History of Aurangzeb Vol 1

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HISTORY OF AURANGZIB
Vol. I.
Works by Jadunath Sarkar, M.A.
1. History of Aurangzib, based on Persian
sources. Rs.
Vol. I. Reign of Shah Jahan, pp. 402.
Vol.11. War of Succession, pp. 328. 3^ each.
2. Anecdotes of Aiirangzib {KngWsh iransXation
and notes) and Historical Essays, pp. 248 i*-
3. Ahkajn-i-Alamgiri ,
Persian text with an
English translation {Anecdotes of Aiirang-
5j6) and notes, pp. 72 + 146 ... ... i
4. Chaitanya's Pilgrimages a>id Teachings,

being an English translation of his contem-
porary biography, Chaitanya Cliarita-
mrita, Madhya-lila, pp. 320+ .. 2
5. India of Aurangzib :
Statistics, Topography
and Roads, with translations from the
Khulasat-iit-tawarikh and the Chahar
Gulshan. (Not a histor)), pp. 300 ... 2i
6. Economics of British India, 3rd ed., pp. 300
+ (In preparation) ...
•••3
7. Essays, Social and Literary, by Ravindra-
nath Tagore, translated into English (In
preparation).
SOLD BV
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HISTORY OF AURANGZIB
Mainly basad on Persian Sources.
JADUNATH SARKAR, M.A.,
Professor, Patna College.
Vol. I.
Reign of Shah Jahan.
M. C. SARKAR & SONS,

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Printed by Purna Chandra Dass,
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Published by M. C. Sarkar & Sons,
75, Harrison Road, Calcutta.
CONTENTS.
Introduction.
Fullest expansion of Mughal empire under Aurangzib,

xi —commencing decline, — xii rise of Marathas, Sikhs, and
European trading companies,

—administrative breakdown
xii
in Aurangzib's last years, xiv — causes, xv—materials of

its
his history : official annals or namahs, xv — private histories
written by officers, xvi — two histories by Hindus, xvii —

monographs, xviii — Court bulletins, xix —contemporary
— European travellers their value
letters, xix :
criticised, xxi
—
thanks for help, —spelling and dates xxvi.
xxiii
Chapter I. Boyhood and Education.

Birth, I — life during Jahangir's reign, 3
— education, 4—
knowledge
— hand writing, 5 —favourite stu-
of languages, 5
dies,7
—intellectual 8 — fights a furious elephant, 9—
tastes,
scorn of death, — reward, 12 — military appointment,
11 first
13-
Chapter II. The Bundela War.

Bundelkhand and its ruling clan, 14
— Bir Singh Dev, 15—
Jhujhar Singh subdued, 17 captures Chauragarh, 18
— —
Mughal armies sent against him under Aurangzib, 19 cap- —
—
ture of Urchha, 22 of Dhamuni, 23 Jhujhar pursued, 24
—
—murdered, 25 —fate of his wives and children, 27 spoils —
war, 28 — Urchha temple
of turned into mosque, 29 later —
Bundela resistance, 30.
Chapter III. First Viceroyalty of the Deccan.

Conquests under Akbar, 32 —
pause under Jahangir, 33 —
Shah Jahan extinguishes Ahmadnagar dynasty, 34 pre- —
pares to invade Bijapur and Golkonda, 35 Golkonda sub- —
VI CONTENTS.
mits, 36— Bijapur territory ravaged, 37 —peace with Bijapur :
itsterms, 38— treaty with Golkonda, 41 — extent of Mughal

Deccan four provinces, 42 — capture of Udgir
: its 44— fort,
of Ausa, 46 — Shahji Bhonsla submits, 46 — exactions from
the Gond rajahs, 49 — Baglana, 50 — invaded, 52 —annexed,
53 — Kheloji Bhonsla 54. slain,
Chapter IV. Marriage and Family

—Viceroyalty
of Guzerat.
—
Persian princes in India, 57 marry into the Mughal
imperial family, 57 —
Aurangzib married to Dilras Banu,
— —
58 the procession, 59 his wives Nawab Bai, 61 Udai-—:
puri,
—
64 Zainabadi, 65 — how won, 66 — children Zebun- his :
nissa, 68 —others, 70—Jahanara burnt, 73 — recovers, 75 —

Aurangzib's dismissal, 76 — cause, 77 — he
its reinstated, is
79 — Guzerat the land:and the —

people, 80 his strong rule,
81.
Chapter V. War in Central Asia.

—
Badakhshan and Balkh, 83 their peoples, 85 Uzbaks —
and Tartars, 86— Nazar Muhammad, king of Balkh, 89 —
Shah Jahan wishes to conquer Central Asia, 90 — folly of the
—
attempt, 91
—
Badakhshan invaded, 92 Balkh occupied,
93—arrangements for holding
—
them, 95 Aurangzib appoint-
ed viceroy, 97—the opposed forces, 97 — his march on Balkh,
—
99—advance to Aqcha, loi — incessant fighting 102 retreat
to Balkh, 104— hardships on the way, 105 — his cool courage,
106—peace negotiations, 107

— Mughal army evacuates
Balkh, no—sufferings during in — losses, 112.
retreat,
Chapter VI. Governorship of Multan and Sindh.

Aurangzib sent to Multan, 114 —his promotions, —
115 his
letters as preserved in the Adab-i-Alamgiri,
—
116 their
historical importance, 117
— lawless people of the province,
CONTENTS. Vll
Ii8 —the Hot tribe controlled, —

119 the Nohani tribe, 121 —
expedition into Baluchistan, 121-— order maintained, 123 —
a new port opened, 124.
Chapter VII. First siege of Qandahar.

Qandahar — strategic importance
district described, 126 its
128 — commercial importance, —

129 past 130 — history,
Persians besiege Qandahar —
132 treachery among the
fort,
garrision, 135
— fort
surrenders, —
136 incapacity the of
—
Indian commandant, 137 Army sent recover the to fort,
138
— fortQandahar described, 140— Aurangzib besieges
of
it, 143
— weakness
his 145
— Persians defeated by
in artillery,
Rustam Khan, 147 — retreat Indian army, 148 — of 149. losses,
Chapter VIII. Second Siege of Qandahar.

Aurangzib sent with a second army, i5o^begins the
siege, 152
—night attack on — Qaitul hill fails, 154 bad
gunnery of the Indians, 157 — —
Persian
failure to breach, 158
losses,160 — siege abandoned, 161 — Uzbak 162 — raid, bitter
correspondence between Shah Jahan and Aurangzib, 163 —

causes the
of 164— Mughal losses
failure, money and in
men, 167 — military prestige, 168.

loss of
Chapter IX. Second Viceroyalty of the Deccan.
Aurangzib goes to the Deccan, 170 — his life there, 171 —

religious bigotry,
—
173 Aurangabad city described, 174
—
administrative confusion in the Deccan, 176
— its causes,
—
177 chronic deficit,
—
179 Aurangzib's financial difificulties,
182 — no help from Shah Jahan, 185 wrangle between —

Emperor and viceroy, 186
—
Murshid Quli Khan, diwan of
the Deccan, 189
— his revenue system, 191
—Aurangzib's
protection of his officers, 195
— increase of efficiency in
—
garrison artillery, 197 causes of Aurangzib's differences
—
with Shah Jahan, 199 Minor expeditions Gond kingdom :
via CONTENTS.
of Deogarh, 205
—tribute exacted, 208 — invasion of Jawhar,
209.
Chapter X. Invasion of Golkonda.

Golkonda : its 211 —
wealth, friction with the Mughal
government, 212 — Karnatak conquered by Deccani sultans,
214 — Mir Jumla : his career and conquests, 216 —jealousy

of Shah, 219 Mir
Qutb
— Jumla's intrigues, 220—with
Aurangzib, 222 his family — imprisoned at Haidarabad,
—
225 Shah Jahan orders their release, 228 Aurangzib —
—
invades Golkonda, 229 cavalry dash on Haidarabad, 231 —
plunder,
—
232 Aurangzib besieges fort of Golkonda, 233 —
his eagerness to annex the kingdom, 235 Shah Jahan —
—
orders peace, 237 terms of the treaty, 240 Aurangzib's —
quarrel with Shah Jahan about the Golkonda booty, 242 —
Qutb Shah still
clings to Karnatak, 245
— Sri
Ranga Rayal,
last ruler of the Vijaynagar line, hard pressed, 248 how —
treatedby the Mughals, 249— Did Aurangzib capture Hai-
darabad by treachery ? 252.
Chapter XI. War with Bijapur.

Bijapur kingdom : its growth under Muhammad Adil
Shah, 253 —relations with the Delhi government, —
255 suc-
cession of Ali Adil — Aurangzib seduces Bijapur
Shah H., 259
officers, 261 — Muglials conquer Bijapur, 262 —
wish to
Aurangzib begins the invasion, 264 — siege of Bidar, 265—

carried by assault, 267 — detachment under Mahabat Khan,
269— 270 —siege of Kaliani, 271 —

battle, —
272 another battle,
battle, —
274 Mughal detachment penetrates to Kulbarga,
276— of Kaliani, 277 —terms of
fall
peace with Bijapur,
278 — Mughal retreat, 2S0— Shivaji his negotiations, 281 — :
his raids, 282 — how checked

by Aurangzib, 282 — Shivaji
makes peace, 284— Parentage of Ali Adil Shah H., 285 —
Was Jan Muhammad corrupted by Aurangzib ? 286.
CONTENTS. IX
Chapter XII. Illness of Shah Jahan.

Shah Jahan's long reign, 291
—happiness
290
— its glories,
of the people, 292 — Dara Shukoh influence, 294— hie: his
theological studies, 296

— not a heretic from Islam, 298 — his
character, 299 — Shah Jahan 302 — removes to Agra,

falls ill,
304 — Dara's devoted attendance, 305 — Dara nominated as

successor, 306— to strengthen
tries own position, 307 — his
armies sent against brothers, 308 — Aurangzib's doings,

his
311
— Dara stops the sending news from Court, 312 —alarm
of
and confusion the provinces, 313 — Shuja and Murad

in
crown themselves, 315 —and march on Agra, 317.
Chapter XIII. Murad crowns himself.

Murad Bakhsh : his character, — wazir Ali Naqi,
318 his
220
— is murdered on suspicion, 321
— Murad sends an army
against Surat,
—
323 siege of
—
Surat, 324 booty at Surat,
325
—Murad corresponds with Aurangzib for an alliance,
—
227 Murad proclaims himself Emperor, 329— chooses a
stronghold to shelter his family in, 331
—
Murad's impatient
ambition and Aurangzib's cautiousness, 332 intrigue with —
Persia, 333
—
partition of empire between Murad
and Aurang-
zib, 335
—sworn to by Aurangzib, 337
— Murad starts,
—
338
and joins Aurangzib near Dipalpur, 339.
Chapter XIV. Aurangzib advances from the

Deccan.
Aurangzib's anxiety and —

uncertainty, 340 his critical
position in the —
Deccan,his dilemma 341 to attend to :
Bijapur or to Delhi 342

— ?
policy, 344 — sends Mir
his
—
Jumla towards Parenda, 345 retreats from Kaliani and
Bidar, 346 — death of wife Diiras Bann, 348 — waits for
his
news —
Court, 349 despairs of getting the treaty concessions
of
from Bijapur, 351 — various devices —

352 Mir Jumla tried,
X CONTENTS.
returns baffled, 354— Aurangzib's preparations for disputing

the throne, 355 —conflicting news from Delhi, and Aurang-
zib'sdistraction, 356
— Mir Jumla
his letter to in cypher, 357
—a waiting policy,
—
358 Aurangzib summons Mir Jumla
and collusively arrests him, 361 — Aurangzib's dealings with
—
Qutb Shah, 364 conciliation of —
Qutb Shah, 365 dealings
—
with Bijapur, 366 large concessions now promised to Adil
Shah, 367 — Aurangzib's financial resources, 368« — his in-
—
trigue with nobles at Court, 369 his military preparations
completed, 370
— his able 371
officers,
— arrangements for
his
Mughal Deccan, 372

— Aurangzib marches from Aurangabad,
— —
374 halts at Burhanpur, 374 imprisons Shah Nawaz Khan,
—
375 crosses the Narmada and joins Murad, 376.
INTRODUCTION.
The history of Aurangzib is
practically the
history of India for sixty years. His own reign

—
(1658 1707) covers the second half of the seven-
teenth century and stands forth as a most

important epoch in the annals of our country.
Under him the Mughal empire reached its greatest
extent, and the largest single State ever known
in India from the dawn of history to the rise of
power was formed.

the British From Ghazni to
Chatgaon, from Kashmir to the Karnatak, the

continent of India obeyed one sceptre ;
and
beyond this region, in far-offLadak and Malabar,
the suzerainty of the same ruler was proclaimed
from the pulpit. Islam made its last onward
movement in India in this reign.
The empire thus formed, while unprecedented
in size, was also one political unit. Its parts
were governed not by the mediation of sub-kings,

but directly by the servants of the Crown.
Herein Aurangzib's Indian empire was vaster
than that of Asoka, or Samudra-gupta or Harsha-
vardhan. No provincial governor had as yet set
up his own rule and withheld revenue and
obedience from the central power. There were
rebellions here and there, but no other crowned
Xll HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
head raised itself to defy the Emperor of Delhi

even in
any province.
But the reign that saw the formation of the
greatest Indian empire of pre-British days,

witnessed also unmistakable signs of its com-
mencing decline and disruption. Long before
Nadir Shah the Persian or Ahmad Shah the
Afghan proved the Padishah to be an impotent
shadow of royalty and Delhi the mere memory
of past greatness, long before the Maratha
confederacy hid beneath its super-imposed sway
the regular monarchy of the land, even before
—
Aurangzib closed his eyes, the Mughal empire
had turned bankrupt in finance and prestige, the
administration had broken down, the Imperial
power had confessed its failure to maintain order
and hold this vast realm together.
The reign of Aurangzib is also marked by the
upspringing of the Maratha nationality out of
the ashes of their short-lived kingship, and by
the appearance of the Sikh sect in the role of
wârriors and armed opponents of the ruling
power. Thus the supreme factors of Indian
politics in the i8th and early 19th centuries owe
their origin to Aurangzib's reign and policy.
In the Deccan, after kings like Adil Shah and
Qutb Shah, Sambhaji and Rajah Ram, had

bowed low before the Mughal blast, the people
INTRODUCTION. XUl
asserted themselves and drove back the spoiler

from the North. To the Marathas, alone among
the Indian peoples, belongs the glory of giving
the first successful check to the onward advance
of theMughal power and saving their father-
land from foreign encroachment. Their develop-
ment into conquerors and raiders belongs to the
next age.
In the very reign in w^hich the Mughal crescent
rounded to fulness and then began to wane
visibly, the first glow of a new dawn was dis-
tinctly seen in our political sky. The future
lords of our country's destiny gained a firm and
safe footing on its soil. Madras and Bombay
became presidencies of the English East India
Company in 1653 and 1687 respectively ;
Calcutta was founded in 1690. The shelter thus
secured to the Europeans formed a dominion
within a dominion, and was fortified to defy the
greatest onslaughts of the "country powers." The
"merchant adventurers" here began first their
experiments in Oriental government and legisla-

tion,
—
experiments which were destined in the
fulness of time to result inan empire larger than
that of the Romans and more populous than
that of Charles V., and a civilised and progres-
sive administration to which the world, ancient
or modern^ affords no parallel.
XIV HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
The end of the seventeenth century reveals the
Mughal empire as rotten at the core. The grand

edifice which Akbar had built up and Shah Jahan
and Aurangzib had extended, still looked fair as
before, but it was ready to tumble down like a
house of cards at the first touch of the foreign in-
vader's lance. The Treasury was empty. The

Imperial army knew itself defeated and recoiled
from its foes. The centrifugal forces wêre assert-

ing themselves successfully, and the empire was
ready for disruption. The moral weakness of
the empire was even greater than the material :
the Government no longer commanded the awe

of its subjects the public servants had lost
;
honesty and efficiency ministers and princes

;
alike lacked statesmanship and ability the army ;
broke down as an instrument of force. In letter

after letter the aged Aurangzib mourns over the
utter incapacity of his officers and sons and
chastises them with his sharp pen, but in despair
of a remedy. Contemporaries like Bhimsen and
Khafi Khan, sadly contrast the misery and de-
gradation of the nobles and the people alike in
Aurangzib's closing years with the glory of the
empire under his forefathers, and wonder why
it was so.
"Why was it so ? The ruler was free from vice,
stupidity, or sloth. His intellectual keenness

INTRODUCTION. XV
was proverbial, and at the same time he took to

the business of governing with all the ardour
which men usually display in the pursuit of
pleasure. In industry and attention to public
affairshe could not be surpassed by any clerk.
His patience and perseverance were as remark-
able as his love of discipline and order. In pri-
vate life he was simple and abstemious like a
hermit. He faced the privations of a campaign
or a forced march as uncomplainingly as the
most seasoned private. No terror could daunt
his heart, no weakness or pity melt it. Of the
wisdom of the ancients which can be gathered
from ethical books, he was a master. He had,
besides, undergone a long and successful proba-
tion in war and diplomacy in his father's life
time.
And yet the result of fifty years' rule by such
a sovereign was failure and chaos ! The cause
paradox is to be found in Aurang-
of this political
zib's policy and conduct. Hence his reign is an
object of supreme interest to the student of poli-
tical philosophy no less than to the student of
Indian history.
Happily, the materials for a study of it are
abundant in Persian, the literary language of
Mughal India. First, we have the official annals,
— the Padtshahnamah (in three sections by three
XVI HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
writers) and the Alamgirnamah — which cover

the 41 years lying between the accession of Shah
Jahan and the tenth year of Aurangzib's reign.
These works were written by order, on the basis of
the State papers preserved in the Imperial archives,
such as officialcorrespondence, despatches, news-
letters, treaties and revenue returns. They are
rich in dates and topographical details of the
utmost value and accuracy, but as they were read
to the Emperor and revised by him before pre-
sentation to the public, they suppress or belittle
all incidents likely to throw^ discredit on his
character or government. For the last forty
years of Aurangzib's reign we have the Masir-i-
Alamgiri, compiled from the same class of official

records, but after his death, and hence free from
the fulsome flattery and misrepresentation of the
former two histories. Unfortunately, this work
is very condensed and lacks the fulness and detail
of the regular official annals.
Next come a class of private histories, like
those ofMasum, Aqil Khan, and Khafi Khan.
These were written by officials, but, not having
been meant for the Emperor's eyes, they supply
us with many of the facts suppressed in the
court annals, though their dates and names are
sometimes inaccurate and their descriptions
meagre. They, however, contain many personal
INTRODUCTION. XVll
and graphic touches which the more formal

traits
histories have excluded.

official Khafi Khan,
who has been mainly relied on by European
writers, completed his work twenty-six years
after the death of Aurangzib. His history is
professedly an abridgement of the Court annals
for the entire reign of Shah Jahan and the earlier
part of that of Aurangzib, But he begins to
speak with personal knowledge from about 1688
and often quotes what he had gathered from his
father and his friends, who had witnessed earlier
scenes. In the same class must be placed the
biographical dictionary of the peers of the
Mughal empire, the Masir-iil-umara, written in
1780 on the basis of the existing Persian annals,
but giving many characteristic anecdotes from
tradition and throwing many side-lights on the
manners of past generations.
There are even two histories of Aurangzib's
reign written by Hindus in the Persian tongue.
One is the Nuskha-i-Dilkasha by Bhimsen
Burhanpuri, the business man of
Aurangzib's
general Dalpat Rao Bundela. This author was
an active traveller, with a good eye for topo-
graphical details, and a careful recorder of all
he saw from Mathura to Malabar. His work is
Deccan affairs, because there

of special value for
he was brought up and spent nearly all his life.
XVm HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
He lived near enough Imperial Court to

to the
learn facts accurately, but was not so closely
connected v/ith it as to be a lying flatterer. The
other isthe Fatuhat-i~ Alamgiri of Isar-das Nagar,
who long served the Shaikh-ul-Islam and lived
at Pattan in Guzerat. This work is of great
importance for Rajput affairs.
Besides general histories of the reign, we

tViese
have monographs in Persian touching only

particular episodes or personages of the time, —
such as Niamat Khan All's account of the
siege of Golkonda, Shihabuddin Talish's diary
of the conquest of Kuch Bihar, Assam, and Chat-
gaon, the memoirs of Iradat Khan and of some
other servants of Bahadur Shah I. which start
from the closing years of Aurangzib's reign. Of
the two Deccani kingdoms of Golkonda and
Bijapur we have separate histories, which throw
light on the dealings of the Mughal Government
with them. On the Maratha side there are
chronicles (Bakhars) of Shivaji, Sambhaji, and
Rajah Ram written by their officers and others.

