No More Learning

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EUROPEAN PIRACY IN INDIAN WATERS
309
ordered the English factory to be withdrawn from Surat, which "was
really a fool's paradise”, the Company's trade and officers to be
concentrated at Bombay beyond the reach of the Mughul, and Indian
shipping at sea to be seized in retaliation for the injury done to
English trade in the Mughul dominions. But Sir John Child, the
chiel director 1 of all the Company's factories in India, was weak and
incompetent. When he himself left Surat on 5 May, 1687, the Mughul
governor immediately put a guard round the factory there, detaining
the factors left behind.
In October, 1688, Child appeared with a fleet before Swally (the
landing place for Surat) demanding compensation, but the governor
suddenly put the English factors and their Indian brokers in prison,
and invested their factory. Child went back after capturing the
Indian shipping on the coast. The Mughul government in reply kept
the captive Englishmen at Surat in chains for sixteen months
(December 1688-April, 1690). At the same time, the Sidi of Janjira,
as Mughul admiral, landed on Bombay island, occupied its outlying
parts, and hemmed the English garrison within the fort. Child,
therefore, made an abject submission. The emperor by an order
dated 4 January, 1690, restored the English to their old position in
the Indian trade on condition of paying a fine of 150,000 rupees and
restoring the prizes taken by them at sea.
In the second half of the seventeenth century the Indian seas were
infested by a most formidable breed of European pirates, chiefly
English. One of them, Roberts, is said to have destroyed 400 trading
vessels in three years.
The chief cause of their immunity lay in the fact that it was the business of
nobody in particular to act against them. . . . Their friends on shore gave them
timely information. . . . Officials high in authority winked at their doings, from
which they drew a profit. . . . The native officials, unable to distinguish the
rogues from the honest traders, held the E. I. Co. 's servants responsible for their
fisdeeds. (Biddulph. )
They ranged over the sea from Mozambique to Sumatra. The most
famous of these pirates was Henry Bridgman alias Evory, of the
Fancy, forty guns. After many notable captures in the Gulf of Aden,
he took the Fath-Muhammadi, a richly laden ship of 'Abdul Ghafur,
the prince of Surat merchants, and then the Ganj-i-savai, eighty guns,
a ship belonging to Aurangzib and the largest vessel of the port of
Surat, being employed in conveying Indian pilgrims to and from
Месса. On its return voyage in September, 1695, between Bombay
and Daman it was attacked by the Fancy and another pirate. The
artillery of the Europeans was most effective; in a short time the
Mughul vessel had lost forty-five in killed and wounded and was set
on fire. Then the pirates boarded the ship; the crew made no resist.
ance, the captain having hidden himself in a lower cabin. For three
days the pirates looted the ship at leisure; the women on board (many
1 See vol. V, p. 102.


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310
AURANGZIB (1681-1707)
of them belonging to the Sayyid and other respectable families) were
outraged and several of them flung themselves into the sea. When the
ship, left by the pirates, reached Surat, the people were furious,
ascribing the attack to Englishmen closely connected with Bombay.
But I'timad Khan, the governor of Surat, an upright man friendly to
the English, saved them from being lynched, by occupying their
factory in force. Their trade was totally stopped.
During this captivity, Annesley, the president of the Surat Council,
and Sir John Gayer, the governor of Bombay, were tireless in
petitioning the Mughul government and their friends at court, deman-
ding their release and the restoration of their trade, and asserting
"we are merchants, not pirates”. Aurangzib was too wise a man to
be swayed by his passions. His chief concern was to secure a regular
escort of European war-vessels for his pilgrim-ships to Mecca, and
this embargo on European trade was only an instrument for putting
pressure on the foreigners to gain that end cheaply. After much
higgling by the emperor as to the cost of the escort, Annesley signed
a bond for the purpose and the English prisoners were set free
(7 July, 1696).
Then a most redoubtable pirate, William Kidd, of the Adventure,
thirty guns, came to the east, and his success brought him many
allies. With a fleet mounting 120 guns and manned by 300 Europeans
(the great majority of them being English), he dominated the Indian
Ocean, having his base for munitions and stores in Madagascar. In
1698 he captured the Queda Merchant with a rich cargo belonging
to Mukhlis Khan (a high grandee), and Chivers (a Dutch pirate)
captured a fine ship with a cargo worth a million and a half rupees
belonging to Hasan Hamidan of Surat. The English, French and
Dutch factories in Surat were again beleaguered and their friends
were punished by the governor. Finally an agreement was arrived
at : Aurangzib withdrew his embargo on European trade, while the
Dutch agreed to convoy the Mecca pilgrims, patrol the entrance to
the Red Sea and pay 70,000 rupees as compensation, and the English
paid 30,000 rupees and patrolled the South Indian Seas, and the
French paid a similar sum and policed the Persian Gulf.
In September, 1703, two ships of Surat were captured by the pirates
when returning from Mocha. The new governor of Surat, I'tibar
Khan, extorted 600,000 rupees from the Indian brokers of the English
and the Dutch nations. Aurangzib, on hearing of it, disapproved of
this action. But the captivity of Sir John Gayer and his council,
brought about by the machinations of the New English Company
in February, 1701, continued for six years, with only occasional
interval of liberty and varying in rigour according to the caprice of
the governor. The Dutch made reprisals by capturing a pilgrim-ship
from Mecca with two pious descendants of the late chief Qazi on
1 See yol. v, p. 105.


