Rajput malcontents, who had been stirred up, it is thought, at the

instigation of his rival Majaduddaulah. That inefficient but unscrupulous intriguer is also shown by

Captain Grant Duff to have been at the same time engaged in a correspondence with Madhoji Sindhia, in

view to joining, when once he should have gained possession of the power of the Empire, in an attack on the

British Provinces. Duff gives this story on the authority of Sindhia's own letters, which that chief's grandson

had placed in his hands; but he does not say whether the fickle Emperor was or was not a party to this

iniquitous conspiracy for the ruin of his faithful servant and his longestablished friends.

Certain it is that Sindhia was at that time very far from the statesmanlike views and reasonable aims which he

ultimately adopted. Towards the close of the year, indeed, he took the illjudged step of joining with Haidar

Ali and the Nizam with the object of expelling the British from every part of the Indian Continent. But Mr.

Hastings soon disturbed the plans of the confederates and ere long rendered them hopeless. Some were

conquered by force of arms, others were conciliated; and Sindhia in particular, received a lesson which made

1780. There was, in the country now known as Dholpur, between Agra and Gwalior, a local Jat landholder

who had in the decay of the Empire followed the example of Suraj Mal (of Bhurtpore) and assumed

independence. In 1771, when Shah Alam was returning to the throne of his ancestors, Chatr Singh, the then

Zemindar, advanced money to the Treasury, and was soon after created a peer by the title of Maharaj Rana.

Henceforth he figures in history as the "Rana of Gohad." Having a hereditary feud against the Mahrattas and

a hereditary claim, such as it was, to the fortress of Gwalior, then in Sindhia's hands, he seemed to Hastings a

useful instrument for causing a diversion. Major Popham, one of the best of the local officers, was

accordingly sent to assist the Rana and stir up a confederation of Jat and Rajput powers to aid against the

MusalmanMahratta alliance by which British interests were threatened. The situation of the fort of Gwalior

on a scarped and isolated rock over 200 feet high, need not here be more than mentioned; the manner of its

capture, however, cannot be too often referred to as an instance of what resolution and conduct can effect in

Asiatic warfare. Having prepared scaling ladders in such secrecy that even his European officers were

ignorant of what was being done or planned, Popham sent a storming party of sepoys, backed by twenty

Europeans, to a place at the foot of the rock pointed out to him by some thieves. It was the night of the 3rd

August, 1780, and the party, under the command of Captain Bruce, were shod with cotton to render their

approach inaudible. The enemies' rounds were passing as they came near the spot; so the assaulting column

lay down and waited until the lights and voices had ceased; then the ladders were placed against the cliff, and

one of the robber guides mounting returned with intelligence that the guard had gone to sleep. The next

moment the first ladder was mounted by Lieutenant Cameron, the engineer officer, and the others followed in

silence, Captain Bruce having reached the rampart with twenty sepoys, a scuffle ensued which lasted till

Popham arrived with the Europeans and made good the entrance. Thus was this strong place captured, and

without the loss of one single life on the British side. The fort was made over to the Rana, but he did not long

retain it, Sindhia having recaptured it. He soon afterwards took Gohad also (1784), and the descendants of the

We have seen how marked a feature of the Emperor's character was his inability to resist the pertinacious

counsels of an adviser with whom he was in constant intercourse; and it is certain that he gave

Majaduddaulah all the support which his broken power and enfeebled will enabled him to afford.

But the danger was now too close and too vast to allow of further weakness. The Emperor's eyes seem to

have been first opened by his army's evident confusion, as it returned to Dehli, and by the prevaricating

reports and explanations which he received from its commander. If Mirza Jawan Bakht was the prince who

had accompanied the illstared expedition, we know enough of his prudence and loyalty to be sure that he

would have done all in his power to make his father see the matter in its true light; and what was wanting to

his firm but dutiful remonstrances, would be supplied by the cries of fugitive villagers and the smoke of

Najaf Khan was urgently summoned from Agra, and obeyed the call with an alacrity inspired by his loyal

heart, and perhaps also by a dignified desire for redress. As he approached the capita], he was met by the

Prince and the baffled Kashmirian. To the former he was respectful, but the latter he instantly placed under

arrest, and sent back under a strong guard. The fallen Minister was confined, but in his own house; and the

Mirza, on reaching Dehli, confiscated, on behalf of the Imperial treasury, his wealth, stated to have amounted

to the large sum (for those days) of twenty lakhs, reserving nothing for himself but some books and a

medicine chest. This was the second time he had triumphed over an unworthy rival, and signalized his own

noble temper by so blending mercy with justice as has seldom been done by persons situated as he was.

Abdul Ahid Khan or Majaduddaulah was a fop, very delicate in his habits, and a curiosityseeker in

the way of food and physic. It is said by the natives that he always had his tablerice from Kashmir, and

Fully restored to the Imperial favour, the Mirza lost no time in obeying the pressing behests of his Sovereign,

and sending an adequate force under his nephew, Mirza Shafi, to check the invaders. Their army, which had

been collected to meet the Imperialists, drew up and gave battle near Meerut, within forty miles of the

metropolis; but their unskilled energy proved no match for the resolution of the Moghul veterans, and for the

disciplined valour of the Europeanized battalions. The Sikhs were defeated with the loss of their leader and

1780. It cannot have escaped notice we have been here reviewing the career of one whose talents and

virtues merited a nobler arena than that on which they were displayed, and who would have indeed

distinguished himself in any age and country. Profiting by experience, the successful Minister did not repeat

the former blunder of retiring to Agra, where, moreover, his presence was no longer required; but continued

for the brief remainder of his life to reside in the metropolis, and enjoy the fruit of his laborious career in the

administration of the Empire, to which he had restored something of its old importance. Mirza Shafi

commanded the army in the field; while Mohammad Beg, of Hamadan, was Governor of the Fort and District

of Agra. Najaf Khan himself was appointed AmirulUmra (Premier Noble); his title, as it had long been,

I have not thought it necessary to interrupt the narrative of the Mirza's successes by stopping to notice the

death of Sumroo. This event occurred at Agra on the 4th of May, 1778, as appears from the Portuguese

inscription upon his tombstone there. He appears to have been a man without one redeeming quality "stern

and bloodyminded, in no degree remarkable for fidelity or devotion to his employers" the one essential

virtue of a free lance. This character is cited from the memoirs of Skinner, where it is also added that he

cannot have been devoid of those qualities which attach the soldiery to their officer. But even this becomes

doubtful, when we find the late Sir W. Sleeman (who was in the habit of moving about among the natives,

and is an excellent authority on matters of tradition), asserting that he was constantly under arrest, threatened,

The force was maintained by his widow, and she was accordingly put in charge of the lands which he had

This remarkable woman was the daughter (by a concubine) of a Mohamadan of Arab descent, settled in the

town of Kotana, a small place about thirty miles northwest of Meerut, and born about 1753. On the death of

her father, she and her mother became subject to illtreatment from her halfbrother the legitimate heir; and

they consequently removed to Dehli about 1760. It is not certain when she first entered the family of Sumroo,

but she did not become his wife till some time afterwards. It has even been doubted if any formal

marriageceremony ever took place, for Sumroo had a wife living, though insane; and the fact was probably

sufficiently notorious to prevent any Catholic clergyman in that part of the country from celebrating a

1781 . At his death he left a son, baptized as "Aloysius," who was still in his minority; and the Minister,

observing the Begum's abilities, saw fit to place her in charge, as has been already said. The ultimate result

amply justified his choice. In 1781 under what influence is not recorded she embraced Christianity,

and was baptized, according to the ritual of the Latin Church, by the name of Johanna. Her army is stated to

have consisted, at this time, of five battalions of Sepoys, about 300 Europeans, officers and gunners, with 40

pieces of cannon, and a body of Moghul horse. She founded a Christian Mission, which grew by degrees into

a convent, a cathedral, and a college; and to this day there are some 1,500 native and AngloIndian

1782. On the 26th April died Mirza Najaf Khan, after a residence in India of about fortytwo years, so that

he must have been aged at least sixty. He appears to have been an even greater and better man than his

predecessor, Najibuddaulah, over whom he had the advantage in point of blood, being at once a

descendant of the Arabian prophet, and a member of the Saffavi house, which had been removed from the

throne of Persia by the usurpation of Nadir Shah. Captain Scott who was a good scholar and well

acquainted with Native politics, as Persian Secretary to the GovernorGeneral of British India records of

the Mirza that no one left his presence dissatisfied. If he could grant a request he would, and that with a grace

as if it pleased him; if he could not, he could always convince the petitioner of his sorrow at being obliged to

refuse. The faulty side of him appears to have been a love of money, and (towards the last part of his life, at

least,) of pleasure. It will be seen in the sequel how soon his gains were dissipated, and his house overthrown.

At his death he wielded all the power of the Empire which his energies and virtues had restored. He was

Deputy Vazir of the absentee Viceroy of Audh, and CommanderinChief of the army. He held the direct

civil administration, with receipt of the surplus revenues, agreeably to Eastern usages, of the province of Agra

and the Jat territories, together with the district of Alwar to the southwest and those portions of the Upper

Doab which he had not alienated in Jaidad. But he died without issue, and the division of his offices and his

estates became the subject of speedy contests, which finally overthrew the last fragments of Moghul

dominion or independence. The following notice of these transactions is chiefly founded on a Memorial,

drawn up and submitted to the British Governor at Lucknow in 1784, by the Shahzada Jawan Bakht, of whom

mention has been already made more than once, and who had, for the ten years preceding the Emperor's

return to Dehli, in '71, held the Regency under the title of Jahandar Shah. After referring to the fact that

Majaduddaulah (the title, it may be remembered, of Abdul Ahid Khan) had been and still was in custody,

but that an equerry of the Emperor's procured the issue of patents confirming existing appointments, the

Prince proceeds, "The morning after the Mirza's death, I saw the attendants on His Majesty were

consulting to send some persons to the house of the deceased, in order to calm disturbances; and at last the

Wisdom enlightening the world resolved on deputing me to effect that object. [I] having departed with all

speed, and given assurances to the afflicted, the friends of the departed had leisure to wash and dress the

body, and the clamour began to cease. After necessary preparation, I attended the corpse to the Masjid, and

the rites of Islam having been performed, sent it to the place of interment, under the care of Afrasyab Khan,

who was the cherishedinthe bosom" (adopted) "son" of the noble deceased; whose sister also regarded

"Afrasyab Khan soon became ambitious of the dignities and possessions of the deceased, and the Begam

(deceased's sister) petitioned his Majesty in his favour, with earnest entreaty; but this proved disagreeable to

the farextending sight of the royal Wisdom, as Mirza Shaffi Khan, who had a great army and considerable

resources, looked to the succession, and would never agree to be superseded in this manner, so that

contentions would necessarily ensue." There can be no doubt of the correctness of Shah Alam's views. Mirza

Shaffi was the nearest relative of the deceased, and in actual possession of the command of the army. He was

thus not merely the most eligible claimant, but the best able to support his claims. But the Emperor never,

as we have seen, a man of much determination was now enfeebled by years and by a habit of giving way

"Instigated," proceeds Jawan Bakht, "by female obstinacy, the Begam would not withdraw her request, and

her petition was at length, though reluctantly, honoured with compliance. The khillat of AmirulOmra and

acting Minister was conferred upon Afrasyab by his Majesty, who directed this menial (though he [the writer]

was sensible of the illpromise of the measure) to write to Mirza Shaffi to hasten to the presence."

It is not quite clear whether the measure, to which this parenthesis represents the prince as objecting, was the

appointment of Afrasyab, or the summons to the Mirza. He was evidently opposed to the former, who was a

weak young man, devoid of resources either mental or material. On the other hand, his own matured good

sense should have shown him that no good consequences could follow the temporizing policy which brought

the rivals face to face at Court. Afrasyab's first measure was to release the Kashmirian ExMinister

Majaduddaulah (Abdul Ahid Khan) from arrest, and by his recommendation this foolish and notorious

traitor was once more received into the Imperial favour. In the meanwhile, Mirza Shaffi arrived at Dehli, and

took up his quarters in the house of his deceased uncle, whose widow he conciliated by promising to marry

her daughter, his first cousin. A period of confusion ensued, which ended for the time in the resignation of

Afrasyab, who retired to his estate at Ajhir, leaving his interests at Court to be attended to by

Majaduddaulah and by the converted Rajput Najaf Kuli. Shortly! after his departure, Mirza Shaffi

surrounded the houses of these agents, and arrested Majaduddaulah on the 11th September, 1782, and the

Rajput on the following day, confining them in his aunt's house under his own eye. The Prince upon this

received orders to negotiate with the Mizra, who was appointed to the office he had been so long

endeavouring to compass. But Afrasyab Khan, his absent competitor, had still allies at Court, and they

succeeded in bringing over to his cause M. Paoli, the commander of Begam Sumroo's Brigade, together with

Latafat Khan, commandant of the battalions that had been detached to the Imperial service by the Viceroy of

Audh. This took place a few days only after the arrest of the agents, and was almost immediately followed by

the desertion from Mirza Shaffi of the bulk of the army. The Emperor put himself at the head of the troops,

and proceeded to the Minister's house. Finding the premises had been evacuated the Shah marched in triumph

not quite after the magnificent fashion of his ancestors to the Jamma Masjid, and Mirza Shaffi fled to

Kosi, in the vicinity of Mathra, acting by the advice of the prince, as the latter informs us. The army did not

pursue the fugitive, and the latter enlarged Majaduddaulah, who promised to intercede for him with the

Emperor, and also made a friend in Mohamad Beg of Hamadan, whom we have already met with as

1783. While the Moghuls were disturbing and weakening the empire by these imbecile contentions,

Madhoji Sindhia, the Patel, was hovering afar off, like an eagle on the day of battle. His position had just

been greatly improved by the treaty of Salbai, an arrangement which was probably the result of the spirited

policy pursued by Hastings, of which the storming of Gwalior was a specimen. Coote and Stuart too, in

Madras, and Goddard in the Deccan, struck repeated blows at the confederacy. Peace, too, was concluded

between the French and English in India as in Europe. Sindhia was one of the first to submit, and in 1782

acceded to that famous instrument, in which the British authorities had recognized him as the representative

chief of the Mahrattas, the Peshwa being still a minor, and the ostensible head of the Regency, Nana

Farnavis, being a mere civilian, though otherwise an able man. The British GovernorGeneral also, naturally

alarmed at what was going on, and foreseeing danger from the interposition of the Mahrattas, with whom his

Government had, till lately, been engaged in a deadly conflict, soon after sent two officers to the Imperial

Court, being the first English Embassy that had visited the city of the Moghul since the memorable

But before these officials could arrive, further complications had occurred; Mirza Shaffi returning to Dehli, in

company with Mohamad Beg, requested that his new opponents, Paoli and Latafat, might be sent to them

with authority to treat, and the application was granted, much against the advice of the prince, who tells us

that he proposed either that an immediate attack should be made upon the rebels before they had time to

consolidate their power, or else that they should be summoned to the presence, and made to state their wishes

there. To the envoys elect, he observed that, even were the concession made of sending a deputation to treat

with refractory subjects, he would advise that only one should go at a time. "But," he continues, "as the

designs of Providence had weakened the ears of their understandings, an interview appeared to them most

advisable; a mutual suspicion rendering each unwilling that one should go and the other remain in camp,

lest he who went should make his own terms without the other." What a glimpse this gives of the dissolution

of all that we are accustomed to call society! The two envoys set out, but never returned: like the emissaries

sent to the Jewish captain, as he drove furiously along the plain of Esdraelon to ask, Is it peace? The

European was slain at once, the Audh general being imprisoned and deprived of sight. Mirza Shaffi and

Mohamad Beg next began to quarrel with each other. The Emperor was now much perplexed, but matters

were arranged for the time through the instrumentality of the prince and by the return of Afrasyab, who

became reconciled to his late competitor. The three nobles were presented with khillats (dresses of honour)

and Mirza Shaffi became Premier, under the title of AmirulUmra, while Majaduddaulah reverted to his

ancient post of Intendant of the Home Revenues. We pursue the prince's narrative.

"It was at this period that much anxiety and melancholy intruding on the sacred mind of his Majesty, the

Asylum of the World, and also on the breast of this loyal servant," their attention was turned towards the

English alliance, which had been in abeyance for some years. On the 23rd of September, 1783, Mirza Shaffi,

who had been to Agra, was shut out from the palace on his return, probably owing to Afrasyab Khan's

renewed desire to obtain the chief place in the State. On this the Mirza retired to Agra again, and naturally

adopted a hostile attitude, an emissary was sent forth to treat with him, in the person of Mohamad Beg

Hamadani. The meeting took place in the open air in front of the main gate of the old Fort of Agra; and when

the elephants, upon which the two noblemen were seated, drew near to each other, the Mirza held out his

hand in greeting, when Mohamed Beg at once seized the opportunity, and pistolled him under the arm. It is

asserted, indeed, by some that the actual crime was perpetrated by the attendant who occupied the back seat

Afrasyab, who had instigated this murder, profited by it, and succeeded to the post of his ambition, while the

mind of the prince became still more anxious, and still more bent upon opening his case, if possible, in a

Meanwhile, the envoys of the latter were not less urgent on their employer to support the Emperor with an

army. "The business of assisting the Shah" thus they wrote in December, 1783 "must go on if we wish

to be secure in India, or regarded as a nation of faith and honour." Mr. Hastings was not deaf to these

considerations, and subsequent events proved their entire soundness. He desired to sustain the authority of the

Empire, because he foresaw nothing from its dissolution but an alternative between Chaos and the Mahrattas;

and, but for the opposition of his council in Calcutta, he would have interposed, and interposed after his

fashion, with effect. Yet his not doing so was afterwards made the ground of one of the charges (No. 18)

against him, and he was accused of having intrigued in the interest of Madhoji Sindhia, the Patel. That Mr.

Hastings, when overruled in his desire of anticipating Sindhia in Court influence at Dehli, preferred seeing

the latter succeed, rather than the Empire should fall a prey to complete anarchy; that he "turned the

circumstance to advantage" to use Grant Duff's phrase was neither contrary to sound statesmanship,

nor to the particular views of the British Government, which was then occupied in completing the treaty of

Salbai. Under this compact Central India was pacified, and the Carnatic protected from the encroachments of

the notorious Haidar Ali Khan, and his son, the equally famous Tippu Sahib. It is important here to observe

that the Calcutta Gazettes of the day contain several notices of the progress of the Sikhs, and the feeble

opposition offered to them by the courtiers. All these things called for prompt action.

1781. On the 27th March, the British Governor arrived at Lucknow, and Jawan Bakht resolved to escape

from the palace, and lay before him an account of Dehli politics, such as should induce him to interpose. The

design being communicated to his maternal uncle, a body of Gujars, from the prince's estate, was posted on

the opposite bank of the river, and everything fixed for the 14th of April. About 8 P.M., having given out that

he was indisposed, and on no account to be disturbed, the prince disguised himself, and, secretly departing

from his chamber in the palace, passed from the roof of one building to the roof of another, until he reached

the aqueduct which crossed the garden of the palace. The night was stormy, and the prince was suffering

from fever, but he found a breach where the canal issued, by which he got to the rampart of the Salimgarh.

Here he descended by means of a rope, and joined his friends on the river sands; and, with a considerable

mixture of audacity and address, found means to elude the sentries and get across the river. One trait is worth

preserving, as illustrative of the characteristic clemency of the house of Timur. "I believe," said the prince, in

talking of this night's adventure to Mr. Hastings, "I ought to have killed the guide who showed me where to

ford the river; but my conscience disapproved, and I let him go, preferring to trust myself to the care of

Providence. In effect, the man justified my suspicions, for he instantly went to the nearest guard and gave him

information of my route, as I learned soon after; but I made such speed that my pursuers could not overtake

His Highness reached Lucknow, where he impressed all who met him with a highly favourable opinion of his

humanity, his intelligence, and his knowledge of affairs; but the only consolation he received, either from the

Viceroy or from Mr. Hastings, hampered as the latter was by the opposition of his council, was the advice to

turn to Madhoji Sindhia. Captain Jonathan Scott (who was on Hastings' staff) says that the prince received an

allowance of �40,000 a year from the British Government (Scott's Ferishta, vol. ii. 242.)

In the meanwhile Mohamed Beg, who had returned to his old residence at Agra, continued to trouble the

repose of the new minister Afrasyab, so that he also turned to the redoubled Patel, and this successful soldier

who had barely escaped fourandtwenty years before from the slaughter of Panipat, now found himself

master of the situation. The movements of the Mahratta chief began, indeed, to be allimportant. They were

thus noticed in the Calcutta Gazette for 18th April: "We learn that Sindhia is going on a hunting party. ... .

We also learn that he will march towards Bundelkund." He marched in the direction, as it proved, of Agra.

He sent an envoy to Lucknow to treat with the GovernorGeneral, and proceeded in person to Hindustan,

proposing to meet the Emperor, who was on his way to dislodge Mohamad Beg from the fort of Agra.

The Calcutta Gazette for May 10th says, "His Majesty has signified by letters to the GovernorGeneral and

The Emperor's desire to put himself into the hands of Sindhia was very much increased by the violent

conduct of Afrasyab towards one who, whatever his faults, had endeared himself, by long years' association,

to the facile monarch. Majaduddaulah, the Finance Minister, having attempted to dissuade his Majesty

from going to Agra, the haughty Moghul sent Najaf Kuli Khan with a sufficient force to Majad's house, and

seizing him, with the whole of his property, kept him in close arrest, in which he continued for the most part

On his arrival, Sindhia had an interview with Afrasyab Khan, at which it was agreed to concert a combined

attack upon Mohamad Beg forthwith. Three days after, the minister was assassinated, viz., 2nd November,

1784. The actual hand that struck this blow was that of ZainulAbidin, brother of Mirza Shaffi, who, no

doubt, was not unwilling to have an opportunity of punishing the supposed author of his uncle's murder; but

there were not wanting those who, on the wellknown maxim, cui bono, attributed the instigation to Sindhia.

Francklin records, on the authority of one Said Raza Khan, that ZainulAbidin found shelter with Sindhia

immediately after the murder, which was effected in the very tent of the victim. Rajah Himmat Bahadur (the

Gosain leader) at once proceeded to Sindhia's tent, accompanied by the chief Moghul nobles, where all joined

1785 The latter, at all events, immediately stepped into the dead man's shoes, leaving the title of Vazir to

the Audh Viceroy; and contenting himself with the substance of authority. Calling the Peshwa of Puna the

head of the Mahrattas by the revived title of Plenipotentiary of the Empire, formerly borne (it may be

remembered) by the first Nizam, he professed to administer as the Peshwa's deputy. He assumed with the

command of the army, the direct management of the provinces of Dehli and Agra, and allotted a monthly

payment of sixtyfive thousand rupees for the personal expenses of Shah Alam. In order to meet these

expenses, and at the same time to satisfy himself and reward his followers, the Pate] had to cast about him for

every available pecuniary resource. Warren Hastings having now left India, the time may have been thought

favourable for claiming some contribution from the foreign possessors of the Eastern Subahs. Accordingly

we find in the Calcutta Gazette the following notice, under the date Thursday, 12th May, 1785:

"We have authority to inform the public that on the 7th of this month the GovernorGeneral received from

the Emperor Shah Alam and Maha Rajah Madagee Sindia an official and solemn disavowal, under their

respective seals, of demands which were transmitted by them, on Mr. Macpherson's accession to the

"The demands of the tribute were transmitted through Major Brown, and made immediately upon his recall

from the Court of Shah Alam, but without any communication of the subject to Mr. Anderson.

"Mr. Anderson was immediately instructed to inform Sindhia that his interference in such demands would be

considered in the light of direct hostility, and a breach of our treaty with the Mahrattas; and Shah Alam was

to be informed that the justice of the English to his illustrous house could never admit the interference or

recommendation of other powers, and could alone flow from their voluntary liberality.

"A disavowal of claims advanced unjustly and disrespectfully was insisted upon; and we are authorized to

declare that Mr. Anderson's conduct in obtaining that disavowal was open and decided, highly honourable to

him as a public minister. He acted in conformity to the orders of Government even before he received them.

He founded his remonstrances on a short letter which he had received from the GovernorGeneral, and upon

circumstances which passed in the presence of Sindhia, at Shah Alam's Darbar, as Major Brown was taking

"The effects which Mr. Anderson's remonstrance produced are very satisfactory and creditable to

Government, and such explanations have followed upon the part of Sindhia, as must eventually strengthen

our alliance with the Mahrattas, expose the designs of secret enemies, and secure the general tranquillity of

The revolution begun by the Patel was soon completed. Zabita Khan died about this time; and Mohamad Beg,

being deserted by his troops, had no resource but to throw himself upon the mercy of the Mahratta chief. The

fort of Agra surrendered on the 27th of March, 1785; and all that remained of the power of the Moghul party

was the fort of Aligarh, where the widow and brother of the late minister, Afrasyab Khan, still held out, in the

hope of preserving the property of the deceased, the bulk of which was stored there. This stronghold, which

the late Najaf Khan had wrested from the Jats, had been fortified with great care, and it had a strong garrison,

but, having held out from July to November, the Governor was at last prevailed upon, by the entreaties of the

ladies, to avert from them the horrors of a storm, and make terms with the besiegers. The result of the

capitulation was that the eldest son of the deceased Afrasyab received an estate, yielding a yearly revenue of

a lakh and a half of rupees. The rest of the property valued at a crore, a sum then corresponding to a

million of money, but really representing much more of our present currency was seized by Sindhia.