Mr. Rajwade is said to have hunted out a number
of historical letters of the 17th centurv in
Marathi for inclusion in the Aitihasik Lekk
Sangraha series.
The Royal Asiatic Society of London has a

box of Court bulletins of Aurangzib's time
INTRODUCTION. XIX
[Akhharat-i-Darbar-i-Muala). The}' are bare

skeletons,
— dry, extremely brief, and good only
for dates. Only a few have been preserved for
the 22 years of the reign, but
first from the 36th
year they are more numerous.
The accounts of Aurangzib's reign now current
in India, especially in Urdu, are based on works
like the Tarikh-i-Muhammad Shahi, and the
Tarikh-t-Farah-Bakhsh, written long after the
events and merely reproducing the bazar
gossip and popular traditions. Not being based
on official records and other contemporary
sources of information, their evidence must be
rejected wherever they conflict with the earlier
and authoritative histories of Aurangzib's reign.
These unreliable but picturesque works have
inspired Dow's History of Hindostan and Stewart's
History of Bengal, and continue to perpetuate
man}^ historical heresies in the popular belief of
India.
Most fortunatel)^, for severalportions of
Aurangzib's reign I have been able to secure the
very raw materials
of history, a. source of —
information even more valuable than the con-
temporary official annals described above. These
are the LETTERS of the actors in the political
drama of the 17th century, of which nearly three
thousand are in my possession. In them we see
XX HISTORY OF AURANG2IB.
events as they happened day by day, and not as

they were dressed up afterwards by writers with
a purpose. In them we see the actual hopes and
fears, plans and opinions of those who made
Indian history. To this cla-^s belong the letters
of Aurangzib (forming many different and bulky
collections, to be described in the bibliography),
of his father, brothers and sisters (in the Faiyas-
ul-qawanin, Lucknow MS.), of Jai
Singh (in the
Haft Anjuman, Benares MS.), of Aurangzib's
fourth son Prince Akbar (in the Adab-i-Alamîri,
the Zahur-ul-insha, and the Khatut-i-Shivaji), of
Shah Abbas II. (in a MS. picked up by me in
the Lucknow bazar), the
Mughal-Maratha
correspondence in the Khatut-i-Shivaji, and the
various officials such as Nur-ul-Hassan,
letters of
Radandaz Khan, and Lutfullah Khan, besides

several miscellaneous collections in the libraries
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the India Office
of London, and the Nawab of
Rampur. Mr. P. V.
Mawji of Bombay has collected some Persian
lettersaddressed to Shivaji and his father, but he
has declined to let other scholars use them.
An extremely interesting collection of anec-
dotes about Aurangzib with many of his sayings
and orders on petitions, is the Ahkam-i-Alamgiriy
ascribed to Hamiduddin Khan Nimchah, which
I have translated as Anecdotes of Aurangzib.
INTRODUCTION. XXI
We have a cloud of witnesses, — both professed

histories and collections of letters,
— for the
beginning and the end of Aurangzib's reign ;

but
the intervening period of
nearly thirty jêars
(1667
— 1696) is comparatively dark. I, however,
believe that many other historical letters of
these decades can be discovered in India,
still
especially in the United Provinces of Agra and

Oudh, if my educated countrymen interest them-
selves in the quest and make it a point to
examine the Persian MSS. in private possession
wîth knowledge and care.
The European travellers, Tavernier, Bernier,
and Manucci, who visited India in this reign,
have left long accounts of the country. Their
works are of undoubted value as throwing light
on the condition of the people, the state of trade
and industry, and the history of the Christian
churches in India. Moreover, the criticism of
Indian institutions by foreign observers has a
freshness and weight all its own. But of the
political history of India, apart from the few
events in which they took part or which they
personally witnessed, their report merely re-
produced the bazar rumours and the stories
current among the populace, and cannot be set
against the evidence of contemporary histories

and letters in Persian. Tavernier and Bernier
XXll HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
touch only the beginning of the reign the former ;
took most of his facts from Bernier, who, again,

was indebted to Manucci for several particulars.
The last-named writer's Storta do Moôr covers
the whole reign but he was a run-away lad of
;
poor education when he reached India, and, as is

admitted by his able editor, was a credulous
listener. Hewrote long after most of the events,
and from memory hence we cannot expect
;
accuracy in his narrative. From their position

these foreign travellers had no access to the best
sources of information ; were
the State archives
closed to them.
They visited the makers of
Indian history only occasionally and as suppli-
ants for favours hence they could not derive
;
the oral information which only familiar inter-

course with the highest personages in camp and
Court could have given them. Finall}^ their
imperfect knowledge of literary Persian prevented
them from using the w^ritten annals of the time
and checking the they had received
reports
orally. For instance, Manucci's story of how
Aurangzib, when travelling slenderly guarded,
met with Jai Singh at the head of an army and
with great presence of mind hailed him as a
friend (Storia, i.
320), is proved by the known
dates to have been impossible. The official
annals are so detailed that any wrong date in

INTRODUCTION. XXIU
them clashes with what goes before and after,

and can be at once detected. We must accept
their dates as against those supplied by the
European travellers. Hence, in my narrative, I
have not been able to use Bernier and Manucci

except to a liniited extent, viz., where they
supplement the official histories or record the
writers' personal experiences.
I cannot place history before the public
this
wîthout acknowledging the deep debt of gratitude

I owe to the late Mr. William Irvine, i.c.s., the
author of the Later Mughals. He freely lent me

his own Persian MSS., took great pains in
securing on my behalf permission from European
public libraries to take copies of their MSS.,

and beat down the rates demanded by photo-
graphers in London and
Paris for mechanically
reproducing (by a process called 'rotary bromide

print') Persian MSS. for me. In every difficulty
and doubt that have appealed to him, he has
I
given prompt assistance and advice. A certain

Indian Nawab has a rare volume of Persian
historical letters. I secured his permission to
take a copy of it
expense, and engaged a
at my
scribe. But for more than a year the Nawab's
officers under various pretexts refused my man
access to the MS. At last, in despair I wrote
to Mr. Irvine about the case. He wrote to one

XXIV HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
of his friends, high in the Civil Service of the

U. P., and this gentleman communicated with
the Nawab. The owner of the MS. now had it
copied at own expense, bound the transcript in
his
silk and morocco, and presented it to Mr. Irvine,

who lent it to me as soon as he received it !
Mr. Irvine criticised and emended the first five
chapters of this history, as carefully and minutely

as if it were his own work. His lamented death
has robbed me of the pleasure of presenting
these volumes to him ;
but I am happy that I
could show him at least a portion of the book,

and I have been heartened in my undertaking by
the following cordial appreciation from a critic
of his standing and ability :
—
" I like the style —from this first impression,
— it
being a
judiciouscompromise between the over-crowded stiffness of my
Later MugJials and mere popular, journalese writing, yet —
without any sacrifice of exactness." And again, "I like
very much your attention to genealogy and topography
and above all your recourse to all modern sources of
—
information the Indian Atlas and modern travellers."
Dr. C. R. Wilson, the historian of the Early

Annals the English in Beng-al, who encouraged
of
my historical studies and recommended me,

unsolicited, the Bengal Government for aid,
to
is also beyond the reach of my thanks. The
Education Department of Bengal, at his instance,
very kindly made a grant of £39 5s. for getting
copies of the MSS. I needed from the Bodleian,
INTRODUCTION. XXV
the British Museum, and the Bibliotheque

Nationale of Paris, — the copies to remain in the
Imperial Library, Calcutta, as Government
property, after I had done with them. The
Secretary of State for India has lent me Persian
MSS. from the India Office Library on four
occasions and the Royal Asiatic Society of
London twice, for which
priceless help I am
deeply indebted to them.
Mv thanks are due to the authorities of the
Khuda Bakhsh Library (Bankipur), the Bodleian,
the British Museum, the Cambridge University
Library, the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), and

the Berlin Royal Library, and to H. H. the
Nawab of Rampur, Nawab Abdus Salam Khan
Bahadur (late Sub-Judge, Oudh), Major Vaman
Das Basu, i.m.s. (ret.), and Munshi Shyam
Sundar Lai (of Benares), for their enlightened
courtesy in allowing me to take copies of certain
of their Persian MSS.
Among friends in India who have taken pains

for me in securing the permission of o\vners of
MSS. and engaging copyists, I
gratefully mention
Hafiz Ahmad Ali Khan (Rampur State), Mr.
D. N. Mallik (Electrical Engineer) and Mr.
Maqbul Alam, b.a., ll.b., (Benares), Nor should
I omit the name of my former colleague, Maulvi
Abdul Hai, Lecturer, Patna College, to whom I
XXVI HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
have gone in every difficulty in interpreting

Persian and who gave much of his time to
collating the Persian MSS. copied for me.
In the of Eastern words I
spelling have
followed Hunterian system, restricting ii to
the
express the sound of oo^ except in a very small

number of cases (such as Juinna, nullah^ Calcutta,
&c.) 1 have also in a few instances (like Barham-

deo) from Sanskritising Hindi proper
refrained
names, in order to avoid too great a departure

from the popular pronunciation. All the dates
in the Hijera era have been converted to the
Christian era according to the Old Style.
Two volumes of my history are now
placed
before the public. A third is expected to be
ready in manuscript a year hence. To complete
this long 50 years and give some account
reign of
of the condition of the people, trade, life and
manners, two raiore volumes at least wîll be

needed. I am now on the threshhold of my
subject and can see its distant end but dimly.
July, i()i2. Jadunath Sarkar.
,*, Chapters I— IX, XI— XV, XIX, XXIII and XXIV

were first printed in the Modern Review and a portion of Ch.
XXV in the Indian Review ; but they have been thoroughly
revised and emended before publication in their present
form.
The History of Aurangzib.
CHAPTER I.
Boyhood and Education, i6i8 — 1634.

Muhiuddin Muhammad Aurangzib, who as-
cended the throne of Delhi as
Alamgir 1., was the sixth child
of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, the royal
couple who lie buried in the famous Taj Mahal.
His grandfather, the Emperor Jahangir, after
putting down one of Malik Ambar's attempts to
revive the Ahmadnagar kingship, was leisurely
making a royal progress from Guzerat to Agra,
with Shah Jahan and his family in his train,
when at Dohad,^ on the way to Ujjain, Aurangzib
* Dohad N. 74*20 E., Indian Atlas, Sheet 36 s. \v.)
(22-50
is a subdivision of tine Panch Mahal District in the Bombay
2 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. I.
was born, in the night of 15th Ziqada, 1027 A.H.*

(or, according to European calculation, the night
preceding Sunday, 24th October, 1618 A.D., Old

Style). A few days afterwards when the Imperial
Court reached Ujjain, the capital of Malwa, the
princely infant's birth was celebrated with
befitting splendour."!"
Aurangzib cherished an affectionate memory of

the place of his birth we find him in his old
;
"
age writing to his son Muhammad Azam, Noble
son, the village of Dohad, in the province of
Guzerat, is the birth-place of this sinner. Deem
it proper to treat its inhabitants with kindness.
Conciliate and retain at his post the old man
who has been its faujdar for a long time past.";}:
Shah Jahan wâs intensely devoted to his wife

Mumtaz Mahal, and never in her life parted from
her in weal or wôe. Wherever he moved,
whether marching on a campaign, visiting
different provinces, or, in Jahangir's later years,
fleeing from his father's wrath through the

wilderness of Telingana to —
Bengal, his wife
always bore him company. Thus, Aurangzib was
Presidency, and the town stands just south of the Dohad

Station on the B. B. & C. I. Railway.
*
Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri ed. by Syud Ahmud, p. 250.
f Tuzuk, p. 251.
J Ruqat-i-Alamgiri, lithographed ed., No. 31.

CHAP. BOYHOOD.
1.] j
born on the return march from the Deccan and

Murad Bakhsh"'"' in the fort of Rohtas in South
Bihar.
From 1622 till almost the end of his father's

„ ^
reign, Shah Jahan was under a
Aurangzib a
hostage for his cloud ;
the infatuated old Em-
** ^^*
peror, entirely dominated by his
and imperious consort Nur Jahan, deprived
selfish
Shah Jahan of his posts and fiefs, and at last

drove him into rebellion in self-defence. But the
prince's efforts were in general unsuccessful, and
he had to by way Telingana, Orissa and
flee of
Bengal Jaunpur and

to back again to the Deccan
by the same wild and terrible route, his wife and
children accompanying him. At last he had no
help but to submit to his father and give up his
young sons, Dara and Aurangzib, as hostages.
These two reached Jahanglr's Court at Lahore
in June 1626, and remained under the care of
"j"
Nur Jahan. Shortly afterwards Jahangir died,

Shah Jahan ascended the throne, and the two
boys were escorted by Asaf Khan to Agra, where
a most pathetic scene was acted
their eagerly :
expectant mother clasped her long lost darlings

to her bosom and poured out all her pent
up
* Tuzuk,
391.
t Tuzuk, 380—391, 397, 410. Gladwin, 69—75, 78.

affection for them"* (26 February, 1628). Aurang-

zib's daily allowance was now fixed at Rs. 500.
Thus, at the age of ten he came to a settled

life and arrangements were evi-
;
Educcitton.
now made for his regular
dently
education. SaduUah Khan, who rose to be the
best reputed of Shah Jahan's wazirs, is saidf to
have been one of his teachers. Another teacher
was Mir Muhammad Hashim of Gilan, who after
a study of twelve years at Mecca and Medina
came to India, learnt medicine under Hakim AH
Gilani, and kept a famous school at Ahmadabad,
where he was afterwards made Civil Judge
(Sadr). As Aurangzib's tutor he remained in the
Prince's service till the end of Shah Jahan's
reign. J Bernier§ speaks of MuUa Salih as his

old teacher, but the Persian histories do not
bear this statement out. Of one Mulla Salih
Badakhshani|| we readwas a scholar of
that he
Balkh and had his first audience of Shah Jahan on
4th January, 1647, when Aurangzib was already

—
29 years of age, too old to go to school.
* Abdul Hamid's Padishahnamah ,
I. A. 70, 97, 177.
f Hamiduddin's Ahkam-i-Alamgiri, Ir, MS. 23a. But

Sadullah entered Shah Jahan's service in Dec. 1640. {Pad.
ii. 220).
J Padishahnamah, I. B. 345.
§ Bernier's Travels, ed. by Constable, p. 154.
II
Padishahnamah, ii. 624.
CHAP. I.] EDUCATION. 5
That Aurangzib had a natural keenness of

mind and quickly learnt what he
Knowledge of
^.^^j ' ^^ ^^^ readily -^
believe,
languages.
His correspondence proves that
he had thoroughly mastered the Quran and the
Traditional Sayings of Muhammad (Hadis), and
•was ever ready with apt quotations from them.
He spoke and wrote Arabic and Persian like a
scholar. Hindustani was
mother tongue, the his
language used by the Mughal Court in private

life. He had some knowledge of Hindi, too,
and could talk and recite popular sayings in
that language.* He acquired a mastery over
Chaghtai Turki, as he had served in Balkh and
Qandahar, and the Mughal army contained a
large body of men recruited from Central Asia.
Under exactly the same circumstances Jai Singh
had learnt that foreign tongue. "j"
Aurangzib wrote Arabic in a vigorous and

masterly naskh hand. In this he
Handwriting. r\ ^ j j
used to copy the (Juran, a aeed
of pietv in Muslim eyes. Two manuscripts of
this book he presented to Mecca and Medina,
after richly binding and illuminating them.J
A third copy is preserved at the tomb of Nizam-
*
Masir-i-Alamgiri, 334. Alamgirnamah, 1095.
-} Dilkasha, p. 63.
X Masir-i-Ala7ngiri, 532.
uddin Auliya near Delhi. Others were sold in

his lifetime by this puritan Emperor, who deemed
it sinful to eat the bread of idleness, and used to
ply the trade of copyist and cap-maker in his
leisure hours in order to earn his livelihood.
Copies of these Qurans are known to exist here
and there in India.
*'
His nastaliq and shikasta styles of writing
were also excellent," says Saqi Mustad Khan,
and this we can readily believe, for Aurangzib
was the author of a vast number of letters, and
made it a point to write orders across all peti-
tions in his own hand.* The princes of the
house Akbar were taught handwriting with
of
great care, as the signatures of Shah Jahan and

Dara Shukoh on some Persian MSS. of their
libraries, and the autograph remarks of Jahangir
in his book of fate (a copy of the Diwan of
Hafiz), look remarkably clear and beautiful. }"

In his letters and speeches, he frequently quotes
verses to point his remarks. But
Favourite studies. , ,, - ... ,,
familiar quotations were
these
a part of the mental equipment of every cultured
Muhammadan, and do not prove any special taste
"
for poetry. Indeed his historian remarks, This
*
Ala7ngirnamah, 1092
— '94.
MSS. are
t containing the autographs of these princes
preserved in the Khuda Bakhsh Library, Bankipur.
CHAP. I.]
FAVOURITE STUDIES. 7
emperor did not like to hear useless poetry, still
less laudator\' verses. But he made an exception

infavour of poems containing good counsels."^^
The moral precepts of Sadi and Hafiz he had
evidently learnt by rote in his youth, and he
quoted them to his last day, but he does not

seem to have studied these poets in later life.
Once he asked for the works of a poet named
MuUa Shah. I But we may rightly hold that,
unlike his grandfather he was not fond of poetry,
and unlike Shah Jahan he had no passion for
" His favourite
history. study was theological
works,— Commentaries on the Quran, the Tradi-
tionsof Muhammad, Canon Law, the works of
Imam Muhammad Ghazzali, selections from the

letters of Shaikh Sharf Yahia of Munir, and
Shaikh Zainuddin Qutb Muhi Shirazi, and other

works of that class.":!: We also learn that he
*
Masir-i-Alamgiri, 532.
f Asiatic Society of Bengal Pars. MS. F. 27, $a. He

mentions another poet whose pen-name was Fani.
\ Masir-i-Alamgiri, 531-532. He spent his leisure in tlie
afternoon in investigating theological problems, deliberating

on the philosophy of truth, (lit., 'the certain sciences,')
reading the books and pamphlets of wisemen and saints.
{Alamgirnamah, 1103.) Aurangzib speaks of his having

read two books of Ghazzali (A.S.B. Pers. MS. F, 27, 126a
and b.)
B HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. I.
highly prized the Nihaiyya of Mulla Abdullah

Tabbakh.* Like many other pious Muslims, and
even some ladies of the Mughal royal family,
Aurangzib committed the Quran to memory.
Such intellectual tastes made him find delight
in the society of dervishes, and when he was
Viceroy of the Deccan, he took care to visit the
holymen engaging them

of Islam in his province,
in talk, and reverently learning wisdom at their
feet.
Painting he never appreciated. Indeed the

portraiture of any living being
No taste for the •
-i i -u ^
i
fine arts
'^^^ impossible under an ortho-
dox Islamic king, as an impious
imitation of the Creator. Music he banished
from his Court, in the outburst of devotion which
marked the completion of the tenth year of his
reign. Fine Chinaware he liked, and these were
presented to him by nobles and traders. But he
had none of his father's passion for building.
No masterpiece of architecture, no superb or
exquisite mosque, f hall, or tomb marks his reign.
*
f Except one, the Pearl Mosque in the Delhi palace,
which was begun on 10 Dec. 1659 and completed in 5 years
at a cost of one lakh and sixty thousand rupees, {Alamgir-
namah, 468, Masir-i-Alamgiri, 29). His mosque at

Lahore is not the best one in that city.
CHAP. I.] FIGHT WITH AN ELEPHANT. 9
All he built took the impress of his utili-

that
tarian mind. They were commonplace necessary
things, piles of brickand mortar, which quickly
decayed. Such were the mosques which marked
the scenes of his victories, and the numberless
serais which he built along the Imperial high-
ways running to the south and the west.*

One incident of his boyhood made his fame
ring throughout India, and
Elephant com- j
showedj what ^ rt
he was made
, i i
sturi
batatA^ra
of. It wâs his encounter with a
fighting elephant on 28th May, 1633. That morn-

ing Shah Jahan, who loved this sport, set two
huge elephants, Sudhakar and Surat-sundar by
name, to light a combat on the level bank of the
Jumna near the mansion at Agra which he used
to occupy before his accession. They ran for
some distance and then grappled together just
below the balcony of the morning salute in the
fort. The Emperor hastened there to see the
fight, his eldest three sons riding a few paces
before him. Aurangzib, intent on seeing the
fight, edged his way very close to the elephants.
*
Aurangzib's mosque at Fatihabad or Dharmat, where he
defeated Jaswant Singh, was in ruins when I visited it on
19th October, 1909. For the serais he built, see Alamgir-

namah, 1084.
lO HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [cHAP. I.
The brutes after a while go their grip and

let
each stepped back a little,

cs Auran^zib
Sudhakar's spirit was fully rous-
ed. Losing sight of his opponent
he turned to vent his wrath on the prince
standing b\\ Trumpeting fiercely, the moving
mountain charged Aurangzib. The Prince, then
only fourteen years old, calmly stood his ground,
kept his horse from turning back, and flung his
spear at the elephant's head. All was now con-
fusion and alarm. The crowd swayed this way
and that, men stumbling on one another in their
eagerness to flee. The nobles and the servants
ran about shouting, fireworks were let off to
scareaway the elephant, but all to no eflect.
The animal came on and felled Aurangzib's

horse with a sweep of his long tusk. But the
prince jumped up from the ground, drew his
sword, and faced the raging beast. The unequal
combat would have soon ended fatally for the
heroic boy, but succour was at hand. His
brother Shuja forced his way through the crowd
and smoke, galloped up to the elephant, and
wounded it with his spear. But his horse reared
and he was thrown down. Rajah Jai Singh,
too, came and while managing his shying
up,
steed with one hand attacked the elephant with
the other from the right side. Shah Jahan
CHAP. I.] HEROIC SCORN OF DEATH. II
shouted to his own guards to run to the

spot.
Just then an unlocked for diversion came to
the aid.
princes' The other elephant, Surat-
sundar, ran up to renew the combat, and Sudha-
kar, having now no stomach for the fight, or
being daunted by the spear-thrusts and fire works

discharged at him, fled from the field with his
rival thundering at his heels.
The danger thus passed away, and the princes
were saved. Shah Jahan clasped
"
warded Aurangzib to his bosom, praised
his courage, gave him the title
of Bahadur or 'hero,' and covered him with

presents. The courtiers cried out that the boy
had inherited his father's reckless courage, and
told each other how Shah Jahan in his youth
had attacked a wild tiger sword in hand before
the eyes of Jahangir.*
On this occasion Aurangzib gave a foretaste
of his lofty spirit and royal
Brave words. r i i
•
j
•
contempt for death, in his speech
as reported by Hamiduddin Khan. When his

father lovingly chid him for his rash courage,
he replied, "If the fight had ended fatally for
me it would not have been a matter of shame.
* Abdul Hamid, I. A. —
489 495, Khafi Khan, I. 474. In
one MS. we have Madhukar for Sudhakar,
12 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. I.
Death drops the curtain even on emperors ;

it
is no dishonour. The shame lay in what my

brothers did !"*
Three days afterwards occurred his fifteenth
birthday. The Emperor had the boy weighed
against gold pieces in full Court and presented
him with the amount (5000 mohars,) the elephant
Sudhakar, and other gifts worth two lakhs of
rupees in all. The
heroic deed was celebrated
in Urdu and Persian verses. The Poet Laureate,
Saidai Gilani, surnamed Bedil Khan, got Rs.
5,000 for his ode. Shuja was praised for his

gallant exertions. Another sum of 5,000 gold
pieces was distributed by the Emperor in
charity.")"
Thereafter we get occasional glimpses of
Aurangzib. Next year the Emperor paid a visit

to Kashmir. Aurangzib accompanied him, and
was presented with the parganah of Lukh-bhavan
near Sahibabad or Achbal (September, 1634).:]:
* Hamiduddin Khan's Ahkam-i-Alamgiri, Ir. MS. 15^
& b. Dara Shukoh is

unjustly taunted with cowardice in
the above speech. He was at some distance from Shuja

and Aurangzib, and could not, even if he had wished it,
have come to Aurangzib's aid as the affair was over in a

few minutes. For another version of the incident, see Dow,
iii. 136.
f Abdul Hamid, I. A. 493.
X Abdul Hamid, I. B. 52. Achbal, in the Kuthar Pargana,
CHAP. I.]
FIRST MILITARY COMMAND. IJ
Hitherto Aurangzib had been getting, like

other Mughal princes before they
His first mansab, , ... , , ,
were old enough tor military

appointment, a daily allowance of Rs. 500. But
on 13th December, 1634, though not yet sixteen^
he got his first post in the Mughal peerage, with
the rank of a Commander of Ten Thousand
Horse, with an additional following of 4000
troopers. He was also permitted to use the red
tent, which was a royal prerogative.* The

governorship of the for Deccan was intended
him, and there, under the guidance of the highest
generals of his father's Court, he was expected
to receive the best education then possible for
a man of action and a leader of men. As a
preparation for this high and difficult post he
was given his first lessons in the art of war and

the control of men by being sent to the Bundela
Expedition in September, 1635. |
75- 1
7 E. Long. 33'4i N. Lat., famous for its beautiful
springs described by Bernier (Constable's ed. p. 413), At

the western end of the Pargana and 5 miles to the s. w. of
Achbal is the village of Lokhavan. King Lalitaditya is
said to have built a town here. A
small garden-palace erect-
ed in Mughal times near the spring is

partly constructed of
old materials. (Stein's Rajatarangini, i.
50W, ii.
468.)
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 65.
t Ibid, I. B. 99.
CHAPTER IL
The Bundela War, 1635.
As the old road from Agra to the Deccan leaves
Bundelkhand.
Gwalior,
an extensive jungly tract
side
it skirts
...
on its left hand
known as Bundelkhand. The Jumna river and

the Kaimur
range, meeting in a sharp angle near
Mirzapur, enclose this district on the north, east,
and south. Its western boundary is the edge
of the Malwa plateau. The river Betwa flowing
north-eastwards to the Jumna cuts it into two.
The country took its name from its dominant
race, the Bundelas, a clan of
(jaharwar d
The Bundela /^ «
•
u
J Kajputs,
4.
whose my-
thical genealogy stretches up
to Rajah Pancham, a sworn devotee of the
goddess Vindhya-basini, and even beyond him
to Rama, the hero of the Ramayana.^ The
only element of truth that we can extract from
*
Pogson's History of the Boondelas (1828), 3
— 11, Masir-
ul-Umara, ii.
317.
CHAP. II.J
THE BUNDELA CLAN. I5
this mass of fiction is that a great ancestor of

the family migrated from the Benares, through
the Mirzapur District, and established his rule
over this tract by dispossessing its older rulers,
Afghans and aborigines. Urchha, on the Betwa,