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BENGAL IN AURANGZIB'S REIGN
311
board (1704), at which Aurangzib, realising his utter helplessness at
sea, made an unconditional surrender to the Europeans and forbade
any bond to be taken from them in future for indemnity for the loss
caused by the pirates.
From this survey of the emperor's activities and the events centring
round him, we turn to the history of certain provinces whose affairs
assumed an imperial importance.
The anarchy and desolation which marked Bengal during the
dissolution of the Pathan sultanate in the sixteenth century were
ended by the Mughul conquest of the province. But during Akbar's
reign imperial rule in Bengal was more like an armed occupation
than a settled administration, because the power of the old inde-
pendent Hindu chiefs and Afghan princelings still remained un-
broken. It was Islam Khan, a most ambitious, active and high-
spirited noble, who, during his viceroyalty of the province from 1608
to 1613, by a series of hard-fought campaigns crushed all the inde-
pendent chiefs of Bengal, destroyed the last remnant of Afghan
power (in Mymensingh, Sylhet and Orissa), and imposed full Mughul
peace and direct imperial administration upon all parts of Bengal.
Thereafter, Bengal enjoyed profound internal quiet for 130 years; her
wealth, population and industry advanced by rapid strides. The
Arakanese and Feringi pirates of Chittagong were put down in 1668;
the trade of the English and the Dutch grew by leaps and bounds
and their factories stimulated production and wealth in the country.
Shayista Khan governed Bengal from 1664 to 1677, and again from
1680 to 1688, a total of twenty-three years. He ensured peace from
foreign attack, while his internal administration, by its mildness,
justice and consideration for the people, promoted the wealth and
happiness of its teeming population. He adorned his capital, Dacca,
with fine buildings, and in his term food crops became incredibly.
cheap.
His successor, Ibrahim Khan (1689-97), was an old man of mild
disposition and sedentary habits, and a great lover of books; personally
just and free from caprice, but without strength of purpose or capacity
for action. He let matters drift till a serious rebellion broke out. ;
Shova Singh, the chief of Cheto-Barda (Midnapore district), rebelled,
and in alliance with Rahim Khan, the chief of the Orissa Afghans,
defeated and slew Raja Krishna Ram, the revenue-farmer of the
Burdwan district, and captured its chief town with the family and
property of the raja. Then they seized the fort and city of Hooghly.
They next plundered the rich cities of Nadia and Murshidabad,
Malda and Rajmahal. Shova Singh was stabbed to death by a
daughter of the Burdwan raja, and the rebels then chose Rahim
Khan as their king with the title of Rahim Shah. The English, French
and Dutch, on the outbreak of the rebellion, obtained the viceroy's
permission to fortify their settlements at Calcutta, Chandernagore


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312
AURANGZIB (1681-1707)
and Chinsura, and the Dutch afterwards helped to wrest Hooghly
fort from the rebels. The emperor dismissed Ibrahim Khan and
appointed his own grandson 'Azim-ush-shan in his place, but before
the arrival of this new viceroy, Zabardast Khan, the commandant of
Burdwan, recovered Rajmahal and Malda, Murshidabad and Burd-
wan and captuied the rebel encampment at Bhagwangola. After the
prince's arrival at Burdwan, his minister Khwaja Anwar was treacher-
ously slain at an interview by Rahim Khan, but that rebel leader was
killed and his army broken up.
Bengal entered on a long period of unbroken prosperity under
Muhammad Hadi (surnamed Kar Talb Khan, Murshid Quli Khan,
and finally Ja'far Khan), who was appointed revenue minister of
Bengal in 1701 and rose after Aurangzib's death to be the viceroy
of the province and the founder of its dynasty of ruling Nawabs which
lasted till the British conquest. "The prudent management of the
new diwan soon raised Bengal to the highest degree of prosperity.
He took the collection of revenue into his own hands, and by pre-
verting the embezzlements of zamindars and jagirdars augmented
the annual revenue. ” He repeatedly sent to the emperor large sums
as the surplus income of the province, and this money came most
opportunely to Aurangzib, whose other resources had been exhausted
by the endless war with the Marathas. The coming of the Bengal
treasure was hungrily looked forward to by the entire imperial court
in the Deccan. The emperor highly favoured this able and successful
servant, made him independent of the viceroy of Bengal, who was
ordered to Bihar after a plot against Murshid Quli's life (1703), and
allowed him to remove the revenue offices away from the provincial
capital to a new place which was henceforth called Murshidabad and
soon became the new capital of Bengal. Under Murshid Quli all felt
that a strong master had come to the province, his orders were
universally obeyed, and his impartial justice and rigid execution of.
deci ens put a stop to oppression on all sides.
The province of Malwa, extending from the Jumna to the Narbada,
with Rajputana on its west and Bundelkhand on its east, enjoyed very.
great importance in Mughul India, not only on account of this geogra-
phical position, but also because it was rich in agricultural wealth
(producing many of the more valuable crops--such as opium, sugar-,
cane, grapes, melons and betel leaf), its industries stood in the first
rank after those of Gujarat, and moreover all the great military
roads from the northern capitals of the Mughul empire to the Deccan
passed through it. · A preponderantly Hindu province like this, with
a sturdy Rajput population, was not likely to submit tamely to
Aurangzib's policy of temple destruction and poll-tax on the Hindus.
The Malwa people often fought the emperor's agents sent there to:
enforce his Islamic decrees; but, on the whole, the disturbances in
this province during the first half of his reign were all on a small


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RISE OF CHHATRA SAL BUNDELA
313
scale and confined to a few localities. .
At the end of the seventeenth century began the Maratha penetra-
tion which finally ended in the loss of this province to the empire
a generation later. The first Maratha raid was in November, 1699,
under Krishna Savant, who plundered the environs of Dhamoni. In
January, 1703, the Marathas crossed the Narbada again and disturbed
the country up to Ujjain. In October that year Nima Sindia burst
into Berar, defeated and captured Sharza Khan (the depuiy-governor
of that province) and then advanced across the Narbada into Malwa
at the invitation of Chhatra Sal Bundela. He was defeated near
Sironj and expelled by Firuz Jang (November), and again surprised
and routed in the jungle of Dhamoni in February next. This Maratha
invasion had totally stopped communication and trade between
northern and southern India for three months, by holding up the
official letters and trade caravans on the bank of the Narbada. Prince
Bidar Bakht governed this province (1704-6) with great ability and
vigour, with the loyal support of Sawai Jay Singh, the young Raja
of Jaipur. But the local disturbers of peace in Malwa in the
closing years of the reign were too many to be counted; "Marathas,
Bundelas, and Afghans out of employment are creating disturbances
. . The province of Khandesh has been totally desolated. . . . Malwa
too is ruined. ”
The greatest, most persistent and most successful enemy of the
empire in this region was Chhatra Sal Bundela, a son of that
Champat Rai who had been hunted down by Aurangzib in 1661.
Through Mirza Raja Jay Singh's kindness the poor young orphan
Chhatra Sal had entered the Mughul army as a petty captain and
fought well in the Purandar campaign and the invasion of Deogarh
in 1667. But he decided to take to a life of adventure and independ-
ence in imitation of Shivaji, whose service he next sought. The
Maratha king, however, advised him to return to his own country
and promote risings there so as to distract the Mughul forces. The
policy of temple destruction launched by Aurangzib in 1670 roused the
Hindu population of Bundelkhand and Malwa in defence of their
altars; they longed for a bold leader, and just at this opportune
moment Chhatra Sal appeared in their midst and was hailed as the
champion of the Hindu faith and Bundela liberty, who promised to
repeat Champat's spirited defiance of the Mughul emperor: The rebels
elected Chhatra Sal as their king; the hope of plunder drew to his
side vast numbers of recruits from this martial tribe and discontented
Afghans settled in central India. His earlier raids were directed
against the Dhamoni district and the city of Sironj, the Mughul com-
mandants of which could not cope with him. Many petty chiefs now
joined him, and he began to collect chauth like the Marathas. Later,
as Aurangzib became more and more deeply entangled in the Deccan,
Chhatra Sal achieved more brilliant triumphs; the range of his raids