The latter was now supreme in Hindustan; the disunited Moghul chiefs, one and all, acknowledged his

authority; and a Mahratta garrison, occupying the Red Castle of Shah Jahan, rendered the Emperor little more

than an honourable pageant. He joined, however, personally in all the operations of 1785, and did not return

to Dehli until the middle of the following year. Sindhia did not at the time accompany him, but retired to his

It has been already mentioned that there is little or nothing recorded of the condition of the country or of the

people by native historians. It must not, however, be thought that I am satisfied with recording merely the

dates of battles, or the biographies of prominent men. On the contrary, the absence of information upon the

subject of the condition of the nation at large, is a great cause of regret and disappointment to me. A few

In 1783, when Afrasyab Khan was distracting the country by his ambitious attempts, occurred a failure of the

periodical rains, followed by one of those tremendous famines which form such a fearful feature of Indian

life. In Bengal, where the monsoon is regular, and the alluvial soil moist, these things are almost as unknown

as in England: but the arid plains of Hindustan, basking at the feet of the vastest mountainchain in the

world, become a perfect desert, at least once in every quarter of a century. The famine of 17834 has made a

peculiarly deep impression upon the popular mind, under the name of the "Chalisa," in reference to the

Sambat date 1840, of the era of Vikram Adit. An old Gosain, who had served under Himmat Bahadur, near

Agra, once told the author that flour sold near Agra that year 8 seers for the rupee; which, allowing for the

subsequent fall in the value of money, is perhaps equivalent to a rate of three seers for our present rupee a

state of things partly conceivable by English readers, if they will imagine the quartern loaf at four shillings,

These famines were greatly intensified by the want of hands for fieldlabour, that must have been caused by

the constant drafting of men to the armies, and by the massacre and rapine that accompanied the chronic

warfare of those times. The drain on the population, however, combined with the absence of the taxgatherer,

must have given this state of things some sort of compensation in the long run. Some few further particulars

NOTE.Besides the Mozafari, the principal authorities for this chapter have been Francklin's "Shah Alum"

(v. inf. p. 194) the narrative of the Shahzadah published by Warren Hastings and the continuation of Ferishta

by Captain Jonathan Scott. This gentleman has already been mentioned (V. sup. p. 132), he was assisted in

compiling his narrative by Maj. Polier, who was at Dehli at the time. All these authorities are strictly original

and contemporaneous; and in general agree with each other. The Memoirs of Iradat Khan have also been

consulted a Dehli noble of the period. A traditional account of the Famine by an "Old Resident" of

Aligarh may not be without interest. It is taken from the Dehli Gazette of 6th June, 1874. "As told by many

persons who witnessed it, the disastrous circumstance which occurred during Sindiah's rule and prior to Du

Boigne's administration known by the people as the 'Chaleesa Kaut,' the severe famine of A.D. 1783 in a

considerable degree desolated the country, and the many ruinous high mounds still visible in the district owe

their origin to this calamity. The inhabitants either fell victims, or fled to other parts where they met a similar

fate, for the famine was a general one. It was described to me by those who lived then, that for the two

previous years the rains were very unfavourable, and the produce very scanty, the third year, A.D. 1783, the

people entertained strong hopes that the season would be a propitious one: but sad was their condition when

they found the rainy months, 'Assaur and Sawun, passing off with a scorching sun. In 'Bhadoon' they had

clouds but no rain, and when the calamity came, all hopes were gone the price of grain was enormous and

with difficulty it could be procured, thousands died of sheer starvation within their walls and streets, and the

native governments rendered no assistance to ameliorate or relieve the wants of their unfortunate subjects.

Children were left to go astray and find their sustenance in the wild berries of the peepul, burrh, and goolur,

and thus became an easy prey to the wild beasts who in numbers roved round the country in open day, living

on carcases. About the middle of September or 'Kooar,' the rains fell, and so regularly that the grain which

was thrown in the fields in the two previous years and did not generate for want of moisture, now came up

profusely, and abundant was the produce. The state of things gradually changed for the better in October and

November. An old Brahmin of Secundra Rao narrated that some years before 1810 the harvest was so

plentiful that on the occasion he built a house which was on a very high plinth: he filled the plinth instead of

with mud with an inferior course of small grain called 'kodun,' selling at that time uncommonly cheap, much

lower than the cost of mud would be; when the famine came he dug up the coarse grain, which was found

good, and sold it, and with the money he made his house a pucka one, besides gaining a large sum in coin."

Gholam Kadir Pillars of the State Siege of Raghogarh British policy Measures of Sindhia

Rajput Confederacy Battle of Lalsaut Muhammad Beg's death Defection of Ismail Beg

Greatness of Sindhia Gholam Kadir enters Dehli Is checked by Begam Sumroo and Najaf Kuli Khan

Gholam Kadir pardoned; joins Ismail Beg Battle of Chaksana Rajput Embassy Emperor takes

the field Shahzada writes to George III. Najaf Kuli rebels Death of Shahzada Emperor's return

Battle of Firozabad Confederates at Dehli Their difficulties Sindhia inactive Benoit de

1786. The eldest son of the deceased chief of the Bawani Mahal was that Gholam Kadir, whom we have

seen already in the character of a captive and a page. It does not appear under what circumstances he had

recovered his liberty; but, on the death of Zabita Khan, he at once succeeded to his estates, under the title of

"Najibuddaulah Hoshyar Jang." As in the lower empire of Byzantium, so in the present case, in proportion

as the State crumbled, the titles of its unserviceable supporters became more sonorous, until at last there was

not a pillar of the ruinous fabric, however weak and however disengaged from the rest of the body, but bore

some inscription equally "imposing" in both senses of the word. Daulah or Daulat means "The State," and the

Musalman nobles were called ArkaniDaulat "Columns of the Commonwealth." Of these one was its

Sword, another its Asaph (the "Recorder" of David and Solomon), a third its Hero, and a fourth its Shield.

The young "Najib" Gholam Kadir Khan, was now the most prominent representative of the Hindustani

Afghans. Among the Moghuls the leading spirit was Mohamad Beg of Hamadan, for whom the Patel

provided employment by sending him with an army into Malwa, where he was for some time occupied by the

siege of Raghogarh. This was a very strong fort, held by a colony of Kachwaha Rajputs since the times of

Najaf Khan, and commanding one of the main roads between Hindustan and the Mahratta country. It had

resisted the Mahrattas when they first invaded Malwa, and it was destined to resist Sindhia's successors

almost down to our own times. It is now a peaceful market town, and the traces of its former strength are all

Sindhia's progress in the Doab was more rapid, nor was it long before Musalman jealousy began to be

aroused. The Patel opened negotiations with Mirza Jawan Bakht, having the object of inducing. that prince to

return to the capital; but from this he was strongly dissuaded by the Viceroy Vazir, acting under the advice of

Major Palmer, the British Resident at Lucknow. That gentleman considered the interests of the Company and

of the Vazir as deeply bound up in the fate of the prince. Whilst he remained under their joint protection, the

Mahratta usurpation must be incomplete; should he fall into the power of the Patel, a permanent Mahratta

1787. Under these circumstances the acting GovernorGeneral Macpherson, who, as already noted, had

succeeded Mr. Hastings when the latter left India, resolved on retaining a British Brigade in the Doab; and

Lord Cornwallis, on taking office the following year, confirmed the measure. That a change began to come

over the policy of the British in India about this time is well known, however the English might strive to hide

it from others or even from themselves: see, for instance, the following passage from the Calcutta Gazette

"Though the Mussulmans dwindle into insignificance, we have nothing to apprehend from the Hindus. Many

have urged the necessity of upholding the influence of Moghuls to counterbalance the power of Hindus; but

this should seem bad policy, as we would causelessly become obnoxious, and involve ourselves in the

interests of a declining State, who are at the same time our secret enemy and rivals."

The new Governor, likewise, further alarmed Sindhia by sending a minister to reside at the Peshwa's Court at

Punah, and the Patel anxiously set himself to work to consolidate his power in Hindustan, so as to be ready

for the storm, from whatever quarter it might break. Impressed with the success which had attended his

predecessor, Mirza Najaf, Sindhia's first care was to organize a body of regular troops a measure

repugnant to the old politics of the Mahrattas, but none the less approving itself to his judgment on that

The nucleus of this force was the corps raised and organized, in 1785, by Benoit de Boigne, an officer whose

history, as it forms an excellent illustration of the condition of Hindustan in the latter part of the last century,

will be given briefly in a note at the end of this chapter. The General in command of Sindhia's forces was a

Mahratta, named Appa Khandi Rao, of whom we shall hereafter have occasion to make further mention.

In civil matters, the first step taken by the Patel was the sequestration of a number of the Jaigirs of the

Musalman nobles a cause of discontent to the sufferers, and of alarm to the remainder; but even this step

had a military character, for the Jaigirs were fiefs bestowed for military service, and their reduction formed

part of the system under which he was endeavouring to organize a standing army. With this view he at the

same time recalled Mohamad Beg from the siege of Raghogarh and attempted, vainly, to induce that Chief to

Amongst other unpopular measures must also be enumerated the removal of Raja Narayan Dass, who had for

some time been in charge of the Home Revenues, and who was replaced by Shah Nizamuddin, a creature

of Sindhia's. At the same time the Gosain leader, Himmat Bahadur, went into open rebellion in Bundelkand,

on being called upon to give an account of the management of his Jaigir, a measure which he construed as

Nor was it an easy matter, at this particular juncture, to set about military reforms, for the Rajputs,

emboldened perhaps by the resistance of Raghogarh, now began to organize a combination, which not only

implied a considerable loss of power and of revenue, but likewise threatened to cut off the Patel's

communications with Punah. Raja Partab Singh (head of the Kachwahas, and Dhiraj of Jaipur), called for the

aid of the head of the Rathor clan, Maharaja Bijai Singh of Jodhpur, who had married his daughter, and who

adopted his cause with alacrity. Joined by the Rana of Udaipur, and by other minor chiefs, the Rajput leaders

found themselves at the head of a force of 100,000 horse and foot, and 400 pieces of artillery, and with this

array they took post at Lalsot, a town fortythree miles east from Jaipur, and there awaited the attack of the

Imperial forces, with the more confidence that they were aware of the growing disaffection of the Moghul

Here they were encountered at the end of May, 1787, by an enormous force under Sindhia in person, with

Ambaji Inglia, Appa Khandi, M. de Boigne, and other trusty lieutenants. The Moghul horse and the regular

infantry in the Imperial service were under the general direction of Mohamad Beg and his nephew. The latter,

a young man who will play a conspicuous part in the succeeding pages, was named Ismail Beg, and was the

son of Nahim Beg, who had accompanied his brother Mohamad from Hamadan, the two attaching themselves

to their Persian countryman, Mirza Najaf, during that minister's later prosperity. Ismail Beg had married his

uncle's daughter, and was a person of great spirit, though not, as it would seem, of much judgment or

The battle, as described by Native history, began by a reconnaisance of Ismail Beg at the head of 300 Moghul

horse. A large body of Rajput horse made way before him, but the Mahrattas not following up, and nearly

half his men being slain, he was forced to retreat to his uncle's division. This terminated the fighting for that

day, but the next morning Ismail renewed the fight, leading on his artillery on foot, and followed by his uncle

on an elephant with the rest of the corps. They were throughout the day engaged with the bulk of the Rajput

army, but a heavy storm arose from the westward, as evening came on. The Mahrattas, having been in the

meantime severely handled by a body of Rajput swordsmen mad with opium, the battle degenerated into a

cannonade, at long ranges and at fitful intervals. Suddenly a chance roundshot dropped into the Moghul

ranks, which, after overthrowing two horsemen, made a bound and struck Mohamad Beg on the right arm. He

fell from his elephant, and, coming in contact with a small stack of branches of trees that had been piled at

hand for the elephants' fodder, received a splinter in his temple which proved instantly mortal. Ismail, hearing

of this event, exclaimed, "I am now the leader!" and immediately addressed the troops, and concluded the

action for that day with a brisk cannonade. The next day (the 1st of June, and the third of this protracted

engagement) both sides continued to fight till towards evening, when a body of some 14,000 infantry

surrounded Sindhia's tents and clamorously demanded an issue of pay very probably in arrear and sent

a message at the same time to the Jaipur Raja, offering to join him on receipt of two lakes of rupees. The Raja

readily accepting these terms, the battalions joined his camp and received their money on the spot.

Meanwhile, such was the distress in the MoghulMahratta camp, isolated, at it was, in an enemy's country,

that wheat was selling at four seers the Rupee, and there was every prospect of the scarcity increasing; while

the countless campfollowers of the Rajputs were engaged in nightly depredations, stealing the elephants and

horses from the midst of the sentries. Under these circumstances, the Patel broke up his quarters the next

evening, and fell back upon Alwar, whence Ismail Beg marched off without leave towards Agra, taking with

him 1,000 horse, four battalions, and six guns. Sindhia, justly regarding this as an open act of defection,

instantly made terms with Ranjit Singh, the leader of the Jats, and pushed on all his forces to the pursuit, at

the same time throwing a strong reinforcement into the fort of Agra, the garrison of which was placed under

"Reports are various respecting the particulars of an engagement between Scindia and the Rajahs of

Joynaghur and Jeypore; it is certain a very bloody battle was fought near Joynaghur about the end of last

month, in which, though the enemy were repulsed in their attack on his advanced body by Scindia's troops,

with much gallantry, they were ultimately in a great measure victorious, as Scindia lost a part of his artillery

during the engagement, which was long and obstinate, and in which upwards of 2,000 men were killed on

either side. Both armies, however, still kept the field. Among the chiefs of note who fell on the part of

Scindia, is Ajeet Roy. On that of the Joynaghur Rajah, is Mohamed Beg Humdanee, a very celebrated

commander, much regretted by that party, and, but for whose loss, it is said that the Mahrattas would have

been totally defeated. Several of Scindia's battalions, with a considerable corps of artillery, went over to the

enemy on the 1st instant, but the intelligence we have yet received does not enable us to account for this

Francklin says, in general terms, that Mohamad Beg went over at the commencement of the action, and that it

was Partab Singh who conferred the command of the Moghuls upon Ismail Beg. But Partab Singh would

have no voice in such a matter, and Francklin inconsistently adds that the trained battalions of the late

Afrasyab's force went over later in the day. Where no authorities are given, it is inevitable that we should

judge for ourselves. And, after all, the point is not of much importance. It is, however, pretty clear that the

Moghul nobles were grievously discontented; that their discontents were known to the Rajputs before they

provoked a collision; and that the latter were joined by them as soon as a likelihood appeared of Sindhia's

General de Boigne used to relate that this was the hour of Sindhia's moral greatness. He made vast efforts to

conciliate the Jats, appealing to the Thakur's rustic vanity by costly presents, while he propitiated the feeling

of the Bhartpur army, and the patriotism of the country at large, by restoring to the Jats the fortress of Dig,

which had been held for the Emperor ever since its conquest by Najaf Khan. He likewise placed his

siegetrain in the charge of his new allies, who stored it in their chief fort of Bhartpur. At the same time he

wrote letters to Poona, earnestly urging a general combination for the good cause.

Ismail Beg, on his part was not idle. His first effort was to procure the cooperation of the Rajputs, and had

they not been too proud or too indolent to combine actively with him, it is possible that Mahratta influence

might have been again overthrown, and the comparatively glorious days of Mirza Najaf Khan renewed in the

Empire of Hindostan. A fresh associate, too, in these designs are now to appear upon the scene, which, for a

brief but terrible period, he was soon after to fill. This was Gholam Kadir, who hastened from Ghausgarh to

join in the resuscitation of Mohamadan interests, and to share in the gains. The Emperor, moreover, was

known to be in private correspondence with the Rajput chiefs, who shortly after this inflicted another defeat

Unable to resist this combination, Sindhia fell back upon Gwalior, and Ismail Beg hotly pressed the siege of

Towards the end of the rainy season of 1787, Gholam Kadir approached Dehli, and encamped on the

Shahdara side of the river, his object at this time being, in all probability, a renewal of his father's claims, and

attempts to obtain the dignity of AmirulUmra or Premier Noble. He is always understood to have been

acting under the direction of Manzur Ali Khan, Controller of the Imperial Household, who thought to secure

a valuable support for the cause of Islam by introducing the young Pathan chief into the administration. The

Mahratta garrison was commanded by a soninlaw of the Patel, known in Musalman History as the

Desmukh which is interpreted "Collector of Land Revenue," and by a member of the Imperial

Household, on whom, from some unexplained reason, had been bestowed the title of the great Aulia Saint

Shah Nizamuddin, and who had lately been placed in charge of the Home Revenues, as stated above (p.

152.) These officers immediately opened fire from the guns on the riverside of the fort, and the young Rohilla

replied from the opposite bank. At the same time, however, he did not fail to employ the usual Eastern

application of war's sinews; and the Moghul soldiers of the small force being corrupted, the Mahrattas made

but a feeble resistance. Gholam Kadir crossed the river, and the Imperial officers fled to the Jat Fort of

It need hardly be observed that the firing on the palace was an act of gross disrespect, and, unless explained,

of rebellion. Nor was the young chief blind to the importance of basing his proceedings on an appearance of

regularity. He accordingly entered into a correspondence with the above mentioned Manzur Ali (a nominee, it

may be remembered, of the late Mirza Najaf Khan). By the agency of this official, Gholam Kadir was

introduced to the Diwan Khas, where he presented a Nazar of five gold mohurs, and was graciously received.

He excused his apparent violence by attributing it to zeal for the service of his Majesty, formally applied for

the patent of AmirulUmra, and with professions of implicit obedience withdrew to cultivate the

acquaintance of the courtiers, retiring at night to his own camp. Matters remained in this condition for two or

three days, when Gholam Kadir, impatient perhaps at the nonoccurrence of any circumstance which might

advance his designs, reentered the Palace with seventy or eighty troopers, and took up his abode in the

Meanwhile, Begam Sumroo, who was with her forces operating against a fresh rising of the CisSatlaj Sikhs,

hastened from Panipat and presented herself in the palace. Awed by this loyal lady and her European officers,

and finding the Moghul courtiers unwilling to enter into any combination against them, the baffled Rohilla

retired across the river, and remained for some time quiet in his camp. Francklin, indeed, states that the

cannonade was renewed immediately on Gholam Kadir's return to his camp; but it is more probable that, as

stated above, this renewal did not occur until the arrival of Najaf Kuli Khan. The Emperor showed on this

occasion some sparks of the temper of old time, before misfortune and sensual indulgence had demoralized

his nature. He sent Moghul chiefs to keep an eye on the Pathan, while he increased his household troops by a

levy of 6,000 horse, for the pay of whom he melted a quantity of his personal plate. He also despatched

messengers to the converted Rathor, Najaf Kuli Khan, who was on his estate at Rewari, urging his immediate

Rewari is in what is now the district of Gurgaon, and lies about fifty miles S.W. of Dehli. It is a country of

mixed mountain and valley; the former being a tableland of primitive rocks, the latter the sandy meadow

land on the right bank of the river Jamna. Here, in a district wrested by his former patron from the Jats, Najaf

Kuli had been employed in endeavours to subjugate the indigenous population of Mewatis, a race professing

Islam like himself, but mixing it with many degrading superstitions, and resembling their neighbours the

Minas of Rajputana and the Bhattis of Hariana in habits of vagrancy and lawlessness, which above half a

Najaf Kuli Khan obeyed the Imperial summons, and reached Dehli, where he encamped close to the Begam

Sumroo, in front of the main gate of the Palace, on the 17th November, 1787. The general command of the

Imperial troops was conferred upon the Emperor's second son, Mirza Akbar, who, since the flight of his elder

brother, had been considered as heir apparent, and who now received a khillat of seven pieces. The son of a

Hindu official, named Ram Rattan, was appointed the Prince's deputy (although he was by descent nothing

but a modi or "chandler"); and a cannonade was opened on the camp of Gholam Kadir, who replied by

sending round shot into the palace itself, some of which fell on the Diwan Khas.

Sindhia's conduct at this juncture has never been explained. He was himself at Gwalior, and his army under

Lakwa Dada, shut up in the fort of Agra, was defending itself as well as it might against the forces under

Ismail Beg. At the same time the author of the TarikhiMazafari assures us that Ambaji Inglia one of

Sindhia's most trusty lieutenants, arrived in Dehli with a small force, and that his arrival was the signal for a

reconciliation between the Emperor's principal adherents and Gholam Kadir, who was then introduced to the

presence, and invested with the dignity of Premier Noble (Shah Alam himself binding upon his head the

jewelled fillet called DastaruGoshwara). It is probable that a compromise was effected, in which Gholam

Kadir, by receiving the desired office at the hands of the Mahratta minister, was supposed to have

acknowledged the supremacy of the latter. The whole story is perplexing. When cannonaded, the Pathan chief

suddenly appears within the palace; when Sindhia's troops arrive, he receives the investiture that he was

seeking in opposition to Sindhia; and at the moment of success he marches off to Aligarh. This latter

movement is, however, accounted for by Francklin, who attributes it to the news of Prince Jawan Bakht being

at hand with the forces of Himmat Bahadur, who had joined the cause of Ismail Beg. At all events, if Gholam

Kadir owed this sudden improvement in his position to the good offices of the man whose garrison he had so

lately chased from Dehli, he did not evince his gratitude in a form that could have been expected; for he lost

no time in marching against Sindhia's late conquest of Aligarh, which fort almost immediately fell into his

hands. He then proceeded to join his forces to those of Ismail Beg, before Agra; and remained for some

months assisting at the siege of that fort; these operations being subject to constant annoyance from the Jats,

and from the troops of Sindhia, who finally crossed the Chambal at the end of the cold season of 1787,

having received large reinforcements from the Deccan. Ismail Beg and Gholam Kadir immediately raised the

siege of Agra, turned upon the advancing army, and an obstinate battle took place at Chaksana, eleven miles

from Bhartpur, on the 24th April. The particulars of this action are not given by the native historian, whom I

here follow, but they are detailed by Grant Duff, who probably had them from General de Boigne, who was

present at the action, and with whom that writer had frequent conversations at Chamberi after the General's

retirement to his native country. The Mahratta army was commanded by Rana Khan, a man who, having in

the capacity of a watercarrier been the means of assisting Sindhia to escape from the carnage of Panipat in

1761, had been much protected by him; and being otherwise a man of merit, was now become one of the

chief officers of the army. Besides M. de Boigne there was another French officer present, whose name is

given by Duff as Listeneaux, perhaps a mistake for some such word as Lestonneaux. John Hessing was also

in this campaign, as may be gathered from the epitaph on his tomb, which is close to that of Sumroo at Agra.

(See Appendix.) The Musalman leaders fought well, Gholam Kadir threw himself upon the infantry of the

right wing, and broke them. Ismail Beg with all the impetuosity of his character vigorously attacked the

battalions of M. de Boigne, but was received with sang froid and resolution. The Mahratta horse supported

the infantry fairly, but were overmatched for such severe duty by the weight of the Moghul cavalry and their

superior discipline. It is probable, however, that the infantry, formed and led by Europeans, would have been

more than a match for all their attempts, had not three of the battalions deserted and joined the enemy, while

the Jat cavalry failed to sustain the efforts of the remaining sepoys. The army of Rana Khan, under these

circumstances, withdrew under cover of night to Bhartpur; and Ismail Beg renewed the siege of Agra, while

Gholam Kadir moved northward in order to protect his own possessions from an incursion of the Sikhs, with

While these transactions were going on to the south and southeast of the capital, the Emperor had been

occupied by a campaign which he conducted personally in the west, and which might have given Sindhia

much anxiety had it been directed by a more efficient leader. As events turned, this expedition is chiefly

remarkable as being the last faint image of the once splendid operations of the great military monarchy of

At the end of 1787, and probably in consequence of Ismail Beg's attempts to secure the cooperation of the

Rajputs, an embassy from Jodhpur had presented itself at the Court of Shah Alam, bearing a handsome nazar

(gift of homage or respect) and a golden key. The envoy explained that he was instructed by his master Bijai

Singh, the Rathor leader, to present this, the key of the Fort of Ajmir, in token of his wish that an Imperial

army under his Majesty in person might march thither and take possession of that country; adding that Partab

It seems plain that principle and prudence should have combined to deter the Emperor from consenting to this

invitation, whereby he took an active step of hostility towards Sindhia, his minister, and at this time perhaps

his most powerful and best disposed supporter. But the dream of a Musalman restoration, even with Hindu

aid, will always have a fascination for the sons of Islam; and the weak Shah Alam adopted the proposal with

an alacrity such as he had not shown for many years. On the 5th of January, 1788, he marched from Dehli,

accompanied by several of the princes and princesses of his family. From the fact of Mirza Akbar continuing

to be regarded as heir apparent, and from some other considerations, it may be gathered that the last attempt

of Jawan Bakht in the Emperor's favour, and its eventual defeat, must have already taken place; for such is

the confused manner in which these events are related by my authorities some leaving out one part, and

some another, while the dates shine few and far, like stars in a stormy night that the relative position of

events is sometimes left entirely open to conjecture. But it is certain that the excellent prince whom we have

heretofore encountered more than once, did about this time make his appearance at the capital, with a small

contingent supplied him by the Viceroy of Audh, adding to his force such irregular troops as he was able to

raise upon the way; and that on this occasion it was that he addressed to George III. of Britain the touching

yet manly appeal from which I make the following extract: "Notwithstanding the wholesome advice given

from the throne to Sindhia, to conciliate the attachment of the ancient nobility, and to extend protection to the

distressed peasantry, that ungrateful chief, regardless of the royal will, has established himself in continued

and unvaried opposition; until he, having by his oppressions exasperated the Rajas and Princes of the Empire,

particularly the most illustrious prince of Jainagar, Raja Partab Singh, as likewise the ruler of Jodhpur, both

of whom are allied by blood to our family, these chiefs united to chastise the oppressor, gave him battle, and

defeated him; but the machinations of the rebellious increased. On one side, Gholam Kadir Khan (son of the

detested Afghan Zabita Khan) has raised the standard of rebellion. His example having encouraged others,

the disturbance became so formidable as to penetrate even to the threshold of the Imperial palace; so that our

This statement of the condition of the Empire is interesting, as being given by a contemporary writer in all

respects the best able to judge. He concludes by an urgent appeal to the British monarch for assistance "to

restore the royal authority, punish the rebellious and reestablish the house of Timur, and, by this kind

interposition, to give repose to the people of God, and render his name renowned among the princes of the

Among the pressing disturbances noted by the prince was undoubtedly the defection of Najaf Kuli Khan,

whom we have lately seen combined with the Begam in the protection of the Emperor against the insults of

Gholam Kadir, but who had since gone into open rebellion, upon an attempt made by the faction in temporary

power to supplant him in his government by one Murad Beg. This Moghul officer having been put in charge

of some part of the convert's territorial holding, the latter not unnaturally regarded the act as a menace to his

whole power, waylaid the Moghul on his way to his new post, and put him in confinement at Rewari.