'•'
was their first capital, (founded in 1531). Here

lived the head of the clan. The Bundelas multi-
plied fast, and the younger branches established

principalities all over the land, each centring
round a fort. One of these, Mahoba, sheltered
within a network of ravines, rose to prominence
in the latter half of the seventeenth century,
under, Champat Rao and his son Chhatra Sal,

w^ho long troubled the
Imperial government.
Other scions of the family reigned at Simroha
Shahpur, and many another town."}"
The Bundela power reached its zenith under

Bir Singh Dev, the agent employ-
Bir Singh Dev. j .
t u ^- a •
ed by in
Jahangir murdering
his father's beloved minister Abul Fazl. There
was hardly any favour which the Emperor could
* Elliot's Memoirs... of the Races of the N. W. P. ed. by

Beames, i. 45-46. Imperial Gazetteer {ed. 1906) ix, 68, 70,
Masir-ul- Umara, ii. 131.
t Pogson, II. Urchha is situated 7 m. south-east of Jhansi

fort. Mahoba is midway on the railway line between Jhansi
and Manikpur.
l6 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [cHAP. II.
Rajah.* BIr Singh grew in wealth

refuse to this
and power, and towards the close of his patron's
reign, when the Imperial administration grew
slack, he freely levied contributions from the
neighbouring princes, for none durst com-
plain against the favourite. As a still higher

mark of his was permitted
master's favour he
to build grand temples at Mathura, Urchha, and
other places ;
—
a fact which the Muhammadan
historian can explain only by supposing that
the Islamic Emperor was then sinking into
dotage If With expenditure on
all his lavish
temples and ghats, gifts to Brahmans, and cons-

truction of palaces, forts and lakes, Bir Singh
died in 1627, the master of fabulous weath, fully
—
two krores of rupees, which in Bundela fashion
was buried in wells and other safe places in the
pathless jungles, and their secret confided only to

a iew-X
His eldest son Jhujhar Singh had given offence
to Shah Jahan by leaving the
Jhujhar Singh for his home without
^
capital
punished.
permission, soon after the
* Blochmann's
Ain-i-Akbari, i.
488 and xxv-xxvi M.U.
ii.
197—199-
t M.U. ii.
199. Abdul Hamid's Padishahnamah, I. A.
293-
X Abd. Ham., I. B. 117. 'M
CHAP. II.]
FIRST BUNDELA WAR. I7
Emperor's accession. But

an army of 34,500
soldiers — cavalry,musketeers, and sappers,
foot
penetrated into his country from three directions,

stormed the fort of Irich, slaughtered 2000 of
the garrison including "many young and old,'*
and quickly forced the Rajah to make submission.
He secured pardon only by promising a large
tribute and sending a contingent of his clansmen
to fight in the Emperor's wars in the South.*
To this race of primitive warriors a peaceful

life was impossible. War was their sole occupa-
tion, their sole means of earning glory and riches,
and their only amusement. This restless spirit
made the Bundelas, when not usefully occupied
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 240— 242, 246— 248, Jhujhar's
life in given in M.U. ii.
—
214 217. The cause of his flight
is stated to have been his fear lest the stricter administration of

Shah Jahan should make him disgorge his father's unautho-
rised annexations of territory. Dow
says that "having come
to pay his respects at the court of Agra, he found that an
addition was made in the books of the Imperial Treasury,
to the tribute which he and his ancestors had formerly paid
to the house of Timur. Instead of petitioning for an
abatement of the impost, he fled without taking leave of the
Emperor." (iii. 108.) Khafi Khan, i, 406, says that

Jhujhar was alarmed and fled on learning that Shah Jahan
had been thinking of extirpating his father for his annexa-
tions and exactions during Jahangir's last years. Irich is
stiuated on a bend of the Betwa river, 40 miles N. E. of
Jhansi {Ind. Atlas, sheet 69 N. W.).

l8 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. II.
in war, a bye-word for robbery and disturbance

throughout the seventeenth century.
•'
Jhujhar could not long remain quiet. He led

an army to Chauragarh, an old Gond capital,
beyond the Narmada, captured
Captures Cnau- . •
i •
f •
i
ragarh. ^tjand, in violation of his plight-

ed word, slew the Rajah Prem
Narayan and seized his ancestral hoard, amount-
ing to lo la^hs of rupees. The victim's son
appealed Shah Jahan, but strangely enough,
to
the Mughal Emperor's righteous indignation was
not roused by this act of spoliation, he only
demanded a share of the booty| and offered to
* ix. 70.
Imp. Gazetteer,
+ Abdul Hamid, I. B. 95, gives the Gond king's name as
Bim (=Bhim) Narayan. The Imp. Gaz. xviii. 387, has
Prem. Narayan. Shah Jahan's message to Jhujhar ran
thus: "As you have shed the blood of Bhim Narayan and
his family and seized the country of Garha without my
permission, it is best for you to present the country to my
officers. But if
you wish to be confirmed in that country
you must give up yonv jagirs near your home, in exchange

ofit, and send to me 10 lakhs of rupees out of the cash
taken from Bhim Narayan." This is the official account
revised by Shah Jahan himself. Not a word is said here
about making restitution to the murdered Rajah's son.
Khafi Khan, who admittedly took his facts from this book,
however, says, "Shah Jahan repeatedly wrote to Jhujhar to
restore Bhim Narayan's property to his heirs, but in vain"
(i. 507)-
CHAP. II.] MUGHALS INVADE BUNDELKHAND. I9
leave Jhujhar in possession of his conquest if he

ceded an equivalent territory to the Mughals !
This the Bundela was most unwilling to do.

Deciding on a policy of resistance, he secretly
recalled his son Yograj (surnamed Vikramajit),
whom he had left in charge of his contingent in
Balaghat. The youth slipped away unperceived.
But an energetic Mughal officer, Khan-i-Dauran,
was soon at his heels, reached Ashta from
Burhanpur by forced marches in five days, and
overtook Vikramajit, who fled defeated and
wounded to his father at Dhamuni.'*
A habitual plunderer and refractory chieftain

could not be unsubdued on the edge of the
left
Deccan road. Shah Jahan organised an expedi-

„ , tion to hunt him down.
, Three
Refuses to sub-
mit to the Em- armies were to converge upon
V^^°^' the rebel's country Syed Khan- :
i-Jahan with 10,500 men from Budaun, Abdullah

Khan Bahadur Firuz Jang with 6,000 men from
the north, and Khan-i-Dauran
Armies sent
^yith men from the south-
6,ooo
against him.
west. The Bundela army
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 95-96. Chauragarh is in the
Narsinghpur District, C. P., about 10 miles S. E. of the

Gadarwara Station. Dhamuni is near the Dhasan river
24 m. north of Saugor in C. P. {Ind. Atlas, 70 S. W.).

20 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. II.
numbered less than 15,000 but were aided by the

rocks and jungles of their home.'*
Among the Hindu mercenaries of the Mughal
army was a Bundela claimant in w^hom Shah

Jahan found a useful tool. Devi Singh was the
representative of the eldest branch of the Rajahs

of Urchha, which had been set aside by Jahangir
when he gave the throne to his favourite Bir
Singh Dev. Jhujhar had duly succeeded his

father but in Devi Singh's eyes the usurpation
;
continued, and he himself was the rightful heir

to the Bundela throne. He was now earning
his bread as a Captain in the Mughal army, and
waiting some opportunity of winning the
for
Emperor's favour and ousting his rival. Shah

Jahan now offered to make him Rajah of Urchha,
and got the invaluable help of a Bundela con-
tingent burning with hatred
Jhujhar and of
eager to guide the invaders through the jungles

and disclose all the weak points of their native
land.l
The three Mughal generals were of equal rank.
* The Bundela
army consisted of about 5000 cavalry and
10,000 infantry, whereas in the Mughal army the horse
outnumbered the foot several times. 'f.
f Abdul Hamid, I. B. 96 — 98, 106. M.U. ii.

295, 213. >;,
CHAP. II.] AURANGZIB SUPREME COMMANDER. 21
and would have been hard to ensure unity

it
plan and co-operation among

of ^
Aurangzib ap- r i i
pointed supreme them if they had been left to

commander. A supreme com-
themselves.
mander was needed, whose high position would
of itself enforce discipline and obedience. For
this purpose the Emperor sent his son Aurangzib,
then a lad of sixteen, with the rank of a Comman-
der of 10,000 and escorted by 1000 archers of the
guard and 1000 horse. He was to be the
no-
minal chief of the expedition, and stay far in the
rear. The three generals were to advise him

about every military operation, but his voice
was to be decisive, and they were not to act
without consulting him.'="'
In the meantime an ultimatum had been
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 99-100. Dow's highly coloured

account very amusing to read
is "Aurungzebe was sent
:
against him. This was the first opportunity given to that

young lion of rioting in blood.... The war was protracted for
two years... Aurungzebe though but thirteen years of age,

displayed that martial intrepidity... which could not be
restrained. He was present in every danger, &c." (iii. 132).
If campaign was meant to be Aurangzib's baptism of
the
fire, we must say that the baptism was performed at a great
distance from the fire. Throughout the war the young
prince was kept by his guardian safe in the rear, many

miles behind the fighting line.
presented to Jhujhar Singh he must submit,

:
pay a fine of 30 lakhs, and cede

Urchha takS!*^^ ^ district. But these terms had
been rejected. After the rainy
season the three divisions united together
near Bhander, about 25 miles north-east of
Jhansi, and matched upon Urchha. Every day

the pioneers cut the jungle and extended
the road, while the Bundela skirmishers shot
at them under cover of the trees, but with no
success. On 2nd October, 1635, the army arrived
at a village two miles from Urchha; and the
Bundela prince in the Imperial camp, fired with
domestic hatred and ambition, stormed the
hillock where the enemy had mustered in force
and took many prisoners. At this Jhujhar lost
heart, removed his family to Dhamuni and soon
afterwards fled thither himself. Early in the
morning October the Mughals scaled the
of 4th
walls of the Bundela capital, while the small
garrison left by Jhujhar escaped through the
opposite gate.*
A
day was spent in taking full possession of
the city and installing Devi Singh as Rajah.
Then the Mughal army crossed
Fort of Dha-
jj^g Betwa and hastened south-
mum captured.
wards to Dhamuni. But their
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 98 — 100, 106-107.
CHAP. II.]
DHAMUNI CAPTURED. 2^
prey had again fled.Jhujhar Singh had found no

safety in Dhamuni, but gone further south,
across the Vindhya hills and the Narmada river,
to Chauragarh in the land of the Gonds.
Dhamuni had, however, been prepared to stand

a siege. The houses round the fort had beeri
razed to the ground and a gallant Rajput named
Ratnai left in command. On i8th October
the Imperialists arrived before the fort and began
siege operations. The garrison fought till mid-
night, and then sent a man to Khan-i-Dauran to
beg for quarter. But a body of Ruhelas had run
their trenches to the edge of the bamboo thicket
adjoining the eastern wall of the fort, and

occupied the jungle under cover of the darkness.
After mid-night some of them entered the fort
from that side and began to plunder. Khan-i-
Dauran soon arrived and tried to restore order
in the darkness. The fort was rapidly filling
with the victors when suddenly a powder maga-
zine in a tower of the southern wall took fire
from the torch of a careless plunderer a dread- ;
ful explosion followed, blowing up 80 yards of

the enormously thick wall and killing 300 Rajputs
standing under the wall and also 200 horses."*'
News arrived about the exact route of the
* Abdul B. 108— no.

Hamid, I,
24 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. I I.
fugitives, and on 27th October the pursuit was

ês"êd. Arriving at Chaura-
Pursuit of Jhuj-
Bar through garh the Imperialists found that
Jhujhar had evacuated that fort
also, after breaking up the artillery, burning
all and blowing
property, up the old Gond
palaces. A Mughal garrison was posted here,
but the main army encamped four miles off, at
Shahpur. Here they learned that Jhujhar was
flying through the Gond kingdoms of

south
Deogarh and Chanda, with 6000 soldiers and 60
elephants, and making about 16 miles a day.
Though he had got a start of 14 days, the
Mughal generals took up the chase from Shah-
pur with a light force which daily covered 40
miles. On the frontier of Chanda they came
upon his traces and doubled their speed. Jhujhar
turned at bay, fought the Mughals obstinately,
but was defeated and driven into the jungle,
and the pursuit was resumed. The fugitive,
encumbered with women and property, and
hindered in his movements by his paucity of
horses, had no peace. He could not snatch any
sleep, nor refresh his worn-out horses. As soon
as he halted for the night, he heard of the
approach of the pursuers, broke up his camp

and urged his tired men and beasts on again.
All means of escape were tried ;
the foot-tracks
CHAP. II.]
JHUJHAR MURDERED. 25
of the elephants were rubbed out treasure- ;
laden elephants were sent by another path to lure

the Mughals away from the road taken by the
Bundela chief. But the Imperialists were too
astute they neglected
; everything else and
steadily pursued the rebel himself. They also
bribed the local landowners, who showed them

the way and kept them regularly informed of
the movements of Jhujhar, that the jungle
so
was now a hindrance rather than a shelter to
him. And from the thievish Gonds no Bun-
dela could expect mercy.*
Jhujhar's party was now divided, but all to
no purpose. His sons were overtaken, and got

no time to slay their women, as was the Rajput
custom when death was to be preferred to dishon-
our. A few of the ladies had been stabbed,
when the Mughals fell upon them, slew the
guards, and captured the Bundela royal family.|
The rebel chief and his eldest son Vikramajit
had fled into the heart of the jungle, where their
_, „ doom overtook them. The
Jhujhar mur-
dered by the Gonds, moved by their instinct
^'
of plunder and hope of reward
from the Mughals, surprised the exhausted princes
* Abdul B. 110-113.
Hamid, I.
f Abdul Hamid, I. B. 114-115.

in their and cruelly did them to death.*

sleep
Their heads were cut off and sent to the Emperor
(December, 1635), who exposed them on the
gates of his camp at Saihur.t
But their lot was happy in comparison. Happy
* The
following very graphic and seemingly true account
of their end is given by Dow (iii. 133) but we know not ;
what Persian history he translated, and hence we cannot

verify and accept his narrative. "The unfortunate Prince
was, at length, overcome with fatigue. He came into a
forest, and finding a pleasent plain in the middle, he resolved
to halt ; dreaming of no
danger in the centre of an
impervious wood. Both he and his followers alighted, and
tying their horses to trees, betook themselves to rest. A
barbarous race of men possessed the country round. They had
not seen the Raja's troops, but the neighing of his horses
led some of them to Looking from the thicket
the spot.
into the narrow plain where the fugitives lay, they perceived,
to their astonishment, a number of men richly dressed,
sleeping on the ground and fine horses standing near, with
;
furniture of gold and silver. The temptation was too great

to be withstood by men who had never seen so much wealth
before. They rushed upon the strangers and stabbed them
in their sleep. While they were >et dividing the spoil,
Nuserit came. The robbers were slain, and the head of
the Raja was brought back to the army."
f Abdul Hamid, I. B. 116-117. Khafi Khan describes

the war in i.
506 —516.
CHAP. II.]
FATE OF HIS FAMILY. 27
too was Rani Parvati, Bir Singh's widow, who

died of her wounds. A more
His women
placed in the terrible fate awaited the captive
Mughal harem. j^^j^^ ^^^ survived: mothers
and daughters they were robbed of
of kings,
their religion, and forced to lead the infamous
life of the be the unloved
Mughal harem,*
— to
plaything of their master's passion for
a day or
two and then to be doomed to sigh out their days
like bondwomen, without knowing the dignity
of a wife or the joy of a mother. Sweeter far
for them would have been death from the hands
of their dear ones than submission to a race that
generosity to the fallen, no chivalry
knew no to
the weaker sex.
Three captives of tender age, (two sons and

one grandson of Jhujhar,) were made Musal-
mans. Another son, Udaybhan,
Children con-
verted to Islam.
^^^ Shyam -^
Dawa the old and
faithful minister of the house,
who had taken refuge in Golkonda and been
delivered toShah Jahan, refused to apostatize
and were executed in cold blood. "j"
The fort of Jhansi, with its big guns and war
* Abdul B. 133. Khafi Khan,

Hamid, I. i.
519.
f Abdul Hamid, 1. B. 133, 139. Khafi Khan, i.

519,.
523. According to the latter the converts were Durgabhan,

^8 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. II.
material was forced to capitulate at the end of

October. The Imperial officers
Spoils of war, .
, ,
now organised a
,
regular hunt
for the buried treasure of Bir Singh. The jungle
was carefully searched and many wells filled
with gold and silver were discovered in its
untrodden depths. The spoils of war amounted
to one krore of rupees besides other valuable
property.*
As for the Gonds, their services against Jhujhar

were forgotten. The Imperial forces in pursuit
had reached the frontier of Chanda, the leading
"Gond kingdom. Such an honour had to be
dearly paid for. The Rajah of Chanda was
compelled to wait on the victors on his frontier,
on the bank of the Pranhita river, pay down
6 lakhs in cash, and promise an annual tribute of
20 elephants or Rs. 80,000 as an equivalent. j"
This opened the door to future troubles, and his
kingdom was subjected to repeated exactions by
theMughals in the next reign.
a son of Jhujhar, and Durjan Sal and Narsingh Dev, his
grandsons.
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 133, 139, and buried
119, (for
treasure) no, 117, 123.
t Abdul Hamid, I. B. 117-118.

CHAP. II.]
TEMPLE TURNED INTO MOSQUE. 29
During the campaign in the Gond country

Aurangzib had come to Dha-
Temple convert- ^^^. ^^^ -^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^
'
edinto mosque.
fighters. At his request Shah
Jahan paid a visit to the newly conquered
country, reaching Datia and Urchha at the end
of November. At the Bundela capital "the
Islam-cherishing Emperor demolished the lofty
and massive temple of Bir Singh Dev near his
palace, and erected a mosque on its site."-''" To
this Devi Singh, the newly appointed Rajah,
made no objection. The temples of his gods
might be defiled, his brave and proud clansmen
might be butchered, insolent aliens might
down " wîth
trample his fatherland the hoofs of
their horses," the house might
princesses of his
be dragged into a shame worse than death, —

but he could now enjoy the lordship of the
country, he could now sit on the throne of
Urchha and call himself a Rajah and the head
of the Bundela clan, and therefore he rejoiced.
For this he had laboured, and now he had his
reward Among the Hindu Rajputs who assisted
!
at this pious work by fighting under the Mughal

banner were Sisodias and Rathors, Kachhwahs
and Hadas,!
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 121-122.
f A large body of Rajputs served in the army sent against

3° HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. II.
But the noblest of the Bundelas did not bow

'^^^^ *° *^^ ^^^^ôr. They
Bundelas of
Mahoba keep up gathered under the brave Cham-
pat Kao of Mahoba, crowned
Jhujhar's infant son Prithwiraj, and raided the
territory of Urchha. This boy-king was soon
afterwards captured and lodged in the state-
prison of Gwalior.* But though one faineant
Rajah after another reigned at Urchha, Champat
Rao and his heroic son Chhatra Sal continued
their wars to the end of the century. With
them, however, it was a fruitless struggle. They
could not hope to hold Urchha for good and
unite the Bundelas under one sceptre they only ;
devastated the territory loyal to the Mughals,

and spread havoc and insecurity over the land,
till in the next century a mightier race of plun-
Jhujhar. Their captains are named in Abdul Hamid, I. B.
96 97i 99-100. To contrast the Hindu spirit with the Muham-

madan let us consider an imaginary parallel. Suppose that
when Clive after winning Plassey marched to Murshidabad
and placed Mir Jafar on the throne, he had ordered the chief
mosque of the town to be converted into a Christian church,
where pigs would be sacrificed every year on Atonement
Day, would Mir Jafar have consented to take the crown on
such a condition, would the Muslim troops in the East
India Company's service have submitted to this insult to
their religion ?
* Abdul Hamid, ii. 136, 193-194.

CHAP. II.]
AURANGZIB TO DECCAN. 3I
derers appeared on the scene, and Muslim and

Bundela alike bowed down to the Maratha."-'-'
Aurangzib returned from Dhamuni to wait on
his father near Urchha, and together they
travelled through the country, viewing its lakes
and forts, beautiful scenery, and coverts for game.
Bv way of Sironj Daulatabad,
they reached
where Aurangzib on 14th July, 1636, formally
took leave of the Emperor to act as Viceroy of
the Deccan."!"
* Abdul Hamid,
Pogson, 108, 123 et seq. ii. 221, 303,
304 (Champat submits and enters Dara's service). Alamgir-

namah, (sides with Aurangzib, 92), 301. Masir-i-Alamgiri,
169, M.U. ii. 294 and 321.
f Abdul Hamid, I. B. 118, 122-123, 134. ^c., 205.

—
Topographical Notes. The fort of L'rchha had walls made
of stones laid on one another without mud or mortar. It
had no battlement. The walls were about 8 miles in length.

The river Betwa washes its eastern face. (I. B. 122).
The northern, eastern and southern faces of the fort of
Dhamuni were too steep to allow
mining or trenching opera-
tions by besiegers. Onwestern side, where the ground
the
is level, there were ditches 20 cubits deep, close to bamboo
thickets under the walls. (107).
fl
CHAPTER III.
First Viceroyalty of the Deccan,

1636
— 1644.
Towards the close of Akbar's reign, the Mughal
Empire began to extend beyond the Narmada
river, which had so long been
The IWughals southern
enter the Deccan.
-jg boundary, except
for the coast-strip running from
Guzerat to Surat. Khandesh, the rich Tapti
valley, was annexed in the year 1599.
"•'
Taking
advantage and weakness reigning
of the discord
in Ahmadnagar, Akbar wrested from it Berar,
the southern portion of the present Central
Provinces. The murder of the heroic Chand
Bibiby her factious nobles delivered the city of
Ahmadnagar into his hands (1600) the boy ;
Sultan was deposed and the kingdom annexed. "j*
Thus few years the Mughal frontier had

in a
been pushed from the Narmada to the upper
* Berar in Elliot, VI. 84, 94, 98. Khandesh, VI. 134 — 146.
f Elliot, VI. 99 — loi.
CHAP. III.] MALIK AMBAR. 33
courses the Krishna river (here called the

of
Bhima). But the annexation was in form only.

The new territory was too large to be effectively
governed or even fully conquered. Everywhere,
especially in the south and the west, local officers
of the old dynasty refused to obey the conqueror,
or began to set up puppet princes as a screen for
their self-assertion. The Sultans of Bijapur and
Golkonda seized the adjacent districts of their
fallen neighbour.
During Jahangir's feeble reign the Mughal

advance was stayed and even beaten back. The
Emperor lay under the voluptu-
Pause during ^^^ j^j^^^ His
^^^ ^^ jj ^j
Jahangir s reign.
generals took bribes from the
Deccani kings and let the war languish.* A
great leader, too, arose in the South. Malik
Ambar, an Abyssinian of rare genius and capa-
city, became prime minister of the shadowy king
of Ahmadnagar, and for a time restored the
vanished glories of the house. His wise revenue
system made the peasantry happy, while enrich-
ing the State. A born leader of men, he con-

ciliated all parties, maintained order, and left a
* For the Deccan

Mughal wars in the in Jahangir's
reign,
seeAbdul Hamid, I. B. 182 — 201, —
Khafi Khan, i. 282 294,
304—307, 314—324, 347—350. Gladwin, 19, 21, 25, 37—39,
51—54, etc.
24 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. III.
name and public benefit which

for justice, vigour
has not been forgotten yet* Building up a

Powers he attack-
grand alliance of the Deccani
ed the Mughals in overwhelming force, drove
them back to Burhanpur, and closely invested
their Viceroy in that city (1620). The crisis
broke the sleep of Jahangir. His brilliant son

Shah Jahan was Deccan with a strong
sent to the
firmness and skill he
relieving force, and by
recovered much that had been lost since the death
of Akbar. But the internal discords of the

Mughal Court during Jahangir's dotage prevented
the effectual conquest of the Deccan and the
cause of the Imperialists did not prosper.
With the accession of Shah Jahan to the
throne of Delhi the scene chang-
ed. He began a vigorous policy
ShfhtlLn""^"
Deccan. His generals soon
in the
felt that their new master could not be befooled
or disobeyed. Husain Shah, the last king of the

Nizam Shahi dynasty, was captured (1633), and
the old possessions of his house began to be won
by his vanquisher.!
* For Malik Ambar see Abdul Hamid, I. B. 34,
ig7_2oo, Khafi Khan, 273-276, 282—285, 291—294,304,

i.
305, 314—322, 347—350, Gladwin, 51— 54, 73—76, Dilkasha,

lo-ii, 90— 92, Grant Duff, i. 94—97, I"dia Office Persian
MS. No. 1957 {Tarikh-i-Shivaji),

6b — 76.
the hands
f This king of Ahmadnagar, a mere puppet in
CHAP. III.] MUGHALS OPPOSED IN DECCAN. 35
But a fresh complication now arose. The

Sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda cast longing
glances at the adjacent forts and districts of
Ahmadnagar, and tried to secure parts of the
floating wreckage of the ruined kingdom.