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314
AURANGZIB (1681-1707)
extended over the whole of Malwa, and he captured Kalinjar and
Dhamoni. The local Mughul officers fought him with indifferent suc-
cess. In 1705 Firuz Jang induced the emperor to make terms with the
irrepressible Bundela chief, and Chhatra Sal was enrolled as a com-
mander of 4000 and appointed to a post in the Deccan; but after
Aurangzib's death he returned home to resume his career of
independence.
Gondwana, which covers much of the modern Central Provinces
and stretches on both sides of the Vindhya range, was another
storm-centre in Aurangzib's reign on account of its vicinity to Malwa
and Berar. The great Gond kingdom of Garha had been dismembered
and ruined by Akbar and its royal line sank into obscurity in the
middle of the seventeenth century, when the predominance among
the Gond people passed to the chiefs of Deogarh and Chanda. Their
accumulated treasure, herds of elephants and collections of gems
locally quarried, made them objects of cupidity to the Mughul gov-
ernment. In 1637 the imperialists had invaded the land, stormed
Nagpur (the seat of the Deogarh raja) and exacted the promise of an
annual tribute. Arrears in payment led to further invasions in 1655,
1667 and 1669, and the payment of large sums as the price of peace
and the promise of heavier tributes from both Deogarh and Chanda.
The Deogarh royal family embraced Islam in order to retain their
lands (1670). The Chanda raja's tribute also fell into arrears, Bakht
Buland, the converted Raja of Deogarh, was deposed in 1691 and his
throne given to another Muslim Gond named Dindar. The latter
proved refractory and was expelled by a Mughul force in 1696. A
brother of the Chanda raja now secured the throne of Deogarh by
turning Muslim under the name of Neknam. As both these kingdoms
were now under mere lads and their old ruling branches ousted,
Bakht Buland seized this opportunity and escaped from the imperial
army in the Deccan where he was serving as a captain. Returning to
Deogarh he raised the standard of rebellion with remarkable tenacity,
resourcefulness and success; Berar and Malwa were his happy hunt-
ing grounds and he captured Deogarh and Garha (1699). He also
invited the Marathas and Chhatra Sal Bundela to his aid, and with
the former as allies attacked 'Ali Mardan Khan, the governor of Berar,
but was defeated (1701). His disturbances, however, continued.
"During Bakht Buland's reign the rich lands to the south of Deogarh,
between the Wainganga and Kanhan rivers, were steadily developed.
Hindu and Muhammadan cultivators were encouraged to settle in
them on equal terms with Gonds, until this region became most pro-
sperous. " Many towns and villages were founded; manufacture and
commerce made advances. After the death of Aurangzib, this chief
extended his kingdom over the Seoni district and the old principality
of Kherla. But on the death of his successor, Chand Sultan (1739),
the Maratha house of Nagpur secured his kingdom,
:


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DISORDERS IN GUJARAT
316
Next to Bengal, Gujarat was the richest province in the Mughul
empire. Its wealth was due to its handicrafts, which had a world-wide
celebrity, and its commerce, for which its geography gave it excep-
tional advantage. On its coast were the greatest ports of India, and in
Mughul times it was pre-eminently the gateway of India for pilgrims,
travellers, merchants, fortune-hunters, and political refugees from
Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Zanzibar and even Khurasan and Egypt.
The province had a very composite population and a large foreign
strain from very early times, and even its Hindu inhabitants belonged
to an immense variety of tribes and degrees of civilisation, which
gave an unparalleled diversity to the racial complexion of Gujarat.
Primitive and predatory races were scattered throughout the pro-
vince, such as the Kolis in the south, the Bhils in Baglan (south-east),
the pseudo-Rajputs in the eastern frontier, the Kathis in the west, and
the Girasias in most of the districts. The province of Gujarat was
hard to control and in Mughul times it bore the epithet of lashkar-
khez (bristling with soldiers). It had also an evil reputation for
famines since the Middle Ages, and there were five or six terrible
outbreaks of crop failure in Aurangzib's reign. Wars in Rajputana
also used to overflow into Gujarat by way of the Idar frontier.
Early in 1706, during the interval between the departure of prince
A'zam from Ahmadabad and the arrival of Bidar Bakht there as
governor, the Marathas took advantage of the unguarded condition of
the province. Dhana Jadav entered at the head of a vast force, and
at Ratanpur (in Rajpipla) signally defeated the two divisions of the
imperial army, one after another (26 March, 1706). Two Mughul
generals, Safdar Khan Babi and Nazr 'Ali Khan, were captured and
held to ransom; their camps were looted, and vast numbers of Musal-
mans perished or were taken captive. When 'Abdul-Hamid Khan,
the deputy-governor of the province, arrived with another army, he
was hemmed round by the victorious enemy near the Baba Piara
ford, and himself and his chief officers were made prisoners and all
their camp and baggage plundered. Then the Marathas levied chauth
on the surrounding country and retired after plundering the places
that failed to pay blackmail. During these disorders, the Kolis rose
and sacked Baroda. Aurangzib tried to put down by violence the
Isma'ilia heretics, called Bohras, who flourished, and still continue to
flourish by trade, in this province. Their teachers were arrested,
their funds confiscated, and Sunni teaching was enforced upon them.
Another branch of these sectaries, called Khojas or Mumins, consist-
ing mostly of converts from Hinduism, were roused to frenzy by the
arrest of their spiritual head, killed the commandant of Broach,
captured that city (October, 1685), and held out for a time, until it
was reconquered and the fanatics within it massacred.
At the death of Aurangzib (1707) his empire consisted of twenty-
one subas or separate provinces, of which fourteen were situated in