But the men who had given the advice which led to this misfortune did not stop there, but proceeded to strike

at the prince himself, whom they accused to the Emperor of designs upon the throne. He obtained however

the titular office of Governor of Agra, and seriously attempted, with the aid of Ismail Beg, to obtain

possession of the fort and province. Foiled in this, and escaping narrowly an attempt upon his person by

Gholam Kadir, he ultimately retired to the protection of the British at Benares, where he died a mortified and

heartbroken man on the 31st May, in the eventful year 1788. It is not quite clear, from the records of these

transactions, why the prince, experienced statesman as he was, attempted to ally himself to those Musalman

malcontents rather than to the Mahratta Chief, whose ability and resources must have been well known to

him. It must, however, be admitted that Sindhia was just then showing an inaction which was calculated to

arouse Jawan Bakht's suspicions, and we can trace, in the letter quoted a short time back, signs of hostility in

his mind against that wily politician. Idle as the speculation may now appear, it is difficult to refrain from a

passing thought on the manner in which his choice of associates affected the fate not merely of his royal

Father, but of Hindustan and the British power there. United with Sindhia he would in all probability have

drawn off Gholam Kadir and changed the whole fortunes of the country. Dis aliter visum.

The prince, who was known to the English as Jahandar Shah, is described as "an accomplished gentleman,

irreproachable in his private character, constant, humane, and benevolent" (Francklin, p. 162). He was about

forty at the time of his death which was caused by a fit, and is narrated in detail at p. 256 of the selections

from the Calcutta Gazettes, in a manner somewhat more minute than that of Francklin, whose account (taken

Unattended therefore by this, his best and nearest friend, the poor old Emperor began his march to the

westward. On the way it appeared well to take the opportunity of reducing Najaf Kuli, who, confident in his

stronghold of Gokalgarh, would make no submission unless he were appointed premier. As we know that the

Controller Manzur Ali, who was at present allpowerful, was in favour of the claims of Gholam Kadir, we

may suppose that these terms were rejected with scorn, and the trenches were accordingly opened and the fort

invested. The Emperor's army on this occasion consisted, according to Francklin, of some battalions of

halfdrilled infantry (called Najibs), the body guard, called the "Red Battalion," a very considerable body of

Moghul horse, and three disciplined regiments which had been raised and drilled by the deceased Sumroo,

and now with a detail of artillery and about two hundred European gunners, served under the wellknown

Begam; with these forces Shah Alam sate down before Gokalgarh. On the 5th April, 1788, the besieged made

a vigorous sally, and charged close up to the tents of the Emperor. Such was the unprepared state of the royal

camp, that the whole family were in imminent danger of being killed or captured; the imperial army was

already in commotion, when, at this moment, three battalions of the Begam's Sepoys and a field piece dashed

up, under the command of her chief officer Mr. Thomas. The infantry deployed with the gun in the centre,

and threw in a brisk fire of musketry and grape, which checked the sortie, and gave the Imperialists time to

form. The Moghul horse lost their leader: on the other side the Chela (adopted son) of the chief was shot

dead; Himmat Bahadur, at the head of his Gosains (a kind of fighting friars who were then beginning to be

found useful as mercenaries), delivered a frantic charge, in which they lost 200 men; and Najaf Kuli was

finally driven in with the loss of his fieldguns. He soon after opened negotiations through the inevitable

Manzur Ali; and, the Begam Sumroo joining in his favour, he was admitted to the presence and fully

pardoned. In the same Darbar, the Begam was publicly thanked for her services, and proclaimed the

The expedition, however, exhausted itself in this small triumph. Whether from mistrust of the Rajputs, or

from fear of Sindhia, who was just then hovering about Bhartpur, the Emperor was induced to turn back on

the 15th April, and reached the capital by a forced march of twentyfour hours, accompanied by Himmat

Bahadur. The Begam retired to Sirdhana, and Gholam Kadir and Ismail Beg parted, as we have already seen,

after the indecisive action of Chaksana, a few days later. Though disappointed in their hopes of aid from

Dehli, the Rajput chiefs fought on, and the tide of Sindhia's fortunes seemed to ebb apace. After the

lastnamed fight he had fallen back upon Alwar, but only, to be encountered by Partab Singh, the Kachwaha

prince, of Jaipur, who drove him back once more upon Agra. Here Ismail Beg met him again and chased him

across the Chambal. Meanwhile Ambaji Inglia was prevented from rendering aid to his master by the

persistence of the Rathors of Jodhpur, who put him to flight after an obstinate engagement. Thus cut off,

Sindhia remained under the friendly protection of the Chambal until the month of June, when Rana Khan

joined him with a fresh body of troops that he had received from the Deccan. Thus reinforced Sindhia once

more marched to the relief of his gallant follower Lakwa Dada, who still held out in the Fort of Agra. The

attack was made on this occasion from the eastward, near the famous ruins of FatihpurSikri, and was met by

Ismail Beg with one of his furious cavalry charges. De Boigne's infantry and artillery however repulsed him,

before Gholam Kadir, who was returning to the Moghul's aid, had been able to cross his forces over the

Jamna, or effect a junction. Ismail Beg, who was severely wounded, did not hesitate to plunge his horse into

the stream, swollen and widened as it was by the melting of the Himalayan snows. The Mahrattas, satisfied

with having raised the siege, did not pursue him, and the two Mohammadan chiefs once more united their

forces at Firozabad. Francklin (who very seldom gives a date) says that this final battle took place on the

22nd August. He also states that Gholam Kadir had already joined Ismail Beg, but drew off on the approach

of the Mahratta army. The former statement is easily seen to be erroneous, as both the noblemen in question

were in a very different scene in August of that year. The latter is possible, but the weight of authorities,

Mahratta and Musalman, is in favour of the account given above. Francklin carelessly adds: "Agra

surrendered," the fact being that the gallant governor Lakwa Dada was a brother officer of Rana Khan's, and

his relief had been the object of the battle. About this time de Boigne retired from Sindhia's employ and went

to Lucknow, where he entered into a business partnership with the famous Claude Martine, or Martin.

Whether this step was caused by weariness, by doubts of ultimate success, or by hopes of more material

advantage, is not known. But the immediate consequence that followed was, that the Patel went into

cantonments at Mathra, and remained there watching events throughout the whole of that eventful autumn.

There is reason to believe that Gholam Kadir whether from avarice, from ambition, from a desire to

avenge some personal injury, or from a combination of any two or of the whole of these motives had by

this time formed a project, vague perhaps at first, of repeating the career of crime with which Ghaziuddin

had startled Asia nearly thirty years before. Meantime he spoke Ismail fair, seeing in him a chief, worsted

indeed for the moment, but a rallyingpoint for the Moghuls, on account as much of his proved valour as his

high birth; one who would be alike useful as a friend, and dangerous as a foe. He accordingly explained, as

best he could, his late defection, and persuaded the simple soldier to lose no time in collecting his scattered

forces for an attack upon the capital. No sooner had the Beg left for this purpose, than Gholam Kadir also

departed, and proceeding to Dehli renewed his hypocritical professions of loyalty through the instrumentality

He asserted that Ismail Beg, who had arrived before him, and who now joined forces with him, was like

himself actuated by the sole desire to save the Empire from the usurpations of the Mahratta chief; and, as far

as the Beg was concerned, these professions were possibly not without foundation. At present the conduct of

both leaders was perfectly respectful. In the meantime a small force was sent to Dehli by Sindhia and entered

the palace, upon which the confederates, whose strength was not yet fully recruited, retired to their former

encamping ground at Shahdara the scene, it may be remembered, of Surajmal's fall in the days of

Najibuddaulah. In this situation the confederates began to be straitened for provisions, for it was now the

month of July, and the stock of winter crops, exhausted as were the agriculturists by years of suffering and

uncertainty, was running low, whilst the lawless character of the young Pathan and his Rohillas was not such

as to encourage the presence of many graindealers in their camp. Desertions began to take place, and

Gholam Kadir prepared for the worst by sending off his heavy baggage to Ghausgarh. He and his companions

renewed to the Emperor their messages of encouragement in the project of throwing off the yoke of Sindhia;

but the Emperor, situated as he was, naturally returned for answer, "That his inclinations did not lie that

way." Shah Alam was sustained in this firm line of conduct by the presence of the Mahratta troops under

Himmat Bahadur, and by the ostensible support of Gul Mohammad, Badal Beg Khan, Sulaiman Beg, and

other Moghul courtiers whom he believed to be faithful; and it seemed for the moment as if the confederates'

Thus pressed, these desperate men at length dropped all disguise and opened fire on the palace with all their

heavy guns. The Emperor on this invited the aid of his Mahratta minister, who was now at Mathra, only a

week's hard marching from the capital. It was Madhoji Sindhia's undoubted duty to have hastened to the relief

of him whom he professed to serve; but it must be admitted that the instances he had already witnessed of

Shah Alam's want of resolution and of good faith may have furnished the minister with some excuse for

wishing to read him a severe lesson. He had also had sufficient taste of the fighting powers of the Musalmans

to lead him to avoid a general engagement as long as possible, since every day would increase the probability

of their quarrelling if left to themselves, while external attacks would only drive them to cohere.

Sindhia accordingly pursued a middle path. He sent to the Begam Sumroo, and urged her to hasten to the

Emperor's assistance; but the prudent lady was not willing to undertake a task from which, with his vastly

superior resources, she saw him shrink. He likewise sent a confidential Brahmin, who arrived on 10th July,

and five days after, appeared a force of 2,000 horse under Rayaji, a relation of Sindhia's. The Ballamgarh Jats

NOTE. The following account of de Boigne's early career is from Captain Duff, who knew him at

After describing his adventures as a youthful soldier of fortune, first as an ensign in the French army, and

then in the Russian service in the Levant, whence he reached Cairo, and finally got to India by what is now

called the Overland Route, the writer proceeds to state that M. de Boigne was appointed an ensign in the

6th Native Battalion under the Presidency of Madras, from whence he, not long after, proceeded to Calcutta,

bearing letters of recommendation to Mr. Hastings, the GovernorGeneral. He was then permitted to join

Major Browne's Embassy to Dehli (in 1784, vide sup.), when he took the opportunity of visiting Sindhia's

camp, on the invitation of Mr. Anderson, the British resident. Gohad being at this time besieged by Sindhia

(who had treated de Boigne very scurvily), the latter communicated a plan for its relief to a Mr. Sangster,

who commanded 1,000 sepoys and a train of artillery in the service of the Gohad Rana. The scheme broke

down, because the Rana could not or would not advance the required sum of money.

De Boigne next made overtures to the Raja of Jaipur, and was commissioned by him to raise two battalions;

but Mr. Hastings having meanwhile recalled him to Calcutta, the Raja was induced to alter his intentions. De

Boigne finally entered the service of his original enemy, Madhoji Sindhia, on an allowance of Rs. 1,000 a

month for himself, and eight all round for each of his men. To the privates he gave five and a half, and paid

the officers proportionately from the balance. M. de Boigne gradually got European officers of all nations

into his corps. Mr. Sangster, from the service of the Rana of Gohad, joined him, and became superintendent

Some account of the further proceedings of General de Boigne will appear in the succeeding pages: and some

notes regarding the close of his life will be found in the Appendix. Though moving in an obscure scene he

was one of the great personages of the World's Drama; and much of the small amount of the civil and military

organization upon which the British administration in Hindustan was ultimately founded is due to his

Defection of Moghuls Confederates obtain possession of Palace Emperor deposed Palace plundered

Gholam Kadir in the Palace Emperor blinded Approach of Mahrattas Apprehensions of Spoiler

The Moharram Explosion in Palace Flight to Meerut Probable Intentions Capture of Gholam

Kadir His Punishment Excuse for his Deeds Sindhia's Measures Future nature of Narrative

ALARMED by these various portents, Gholam Kadir lost no time in summoning all his adherents from

Ghausgarh, stimulating their zeal with the promise of plunder. At the same time he deputed Ismail Beg across

the river to practice upon the fidelity of the garrison; and such was the Beg's influence that the Moghul

portion of the Imperial troops joined him immediately, and left the unfortunate Emperor to be protected

exclusively by unbelievers, under the general direction of the Gosain leader, Himmat Bahadur. This

mercenary, not perhaps having his heart in the cause, terrified by the threats of the Pathan, and (it is possible)

tampered with by traitors about the emperor's person, soon withdrew; and the confederate chiefs at once

The Emperor now became seriously anxious, and, after a consultation with his attendants, resolved on

deputing Manzur Ali to seek a personal explanation with Gholam Kadir and Ismail Beg. It has always been

customary to tax this official with the responsibility of this measure, and of the appalling results which

followed; but it does not appear absolutely necessary to impute his conduct to complicity with the more

criminal part of Gholam Kadir's designs; and his subsequent fate is perhaps some sort of argument in his

favour. But, be this as it may, he went to the chiefs by order of the Emperor, and demanded, "What were their

intentions?" In the usual style of Eastern manners they replied, "These slaves are merely in attendance for the

purpose of presenting their duty in person to his Majesty." "Be it so," said the Controller; and his

acquiescence seems to have been unavoidable. "But," he added, "you surely need not bring your army into

the palace: come with a small retinue, lest the Governor should shut the gates in your faces." Upon this

advice the two noblemen acted, and entered the Am Khas on the forenoon of the following day (18th of July)

with some half hundred menatarms. Each received a khilat of seven pieces, together with a sword and

other presents; Gholam Kadir also receiving a richlyjewelled shield. They then returned to their respective

residences in the town, where Ismail Beg spent the rest of the day in making arrangements in order to

preserve the safety and confidence of the inhabitants. Next day, he removed his quarters permanently to the

house formerly occupied by Mohammad Shah's Vazir, Kammaruddin Khan; and his men were quartered a

couple of miles south of the city, in and about the celebrated monumental tomb of the ancient Saint, Shah

Nizamuddin. Gholam Kadir's men were nearer the palace, where the present Native Infantry cantonment

is, in Dariaoganj; while his officers occupied the vast premises formerly belonging successively to the

Ministers Ghaziuddin and Mirza Najaf, outside of the Cabul Gate. The ostensible state of Dehli politics

was now this; Gholam Kadir was Premier (an office he swore upon the Koran faithfully to discharge), vice

Madhoji Sindhia, dismissed; and the combined armies were the troops of the Empire, commanded by Ismail

Under these circumstances Gholam Kadir did not want a pretext, and at seven in the morning of Friday, the

29th July, he returned to the palace, where he had an interview with the Emperor in the Diwan Khas.

Francklin is at fault again here; making his second interview one with that which occurred more than a week

before. Citing the authority of Ismail Beg, who stood by, he represented that the army was prepared to march

on Mathra, and to chase the Mahrattas from Hindustan; but that they first demanded a settlement of their

arrears, for which the Imperial treasury was alone responsible, and alone sufficient.

This harangue, at its conclusion, was warmly echoed by the Controller, by his Deputy, and by Ramrattan

Modi. On the other side. Lalla Sital Das, the Treasurer, who was at once summoned, declared that, whatever

might be the responsibility of the Treasury for an army in whose raising it had had no share, and by whose

service it had not hitherto at all profited, at least that its chests contained no means for meeting the claims. He

Gholam Kadir replied by an assumed fit of ungoverned anger, and producing an intercepted letter from Shah

Alam, calling upon Sindhia for help, ordered the Emperor to be disarmed, together with his personal guard,

and removed into close arrest; and then, taking from the privacy of the Salim Garh a poor secluded son of the

late Emperor Ahmad Shah, set him on his throne, hailed him Emperor, under the title of Bedar Bakht, and

made all the courtiers and officials do him homage. It is but just to record, in favour of one whose memory

has been much blackened, that Manzur Ali, the Controller, appears on this occasion to have acted with sense,

if not spirit. When Bedar Bakht was first brought forward, Shah Alam was still upon the throne, and, when

ordered to descend, began to make some show of resistance. Gholam Kadir was drawing his sword to cut him

down, when the Controller interposed; advising the Emperor to bow to compulsion, and retire peacefully to

his apartments. For three days and nights the Emperor and his family remained in close confinement, without

food or comfort of any sort; while Gholam Kadir persuaded Ismail Beg to return to his camp, and devoted

himself to wholesale plunder during the absence of his associate. The latter's suspicions were at length

aroused, and he soon after sent an agent to remind Gholam Kadir that he and his men had received nothing of

what it had been agreed to pay them. But the faithless Pathan repudiated every kind of agreement, and

Ismail Beg, now sensible of his folly, lost no time in sending for the heads of the civic community, whom he

exhorted to provide for their own protection; at the same time strictly charging his own lieutenants to exert

themselves to the very utmost should the Pathans attempt to plunder. For the present, Gholam Kadir's

attention was too much taken up with the pillage of the Imperial family to allow of his doing much in the way

of a systematic sack of the town. Dissatisfied with the jewellery realised from the new Emperor, to whom the

duty of despoiling the Begams was at first confided, he conceived the notion that Shah Alam, as the head of

the family, was probably, nay, certainly, the possessor of an exclusive knowledge regarding the place of a

vast secret hoard. All the crimes and horrors that ensued are attributable to the action of this monomania. On

the 29th, he made the new Titular, Bedar Bakht, inflict corporal chastisement upon his venerable predecessor.

On the 30th, a similar outrage was committed upon several of the ladies of Shah Alam's family, who filled

the beautiful buildings with their shrieks of alarm and lamentation. On the 31st, the ruffian thought he had

secured enough to justify his attempting to reconcile Ismail Beg and his men by sending them a donative of

five lakhs of rupees. The result of this seems to have been that a combined, though tolerably humane and

orderly attempt was made to levy contributions from the Hindu bankers of the city.

On the 1st of August a fresh attempt was made to wrest the supposed secret from the Shah, who once more

denied all knowledge of it, employing the strongest figure of denial. "If," said the helpless old man, "you

think I have any concealed treasures, they must be within me. Rip open my bowels, and satisfy yourself." The

tormentor then tried cajolery and promises, but they were equally futile. "God protect you, who has laid me

The aged widows of former Emperors were next exposed to insult and suffering. These ladies were at first

treated kindly, their services being thought necessary in the plunder of the female inhabitants of the Imtiaz

Mahal, whose privacy was at first respected. But on the failure of this attempt, the poor old women

themselves were plundered and driven out of the palace. When other resources had been exhausted, the

Controller fell under the displeasure of his former protege, and was made to disburse seven lakhs. On the 3rd

August, Gholam Kadir gave proof of the degraded barbarity of which Hindustani Pathans can be guilty, by

lounging on the throne on the Diwan Khas, side by side with the nominal Emperor, whom he covered with

abuse and ridicule, as he smoked the hookah in his face. On the 6th, he destroyed the same throne for the sake

of the plating which still adhered to it, which he threw into the meltingpot; and passed the next three days in

digging up the floors, and taking every other conceivable measure in pursuit of his besetting chimera the

hidden treasure. During this interval, however, he appears to have been at times undecided; for, on the 7th he

visited the Emperor in his confinement, and offered to put on the throne Mirza Akbar, the Emperor's

favourite son who did in fact ultimately succeed. The only answer to these overtures was a request by

Shah Alam that he might be left alone, "for he was weary," he said, "of such state as he had lately known, and

At length arrived the memorable 10th of August, which, perhaps, as far as any one date deserves the

distinction, was the last day of the legal existence of the famous Empire of the Moghuls. Followed by the

Deputy Controller, Yakub Ali, and by four or five of his own most reckless Pathans, Gholam Kadir entered

the Diwan Khas, and ordered Shah Alam to be brought before him. Once more the hidden treasure was

spoken of, and the secret of its deposit imperiously demanded; and once more the poor old Emperor

whom we not long ago saw melting his plate to keep together a few troops of horse with perfect truth

replied that if there was any such secret he for one was in total ignorance of it. "Then," said the Rohilla, "you

are of no further use in the world, and should be blinded." "Alas!" replied the poor old man, with native

dignity, "do not so: you may spare these old eyes, that for sixty years have grown dim with the daily study of

God's word." The spoiler then ordered his followers to torture the sons and grandsons of the Emperor, who

had followed, and now surrounded their parent. This last outrage broke down the old man's patience. "Take

my sight," he cried, "rather than force upon it scenes like these." Gholam Kadir at once leaped from the

throne, felled the old man to the ground, threw himself upon the prostrate monarch's breast, and, so some

historians relate, struck out one of his eyes with his own dagger. Then rising, he ordered a byestander

apparently a member of the household, Yakub Ali himself to complete the work. On his refusing, he slew

him with his own hand. He then ordered that the Princes should share the fate of their father and be deprived

of eyesight, but desisted from this part of his brutality on the pressing, remonstrance of the Treasurer, Lalla

Sital Das. The Emperor was, however, completely blinded by the Pathans, and removed to Salimgarh, amid

the shrill lamentations of women, and the calmer, but not less passionate curses of men, who were not

scourged into silence without some difficulty and delay. Francklin, following his usual authority, the MS.

narrative of Saiyid Raza Khan, says that, under these accumulated misfortunes, the aged Emperor evinced a

firmness and resignation highly honourable to his character. It is pitiable to think how much fortitude may be

thrown away by an Asiatic for want of a little active enterprise. There were probably not less than

halfadozen points in Shah Alam's life when a due vigour would have raised him to safety, if not to

splendour; but his vigour was never ready at the right moment. There is a striking instance in Khairuddin's

Ibratnama. Gholam Kadir asking the blind Emperor in mockery "If he saw anything?" was answered,

The anxious citizens were not at once aware of the particulars of this tragedy; but ere long rumours crept out

to them of what crimes and sufferings had been going on all day in the Red Castle, behind those stern and

silent walls that were not again to shield similar atrocities for nearly seventy years. Then another day of

horror was to come, when one of the princes who were tortured on the 10th of August, 1788, was to see

women and children brutally massacred in the same once splendid courts; and to find himself in the hands of

adherents whose crimes would render him a puppet if they succeeded, and a felon if they failed.

But on the 12th more money was sent to Ismail Beg; and, as before, the citizens were offered as the victims

of the reconciliation. They now began to leave the city in large numbers; but on the 14th flying parties of

Mahrattas began to appear from the southward, and somewhat restored confidence. Ismail Beg, who had long

ceased to have any real confidence in Gholam Kadir, and who (let us hope for the credit of human nature) felt

nothing but disgust at his companion's later excesses, now opened negotiations with Rana Khan. On the 17th

a convoy of provisions from Ghausgarh was cut off, and a number of the Pathans who escorted it put to the

sword or drowned in attempting to cross the river. On the 18th the Mahrattas came up in considerable force

on the left bank of the Jamna, where they blockaded the approach from all but the side of the Musalman

camp. In the city the shops were shut, and supplies began totally to fail. Scarcity even began to prevail in the

palace, and the troops within to murmur loudly for their share of the spoil. Next day the spoiler condescended

to argue with some who remonstrated with him on his treatment of the Royal Family. Their condition was in

truth becoming as bad as it could well be; many of the women dying daily of starvation. It is almost with

relief that we find, that the increasing scarcity compelling fresh acts of spoliation, the Controller, who had so

much helped in bringing about this deplorable state of affairs, became himself its victim, being deprived of

The courage of Gholam Kadir did not at once yield to his growing perils and difficulties. He appropriated an

apartment in the palace probably the BurjiTilla or "Golden Bastion." Here he caroused with his

officers, while the younger members of the royal family played and danced before them like the common

performers of the streets. And they were rewarded by the assurance on the part of their tormentor that,

however deficient they might be in princely virtues, their talents would preserve them from wanting bread.

Khairuddin adds a strange account of Gholam Kadir going to sleep among them; and on waking, he is

represented as reviling them for their lack of courage in not stabbing him while thus at their mercy! Many of

the younger princesses were exposed to insult and outrage, according to this writer. Gholam Kadir at the

same time partially suppressed the discontents of his men, though not without risk to his life. At length, on

the 7th of September, finding the Mahrattas increasing in numbers and boldness, and fearing to be surrounded

and cut off, Gholam Kadir moved his army back to its old encampment across the river, and despatched part

of his plunder to Ghausgarh, conciliating his followers by the surrender of what was less portable, such as the

rich tents and equipage which had been lately used by the Emperor on his expedition to Rewari. On the 14th

he paid a further visit to his camp, being under apprehensions from Ismail Beg, but returned to the palace

soon after, in order to make one more attempt to shake what he considered the obstinacy of Shah Alam about

the hid treasure. Foiled in this, and hemmed in by difficulties, it may be hoped that he now began to perceive

with horror the shadow of an advancing vengeance. His covering the retreat to the eastward of the palace and

Meanwhile the great ceremony of mourning for the sons of Ali drew on; the Moharram, celebrated in

Hindustan alike by the Shias, who venerate their memory, and by the Sunnis, who uphold their murderers.

The principal features of this celebration are processions of armed men, simulating the battle of Karbala; and

the public funeral of the saints, represented, not by an effigy of their bodies, but by a model of their tombs.

Loving spectacle and excitement, with the love of a rather idle and illiterate population whose daily life is

dull and torpid, the people of India have very generally lost sight of the fasting and humiliation which are the

real essence of the Moharram, and have turned it into a diversion and a show. But there was no show nor

diversion for the citizens of Dehli that year, menaced by contending armies, and awed by the knowledge of a

great crime. At length, on the 11th October, the last day of the fast, a sense of deliverance began to be

vaguely felt. It began to be known that Ismail Beg was reconciled to Rana Khan, and that the latter was

receiving reinforcements from the Deccan. Lestonneaux, with the formidable "Telinga" battalions of de

Boigne, had already arrived; all was movement and din in the Pathan camp at Shahdara. Finally, as the short

chill evening of the autumn day closed in, the high walls of the Red Castle blabbed part of their secret to

those who had so long watched them. With a loud explosion, the powder magazine rose into the air, and

flames presently spread above the crenellated parapets. The bystanders, running to the rampart of the town,

facing the river, saw, by the lurid light, boats being rowed across; while a solitary elephant was moving down

at his best pace over the heavy sands, bearing the rebel chief. Gholam Kadir had finally departed, leaving the

Salimgarh by a sallyport, and sending before him the titular Emperor, the plundered controller of the

The exact events which had passed in the interior of the palace that day can never now be known. Whether,

as is usually thought, Gholam Kadir tried to set fire to the palace, that his long crime might be consummated

by the destruction of Shah Alam among the blazing ruins of his ancestral dwelling; or whether, as the author

of the Mozafari supposes, he meant to hold out against the Mahrattas to the last, and was only put to flight by

the explosion, which he attributed to a mine laid by them, can only be a matter for speculation. To myself, I

confess, the popular story appears the more probable. If Gholam Kadir meant to stand a siege, why did he

send his troops across the river? and why, when he was retiring at the appearance of a mine which he must

have known was likely to be one of the siege operations did he remove the royal family, and only leave

his chief victim? Lastly, why did he leave that victim alive? Possibly he was insane.