Nizam Shahi officers entered the service of the
Bijapur king or were secretly aided by him in

resisting the Mughals. He bribed them to give
up to him some of their late master's forts.
Shahji Bhonsla, the father of the celebrated

Shivaji, with his light cavalry gave the Mughals
great trouble. He could not be finally subdued

without first getting control over Bijapur and
Golkonda.'--'
The occasion called for heroic exertions, and

Shah Jahan made his prepara-
t'°°^ °" befitting scale. For
.Sr/o/wir" a.
more efficient administration,
Daulatabad and Ahmadnagar were now separat-
ed from the province of Khandesh and made an
of his minister Fatih Khan (the son of Ambar), was given

up to the Mughals at the capture of Daulatabad, 17th June
1633, (Abdul Hamid I. A. 528) and
imprisoned in Gwalior
in September (540). Shahji set up another prince, whom he
surrendered in November or December 1636. This boy is
called a son (I. B. 135) and elsewhere a kinsman {khesh)
of Nizam Shah (I. B. 36, 229, 256).
* Abdul B. 35, 135, 140.
Hamid, I.
36 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. III.
independent charge, with its separate viceroy

and (November, 1634). Early in the
capital,
next year a Mughal force from Daulatabad gave
Shahji a long chase, but returned to Ahmadnagar
without being able to catch the swift Maratha.
The Emperor himself arrived at Daulatabad to
direct the operations (21st February, 1636.)*
Three large armies, totalling 50,000 men, were
held ready to be launched upon Bijapur and
Golkonda they did not submit, while a fourth,
if
eight thousand strong, under Shaista Khan, was

despatched to capture the Nizam Shahi forts in
the north-west, and to take possession of the
Junnar and Nasik districts."!"
The news of this immense armament cowed

down Abdullah, the king of
Golkonda sub- r^n
^^-i- j 1 •,
jjj.jg Ijoikonaa, and without striking
a blow in defence of his inde-
pendence he agreed to become a vassal of the
Mughals. With an abjectness shameful in a
crowned head, he promised an annual tribute,
coined gold and silver pieces at his capital in
the name of Shah Jahan, and caused the Mughal
Emperor to be proclaimed from the pulpit as
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 62, 68-69, 138.
t For Shaista Khan's operations, Abdul Hamid, I. B.

135
— 141, 146 — 150,Khafi Khan, i. 521 523. —
CHAP. III.] MUGHALS RAVAGE BIJAPUR. 37
his suzerain, while he stood by in loyal approval !
(April, 1636.)-
jj
The king of Bijapur had not fallen so low as

_,, that. He made a stand for the
Bijapur ravaged.
power and dignity of his an-
cestors. But the three Mughal armies at once
entered his kingdom from three points, Bidar
in the N. E., Sholapur in the W. and Indapur
in the S. W. With a ruthlessness surpassing that
of the French who desolated the Palatinate, the
Mughal invaders everywhere destroyed all traces
of cultivation, burnt down the houses, drove off
the cattle, butchered the villagers, or dragged
them away to be sold as slaves. With a refine-
ment of cruelty prisoners
they forced their
to carry their own property for the benefit
of the captors Flourishing villages were
!
ruined for ever, and the population thinned."!"

But like the Dutch of a generation later, the
* Abd. Ham. I. B. 145.
t Khan-i-Dauran slew 2000 men at the village of Kalian

(Abdul Hamid, I. B. 151). And so also at other places.
Khan-i-Zaman in the
Kolhapur district sold 2000 prisoners
of war, male and female, into slavery (Abd. Ham. I. B.
^63). The operations of Khan-i-Dauran's division are
described in Abd. Ham. I. B. 151— 154, Syed Khan-i-
Jahan's in 155 160, — Khan-i-Zaman's in 160—165. The
whole in Khafi Khan, i.
520 —521, 525 —530.
38 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CAAP. Ill,
Bijapuris opposed to their foes the courage of

despair. They cut the dam of the lake of
Shahpur, flooded the country round the capital,
and thus saved the city from invasion. The
Mughal raiders returned baffled to their own
territory.*' Both sides now felt the need of peace,
and a compromise was soon arrived at. Shah
Jahan made a treaty with the king of Bijapur"j*
on the following terms —

Adil Shah, the king of Bijapur, must ac-
(i)
knowledge the overlordship of

Terms of peace ^-^^ and promise to
with Bijapur.
Emperor
'^ ^
obey his orders in future.
(2) The pretence a Nizam Shahi kingdom

of
should be ended and all its territories divided
between the Emperor and the Bijapur king. Adil
Shah should not violate the new Imperial frontier
nor let his servants hinder the Mughal officers
in occupying and settling the newly annexed

districts.
(3) The Sultan of Bijapur was to retain all his
ancestral territory with the following additions

from the Ahmadnagar kingdom in the west, :
—
the Sholapur and Wangi mahals, between the
* Abd. Ham. I. B. 153, Khafi Khan, i.

527.
f For the treaty with Bijapur see Abdul Ham. I. B.

168—173, 203, and Khafi Khan, i. 531—534. 537- Fof the
treaty with Golkonda, Abd. Ham. I. B. 177 — 180.
CHAP. III.]
TREATY WITH BIJAPUR. 39
Bhima and the Sina rivers, including the forts

of Sholapur and Parenda in the north-east, the
;
parganahs of Bhalki and Chidgupa ;* and that

portion of the Konkan which had once belonged
to the Nizam Shahs, including the Puna and
Chakan districts. These acquisitions comprised
of 20 lakhs
50 parganahs and yielded a revenue
of hun (or eighty lakhs of rupees). The rest of
the Nizam Shahi dominion was to be recognized
as annexed to the Empire beyond question or
doubt.
(4) Adil should pay the Emperor a

Shah
peace-offering of twenty lakhs of rupees in cash
and kind. But no annual tribute was imposed.
(5) Golkonda being now a State under Im-

perial protection, Adil Shah should in future
treat it with friendship, respect its frontier (which
was fixed at the river Manjira, or roughly at 78°

East longitude), and never demand costly
presents from its Sultan, to whom he must behave
"like an elder brother."
(6) Each side undertook not to seduce the

*
Wangi, i8*ii N. 75*12 E. one mile E. of the Bhima and
21 m. S. W. of Parenda (Ind. At., 39 S. E.) Parenda, i8'i5
N. 75'3i E. {Ibid.) Bhalki, i8-2 N. 77'i5 E., 19 m. N. E.
of Kalian! {Ibid, 56.) Chidgupa 17*42 N. 77*17 E., 21 m. S. E.
of Kaliani and 10 m. W. of Homnabad {Ibid, 57). Chakauy
18-45 N- 73"55 E-. 30 m. S. of Junnar {Ibid, 39 N. W.).
officers of the other from their master's service,

nor to entertain deserters, and Shah Jahan pro-
mised for himself and his sons that the Bijapur
king would never be called upon to transfer any
of his officers to the Imperial service.
(7) Shahji Bhonsla, who had set up a prince-

ling of the house of Nizam Shah, should not be
admitted to office under Bijapur, unless he ceded
Junnar, Trimbak, and some other forts still in his
hands to Shah Jahan. If he declined, he was
not to be harboured in Bijapur territory or even
allowed to enter it.
On 6th May, 1636, Shah Jahan sent to Adil
Shah a solemn letter impressed
Treaty ratified. . , , , r , •
j-
with the mark
.
of his palm dip-
ped in Vermillion, promising the above terms
with an appeal to God and the Prophet to be
witnesses. A portrait of the Emperor enclosed
in a frame set with pearls and emeralds and
hung by a string of pearls, which Adil Shah had

begged, accompanied the letter. The Bijapur
king received them on the 20th and in return
delivered to the Mughal ambassador an auto-
graph letter sealed with his own seal, formally

agreeing to the treaty, and in the presence of the
ambassador swore on the Quran to observe the
conditions.*
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 167, 173, 175.
CHAP. III.] TREATY WITH GOLKONDA. 4I
For the ratification of the treaty an abstract

of it was engraved on a gold plate and delivered
to Adil Shah.
A still happier settlement was effected with
the Sultan of Golkonda. On
^''^
GôJkonda. 25th Juneworth 40
presents
lakhs of rupees arrived from him,
with an autograph letter in which he vowed
allegiance to Emperor. Out of the four
the
lakhs of hun, which he was bound to pay every
year to the kings of Ahmadnagar, one-half was
transferred to the Emperor, and the other remit-
ted for the future.* This tribute was stipulated
for in hunSf aSouth Indian gold coin weighing
about 52 grains. But as the exchange value of
the hun in relation to the rupee afterwards varied,
the king of Golkonda sowed another of the seeds
of his future disputes with the Mughals-I
Thus after forty years of strife the affairs of the
êccan were at The
last settled.
Mughal position
in tnc Deccan position of the Emperor was
assertedbeyond challenge, his
boundaries clearly defined, and his suzerainty
over the Southern kingdoms formally established.
A long period of peace could be now looked
forward to, except for the hunting down of Shahji
* Abdul
Hamid, I. B. 177 179, —
t Adab-z - Alamgiri {Khuda. Bakhsh MS.) 56a.
(who shadowy Nizam Shahi king by

Still led a
and the capture of a few forts like
the string),
Udgir and Ausa, where the old Nizam Shahi

officers still defied the Mughals. The Bijapur
king, therefore, requested Shah Jahan
to return
to Northern India, as his continued presence with
a large army was scaring away the Deccan
peasantry from their homes and fields, and pre-
venting the restoration of cultivation. As for
the five forts in Shahji's hands, Adil Shah himself
would wrest them from the usurper for the
Mughals,
Nothing being now left for Shah Jahan to do
in the Deccan, he turned his back on Daulatabad
(nth July, 1636) and set out for Mandu. Three
days afterwards he sent away Aurangzib after

investing him with the viceroyalty of the
Deccan.*
The Mughal Deccan at this time| consisted of
four provinces :
—
I. Khandesh or the Tapti valley, between the
Satpura range in the north and

Tfl}ig^îprovinc-
cs in the Deccan.
jj^g Sahyadri mountain in the
-'
south, with its capital at Burhan-

pur and fort at Asirgarh.
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 202, 205.

Abdul Hamid, I. B. 205, 62-63.
CHAP. III.] AREA OF MUGHAL DECCAN. 45
II. Berar, south-east of Khandesh, being

bounded on the north by the Mahadeo hills and
the Gond territory at the heart of the modern
Central and on the south by the
Provinces,
Ajanta range and the Painganga river. Its
capital was Ellichpur, and fort Gawilgarh.
Telingana, a vast and undefined territory

III.
of hillsand forests, with a sparse and savage

population, stretching south of Berar from
Chanda and the Wainganga river to the northern
and north-eastern frontiers of Golkonda. The
whole of it was upland (Balaghat)r*
IV. Daulatabad, with Ahmadnagar and
other dependencies. This was the Deccan proper
and contained the seat of the viceroy at the fort
of Daulatabad, while the civil station founded
by Malik Ambar a few miles off, at Khirki,.
rapidly grew in size and splendour under Aurang-
zib and was newly named Aurangabad. The
province was bounded on the north by the Ajanta
hills and the Painganga river. Its eastern front-
ier as now defined was an imaginary line drawn
about 77*15 East longitude, along the Manjira

river, from Nander to Qandahar"|" and Udgir.
* The Golkonda frontier was along the Manjira river,
west of Karimungi, 9 m. N. E. of Bidar (sheet 56) Abdul
Hamid, I. B, 230, has Kiimgir, evidently a mistake.
f Qandahar in the Deccan, 35 miles north of Udgir {Ind.
From the last named fort the line took a sharp

turn due west to Ausa (a little above the i8th
degree of North latitude), and then bent north-
westwards by the northern limit of the Sholapur
district, and the forts of Visapur, Parner and
Junnar, till it struck the Western Ghats. At

this part the Ghod river was the southern limit.
Beyond Junnar, the boundary ran northwards
along the Ghats, till it met the s. w. frontier of

Khandesh at the angle where the Chandor hills
branch off eastwards.'"''"
There were in all 64 forts, mostly perched on

hills, in these provinces, and the total
four
revenue was five krores of rupees, with which
Aurangzib was to meet the charges of ad-

all
ministration. All fief-holders in the Deccan

received orders to wait on the prince with their
fixed contingents of troops, as ten forts had yet
to be conquered.
Shah Jahan had before his departure deputed
two generals, one to besiege
Capture of Udgir. ,,, .
, . . . ,
Udgir and Ausa in the s. e., and

the other to conquer Junnar in the west and crush
Shahji.
At. 56). Nilang, a fort midway between Udgir and Ausa,

belonged to Bijapur.
*
Chamargunda spoken of as near the frontier of Mughal
is
Ahmadnagar (Abd. Ham., I. B. 137). The province of

CHAP. III.] FORT UDGIR TAKEN. 45
Khan-i-Dauran with his division arrived before

Udgir"'* on 19th June and at once took possession
of village under the fort.
the Trenches were
opened on the s., the w., and the s. w., and mines
run from the western side. As the mines ap-
proached the wall, the garrison lost heart and
their leader, an Abyssinian named Siddi Miftah,
opened negotiations for But he

surrender.
demanded too high a price, and the siege was
pressed on. A mine was fired and the outer
earth-work (technically called Shir Haji,) a
hundred yards in circuit, was blown down wîth
all its guns, ballista and other armaments. But
as the citadel wâs unharmed, no assault was deli-
vered. At last on 28th September, after a defence
of more than three months, the fort capitulated ;
Siddi Miftah was taken into Imperial service with
the title of Habsh Khan and the rank of a Com-
mander of Three Thousand."}*
Meantime Ausa had been invested and a detach-
Daulatabad included the sarkars of Ahmadnagar, Patan,

Sangamnir, and Fatihabad or Dharur
Bir, Jalnapur, Junnar,
{Ibid, 62.)
*
Udgir, i8-2i N. 77-10 E. (Indian Atlas, Sh. 56) 24 miles
north of Bhalki. Ausa, 18-15 N. 76-33 E., five miles south
of the Towraj river which flows into the
Manjira (Ibid.).
t Abdul Hamid, I. B. 217-219, 248.
46 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. III.
ment leftunder Rashid Khan to carry on its

,. .. r . siege. The fall of Udeir set free
Fall of Ausa. , , r
a large force for strengthening the
attack, while it damped the ardour of the defend-
ers of Ausa. The commandant, a Rajput
named Bhojbal, kept up a ceaseless fire on the
besiegers. But when the trenches reached the
edge of the ditch and mining was started,
Bhojbal at last lost heart, gave up the fort (i9tb
October), and wâs taken into the Imperial army
as a Commander of One Thousand. '=•'
Khan-i-Zaman's had been equally

division
successful in the Junnar district and the Konkan."]"
A Bijapur contingent under
"' * °^
Randaula Khan co-operated with
Shrh'f
him according to the new treaty.
Leaving Ahmadnagar about the end of June, he
marched on Junnar, of which the town was held
by the Mughals and the fort by the Marathas.
Two thousand men were told off to invest it,
while the general himself marched with the rest
of his army to capture Shahji's home near Puna.
Heavy rain detained him for a month on the bank
f Abdul Hamid, I. B. 225

— 230. Junnar, 19*12 N.
73-56 E. (Ind. At. 39 N. W.).
CHAP. III.] PURSUIT OF SHAHJI. 47
of the Ghod river.* When at last the Mughals

reached Lauhgaon on the Indrayani
34 river,
miles from Shahji's camp, the Maratha chief fled
south to the hills of Kondhana (Sinhagarh) and
Torna.|
The Mughals could not follow^ him at once as
they had to cross three big rivers

Shahji submits. .
and also vsâited to see whether

Randaula Khan would succeed in inducing Shahji
to give up his forts peacefully. At last they
crossed the Bhor-ghat in three divisions. Mean-
time Shahji had fled to the Konkan by the
Kumbha Pass and begged for asylum in vain at
Danda-Rajpuri and other places. Then he
doubled back by the same pass. But hearing
that the Mughals had entered the Konkan, he lost
his head, and fled towards the fort of Mahuli,
some 32 miles north-east of Bombay. Khan-i-
Zaman followed hard on his track, leaving his
baggage behind. News came to him that Shahji
was at Muranjan, 30 miles ahead. The Mughals
pushed on thither in spite of the mud but as ;
soon as they were seen descending from a hillock
* He evidently halted at Sirur, close to which is the can-

tonment of Ghodnadi (Ind. At. 39 N. W.).
f Lohogaon, 10 m. n. E. of Puna and three miles south

of the Indrayani (Ind. Atlas, Sh.
39 S. W.) on the way to
Sirur. For Torna the text has Tornad.
48 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. UK
6 miles behind the place, the Marathas lost heart

and fled, leaving much of their property behind.
At this the Mughals galloped on, slew many of
Shahji's rear-guard, and chased them for 24 miles,
till their horses gave up in sheer exhaustion.
Shahji then effected his escape but his camp, ;
baggage, spare horses, and camels, and the

royal kettledrum, umbrella, palki, and standard of
his creature, the boy Nizam Shah, were all cap-
tured. The Maratha leader fled fast and in
twenty-four hours reached Mahuli, dismissed his
unnecessary retainers, and prepared to stand a
a Khan-i-Zaman made another forced
siege.
march through the rain and mud, seized the
village at the foot of the fort wîth its store of
provisions, and sat down before the two gates

of Mahuli, stopping all ingress and egress.
Shahji, after higgling for terms, at last capitulat-
ed he entered the Bijapur service, and gave up
:
to the Mughals his Nizam Shahi princeling,

together with Junnar and six other forts still
held by his men. Evidently he got good terms
out of the Imperial Government, but the Court-
historian is discreetly silent about the details.
The campaign was over by the end of October,

and Khan-i-2aman returned to Aurangzib
at Daulatabad to act as the Prince's chief
adviser.
CHAP. III.] GOND COUNTRY INVADED. 49
Khan-i-Dauran,* after capturing Udgir and

Ausa, had extorted from the
u^'n^'^^l
the Gono Rajahs. ^T king
'^
of Golkonda a famous
elephant Gajmati, or named
"the Pearl among Elephants", priced one lakh
of rupees, with another lakh of rupees for cover-
ing it with gold plates and haivda to make it

worthy of presentation to the Emperor. He
next marched into the Gond country, between the
Wardha and the
Wainganga, levying contribu-
tions. First forts of Ashta and
he seized the
Katanjhar (Katanjhiri) from the hands of some
refractory Gond chiefs, and then besieged Nagpur,

the stronghold of Kukia, the Gond Rajah of
Deogarh, who had refused to pay contribution.

Three mines were fired, overthrowing two towers
and parts of the wall ;
the assault was delivered,
and commandant Deoji taken prisoner. Kukia
the
now came down on his knees he interviewed ;
Khan-i-Dauran (16 January, 1637), and made

peace by presenting one and a half /afe/zs of rupees
in cash and all his elephants (170 in number)
and promising an annual tribute of one and one-
third lakhs of rupees. Nagpur was restored to
him.
The Khan-i-Dauran returned to the
victorious
Emperor, with 8 lakhs of rupees levied from the

Abdul Hamid, 1. B. 230-233.
4
Gond chiefs and others, and was extolled by his

master above all his other generals, and given
the high title of Nusrat Jang or "Victorious in
War"*
The period of warfare which began with the
_ , r ^. Bundela Expedition
^ in Septem-
^
Gatns of the
Imperial Govern- ber, 1635, and ended now, en-
"**'* *
riched the Mughal treasury with
tribute and booty amounting to two krores of
rupees, and added to the empire a territory
which when cultivated yielded a revenue of one
krore. The Emperor now despatched a pompous
letter to the Shah of Persia boasting of these
conquests and gains."]"
Aurangzib, however, was not long idle. The

new treaties with Bijapur and Golkonda and
the submission of the Gond country barred his
aggression in the south and north-east. So,
the Emperor authorised him to enrich himself
and extend his dominion towards the north-west
by conquering Baglana.J
Between Khandesh and the Surat coast lies the
district of Baglana. It is a
Baglana. des-
sâll tract, stretching north and
south for about 160 miles
from the Tapti river to the Ghatmata hills
f Abdul Hamid, I. B. 257-266, i8l.
t Abdul Hamid, I. B. 280.
CHAP. III.]
BAGLANA. 51
of the Nasik district, and lOO miles east and

west across the Ghats. It contained only a
thousand villages and nine forts, but no town of
note. Small as was its area, its well-watered
valleys and hill-slopes smiled with corn-fields

and gardens all kinds of fruits grew^ here and
;
many of them were famous throughout India

for their excellence. The climate, except in the
rainy season, and bracing. The State
is cool
was further enriched by the fact that the main
line of traffic between the Deccan and Guzerat
had run through it for ages.*
A Rathor family, claiming descent from the
royal house of ancient Kanaui,
Its ruler. , , , . ,
.
, ,
•
had ruled this land in unbroken

succession for fourteen centuries. The Rajahs
styled themselves Shah and used the distinctive
title of Baharji. They coined money in their
own names and enjoyed great power from the
advantageous situation of their country and
the impregnable strength of their hill forts, two
of which, Saler and Mulher, were renowned
throughout India as unconquerable. j"

* For a description of Baglana, see Ain-i-Akbari,
Abdul Hamid, II. 105- to6, Imp. Gae. vi. 190 192. Taver- — ii.
251^
nier's Bergram (i. 37) probably stands for Baglana. Khafi