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316
AURANGZIB (1681-1707)
1
Hindustan (viz. Agra, Ajmer, Allahabad, Bengal, Bihar, Delhi,
Gujarat, Kashmir, Lahore, Malwa, Multan, Orissa, Oudh and Tatta
or Sindh), and six in the Deccan (namely, Aurangabad, Berar, Bidar
or Telingana, Bijapur, Hyderabad and Khandesh), while one, namely
Kabul, lay in what now forms Afghanistan. Another suba, Qandahar
or south Afghanistan, had been long lost, and even Kabul was a
barren possession, being assessed at a revenue of only four million
rupees, little of which was ever realised. The empire embraced, in
the north, Kasimir and all Afghanistan from the Hindukush south-
wards to a line thirty-six miles south of Ghazni; on the west coast
it stretched in theory to the northern frontier of Goa and inland
to Belgauni and the Tungabhadra river. Thereafter, the boundary
passed west to east in a disputed and ever shifting line through the
centre of Mysore, dipping south-eastwards to the Coleroon river
(north of Tanjore). In the north-east Chittagong and the Monas
river (west of Gauhati) divided it from Arakan and Assam. But
throughout Maharashtra, Kanara, Mysore and the eastern Carnatic
the emperor's rule was disputed and most places had to submit to
a double set of masters.
Excluding Afghanistan, the empire of Aurangzib, about 1690, had
a revenue of 334,500,000 rupees on paper, the actual collection being
less. This figure stood for the land-revenue alone, and did not include
the proceeds of taxes like the zakat (tithe) and jizya (poll-tax). The
proportion between the lands held as military assignments (jagir)
and crown land (khalsa sharifa) can be judged from their respective
revenue demands of 276,400,000 rupees and 58,100,000 rupees. The
total armed force of the empire in 1647 was
200,000 troopers with horses brought to the muster and branding,
8000 mansabdars,
7000 ahadis and barqandazes,
185,000 tabinan or additional troopers of the princes, the umara and
the mansabdars, and
40,000 foot-musketeers, gunners and rocket-men (i. e. the artillery
branch).
These numbers underwent further increase with Aurangzib's warfare
and annexations in the Deccan, until his finances hopelessly broke
down under the weight of his military expenditure. To take one
illustration, the total number of officers (both umara and mansabdars)
increased from 1803 in 1596 to 8000 in 1647 and 14,449 in 1690; so that
we can say that Aurangzib's army bill was roughly double that of.
Shah Jahan.
: Foreign trade occupied a negligible position in the economics of
the Mughul empire on account of its small volume. The state gained
from import duties probably less than three million rupees a year
(out of which two-fifths came from Surat), so that customs . yielded
ndaz


## p. 317 (#351) ############################################

INDIA'S IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
317
less than 1 per cent. of the total revenue of the state. The value of the.
Indian products exported by the English East India Company during
the first sixty years of its trade (1612-72) did not average more than
800,000 rupees per annum; in 1681 it had risen to 1,840,000 rupees
for Bengal alone. What little India imported from foreign countries
was in the main paid for by her export of cotton goods, supplemented
by a small variety of raw produce such as pepper, indigo and saltpetre;
so that India was economically almost self-supporting (C. J. Hamilton).
The English trade with the East during the first half of the seven-
teenth century was to a large extent confined to five classes of goods-
spices (from the Archipelago and the Spice Islands), raw silk from
Persia, saltpetre, indigo and cotton goods from India. A fair quantity
of the finer cotton cloths was consumed in England; but for the most
part the Company's purchases of cotton goods were made not for
England but for the markets of the Further East and of Persia, while
India's export trade in silk goods was insignificant, England taking
her raw silk chiefly from Persia and China, and her manufactured
silk articles from China.
The chief imports into India in Mughul times were silver and gold,
copper and lead, high class woollen clothing (for which Europe, and
notably France, was the chief supplier), horses (from the Persian Gulf
and Khurasan), spices (from the Dutch Indies), superior brands of
tobacco (from America), glass-ware, wine and curicsities from Europe,
and slaves from Abyssinia. But the total value of all these, with the
exception of the precious metals and broadcloths and other costly
woollen fabrics, was very small. Towards the end of the century silk
taffetas and brocades began to be exported in larger quantities and
a distinct improvement in the dyeing and weaving of silk was effected
in Bengal by the experts brought out by the English East India
Company from home. The whole Madras coast, from Masulipatam
to Pondicherry, and next, but far behind it, Kanara (or the country
from Hubli to Karwar), were the seats of the most productive ordinary
cotton industry in India; but the wars following the overthrow of the
Qutb Shahi sultanate and the rise of the Marathas completely ruined
these regions, and the primacy in cotton manufacture passed on to
Bengal at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Aurangzib was brave in an unusual degree. In him personal
courage was combined with a coldness of temperament and a calcu.
lating spirit which we have been taught to regard as the special
heritage of the races of northern Europe. In addition, he had from
early life prepared himself for the sovereign's duties by self-rever-
ence, self-knowledge and self-control. He was a widely read and
accurate scholar and kept up his love of books to his dying day. His
extensive correspondence proves his mastery of Persian poetry and
Arabic sacred literature. To his initiative and patronage we owe the
greatest digest of Muslim law made in India, the Fatava-i-Alamgiri.