The Mahratta general immediately occupied the castle; and the exertions of his men succeeded in

extinguishing the flames before much injury had occurred. Shah Alam and the remaining ladies of his family

were set at liberty, provided with some present comforts, and consoled as to the future. Rana Khan then

awaited further reinforcements from Sindhia, while the Pathans retired towards their own country.

The Court of Punah saw their advantage in strengthening the Patel, and sent him a strong body of troops, led

by Takuji Holkar in person, on condition that both that chief and the Peshwa should participate in the fruits of

the campaign. The arrival of these forces was welcomed alike by Rana Khan and by the long harassed

citizens of Dehli; and after the safety of the palace had been secured, the rest of the army, commanded by

Rana Khan, Appa Khandi Rao, and others, started in pursuit of Gholam Kadir, who found himself so hard

pressed that he threw himself into the Fort of Meerut, three marches off, and about equidistant from Dehli,

from Ghausgarh, and from the frontiers of Rohilkand. Why he did not, on leaving Dehli, march due north to

Ghausgarh cannot be now positively determined; but it is possible that, having his spoil collected in that fort,

he preferred trying to divert the enemy by an expedition in a more easterly direction; and that he entertained

some hopes of aid from his connection, Faizula Khan of Rampur, or from the Bangash of Farrukhabad.

Be this as it may, the fort of Meerut sheltered him for the time, but in that fort he was ere long surrounded.

The investing army was large, and, as the chances of escape diminished, the Pathan's audacity at length began

to fail, and he offered terms of the most entire and abject submission. These being sternly rejected, he

prepared for the worst. On the 21st of December a general assault was delivered by the Mahratta army;

against which Gholam Kadir and his men defended themselves with resolution throughout the short day. But

his men in general were now weary, if not of his crimes at all events of his misfortunes, and he formed the

resolution to separate from them without further delay. He accordingly stole out of the fort that night,

mounted on a horse, into whose saddlebags he had stuffed a large amount of the most valuable jewellery

from the palace plunder, which he had ever since retained in his own keeping, in view of an emergency. He

rode some twelve miles through the winter night, avoiding the haunts of men, and apparently hoping to cross

the Jamna and find refuge with the Sikhs. At last, in the mists of the dawn, his weary horse, wandering over

the fields, fell into a slope used for the descent of the oxen who draw up the bucket from the well, for the

purposes of irrigation. The horse rose and galloped off by the incline made for the bullocks, but the rider was

either stunned or disabled by his bruises, and remained where he fell. As the day dawned the Brahmin

cultivator came to yoke his cattle and water the wheat, when he found the richlydressed form of one whom

he speedily recognized as having but lately refused him redress when plundered by the Pathan soldiery.

"Salam, Nawab Sahib!" said the man, offering a mock obeisance, with clownish malice, to his late oppressor.

The scared and famished caitiff sate up and looked about him. "Why do you call me Nawab?" he asked. "I am

a poor soldier, wounded, and seeking my home. I have lost all I have, but put me in the road to Ghausgarh,

and I will reward you hereafter." Necessarily, the mention of this fort would have put at rest any doubt in the

Brahmin's mind; he at once shouted for assistance, and presently carried off his prize to Rana Khan's camp.

Hence the prisoner was despatched to Sindhia, at Mathra, while the Pathans, left to themselves, abandoned

the Fort of Meerut and dispersed to their respective homes. Bedar Bakht, the titular Emperor, was sent to

Dehli, where he was confined and ultimately slain, and the unfortunate controller, Manzur Ali, who had

played so prominent a part in the late events as to have incurred general suspicion of treacherous connivance,

was tied to the foot of an elephant and thus dragged about the streets until he died.

For the Rohilla chief a still more horrible fate was prepared. On his arrival at Mathra, Sindhia inflicted upon

him the punishment of Tashhir, sending him round the bazaar on a jackass, with his face to the tail, and a

guard instructed to stop at every considerable shop and beg a cowree, in the name of the Nawab of the

Bawani. The wretched man becoming abusive under the contemptuous treatment, his tongue was torn out of

his mouth. Gradually he was mutilated further, being first blinded, as a retribution for his treatment of the

Emperor, and subsequently deprived of his nose, ears, hands and feet, and sent to Dehli. Death came to his

relief upon the road, it is believed by his being hanged upon a tree 3rd March, 1789, and the mangled trunk

was sent to Dehli, where it was laid before the sightless monarch, the most ghastly Nazar that ever was

Perhaps, if we could hear Gholam Kadir's version of the revolution here described, we might find that public

indignation had to some extent exaggerated his crimes. It is possible that the tradition which imputes his

conduct to revenge for an alleged cruelty of Shah Alam may be a myth, founded upon a popular conception

of probability, and only corroborated by the fact that he died childless. Perhaps he merely thought that he was

performing a legitimate stroke of State, and imitating the vigorous policy of Ghaziuddin the younger;

perhaps the plunder of the palace was necessary to conciliate his followers; perhaps the firing of the palace

was an accident. But the result of the combination of untoward appearances has been to make his name a

byeword among the not oversensitive inhabitants of Hindustan, familiar, by tradition and by personal

experience, with almost every form of cruelty, and almost every degree of rebellion. It is said that during

moments of reaction, after some of his debauches in the palace (v. p. 183), Gholam Kadir attempted to justify

his conduct by representing himself as acting under supernatural inspiration. "As I was sleeping," he averred,

"in a garden at Sikandra, an apparition stood over me and smote me on the face saying, Arise, go to Dehli,

and possess thyself of the palace." It may be that at such times he experienced some feelings of remorse. At

all events, his punishment was both immediate and terrible, and his crimes proved the ruin of his house.

Ghausgarh was forthwith razed to the ground, so that as already mentioned no vestige but the mosque

The first care of the Patel, after these summary vindications of justice, was to make provision for the

administration of Hindustan, to which he probably foresaw that he should not be able to give constant

personal attention, and in which he resolved to run no further risks of a Musalman revival. The fallen

Emperor was restored to his throne, in spite of his own reluctance, "in spite of his blindness," as the native

historian says, who knew that no blind man could be a Sultan; and at the enthronement, to which all possible

pomp was lent, the agency of the Peshwa, with Sindhia for his deputy, was solemnly renewed and firmly

established. We also learn from Francklin that an annual allowance of nine lakes of rupees was assigned for

the support of the Emperor's family and Court, an adequate civil list if it had been regularly paid. But Shah

Nizamuddin, who had been restored to office, was an unfit man to be entrusted with the uncontrolled

management of such a sum; and during the Patel's frequent and protracted absences, the royal family were

often reduced to absolute indigence. Sayid Raza Khan, on whose authority this shocking statement rests, was

the resident representative of the British Minister at Lucknow, and was the channel through which the aged

Emperor received from the British Government a monthly allowance of 2,000 rupees. This, together with the

fees paid by persons desirous of being presented, was all that Shah Alam could count on in his old age for the

support of his thirty children and numerous kinsfolk and retainers. Captain Francklin was an eyewitness of

the semblance of State latterly maintained in the Red Castle, where he paid his respects in 1794. He found the

Emperor represented by a crimson velvet chair under an awning in the Diwan Khas, but the Shah was

actually in one of the private rooms with three of his sons. The British officers presented their alms under the

disguise of a tributary offering, and received some nightgowns, of sprigged calico, by way of honorific

The socalled Emperor being now incapable of ruling, even according to the very lax political code of the

East, and all real power being in the hands of a Hindu headborough supported by mercenary troops, the

native records, to which I have had access, either cease altogether, or cease to concern themselves with the

special story of Hindustan. And, indeed, as far as showing the fall of the empire, my task is also done. I do

not agree with those who think that the empire fell with the death of Aurangzeb, or even with the events that

immediately preceded the campaign of Panipat, in 1761. I consider the empire to have endured as long as "the

king's name was a tower of strength"; as long as Nawabs paid large fines on succession, and contending

parties intrigued for investiture; as long as Shujaauddaulah could need its sanction to his occupation of

Kattahir, or Najaf Khan led its armies to the conquest of the Jats. We have seen how that state of affairs

originated, and how it came to an end; there is nothing now left but to trace briefly the concluding career of

those who have played their parts in the narrative, and to introduce their successors upon the vast and vacant

theatre. In so doing it must be borne in mind that, although we, from our present standpoint, can see that the

Moghul Empire was ended, it did not altogether so appear to contemporaries. Whether federation or

disintegration be the best ideal destiny, for a number of Provinces whose controlling centre has given way, is

a question which may admit of more than one answer. But it is, in any case, certain that in the year 1789 the

Provinces of which the Empire had been composed, were not ripe for independent and organic existence.

There was still, therefore, a craving for a paramount power; and that craving was to be finally met by the

British. In the meanwhile the almost effete machinery of the Empire, directed and administered by Sindhia,

made the best available substitute; General de Boigne who had the most complete information on the

subject bears unequivocal testimony on this subject. His words will be found at the beginning of the next

NOTE. It would be curious to know what became of Gholam Kadir's jewelladen horse after the rider fell

into the pit. In Skinner's life, it is conjectured that he came into the hands of M. Lestonneaux. It is certain that

this officer abruptly abandoned Sindhia's service at this very time. Perhaps the crown jewels of the Great

Mughal are now in France. The Emperor (who composed poetry with estimation under the name of "Aftab")

solaced his temporary captivity by writing verses, which are still celebrated in Hindustan, and of which the

following is a correct translation. The resemblance to the Psalms of David is noticeable:

"The storms of affliction have destroyed the Majesty of my Government: and scattered my State to the winds.

I was even as the Sun shining in the firmament of the Empire: but the sun is setting in the sorrowful West.

It is well for me that I have become blind; for so I am hindered from seeing another on my throne.

Even as the saints were afflicted by Yazid; so is the ruin that has fallen upon me, through the appointment of

I have received the just reward of mine iniquities; but now He hath forgiven me my sins.

The Steward who served me thirty years compassed my ruin; but a swift recompense hath overtaken him.

The lords of my council who had covenanted to serve me; even they deserted me, and took whatsoever in

Moghuls and Afghans alike failed me; and became confederates in my imprisonment.

Even the baseborn man of Hamadan, and Gul Mohammad, full of wickedness; Allah Yar also, and

And now that this young Afghan hath destroyed the dignity of my empire; I see none but thee, O Most Holy!

Yet peradventure Timur Shah my kinsman may come to my aid; and Madhoji Sindhia, who is even as a son

Shame were it if Princes and People gathered not together; to the end that they might bring me help.

O Aftab! verily thou hast been this day overthrown by Destiny; yet God shall bless thee and restore thy fallen

Francklin's Shah Alum has been constantly referred to. He was an officer of great diligence, who had large

local opportunities, having been in Dehli, the Doab, and Rohilkand, from 1793 to 1796, on a survey ordered

by the British Government. He had access to many native sources of information; but unfortunately never

cites any in the margin but Sayid Raza's MS. I have not hesitated to combat his views on several points; but

there are few English writers on the subject to whom we are more indebted. Besides this work, and one to be

hereafter noticed, he was the author of books on Ancient Palibothra and on snakeworship. He died a

Sindhia as Mayor of Palace British Policy Augmentation of Army under General de Boigne Ismail

Beg joins the Rajput rising Battle of Patan Sindhia at Mathra Siege of Ajmir Jodhpur Rajah

Battle of Mirta Rivals alarmed French Officers Progress to Puna Holkar advances Ismail

Beg taken Battle of Lakhairi Sindhia rebuked Power of Sindhia Rise of George Thomas

Thomas quits Begam Sindhia at Puna Death and character of Madhoji Sindhia Koil in the last

FROM the time of the revolution of 1788 each of the dismembered provinces has its separate history; and the

present record naturally shrinks to the contracted limits of a local history of the capital, and of the districts

more especially connected with it by proximity or by political ties. Still, since the country is one that has long

been occupying our attention, and the persons who have made it do so are still upon the scene, it may be

interesting to those who have followed the narrative thus far if a brief conclusion is presented to them. The

story of the empire's fall will thus be completed, and the chasm between the Moghul rule and the English rule

will be provisionally bridged. It must, moreover, be remembered that the visible centre of authority is a thing

for which men will always look. And, even in the fallen state of the Dehli monarchy this was still in the

palace of the descendant of Babar. To use de Boigne's words, written in 1790: "le respect .... envers la

maison de Timour regnait a tel point que, quoique toute la peninsule se fut sucessivement soustraite a son

autorite, aucun prince .... de l'Inde ne s'etait arroge le titre de souverain. Sindhia partageait le respect, et Shah

It has been already shown how "Maharaja Patel," as Madhoji Sindhia is called by the native writers, assumed

the actual government, whilst he secured for the youthful chief of the Mahratta confederacy the titular office

of "Agent Plenipotentiary," which had been once or twice previously used to designate mighty Viceroys like

In providing this distinction for his native superior, the usually shrewd old minister intended to blind his

countrymen and his rivals; and by another still more clumsy coup de theatre, he assumed to himself the

position of a servant, as harmonizing with the rural dignity of Beadle or Headborough, which, as we have

seen, he persisted in affecting. Decorated however by the blind old Emperor with the more sonorous

appellations of MadarulMaham, Ali Jah, Bahadur ("Exalted and valorous Centre of Affairs"), he played

the MayorofthePalace with far more effect at Dehli than it would have been possible for him to do at

Punah. Circumstances, moreover, were now far more in his favour than they had been since 1785. During the

three years that followed, the Rohillas of Ghausgarh were broken, Muhammad Beg was dead, the strength of

the brave but indolent Rajputs was much paralyzed, and Najaf Kuli Khan who never had opposed him, but

might have been formidable if he pleased had succumbed to a long attack of dropsy. Ismail Beg, it is true,

was still in existence, and now more than ever a centre of influence among the Moghuls. But Ismail Beg was

at present conciliated, having joined the Patel's party ever since his former associate, Gholam Kadir, had

proceeded to such criminal excesses in the palace. As a further means of attaching to him this important, even

if not very intelligent chief, the Patel about this time conferred upon him a portion of Najaf Kuli's fief in the

Mewat country south of Dehli. By this he not only pleased the Moghul noble, but trusted to furnish him with

occupation in the reduction and management of the wild mountaineers of that district. It was indeed idle to

hope that Ismail Beg would remain faithful in the event of any future resurrection of the Musalman power;

and it could not be denied that something of the kind might at any time occur, owing to the menacing attitude

of the Afghans, who were still very powerful under the famous Ahmad Abdali's son, Timur Shah. Indeed, this

was a ceaseless difficulty during the whole of Madhoji's remaining life; and one that would have been still

more serious, but for the anxiously pacific policy which, for the most part, characterized the British

administration during that period. Nor did the Minister at this time enjoy the advantage of being served by

European commanders. Lestonneaux retired suddenly in the beginning of 1789; and de Boigne, as

abovementioned, had also left the army, and was engaged in commercial pursuits at Lucknow. But the army

continued to comprise a certain proportion of regular troops; nor was it long before M. de Boigne, being

earnestly solicited by Madhoji, and offered his own terms, resumed his command, augmented this portion of

the force, and assumed a position of confidence and freedom which had not previously been allowed him.

The skeletons of his two original battalions remained to form the nucleus of the new force. The battalion of

Lestonneaux or whatever the name was deserted by its commandant, with eight months' arrears due to

it, was disorganized and mutinous; and Sindhia meditated an attack upon it with an overwhelming body of

horse. De Boigne however interceded, representing that the soldiers were not to blame for their colonel's

defection and that their demand, though it might not be expressed with due respect, was after all founded on

justice. Sindhia relented so far as to award a present payment of half the arrears, and a permission that the

men should be absorbed in the brigade about to be formed; but the astute Savoyard took care first to make

them pile their arms, so that their future entertainment should be as individuals only. The officers were at the

same time cashiered; and thus the mutiny of a battalion was patiently and ingeniously suppressed without its

precious material being lost to the service. The requisite new recruits were principally raised from Rohilkand

and Audh the future nurseries of the famous Bengal army. The officers were the most respectable

Europeans that the General could collect; and the noncommissioned posts were given to picked men of the

The augmented force gradually reached the strength of three brigades, each brigade consisting of eight

battalions of sepoys, each 700 strong; with 500 cavalry and forty fieldpieces. The General was allowed

10,000 rupees per mensem for his own pay, and a liberal scale was fixed for the European officers, whose

number was from time to time increased, and the whole force, forming a small army in itself, marched under

the white cross of Savoy, the national colours of its honourable chief. A gratuity was secured to all who might

be wounded in action, and it was guaranteed that their pay should go on while in hospital. Invalids were to

It soon had to take the field: for Ismail Beg's loyalty, already wavering in view of an Afghan invasion, gave

way entirely in the beginning of 1790 before the solicitations of the Rajput chiefs. These highspirited men,

longing for an opportunity to strike another blow for national independence, fancied, and not without reason,

that they could reckon upon the aid of the restless Ismail with whom they had already combined during the

The corps of de Boigne formed part of the army sent under the command of Sindhia's Mahratta generals,

Lakwa Dada and Gopal Rao Bhao, to prevent if possible the junction of Ismail Beg with his Rajput allies. But

the Moghul soldier of fortune was determined not to yield without a struggle. No sooner did he raise his

standard than thousands of disbanded Afghan and Persian horsemen flocked to his headquarters. In March de

Boigne left his employer at his favourite cantonment of Mathra, and sending before him a cloud of Mahratta

horse, marched upon Ismail Beg with a complete brigade, including fifty pieces of artillery. On the morning

of the 10th May they came upon him at a place called Patan, in the rocky country between Ajmir and

Gwalior, not many miles from the scene of the former battle at Lalsaut. For three weeks or more nothing was

effected, but on the 19th June Ismail announced his intention of attacking the Mahratta lines. De Boigne sent

a messenger to say that he would spare him the fatigue of the journey, and advanced to the encounter with all

The Rajputs had come up; but there was no longer union between them; for the Patel, taking advantage of a

temporary soreness felt by the Kachwahas of Jaipur on some trifling provocation, had contrived to secure

their inaction before the battle began. Notwithstanding this defection, a large body of infantry still stood firm,

but European skill and resolution conquered in the end. Ismail at the head of his Moghul cavaliers repeatedly

charged de Boigne's artillery, sabring the gunners at their posts. Between the charges the infantry were

thinned by welldirected volleys of grape, and the squares had to be formed with the greatest rapidity as the

cavalry of the enemy once more attacked them. De Boigne's squares, however, resisted all attempts

throughout the afternoon, and a general advance of the whole line at length took place, before which the

enemy gradually broke. De Boigne placing himself at the head of one of his battalions, ordered the others to

follow, and precipitated his foot upon the enemy's batteries. The first was carried with the shock; at eight in

the evening he was master of the second; the third fell an hour later; the Moghuls' resistance was completely

overpowered, and their leader was chased into the city of Jaipur. Ismail also lost in this engagement one

hundred guns, fifty elephants, two hundred stand of colours and all his baggage; and on the following day a

large portion of his army, amounting to seven battalions of foot and ten thousand irregular troops, went over

to the victors. On this, as on many other occasions, the Mahratta cause was jeopardised by jealousies; Holkar

holding aloof during the action, which would have begun earlier, and in all probability proved more decisive

and with less loss, had he given due cooperation. There is a modest account of this action from de Boigne's

pen in the Calcutta Gazette for 22nd July, 1790. The letter is dated 24th June four days after the battle

and does not represent the exertions of the Mahrattas in anything like the serious light adopted in Captain

Grant Duff's work, to which I have been principally indebted for my account of the action. The gallant writer

estimates Ismail Beg's Moghul horse, however, at 5,000 sabres; and admits that the Mahrattas would have

sustained severe loss but for the timely firmness of the regular battalions. The fact appears to be that the

diminished Rajput infantry, deficient in discipline and zeal, and wanting the prestige and coolness inspired

among Asiatics by the presence of European leaders, did not support the cavalry, and that the latter become

exhausted by their vain assaults upon the welltrained squares. Seeing this, de Boigne marched up his men

(10,000 strong, by his own account), under the protection of a steady cannonade from his own guns, and

stormed the enemy's camp. He estimates his own loss at 120 killed and 472 wounded; the enemy's foot were

not much cut up, because they were intrenched; "but they have lost a vast number of cavalry." He says of

himself, "I was on horseback encouraging our men; thank God I have realized all the sanguine expectations

of Sindhia; the officers in general have behaved well; to them I am a great deal indebted for the fortune of the

day." This was the most important victory that Sindhia had ever gained, and fully justified the increased

confidence that he had shown his Savoyard General. The memoir above cited, estimates the whole combined

forces of the enemy at 25,000 foot and 20,000 horse, but it is probable that they were not all engaged. Patan,

a fortress which has been compared to Gibraltar, was taken by storm after three days of open trenches, and

The Patel himself was not present with the army during this campaign, but remained at Mathra, which was a

favourite residence of his, owing to its peculiar reputation for holiness among the Hindus. This ancient city,

which is mentioned both by Arrian and by Pliny, is the centre of a small district which is to the worshippers

of Vishnu what Palestine is to Christians, and the Western part of Arabia is to the people of the Prophet. Here

was born the celebrated Krishna, reported to be an incarnation of the Deity; here was his infant life sought by

the tyrant Kans; hence he fled to Gujrat; returning when he came to man's estate, and partially adopting it as

We have seen how the general of Ahmad the Abdali massacred the inhabitants, with a zeal partaking of the

fanatic and the robber in equal proportions, in 1757. Since then the place, standing at the head of the Bhartpur

basin, and midway between Dehli and the Rajput country, had recovered its importance, and now formed

Madhoji's chief cantonment. Here it was that he received the news of the battle of Patan, and of the temporary

disappearance of Ismail Beg; and hence he proceeded to Dehli, and there obtained a fresh confirmation of the

office of Plenipotentiary for the Peshwa, together with two fresh firmans (or patents). One conferring upon

himself the power to choose a successor in the Ministry from among his own family, and the other an edict

forbidding the slaughter of horned cattle (so highly reverenced by the Hindus) throughout all the territory

Soon after he ordered his army, commanded as before, to return to Rajputana, and punish Bijai Singh, the

Rathor leader of Jodhpur, for abetting the resistance of Ismail Beg. On the 21st of August the General arrived

at Ajmir, and took the town on the following day. He then sat down to form the regular siege of the citadel,

called Taragarh (a fastness strong by nature, and strengthened still more by art, and situated on an eminence

some 3,000 feet above sealevel). Bijai Singh, in Rajput fashion, was ready to try negotiation, and thought

that he might succeed in practicing upon one whom he would naturally regard in the light of a mercenary

leader. He accordingly sent a message to de Boigne offering him the fort, with the territory for fifty miles

round Ajmir if he would desert his employer. But the General sent him for answer that "Sindhia had already

given him both Jodhpur and Jaipur, and that the Rajah could not be so unreasonable as to expect him to

exchange the whole of those territories for the portion offered." After delivering himself of this grim piece of

humour, and leaving a force to blockade the citadel, General de Boigne marched west to encounter the Rajah.

Burning to retrieve the disgrace of Patan, Bijai Singh was marching up from Jodhpur to the relief of Taragarh

when de Boigne met him at Mirta, a walled town about two marches distant from Ajmir and 76 miles N.E. of

Jodhpur. It stands on high ground, the western wall being of mud, the eastern of masonry. On the 9th

September the armies approached, and Gopal Rao was for attacking at once, but the General, with his

accustomed coolness, pointed out that, not only were the men fatigued with marching and in need of repose,

but that the day was too far advanced to allow of due pursuit being made should they as was to be hoped

gain the action. It was therefore determined to try the effect of a surprise after the men had had a meal and

a few hours repose. The forces on either side were not unequal. The Rajputs had the better in point of cavalry,

their strength in this arm has been computed at 30,000 sabres. The Mahrattas had the advantage in artillery

and in disciplined foot. The lines of the Rajputs were partially covered in rear by the walls of the town. But

the spot was of evil omen. Bijai Singh had sustained a severe defeat on this very ground near forty years

before. Nevertheless, years had not taught the Rathors wisdom, nor misfortune schooled them to prudence.

De Boigne came up in the grey of the morning, when the indolent Hindus were completely off their guard.