Khan. i. 561. Finch and Roe, (Kerr, viii. 277, ix. 256).
f Saler, 20-43 N. 70 E, 5263 feet above sea-level, 9 miles
s. w. of Mulher (Ind. At. 38 N. W.) Mulher, 20-46 N. 74-7 E.
on the Mosam river (37 S. W.) Pipla, 20*35 N- 74 E. 9 m, s.
of Saler (38 N. W.)
But this position and these strongholds became

the cause of their ruin when the Mughals con-
quered Guzerat and Khandesh and wanted to

join hands across Baglana. An independent
prince and master of mountain fastnesses could
not be left in possession of the main route be-
tween these two provinces of the empire. The
great Akbar had invaded the district, but after
a seven years' fruitless siege*' he had compound-
ed with the Rajah, Pratap Shah, by ceding to
him several villages as the price of protection
to all merchants passing, through his land.
Bairam Shah was now seated on the throne of
Pratap.
Aurangzib sent an army of 7000 men under
Maloji, a Deccani officer in the
Mulher besieged. , ,
Imperial service, and
,
Muhammad
, ,
Tahir Khurasani (afterwards Wazir Khan) to
besiege the capital Mulher."]" This fort covers

the spacious top of a low hill close to the Mosam
river, 9 miles north-east of Safer. As is the case
with all Deccani forts, it shelters a walled village
lower down the hill side, called the Bart or in
the language of further south the Pettah. Here
lived the Rajah and his family. On i6th January,
*
Imp. Gaz. vi. 191. I can find no support of this statement
in Abul Fazl or Badauni.
t M. U. iii. 937, 522.
CHAP. III.] BAGLANA FORTS CEDED. 53
1638, the Mughal army in three divisions stormed

the lower fort or Bari, with heavy loss on both
sides.* The Rajah with some 500 men retired to
the upper fort and was there blockaded. A month's
close investment reduced him to submission. He
sent his mother and minister to
Baglana annexed.
offer to
.,11
Aurangzib the keys 01
r
his other eight forts and to beg for himself a post

in the Emperor's service, (15th February). The
overture was accepted he was created a ;
Com-
mander of Three Thousand and consoled with
an estate in Sultanpur, a district of Khandesh,
north of the Tapti. On 4th June, he evacuated
Mulher ;
his kingdom was annexed, and its reve-
nue fixed at 4 lakhs for the present. A month
kinsman Rudb^ surrendered the fort of
later, his
PipM, 9 miles south of Saler. One hundred and

twenty pieces of artillery, large and small, were
seized in the forts. "j"
Bairam Shah's son-in-law, Somdev, ruled over

Ramnagar. But as the revenue of this petty
* Khafi Khan
says that a daredevil Mughal officer named
Syed Abdul Wahhab Khandeshi, with 4 or 5 Syeds expert
in hill
climbing, one standard-bearer, one trumpeter and one
water-carrier, made a secret march by an unfrequented
jungle path for three successive nights and on the fourth day
appeared on the ridge of the Bart, and suddenly attacked it
with a great noise.
Encouraged by his example, the Mughal
forces on the plain charged up hill and stormed the Bart.
t Abdul Hamid, II. 106—109; Khafi Kh. i.
542, 561 —
564-
54 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. 111.
State fell short of its public expenditure, it was

deemed unworthy of annexation. A contribu-
tion of ten thousand rupees was, however,
exacted from him.
Aurangzib's first viceroyalty of the Deccan
extended from 14th July, 1636
motrnf
"''=' "" 'O ^8'h May, 1644. During
these eight years he paid four
visits to his father in Northern India, leaving
some great noble, usually his maternal uncle
Shaista Khan, to act for him. He gradually
rose in rank, being promoted to a Command of
Twelve Thousand (his additional force being
7,000 troopers) on 14th August, 1637, and next
to the rank of a Commander of Fifteen
Thousand (the additional troopers being 9,000)
on 23rd Februar}^ 1639.* Only a few incidents
of this period are recorded in history.
Kheloji Bhonsla, the first cousin of Shahji,

Kh I
"
Bh ^^^ held a high rank among the
sla put to death Nizam Shahi officers. In 1629
he came over to the Mughals
with his two brothers, Maloji and Parsuji, got
the rank of a Commander of Five Thousand,
and distinguished himself under the banners of
his new mnster. But in 1633 when the fort
of Daulatabad, the last stronghold of Nizam

* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 277, II. 138.
CHAP. III.] KHELOJI BHONSLA KILLED.l 55
Shah, was about to fall into the hands^f the

Imperialists, deserted to Bijapur and
Kheloji
repeatedly fought against the Mughal armies.
The Maratha general's wife, when going to
bathe in the Godavari, was captured by the
Mughal Subahdar, who sent him word, "A man's
wealth is only for saving his honour. If you pay
me four lakhs of rupees I shall release your wife
without doing harm to her chastity." No
husband can resist such an appeal, and Kheloji
paid this huge ransom. Soon afterwards, he was
dismissed by the Bijapur Sultan who had made
peace with Shah Jahan. Ruined by these losses,
Kheloji came to the home of his forefathers near
Daulatabad and took to a life of plunder and
lawlessness. Aurangzib, on getting news of his
place of hiding, sent a party of soldiers under
Malik Husain and put the Maratha free-booter
to death (about October, 1639).*
In 1640, "the Zamindar of Gondwana" >jye.,
the new Rajah Deogarh) waited on the young
of
viceroy at Burhanpur with a thanks-offering of

four lakhs of rupees in return for his being
allowed to succeed his late father.")"
On 25th March, 1642, a costly set of presents
offered by Aurangzib and consisting of gems,
* Abdul
Hamid, II. 166, Masir-ul-Umara, iii.
520-521.
t Abdul Hamid, II. 197.
jewelled ware, rare products of the Deccan, and

elephants, was displayed before the Emperor^
who accepted out of them one lakh and twenty
thousand rupees' worth, and suitably rewarded
the giver in return.*
* Ibid, 289.
CHAPTER IV.
Marriage and Family Viceroyalty —

OF Guzerat.
The fort and district of Qandahar had been

given by Shah
the Persian king
Persian princes Tahmasp I. of the house of
India.. Safawi, to his nephew, Sultan

Husain Mirza as an appanage.
Husain's son Mirza Muzaffar Husain exchanged
the lordship of barrenQandahar for a high rank
and splendid salary in the service of Akbar. His
younger brother Mirza Rustam, too, emigrated
to India in Akbar's reign and rose to eminence
under Jahangir.
The Mughal emperors made the most of this
opportunity of ennobling their blood by alliances

with the royal family of Persia
and marry into even through a younger branch,
the imperial •
,
family. Muzaffar Husain s daughter wâs

married to Shah Jahan, and two
daughters of Mirza Rustam to the princes Parviz
58 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. !V.
and Rustam's son was now a high

Shuja.
grandee with the title of Shah Nawaz Khan.*
One daughter of Shah Nawaz, named Dilras Banu,

was betrothed to Aurangzib, 1637, and next year
another daughter was married to Murad Bakhsh.|
On 15th April, 1637, Aurangzib arrived at
Agra for his marriage.^ Shah Jahan wrote him
a most loving invitation in verse
Aurangzib mar- ^^ ^^^^ him quickly
a.nd see
ricd to Dilras .
Banu Begam. and ceremony. Next

without
day the Prince had audience
of his father. The royal astrologers had fixed
8th May date of the marriage. In the
as the
preceding evening was the ceremony of henna-

bandi or dyeing the bridegroom's hands and
feet with the red juice of the henna {Lawsonia
inermis). Following the Indian custom, the
bride's father sent the henna in a grand proces-
sion of the male and female friends of his house,
servants and musicians. With the henna came
an infinite variety of presents, a costly full dress
suit for the bridegroom, toilet needments,
embroidered scarfs for his kinsfolk, perfumed
* For Mirza Muzaffar Husain, M. U. iii. Mjrâ
296 ;
Rustam, M. U. iii. 434 Shah Nawaz Khan, M. U. ii. 670.

;
f A generation afterwards (4 March, 1683) Azarm Banu,

the daughter of Shah Nawaz's son, was married to Aurang-
zib's youngest son, Kam Bakhsh (3/. A. 225.)
X Abdul Hamid, I. B. 255, 267-270.

CHAP. IV.] MARRIAGE CELEBRATION. 59
essence, sugar candy, huge quantities of confects,

dried fruits, prepared betel-leaves, and fire-works.
In the Private Hall of the Palace, the Prince's
hands and were stained red with the henna,
feet
by ladies concealed hehind a

The henna- u j ^" ^r
^"^j v^^ ^^^ ^^^^^
•
iandi ctrtmony. t^«

^Î"^^"'
bride's presents, smeared with
perfumes, and fed with the lucky sugar-candy.

Then he held a reception of his male guests,
which his uncle Yaminuddaula and other nobles
attended, while the ladies looked on from behind
lattice-screens. In the richly furnished hall the
wedding were displayed on trays, the scarfs,
gifts
confects and betel-leaves were distributed, and
the fire-works let off outside. All the time sing-
ing and dancing went on. The night's work was
concluded with a supper to which the bride-
groom sat down with all his guests.
Next night the marriage took place. The
astrologers had selected four hours before dawn
as the luckiest time for the cere-
ptoczSto".^^^ mony. A long while before that

hour the grand wazir Yaminud-
daula Asaf Khan and Prince Murad Bakhsh went
to Aurangzib's mansion on the
Jumna, and
conducted him by the river-side road to the fort-
palace, to make his bow to the Emperor, who gave
him costly presents of all kinds,
— robes, jewels,
6o HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IV.
daggers, horses, and elephants, and with his own

hands tied to the bridegroom's turban a glitter-
ing sehra or bunch of pearls and precious stones

falling over his face like a veil. Then the
marriage-procession was formed.Led by Murad^
Yaminuddaula and other grandees on horseback,
the long line paraded the streets of the capital,
wîth music, lights, and discharge of fireworks that
baffle description. When it reached the bride's
house, the guests were made welcome and enter-
tained by her father. Shah Jahan arrived by
boat just before the ceremony, and in his presence
the Qazi united the young pair in wedlock. The
bridegroom promised his wife a dowry {kabin)
of four lakhs of rupees ;
was to get from
this she
him Her father kept himself
in case of divorce.
aloof from the ceremony, for such is the custom
of the Indian Muslims.
The marriage being over, another reception
was held (14th May) in Aurang-
zib's house at which the Emperor
was present. Wedding gifts were presented to

the nobles, who bowed their thanks first to the
Emperor and then to the bridegroom. The

newly married Prince spent more than three
happy months with his father at Agra and then,
on 4th September, took his leave for the Deccan.'**
* Abdul Hamid, I. B. 280.
CHAP. IV.] DILRAS BANU BEGAM. 6l
We may here conveniently describe Aurang-

zib's wives and children. Dilras
Aurangzib's Banu, his consort, bore the high

•wives: Dilras ._ n ci
•
Bj^mj title ot riegam or Fnncess. She

died at Aurangabad on 8th
October, 1657, from illness following child-birth,*
and was buried in that city, under the title
of 'the Rabia of the Age' (Rabia-ud-daurani.)
Her tomb by her son Azam under
wâs repaired
order of Aurangzib, and is one of the sights of
the place. She seems to have been a proud and
self-willed lady and her husband stood in some
awe of her.'j'
The Emperor's secondary wives were styled
Bdis and Mahals. To this class
Nawab Bai.
belonged Rahmat-un-nissa, sur-
named Nawab Bai, the mother of Bahadur Shah I.
She was the daughter of Kajah Raju of the
Rajauri State in Kashmir, and came of the hill-
Rajput blood.:]: But on her son's accession to
the throne of Delhi a false pedigree was invented
for her in order to give Bahadur Shah a right
to call himself a Syed. It was asserted by the
flatterers of the Imperial Court that a Muslim
* Kambu, 6b, Adab-i-Alamgiri, 198a, Kalimat-i-Tay-

yibat, 36 & 3912.
Anecdotes of Aurangzib, §27.
•j-
I Irvine's Storia do Mogor, ji. 57«, 2y6n.

62 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IV.
saint named Syed Shah Mir, sprung from the

celebrated Syed Abdul Qadir Jilani, had taken
to a life of retirement among the hills of Rajauri.
The Rajah of the country waited on him and
in course of time so adored the holy man as to
offer him his maiden daughter. The saint
accepted the virgin tribute, converted and wed-
ded her, and thus became the father of a son
and a daughter. Then he went on a pilgrimage
to the holy land of Islam, where all trace of
him was lost. The Rajah brought up his desert-
ed grand-children as Hindus, keeping their
parentage a secret. When Shah Jahan demanded
from him a daughter of his house, the Rajah
sent him this grand-daughter, who was noted
for her beauty,
goodness and intelligence. In the
Imperial harem the girl was taught languages
and culture by a set of masters, governesses, and
Persian women versed in good manners, and in
due time she was united to Prince
Aurangzib.
Such is one of the many conflicting accounts of
the origin of Nawab Bai, Khafi Khan narrates
itas mere hearsay,* and we
may reject it as
the invention of courtiers eager to flatter their
master. I
* Khafi Khan, ii.
604.
f But there is nothing improbable in the story. In
Bhimbhar, another district of Kashmir, Hindus and Mus-
lims used to intermarry, and the wife, whatever
might have
CHAP. IV.] OTHER WIVES. 6j
She built a serai at Fardapur, at the foot of

the pass, and also founded Baijipura, a suburb
of Aurangabad.* The misconduct of her sons,
Muhammad Sultan and Muazzam, who disobey-
ed the Emperor under the influence of evil coun-
sellors, embittered her latter life. Her advice
and even personal entreaty had no effect on
Muazzam,! who was at last placed under arrest.
Nawab Bai seems to have lost her charms and
with them her husband's favour rather early in
life, and ended her days some time before the
middle of 1691:}: at Delhi, after many years of

separation from her husband and sons.
Another secondary wife was Aurangabadi
Mahaly so named because she entered the
Mughal harem in the city of
Aurangatadi Aurangabad. The bubonic
Mahal
plague carried her off in October
or November 1688, at the city of Bijapur.§
been her father's creed, was burnt or buried as her husband

happened to be a Hindu or Islamite. But in October, 1634,
Shah Jahan forbade the custom and ordered that every
Hindu who had taken a Muslim wife must either embrace
Islam and be married anew to her, or he must give her up
to be wedded to a Muslim. This order was
rigorously
enforced. (Abdul Hamid, I. B. 57).
* Khafi Khan, ii. 605.
t M. A. loi, 293, (and for Sultan) 30, 121.
X M. A. 343.
§ M. A. 318. Her tomb is thus described by Manucci

"The king caused a magnificent tomb to be erected to the
Her death removed the last rival of Aurang-

zib's youngest and best loved concubine, Udipuri
Mahal, the mother of Kam
Udipuri Mahal Bakhsh. The contemporary
Venetian traveller Manucci
speaks of her as a Georgian slave-girl of Dara
Shukoh's harem, who, on the downfall of her
first master, became the concubine of his victori-
ous rival.""" She seems to have been a very young
woman at the time, as she first became a mother
in 1667, when Aurangzib was verging on fifty.

She retained her youth and influence over the
Emperor till his death, and was the darling of
his old age. Under the spell of he/ beauty he

pardoned the many faults of Kam Bakhsh and
overlooked her freaks of drunkenness, which "j"
must have shocked so pious a Muslim. J
princess, provided with a dome of extraordinary height, ;he

whole executed in marble brought expressly from the pro-
vince of Ajmer." {Storia, iii. 269)
* Irvine's Storia do
Mogor, i. 361, ii. 107.
-j- Ibid, ii.
107, io8.
J That Udipuri was a slave and no wedded wife is

proved by Aurangzib's own words. When her son Kam
Bakhsh intrigued with the enemy at the siege of Jinji,
Aurangzib angrily remarked,
—
'A slave-girl's son comes to no good.
Even though he may have been begotten by a king.'
(Anecdotes of Aurangzib, \ 25. He is also called 'a
dancing-girl's son' {Storia, ii. 3i6?z). Orme {Fragments,
85) speaks of her as a Circassian, evidently on the
authority of Manucci. In a letter written by Aurangzib on
his death-bed to Kam Bakhsh, he says "Udipuri, your
CHAP. IV.] FASCINATED BY HIRA BAI. 65
Besides the above four there was another

woman whose supple grace, musical skill, and
mastery of blandishments, made
Zainabadi. her the heroine of the only-
romance in the puritan Emper-
or's life. Hira Bai surnamed Zainahadi was a
young slave-girl in the keeping of Mir Khalil,
who had married a sister of Aurangzib's mother.
During his viceroyalty of the Deccan, the Prince
paid a visit to his aunt at Burhanpur. There,

while strolling in the park of Zainabad on the
other side of the Tapti, he beheld Hira Bai un-
veiled among The artful beauty
his aunt's train.
"on seeing a mango-tree laden with fruits, ad-
vanced in mirth and amorous play, jumped up,
and plucked a mango, as unconscious of the
if
prince's presence." The vision of her matchless

charms stormed Aurangzib's heart in a moment ;
"with shameless importunity he took her away

from his aunt's house and became utterly in-
mother, who has been with me during my ilhiess, wishes
to accompany [me in death]." From this expression Tod,
(Annals of Mewar, Ch. Xlll, note) infers, "Her desire
to burn shews her to have been a Rajpoot." Such an
inference is wrong, because a Hindu princess on
marrying
a Muslim king lost her caste and religion, and received
Islamic burial. We read of no Rajputni of the harem of
any of the Mughal emperors having burnt herself with her
deceased husband, for the very good reason that a Muslim's
corpse is buried and not burnt. Evidently Udipuri meant
that she would kill herself in passionate grief on the death
of Aurangzib.
fatuated with her." So much so, that one day

she offered him a cup of wine and pressed him
to drink it. All his entreaties and excuses were
disregarded, and the helpless lover was about to

taste the forbidden drink when the sly enchant-
ress snatched away the cup from his lips and
said, "Myobject was only to test your love for

me, and not to make you fall into the sin of
drinking !" Death cut the story short when

she was still in the bloom of youth. Aurangzib
loss and buried her close
bitterly grieved at her
to the big tank at Aurangabad.*
More than half a century afterwards, when this
early love-passage had become
How she was ^ mere
memory, the following
inaccurate version of it wâs re-
corded by Hamiduddin Khan, a favourite servant
of the Emperor, in his Anecdotes of Alamgir. It
is extremely amusing, as showing that the puri-
tan in love was not above practising wiles to
gain his end !
"When Aurangzib as Governor of the Deccan

was going toAurangabad, on arriving at Bur-
hanpur ..he went to visit his aunt. The Prince
entered the house without announcing himself.
—
Masir-ul-Umara, i. 790 792. Mir Khalil was posted
to the Deccan shortly before Aurangzib's second viceroyalty
began, so that the earUest possible date of the episode is
1653, when Aurangzib was 35 years old.

CHAP. IV.] TAKES HER FROM HIS UNCLE. 67
Hira Bai was standing under a tree, holding a

branch with her right hand and singing in a low
tone. Immediately after seeing her, the Prince
helplessly sat down there, and then stretched
himself at full length on the ground in a swoon.
The news was carried to his aunt. She clasped
him to her breast and began to wail and lament.
After three or four gharis the Prince regained
consciousness. However much she inquired
about his condition, saying, 'What malady is
it? Did you ever have it before?' the Prince
gave no reply at all, but remained silent. At
midnight he recovered his speech and said, *If
I mention my disease, can you apply the remedy ?'
She replied, 'What to speak of remedy? I shall

offer my life itself to cure you!' Then the
Prince unfolded the whole matter to her The
aunt replied, 'You know the wretch, my hus-
band. He is a bloody-minded man and does not
care in the least for the Emperor Shah Jahan or
for you. At the mere report of your desire for
Hira Bai he will first murder her and then me.
Telling him about your passion will do no other

good.'
Next morning the Prince came back to his
own quarters and discussed the case in detail
with his confidant, Murshid Quli Khan, the
Diwan of the Deccan. The Khan said, 'Let me
first despatch your uncle, and if anybody then

slays me, there will be no harm, as in exchange
of my life my master's work will be done/
Aurangzib forbade him to commit a manifest

murder and turn his aunt into a widow...
Murshid Quli Khan reported the whole conversa-
tion to who exchanged Hira
the Prince's uncle,
Bai forChhattar Bai, a slave-girl of Aurang-
zib's harem."*
History records the name of a certain Dilirdm,

a hand-maid of Aurangzib's early life. But
though she is described in the same terms as
Aurangabadi Mahal, viz., parastar-t-qadim-ul-
khidmatf1[ it appears from the context that she
was not his mistress, but only a servant. Her
daughter was married to an officer of the Em-
peror'sbodyguard. On her tomb at Delhi the
Emperor placed an inscribed stone in 1702, many
years after her death.
Aurangzib had a numerous progeny. His
Aurangzib's principal wife, Dilras Banu

children Begam, bore him five children :
I. Zeb-un-nissa,:{: a daughter, born at Daula-
* Anecdotes of Aurangzib, § 5.
f M. A. 465, 318.
J Abdul Hamid,
ii. 22 Khafi Khan, i. 590
; MA. 462, ;
538 ;
Rieu's British Mustum Catalogue, ii. 7026 M. U. ii. :
8a8; Makhgan-ul-Gharaib by Ahmad AH Saiidilavi (1218

CHAP. IV.] 2EBUNNISSA. 69
tabad, on 15th February, 1638, died at Delhi on

26th May, 1702, buried in the garden of 'Thirty
Thousand Trees', outside the Kabuli gate. Her
tomb was demolished to make room for a rail-
way. But her coffin and inscribed tomb-stone

are now in Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandra,
where the epitaph can still be read.
She seems to have inherited her father's keen-
ness of intellect and literary tastes. Educated
by a lady named Hafiza Mariam she committed
the Quran to memory, for which she received a
reward of 30,000 gold-pieces from her delighted
father. A mistress of Persian and Arabic, she
wrote different kinds of hand with neatness and
grace. Her library surpassed all other private
collections, and she employed many scholars on
liberal salaries to produce literary works at her
bidding or to copy manuscripts for her. As

Aurangzib disliked poetry, her liberality com-
pensated for the lack of Court patronage, and
most of the poets of the age sought refuge with
her. Supported by her bounty, Mulla Safiuddin
Ardbeli translated the Arabic Great Commentary
under the title of Zeb-ut-tafastr, the authorship
of which vulgarly ascribed to his patroness.
is
Other tracts and works also unjustly bear her
A. H.) Khuda Bakhsh MS., p. 312; Gul-i-rana, f.

119;
Beale's Oriental Bio. Die. ed. by Keene, p. 428.
name. She wrote Persian odes under the pen-

name Makhfi or the Concealed One. But the
of
Diwan-i-Makhfi which is extant cannot with

certainty be called her work, because this
pseudonym wâs used by many other royal ladies,

such as one of the wives of Akbar.
Scandal connected her name with that of
Aqilmand Khan, a noble of her father's Court

and a versifier of some repute in his own day.
ZiNAT-UN-NissA,
2. afterwards surnamed
Padishah Begam, born probably at Aurangabad,
5th October, 1643. She looked after her old
father's household in the Deccan, for a quarter
of a century till his death, and survived him
many years, enjoying the respect of his successors

as the living memorial of a great age. Historians
speak of her piety and extensive charity."* She

was buried in the Zinat-ul-masajid, a splendid
mosque built (1700) at her expense in Delhi,

but her grave was removed elsewhere by the
British military authorities when they occupied
the building."]*
* Abdul Hamid, ii.

343 M.A. 539 Khafi Khan, ii. 3a
; ;
(inspires a plot against the Syed brothers). She was alive

in the reign of Farukhsiyar.(/6irf, 736).
f Fanshawe's Z)e//u': Past and Present, 6^. Cunningham,

Arch. Survey Reports, I. 230, states, "The Zinat-ul-
masajid, more commonly called the Kuari Masjid or
'Maiden's Mosque', because built by Zinat-un-nissa, the
daughter of Aurangzib. The people have a tradition
CHAP. IV.] CHILDREN OF AURANGZIB. 7I
3. ZuBDAT-UN-NissA, born at Multan, 2nd

September, 1651, married to her first cousin,
Sipihr Shukoh (the second son of the ill-fated

Dara Shukoh) on 30th January, 1673, died in
February, 1707.*
4. Muhammad Azam, born at Burhanpur on
28th June, 1653, slain at Jajaw, in the war of
succession following his father's death, 8th
June, 1707. "j"
5. Muhammad Akbar, born at Aurangabad,

on nth September, 1657, died an exile in Persia
about November, 1704.:}: Buried at Mashhad.
By Nawab Bai the Emperor had three
children :
6. Muhammad Sultan, born near Mathura,

19th December, 1639, died in prison, 3rd
December, 1676. § Buried in the enclosure of
Khawajah Qutbuddin's tomb.