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318
AURANGZIB (1681-1707)
As a prince, he made the highest nobles of his father's court his friends
by his tact, sagacity and humility; his career in Shah Jahan's reign
clearly marked him out for pre-eminence in the future. His private
life-dress, food and recreations-were all extremely simple but
well-ordered. He was absolutely free from vice and even from the
more innocent pleasures of the idle rich. The number of his wives
fell far short even of the Quranic allowance of four and he was
scrupulously faithful to wedded love.
His industry in administration
was marvellous; in addition to holding daily courts regularly (some-
times twice a day) and Wednesday trials, he wrote orders on letters
and petitions with his own hand and often dictated the very language
of official replies. Dr Gemelli Careri, who saw him at Galgala in
1695 (when the emperor was already seventy-seven years old),
"admired to see him endorse the petitions with his own hand, without
spectacles, and by his cheerful smiling countenance seem to be pleased
with the employment”. Though Aurangzib died in his ninetieth year,
he retained to the last all his faculties (except his hearing) unim-
paired. His memory was wonderful : "he never forgot a face he
had once seen or a word that he had once heard”.
But all this long self-preparation and splendid vitality in one sense
proved his undoing, as they naturally begot in him a self-confidence
and distrust of others which urged him to order and supervise every
minute detail of administration and warfare personally. This ex-
cessive interference of the head of the state kept “the men on the
spot” in far-off districts in perpetual tutelage; their sense of respon-
sibility was destroyed, initiative and rapid adaptability to a changing
environment could not be developed in them, and they tended to
sink into lifeless puppets. No surer means than this could have been
devised for causing administrative degeneration in an extensive
and diversified empire like India. Aurangzib in his latter years,
like Napoleon I after the climax of Tilsit, could bear no contradiction,
and his ministers became mere clerks passively registering his edicts.
Such a king cannot be called a political genius. He had indeed
honesty and plodding industry, but he was not a statesman who
could initiate a new policy or legislate for moulding the life and
thought of unborn generations. Such a genius, though unlettered
and often hot blooded, was Akbar alone among the Timurids of India.
Obsessed by his narrow ideal of duty, Aurangzib practised saintly
austerities and self-abasement almost with Pharisaical ostentation. He
thus became an ideal character to the Muslim portion of his subjects;
they called him 'Alamgir, zinda pir or a saint who wrought miracles !
But the causes of the failure of his reign lay deeper than his personal
character. Though it is not true that he alone caused the fall of the
Mughul empire, yet he did nothing to avert it, but rather quickened
the destructive forces already in operation in the land. He never
realised that there cannot be a great empire without a great people.


## p. 318 (#353) ############################################

Map 3
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV

HINDU KUSH
7755
Τ Ι Β Ε Τ
Kabuto
Peshawar
:H I M A DAY A
INDEPENDENT
ir
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Multan, Sutlej
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MOUNTAINS
(2
Indus R.
Jurna
Acknow
RAJPUTS
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GONDWANA (Danish) (British
Tributary Chiefs
FSATPURA RANGE. :-/
eptir,
Mahanadi R
e
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'Surat
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Bomba
Portuguese
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Godavaria
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(Dutch)
MARATHAS WESTERN
でも​これ​を​きれん​さん
​Goa
(Portuguese)
Masulipatam
(French)
abhadra R Krone
OL
EASTERN GHATS
HATS
[quer
Pulicat (Duteh)
Madras (British)
Sadras (Dutch)
Pondichery (French)
Fort St. David (British)
Calicut
RTranquebar (Danish)
Negabatam (Dutch)
POLYGARS
Cochin
(Dutch) Madura
INDIA
AT THE DEATH OF
AURANGZIB(1707)
Appracimate Boundaries-
European Settlements thus . Goa (Portuguese)
In Rebellion. . . . . . JATS


## p. 318 (#354) ############################################

'


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CHAPTER XI
BAHADUR SHAH, JAHANDAR SHAH,
FARRUKH-SIYAR, RAFI-UD-DARAJAT
AND RAFIS-UD-DAULA
Tre death of Aurangzib was followed by a short and sharp contest
for the throne which ended in the death of two of his sons and three
of his grandsons in the field. His eldest surviving son, Mu'azzam
(Shah 'Alam), was at Jamrud when, on 22 March, 1707, he heard of
his father's death and set out for Agra, taking six and a half million
rupees from the public treasuries on the way, crowning himself
emperor with the title of Bahadur Shah at the bridge of Shah Daula,
twenty-four miles north of Lahore, and arriving at Agra on 12 June.
He could march in full strength so rapidly because for some years
before he had made secret preparations, through his able and ener-
getic revenue minister Mun‘im Khan, for the inevitable war of
succession by keeping an army in the Jullundur Duab, collecting
transport animals and boats for bridges on the way, and enlisting large
numbers of Rajputs. In the meantime, Bahadur Shah's second son
'Azim-ush-shan, the viceroy of Bengal and Bihar, on recall to the
Deccan by order of Aurangzib, had heard of his grandfather's death
in Kora, and after enlisting more troops had pushed on to Agra, occu-
pied that city and laid siege to its fort. With his Bengal treasure
(reputed to exceed 100 million rupees) he quickly increased his army.
to 40,000 men. On the arrival of Bahadur Shah, Baqi Khan Qul, the
commandant of Agra fort, capitulated, and thus the new emperor
gained possession of the accumulated treasures of the Delhi empire,
valued by report at 240 million rupees.
Meantime, A'zam Shah, after hastening to the dead Aurangzib's
camp at Ahmadnagar, had ascended the throne on 14 March. But
his utter lack of money, added to his impatience of advice, uncon-
trollable temper and insane vanity, doomed his cause to failure from
the outset. At the time of Aurangzib's death his soldiers in the Deccan
were starving from their salaries being three years in arrears, and
A'zam could give them no relief when dragging them with him to
northern India. His promotion of his personal favourites alienated
the veterans of Aurangzib's time. The Turani party (called Mughuls
in India), led by Firuz Jang, Chin Qilich Khan (afterwards Nizam-
ul-Mulk) and Muhammad Amin Khan (later imperial vazir or
revenue minister), held aloof from him. Asad Khan and his son
Zu-'l-Fiqar (entitled Nusrat Jang), the leaders of the Irani party at
court, no doubt joined him, but on account of A'zam's incurable
defects of character and temper they could do him no good. Leaving