And when the Rajah and his companions were roused from the drunken dreams of Madhu, they already found

the camp deserted, and the army in confusion. Fifty field pieces were piercing the lines with an incessant

discharge of grapeshot, and Colonel Rohan who commanded de Boigne's right wing had, with unauthorised

audacity, thrown himself into the midst of the camp at the head of three battalions. Rallying a strong body of

horse and the Rajput cavaliers were brave to a fault the Rajah fell furiously upon the advanced corps

of infantry, which he hoped to annihilate before they could be supported from the main army. But European

discipline was too much. for Eastern chivalry. Hastily forming hollow square the battalions of de Boigne

awaited the storm; the infantry of Waterloo before the gendarmerie of Agincourt. The ground shook beneath

the impetuous advance of the dustcloud sparkling with the flashes of quivering steel. But when the cloud

cleared off, there were still the hollow squares of infantry, like living bastions, dealing out lightnings far more

terrible than any that they had encountered. The baffled horsemen wheeled furiously round on the Mahratta

cavalry, and scattered them to the four corners of the field. They then attempted to gallop back, but it was

through a Valley of Death. The whole of the regular troops of the enemy lined the way; the guns of de

Boigne, rapidly served, pelted them with grape at pointblank distance; the squares maintained their

incessant volleys; by nine in the morning nearly every man of the 4,000 who had charged with their prince

lay dead upon the ground. Unfatigued and almost uninjured, the welltrained infantry of de Boigne now

became assailants. The battalions rapidly deployed, and advancing with the support of their own artillery,

made a general attack upon the Rajput line. By three in the afternoon all attempt at resistance had ceased. The

whole camp, with vast plunder and munitions of war, fell into the hands of the victors. The middleages were

over in India; and the prediction of Bernier was vindicated by the superiority of scientific warfare over

headlong valour. The town was easily taken, and the fall of Taragarh, the lofty and almost

impregnablelooking citadel that frowns above Ajmir, followed soon after. The echo of this blow resounded

throughout native India. The Nana Farnavis heard it at Punah, and redoubled his Brahmin intrigues against

his successful countryman. He likewise stimulated the rivalry of Takuji Holkar, who, with more of practical

sagacity, resolved to profit by Sindhia's example, and lost no time in raising a force similarly organised to

that which had won this great victory. De Boigne, almost worn out himself, allowed his victorious troops no

time to cool, but marched on Jodhpur, and arrived at Kuarpur in the vicinity of the capital on the 18th of

November. But his presence was enough. The Rajas of Udaipur and Jodhpur hastened to offer their

submission to the chief who combined the prestige of the house of Timur with the glamour of the fireeating

Feringhee. Sindhia (to borrow a phrase from the gambling table) backed his luck. He gave de Boigne an

increased assignment of territory; and authority to raise two more brigades, on which by express permission

of the blind old Shah was conferred the title of Army of the Empire. The territory assigned to the General

extended from Mathra to Dehli, and over the whole Upper Doab, yielding a total revenue of about

twentytwo lakhs of rupees, a large sum for those days. After liquidating the pay of the troops it was

estimated that this left a balance in his favour of about 40,000 rupees a year besides his pay, and very large

perquisites. He also exercised unlimited civil and military jurisdiction. His headquarters were at Aligarh,

where he exercised quasiroyal sway over the whole surrounding country. Some further work, however,

awaited de Boigne before he finally retired into purely civil administration. Among the last to hold out

against the good fortune and genius of Sindhia was the founder of the present state of Indore, Jeswant Rao

Holkar, who resolved to try the effect upon his rival of a blow struck with his own weapons. The Duke of

Wellington in 1803 took much the same view of this fondness on the part of the Mahrattas for European

discipline and fashions in war as that vainly urged on Sheodasheo Rao by Malhar Rao Holkar in 1760.

"Sindhia's armies had actually," so wrote General Wellesley in 1803, "been brought to a very favourable state

of discipline, and his power had become formidable by the exertions of European officers in his service; but,

I think, it is much to be doubted whether his power or rather that of the whole Mahratta nation would

not have been more formidable if they had never had a European or an infantry soldier in their service, and

had carried on their operations in the manner of the original Mahrattas, only by means of cavalry." Malhar

Rao and Wellesley were two great authorities; but, in any case, when once any State had introduced the new

system, all its rivals were compelled to do likewise, and the State which did it with the most energy prevailed.

This was the heyday of European adventure in the East. France, still under the influence of feudal

institutions, continued to send out brave young men who longed, while providing for themselves, to restore

the influence of their country in India, shaken as it had been by the ill success of Dupleix, Lally, and Law.

The native princes, on the other side, were not backward in availing themselves of this new species of

wardog. A Frenchman was worth his weight in gold; even an AngloIndian the race is now relegated to

the officestool fetched, we may say, his weight in silver. But men of the latter class, though not deficient

in valour, and not without special advantages from their knowledge of the people and their language, were

not so fully trusted. Doubtless the French officers would be more serviceable in a war with England; and that

contingency was probably never long absent from the thoughts of the native chiefs. With the exception of the

Musalman Viceroys of Audh and the Deccan, every native power dreaded the advance of the English, and

desired their destruction. In fact, now that the Empire was fallen, a general Hindu revival had taken its place,

Holkar's new army was commanded by a French officer, whose name variously spelt, was perhaps du

Drenec. He was the son of an officer in the Royal navy of France, and is described as an accomplished and

courteous gentleman. He usually receives from contemporary writers the title of Chevalier, and his conduct

1792. The Patel lost no time in pushing his success in the only quarter where he now had anything to fear.

The combination of the Nana in the cabinet and Holkar with an Europeanized army in the field, was a serious

menace to his power; and with enterprising versatility he resolved at once to counteract it. With this view he

obtained khillats of investiture, for the Peshwa and for himself, from the Emperor, and departed for Puna,

where he arrived after a slow triumphal progress, on the 11th of June, 1792. On the 20th of the same month

the ceremony took place with circumstances of great magnificence; the successful deputy endeavouring to

propitiate the hostility of the Nana by appearing in his favourite character of the Beadle, and carrying the

Peshwa's slippers, while the latter sate splendidly attired upon a counterfeit of the peacock throne. All men

have their foibles, and Sindhia's was histrionism, which imposed on no one. The thin assumption of humility

by a dictator was despised, and the splendid caparisons of the nominal chief were ridiculed by the Mahrattas

Meanwhile Holkar saw his opportunity and struck his blow. Profiting by the absence of his rival, he for the

first time since 1773, advanced on Hindustan; and summoning Ismail Beg like an evil spirit from his

temporary obscurity, he hurled him upon the country round the capital, while he himself lost no time in

In the northern part of the Rewari country is a place called Kanaund; about equidistant from Dehli and Hansi,

to the south of both cities. Here Najaf Kuli Khan had breathed his last in a stronghold of earth faced with

stone, on the borders of the great Bikanir desert, among sandhills and low growths of tamarisk; and here his

widow a sister of the deceased Gholam Kadir continued to reside. A call to surrender the fort to

Sindhia's officers being refused by the highspirited Pathan lady, gave Ismail Beg occasion to reappear upon

the scene. He hastened to her aid, but found the place surrounded by a force under the command of M.

Perron, a French officer whose name will often recur hereafter. The Beg, as usual, attacked furiously, and, as

usual, was defeated. He took refuge in the fort which he contrived to enter, and the defence of which he

conducted for some time. But the lady being killed by a shell, the garrison lost heart, and began to talk of

throwing overboard the Moghul Jonah. The latter, obtaining from Perron a promise of his life being spared,

and having that strong faith in the truth of his promise which is the real homage that Asiatics pay to

Europeans, lost no time in coming into camp, and was sent into confinement at Agra, where he remained till

his death a few years later. Francklin, writing about 1794, says that he had no chance of deliverance so long

as Mahratta sway endured at Dehli; but that he might, otherwise, still live to play a conspicuous part. But I

believe he died about four years later. His residence was in the quarters near the Dehli Gate of the Fort,

De Boigne meantime took the field in person against Holkar, who brought against him not only the usual host

of Mahratta horsemen, but, what was far more formidable, four battalions of sepoys under Colonel du

Drenec. The forces of the Empire, of somewhat inferior strength, brought Holkar to action at Lakhairi, not far

from Kanaund, and on the road to Ajmir. The battle which ensued, which was fought in the month of

September, 1792, was considered by M. de Boigne as the most obstinate that he ever witnessed. The ground

had been skilfully chosen by du Drenec; he held the crest of a pass, his rear being partly protected by a wood;

a marsh covered his front, while the sides were flanked by forests. The regular infantry was supported by a

strong artillery, and guarded by 30,000 cavalry. Having reconnoitred this position from a rising ground, de

Boigne advanced under a discouraging fire from Holkar's batteries; and as his own guns whose advance

had been unexpectedly impeded came into action he hoped to silence those of the enemy. But his artillery

officer was unlucky that day. A tumbril being struck in de Boigne's batteries, led to the explosion of ten or

twelve others; and Holkar observing the confusion, endeavoured to extricate his cavalry from the trees, and

charge, while du Drenec engaged the enemy's infantry. But the charge of Holkar's horse was confused and

feeble (here Ismail Beg's absence must have been felt), and de Boigne sheltering his men in another wood,

soon repulsed the cavalry with a welldirected and wellsustained discharge from 9,000 muskets. As they

retreated, he launched his own cavalry upon them, and drove them off the field. It was now his turn once

more to advance. Reforming his infantry and guns in the shelter of the thick treegrowth, he fell upon the

left of the enemy where the regulars still maintained themselves. Raw levies as they were, they fought

bravely but unskilfully till they were annihilated; their European officers were nearly all slain, and their guns

taken, to the number of thirtyeight. The battle was lost without retrieval, mainly owing to the inefficiency of

Holkar's horse; thus vindicating the wise, if premature, confidence of Ibrahim Gardi at Panipat more than

thirty years before. Holkar, with the remnant of: his army, crossed the Chambal, and fell back on Malwa,

While these things were taking place, a new rebuff was being prepared for himself by the Emperor, from

whom neither age nor misfortune had taken that levity of character which, partly inherited from his ancestors,

partly constitutional to himself, formed at once his chief weakness and his greatest consolation. In his

dependent condition, enjoying but the moderate stipend of ninety thousand pounds a year for his whole civil

list and that not punctually paid the blind old man turned envious thoughts upon the prosperity of the

provinces which he had formerly ceded to his old protectors, the British. Accordingly, in July 1792, the Court

newsman of Dehli was directed to announce that despatches had been sent to Punah, instructing Sindhia to

collect tribute from the administration of Bengal. A similar attempt had been made, it will be remembered,

though without success, in 1785 (vide sup. Pt. II. c. iv. in fin. ) The present attempt fared no better. This hint

was taken certainly, but not in a way that could have been pleasant to those who gave it; for it was taken

extremely ill. In a statepaper of the 2nd of August, Lord Cornwallis, the then Governor General, gave orders

that information should be conveyed to Madhoji Sindhia to the effect that in the present condition of the

Dehli court he, Sindhia, would be held directly responsible for every writing issued in the name of the

Emperor, and that any attempt to assert a claim to tribute from the British Government would be "warmly

resented." Once more the disinclination of the British to interfere in the Empire was most emphatically

asserted, but it was added significantly, that if any should be rash enough to insult them by an unjust demand

or in any shape whatever, they felt themselves both able and resolved to exact ample satisfaction.

This spirited language, whether altogether in accordance with abstract right or not, was probably an essential

element in the maintenance of that peaceful policy which prevailed in the diplomatic valley that occurred

between Warren Hastings and the Marquess Wellesley. Sindhia (not unmindful of Popham's Gwalior

performance just twelve years before) hastened to assure the British Government that he regarded them as

supreme within their own territories; and that, for his part, his sole and whole object was to establish the

In this he had perfectly succeeded. The fame of his political sagacity, and the terror of General de Boigne's

arms, were acknowledged from the Satlaj to the Ganges, and from the Himalayas to the Vindhyas. And for

nearly ten years the history of Hindustan is the biography of a few foreign adventurers who owed their

position to his successes. In the centre of the dominions swayed by the DictatorBeadle were quartered two

who had attained to almost royal state in the persons of General de Boigne and the Begam Sumroo: the one at

Sardhana, the other at Aligarh. The Chevalier du Drenec, who had not been well used by Holkar, left (without

the slightest blame) the service of that unprosperous chief, and joined his quasicompatriot and former

antagonist, the Savoyard de Boigne, as the commandant of a battalion. The "dignity of History" in the last

century has not deigned to preserve any particulars of the private life of these gallant soldiers; but one can

fancy them of an evening at a table furnished with clumsy magnificence, and drinking bad claret bought up

from the English merchants of Calcutta at fabulous prices; not fighting over again the battle of Lakhairi, but

rather discussing the relative merits of the slopes of the Alps and the cliffs of the Atlantic; admitting

sorrowfully the merits of the intermediate vineyards, or trilling to the bewilderment of their countryborn

Among the officers of the Begam's army there would be few congenial companions for such men. The

Brigadier, Colonel Levaissoult (or le Vasseur; it is impossible to be quite sure of these names as manipulated

by the natives of India), seems to have been a young man of some merit. Her only other European officer

who was at all distinguished was an Irishman named George Thomas, who had deserted from a manofwar

in Madras Roads about ten years before, and after some obscure wanderings in the Carnatic, had entered the

Begam's service, and distinguished himself, as we have seen, in the rescue of Shah Alam before Gokalgarh,

in 1788. The officers of the Begam's little army had never recovered the taint thrown over the service by its

original founder, the miscreant Sumroo, and the merits of the gallant young Irishman, tall, handsome,

intrepid, and full of the reckless generosity of his impulsive race, soon raised him to distinction. About his

military genius, untaught as it must have been, there could be no doubt in the minds of those who had seen

the originality of his movement at Golkalgarh; his administrative talents, one would suppose, must have

given some indication by this time of what they were hereafter to appear in a more leading character, and

Some time in 1792 the partiality of the Begam for M. Levaissoult began to show itself; and Mr. Thomas who

was not only conscious of his own merits, but had all the hatred of a Frenchman which characterized the

British tar of those days, resolved to quit her service and attempt a more independent career. With this view

he retired, in the first instance, to Anupshahar on the Ganges, so often noticed in these pages, and now, for

some time, the cantonment of the frontier brigade of the English establishment in the Presidency of the Fort

William. Here he found a hospitable welcome, and from this temporary asylum commenced a

correspondence with Appa Khandi Rao, a chief whom he had formerly met in the Mahratta army, and whose

service he presently entered with an assignment of land in Ismail Beg's former Jaigir of Mewat. In the Mewat

country he remained for the next eighteen months, engaged in a long and arduous attempt to subjugate his

nominal subjects; in which employment we must for the present leave him engaged.

In the meanwhile the Begam had been married to M. Levaissoult, according to the rites of the ancient Church

to which both adhered. Unfortunately for the lady's present reputation and the gentleman's official influence,

the marriage was private; the only witnesses of the ceremony being two of the bridegroom's friends, MM.

All this time Sindhia was at Punah endeavouring to raise his influence in the Mahratta country to something

like a level with his power in Hindustan. But the situation was one of much greater difficulty in the former

instance than in the latter. In the one case he had to deal with a blind old voluptuary, of whom he was sole

and supreme master; in the other the sovereign Madhu Rao Peshwa was in the vigour of life, and had a

confidential adviser in the Nana Farnavis, who was almost a match for the Patel in ability, and had an

undoubted superiority in the much greater unity of his objects and the comparative narrowness of his field of

action. It is no part of my task to trace the labyrinth of Mahratta politics in a work which merely professes to

sketch the anarchy of Hindustan; it will be sufficient for our present purpose to state that the

TarikhiMuzafari, the Persian history to which we have heretofore been so largely indebted, notices an

incident as occurring at this time which is not detailed in the usually complete record of Captain Grant Duff,

though it is not at variance with the account that he gives of Punah politics in 1794. The Persian author

briefly states that the Peshwa (whose mind was certainly at this time much embittered against Madhoji

Sindhia) sent assassins to waylay him at a little distance from the city, against whose attack the Patel

defended himself with success, but only escaped at the expense of some severe wounds. From the situation of

the writer, who appears always to have lived in Bihar or Hindustan, as well as from the vagueness with which

he tells the story, it is evidently a mere rumour deriving some strength from the fact that Madhoji died at

Wanauli, in the neighbourhood of the Mahratta capital, on the 12th February of that year, in the midst of

intrigues in which he was opposed, not only by the Nana, but by almost all the chiefs of the old Mahratta

An interesting and careful, though friendly analysis of the Patel's character will be found in the fifth chapter

of Grant Duff's third volume. As evinced in his proceedings in Hindustan, we have found him a master of

untutored statecraft, combining in an unusual manner the qualities of prudence in counsel and enterprise in

action; tenacious of his purposes, but a little vulgar in his means of affecting opinion. He was possessed of

the accomplishment of reading and writing; was a good accountant and versed in revenue administration; and

thus able to act for himself, instead of being obliged, like most Mahratta leaders, to put himself into the hands

of designing Brahmans. My valued friend Sir Dinkar Rao informs me that, among other traditions of high

Mahratta society, he has been told by aged men that the Maharaja was never known to evince serious

displeasure save with cowards and men who fled in battle. To all others his favour was equal, and solely

apportioned to merit, no matter what might be their creed, caste, or colour. He showed discrimination and

originality in the wholesale reform that he introduced into the organization of the army, and the extensive

scale on which he employed the services of soldiers trained and commanded by men of a hardier race than

themselves. Sic fortis Etruria crevit; and it is curious to find the same circumstances which in the Middle

Ages of Europe caused the greatness of the Northern Italian States thus reproducing themselves in the Italy of

NOTE. The following extract from the Dehli Gazette of June 5th, 1874, gives the existing tradition as to

the domicile of the officers at Aligarh: "De Boigne lived in his famous mansion, called Sahib Bagh,

between the fort and city, and on leaving for France he gave it to Perron, who considerably improved the

building and garden, which was well laid out with all descriptions of fruit trees procured from distant climes.

He so adorned the place that it was said by the French officers that the garden was next to that of Ram Bagh,

on the Agra river, so beautiful was the scenery. Perron had a number of officers in his army, English, French,

and Italian. Next to Perron was Colonel Pedron, who commanded the fortress of Allygurh; this officer had his

mansion in an extensive garden, which at the British conquest was converted into the Judges' Court, and the

site is the same where it now stands. There are still some old jamun trees of the said garden in the school

compound. Chevalier Dudernaque was another officer of distinction in Perron's Brigade; his house was on the

edge of the city, it still stands in the occupancy of Khooshwuk Allee, a respectable Mahomedan, who has an

Daulat Rao Sindhia Thomas adopted by Appa Khandi Rao Revolution at Sardhana Begam Sumroo

attacked but delivered Begam Sumroo becomes a wiser Woman Movements of Afghans De Boigne

retires General Perron Musalman intrigues Afghans checked Succession in Audh War of

"The Bais" Afghans and British Rising of Shimbunath Thomas independent Revolt of Lakwa

1794. THE powers and dignities of the old Patel were peaceably assumed by Daulat Rao, the son of the

deceased's youngest nephew, whom he had, shortly before his death made preparations to adopt as a son. This

new minister was only in his fifteenth year, but the chiefs of the Deccan soon becoming involved in war with

their Musalman neighbours, and Takuji Holkar shortly afterwards becoming imbecile both in mind and in

body, the young man had leisure to consolidate his power. He retained eight battalions always about him,

under the command of a Neapolitan named Filose, and continued to reside at Punah; the Begam Sumroo and

her new husband were at Sardhana; de Boigne at Aligarh; and Thomas still engaged in conquering the

country which had been nominally conferred upon him by a chieftain who had no right to it himself. Nothing

can better show the anarchy that prevailed than such a state of things as this last mentioned.

The news of Madhoji's death, and the short suspense that followed on the subject of the succession, caused

some little confusion at Dehli, and led Appa Khandi Rao to visit the metropolis, on which occasion Thomas

attended him. Here they received investiture to their several fiefs from Sindhia's local representative, Gopal

Rao Bhao; but it was not long before this chief, stirred up, says Thomas's biographer, by the Begam and her

husband, begam to tamper with the fidelity of Appa Khandi's men, who mutinied and confined their chief.

Thomas retaliated by plundering the Begam's estates to the south of Dehli, and loyally escorted his master to

Kanaund. On this occasion Appa (who seems not to have been destitute of good impulses) adopted him as his

son, made him some handsome presents, and conferred upon him the management of several contiguous

tracts, yielding in all an annual revenue of one lakh and a half of the money of those days.

One cannot wonder at the faith in the pagodatree which formed so prominent an article of the English social

creed of those days, when we thus find a common sailor, at forty years of age, attended by a bodyguard of

chosen cavaliers, and managing districts as large and rich as many a minor kingdom. No doubt the price paid

was high. Thomas's exertions were evidently prodigious and ceaseless; while his position nay, his very

existence was extremely precarious. On the other hand, his prospect of realizing any part of his good

fortune, and retiring to enjoy it in his native Tipperary which must have sometimes presented itself to his

mind was certainly not hopeful. To the degenerate Europeans of the present day, whose programme

involves constant holidays in a mountain climate, occasional furloughs to England, and, when resident in

India, a residence made endurable by imported luxuries, and by every possible precaution against heat, there

is something almost incredible in this long life of exile, where the English language would not be heard for

years, and where quilted curtains and wooden shutters would be all the protection of the most luxurious

quarters, and an occasional carouse upon fiery bazaar spirits the chief excitement of the most peaceful

intervals of repose. Such intervals, however, were very rare; and the sense of constant struggles in which

one's success was entirely due to one's own merits, must have been the chief reward of such a life as Thomas

Foremost among the difficulties with which he had to contend was the uncertain character of his chief: and he

was at the time of which we are treating 1794 strongly tempted by Lakwa Dada to enter the service of

Sindhia, in which he was offered the command of 2,000 horse. This temptation, however, he manfully

resisted, and continued true to Appa, even though that chief was neither true to his follower nor to himself.

Whilst thus engaged in a cause of but small promise, he was once more exposed to the machinations of the

Begam, who, influenced by her husband, marched into Thomas's new district and encamped about three

marches S.E. from Jhajar, at the head of a force of four battalions of infantry, twenty guns, and four

squadrons of horse. Thomas made instant preparations to meet the invasion, when it was suddenly rolled

away in a manner which presents one of the characteristic dissolving views of that extraordinary period.

The ruffianly character of most of the officers in the Sardhana service has been already mentioned. With the

exception of one or two, they could not read or write, and they had all the debauched habits and insolent

bearing which are the besetting sins of the uneducated European in India; especially when to the natural pride

of race are added the temptations of a position of authority for which no preparation has been made in youth.

Among these men (whom Le Vaissoult, not unnaturally, refused to admit to his dinnertable) was a German

or Belgian, now only known to us by the nickname of Liegeois, probably derived from his native place. With

this man it is supposed that Thomas now opened a correspondence by means of which he practiced on the

disaffection of his former comrades. The secrecy which the Begam continued to preserve on the subject of

her marriage naturally added to the unpopularity of Le Vaissoult's position; and the husband and wife hurried

back to Sardhana on learning that the officers had commenced negotiations with Aloysius the son of the

deceased Sumroo, who resided at Dehli with the title of Nawab Zafaryab Khan, and had carried over with

them a portion of the troops. Finding the situation untenable, they soon resolved on quitting it and retiring

into the territories of the British with their portable property, estimated at about two lakhs of rupees. With this

view they wrote to Colonel McGowan, commanding the brigade at Anupshahar; and finding that officer

scrupulous at participating at the desertion of an Imperial functionary, Le Vaissoult, in April, 1794, addressed

the Governor General direct. The result was that Sindhia's permission was obtained to a secret flitting; and Le

Vaissoult was to be treated as a prisoner of war, allowed to reside with his wife at Chandarnagar.

Towards the end of 1795, Zafaryab, at the head of the revolted soldiery set out from Dehli; determined, by

what judicial stupidity I cannot tell, to cut off the escape of that enemy for whom, if he had been wise, he

ought to have paved the road, had it been with silver. The intelligence of this movement precipitated Le

Vaissoult's measures; and he set out with his wife the latter was in a palankeen, the former armed and on

horseback with a mutual engagement between them that neither was to survive if certified of the death of

the other. The troops who still remained at Sardhana, either corrupted by the mutineers, or willing to secure

the plunder before the latter should arrive, immediately set out in pursuit. The sequel is thus told by Sleeman,

who gathered his information from eyewitnesses on the spot: "They had got three miles on the road to

Meerut, when they found the battalions gaining fast upon the palankeen. Le Vaissoult drew a pistol from his

holster and urged on the bearers. He could have easily galloped off and saved himself, but he would not quit

his wife's side. At last the soldiers came up close behind them. The female attendants of the Begam began to

scream, and looking into the litter, Le Vaissoult observed the white cloth that covered the Begam's breast

stained with blood. She had stabbed herself, but the dagger had struck against one of the bones of her chest,

and she had not courage to repeat the blow. Her husband put the pistol to his temple and fired. The ball

passed through his head, and he fell dead to the ground." This tragedy is somewhat differently detailed in the

account furnished by Thomas to his biographer, which is made to favour the suspicion that the Begam

intentionally deceived her husband in order to lead him to commit suicide. Thomas says that Le Vaissoult

was riding at the head of the procession, and killed himself on receiving a message from the rear attested by

the sight of a bloodstained garment borne by the messenger: but it is hard to see why a man in his position

should have been absent from his wife's side at such a critical moment. Thomas was naturally disposed to

take an unfavourable view of the Begam's conduct; but the immediate results of the scene were certainly not

such as to support the theory of her having any understanding with the mutineers. She was carried back to the

Fort, stripped of her property, and tied under a gun. In this situation she remained several days, and would

have died of starvation but for the good offices of a faithful ayah, who continued to visit her mistress, and

The new Nawab was a weak and dissolute young man; and the Begam had a friend among the officers,

Saleur, whom the reader may recollect as one of the witnesses of her marriage. She was ere long released,

and M. Saleur lost no time in communicating with Thomas, whose aid he earnestly invoked. The generous

Irishman, forgetful of the past, at once wrote strongly to his friends in the service, pointing out that the

disbandment of the force would be the only possible result of their persisting in disorderly conduct, so

detrimental to the welfare of the Emperor and his minister. He followed up this peaceful measure by a rapid

march on Sardhana, where he surprised the Nawab by dashing upon him at the head of the personal escort of

horse, which formed part of the retinue of every leader of those days. The troops, partly corrupted, partly

intimidated, tired of being their own masters, and disappointed in Zafaryab, made a prisoner of their new

chief. He was plundered to the skin, and sent back to Dehli under arrest; while the Begam, by the chivalry of

one she had illused for years, recovered her dominions, and retained them unmolested for the rest of her life.