7.Muhammad Muazzam, surnamed Shah
Alam, who succeeded his father as Bahadur Shah
that Zinat-un-nissa demanded the amount of her dowry
from her father, and spent it in building this Mosque, instead
of marrying."
* M.A.
540, 125, 154.
f Waris's Padishahnamah, 796 ;
M.A. 536.
X M. A.547, 483. Kambu, 6b. But the Tarikh-i-
Muhammadi gives the date of his death as 31 March, 1706,
New Style {Storia, iv. 257M).
§ Abdul Hamid, ii.
170; M.A. 534, 159-160.
7a HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IV.
I., born at Burhanpur on 4th October, 1643,

died j8th February, 1712.*
Badr-un-nissa, born 17th November, 1647,

8.
died 9th April, 1670.I Of her we only know

that she learnt the Quran by rote.
Aurangabadi Mahal bore to Aurangzib only
one child :
9. MiHR-UN-NissA, born iSth September, 1661,

married to her first cousin Izid Bakhsh (a son of
the murdered Murad Bakhsh) on 27th November,
1672, died in June, 1706.;}:
Udipuri Mahal was the mother of
10. Muhammad Kam Bakhsh, born at Delhi,
24th February, 1667, slain in the war of succes-

sion, near Haidarabad on 3rd January, i709.§
We shall now resume the story of Aurangzib's
career. His viceroyalty of the Deccan
first
which extended over eight years, ended strangely

in his disgrace and dismissal.
On
the night of 26th March, 1644, the princess
, , ^
Jahanara was coming from her
Jananara burnt.
father's chambers to her own
in Agra fort, when her skirt fell on one
* Abdul Hamid, ii. M.A. 534.

343 ;
t U.A. 539-540. 100.

± M.A. 120, 515, 540.
§ M.A. 538. Alamgirnamah, 1 031.
CHAP. IV.] JAHANARA. 73
of the candles lighting the passage. As her

robes were made of exquisitely fine muslin
and were besides perfumed with atar and
other essences, the flames wrapped her round
in a moment. Her four maids flung themselves
on her to smother the fire with their persons,
but it spread to their own dress and they had to
let go their hold in agony. By the time aid
arrived and the fire was put out, the princess
had been dreadfully burnt her back, both sides, :
and arms were severely injured.*
She was the best loved child of Shah Jahan,

and well did she deserve his
Her character. ., _ . ,
affection. Ever smce her
mother's death, her care and forethought had
saved him from domestic worries. Her sweetness
of temper and gentleness of heart, even more
than her mental accomplishments, soothed his
mind in fatigue and anxiety, while her loving
kindness healed all discords in the Imperial
family, and spreading beyond the narrow circle

of her kinsfolk made
her the channel of the royal
bounty orphans, widows, and the poor. In
to
the full blaze of prosperity and power her name
was known in the land only for her bounty and
graciousness. In adversity she rose to a nobler
* Abdul Hamid, ii.

363
—369 ;
Khafi Khan, i.
598—600.
eminence and became an Antigone to her captive

father. Happier than the daughter of much-
enduring CEdipus, she finally won her father's
forgiveness for the son who had wronged him
so cruell}^ And after death the memory of her
piety and meekness has been preserved

of spirit
by the lowliest epitaph ever placed on a prince's

tomb. The stone records her last wish :
Cover not my grave save with green grass,

For such a covering alone befits the tomb of
the lowly in spirit.
Shah Jahan was in anguish at this accident.

He was ever at her bed-side, for
Her treatment , . j • •
hand must lay the medicme

, , , i
his
to her wounds, and hold the diet up to her lips.

All but the most urgent State affairs were neg-
lected the daily darbar was reduced to a sitting
;
of a few minutes. Every physician of note from

far and near was assembled for treating her.
Vast sums were daily given away in charity to
win Heaven's blessings on her. Every night a
purse of Rs. looo was laid under her pillow,
and next morning distributed to the beggars.
Officials undergoing imprisonment for defalca-
tion were set free, and their debts, amounting
to seven lakhs, written off. Every evening Shah
Jahan knelt down till midnight, weeping and
imploring God for her recovery.
CHAP. IV,] REJOICING AT HER RECOVERY. 75
For four months she hovered between life and

death. Indeed, there was little
ana recovery.
hope of her recovery, as two of
her maids, though less severely burnt, died in a
few weeks. By a happy accident, the physician
of the late king of Persia, who had fled from the
wrath of his successor, reached Agra only twenty
days after this mishap. His judicious medicines
removed many of her attendant troubles, especi-
ally fever and weakness.

But both he and Hakim Mumana, the Physi-
cian Royal of Delhi, laboured in vain to heal her
burns. Where the medical science of the age
failed,quackery succeeded. A slave named Arif
prepared an ointment which entirely healed her
sores in two months.
On 25th November began a most splendid and
costly festivity in celebration of her complete
recovery,* Jahanara was given

Rejoicing at it.
jewels worth ten lakhs by her
rejoicing father; every member

of the household and every officer of the State
received a gift on the joyous occasion the ;
beggars got two lakhs. The princes who had

hastened to Agra on hearing of her accident, had
their share of the But none of
Imperial bounty.
them was so great a gainer as
Aurangzib for, at
,
395 —400.
* Abdul
Hamid, ii.
j6 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. IV.
her request he was restored to his father's favour

and his former rank and office, which he had lost
in the meantime.
Aurangzib had arrived at Agra on 2nd May to
see his sister. Here three weeks afterwards he
was suddenly dismissed from his
i^sTa?^^*^'^^*^' P°^*' ^^^ deprived of his rank

and allowance. The reason as
given by the historians is obscure. The Court
annalist,Abdul Hamid Lahori, writes that
"
Aurangzib was thus punished because misled
by the wicked counsels of his foolish companions,
he wanted to take to the retired life of an
ascetic, and had also done some acts which
the Emperor disapproved of." Khafi Khan says
that the Prince in order" to anticipate his father's
punishment of his bad deeds, himself took off his

sword and lived some days as a hermit," for
for
which he was dismissed. But neither of them
describes the exact nature of his misconduct.*
From one of Aurangzib's letters we gather
that he resigned his post as a
y c resign-
^ pj-Q^gg^ against Dara's persistent
and Shah Jahan's par-
hostility
tiality to his eldest son which robbed Aurangzib
of the Emperor's confidence and support. The
t Abdul Hamid, ii. 373, 376 : Khafi Khan, i. 600, and ii.
398.
CHAP. IV.] DISGUST AT DARA's RIVALRY. "JJ
Prince's recommendations were overridden and

he was so often interfered with and trusted with
power that his prestige
so little was lowered in
the public eye and he could not govern the
Deccan consistently with self-respect or with
any chance of doing good service. As he wrote
indignantly to his sister Jahanara in 1654, when
similar distrust and hostility were shown to him
" If
by the Court during his second viceroyalty :
His Majesty wishes that of all his servants I
alone should pass my life in dishonour and at last

perish in an unbecoming manner, I have no help
but to obey But as it is hard to live and die
thus and I do not enjoy [his] grace, I cannot, for
the sake of perishable earthly things, live in pain
and grief, nor deliver myself up into the hands of
others,
— it is by order of His Majesty
better that
I should be released from the shame of such a life,
so that harm may not be done to the good of the

State and [other] hearts may be composed about
this matter. Ten years before this I had realised
this fact and known my life to be aimed at [by
my rivals], and therefore I had resigned my post,...

so that I might retire to a corner, cause no
uneasiness to any body's heart, and be saved from
such harassment."*
* Adab-i-Alamgiri, iTja.
A literal interpretation of a Persian phrase*

has given some English histories to
rise in
the myth that young Aurangzib turned hermit
in a fit of religious devotion. The fact is that
at this time he felt no religious call at all ; his
motive was political, not spiritual he merely
:
resigned his office, but did not actually take to

a hermit's life. Under the Mughals, every officer,
civil or military, had to hold a rank in the
army
and wear the sword as a part of his full dress.
Hence, laying the sword aside from one's belt

was a visible symbol of resignation.
If we may trust the gossipy anecdotes compiled
in Aurangzib's old age by
"^'^^
D^ri"^^
Hamiduddin Khan Nimchah,
the Prince's disgrace was the
outcome of his open jealousy of Dara Shukoh,
his eldest brother and the intended heir to the
throne. It is narrated that Dara invited his
fatherand three brothers to see his newly built
mansion at Agra. It was summer, and the party
was taken to a cool underground room border-
*
"Turning recluse" (manzavi ikhtiar kardan) is a
phrase commonly used in the Persian histories of India to
mean the laying down of (military) rank, office, and uniform
in such a manner as not to imply a defiance of the Emperor's
wishes. We often read how an officer under Imperial dis-
pleasure who had "turned hermit" in this sense, was after-
wards reinstated in his rank and office on recovering his
master's grace.
CHAP. IV.] EARLY DISTRUST OF DARA. 79
ing on the river, with only one door lead-
ing into it. The others entered, but Aurangzib

sat down in the doorway. To all inquiries of
Shah Jahan about the reason of his strange con-
duct he gave no reply. For this act of dis-
obedience he was forbidden the Court. After
spending seven months in disgrace, he told
Jahanara that as the room had only one entrance
he had feared lest Dara should close it and
murder his father and brothers to clear his own
way To prevent any such attempt
to the throne.
Aurangzib had (he said) occupied the door as a

sentinel On learning this Shah Jahan restored
!
him to his favour. But it was

He is reinstated, impossible to keep Aurangzib at
Court with Dara, whom he
hated so bitterly and suspected so cruelly.*
Therefore on i6th February, 1645, he was sent
off to Guzerat as Governor.f His viceroyalty
of this province ended in January, 1647, when he
was appointed to Balkh. But even in this brief
period of less than two years he showed his ad-

ministrative capacity and firmness.
Of all the provinces of the Mughal empire,
* Anecdotes 2.
of Aurangzib §
f Abdul Hamid, ii. 411.

8o HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IV.
Guzerat was the most turbulent. A land subject

to frequent droughts and a soil
IaS'"''a*nd the "^^^^^^ °^ ^^"^^ ^'^ ^*°"^ yielded

people. a poor and precarious harvest
to reward the labour of man
in many parts the province. All its ardent
of
spirits naturally turned from the thankless task

of tilling the soil, to the more profitable business
of plundering their weaker and richer brethren.
Robbery was the hereditary and time-honoured
occupation of several tribes, such as the Kulis
and the Kathis, who covered the land from
Jhalor to the sea.* The Guzerati artisans,
whose fame was world-wide, flourished in the
cities under shelter of the walls. But the roads

were unsafe to trader and traveller alike.
The prevailing lawlessness added to the misery

of the peasants and the poverty of the land by
discouraging industry and accumulation of

wealth. Any rebel or bandit leader could in a
few days a large body of fighters by the
raise
promise of plunder, and if he was only swift

enough in evading pitched battles with the forces
of Government, he could keep the whole country
in a state of constant alarm and disturbance.
Thus did the Mirzas violate public peace in
Guzerat for a full generation in Akbar's reign.
* Abdul Hatnid, ii. 231.
CHAP. IV.] RULES GUZERAT STRONGLY. 8l
Many a pretender to the throne of Delhi gather-

ed formidable military support here. Indeed,
Guzerat bore the evil title of lashkar-kheZy or a
land 'bristling with soldiers.'*
Such a province ever required a strong hand to

govern it. A former viceroy, Azam Khan,
—
(1635 41), had vigorously punished the robber
tribes, built forts in their midst to maintain
order, and forced the ruler of Nawanagar, to
promise tribute and obedience to the Imperial

Government. t For a time the roads became
safe, and the land enjoyed unwonted peace.
Aurangzlb, too, followed an active and firm

policy towards the robber tribes and rebels of
Guzerat. In order to check them
Aurangzib's
effectually he -^ engaged
^ ° soldiers
strong rule.
in excess of the men whom he
was bound by his present rank as a mansahdar to
keep. The Emperor, pleased to hear of this
ardent spirit of duty, gave him a promotion,
raising his salary to sixty lakhs of rupees a year
(8th June, i646).:j: He thus established in his
father's eyes a reputation capacity and
for
courage, and it was not long before he was called
* MS.
Kalimat-t-Tayyibat, (A. S. B. E, 27), 87a, 107a.
t Abdul Hamid, ii,
231-232.
Abdul Hamid, ii. 510, 715.
6
83 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. IV.
away to a far-off scene where there was supreme

need of these qualities.
On 4th September, Shah Jahan wrote to him to

come away from Guzerat, after making over the
Government to Shaista Khan.
^ ^he Prince met his father at
the Emperor.
Lahore on 20th January, 1649,
and was next day created Governor and
Commander-in-chief of Balkh and Badakhshan.
Three weeks later he was sent off to his distant
and dangerous charge.*'
* Ibid, 583, 625, 627, ^32.
CHAPTER V.
The War in Central Asia, 1647.
To the north of Kabul the Hindu Kush

mountain range running north-
Badakhshan. /-w1 , n •
east and the Oxus river nowing

westwards enclose between them two provinces,
Balkh and Badakhshan. The eastern half,
Badakhshan, is a mere succession of ridges and
valleys, with a scanty population and scattered
patches of cultivation. The mines of ruby and
turquoise which once gave it fame throughout
the eastern world, now yield very little. It is
a province thrust into a forgotten nook of the

world, and hemmed
in by fierce mountain tribes;
the squalor and poverty of its people is equalled

only by their ignorance and helplessness.'-*
Balkh is a more open and fertile country.
Balkh,
Irrigation
streams have given
...
canals and numerous
its favoured
*
Leyden's Memoirs of Babar (ed. 1826), xxix, Wood's
—
Journey to the Source of the Oxus (ed. 1872), Ixxv Ixxix,
171, 206, 191.
84 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. V.
tracts abundance of agricultural wealth, both

of crops and fruits. Its rivers descending from
the Hindu Kush form fertile valleys which grow

broader and broader as they wind northwârds
to the Oxus. The hills are mostly bare and
arid.* Now and then sandstorms from the
western desert sweep over the face of the land.
On the south separated from Afghanistan

it is
by lofty mountains, wide plateaus, and narrow

passes."!" But its northern boundary, the Oxus
river, presents no such natural barrier to an
invader, and nomadic hordes from Central Asia
have in every age crossed the river and overrun
the land. In the southern hills from Kabul to
Herat live predatory tribes, the Hazarahs and
Aimaks,;]: hungrily watching for a chance to cut
off travellers and traders in the passes or to
swoop down upon the flourishing hamlets and

orchards of the lowlands near the Oxus in the
rear some foreign invader. Against a regular
of
army their hardiness and ferocity were rendered

unavailing by their primitive savagery, ignorance,
* Wood's Jôurney,lKvu,
Leyden, XXX ; 175, 257 ; Ferrier's
Caravan Journeys, 208.
\ For the passes leading northwards into Balkh, see

Leyden, 139, 199; Wood's journey, \kiv Abdul Hamid's
Padishahnamah, ii. 668 670. — ;
J Wood, 127, Elias &

Ross, Tarikh-i-Rashtdi, Intro. 91,
Vambery's Travels in Central Asia, 263.
CHAP, v.] RACES OF BALKH. 85
and lack of organisation. But through the

south-western corner, which touches Khurasan,
the stream of civilisation has flowed into Balkh.
By this path came the Persian, the Greek and
the Arab, and each has left his stamp on the
culture of the conquered people.^'
Placed between two powerful neighbours it
has been the fate of Balkh to be the scene of
conquest and plunder age after age since the

dawn of history its people have been relieved
;
of masters from the south or west only by fiercer

masters from the north their ancient culture
;
and learning, which boasted of a Hellenistic

origin, had been all but trodden out under the
iron heels of Chenghiz Khan."!" Their cities were
now in ruin and their wealth destroyed beyond
hope of recovery.
Besides the wîld robbers of the southern moun-
tains and the tame cultivators of the northern
lowlands, there was a third element of the
—
population, "primitive nomads who occupied
tracts barren steppe land, and drove their
of
flocks from hill to valley and valley to hill, in
search of pasture according to season. "[jl
* Elias &
Vambery's Travels, 233, 239 ; Ross, Intro. 82,
107 ; Skrine & Ross's Heart of Asia, 6, 30, 38, 76, 131.
f Wood, Ixi, Ixvii, 155, 162 Vambery's Travels,

; 233, 244;
Ferrier's Caravan Journeys, 207.
I Elias & Ross, Intro 31.
A land of this nature could support but a

small population, and was too
Its revenue.
poor to maintain an army on its
own produce. The salaried troops of the king

of Balkh numbered only 3000 men, and his
revenue (including that yielded by Badakhshan)
was only 25 lakhs of rupees,
— the stipend oi a
third-rate peer of the Mughal empire, as the
Delhi historian has noted with contempt.
His chief minister was paid only Rs. 80,000
a year.*
Poor as were the resources of the country and
tame as were the men of its
Uzbaks from j
from û
• •
1 r
P^^^^^' ^^ mvader the
beyond the Oxus.
south found it hard to keep
hold of his conquest. He had to guard his own
communications with the rear over the long and
difficult passes of the Hindu Kush. But number-
lesshordes of savage horsemen, the Mongols and
Turkomans, came from beyond the Oxus to
oppose him, burning crops and villages, carrying
off the loyal peasantry into slavery, hovering
round his army on the march, cutting off detach-
ments and stragglers, and when chased maintain-
ing a Parthian fight. Indeed, his camp was
ever in a state of siege. On them he
could make no successful reprisal, deal no
* Abdul
Hamid, ii.
542-543.
CHAP, v.] UZBAKS AND TARTARS. 87
crushing blow which might win for him peace

and the growth of revenue. The enemy had "no
forts or towns or immovable property, worthy
of the name, for an invader to destro}^ and no
stationary population, left

undefended, upon
whom he might wreak his vengeance Mobility
must have been the quality they relied on more
than any other, both in attack and retreat, and
we find them baffling their enemies more by
their movements than by their fighting power."*
When reduced to the worst, they fled across
the Oxus to their homes. Mughal troops who

had served in the Deccan, immediately noted
that the Uzbaks fought like the Marathas but
were far more hardy.|
Savage and uncouth as the Uzbaks were, they

_ ,
had at least the faith of Islam
^
i artar raiders.
in common wîth their foemen
from India.But the Turkoman tribes (miscalled
Alamans) were worse still. They had not yet
accepted the creed of Muhammad, but clung to
their old heathenism. J Plunder was their sole
livelihood. In their forays they burnt the
Quran
* Elias & Ross, Intro. 55.
t Abdul Hamid, ii.
705.
X Alama>2 is a Tartar word meaning 'a predatory ex-
pedition' (Vambery, 317.) The historian Abdul Hamid
took it to be the name of a Tartar tribe, whose manners he
describes in ii. 619 and 453.
and massacred holymen and children with as

little pity as they showed to fighting foemen.
In one place, they shut up in a mosque and

roasted alive a pious darvish and 400 school-boys
w^hom he had led in a procession to entreat their
mercy. Similar atrocities wêre committed by
them elsewhere. These ferocious robbers were
not hampered in their marches by any baggage
or provisions ; the coarsest food sufficed for them.
The deepest riversthey crossed by swimming
their horses, in a long line, the bridle of one
being fastened to the tail of another, while the

saddles, which were mere bundles of sticks, could
not be damaged by water. The men crossed on
rafts made from the reeds that grew plentifully
on the river bank. The horses, as hardy as their
riders, lived on the wild wormwood of the steppe
and yet covered a hundred miles a day. From
Bukhara beyond the Oxus their forays extended
to Khurasan, and the well-mounted Persian
cavalry could not overtake them.

For many centuries Balkh, with its adjunct
of Badakhshan, had been a dependency of
Bukhara, and was governed by a viceroy (often
a prince of the blood) and garrisoned by the
fierce and hardy Scythians from beyond the
Oxus."*' Early in the seventeenth century, the
* Skrine & Ross, 160, 192.
CHAP, v.] UNPOPULARITY OF BALKH KING. 89
wise and good Imam QuH Khan, of the Astra-

khan-ide dynasty, adorned the throne of Bukhara
for 32 years, and when in 1642 age and infirmity
induced him to leave his weeping subjects for
monastic repose in Medina, his younger brother
Nazar Muhammad succeeded to
Nazar Muham- ^he throne.* The new Khan
mad, king of
Balkh. had governed the family appa-
nage of Balkh during his
brother's reign. As a ruler of Bukhara he was a
failure. Its climate disagreed with him after
his forty years' residence in the more genial soil
of Balkh his extreme avarice and niggardli-
;
ness alienated his generals. Yet his ambition

led him to annex Khwarizm. The Uzbaks began
to hate him for his jealous policy of withdrawing
all power from their leaders and doing everything
himself. A man without discretion or force of
character, he openly taxed his chiefs with what
backbiters had told him about them. The army
seethed with discontent at his reduction of their
allowances, seizure of pastures, and resumption
of grants of rent-free land.|
* Skrine & Ross, — Vambery's History of

Bukhara, 304 —333 ;
194 199.
Abdul Hamid, 251
— 256; Skrine has
li.
Nazir instead of Nazar. Howorih's History of the Mongols,

Pt. II. Div. ii.
747-752 (has Nadir for Nazar.)
f Abdul Hamid, ii.
435
—442.
9P HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
So the Bukhara troops mutinied and proclaim-

ed as king his eldest son Abdul
'*^-
bdHon.^" Aziz, who was in their midst
as his father's viceroy, (17 Aprils
1645). Rebellion immediately broke out in

many other parts of his vast and diverse territory,
and savage hordes roamed over the country to
take advantage of the disorder by plundering.
At last the helpless father had to make peace by
yielding Trans-oxiana to his rebel son and
retaining Balkh and Badakhshan for himself.*
But meantime a new combatant had stepped
into the arena ; Shah Jahan had invaded
Badakhshan.
It is difficult what drew^ him into the war^
to see
it was greed of conquest.
unless
Shah Jahan's Nazar Muhammad Khan
True,
desire to conquer
Balkh. had not been a good neighbour.
Eighteen years ago, on the death
of Jahangir, he had invaded Afghanistan, besieged
Kabul (29 May, 1628), and fled back precipitately
at the approach of Mughal troops."!" ^"^ ^^^^
raid had been forgiven, and since then there had
been an exchange of friendly messages and
embassies between him and the Emperor of
Delhi. Even recently when the Mughal forces
were massed in Afghanistan for operations near
* [bid, ii. —
443 456.
t Abdul Hamid, I. A. 2c6 214.—
CHAP, v.] CAUSE OF THE INVASION. QI
Qandahar and Imam Qull had feared lest his
country should be invaded by them, Shah Jahan

had assured him that he would be left in
peace.* Afghanistan were
That rebels from
harboured in Balkhf could not have been a cause
of war, because it has always been recognised
among eastern kings as a sacred duty to give

asylum to suppliants. The Afghan frontier was
exposed private raids by

to Nazar Muhammad's
subjects, but these could not have extended far,
and must have been looked upon as common
incidents in that debateable land from time
immemorial. The Court historian Abdul Hamid
is, therefore, right when he says that Shah Jahan
determined to conquer Balkh and Badakhshan,
"
because they were the heritage of Babar and
also lay in the way to Samarqand, the capital
of Timur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty."
The civil war in Balkh supplied him with an
opportunity for carrying out his long-cherished
scheme. ;{l
But if Shah Jahan really hoped to conquer and

rule Central Asia with a force
Folly of the at- „ India,
trom
r j- t
we must^ conclude, ,
^gjjj ^
that the prosperity of his reign

* Abdul
Hamid, ii. 152.
t Ihid, ii. 13, 528, 529.
:}: /(Siirfji. 482-483. Howorth, 752. ("Nadir appealed to Shah-
jihan for assistance, who greedily seized the opportunity.")
92 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [cHAP. V.
and the flattery of his courtiers had turned his

head, and that he was dreaming the vainest of
vain dreams. The Indian troops detested service
in that far-off land of hill and desert, which could
supply no rich booty, no fertile fief, and no
decent house to live in. The occupation of that
poor inhospitable and savage country meant only
banishment from home and comfort and ceaseless
fight and watching against a tireless and slippery
enemy. The finest troops might be worn out and

the richest treasury exhausted
in the attempt
to keep hold of such a country, and no gain
either in glory or wealth was to be
expected.
Poor as the revenue of the new conquest was at
the best of times, the Mughals during their two
years of occupation could collect only one half and
one-fourth respectively of this small sum,* while
their war expenses were sixteen times as high !
A Mughal officer began the war by marching

with a force from Ghorband, on
°
Ba*dlkTshan. ^^^ northern frontier of Afgha-
nistan, and capturing the fort

of Kahmard (June, 1645). But he soon abandoned
it
enemy-t Shah Jahan disapproved both
to the
of and of the abandonment as un-
the capture
wise, and turned his immediate attention to the

* Abdul Hamid, ii.
542 & 666. M. U. i. 488.
t fbid, 457—459-
CHAP, v.] MUGHALS OCCUPY BADAKHSHAN. 93^
conquest of Badakhshan. A strong reconnoit-

ring force moved rapidly north-east from Kabul
across the Hindu Kush and along the Panjshir
river basin. On return
after examining the
its
Parwan and Tul passes which lead into southern

Badakhshan, he sent a large body of sappers to
make a road. Rajah Jagat Singh took upon
himself the task of conquest, advanced from
Kabul (15 Oct., 1645) with a large Rajput con-
tingent, conquered the Khosht district and built
a wooden fort between the Sarab and the Anda-
rab. Thence he returned to Afghanistan by the
Panjshir valley (4 Nov.).* But the Rajput
garrison by him gallantly held the stockade
left
and beat the Uzbaks back from its walls time

after time.
The way being thus cleared, the grand cam-
paign began next summer. In
^
Balkh. June, 1646 Murad Bakhsh, the
youngest son of the Emperor,,
led 50,000 men into southern Badakhshan by
the Tul pass. With him went AH Mardan Khan,,
the premier noble, a Persian of rare
genius and
ability who had left the Shah's service to
adorn
the Court of Delhi. Marching by way of the
Sarab and Deh-i-Tajikan, they reached Narin,
whence a detachment under Asalat Khan pushed
* Ibid,
462 — 466.
^4 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. V.
on and took possession of the fort of Qunduz on

the north-eastern border of Balkh (22 June).
The Prince met with no opposition and entered
the city Balkh on 2nd July, 1646. The
of
natives gazed with wonder at the Indian army
with its huge elephants covered with cloth of gold
and silver plates, steeds with bridles set with pre-
cious metals, troopers clad in cuirass embossed
with gold and gems, endless columns of mus-
keteers and sappers, and gorgeous standards and
drums.*' Such a display of wealth and pomp
they had never seen before. Shah Jahan had

written to Nazar Muhammad Khan offering to
leave Balkh to him if he remained friendly.