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320
BAHADUR SHAH TO RAFI-UD-DAULA
Ahmadnagar on 17 March, A'zam arrived at Gwalior on 11 June.
His able son Bidar Bakht could have forestalled the enemy in the
capture of Agra, the viceroy of which was his father-in-law; but A'zam
with fatal jealousy feared that if Bidar Bakht got possession of the
treasures in Agra fort, he would raise an army of his own and oust
his father from the throne. So he had ordered Bidar Bakht not to
increase his army nor advance on Agra, but wait for him at Gwalior.
In this way fifty precious days were lost by the young prince in
enforced inactivity in Malwa, while his father delayed coming up
from the south, and the quicker movements of Bahadur Shah and
'Azim-ush-shan gave them Delhi and Agra.
Then Bidar Bakht, leading his father's vanguard, crossed the
Chambal, but was again ordered to wait for him at Dholpur, instead
of pushing on to Agra. An offer from Bahadur Shah to partition the
empire amicably was scornfully rejected by A'zam. The decisive
battle took place on 18 June, some four miles north of Jajau and not
far from Samogarh, and began with an accidental collision of the
vanguards, neither side being at first aware of the position or inten-
tions of the other. A'zam had under him 65,000 horse and 45,000
foot musketeers but no large cannon or mortars, and he made the
fatal mistake of despising the enemy's large and powerful artillery.
Bidar Bakht was marching with the vanguard three miles ahead of
his father, when he sighted Bahadur Shah's vanguard (under 'Azim-
ush-shan) pitching their advanced tents; his men charged, drove out
the guards, burnt the tents and scattered for plunder. But 'Azim held
his ground and was soon reinforced by his father, while aid from
A'zam to his son arrived too late. The fierce fire of Bahadur Shah's
army caused terrible havoc among Bidar Bakht's troops, who had
no arms for reply. Hampered by a confused medley of baggage,
transport, cattle and followers, blinded by dust, dying of heat, thirst
and a sand-storm blowing in their faces, they dispersed without any
order in their ranks. They were slaughtered helplessly; Khan 'Alam,
Ram Singh Hara, Dalpat Rao Bundela and many other chiefs on
A'zam's side fell. Then the Rajputs and Zu-'l-Fiqar Khan fled from
the field, Jay Singh of Amber went over to Bahadur Shah; many other
officers gave up making any exertion. Bidar Bakht himself was shot
dead and his brother Wala Jah mortally wounded. When A'zan
came up with the main army the battle had already been lost; he
was killed with most of his officers, and the remnant of his army
broke and fled. The loss on each side was about 10,000 men, but
A'zam's army ceased to exist at the end of the day. Bahadur Shah
treated the vanquished most kindly.
Freed from his most formidable rival, Bahadur Shah lived in peace
at Agra till 12 November, when he set out for Rajputana. This
province he was forced to leave for the Deccan at the end of April,
1708, by the news of Kam Bakhsh's mad acts in the south. That


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WAR IN RAJPUTANA
321
prince had heard of his father's death when on the way to his
viceroyalty of Bijapur and been immediately deserted by the Turani
nobles under Muhammad Amin Khan. But in Bijapur he crowned
himself emperor and lived for two months settling his government
and raising an army. Some conquests were made by his agents,
namely the recovery of Wagingera, Gulbarga and Hyderabad, besides
control over the Karnul and Arcot districts. But the folly, violence
and caprice of this prince, who at the age of forty-three acted like
an undeveloped child, and the bitter jealousy between his minister
Taqarrub Khan and his paymaster Ahsan Khan, soon ruined his
affairs. The minister and his allies succeeded in making Kam Bakhsh
believe that Ahsan Khan and his friends wanted to imprison him.
So, the helpless deluded prince seized by treachery and tortured to
death Rustam-dil Khan (the viceroy of Golconda), Ahsan Khan and
many other piticers who were suspected of being in the conspiracy;
their properties were confiscated and their families ruined. Many
other acts of insane cruelty were done by Kam Bakhsh, who now
came to be dreaded as a bloodthirsty tyrant. Bahadur Shah, after
crossing the Narbada on 17 May, 1708, slowly proceeded south and
sent a most generous and conciliatory offer of peace to his brother,
which was rejected. As he came nearer to Hyderabad, all who could
deserted Kam Bakhsh and went over to Bahadur Shah. On 13
January, 1709, Kam Bakhsh's small force of 350 men was attacked
by 25,009 imperial troops under Mun'im Khan and Zu-'l-Fiqar, and
the prince mortally wounded, some four miles outside Hyderabad.
Shortly after this, because the situation in Rajputana had grown
serious, the emperor set out on his return, and reached Ajmer on
22 June, 1710.
The attack on the Rajputs begun by Aurangzib inflicted on the
Mughul empire a deep and draining wound which was never healed
though superficially covered at times. On hearing of this emperor's
death Ajit Singh had recovered his ancestral capital Jodhpur and
expelled its Mughul commandant Mihrab Khan. Bahadur Shah
marched out for Rajputana in November, 1707, and reached Amber
in January, 1708. The dispute for the succession to this state was
decided by giving it to Bijay Singh, and the imperialists then ad-
vanced towards Jodhpur. Mihrab Khan defeated Ajit Singh and
occupied Merta (February). Ajit Singh now made his submission,
waited on the emperor like a penitent rebel, and received a command
of 3500 and the title of Maharaja. The emperor returned to Ajmer,
but while he was on his way to the Deccan to punish Kam Bakhsh,
Ajit Singh, Durga Das and Raja Jay Singh Kachhwaha fled from his
camp (30 April, 1708). These two rajas joined the Maharana Amar
Singh of Mewar in a joint resistance to the Mughuls. The Rajputs
expelled the commandant of Jodhpur, defeated the commandant of
Hindaun-Bayana, and recovered Amber by a night attack (August).
21