The secret of her behaviour is probably not very difficult of discovery. Desirous of giving to her passion for

the gallant young Frenchman the sanction of her adopted religion, she was unwilling to compromise her

position as Sumroo's heir by a publicly acknowledged remarriage. She had large possessions and many

enemies; so that, once determined to indulge her inclinations, she had to choose between incurring scandalous

suspicions, and jeopardising a succession which would be contested, if she were known to have made a fresh

M. Saleur was now appointed to the command of the forces; but the astute woman never again allowed the

weakness of her sex to imperil her sovereignty; and from the period of her restoration by Thomas (who spent

two lakhs of rupees in the business), to the date of her death in 1836, her supremacy was never again

menaced by any domestic danger. Having, as far as can be conjectured, now arrived at the ripe age of

fortytwo, it may be hoped that she had learned to conquer the impulse that sometimes leads a female

sovereign to make one courtier her master, at the expense of making all the rest her enemies. The

management of her extensive territories henceforward occupied her chief attention, and they were such as to

require a very great amount of labour and time for their effective supervision: stretching from the Ganges to

beyond the Jamna, and from the neighbourhood of Aligarh to the north of Mozafarnagar. There was also a

Jaigir on the opposite side of the Jamna, which has formed the subject of litigation between her heirs and the

Government in recent times. Her residence continued to be chiefly at Sardhana, where she gradually built the

palace, convent, school, and cathedral, which are still in existence. Peace and order were well kept throughout

her dominions; no lawless chiefs were allowed to harbour criminals and defraud the public revenue; and the

soil was maintained in complete cultivation. This is considerable praise for an Asiatic ruler; the reverse of the

Death soon relieved her of all anxiety on the score of her undutiful stepson, who drank himself to death in his

arrest at Dehli, leaving a daughter, who married a Mr. Dyce, and became the mother of Mr. D. O.

DyceSombre, whose melancholy story is fresh in the memory of the present generation. Zafaryab Khan was

buried like his infamous father at Agra. But his monument is not in the cemetery, but in a small church since

Thomas was now, for the moment, completely successful. The intrigues of his Mahratta enemy Gopal Rao

ended in that officer being superseded, and Thomas's friend Lakwa Dada became LieutenantGeneral in

Hindustan. Appa Khandi, it is true, commenced a course of frivolous treachery towards his faithful servant

and adopted son, which can only be accounted for on the supposition of a disordered intellect; but Thomas

remained in the field, everywhere putting down opposition, and suppressing all marauding, unless when his

About this time we begin, for the first time, to find mention of the threatening attitude of the Afghans, which

was destined to exercise on the affairs of Hindustan an influence so important, yet so different from what the

invaders themselves could have anticipated. Timur Shah, the kinsman to whom Shah Alam alludes in his

poem, had died in June, 1793; and after a certain amount of domestic disturbance, one of his sons had

succeeded under the title of Zaman Shah. The Calcutta Gazette of 28th May, 1795, thus notices the new

"Letters from Dehli mention that Zaman Shah, the ruler of the Abdalees, meditated an incursion into

Hindustan, but had been prevented, for the present, by the hostility of his brothers. . . . . We are glad to hear

This Zaman Shah is the same who died, many years later, a blind pensioner of the English at Ludiana; and for

the restoration of whose dynasty, among other objects, the British expedition to Kabul in 1839 took place.

To this period also belongs the unsuccessful attempt to revive Musalman power in the South of India, in

which the Nizam of the Deccan engaged with the aid of his French General, the famous Raymond. The battle

fought at Kardla, near Ahmadnagar, on the 12th March, 1795, is remarkable for the number of Europeans and

their trained followers who took part on either side. On the Nizam's side, besides a vast force of horse and

foot of the ordinary Asiatic kind, there were no less than 17,000 infantry under Raymond, backed by a large

force of regular cavalry and artillery. The Mahrattas had 10,000 regulars under Perron, 5,000 under Filose,

3,000 under Hessing, 4,500 under du Drenec and Boyd. An animated account of this battle will be found in

Colonel Malleson's excellent book, The Final Struggles of the French in India, in which, with admirable

research and spirit, the gallant author has done justice to the efforts of the brave Frenchmen by whom British

victory was so often checked in its earlier flights. The power of the Musalmans was completely broken by

Perron and his associates on this occasion. It is further remarkable as the last general assembly of the chiefs

of the Mahratta nation under the authority of their Peshwa (Grant Duff, ii. 2848). The Moghul power in the

Deccan was only preserved by the intervention of the British, and has ever since been dependent on their

Early in 1796 a change was perceptible in the health of General de Boigne, which time and war had tried for

nearly a quarter of a century in various regions. He had amassed a considerable fortune by his exertions

during this long period, and entertained the natural desire of retiring with it to his native country. Sindhia had

no valid ground for opposing his departure, and he set out for Calcutta somewhere about the middle of the

year, accompanied by his personal escort mounted upon choice Persian horses who were afterwards

taken into the British Governor's bodyguard. In the profession of a soldier of fortune, rising latterly to

almost unbounded power, de Boigne had shown all the virtues that are consistent with the situation. By

simultaneous attention to his own private affairs he amassed a fortune of nearly half a million sterling, which

he was fortunate enough to land in his own country, where it must have seemed enormous. He lived for many

years after as a private gentleman in Savoy, with the title of Count, and visitors from India were always

welcome and sure of being hospitably entertained by the veteran with stories of Mahratta warfare. On the 1st

February, 1797, he was succeeded, after some brief intermediate arrangements, by M. Perron, an officer of

whom we have already had some glimpses, and whom de Boigne considered as a steady man and a brave

soldier. Like Thomas, he had come to India in some humble capacity on board a manofwar, and had first

joined the native service under Mr. Sangster, as a noncommissioned officer. De Boigne gave him a

company in the first force which he raised, with the title of CaptainLieut. On the absconding of

Lestonneaux, in 1788, as above described when that officer was supposed to have appropriated the

plunder taken by Gholam Kadir on his flight from Meerut Perron succeeded to the command of a

battalion, from which, after the successes of the army against Ismail Beg, he rose to the charge of a brigade.

He was now placed over the whole regular army, to which the civil administration, on de Boigne's system,

was inseparably attached, and under him were brigades commanded by Colonel du Drenec and by other

officers, chiefly French, of whom we shall see more hereafter. De Boigne, while entertaining a high opinion

of Perron's professional ability, seems to have misdoubted his political wisdom, for both Fraser and Duff

assert that he solemnly warned Daulat Rao Sindhia against those very excesses into which partly by

Perron's counsel he was, not long after, led. "Never to offend the British, and sooner to discharge his

Sindhia remaining in the Deccan, in pursuance of his uncle's plan of managing both countries at once, the

axSergeant became very influential in Hindustan, where (jealousies with his Mahratta colleagues excepted)

the independent career of George Thomas was the only serious difficulty with which he had to contend.

For the present the two seamen did not come in contact, for Thomas confined his operations to the west and

northwest, and found his domestic troubles and the resistance of the various neighbouring tribes sufficient to

fully occupy his attention. Scarcely had he patched up a peace with his treacherous employer, and brought

affairs in Mewat to something like a settlement, when his momentary quiet was once more disturbed by the

intelligence that Appa had committed suicide by drowning himself, and that his son and successor, Vaman

Rao, was showing signs of an intention to imitate the conduct of the deceased in its untruthful and unreliable

character. With the exception of a brief campaign in the Upper Doab, in which the fortified towns of Shamli

and Lakhnaoti had rebelled, Thomas does not appear to have had any active employment until he finally

The rebellion of the Governor of Shamli (which Thomas suppressed with vigour) seems to have been

connected with the movements of the restless Rohillas of the Najibabad clan, whose chief was now Bhanbu

Khan, brother of the late Gholam Kadir, and an exile among the Sikhs since the death of his brother and the

destruction of the Fort of Ghausgarh. Profiting by the longcontinued absence of Sindhia, he reopened that

correspondence with the Afghans which always formed part of a Mohamadan attempt in Hindustan, and

appealed, at the same time, to the avarice of the Sikhs, which had abundantly recovered its temporary repulse

by Mirza Najaf in 1779. The grandson of the famous Abdali soon appeared at Peshawar at the head of 33,000

Afghan horse. But the Sikhs and Afghans soon quarrelled; a desperate battle was fought between them at

Amritsar, in which, after a futile cannonade, the Sikhs flung themselves upon Zaman's army in the most

reckless manner. The aggregate losses were estimated at 35,000 men. The Shah retreated upon Lahor; and the

disordered state of the Doab began to be reflected in the only halfsubdued conquests of the Viceroy of Audh

At this crisis 'Asafuddaulah, the then holder of this title, died at Lucknow, 21st September, 1797, and it

was by no means certain that his successor, Vazir 'Ali, would not join in the reviving struggles of his

coreligionists. It must be remembered that, in virtue of its subjugation to the Sindhias, the Empire was now

regarded as a Hindu power, and that Shia and Sunni might well be expected to join, as against the Mahrattas

or the English, however they might afterwards quarrel over the spoil, should success attend their efforts.

Furthermore it is to be noted that in this or the following year the Afghans, under Zaman Shah, were known

This state of things appeared to the then GovernorGeneral of the British possessions sufficiently serious to

warrant an active interposition. The calm courage of Sir John Shore, who held a local investigation into what,

to most politicians, might have appeared a very unimportant matter namely, whether the heirapparent

was really 'Asafuddaulah's son or not; the grave decision against his claims (the claims of a de facto

prince); his deposition and supersession by his eldest uncle, Saadat 'Ali the Second; and Vazir 'Ali's

subsequent violence, when, too late to save his throne, he contrived, by the gratuitous murder of Mr. Cherry,

the British resident at Benares, to convert his position from that of a political martyr to that of a lifeconvict,

are all amply detailed in the wellknown History of Mill, and in the Life of Lord Teignmouth by his son.

Shore, at the same time, sent an embassy to Persia under Mahdi 'Ali Khan, the result of which was an

invasion of Western Afghanistan and the consequent retirement of the Shah from the Panjab. The events

referred to only so far belong to the History of Hindustan, that they are a sort of crepuscular appearance there

of British power, and show how the most upright and moderate statesmen of that nation were compelled,

from time to time, to make fresh advances into the political sphere of the Empire.

About this time died Takaji Holkar, who had lately ceased to play any part in the politics, either of Hindustan

or of the Deccan. He was no relation, by blood, of the great founder of the house of Holkar, Malhar Rao; but

he had carried out the traditionary policy of the clan, which may be described in two words hostility to

Sindhia, and alliance with any one, Hindu or Musalman, by whom that hostility might be aided. He was

succeeded by his illegitimate son Jaswant Rao, afterwards to become famous for his long and obstinate

resistance to the British; but for the present only remarkable for the trouble that he soon began to give Daulat

1798. The latter, meanwhile, as though there were no such persons as Afghans or English within the limits

of India, was engaging in domestic affairs of the most paltry character. His marriage (1st March) with the

daughter of the Ghatgai, Shirji Rao, put him into the hands of that notorious person, whose ambition soon

entangled the young chief in the obscure and discreditable series of outrages and of intrigues regarding his

uncle's widow, known as the War of the Bais. The cause of these ladies being espoused by Madhoji's old

commander, Lakwa Dada, whom the younger Sindhia had, as we have seen, raised to the

LieutenantGeneralship of the Empire, a serious campaign (commenced in May) was the result. Sindhia's

army (nominally the army of the Emperor) was under the chief command of Ambaji Inglia, and in 1798 a

The ladies first retreated to the camp of the Peshwa's brother, Imrat Rao, but were captured by a treacherous

attack ordered by Sindhia's general, and undertaken by M. Drugeon, a French officer, at the head of two

regular brigades, during the unguarded hours of a religious festival. This was an overt act of warfare against

Sindhia's lawful superior, the Peshwa, in whose protection the ladies were, and threw the Peshwa into the

Sindhia, for his part, entered into negotiations with the famous usurper of Mysore, Tippu Sultan, who was the

hereditary opponent of the British, and who soon after lost his kingdom and his life before the Mahrattas

1799. The glory of the coming conquerors now began to light up the politics of Hindustan. The Afghans

retired from Lahor in January, and were soon discovered to have abandoned their attempts on Hindustan for

the present. But it was not known how long it might be before they were once more renewed. The celebrated

treaty of "subsidiary alliance" between the British and the Nizam (22nd June, 1799), occupied the jealous

attention of Sindhia, who had accommodated matters with the Peshwa, and taken up his quarters at Punah,

where his immense material resources rendered him almost paramount. Still more was his jealousy aroused

by the knowledge that, as long as the attitude of the Afghans continued to menace the illkept peace of the

Empire, the British must be of necessity driven to keep watch in that quarter, in proportion, at least, as he, for

his part, might be compelled to do so elsewhere. To add to his perplexities, Jaswant Rao Holkar, the

hereditary rival of his house, about this time escaped from the captivity of Nagpur. to which Sindhia's

influence had consigned him. Thus pressed on all sides, the Minister restored Lakwa Dada to favour, and by

his aid quelled a fresh outbreak in the Upper Doab, where Shimbunath, the officer in charge of the Bawani

Mahal, had called in the Sikhs in aid of his attempts at independence. Shimbunath was met and repulsed by a

Moghul officer, named Ashraf Beg; and, hearing that Perron had sent reinforcements under Captain Smith,

At the same time the Mahratta Governor of Dehli rebelled, but Perron reduced him after a short siege, and

replaced him by Captain Drugeon, the French officer already mentioned in reference to the war of the Bais.

Thomas was for the present quite independent; and it may interest the reader to have a picture, however faint,

of the scene in which this extraordinary conversion of a sailor into a sovereign took place. Hansi is one of the

chief towns of the arid province curiously enough called Hariana, or "Green land," which lies between Dehli

and the Great Sindh Deserts. When Thomas first fixed on it as the seat of his administration, it was a ruin

among the fragments of the estates which had belonged to the deceased Najaf Kuli Khan. His first care was to

rebuild the fortifications and invite settlers; and such was his reputation, that the people of the adjacent

country, long plundered by the wild tribes of Bhatiana, and by the Jats of the Panjab, were not slow in

availing themselves of his protection. Here, to use his own words, "I established a mint, and coined my own

rupees, which I made current (!) in my army and country . . . . cast my own artillery, commenced making

muskets, matchlocks, and powder.....till at length, having gained a capital and country bordering on the Sikh

territories, I wished to put myself in a capacity, when a favourable opportunity should offer, of attempting the

conquest of the Panjab, and aspired to the honour of placing the British standard on the banks of the Attock."

His new possessions consisted of 14 Pargannas, forming an aggregate of 250 townships, and yielding a total

revenue of nearly three lakhs of rupees, Thomas being forced to make very moderate settlements with the

farmers in order to realize anything. From his former estates, acquired in the Mahratta service, which he still

Having made these arrangements, Thomas consented to join Vaman Rao, the son of his former patron, in a

foray upon the Raja of Jaipur; and in this was nearly slain, only escaping with the loss of his lieutenant, John

Morris, and some hundreds of his best men. He then renewed his alliance with Ambaji Sindhia's favourite

general, who was about to renew the war against Lakwa Dada in the Udaipur country.

This new campaign was the consequence of Lakwa having connived at the escape of the Bais, a trait of

conduct creditable to his regard for the memory of Madhoji Sindhia, his old master, but ruinous to his own

interests. For the moment, however, the Dada was completely successful, routing all the detachments sent

Thomas did not join this campaign without undergoing a fresh danger from the mutiny of his own men. This

is a species of peril to which persons in his position seem to have been peculiarly open; and it is related that

the infamous Sumroo was sometimes seized by his soldiers, and seated astride upon a heated cannon, in order

to extort money from him. In the gallant Irishman the troops had a different subject for their experiments; and

the disaffection was soon set at rest by Thomas seizing the ringleaders with his own hands, and having them

blown from guns on the spot. This is a concrete exhibition of justice which always commands the respect of

1800. In 1800 the sailorRaja led his men once more against their neighbours to the north and northwest

of his territories, and gathered fresh laurels. He was now occupied in no less a scheme than the conquest of

the entire Panjab, from which enterprise he records that he had intended to return, like another Nearchus, by

way of the Indus, to lay his conquests at the feet of George the Third of England. But the national foes of that

monarch were soon to abridge the career of his enterprising subject, the Irish Raja of Hansi. For the present,

Perron marched into the country of the Dattia Raja, in Bandelkhand, and entirely defeated Lakwa Dada, who

soon after cried of his wounds. His success was at first balanced by Holkar, who routed a detachment of the

Imperial army, under Colonel Hessing, at Ujain. Hessing's four battalions were completely cut up; and of

eleven European officers, seven were slain and three made prisoners. This event occurred in June, 1801. But

it was not long before the disaster was retrieved at Indor (the present seat of the Holkar family), by a fresh

force under Colonel Sutherland. Holkar lost ninetyeight guns, and his capital was seized and sacked by the

The French commander of the regular troops was indeed now master of the situation. Victorious in the field,

in undisturbed possession of the Upper Doab, and with a subordinate of his own nation in charge of the

metropolis and person of the sovereign, General Perron was not disposed to brook the presence of a rival

and that a Briton in an independent position of sovereignty within a few miles of Dehli. The French sailor

and the English sailor having surmounted their respective difficulties, were now, in fact, face to face, each the

NOTE. Thomas describes the Begam as small and plump; her complexion fair, her eyes large and

animated. She wore the Hindustani costume, made of the most costly materials. She spoke Persian and Urdu

fluently, and attended personally to business, giving audience to her native employee behind a screen. At

darbars she appeared veiled; but in European society she took her place at table, waited on exclusively by

maidservants. Her statue, surmounting a group in white marble by Tadolini, stands over her tomb in the

Feuds of the Mahrattas Perron attacks Thomas End of Thomas Treaty of Bassein Lord

Wellesley Treaty of Lucknow Wellesley supported Fear of the French Sindhia threatened

Influence of Perron Plans of the French The First Consul Wellesley's Views War declared

Lake's Force Sindhia's European Officers, English and French AntiEnglish Feelings and Fall of

Perron Battle of Dehli Lake enters the Capital Emperor's Petition No Treaty made.

1801. THE end was now indeed approaching. Had the Mahrattas been united, it is possible that their

confederacy might have retrieved the disasters of 17601, and attained a position in Hindustan similar to that

which was soon after achieved by the Sikhs in the Panjab. But this could not be. The Peshwa still assumed to

be Vicegerent of the Empire, as well as head of the Mahrattas, under the titular supremacy of Satara, and

Sindhia affected to rule in Hindustan as the Peshwa's Deputy. But the new Peshwa, Baji Rao having

dislodged the usurping minister Nana Farnavis had proceeded to provoke the Holkars. Jeswant Rao, the

present head of that clan, took up arms against the Peshwa, whose side was espoused by Sindhia; and Sindhia

consequently found himself constrained to leave the provinces north of the Narbadda to the charge of

subordinates. Of these the most powerful and the most arrogant was the promoted QuarterMaster Sergeant,

As long as the lastnamed officer was in a subordinate position, he evinced much honourable manhood. But

the extremes of prosperity and adversity proved alike the innate vulgarity of the man's nature.

When every hereditary prince, from the Satlaj to the Narbadda, acknowledged him as master, and he enjoyed

an income equal to that of the present Viceroy and the CommanderinChief of India combined; at this

climacteric of his fortunes, when he was actually believed to have sent an embassy to the First Consul of the

French Republic, instead of seriously and soberly seeking to consolidate his position, or resign it with

Not content with openly flouting his Mahratta colleagues, and estranging such of the Europeans as were not

his connections or his creatures, he now summoned George Thomas to Dehli, and called upon him to enter

Sindhia's service in other words, to own his (Perron's) supremacy. The British tar repudiated this

invitation with national and professional disdain; upon which a strong FrancoMahratta army invaded his

territories under Louis Bourquin, one of Perron's lieutenants. Judgment formed no part of Thomas's character;

but he acted with his wonted decision. Sweeping round the invading host, he fell upon the detachment at

Georgegarh one of his forts which was being beleaguered and having routed the besiegers with great

loss, threw himself into the place, and protected his front with strong outworks, resolving to await assistance

Events showed the imprudence of this plan. No aid came; the French being reinforced, invested his camp, so

as to produce a blockade: corruption from the enemy joined with their own distress to cause many desertions

of Thomas's soldiers, till at length their leader saw no alternative but flight. About 9 P.M. therefore, on the

10th November, 1801, he suddenly darted forth at the head of his personal following, and succeeded in

reaching Hansi by a circuitous route, riding the same horse a fine Persian upwards of a hundred miles

in less than three days. But his capital was soon invested by his relentless foes as strictly as his camp had

been; and although the influence of his character was still shown in the brave defence made by the few select

troops whom neither hope nor fear could force from his side, he was at last obliged to see the cruelty of

taxing their fidelity any farther. M. Bourquin was much incensed against this obstinate antagonist; but the

latter obtained terms through the mediation of the other officers, and was allowed to retire to British territory

with the wreck of his fortune, on the 1st of January, 1802. He died in August, on his way down to Calcutta,

and was interred at Barhampur. He left a family, of whom the Begam Sumroo at first took charge, but their

This extraordinary man was largely endowed by Nature, both morally and physically. During the time of his

brief authority he settled a turbulent country, and put down some crimes, such as female infanticide, with

which all the power of Britain has not always coped successfully. It would have been profitable to the British

Government had they supported him in his manful struggles against Mahratta lawlessness, and against French

1802. The overthrow of Thomas was nearly the last of Sindhia's successes. Having made a final

arrangement with the Bais (from whom we here gladly part), he confined his attention to the politics of the

Deccan, where he underwent a severe defeat from Holkar, at Punah, in October, 1802. The Peshwa, on whose

side Sindhia had been fighting, sought refuge with the British at Bassein, and Holkar obtained temporary

possession of the Mahratta capital. On the 31st of December the celebrated treaty of Bassein was concluded

with the Peshwa. It appears from the Wellington Dispatches, published by Mr. Owen in 1880, that this treaty

was certainly not conceived in a spirit of hostility to Daulat Rao. He was a party directly, to the preceding

negotiations and, by the agency of his minister, "to the whole transaction." (Owen's Selection, p. 30.) Still, as

Mr. Wheeler has pointed out, this instrument tended to substitute the British as the paramount power in

Hindustan (Short History, p. 433), and "shut Sindhia out from the grand object of his ambition, namely, to

rule the Mahratta empire in the name of the Peshwa." One of the articles of the treaty debarred the Mahrattas

from entertaining French officers. Grant Duff had seen a secret letter written shortly after the date of the

treaty by the Peshwa in which he summoned Sindhia to Punah. (II. Grant Duff, p. 384.) Then, not only

supplanted by the British as Protector of the Mahratta State, but alarmed on the score of his position in

Hindustan, Sindhia began to intrigue with the hitherto inactive Mahratta chief, Raghoji, the Bhonsla Raja of

Aided by the British under the already famous Arthur Wellesley, the Peshwa soon regained his metropolis,

which Sindhia was preparing to occupy. That chief was still further estranged in consequence of the

Holkar now held aloof, wisely resolving to remain neutral, at least until his rival should be either overthrown

or irresistible. The Governor General, Marquis Wellesley, apprised by his brother and other political

officers of the intrigues of Sindhia, demanded from the latter a categorical explanation of his intentions. And

this not being given, General Wellesley was ordered to open the campaign in the Deccan, while General Lake

In order to appreciate the grounds of this most important measure, it will be necessary to break through the

rule by which I have been hitherto guided of keeping nothing before the reader besides the affairs of

Hindustan proper. The motives of Lord Wellesley formed part of a scheme of policy embracing nearly the

whole inhabited world; and whether we think him right or wrong, we can hardly avoid the conclusion that the

virtual assumption of the Moghul Empire at this time was due to his personal character and political projects.

As far back as February, 1801, the GovernorGeneral had cooperated in European affairs by sending a

contingent to Egypt under General Baird; though the force arrived too late to participate actively in a

campaign by which the French were expelled from that country. A twelvemonth later the Marquis received

official intimation of the virtual conclusion of the negotiations on which was based the Peace of Amiens. In

the interval he had sent his brother, Mr. Henry Wellesley, to Lucknow, and had concluded through that

agency the famous treaty of the 10th November, 1801, by which British rule was introduced into Gorakpur,

the Eastern and Central Doab, and a large part of Rohilkand. The immediate result of this will be seen ere

Having inaugurated these important changes in the position of British power in the East, Lord Wellesley now

notified to the Court of Directors (by whom he had conceived himself thwarted), his intention to resign his

office, and to return to Europe in the following December. At the same time he issued to General Lake, the

CommanderinChief, instructions for a substantial reduction of the forces. He added however the following

remarkable words: "It is indispensable to our safety in India that we should be prepared to meet any future

crisis of war with unembarrassed resources;" words whereby he showed that even reduction was undertaken

with an eye to future exertions. In a similar spirit he rebuked the naval Commander Admiral Rainier, for

refusing to employ against the Mauritius the forces that had been set free by the evacuation of Egypt; laying

down in terms as decided as courtesy permitted the principle that, as responsible agent, he had a right to be

And that bold assertion received the approbation of King George III., in a despatch of the 5th May; the

further principle being communicated by the writer, Lord Hobart, in His Majesty's name, "that it should be

explicitly understood that in the distant possessions of the British empire during the existence of war, the

want of the regular authority should not preclude an attack upon the enemy in any case that may appear

Thus fortified, the GovernorGeneral was persuaded to reconsider his intention of at once quitting India, the

more so since the terms in which the Court of Directors recorded their desire that he should do so, displayed

an almost equal confidence, and amounted, if not to any apology for past obstruction, at least to a promise of

support for the future. In his despatch of 24th December, 1802, Lord Wellesley plainly alluded to the opening

for extending the British power in India which he considered to be offered by the then pending treaty of

Bassein, though at the same time he records, apparently without apprehension, the intention of Sindhia to

proceed from Ujan towards Punah to counteract the machinations of Holkar. On the 11th February, 1803,

Lord Wellesley signified his willingness to remain at his post another year, though without referring to any

But the direction in which his eye was constantly cast is soon betrayed by a despatch of the 27th March, to

General Lake, conveying instructions for negotiating with General Perron, who, from motives we shall

briefly notice lower down, was anxious to retire from the service of Sindhia. In this letter Lord Wellesley

plainly says, "I am strongly disposed to accelerate Hr. Perron's departure, conceiving it to be an event which

It appears, nevertheless, from the Marquis's address to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of 19th

April, 1803, that, up to that time, he still entertained hopes that Sindhia would remain inactive, and would see

his advantage in giving his adhesion to the treaty of Bassein, if not from friendship for England, from

hostility to Holkar, against whom that settlement was primarily and ostensibly directed. Meanwhile, advices

continued to arrive from Europe, showing the extremely precarious nature of the Peace of Amiens, and the

imminent probability of a renewal of hostilities with France, thus keeping awake the GovernorGeneral's

jealousy of Sindhia's French officers, and delaying the restoration of French possessions in India, which had

In May the Marquis proceeded explicitly to forbid the crossing of the Narbadda by Sindhia, and to warn the

Bhonsla Raja of Berar or Nagpur against joining in the schemes of the former chief, to whom a long and

forcible despatch was sent, through the Resident, Colonel Collins, in the early part of the following month

(vide W. Desp. p. 120). In this letter Colonel Collins while vested with much discretionary power was

distinctly instructed to "apprise Scindiah (Sindhia) that his proceeding to Poonah, under any pretext whatever,

will infallibly involve him in hostilities with the British power." The Resident was also to require from him

"an explanation with regard to the object of any confederacy" with the Bhonsla chiefs of Berar and Nagpur,

or with Holkar. Sindhia met all these approaches with the Oriental resources of equivocation and delay;

apparently unable either to arrange with due rapidity any definite understanding with the other Mahratta

leaders, or to make up his mind, or persuade his chief advisers to give a confident and unconditional

reception to the friendship offered him by the British ruler. Whether the latter course would have saved him is

a question that now can only be decided by each person's interpretation of the despatches above analysed.