The Khan had answered by professing submis-
sion. But on Murad's arrival at Balkh he
doubted the Emperor's sincerity, feared a strata-
gem, and at night took his flight from his capital
towârds Persia. His fabulous wealth, hoarded
for so years and estimated at 70 lakhs of
many
rupees, was mostly plundered by his followers
and subjects, and the victorious Mughals could
seize only 12 lakhs in cash and kind, besides
camels. Asalat Khan and
2500 horses and 300
Bahadur Khan went in pursuit, but were too
late to capture him.l
* Abdul Hamid, ii. 483—488, 512—537.

I Abdul Hamid, ii. 529-534, 539—541, 548—553-
CHAP, v.] MURAD LEAVES BALKH. 95
The country was conquered without a blow,

but Murad was already sick of
Murad wants to j^ his
very first letter to
[^^
come away.
Emperor he begged hard to
the
be recalled, and he continued to press the request
ever after, in spite of repeated refusal. Most of
his officers were no less eager to return to the
pleasant land of Hindustan and escape from the
dull and uncongenial soil of Balkh. This news
disheartened and distracted the loyal peasantry,
and the Mughal soldiers, too, got out of hand
and took to plundering*
The matter soon came to a crisis. The
infatuated Prince, then onl} 22 years of age,
wanted to return home without
Arrangements permission, leaving Bahadur
Minister. Khan in charge. The Mughal
army of occupation, left without
a supreme leader, would have been placed in
a perilous condition. At Shah Jahan's com-
mand the wazir Sadullah Khan hastened to
Balkh (loth August), tried to move Murad from
his foolish purpose, and on removedhis refusal
him from the command. Arrangements were
made for the new government the army was ;
distributed under different generals and stationed

at important centres to keep hold of the country'.
*
Ibid, ii.
557—559-
9^ HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. V.
Bahadur Khan and Asalat Khan were left in

Balkh as joint viceroys, and Oalich Khan in
Badakhshan. After 22 days of hard toil, the
great wazir finished his task and returned to
Kabul by a rapid ride of four days only
(6 September).* The Prince,
preceded who had
him, was disgraced, deprived of his rank and
government, and forbidden the Court. f
The Mughal outposts were exposed to attack
from the Uzbaks, and many of them lived in a
state of siege,fighting frequent but indecisive
skirmishes with the enemy. All waited for the
arrival of asupreme commander and reinforce-
ments at the end of winter.;|l
During the recess the Emperor made grand

preparations for opening the
Preparations for
renewing the war. campaign
.
m
. .
the spring of
,
1647.
His sons Shuja and Aurangzib
were called up from their provinces, large sums
of money were conveyed to Afghanistan, and
troops were massed at convenient stations from

Peshawar to Kabul, in readiness to move at the
first order.§
* Abdul
Hamid, ii.
560
—565, 584.
t Ibid, 579.
X Ibid, 566 —571, 614—618, 620—624, 626, 642 —657.

§ Ibid, 603, 633, 641-642.
CHAP, v.] HIS ARMY IN BALKH. 97
Aurangzib was government of Guzerat

in his
„ when he received his father's

Aurangzib ap-
pointed viceroy of letter, dated 4th September 1646,
*
ordering him to
*
come away
after leaving Shaista Khan, the governor of
Malwa, in his place. On
20th January, 1647,
he arrived at Lahore with his two eldest sons
and had audience of the Emperor. Next day
the provinces of Balkh and Badakhshan were
conferred on him, with 50 lakhs of rupees for
his expenses. On loth February he took his
leave with a present of 5 lakhs of rupees, and
advanced to Peshawar, where he was to halt till
the spring."'- Thence he reached Kabul on 3rd
April, and set out for the seat of war four days
afterwards. AH Mardan Khan accompanied him
as his chief adviserand right hand man, and no
better selection could have been made.|
But from the very beginning Aurangzib was

handicapped by the smallness of
force under
j^j^ fighting force. Last year
Jhe
Murad had marched into Balkh
with 50,000 men, but after the conquest a part
of the army had been recalled. Of the remain-
ing troops many were in garrison at the various
* Abdul Hamid, ii.

583, 625
—628, 632.
t Ibid, 670, 671.
7
forts or guarding the line of communication

with the base in Afghanistan. High officers in
fullstrength held important districts like Taliqan

and Qunduz in the east, Rustaq in the north-
east, Balkh, Tarmiz on the Oxus, north of Balkh,
Maimana in the south-west, and Andkhui in the
north-west. Aurangzib wisely kept them at
their posts, lest the country should pass out of
his control. But this step weaken-
® enemy s
« j^j^ own immediate command.
^j
Some of the Indian nobles under
orders to join him lingered at home or reached
no further than Afghanistan. So the Prince had
to fight his battles with less than 25,000 men,
while the enemy were a nation in arms and out-
numbered the Mughals as three to one."* True
they did not light pitched battles and had a
wholesome dread of musketry-fire ; but their
"Cossak tactics" wore out the Mughals, and
their superiority in number enabled them to bear
easily a loss ten times as large as the casualties
of the invaders. Against these light forayers the
small Imperial army could not hope for a crush-
ing victory.f
* Abdul Hamid, ii.

702
— 704. Khafi Khan computes his
force at 35,000 and the Uzbak army at 1,20,000 men. (i. 671.)
f Abdul Hamid, ii.

704, 705.
CHAP, v.] VANGUARD FORCES ITS WAY. 99
After leaving Kabul, ythe April 1647, Aurang-

zib marched by the Shibur Pass
j^rcW^Balkh. ^"^ ^^ ^^^^^ *^ Kahmard,

which was a half-way depot of
the invaders. Thence the road to Balkh runs
over a tableland, through which winds the
Dehas river with its narrow valley called the
Derah-i-Gaz. Here the Uzbaks assembled in force
under Qutluq Muhammad to dispute the passage.
The Prince sent a reconnoitring force of 500 men
under Khalil Beg, who charged the enemy,
regardless of the odds against him. On hearing
of his dangerous plight the Vanguard, mostly
composed of Rajputs and a force of musketeers,
was pushed up. I'he Uzbaks lêd, but only to
take post further off (20th May).*
* Abdul Hamid, ii. —
671 673. Aurangzib advanced from
Kabul by the Abdarah and Gaz passes, according to the
Persian account. Yule takes Abdarah to be the upper valley
of the Surkhab, below Zohak (Wood's Journey, lxv).
This was therefore "the Shibr Pass, which was most com-
monly used by Baber." Leyden, 139). Aurangzib's stages
are thus named —
Kabul (by way of Ghorband) to Aq
:
—
Rabat (two stages from Kahmard) Bajgah the pass of—
Badar Hamid ( ?=Babar's "Madr on the Khulm road"),—
—
Kishan Deh Khurd Puni for Buni) Qara ('which is the
—
beginning of the valley of Gaz') Balkh, He seems to have
marched from Kabul northwards to Charikar, thence west-
wards by way of Ghorband to Zohak and Bamian, next
northwards across the Dandan-Shikan Pass to Kahmard or
even to Qara Kotal, whence he turned northwest to the mouth
of the valley of Gaz (crossing one affluent of the Dehas
river on the way). The entire route from Kabul to Balkh
city is spoken of as 123 kos or 246 miles, (Abd. Ham. ii. 669).
lOO HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. V.
Next day, Aurangzib main army by

led the
the eastern bank, while Ali MardanKhan was sent
with the Van across the two upper affluents of
the Dehas to dislodge a strong body of the enemy
from the hills and ravines that crossed the path.
The front division of the Mughal army, as it
issued from a defile, was attacked
Fight on the jj^g Uzbaks and suffered some
,
-^
way.
loss but the wîngs soon came
;
up and broke the enemy's centre. The battle

now became general. Ali Mardan Khan drove
the enemy from the field and from some hillocks
behind it, chased them for four miles over broken
ground, and returned to camp with some
wounded prisoners. This was Aurangzib's first
î
victory in Balkh.
The city of Balkh was reached without further
opposition (25th May). Madhu Singh Hada was
left in command of the fort, and the leading
citizens were detained in custody in Aurangzib's
camp to prevent them from making mischief.*
Reinforcements in men and money continued to
arrive from Kabul, where Shah Jahan himself
was present. "I"
At the head of the Bukhara national defence
* Abdul Hamid, ii.

673—675, 686—687.
t Ibidy 680, 681, 684, 685.
CHAP, v.] FIGHT ON THE MARCH. lOI
Stood Abdul Aziz Khan, the eldest son and sup-

planter of the weak king Nazar Muhammad.
He now sent another army under Beg Ughli
across the Oxus river to Aqcha, 40 miles north-
west of Balkh. Here the fugitives from the pass
of Gaz, under Qutluq Muhammad, joined the
new arrivals. '•'
After a three days' halt at Balkh, Aurangzib

left his baggatje there in charge
March on Aqcha. ,
•
, f ,
of his son, and set

eldest out
with light kit towards Aqcha to meet the
assembled Uzbaks. The Imperial army moved
with great caution, Bahadur Khan leading the
Van, Aurangzib seated on an elephant command-
ing the Centre which enclosed in its bosom the
baggage and camp followers, and AH Mardan
Khan bringing up the Rear. The artillery
supported by foot musketeers cleared the line of
advance. The Uzbak squadrons charged repeat-
edly but only to be broken and driven back.
They formed again at a safe distance and took
11
advantage of the many canals and gardens of
i! the region to obstruct the Imperialists, who
ij steadily advanced to Timurabad (2nd June)."]"
:l
\ \
* Ibid, 686.
i
t
'
Ibid, 687-688.
I02 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. V.
Hardly had the wearied force of Aurangzib

dismounted at their camp here,
Incessant fight- when the Uzbaks attacked them
_
ing with the •, »£

hovering Uzbaks. from ,,
all sides. Alter a uJiarass-
ing fight they succeeded irj
driving the enemy back in front and right, and

Ali Mardan Khan with the Rear went in pursuit
and plundered the camp of Qutluq Muhammad.
But the Mughal left wing was weak in number
and its leader Said Khan Bahadur Zafar Jang
was an old man in bad health. The enemy
quickly discovered this weak spot, and their
troops, repulsed at other points, flocked here to
swell the attack. Said Khan sent a detachment
of 400 men to hold a stream which skirted the
camp and to prevent the enemy from
crossing it.
But a clever ruse of the Uzbaks lured the indis-
creet Mughals to the other bank, where they
were surrounded and almost exterminated by the
mobile enemy. Said Khan sent up reinforce-
ments and at last himself marched out in spite of
his illness. But he was wounded and thrown
down from his horse, and his two sons were
slain with many other soldiers. Just then
Aurangzib arrived to succour the hard-pressed
division. Two furious elephants were driven
before him, and his soldiers rushed into
the lane that was thus cleared. The enemy
I
CHAP, v.] INCESSANT FIGHTING. IO3
were routed and the left wing saved from

extinction.*
The Second of June was aterrible day for
the Imperialists, They had marched from dawn
to midday and then got no rest in their camp,
but had to fight incessantly till sunset before
they could gain the much needed safety and
repose. Ali Mardan Khan now returned with
the victorious Rear. The camp was entrenched
and carefully guarded, many of the captains
doing patrol duty all night, without dismounting.
Next day the tired soldiers and their chief alike
wished to halt. But under Ali
Mardan's wise advice they ad-
cSured.^*""^
vanced to seize Beg Ughli's
base and reap the utmost fruit of their
victory. The Uzbaks as usual hovered round

the marching army and kept up a running fight.
Thanks to superior mobility, they could
their
attack or retreat as they chose. Leaving screens
at safe distances on Right and Left, their
the
miassed troops fell on the Van, but only to be
shattered by the Mughal artillery. The same
tacticswere repeated against the Rear, but
with no better success. The march continued,
the enemy seizing every disorder or weakness
Ibid, 688 —
692 Khafi Khan
; says that this encounter
took place next morning (i. 662).
to come closer and gall the Imperialists with

showers of arrows. But the Scythian militia wâs
no match for regular troops, and their general's
camp at Pashai wâs seized by Aurangzib, and
the peasantry whom they had carried off into
captivity were released."*

After two days of march and fighting the
Prince could no longer deny his troops a halt.
Meantime the baffled enemy slipped away from
his front to his rear at Aliabad.Another large
army arrived from Bukhara under Prince Subhan
Quli, evidently to attack the city of Balkh."j"
The news made Aurangzib beat a retreat from
Pashai (5th June) and hasten
Retreat to Balkh. ^ ja.jxj4.u
eastwards -i-i
to defend the capital.
The enemy became more aggressive than before,
and two places penetrated into his camp for a
at
time.;}: Artillery, rockets,

and muskets alone could
keep their hordes at a safe distance. Next day
he turned a little aside to Shaikhabad to release
twô of his officers who were invested in a
Abdul Hamid, ii. 692 694. —

+ The following points in Aurangzib's advance from Balkh
are mentioned Yulbugha (near some canals) Aliabad
— —
:
—
Timurabad, 'one kos from Fatihabad' Pashai in the district
of Aqcha.
I Khafi Khan (i. 668) says that three or four thousand

Uzbaks dashed Mughal camp, and carried off many
into the
camels loaded with baggage and many women and children
of the Mughal troops, AH Mardan Khan recovered only a
little of the booty.
CHAP, v.] RETURNS TO BALKH. I05
garden. Thence he marched towards Faizabad

on the Balkh^b river.*
On ihe grew worse.
7th the situation The
Bukhara
army put forth a
Grand u
supreme effort. It was now m
battle Ia. ,.
with the Uzbaks.

full strength. Its highest com-
manders, Abdul Aziz the king, Subhan Quli his

brother, and Beg Ughli the Uzbak chieftain,
were all present, and directed the attack on
three points of the Imperial army. But again
musketry and superior discipline gave the
Mughals the victory. The retreat continued till
the 9th with the usual ineffective molestation

from an enemy that lacked fire arms, and whose
arrows were powerless except in a close en-
counter. At last in the evening of the 9th the
Bukhara king demanded a parley and sent a
friendly message. The Mughals were not molest-
ed during the next two dajs, and they reached
Balkh in peace on nth June.|
This march towards Aqcha and retreat to
Balkh had taken up ten days,
°^
the^Mughals. during which the Mughal army
had been a stranger to repose.
* Abdul Hamid, ii. 694
—697.
—
f Abdul Hamid, ii. 697 701. The following points in
Aurangzib's retreat from Pashai are named in the Persian
—
Aliabad digression to Shaikhabad Faizabad on —
history :
the BalUhab River — —

Yanki Ariq Bridge of Dost Beg (on
the Balkhab ?) — —
Naharab or canal Yandarak Balkh city. —
Day after day a strenuous fight had to be main-

tained against the tireless and mobile enemy,
while hunger raged in the Imperial ranks. The
soldiers were ever on the move, and food could
be cooked only on the backs of the marching
elephants Bread sold at one rupee or even two
!
rupees a piece and water was equally dear.

Happy were those who could get the necessaries
of life even at this price, for there was not
enough for all. Such was the condition of the

Prince's personal following. The lot of the
common soldiers may be imagined. But in the
midst of all this hardship and danger, Aurangzib's
firmness and control prevented any slackness or
disorder his watchful eye
; and active body
hastened to the succour of every weak spot, and
his wisdom and courage brought the army back
to safety.*
Evil as was the plight of the Mughal army,
the enemy wêre worse off.
Aurangzib's a „ -l' •
j ^ i.
grim tenacity had
•..
Aurangzib s
splendid courage.
gained its object. Abdul Aziz
now desired to peace.make
His hope of crush-
ing Aurangzib had failed. He had personally
witnessed a striking proof of the Prince's cool
courage for, one day the hour of evening prayer
;
* Khafi
Khan, i. 668 and 669. Howorth (752) says, "The
devastation caused such a famine that an ass's load of corn
cost 1000 florins."
CHAP, v.] PRAYS DURING BATTLE. lOJ
arrived when the battle was at its hottest ;
Aurangzib spread his carpet on the field, knelt

down and calmly said his prayers, regardless of
the strife and din around him. He was then,
as during the rest of the campaign, without
armour and shield. The Bukhara army gazed
on the scene with wonder, and Abdul Aziz, in
generous admiration, stopped the fight, crying,
"To fight with such a man is to court one's
own rum."'^''
The Bukhara king could no longer pay and
keep his vast host together.
^^""^ ^^^ ^^V^ ^" ^^sy plunder of
°^
melts\way.
the Imperialists had brought
his men together. That design having failed
they were eager to return home. The Turko-
mans in particular sold
their horses to the
Imperial army and decamped across the Oxus.|
Abdul Aziz proposed that Balkh should be
delivered to his younger brother
pgace.
Subhan Quli, as Shah Jahan
had publicly offered to restore
the country to their father. Aurangzib referred
the question to the Emperor, and Abdul Aziz
left the
neighbourhood of Balkh, and from
Khulm turned sharply to the north, crossing the
*
Masir-i-Alamgiri, 531 Abdul Hamid,
; ii.
704.
t Abdul Hamid, ii. 701 & 702, 708.
io8 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. V.
[CHAP.
Oxus Aiwanj on inflated skins, his soldiers

at
following his example wherever they could.'*

The historian Abdul Hamid has blamed Aurans-
zib for not
immediately giving chase and killing
or capturing Abdul Aziz.j But he
forgets that
the Uzbak war was a national and did not
rising
depend on any individual leader, even when
was a powerful and able prince like
that leader
Abdul Aziz Khan.
The war was now practically over, at least
for a season. But a settlement
sick VBalkh*."'^ âs Shah Jahan
still far off.
had no doubt decided to give

the country back to Nazar Muhammad Khan,
but that king must first offer submission and beg
pardon before Imperial prestige could be satis-
fied. Meantime in the Mughal army and officers
men alike were sick and longed
of their exile
to return home. High commanders like Bahadur
Khan thwarted Aurangzib, fearing that
secretly
if they captured the king of Bukhara, the
Emperor would annex Transoxiana and leave
the Indian troops in permanent garrison there,
w^hile the failure of the expedition would lead
to their speedy return home ! The country had
been devastated by the Turkoman freebooters, the
* Abdul Hamid, &
ii.
700, 706 707.
f Abdul Hamid, ii.

709.
CHAP, v.] MUGHALS EVACUATE BALKH. 109
crops burnt, and the peasantry robbed or dragged

away. Aurangzib, therefore, wrote to his father
that he could do no good by staying there.'*
Soon after the Prince's return to Balkh about

the middle of June, negotiations
Nazar âd been Nazar
mad Mujiam- opened
'^ by
•'
prolongs
negotiations. Muhammad, then in refuge at
Belchiragh.f But three months
were wasted in a fruitless exchange of messages
and vain attempts to allay the ex-king's suspi-
cions of treachery if he interviewed Aurangzib.
He demanded this fortand that as a security,
and on 13th September sent Qafsh, the Qalmaq
chieftain, as his agent to Aurangzib. On the
23rd, he sent his grandsons to the Prince, excus-
ing himself on the ground of illness.ij:
With this Aurangzib had to be contented, as

the winter was fast approaching. The passes
of Hindu Kush would be soon closed by
the
snow. His army was faced with starvation, as
grain was selling in Balkh at ten rupees a
maund. They had no winter quarters in that
poor and desolate country.
* Waris, 36, 4a.
f For Nazar Muhammad's adventures and

— 668. Persia
in
after his return, see Abdul Hamid, ii.
658
X Waris, 6b, ja.
no HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. V.
Already tribes of Turks and "Alamans" had

recrossed the Oxus and begun to
patched ^^^ ^^ ^^^^j ^j ^^^
^Pcace p^^^j^^
Mughals. Aurangzib, as his
officers urged, had no time to lose he could not ;
even wait for the Emperor's consent. So at last, on

ist October,i647, he formally delivered the city and
fort of BalkhNazar Muhammad's grandsons.
to
His distant garrisons fell back on him at the
rumour of peace, without waiting for his order.'-'
On 3rd October the Mughal army marched from
the plain outside Balkh and began
^^^""^
i^s '^^'^^^ *o ^^^"^- ^^' Mardan
BSkh!^^'
Khan and Rajah Jai Singh com-
manded the Right and Left wings, and Bahadur
Khan the Rear. The artillery accompanied the j
Van. The pass of Ghazniyak was crossed slowly j
and painfully, the enemy harassing them from

the rear and boldly falling upon
Harassed during disorder or
^j^^^ ^^ ^^le'iT least j
retreat.
difficulty. Ghori was reached j
on 14th October, the Uzbaks stillhanging on

the tail of the retreating force. Shah Jahan had
wished to retain this fort and Kahmard as the
southern gates of Balkh, but his officers refused
to stay there."!"
* Waris,
76.
t Waris, 8a.
CHAP, v.] HORRORS OF THE RETREAT. Ill
The retreat continued. The wild hillmen

called Hazarahs now took the
Sufferings in of the Uzbaks in harassing
place
crossing the
Hindu Kush. and plundering the Mughals.
The winter of that year set in
very early and with unusual severity.* The

encumbered wîth lo lakhs of rupees
Imperialists,
but having few transport animals and porters,
toiled slowly and painfully through a narrow
and steep pass east of the Surkhab river (21st
and 22nd October) and the hardened ice on the
Hindu Kush (24th October). South of these
mountains lay Afghanistan and safety, and
Aurangzib could now hasten in advance to
Kabul, which he reached on the 27th. Ali "j"
Mardan Khan too crossed with ease. But the rest

of the army, especially the Rajputs under Jai
Singh, the treasure-escort under 2ulqadar Khan,

the stores, and the Camp and Rear under Baha-
* Vambery's History of Bukhara, 332.
f Aurangzib returned from Balkh to Kabul by the

Gliazniyak
— Haibak— Ghori — Ghorband which
route, is
called in the Persian history the Khwajah Zaid Road (Abd.
Ham. ii. 669). He seems to have crossed the Hindu Kush
either by the Kushan Pass, because "this pass leads under
the great peak specially known as that of Hindu Kush",
(Wood, Ixv) or, what is more likely, by the Chardarya or
Kipchak Pass, (for which see Wood, Ixv. and Leyden, 139).
The stages of his homeward march from Balkh are thus
given — — —
Ghazniyak Pass Ghori Surkhab river Bek Sha- —
— :
—
har Chahar Chashma Pass of Hindu Kush Ghorband — —
—
Charikar Kabul. (Waris, ?>a &" b).
dur Khan, were several days' march behind.