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322
BAHADUR SHAH TO RAFI-UD-DAULA
They next killed Sayyid Husain Khan Barha, the commandant of
Mewat, and many other officers (September, 1708). The emperor,
then in the Deccan, had to patch up a truce by restoring Ajit Singh
and Jay Singh to the Mughul service.
After overthrowing Kam Bakhsh and settling the affairs of the
Deccan, Bahadur Shah returned to Rajputana in May, 1710. Nego-
tiations were opened with the two rebel rajas there, and the Sikh
rising forced on the emperor a speedy solution of the Rajput trouble.
Pardons were granted to them; they waited on him on 21 June and
were sent back to their states with presents.
The Sikh revolt now assumed such a character that it threatened
to repeat in the north the disruptive work of the Maratha rising of
the south, and totally destroy Mughul peace. Govind Singh, the
tenth and last of the Sikh Gurus, had died in November, 1708,
without leaving any son behind him. But his followers produced
a man who exactly resembled him and secretly sent him to the
Punjab, declaring that he was Guru Govind, miraculously brought
back to life for leading his followers in a war of independence against
the Muslims. This man was known under the name of Banda (Slave)
or the sham Guru, though he took the title of Sacha Padishah or the
genuine Lord. The impostor appeared in the country north-west
nf Delhi and, calling himself Govind Singh, summoned the Sikhs to
join their returned Guru. He routed the commandant of Sonpat,
and soon gathered 40,000 armed men around him, sacked the town
of Sadhaura (twenty-six miles east of Ambala), killing many of the
people, and gained his crowning victory by defeating and slaying
Vazir Khan, the commandant of Sirhind (22 May, 1710), and plun-
dering his entire camp. Then the town of Sirhind itself was taken,
and pillaged for four days with ruthless cruelty; the mosques were
defiled, the houses burnt, the women outraged and the Muslims
slaughtered. Over twenty million rupees in cash and goods fell into
Banda's hands here. From Sirhind as a centre Banda plundered and
occupied the country around, but his progress southwards from
Thanesar was checked by a local Muslim officer. Bands of Sikhs
crossed into the Jullundur Duab. Shams Khan, the commandant of
Sultanpur, gathered a large defence force and drove the Sikhs, with
heavy slaughter, back into the fort of Rahon, from which they fled
away after some weeks. They recovered Rahon, after the Khan's
retreat, but the rest of the Duab was freed from them. Another Sikh
band raided east across the Jumna, plundered Saharanpur and occu-
pied half of the district, all the people fleeing away at the news of the
Sikhs coming. But their attacks on Jalalabad (thirty miles south of
Saharanpur) and two large villages near it were defeated through
the desperate courage of the Afghans and other local volunteers. In
the meantime, emboldened by the defeat of Vazir Khan, the Sikhs
assembled at Amritsar resolved to attack Lahore. They ravaged many


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WAR WITH BANDA THE SIKH GURU
323
villages, and reached the suburbs of Lahore, though the city itself
escaped. The Muslims of Lahore organised a private expedition by
subscription and expelled the Sikhs. Desultory fighting continued,
the Sikhs being predominant on the whole, and the north-western
road from Delhi was effectively closed.
The crisis drew Bahadur Shah to the scene. Leaving Ajmer on
27 June, 1710, he reached Sadhaura on 4 December. Before this,
some imperial officers had fought the Sikhs and cleared the road
from Sonpat to Sirhind, and also the Jullundur Duab. At the
approach of the emperor, Banda evacuated Sadhaura and took post
in the fort Lohgarh, at Mukhlispur or Dabar, a place twelve miles
north-east of Sadhaura. Here he had been living like a king and
striking coins in his own name.
In the campaign against Lohgarh the imperialists suffered greatly
from the broken jungly nature of the country, excessive rainfali,
intense cold, scanty supplies and heavy losses among the horses and
cattle, besides terror of the Guru's magical powers. The vanguard
was led by Rustam-dil Khan, who made an advance of eight miles
to the bank of the Som, after a hard fight in which 1500 Sikhs fell.
On 10 December, 1710, the Sikh entrenchments on the top of the
Dabar hills were attacked by prince Rafi--ush-shan, the minister
Mun‘im Khan, Zu-'l-Fiqar, Chhatra Sal Bundela and other generals.
The Sikhs lost heavily from both artillery fire and close fighting.
At midday the imperialists halted outside instead of pressing into
the fort of Lohgarh. Soon afterwards the captured Sikh trenches
were entered by plunderers from the Mughul army, who set fire to
what they could not carry off; several powder magazines were thus
blown up. Other hill tops were still occupied by the Sikhs and the
fighting was still undecided in the passes. Taking advantage of this
confusion, Banda escaped down the other side of the hill with his
chief men. The Sikh opposition ceased by evening-time. Many
women, children and horses were captured, besides three cannon and
seventeen light pieces. The flight of Banda nullified the victory of
the imperialists. The emperor then turned to punish the hill-Rajas
of Garhwal and Nahan, for having assisted Banda to escape. Two
million rupees in coins were dug out of Lohgarh.
Desultory fighting with the Sikhs continued for some years after.
Sirhind was reoccupied by the imperialists in January, 1711. In
March Banda descended from the hills and raised fresh disturbances
in the north Punjab plains. Shams Khan, on his way to Kasur, was
attacked and slain by an overwhelming force of Sikhs under the
Guru himself. The Bari Duab fell an easy prey to the Sikhs, many
inhabitants having fled in terror, and even the Rechna Duab was
devastated. But in June the Guru was defeated and driven into the
hills of Jammu near Pasrur by Muhammad Amin Khan and Rustam-
dil Khan. Quarrels between these two generals led to the pursuit


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324
BAHADUR SHAH TO RAFI-UD-DAULA
>
being abandoned and the operations slackened. Later, on the death
of Bahadur Shah (27 February, 1712), Banda took advantage of the
war of succession to recover Sadhaura and restore the fortifications
of Lohgarh, so that all the work of Bahadur Shah was undone. The
siege of Sadhaura in the reign of Jahandar Shah was abandoned
after a few months (December, 1712).
After the campaign against Banda, Bahadur Shah halted for some
time in the Sirhind district, and then started for Lahore, which was
reached on 11 August, 1711. With his four sons he encamped outside
the city. Here he spent the last six months of his life, avoiding all
serious work and engaged only in gardening, as he was now seventy
(lunar) years old and Aurangzib's treatment of him had destroyed
what little spirit and activity he may have once possessed. Early in
his reign Bahadur Shah had ordered the title wasi (executor, sc. of
the Prophet's will) to be added after the name of 'Ali in the Friday
prayer recited for the sovereign in every public mosque. This was
a Shiah innovation and implied a reflection upon the first three
Caliphs as usurpers, which the Sunnis resented. The emperor's order
had provoked opposition and riots in many places, as the Sunnis
form the immense majority of the Muslim population of India,
Arrived at Lahore, Bahadur Shah called his opponents to a debate
in his court and warmly pressed his point. The Sunnis of the city,
with the support of the Afghan soldiers, formed a body of nearly
a hundred thousand men to resist the change by force. The emperor
at first ordered his chief of artillery to cause the new prayer to be
read in the principal mosque of Lahore on 2 October, 1711; but on
that day, while a vast crowd, ready for rioting, was gathered in the
streets, the emperor gave way, the old form was recited and peace
was preserved. After declining in health for some weeks, Bahadur
Shah fell ill on 24 February, 1712 and died on the 27th. He was buried
in the courtyard of 'Alamgir's mosque near the shrine of Qutb-ud-din
Kaki outside Delhi.
Bahadur Shah had a mild and calm temper, great dignity of
behaviour, and excessive and inconsiderate generosity of disposition.
He was learned and pious, without any bigotry, and possessed a power
of self-control and profound dissimulation which was styled personal
cowardice by his rival A'zam Shah. He was incapable of saying no
to anybody, and his only idea of statesmanship was to let matters
drift and patch up a temporary peace by humouring everybody,
without facing issues and saving future trouble by making decisions
promptly and courageously. Still, the traditions of the dignity of the
empire and of good administration left by Aurangzib continued
through his short reign, as he inherited his father's able officers and
treated them with confidence and respect. On his accession, his.
own weak position and softness of fibre, coupled with advanced age,
prevented him from asserting his will in any matter. He had promised