Those who desire to study the subject further may refer to the first volume of Malcolm's Political History, to

Mill's History, and to Grant Duff's concluding volume, but will hardly obtain much result from their labour.

On the one hand, it may be presumed that, had the British Government really been ambitious of extending

their NorthWestern frontier, they would have assisted Thomas in 1801; on the other hand, it is certain that

they supplanted Sindhia at Punah soon afterwards, and that they had for some years been exceedingly jealous

of French influence in India. In this connection should also be mentioned the invasion planned by the Czar

Paul, in concert with the First Consul, in 1800, of which the details were first made public in English by Mr.

Michell (Rawlinson's England and Russia in the East, p. 187). The general fact of Paul's submission to the

ascendancy of Napoleon was, of course, well known to British statesmen at the time. There was also the fear

of an Afghan invasion, which led to the mission of Malcolm to Persia, and which was, perhaps, not the mere

bugbear which it now appears. A masterly statement of Lord Wellesley's political complications will be

found in his brother's Memorandum, given as an Introduction to Professor Owen's Selection, published in

1880. It is quite clear, again, that Sindhia, for his part, was not unwilling to see the British espouse the

Peshwa's cause as against Holkar; while it is highly probable that his mind was worked upon by Perron when

the latter found himself under combined motives of selfinterest and of national animosity.

The French General had been losing favour on account of his increasing unpopularity among the native chiefs

of the army; and had been so contumeliously treated by Daulat Rao Sindhia at Ujain, in the beginning of the

year 1803, that he had resigned the service. But hardly was the treaty of Bassein communicated to Sindhia,

when Perron consented to remain at his post, and even, it is believed, drew up a plan for hostilities against the

British, although the latter had shown as yet no intention of declaring war, but, on the contrary, still

maintained a minister in Sindhia's camp. These facts, together with the statistics that follow, are chiefly

derived from the memoirs of an AngloIndian officer of Perron's, the late Colonel James Skinner, which have

been edited by Mr. Baillie Fraser. "Sindhia and Raghoji together" (Raghoji was the name of the Bhonsla of

Nagpur) "had about 100,000 men, of whom 50,000 were Mahratta horse, generally good, 30,000 regular

infantry and artillery, commanded by Europeans; the rest halfdisciplined troops. Sindhia is understood to

have had more than 300 pieces of cannon. The army of Hindustan, under Perron, consisted of 16,000 to

17,000 regular infantry, and from 15,000 to 20,000 horse, with not less than twenty pieces of artillery." It

may be added, on the authority of Major Thorn, that his army was commanded by about three hundred

European officers, of whom all but forty were French. In this estimate must be included the forces of the

The French plans, as far as they can now be learned, were as follows: The blind and aged Shah Alam was

to be continued upon the Imperial throne, under the protection of the French Republic. "This great question

being decided," proceeds the memorial from which I am extracting, "it remains to consider whether it is not

possible that the branches of that unfortunate family may find protectors who shall assert their sacred rights

and break their ignominious chains. It will then follow that mutual alliance and a judicious union of powers

will secure the permanent sovereignty of the Emperor, to render his subjects happy in the enjoyment of

personal security and of that wealth which springs from peace, agriculture, and free trade. The English

Company, by its ignominious treatment of the great Moghul, has forfeited its rights as Deewan of the

Lord Wellesley himself records this document, which was found in Pondicherry, it does not appear exactly

how or when; he may have had an inkling of the policy previously, but the date is sufficient to show that he

had not seen it before going to war with Sindhia. Lord Wellesley refers, about the same time, to the

magnitude of the establishment sent out to take possession of the settlements which the French were to

recover in India by the Peace of Amiens, an establishment obviously too large for the mere management of

Perhaps the memoir in question (which was drawn up by an officer of the staff sent out on that occasion) may

have expressed correctly the intentions which the First Consul held at the time; for nobody appears to have

been very sincere or much in earnest on either side at the Peace of Amiens. And it is not impossible that the

paper expresses intentions which might have been more thoroughly carried out had not the terrible explosion

in St. Domingo subsequently diverted the attention of the French Government to another hemisphere. At all

events it is a thinlyveiled pretext of aggression; and the accusations against the English are scandalously

false, as will be clear to those who may have perused the preceding pages. Considering that it was Perron's

own employer who kept the Imperial House in penury and durance, it was the extreme of impudence for one

of Perron's compatriots to retort the charge upon the English, to whom Shah Alam was indebted for such

brief gleams of good fortune as he had ever enjoyed, and whose only offence against him had been a fruitless

attempt to withhold him from that premature return to Dehli, which had been the beginning of his worst

misfortunes. It was, moreover, a gross exaggeration to call the British the Diwans of the empire now,

whatever may have once been their titular position in Bengal. On the 6th of July Lord Wellesley received

from the ministry in England a hint that war with France would be likely to be soon renewed; and on the 8th

of the same month he addressed to his commanderinchief a short private letter, of which the following

extract shows the purport: "I wish you to understand, my dear Sir, that I consider the reduction of

Sindhia's power on the northwest frontier of Hindustan to be an important object in proportion to the

probability of a war with France. M. de Boigne (Sindhia's late general) is now the chief confident of

Bonaparte; he is constantly at St. Cloud. I leave you to judge why and wherefore." (Desp. III. 182.)

The GovernorGeneral here shows his own views, although his sagacity probably overleaped itself in the

imputation against de Boigne, for which I have found no other authority. Ten days later he sends Lake more

detailed instructions, closing his covering letter with a sentence especially worthy of the reader's attention:

"I consider an active effort against Scindhia and Berar to be the best possible preparation for the renewal of

the war with France." There is little doubt of this being the keynote of the policy that led the British to the

On the 31st July, General Wellesley wrote to the Resident at the court of Sindhia (Colonel Collins) stating

that the reasons assigned by the confederates for not withdrawing their troops were illusory, and ordering

Collins to leave their camp at once. On the 15th August Lord Wellesley received a packet, which the

collector of Moradabad had transmitted nearly a month before, containing translation of a letter from the

Nawab of Najibabad, Bhanbu Khan, brother of the late Gholam Kadir, covering copy of a circular letter in

which Sindhia was attempting to stir him and the other chiefs against the English as "that unprincipled race";

and begging them to cooperate with General Perron. War, however, had already been declared, and a letter

The force with which General Lake was to meet the 35,000 FrancoMahrattas in Hindustan, consisted of

eight regiments of cavalry, of which three were European, one corps of European infantry, and eleven

battalions of Sepoys, beside a proper complement of guns, with two hundred British artillerymen, making a

The assembling of this force on the immediate frontier of the dominion occupied by Sindhia and the French,

had been facilitated by the treaty of the 10th November, 1801, by which Saadat Ali Khan, whom the British

had lately raised to the Viceroyship of Audh, had ceded to them the frontier provinces above named. This

cession was made in commutation for the subsidy which the Nawab had been required to pay for the

maintenance of the force by which he was supported against his own subjects. The Peshwa had previously

ceded a portion of Bundelkand by the treaty of Bassein, and the red colour was thus surely, if slowly,

creeping over the map of India. Perron resisted the cession of the new frontier under the treaty of Lucknow.

The "Old Resident" makes the following note on the subject: "When the British came to Sasnee, which

was ceded by the Nawab Wuzier of Lucknow by a treaty in 1802 to Government, the Pergunnahs of Sasnee,

Akberabad, Jellalee, and Secundra came under British rule, but not without much bloodshed in the sieges of

Sasnee, Bijey Gurh and Kuchoura fortresses; in all these places we buried the remains of British officers who

first shed their blood for their King and country. At Sasnee the masonry graves in a decayed condition are

still to be seen. At Bijey Gurh they are in the low 'Duhur' lands apart from the Fort, and at the Kuchoura in

Locus Kanugla, lies the tomb of Major Naivve, Commanding the 2nd Cavalry, who was shot whilst leading

his men to the assault. A surviving relation of the above officer had a monument built in 1853 at Bhudwas, on

the Trunk Road, with the original tablet which was torn off from the tomb by the villagers, and by chance

In Sindhia's armies there were, as we have seen, a number of officers who were not Frenchmen. These were

mostly halfcastes, or (to use a term subsequently invented) Eurasians, EuropeoAsiatics, or persons of

mixed blood; in other words, the offspring of connections which British officers in those days often formed

with native females. Nearly all these officers, whether British or halfBritish, were upon this occasion

discharged from the service by Perron, who had probably very good reason to believe that they would not

join in fighting against the army of their own sovereign. Carnegie, Stewart, Ferguson, Lucan, two Skinners,

Scott, Birch, and Woodville, are the only names recorded, but there may have been others also who were

dismissed from the army at Perron's disposal. The prospects of those who were absent on duty in the Deccan,

and elsewhere, soon became far more serious. Though not at present dismissed, they were mostly reserved for

a still harder fate. Holkar beheaded Colonel Vickers and seven others; Captain Mackenzie and several more

were confined, and subsequently massacred, by orders of Sindhia; others perished "in wild Mahratta battle,"

fighting for money in causes not their own, nor of the smallest importance to the world. General Wellesley

complained, after the battle of Assai, of "Sindhia's English officers." He says that his wounded men heard

them give orders for their massacre as they lay upon the field, and promises to send up a list of their names

after full inquiry (Owen, 311). No such list has ever been heard of; and it appears, from Lewis F. Smith's

memoir, that the European officers there present were all French, or Italian, or German. It is barely possible

that they used English in conversing, certainly not probable; but the story was very likely prompted by the

imagination of the wounded men who saw white faces among the enemy and concluded that they must be

their own countrymen. The only European officers known to have been engaged on the Mahratta side are

Pohlmann and Dupont (both named by Wellesley) and Saleur of the Begam's service who commanded the

Although the French officers were now without any Christian rivals, it does not appear that their position was

a satisfactory one. The reader may refer to Law's remarks on this subject, during the Emperor's unsuccessful

attempts to the eastward. The isolation and impossibility of trusting native colleagues, of which that gallant

adventurer complained, were still, and always must be, fatal to the free exercise of civilized minds serving an

Asiatic ruler. All the accounts that we have of those times combine to show that, whoever was the native

master, the condition of the European servant was precarious, and his influence for good weak. On the 24th

of June, 1802, Colonel Collins, the British Resident at the Court of Sindhia, had written thus to his

Government in regard to Perron whom he had lately visited at Aligarh: "General Perron has been

peremptorily directed by Sindhia to give up all the Mahals (estates) in his possession not appertaining to his

own jaidad (fief); and I understand that the General is highly displeased with the conduct of Sindhia's

ministers on this occasion, insomuch that he entertains serious intentions of relinquishing his present

This intention, as we have already seen, was at one time on the point of being carried out, and Perron was

It is not however possible to use, as Mill does, these discontents alleged by Perron in conversation with a

British political officer as a complete proof of his not having had, towards the British, hostile views of his

own. The whole tenor of Colonel Skinner's Memoir, already frequently cited (the work, be it remembered, of

a person in the service at the time), is to show an intense feeling of hostility on Perron's part towards the

British, both as a community of individuals and as a power in India. It is more than probable that but for the

Treaty of Bassein, which gave the British in India the command of the Indian Ocean and the Western Coast,

and but for the contemporaneous successes of Abercromby and Hutchinson in Egypt, Perron, supported by

the troops of the French Republic, might have proved to the British a most formidable assailant. Skinner

gives a graphic account of his vainly attempting to get reinstated by Perron, who said: "Go away, Monsieur

Skinner! I no trust." He would not trust officers with British blood and sympathies.

But such was the fortune, and such were the deserts of those by whom England was at that time served, that

they were able, without much expense of either time or labour, to conquer the halfhearted resistance of the

French, and the divided councils of the Mahrattas. Holkar not only did not join Sindhia, but assisted the

British cause by his known rivalry. Arthur Wellesley gave earnest of his future glory by the hardfought

battle of Assai, in which the Begam Sumroo's little contingent, under its French officers, gave Sindhia what

support they could; and General Lake overthrew the resistance of M. Perron's army at Aligarh, and soon

reduced the Fort, in spite of the gallant defence offered by the garrison. Mention has been made of this Fort in

the account of the overthrow of Najaf Khan's successors by Sindhia (sup. p. 145). Since those days it had

been much improved. The following is the account of the Dehli Gazette's "old Resident." "The Fort of

Allyqurh was made by the Jauts while the place was under the Delhi Kings. Nawab Nujjuff Khan, the

Governor, improved the fortification, and de Boigne brought it into a regular defensive state according to the

French system. Perron and Pedron subsequently added their skill in strengthening the fortress, which

commanded a wide open plain, the most part being under water during the heavy rains on account of the

lands being low." The gate was blown in and the place rapidly stormed by the 76th, piloted by a Mr. Lucan,

who was made a captain in the British service for his treachery. He was afterwards taken prisoner during

Monson's retreat and put to death by Holkar's orders. The enemy were commanded by natives, having

withdrawn their confidence from Perron's French Lieutenant, Colonel Pedron, who was on that occasion

made prisoner by the troops. Perron himself, having first retreated upon Agra, and thence on Mathra, came

over to the English with two subordinates, and was at once allowed a free passage to Chandarnagar with his

family and his property. Bourquien, who commanded the army in Dehli, attempted to intrigue for the chief

command, but was put under arrest by his native officers; and the Mahratta army, like sheep without a

shepherd, came out to meet the advancing British on the Hindan, a few miles to the east of the capital, on the

old road from the town of Sikandrabad, so often mentioned in this narrative. After they had killed six officers

and about 160 men by a furious cannonade, their obstinacy was broken down by the undeniable and

welldisciplined pertinacity of the 27th Dragoons and the 76th Foot; and they suffered a loss of 3,000 men

and sixtyeight pieces of artillery, mounted in the best French style. This decisive victory was gained on the

11th September, 1803; when on the 14th the army crossed the Jamna, and General Bourquien, with four other

French officers, threw themselves upon British protection. Their example was soon after followed by the

Chevalier du Drenec and two other officers from the army of the Deccan; and shortly after by Hessing and

other European officers in command of the garrison at Agra, which had at first confined them, but afterwards

No sooner did the illstarred Emperor hear of the sudden overthrow of his custodians, than he opened formal

negotiations with the British General, with whom he had been already treating secretly. The result was that on

the 16th, the Heir Apparent, Mirza Akbar, was despatched to wait upon General Lake in camp, and conduct

him to the presence of the blind old man, who was the legitimate and undoubted fountain of all honour and

power in Hindustan. The prince vindicated his dignity in a manner peculiar to Asiatics, by keeping the

conqueror waiting for three hours. The cavalcade was at last formed, and, after a slow progress of five miles,

reached the palace as the sun was setting. Rapid motion was rendered impossible by the dense collection of

nearly 100,000 persons in the narrow ways; and even the courts of the Palace were on this occasion thronged

with spectators, free at last. A tattered awning had been raised over the entrance to the famous

DiwaniKhas, and underneath, on a mockery of a throne, was seated the descendant of Akbar and of

Aurangzeb. It would be interesting to know what was the exact manner of General Lake's reception, and what

were the speeches on either side; but the inflated enthusiasm of the "CourtNewsman," and the sonorous

generalities of Major Thorn and the Marquess Wellesley, are all the evidence which survives. According to

the latter, the people of Dehli were filled with admiring joy, and the Emperor with dignified thankfulness;

according to the former, so great was the virtue of the joyful tears shed on this occasion by the Monarch, that

they restored his eyesight the eyesight destroyed fifteen years before by Gholam Kadir's dagger. Such is

the nature of the stones offered by these writers to the seeker for historical nourishment.

What is certain is, that the British General received the title of Khan Dauran, which was considered the

second in the Empire, and which implied perhaps a recognition of the claims of the Audh Nawab to be

hereditary Vazir; while the British Government "waived all question of the Imperial prerogative and

authority" in other words virtually reserved them to itself. The Emperor was only sovereign in the city and

small surrounding district; and even that sovereignty was to be exercised under the control of a British

Resident, who was to pay his Majesty the net proceeds, besides a monthly stipend of 90,000 rupees.

These conditions received the sanction of Government, and are recorded in despatches. No treaty is

forthcoming; although native tradition asserts that one was executed, but afterwards suppressed; the copy

recorded in the palace archives having been purloined at the instigation of the British. This suspicion is

entirely unfounded; no treaty was ever concluded with Shah Alam, though his Majesty formed the subject of

a clause in the treaty with Sindhia. This is of importance, as serving to show the position to which the Court

of Directors was supposed to have succeeded; namely to that of Vakilmutlak or Plenipotentiary Vicegerent

of the Empire, in the room of the Mahratta Peshwa and his once allpowerful Deputy. They were subjects of

George III., no doubt, but servants of Shah Alam; money continued to be struck in the Emperor's name, and

the laws then prevailing in Hindustan remained in force. The very disclaimer of all intention to usurp the

royal prerogative or assert "on the part of His Majesty (Shah Alam) any of the claims which, as Emperor of

Hindustan he might be considered to possess upon the provinces composing the Moghul Empire," is full of

On the 1st November Lake overthrew the brigade of du Drenec in the bloody battle of Laswari; and Arthur

Wellesley having been equally victorious a second time in the Deccan, Sindhia consented to the Treaty of

SarjiArjangaon. By that instrument Daulat. Rao Sindhia ceded, besides other territories, all his conquests in

Thus passed into the hands of British delegates the administration of the sceptre of Hindustan: a sceptre

which had been swayed with success as long as it protected life, order, and property, leaving free scope to

conduct, to commerce, and to conscience; nor failed in discharging the former class of obligations until after

Effects of climate Early immigrants French and English Mohammedan power not overthrown by

British Perron's administration Changes since then The Talukdars Lake's friendly intentions

Talukdars' misconduct Their power curbed No protection for life, property, or traffic Such things

AFTER many blunderings and much labour, the judgment of history appears to have formed the final

conclusion that the physical conditions of a given country will always be the chief determining agents in

forming the national character of those who inhabit it; and that the people of one country, transplanted into

another, where the soil and the sun act in a manner to which they have not been accustomed, will, in the

course of a few generations, exhibit habits of mind and body very different to what characterized them in

It is therefore without legitimate cause for surprise that we hear from scholars that the feeble folk of

Hindustan are the direct and often unmixed representatives of the dominant races of the world. To begin with

the Hindus: the Brahmans and some of the other classes are believed to be descended from the brave and

civilized peoples of ancient Asia, of whom sacred and profane writers make such frequent mention, of some

of the founders of Nineveh and Babylon, and of the later empire of the Medes and Persians, which was on the

eve of subjugating Europe when stopped by the Greeks at Marathon and Salamis. Nay, more, the ancient

Greeks and Romans themselves, together with the modern inhabitants of Europe, are alike descended from

The Mohamadans, again, are mainly of three noble tribes. The earlier Mohamadan invaders of India belonged

to the victorious Arabian warriors of the Crescent, or to their early allies, the bold mountaineers of Ghazni

and of Ghor; and their descendants are still to be found in India, chiefly under the names respectively of

In later days came hordes of Turks and Mongols (Tartars as they are generically though inaccurately called

by Europeans), the people of Janghiz and of Timur, terrible us the locusts of prophecy the land before

To these, again, succeeded many Persians, chiefly Saiyids, or socalled descendants of the Prophet; a later

race of Afghans, also called Pathans, and a fresh inroad of Tartars (converted to Islam) who finally founded

the Moghul Empire. Under the regime thus established the civilization of India assumed a Persian type; and

the term "Moghul" in the present day, in India signifies rather a Persian than a Turkman or Tartar. They add

the word "Beg" to their names, and are usually of the Shiah denomination; as also are the descendants of the

Persian Saiyids. The Saiyids of Arab origin take the title of "Mir;" the Pathans are commonly known by the

affix "Khan." All but the offspring of converted Hindus represent foreign invasions by races more warlike

All these mighty conquerors, one after another, succumbed to the enervating nature of the climate of

Hindustan, with its fertile soil and scanty motives to an exertion which, in that heat, must always be

It is not, however, the heat alone which causes this degeneracy. Arabia is one of the hottest countries in the

world, but the Arabs have at one time or another overthrown both the Roman Empire of Byzantium and the

Gothic monarchy of Spain. On the other hand, the lovely climate of Kashmir produces men more effeminate

than the Hindustanis, some of whom indeed, notably the peasantry of the Upper Doab, are often powerful

men, innured to considerable outdoor labour; their country is far hotter. But the curse of Hindustan, as of

Kashmir, and more or less of all countries where life is easy, lies in the absence of motives to sustained

exertion; owing to which emulation languishes into envy, and the competitive instincts, missing their true

vent, exhibit themselves chiefly in backbiting and malice. Whatever advantage may be derived by Kashmiris

Hence, after the battle of Panipat, 1761, which exhausted the victors almost as much as it exhausted the

vanquished, and left Hindustan so completely plundered as to afford no further incitements to invasion, little

other immigration took place; and the effete and wornout inhabitants were left to wrangle, in their own

degenerate way, over the ruined greatness of their fathers. The anarchy and misery to the mass of the

population that marked these times have been partly shown to the reader of these pages.

But there was fresh blood at hand from a most unexpected quarter. Bred in a climate which gives hardness to

the frame (while it increases the number of human wants as much as it does the difficulty of satisfying them),

the younger sons of the poorer gentry of England and France, then (at least) the two most active nations of

Europe, began to seek in both hemispheres those means of sharing in the gifts of fortune which were denied

to them by the laws and institutions of their own countries. Their struggles convulsed India and America at

once. Still the empire of Hindustan did not fall by their contests there; nor were the valour and ambition of

the new comers the only causes of its fall when at last the catastrophe arrived. But when, to predisposing

causes, there was now added the grossest incompetence on the part of nearly all natives concerned in the

administration, it became inevitable that one or other of the competing European nations should grasp the

prize. Any one who wishes to study this subject in its romantic details should refer to Colonel Malleson's two

works on the French in India. Living under a better Home Government, and more regularly supported and

In sketching a part of the process of substituting foreign rule for anarchy, it has been my task to exhibit the

main events which caused, or accompanied the preparation of the tabula rasa, upon which was to be traced

the British Empire of India. It has been shown that the occupation of the seaboard, and a few of the provinces

thereto contiguous, long constituted the whole of the position; and that it was only in selfprotection, and

after long abstinence, that the "Company of Merchants" finally assumed the central power. Upper India, in

the meanwhile, stood to their Calcutta Government in a very similar relation to that occupied, successively,

by the Panjab and by Afghanistan in later times towards its successors. This, though absolutely true, has been

popularly ignored, owing to the accident of Calcutta continuing to be the chief seat of the Supreme

Government after the empire had become British; but the events of 1857 are sufficient to show that, for the

native imagination, Hindustan is the centre, and Dehli still the metropolis of the Empire. The idea, however,

that the British have wrested the Empire from the Mohamadans is a mistake. The Mohamadans were beaten

down almost everywhere except in Bengal before the British appeared upon the scene; Bengal they

would not have been able to hold, and the name of the "Mahratta Ditch" of Calcutta shows how near even the

British there were to extirpation by India's new masters. Had the British not won the battles of Plassey and

Buxar, the whole Empire would ere now have become the fighting ground of Sikhs, Rajputs, and Mahrattas.

Except the Nizam of the Deccan there was not a vigorous Musalman ruler in India after the firman of

Farokhsiar in 1716; the Nizam owed his power to the British after the battle of Kurdla (sup. p. 229), and it

was chiefly British support that maintained the feeble shadow of the Moghul Empire, from the death of

Alamgir II. to the retirement of Mr. Hastings. Not only Haidarabad but all the other existing Musalman

principalities of modern India owe their existence, directly, or indirectly, to the British intervention.

It only now remains to notice, as well as the available materials will permit, what was the social condition of

these capital territories of the empire when they passed into the hands of the ultimate conquerors.

Perhaps the best picture is that presented in a work published by order of the local Government, more than

half a century later, upon the condition of that portion of the country which was under the personal

This record informs us that, having obtained this territory for the maintenance of the army, Perron reigned

over it in the plenitude of sovereignty. "He maintained all the state and dignity of an oriental despot,

contracting alliances with the more potent Rajahs and overawing by his military superiority, the petty chiefs.

At Dehli, and within the circuit of the imperial dominions, his authority was paramount to that of the

Emperor. His attention was chiefly directed to the prompt realization of revenue. Pargannahs were generally

farmed; a few were allotted as jaidad to chiefs on condition of military service; [of the lands in the

neighbourhood of Aligarh] the revenue was collected by the large bodies of troops always concentrated at

headquarters. A brigade was stationed at Sikandrabad for the express purpose of realizing collections. In the

event of any resistance on the part of a landholder, who might be in balance, a severe and immediate

example was made by the plunder and destruction of his village; and life was not unfrequently shed in the

harsh and hasty measures which were resorted to. The arrangements for the administration of justice were

very defective; there was no fixed form of procedure, and neither Hindu nor Mohamadan law was regularly

administered. The suppression of crime was regarded as a matter of secondary importance. There was an

officer styled the Bakshi Adalat, whose business was to receive reports from the Amils [officials] in the

interior, and communicate General Perron's orders respecting the disposal of any offenders apprehended by

them. No trial was held; the proof rested on the Amil's report, and the punishment was left to General

"Such was the weakness of the administration that the Zamindars tyrannized over the people with impunity,

levying imposts at their pleasure, and applying the revenues solely to their own use." The "Old Resident" thus

compares the past and present of Aligarh: "Under the native rule no one attempted to build a showy

masonry house for fear of being noticed as one possessing property, and thus become subject to heavy

taxations. Even in de Boigne and Perron's time it was the same as before, people lived in a very low state

both as regards their food and clothes, their marriages were not costly, and none of their females dared to put

jewels on. In such a state of things, the welltodo accumulated money and could not enjoy it, they buried it

under ground, and often from death and other causes the wealth got into other hands by the sudden discovery

of the place. What a mighty change in the space of seventy years the city of Coel bears now to what it did

before? elegant houses now stand in the city everywhere, and the market is well stocked with articles of trade

and consumption. Bankers and money changers have their shops open, free from any apprehension of danger,

and the females go about with their trinkets and jewels, all enjoying the wholesome protection of law. The

bazar street of the city of Coel was very narrow in Perron's time, and neither he nor de Boigne ever paid any

attention to the improvement or welfare of the people. Their time was principally occupied in military tactics

and preserving order in the country. They knew and were told by their own officers that their rule was only

for the time being, and that a war with Scindhia would change the state of affairs, and with it eventually these

From a report written so near the time as 1808 confirmation of these statements is readily obtained. The

Collector of Aligarh, in addressing the Board formed for constructing a system of administration in the

conquered provinces, recommended cautious measures in regard to the assessment of the land tax or

Government rental. He stated that, in consequence of former misrule, and owing to the ravages of famine in

1785, and other past seasons, or to the habits induced by years of petty but chronic warfare, the land was

fallen, in a great measure, into a state of nature. He anticipated an increase in cultivation and revenue of

The great landholders, whether originally officials, or farmers who had succeeded in making good a position

before the conquest, were numerous in this neighbourhood. The principal persons of importance were, to the

westward, Jats, from Bhartpur; the eastward, Musalmans descended from converted Bargujar Rajputs. The

long dissensions of the past had swept away the Moghul nobility, few or none of whom now held land on any

These Jats and these Musalmans were among the ancestors of the famous Talukdars of the NorthWest

Provinces; and as the limitation of their power has been the subject of much controversy, justice to the earlier

British administrators requires that we should carefully note the position which they had held under the

FrancoMahratta rule, and the conditions under which they become members of British India.

We have already seen that the Talukdars (to use by anticipation a term now generally understood, though not

applied to the large landholders at the time) were in the habit of making unauthorized collections, which they

applied to their own use. Every considerable village had its Sayar Chabutra (customsplatform), where goods

in transit paid such dues as seemed good to the rural potentates. Besides this, they derived a considerable

income from shares in the booty acquired by highwaymen and banditti, of whom the number was constantly

maintained by desertions from the army, and was still further swollen at the conquest by the general

Both of these sources of emolument were summarily condemned by General Lake; though he issued a

proclamation guaranteeing the landholders in the full possession of their legitimate rights. But the rights of

fighting one another, and of plundering traders, were as dear to the Barons of Hindustan as ever they had

been to their precursors in medi�val Europe; and, in the fancied security of their strong earthen ramparts,

So far back as the beginning of 1803, before war had been declared upon Sindhia, the whole force of the

British in Upper India, headed by the CommanderinChief himself, had been employed in the reduction of

some of the forts in that portion of the Doab which had been ceded by the Nawab of Audh during the

preceding year. The same course was pursued, after long forbearance, towards the Musalman chiefs of the

conquered provinces. In December, 1804, they had rebelled in the neighbourhood of Aligarh, and occupied

nearly the whole of the surrounding district. Captain Woods, commanding the fort of Aligarh, could only

occasionally spare troops for the collector's support; and the rebellion was not finally suppressed until the

following July, by a strong detachment sent from headquarters. They again broke out in October, 1806, after

having in the interim amassed large supplies by the plunder of their tenantry; the whole of the northern part of

the Aligarh district, and the southern part of the adjoining district of Bolandshahar were overrun; the forts of

Kamona and Ganora were armed and placed in a state of defence; and the former defended against the British

army under MajorGeneral Dickens, on the 19th November, 1807, with such effect that the loss of the

assailants, in officers and men, exceeded that sustained in many pitched battles. The subjugation of the tribe

The Jat Talukdars of the Aligarh district were not finally reduced to submission for nearly ten years more;

and there is reason to believe that during this long interval they had continued to form the usual incubus upon

the development of society, by impeding commerce and disturbing agriculture. At length the destruction of

the fort of Hatras and the expulsion of Daya Ram the contumacious Raja, put the finishing stroke to this state

It may be fairly assumed that the protection of life and property, and that amount of security under which

merchants will distribute the productions of other countries, and husbandmen raise the means of subsistence

from the soil, are among the primary duties of Government. But in the dark days of which our narrative has

"It is a matter of fact," say the authors of the "Statistics" before me, "that in those days the highways were

unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways. The facility of escape into the Begam Sumroo's

territories, the protection afforded by the heavy jungles and numerous forts which then studded the country,

A special force was raised by the British conquerors, and placed under the command of Colonel Gardner,

distinguished Mahratta officer. His exertions were completely successful, as far as the actual gangs then in

operation were concerned; but unfortunately they were soon encouraged to renewed attempts by the

countenance which they received from Hira Sing, another Jat Talukdar. This system also was finally

concluded by the destruction of the Raja of Hatras; nor will fourteen years appear a long time for the

The following extract from Vol. I. of Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, is the result of observations made in a more

southern part of the country between 1763 and 1783, and published, not with a purpose, or in controversy, but

in the calm evening of retirement, and at least thirty years later. "Marre was the nearest Mahratta town of

consequence to the hot wells; by crossing the river it was within a pleasant walk, and we made frequent

excursions to an excavated mountain in its vicinity. Marre is fortified, large, and populous; the governor

resided at Poona, inattentive to the misery of the people, whom his duan, or deputy, oppressed in a cruel

manner; indeed the system of the Mahratta government is so uniformly oppressive that it appears

extraordinary to hear of a mild and equitable administration; venality and corruption guide the helm of State

and pervade the departments; if the sovereign requires money the men in office and governors of provinces

must supply it; the arbitrary monarch seldom inquires by what means it is procured; this affords them an

opportunity of exacting a larger sum from their duans, who fleece the manufacturers and farmers to a still

greater amount than they had furnished; thus the country is subjected to a general system of tyranny. From

the chieftains and nobles of the realm to the humblest peasant in a village, neither the property nor the life of

a subject can be called his own. When Providence has blessed the land with the former and the latter rain, and

the seed sown produces an hundredfold, the Indian ryot, conscious that the harvest may be reaped by other

hands, cannot like an English farmer behold his ripening crop with joyful eyes; his cattle are in the same

predicament; liable to be seized, without a compensation, for warlike service or any other despotic mandate;

money he must not be known to possess; if by superior talent or persevering industry he should have

accumulated a little more than his neighbours, he makes no improvements, lives no better than before, and

through fear and distrust buries it in the earth, without informing his children of the concealment." And again

at Vol. II. p. 339 "Of all Oriental despots the arbitrary power of the Mahrattas falls perhaps with the most

oppressive weight; they extort money by every kind of vexatious cruelty, without supporting commerce,

agriculture, and the usual sources of wealth and prosperity in wellgoverned States." We have further

pictures of native rule, drawn in 1807, by the collectors of the newlyacquired districts of Etawah and Koel,

and to be found at pages 314 and 337 of the NorthWest Provinces Selections from Revenue Records,

published in 1873. Says the Collector of Etawah; "The warlike tribes of this country, from disposition and

habit, prefer plunder to peace, and court the exchange of the ploughshare for the sword. Foreign invasion and

intestine tumults had materially checked population; whilst the poverty of the country, and the rapacity of its

governors had almost annihilated commerce or had confined it, for the most part, to a few wealthy residents

from the Lower Provinces" (to the Babu "Zemindar"). But he of Koel is even more bold: "The

consequences of the various revolutions which have taken place are sufficiently evident in an impoverished

country and a declining population; the form of government which has existed has not operated to relieve the

necessities of the subjects, or to improve the resources of this extensive empire, by the encouragement of

husbandry and commerce; and military life has been embraced by a large body of the people. Habits of peace

and industry have been neglected for the profession of arms, which was more suited to the disposition of the

people and to the character of the times, and which has also tended to affect the revenue and to thin the

population. The system of rentoppression and extortion likewise, which has prevailed, has operated with the

most injurious influence upon the country. The exertions of the landholders have been discouraged, and

means of cultivation denied them by depriving them of the fair profits of their industry. They have found

every attempt at improvement, instead of being beneficial to themselves, to have been subservient only to the

rapacity of the Government, or of farmers; and without any inducement to stimulate their labours, agriculture

Aligarh (Koel) details are the more noticeable because they relate to the part of the country which had been

first occupied by the conquering British, and still more because, having been under the immediate

management of General Perron, that part may be supposed to have been a somewhat more favourable

specimen than districts whose management had not had the advantage of European supervision. In districts

administered exclusively by Asiatics, or which were more exposed to Sikh incursions, or where the natural

advantages of soil, situation and climate were inferior, much greater misery, no doubt, prevailed; but what

has been shown was perhaps bad enough. An administration without law, an aristocracy without conscience,

roads without traffic, and fields overgrown by forest such is the least discreditable picture that we have

been able to exhibit of the results of selfgovernment by the natives of Hindustan, immediately preceding

On the whole record of the past there emerge clearly a few indisputable truths. Setting apart the community

of colour, and to a less degree of language, the British are no more foreigners to the people of India than the

people of one part of India may be, and often are, to the people of another. Demoralized by the hereditary and

traditional influence of many generations of misgovernment and of anarchy, none of these populations have

as yet shown fitness for supreme rule over the entire peninsula, vast and thickly inhabited as it is. For

example, the Brahmans and their system fell before the fury of the early Muslims, as these, again, were

subdued by the Moghuls. When the Pathans and Moghuls in their turn became domesticated in Hindustan

they formed nothing more than two new castes of Indians, having lost the pride and vigour of their hardy

mountain ancestry. The alliance of a refugee, like M. Law, or of a runaway seaman, like George Thomas,

became an object of as much importance as that of a Muslim noble with a horde of followers.

Nor is it to be overlooked that, in the best days of Muslim rule in Hindustan, however much the governing

class had the chief attributes of sovereignty, the details of administration were, more or less, in the hands of

the patient, painstaking natives of the land. And the immediate decay of the Muslim Empire was preceded by

an attempt to centralize the administration in the Imperial Durbar, and to cashier and alienate the Hindu

element. But the Hindus remained, as indeed we still see them, indispensable to the conduct of administrative

None the less is it certain that the real, if overbearing, superiority of the Muslim conquerors had emasculated

the Hindu mind and paved the way for anarchy, which was reached as soon as immigration ceased and

degeneration set in. Holding now the position once abused and lost by the Muslims, the British in India are

bound alike by honour and by interest to mark the warning. Called and chosen by fortune and their own

enterprise to rule so many tribes and nations in a stage of evolution so unlike their own, they have to be wary,

gentle, and firm. Their office is to advance the natives and fit them for a true and noble political life.

It does not follow that the result will be to tempt the natives to demand Home Rule. Difficulty there will no

doubt always be, and the end is hidden from our eyes. Moreover, that difficult will be increased by the

unavoidably secular character of Stateeducation. When races lacking in material resources are also in a very

submissive and very ignorant condition they may be kept on a dead level of immobility; and that has perhaps

been the ideal of many not incompetent rulers. But it is not one which will satisfy the spirit of the day in

England. Modern Englishmen have recognized that it is their bounder duty to impart knowledge in India. On

the other hand, their relations towards the people forbid them to attempt religious instruction. Thus the

students in BritishIndian schools and colleges are in a fair way to lose their own spiritual traditions without

gaining anything instead. It is likely enough that such a system may lead to discontent.

Men who lose their hopes of compensation in another state of being, will be the more anxious about securing

Nevertheless, of discontent there are, plainly, two sorts; and one sort tends to exclude the other. The

multitude may hanker after the fleshpots of Egypt, or they may long for the milk and honey of a Promised

Land. In the one case they will be inclined to obey their leaders, in the other to murmur against them. It

cannot be necessary to dwell upon the application. Let the rulers of India persuade the people that they are

being conducted to light and to liberty. Let us hold up before those laborious and gentle millions the picture

of a redeemed India moving in an orderly path among the members of a great Imperial system. That ideal

may never be completely realized in the days of any of the existing generation. But it is one that may still be

profitably maintained for the contemplation of all who aspire and work for the strength and welfare of

NOTE. The following list of Perron's possessions is taken from the schedule annexed to the treaty of Sarji

IN the foregoing pages I have endeavoured to steer a middle path between obliterating all trace of my

materials and encumbering the margin with references that appeared superfluous. Wherever I have decided a

disputed point, I have endeavoured to indicate the chief sources of information at least throughout the

portions which form the actual history and to give my reasons for following one authority rather than

Besides the authorities English and Persian which have been thus cited, the following works have been

1. Amad usSaudat. A history of the Viceroys of Lucknow from the death of Farokhsiar to the accession

3. TasallatiSahiban Anqriz. An account of the rise of British power in Hindustan and Bengal. By

Munshi Dhonkal Singh; originally written for the information of Ranjit Singh, Thakur of Bhartpur, about the

4. HaliBegam Sahiba. A little Persian memoir of Begam Sumroo, full of vagueness and error, written

Much information as to the views of the British chiefs of those days lies at present inaccessible at the Calcutta

Foreign Office; and it is to be hoped that the Record Commission will ultimately make public many useful

Other information perhaps exists, very difficult to be got at, in the private archives of old native families at

Dehli. But the events of 1857 broke up many of these collections. A continuation of the TarikhiMozafari,

down to the taking of Dehli by Sir A. Wilson, would be a most valuable work, if there be any native author

possessed of the three requisites of leisure, knowledge, and a fearless love of truth.

Some account of the SiarulMutakharin has been already given (vide Note to Part II. Chap. i.). The author

was a Saiyid of the noble stock of TabaTaba, whose father had been employed by Safdar Jang, in

Rohilkand, during that minister's temporary predominance. The family afterwards migrated to Patna. This

celebrated history which has been twice translated into English, and of which an edition in the original

Persian has been likewise printed is a work of suprising industry, and contains many just reflections on

the position of the English and the feelings of the people towards them, which are almost as true now as they

were when written. The translation of the S. u. M.. which has been mentioned in the text, was made by a

French creole, styling himself Mustafa, but whose true name, it is relieved, was Raymond. The notes are

But my chief guide, where no other authority is cited, has been the TarikhiMozafari, the work of an Ansari

of good family, some of whose descendants are still living at Panipat. He was the grandson of Latfula Sadik,

a nobleman who had held high office under the Emperor Mohammad Shah. The historian himself was in civil

employ in Bihar, under the Nawab Mohammad Raza Khan, so famous in the history of Bengal during the last

century. To him the work was dedicated, and its name is derived from his title of "Mozafar Jang." The work

is laborious, free from party bias, and much thought of by the educated natives of Hindustan. For access to

Persian MSS. I was indebted to the late Colonel Hamilton, formerly Commissioner of Dehli, and of his

friendly assistance and encouragement I take this opportunity to make thankful acknowledgment.

REFERENCE has been made in the text, p. 130, to the tomb of Sumroo, in Padretola, or Padresanto, at Agra.

This is one of the most ancient Christian cemeteries in Eastern Asia, consisting of a piece of land situated to

the north of the Courts of Justice, and forming part of the original area attached to the neighbouring township

of Lashkarpur. The estate was conferred upon the Roman Catholic Mission by the Emperor Akbar, or early in

the reign of his son and successor. It contains many tombs, with Armenian and Portuguese inscriptions, more

than two hundred years old, and promises, with ordinary care, long to continue in good preservation, owing to

the great dryness of the air and soil. The mausoleum of the Sumroo family is a handsome octagon building,

surmounted by a low dome rising out of a cornice, with a deep dripstone, something in the style of a

Constantinople fountain. The inscription is in Portuguese a proof, most likely, that there were no French

or English in Agra at the time of its being made. The following is its text: AQVI IAZO WALTER

REINHARD, MORREO AOS 4 DE MAYO, NO ANNO DE 1778. ("Here lies Walter Reinhard, died on the

The tomb of John Hessing, hard by, is a still more splendid edifice, being a copy, in red sandstone, of the

famous Taj Mahal, and on a pretty extensive scale too, though far smaller than the original. The tomb, which

was completed in or about the year of the British conquest, bears an inscription in good English, setting forth

that the deceased colonel was a Dutchman, who died Commandant of Agra, in his 63rd year, 21st of July,

THE following additional particulars regarding M. de Boigne are the last that the writer has been able to

obtain from an eyewitness; they are from the enthusiastic pages of Colonel Tod, who knew the general at

"Distinguished by his prince, beloved by a numerous and amiable family, and honoured by his native

citizens, the years of the veteran now numbering more than four score, glide in agreeable tranquillity in his

native city, which, with oriental magnificence, he is beautifying by an entire new street, and a handsome

His occupation consisted chiefly in dictating the memoirs of his eventful life to his son, the Comte Charles de

Boigne, by whom they were published in 1829. This statement is also made on the authority of Tod; but the

memoir in my possession though a second edition lays claim to no such authority, but is a modest

compilation, derived in great measure from Grant Duff, and originally, as appears from the "Advertissement

sur cette edition," produced during the General's lifetime. The Royal Academic Society of Savoy of which

the veteran was honorary and perpetual President gives the most extraordinary account of his munificence

to his native city, which comprised the complete endowment of a college, a fund of over �4,000 sterling

towards the relief of the poor, a hospital for contagious diseases, an entire new street leading from the

Chateau to the Boulevard, and the restoration of the Hotel de Ville, besides minor projects full of wise

benevolence. He died on the 21st June, 1830, and his remains received a magnificent military funeral.

LOVERS of detail may like the following view of Begam Sumroo's fief, as it appeared when it lapsed on her

death. The facts and figures are from the report furnished to the Revenue Board in 1840, by the officer

deputed to make the necessary fiscal settlement. This gentleman begins by saying that the assessments on the

land were annual, but their average rates about onethird higher than those which prevailed on the

neighbouring British district. In those days, the British took twothirds of the net rental, so we see what was

left to the Begam's tenants. The settlement officer at once reduced the total demand of land revenue from

nearly seven lakhs (6,91,388) to little more than five. But, he did more than that, for he swept away the

customs duties, which he thus describes: "They were levied on all kinds of property, and equally on

exports and imports; animals, wearing apparel, and clothes of every description; hides, cotton, sugarcane,

spices, and all other produce; all were subjected to a transit duty, in and out. Transfers of lands and houses,

The good side of this system has been already glanced at (Part III. Chap. ii.). It was strictly patriarchal. The

staple crop (sugar) was grown on advances from the Begam: and, if a man's bullocks died, or he required the

usual implements of husbandry, he received a loan from the Treasury, which he was strictly compelled to

apply to its legitimate purpose. The revenue officers made an annual tour through their respective tracts in the

ploughing season; sometimes encouraging, and oftener compelling the inhabitants to cultivate. A writer in the

Meerut Universal Magazine stated about the same time, that the actual presence in the fields of soldiers with

The settlement officer adds that the advances to agriculturists were always recovered at the close of the year,

together with interest at 24 per cent. The cultivators were, in fact, rackrented up to the minimum of

subsistence. but this much was insured to them; in other words, they were predial serfs. "To maintain such

system," he proceeds, "required much tact; and, with the energy of the Begam's administration, this was not

wanting: but when her increasing age and infirmities devolved the uncontrolled management on her heir, the

factitious nature of her system was clearly demonstrated." The result of these last few years was, that

onethird of the estate of which the fief consisted fell under "direct management;" the plain meaning of

which is that they were, more or less, abandoned by their owners, and by the better class of the peasantry, and

"Nothing, in fact," concludes this portion of the Report "could more satisfactorily have shown the estimation

in which the British rule is held by those who do not enjoy its blessings than the rapid return of the

population to their homes, which followed immediately on the lapse." (Trevor Plowden, Esq., to Board of

This, be it remembered, is the picture of a fief in the heart of our own provinces, as swayed in quite recent

HONOURABLE SIRS, The GovernorGeneral in Council now submits to your honourable Committee

the arrangement which has been adopted by this Government for the purpose of providing for the future

maintenance of his Majesty Shah Allum, and the royal family, and for the general settlement of his Majesty's

It has never been in the contemplation of this Government to derive from the charge of supporting and

protecting his Majesty, the privilege of employing the royal prerogative, as an instrument of establishing any

control or ascendancy over the states and chieftains of India, or of asserting on the part of his Majesty any of

the claims which, in his capacity of Emperor of Hindustan, his Majesty may be considered to possess upon

the provinces originally composing the Moghul Empire. The benefits which the GovernorGeneral in

Council expected to derive from placing the King of Dehli and the royal family under the protection of the

British Government are to be traced in the statements contained in our despatch to your honourable

Committee of the 18th of July, 1804, relative to the evils and embarrassments to which the British power

might have been exposed by the prosecution of claims and pretensions on the part of the Mahrattas, or of the

French, in the name and under the authority of his Majesty Shah Allum, if the person and family of that

unhappy monarch had continued under the custody and control of those powers, and Especially of the French.

With reference to this subject, the GovernorGeneral in Council has the honour to refer your honourable

Committee to the contents of the inclosure of our despatch of the 13th of July, 1804, marked A, and to the

seventythird paragraph of that despatch, in proof of the actual existence of a project for the subversion of

the British Empire in India, founded principally upon the restoration of the authority of the Emperor Shall

Allum under the control and direction of the agents of France. The difficulty of every project of that nature

has been considerably increased by the events which have placed the throne of Dehli under the protection of

the Honourable Company. The GovernorGeneral in Council further contemplated the advantages of the

reputation which the British Government might be expected to derive from the substitution of a system of

lenient protection, accompanied by a liberal provision for the ease, dignity, and comfort of the aged monarch

and his distressed family, in the room of that oppressive control and the degraded condition of poverty,

distress, and insult, under which the unhappy representative of the house of Timur and his numerous family

Regulated by these principles and views, the attention of the British Government has been directed

exclusively to the object of forming such an arrangement for the future support of the King and the royal

family, as might secure to them the enjoyment of every reasonable comfort and convenience, and every

practicable degree of external state and dignity compatible with the extent of our resources, and with the

condition of dependence in which his Majesty and the Royal Family must necessarily be placed with relation

to the British power. In extending to the Royal Family the benefits of the British protection, no obligation

was imposed upon us to consider the rights and claims of his Majesty Shah Allum as Emperor of Hindustan,

and the GovernorGeneral has deemed it equally unnecessary and inexpedient to combine with the intended

provision for his Majesty, and his household, the consideration of any question connected with the future

The GovernorGeneral in Council has determined to adopt an arrangement upon the basis of the following

That a specified portion of the territories in the vicinity of Dehli situated on the right bank of the Jamna

should be assigned in part of the provision for the maintenance of the Royal Family. That those lands should

remain under charge of the Resident at Dehli, and that the revenue should be collected, and justice should be

administered in the name of his Majesty Shah Allum, under regulations to be fixed by the British

Government. That his Majesty should be permitted to appoint a Deewan, and other inferior officers to attend

at the office of collector, for the purpose of ascertaining and reporting to his Majesty the amount of the

revenues which should be received, and the charges of collection, and of satisfying his Majesty's mind that no

part of the produce of the assigned territory was misappropriated. That two courts of justice should be

established for the administration of civil and criminal justice, according to the Mahomedan law, to the

inhabitants of the city of Dehli, and of the assigned territory. That no sentences of the criminal courts

extending to death should be carried into execution without the express sanction of his Majesty, to whom the

proceedings in all trials of this description should be reported, and that sentences of mutilation should be

That to provide for the immediate wants of his Majesty and the Royal household, the following sums should

be paid monthly, in money from the treasury of the Resident at Dehli, to his Majesty for his private expenses,

Sa. Rs. 60,000; to the heirapparent, exclusive of certain Jagheers, Sa. Rs. 10,000; to a favourite son of his

Majesty named Mirza Izzut Buksh, Sa. Rs. 5,000; to two other sons of his Majesty, Sa. Rs. 1,500; to his

Majesty's fifty younger sons and daughters, Sa. Rs. 10,000; to Shah Newanze Khan, his Majesty's treasurer,

2,50O; to Syud Razzee Khan, British agent at his Majesty's Court, and related to his Majesty by marriage, Sa.

That if the produce of the revenue of the assigned territory should hereafter admit of it, the monthly sum to be

advanced to his Majesty for his private expenses might be increased to one lakh of rupees.

That in addition to the sums specified, the sum of Sa. Rs. 10,000 should be annually be paid to his Majesty on

The GovernorGeneral in Council deemed the arrangement proposed by the Resident at Dehli for the

establishment of a military force for the protection of the assigned territory and of the NorthWestern frontier

of our possessions in Hindustan, to be judicious, and accordingly resolved to confirm those arrange meets,

with certain modifications calculated to afford a provision for part of the irregular force in the service of the

British Government, from the expense of which it was an object of the British Government to be relieved,

and also for a proportion of the European officers heretofore in the service of Dowlut Rao Scindiah, who

quitted that service under the proclamation of the GovernorGeneral in Council of the 29th August, 1803.

On the basis of this plan of arrangement detailed instructions were issued to the Resident at Dehli, under the

date the 23rd May, with orders to carry it into effect with the least practicable delay.

The GovernorGeneral in Council entertains a confident expectation that the proposed arrangement and

provision will be satisfactory to his Majesty, and will be considered throughout all the states of India to be

consistent with the acknowledged justice, liberality, and benevolence of the British Government.

The GovernorGeneral in Council also confidently trusts that the proposed arrangement will be sanctioned

by the approbation of your honourable Committee, and of the honourable the Court of Directors.

SINCE printing the following indication has been found of the possible original of name printed "Du

Drenec." In the "Familles Francaises" of Count Regis de l'Estourbeillon (Names, 1886) is a list of extinct

Breton families. One of these is given as "Du DrenecKeroulas, fondue dans Keroulas." This was, most