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FIGHT BETWEEN BAHADUR SHAH'S SONS
325
the post of minister to Mun'im Khan, his able deputy and most
useful servant of the days of his princehood, and yet he could not
resist the demand of Asad Khan (Aurangzib's minister) to be the
first officer of the state. In his usual spirit of compromise, Bahadur
Shah tried to please both by creating Mun'im Khan Vazir or revenue
minister and Asad Khan Vakil-i-mutlaq or prime minister. But this
division of authority pleased neither of them, while it complicated the
administration. He conferred titles with a profusion which made
them ridiculous. The Turani nobles (their chiefs being of the family
of the Nizam) were kept in the background during this reign.
At the time of Bahadur Shah's death all his four sons were with
him at Lahore. The eldest, Mu'izz-ud-din (surnamed Jahandar Shah),
was slack and negligent and without money or troops; 'Azim-ush-shan
(the second and his father's favourite and most influential adviser)
was the ablest and strongest in resources among the brothers;
Rafi--ush-shan (the third son) was very jealous of `Azim, while the
youngest, Jahan Shah, was an invalid. Zu-'l-Fiqar Khan had secretly
brought the other three princes together for joint action against
'Azim and they had made a solemn agreement for partitioning the
empire among themselves, with Zu-'l-Fiqar as minister for all the
three! The death of Bahadur Shah was followed by the immediate
seizure of his camp by 'Azim-ush-shan; the nobles deserted their
posts and hastened to join one or other of the princes, the ordinary
people in the imperial camp fled to the city for shelter and their
property was looted by the ruffians. Terrible noise and confusion
raged everywhere; the soldiers ill-treated and plundered the pay-
masters for their arrears. But 'Azim-ush-shan took up "the attitude
of a helpless waiter on events”; instead of striking quickly while his
forces were so superior and his rivals unprepared, he stood on the
defensive and thus gave them time to enlist fresh troops and to
strengthen their coalition and artillery through Zu-'l-Fiqar's exertions.
'Azim-ush-shan despised his rivals with the insane pride of Muhammad
A'zam on the eve of Jajau, and with the same result. The three other
princes soon besieged 'Azim's camp, commanding three sides of it
with their artillery. Battles at close quarters took place on 15 March
and the next day, both being very obstinate and bloody contests.
'Azim's soldiers were cooped up within their camp and suffered
heavily from an artillery fire to which they could give no adequate
reply, while their enemies could freely retire and refresh themselves
after every fight. Zu-'l-Fiqar's contrivance led to the desertion of
most of 'Azim-ush-shan's suffering troops. Finally, a general attack
was delivered on 17 March, 'Azim's chief adherents were killed, his
trenches penetrated, and his followers reduced to 2000 men only.
Then a shot from a heavy gun wounded the elephant on which he
was seated and the maddened beast rushed into the Ravi river, where
it and its rider were both swallowed up by a quicksand.


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326
BAHADUR SHAH TO RAFI-UD-DAULA
Zu-'l-Fiqar Khan, who had thus alone brought about the fall of
the most powerful of the claimants to the throne, now became
supreme in the state. He threw aside the two youngest princes in
favour of Jahandar Shah; a quarrel broke out among the three
brothers for the division of the booty taken from 'Azim-ush-shan.
The contest between Jahandar Shah and his youngest brother Jahan
Shah was fought out on 26 and 27 March, artillery playing the
decisive part in these encounters. Jahan Shah at first defeated his
rival and put him to flight, but in the confusion caused by the dust
and lack of generalship his troops were scattered in small isolated
groups, he was shot dead and his army melted away. Rafi'-ush-shan,
who had stood aloof during this duel, attacked Jahandar in the
morning of the 28th, hoping to gain an easy victory over the latter's
exhausted troops. But most of his Turani officers deserted him in
the field, his raw levies fled away, and he was shot dead when fighting
on foot against desperate odds. Jahandar Shah thus became the
undisputed master of the empire of Delhi.
On the accession of Jahandar Shah, Zu-'l-Fiqar Khan became
minister. Severe vengeance was taken on the leading supporters of
his defeated rivals; they were subjected to ruthless confiscation,
imprisonment and even execution. New men were raised to power
as partisans of the new emperor and useful tools of the all-powerful
minister. Even Muhammad Karim, the eldest son of 'Azim, was put
to death in cold blood by order of Zu-'l-Fiqar. Jahandar Shah arrived
at Delhi from Lahore on 22 June, 1712, and learnt that Farrukh-siyar,
the second son of 'Azim-ush-shan and his deputy in the government
of Bengal, had advanced to Patna to prepare for an attempt on the
crown. So a large force was sent against him under prince 'Azz-ud-
din (Jahandar's eldest son), too young and inexperienced a youth
for such a command, to wait and watch at Agra. Arrived at Delhi
Jahandar Shah spent his time entirely in pleasure and merrymaking
with his concubine La'l Kumari. Under infatuation with her he
indulged in every kind of mad freak and low amusement. All
decency was abandoned; her kinsmen robbed and mismanaged the
state, the highest dignitaries were insulted and thwarted by the
favourite's low-born associates, the crown was stripped of dignity
and prestige in the public eye, and the entire tone of society and
administration was vulgarised.