They suffered untold hardships from heavy and
incessant snowfall for three days together. Men
and beasts of burden alike slipped on the snow
or lost the narrow track and went rolling down
into the depths below. The exhausted camels
lay down in the ice never to rise again. The
intense cold drove every man away in search
of shelter, Zulqadar Khan alone, with a hand-
ful of men, guarded his charge on the bare top
of the pass for seven days, regardless of snowfall,
till the Rear under Bahadur Khan came up and
took him away. This last officer's march had

been slow, as he had constantly to face round
and drive back the hillmen who clung to him
in the hope of plunder. One night, in the midst
of wind and snow, he had to bivouac on the top
of the pass, and many benumbed men and beasts
of his party perished.* The last part of the
army reached Kabul on loth November. "j"
The total loss of the Imperial army in crossing

the passes was 10,000 lives, about
Loss of life. , r
1 r 1 1 1
•
one-halt 01 the number being
men, and the rest elephants, horses, camels and

other beasts. Much
property, too, was left
buried under the snow, or flung into the ravines
* Waris, Sb, ga. ,
•j- Waris, ga.

CHAP, v.] LOSSES OF THE WAR. II5
for want of transport. The horrors of the British

Retreat from Kabul were anticipated by these
Indian mercenaries,who had blindly gone to an
unrighteous war at the call of their paymaster.
Next year when the snow melted it revealed the
gruesome spectacle of piles of human bones
bordering the path !"••''
Thus ended Shah Jahan's fatuous war in
Balkh, — a war in which the

Losstothetrea-
j^dian treasury spent four krores
of rupees in two years and
realised from the conquered country a revenue
of 22^ lakhs only. Not an inch of territor}'' was
annexed, no dynasty changed, and no enemy
replaced by an ally on the throne of Balkh. The
grain stored in Balkh fort, worth 5 lakhs, and the
provisions in other forts as well, were all abandon-
ed to the Bukharians, besides Rs. 50,000 in cash
presented to Nazar Muhammad's grandsons and

Rs, 22,500 to envoys. Five hundred soldiers
fell in battle and ten times that number (includ-
ing camp followers) was slain by cold and snow

on the mountains. I Such is the terrible price
that aggressive Imperialism makes India pay for
wars across the north-western frontier.
*
Vambery's Bukhara, 322.
t Abdul Hamid, ii. 542, 704 ; Waris, 7b, 6b, ja.
m
8
CHAPTER VI.
Governorship of Multan and Sindh,

1648
— 1652.
After sanctioning the retreat from Balkh, Shah
Jahan himself returned to India. But steps were
taken to guard against any disaster in the rear.
Prince Shuja was left behind at Kabul till he
should hear that Aurangzib had safely crossed
the Hindu Kush again. The expeditionary force
was now entirely wîthdrawn from Afghanistan.
But Aurangzib himself, in command of its last
portion, was detained at Attock* till March

next, without being permitted to cross the Indus
and enter Hindustan. The object
Aurangzib of this arrangement
appointed
Multan.
to
was that he
1111evidently
should
be near
enough to hasten back to the
defence of Kabul, in case of an invasion from
Central Asia. But such a fear vanished in time,
and in the middle of March 1648 he was appoint-
* Waris, 4a, 8b, 12a.

CHAP. VI.] HIS LIFE IN MULTAN. II5
ed Governor of This post he held

Multan.""'*'
till 14th July,

1652, when he laid it down to take
up the viceroyalty of the Deccan for the second
time.f
Of Aurangzlb's personal histor}' during these

four years there is little to tell. He wâs twice
called away to fight the Persians at Oandahar ;
leaving Multan on 22nd January and return-

first
ing in December, 1649, and on the second

occasion crossing the Chenab on 20th March 1652
and being sent awayDeccan directly
to the
from Qandahar. On the way back from the first
siege he spent a fortnight with the Emperor at
Lahore (loth to 26th November, 1649) and he ;
paid another visit to his father

-' Delhi from 2nd January to
.n^VoZtlT
I2th February, 1651. Promotion
came him on i6th January, 1649, when his
to
rank was raised by 2,000 troopers of his com-
mand being made do-aspa and seh-aspa, and his
allowance being increased in proportion, so that
he was now a Commander of 15,000 men by
rank, (his additional contingent being 12,000
troopers, of whom 8000 were do-aspa and seh-
*
Waris, 12a.
\ Waris, 66a and 6ya.

Il6 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VI.
aspa.)^ In November same year the

of the
province of Tatta or Sindh was added to his

viceroyalty, and the districts of Bhakkar and
Siwistan granted to him as his fiefs."j*
On the public side of the Prince's career fron^
1650 a new and copious source

The Adab-i r •
c j ^
j.-^l •
its
of information is opened to the
Alamgiri:
contents and historian the /l(ia6-/-/l/am^zW.
historic value, .
.,
b}'
....
Aurangzib took into his service
an elegant and facile secretary, Shaikh Abu!
Fath, afterwards raised to the title of Qabil
Khan and the high post of Munshi-ul-mamalik
("Secretary of the Empire") when his master

won the throne of Delhi. The scribe served the
Prince for 26 years and retired only when failing
eye-sight made him unfit for his task.iji He kept
copies of all the letters he wrote in the name of
Aurangzib to the
Emperor, the princes, ministers,
and generals, and of certain other epistles written
to them on his own behalf. These number more
than six hundred and fill
427 pages of a foolscap
folio manuscript, with 23 lines to the page.
They cover the entire period from 1650 to the
dethronement and captivity of Shah Jahan. From
*
Waris, 24a, 396, ^Sa, 4ga, $ga. Adab-i-Alamgin, 3a,
4A, ga & b.
f Waris, 396.
X Adab-i- Alamgiri , lb, logb.
CHAP. VI.] COLLECTION OF HIS LETTERS. I17
the commencement of the second siege of Qan-

dahar the letters become more full and frequent,
and we get a detailed and most authentic account
of Aurangzib's efforts at Qandahar, his feeling at
his father's censure, his financial difficulties in
the Deccan, the administrative problems that he
handled there, the crooked ways of Mughal
diplomacy with Bijapur and Golkonda, and —
lastly, of his hopes and fears, plans and move-
ments during the war of succession, and his
relations with his captive father. Half a century
later^ Sadiq of Ambala collected Qabil Khan's
drafts, supplemented them with a history of the
war of succession extracted from the Amal-t-
Salih and the Alamgir-namah, added 131 letters^*
which he himself had written as secretary to the
luckless prince Muhammad Akbar, and published
the whole to the world. In the Khuda Bakhsh
MS. the collection forms a folio volume of 586
pages, of inestimable value to the historian of
the epoch.f
The province of Multan contained a war-like

and unsettled population divided into a number
* These contain many details of the Mughal war with
Maharana Raj Singh, and come to a close only a month
before Akbar broke into rebellion against his father.
f The Adab-i-Alamgiri was compiled in 1115 A. H.

(1703-1704 A.D.) by Sadiq at the request of his son IVId.
Zaman, (2a and b).
Il8 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VI.
of clans by differences of race, creed, and tradi-

tions, and often engaged in war with one
another. The
addition of Sindh to his charge
brought Aurangzib in contact with the wildest
and most untractable Afghan and Baluch septs.
For many generations past the royal authority
had been hardly obeyed in the
Sindh : its law- ,
u j ij
t„„
less f ^. western borderland even in
population.
name, and the chieftains had
lived warred and raided as they liked.
Aurang-
zib wâs not the man to brook disorder and
disobedience. But even he could do no more
than make a beginning. The cause of law and
order could get no local support among the
people governed everything depended on the
;
strong arm of the ruler. It was impossible for

him, in the few years of a viceroyalty, to break
to peaceful life and law-abiding habits tribes
who had never before known any government
and who were in a fluid state of either expansion
or extinction. Only justice strictly administered
and backed by irresistible force for several
generations, could have crushed out the predatory
instincts of the Brahuis and Hots and taught
them to obey a higher power than their chieftains'
will. This moral transformation was reserved
for another age and another race of adminis-
trators. What Aurangzib, however, could do
CHAP. VI.] ISMAIL HOT REFRACTORY. II9
was to strike down the most notorious brigand

chiefsand secure a nominal profession of alle-
giance to the Emperor from the border clans.
The Imperial suzerainty once admitted in theory,
its practical working out might be left for better
times.
A large Baluch tribe name Hot had migrated
into Sindh and the Panjab under
Mir Chakar Rind of Sibi, and
split up into branches. One section held the
upper Derajat for two centuries wîth Dera

Ismail Khan as their capital. Their chiefs bore
the title of Ismail Khan from generation to
generation and stretched their lordship over
Darya Khan and Bhakkar east of the Indus. In
the Sind Sagar Doab stood Mankera, another
Hot stronghold, and the capital of a principality
which in the beginning of the 17th century
stretched from Bhakkar to Leiah on the Indus.
In course of time the Hots have become assimi-
lated to their Jat and Rajput neighbours, and
their power and number have declined.* But
the seventeenth century wâs the period of their
greatness. Their chief, Ismail Hot, sent presents
to Shah Jahan and secured a patron in Dara
Shukoh. Taking advantage of his position on
* Dames's Baloch Race, 48 and 55, Imperial Gazetteevy
xi. 262, 270, xvii. 198, xxiii. 286.
I20 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VI.
the boundary between the two provinces, he

now claimed to be subject to the Governor of
Lahore and refused to admit the jurisdiction of
the Subahdar of Aurangzib was pre-
Multan.
pared for this
subterfuge. He had mentioned
the case in an audience with the Emperor and
got his answer that Ismail Hot was in future to

be subject to Multan. The Hot chief, on the
strength of a letter of Dara's, refused to wait
upon the new Governor of Multan, and continued
in his career of aggression. He took three forts
from Mubarak of Babri, another Baluch chief.
Aurangzib, armed with the
Emperor's sanction, at once
put*down.'"''°"'
asserted his authority and sent
a force to restore the forts to their rightful owner.
But during Mubarak's absence, Ismail conquered
the forts again. Severer measures wêre now^
taken against him he was compelled to sur-
;
render Mubarak's possessions and to pay his
respects to the Prince at Multan (20th June,

1650). Aurangzib now conciliated him, as he
was a rich chieftain with a good body of armed
retainers, and could assist the Imperial govern-
ment in subduing the Nohani tribe and also
supply provisions during the Qandahar war.*
* Abdul Hamid, ii. 233, (Ismail presents horses and
camels, 26 May, 1641.) Waris, 85fl. Adab-i-Alamgiri,2b, 2,(1.
CHAP. VI.] WILD TRIBES SUBDUED. 121
Another Baluch tribe, which has now strange-

ly declined and almost disap-
^°^*"' Nohani* the
peared, is the
trTbc^
hereditary enemy of the Hots.

But their power in the 17th century was strong
enough to cause anxiety the to
government.
Aurangzib at first tried to win over Alam, the
Nohani chief, whose lands adjoined those of

the Hots and lay across one of the shortest roads
from Multan to Qandahar. But his friendly
letter produced no effect the proud chieftain
;
refused to wait on the Governor at Multan. So

Aurangzib took steps to expel him by force, after
getting sanction from the Emperor. "j"
In the Kirthar and Lakhi hills separating Sindh

from Baluchistan, dwelt many lawless men of
the Nahmardi and Jukia tribes. In Akbar's time
the former clan could place in
Imperial au- ^he field more than 7,000 men.t
/ -r '
thonty recounts-
ed in the Baluch Their Strongholds were Bela,
*^^
(the capital of the district of
Indus^^°"'^
Las), and Kahra, from which
* "Noh or Nuhani. —
Not now found. Said to have been
on the side of the Lasharis against the Rinds"{Dames's
Baloch Race, p. 56). "Throughout the Brahui, Baloa,
and Lasi tribes, and even among the Sibi Afghans, sections
or sub-sections called Nodh, Nodhani, and Nothani, &c.
are to be found" (H. Buller's Census of Baluchistan, p. 83).
f Adab-i-Alamgiri, 3a, 36, 4a, 5a.
X Ain, ii. 337. The Adab-i-Alamgiri mentions Kahra and
Bela as 10 stages from the frontier of Tatta, and as the
122 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VI.
they sallied forth to rob and to slay. No ruler

of from the days of the Tarkhan dy-
Sindh,
nasty, had extorted even a nominal submission
from these border brigands. Aurangzib sent his
able lieutenant, Malik Husain of the Abdali
clan, against them. The force marched for ten
days beyond the frontier of Lower Sindh, exacted
promises of submission and tribute from Harun
and Khatartal (the Nahmardi chiefs), and Murid
(the headman of the Jukias), and caused the
Emperor's name to be read from the pulpit as

a public mark of his suzerainty. This show of
strength evidently had a good effect on the
neighbours, for Jafar Nahmardi, a kinsman of
the zamindar of Panjghur* and Kech Makran,
and four other chiefs offered
and in Makran. ,, . .
their allegiance to the Imperial

it •
i
government.
Another Nahmardi chief named Madh, had
descended from the hills of Southern Afghanistan
to raid Bela and Kahra. But Malik Husain with
the Imperial troops made a forced march of 140
refuge of these two clans. The Ain speaks of a range of

mountains named Karah, evidently west of Bhakkar.
(ii- 337)-
The Adab-i-Alamgiri, 2,b, has Banchur or Panjur "and
*
Kaj and Makran". I take the place to be Panjghur, 27°30
N. 63°E., north north-east of Kaj (or Kech), described
in Masson's Kalat, 219. The chief objection to the indenti-
fication is that it is more than 300 miles away from Tatta.
CHAP. VI.] PROMOTES COMMERCE. I23
miles, and surprised the robber's camp, slaying

him and bringing away his daughter and forty
of his retainers as captives. Thus the Emperor's

suzerainty was publicly declared throughout the
coast tract of Makran, and the army returned
to Tatta with flying colours.
Sata Hala, the son of the zamindar of Kakrala,
paid a Aurangzib at Multan, but in the
visit to
meantime his rival crossed over from Cutch and

seized his lands. A detachment from Malik
Husain's force, assisted by a gun-
Lawless men \jQ^t drove away the usurper,
put down.
' -^
.
who fled without standing a

battle.'=' Everywhere lawless men and frontier
clans felt that they had got a new master, who
could not be safely defied.
While thus securing internal peace, Aurangzib
was equally mindful of developing the trade of
the province and increasing its revenue. Early
in the centuryTatta had been one of the chief
commercial centres of India, and trade of great
value used to pass up the Indus. But accumula-
tions of sand at the mouth of the river increased
year by year and closed the passage to ocean-go-

ing ships.f Tatta ceased to be an emporium.
* Adab-i-Alamgiri, 3''>.
" There is no
f city of greater trade in all the Indies than
Tatta in Sindh its chief port being Larry Bunder, three
;
days' journey nearer the mouth of the river. From Tatta

124 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VI.
Aurangzib now set about reviving the commerce

of the province by affording facilities to the
maritime trade. He opened a new port at the
mouth of Indus, and built
the
Aurangzib ,
there a
, 1,1
and dock to give it
fort
opens a new port
at the mouth of But it
security and usefulness.
the Indus. .
took time for the new harbour

to become known to mariners, and for some
months the only ship that used it was a vessel
belonging to the Prince. The Emperor excused
the duty on merchandise in order to attract trade
to it.*
We read of his financial difficulties at this

time. His jagirs produced little revenue, as the
result of drought, the locust plague, and floods,
in three successive seasons. He begged for
financial assistance from the Emperor, saying
that he had no hoard of gold pieces, but had spent
all his income in keeping his army efficient, as he
did not care to buy jewels like other princes.

But the Emperor gave him an angry refusal. "j"
Aurangzib's administrative capacity, however,

must not be judged from these few achievements
they go in two months by water to Lahore and return down

the river in one... Great trade is carried on at Tatta and ships
of 300 tons might be brought up to Larry Bunder" Whitt-
ington in 1614, Purchas, 1, quoted in Kerr's Voyages and
Travels, ix. 131 and 130. For the silting up, Tavernier, i. 12.
*
Adab-i-Alamg-iri, 6a.
f Adab, 172a.
CHAP. VI.] FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. I25
in Sindh. He lived in the province for barely

three years, and in the very first year of his vice-
royalty Qandahar cast its shadow over his work.

Home affairs were subordinated to foreign, and
every other question was neglected for the
supreme one of recovering Qandahar. Multan

became one of the two bases for the war with
Persia, and, amidst the bustle of military pre-
parations on a vast scale, the attention and
resources of its ruler were necessarily diverted
from the internal administration.
CHAPTER VIL
First Siege of Qandahar, 1649.
The province of Qandahar occupies the

southern part of Afghanistan.
The district of \^ [^ ^ level
comparatively
Qandahar: its
physical aspects, country, of which the heart is
formed by the river Helmand

and its tributaries. On the east it is separated
irom India by the extensive net-wôrk of hills
centring round Thal-Chotiali. On the south
impassable deserts lie between it and Baluchistan.
On the north stretch the hill ranges of Ghazni
and Kabul. Westwards, from a little beyond
the city of Qandahar up to Isfahan, the country
but so very hot and barren that
is fairly level,
for days and days together not a green herb or

blade of grass refreshes the traveller's eye, while
the dry sandy soil affords only a scanty supply
of brackish water at long intervals. A few forts
have been built on the rivers, mainly for military
—
purposes, to guard the fords, to protect caravans,
CHAP. VII.] COUNTRY ROUND QANDAHAR. 127
and to afford resting places to troops on the

march. Patches of cultivation and walled
hamlets dot the river banks in an otherwise
desolate wilderness."*
Qandahar proper is an open and well-watered

district penned within hills and
*"^
clnals?'°^'
^^'^'^'- '^^^ Arghandab and
the Tarnak, two tributaries of
the Helmand, give fertility to its north-eastern
corner beyond Kalat-i-Ghilzai, on the road to
Ghazni. Numberless canals have drawn away
water from the and turned the
Helmand,
environs of Qandahar into one long expanse of
orchards and cornfields, vineyards and melon-
beds. The Afghans of this part have used every
contrivance that human ingenuity sharpened
by want can suggest, to utilise the precious water
of their few streams in irrigating their fields.
Rightly do the people name their river Hirmand

or "abounding in because they
blesssings,"
owe their all But the country is so bare
to it.f
of trees that firewood is very dear, and for lack
of timber the people build their houses of sun-
* Journey of Richard Steel and John Crowther, in

—
Purchas, I. 519 528 (quoted in Kerr's Voyages and Travels,
ix. 212 and 213).
t Imperial Gazetteer, i. 12. Ain-i-Akbari {]arretX.), ii.394.

Masson's Journeys, ii. 186, 189. Forster's Journey (1798),
ii. 102 — 104 and 106.
128 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. VIK
dried clay, with earthen domes for roofs. Burnt

bricks are seldom used, even in building the
walls of forts.'* Away from the river, agriculture
cannot flourish, and sheep form the chief
wealth of the people.
The great Hindu Kush range running through
c. X 4.
the heart of Asia, strikes west-
'
Strategic import-
ance of Qanda- wards into Persia, and thus
completely separates Central

Asia from Afghanistan, Baluchistan and India.
But north of Herat its formidable heights sink
to insignificant levels, with comparatively
gentle gradients, which offer an easy passage to
an invading host from Central Asia marching to
take Kabul from the rear and strike India on her
western flank. I Herein lies the strategic im-
portance of Qandahar :
only 360 miles of
level country separate it from ten Herat, — a
days' dash for cavalry. Through Qandahar must
pass, and there must be turned back,
if ever at
all, any considerable land force, with artillery
and other modern impedimenta, coming to

invade India from Persia or Central Asia.;}: The
master of Kabul must hold Qandahar and
* Masson's Journeys, i. 280.

t Holdich's Gates of India, 528.
X Kandahar (a pamphlet), with an Introduction b}
Ashmead Bartlett, (1881).
CHAP. VII.] TRADE THROUGH QANDAHAR. 129
Herat, or his dominion is unsafe. In an age

when Kabul was a part of the Delhi Empire,
Qandahar was our indispensable first line of
defence.
In the seventeenth century Qandahar was even
more important as a gateway
Qandahar, a ,
O' commerce than as an outpost
gate-way of com-
mcrce between ^f the empire. The Portuguese
India and Persia.
navy then dominated the Indian
Ocean, and quarrels wîth Persia often
their
stopped the sea-borne trade by way of the

Persian Gulf. All merchandise from India and
even the Spice Islands had to follow the land
route through Multan, Chotiali, Pishin and
Qandahar. In spite of the length and hardships
of the in spite of the toll levied by every
road,
petty chieftain and local officer whose jurisdiction
had to be crossed, in spite of the total cost of
transport being as high as Rs. 125 for every

—
camel's load, the traders had practically a
monopoly of the Persian market, and their
profits were large enough to attract numbers to
the traffic. In
1615, the English traveller
Richard Steel noted that fourteen thousand laden
camels annually passed into Persia by this route.
Many merchants of India, Persia and Turkey met
at Qandahar and often concluded their exchange
of commodities there, and so great was the con-
9
130 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VII.
course of trade that provisions grew very dear

in the city in spite of the natural abundance of
the district, and the houses were extended till
the suburbs became larger than the city itself."^
From its position Qandahar was naturally a

bone of contention between
°^
""
^^^^^ ^"^ P^^^^^' ârly in the
Qânlhirf
sixteenth century two powerful
monarchies Strang up side by side, when Babar
conquered Delhi and Shah Ismail founded the
glorious "Sophy" dynasty in Persia. In 1522
Babar finally wrested the province of Qandahar
from the Arghun family who had held it under
nominal submission to the ruler of Herat. On
his death, it passed as an appanage to his
younger son Kamran. In 1545, Humayun, then

a fugitive from India, captured the fort from his
brother Askari, but broke his promise of ceding
it to the son of the Persian king, who had given
him shelter and whose forces had aided the
conquest. But this breach of faith availed him
little. In the troubles
following Humayun's
death and Akbar's minority, the Persian king
conquered Qandahar (1558) and bestowed it on
hisnephew Sultan Husain Mirza. Akbar's turn
came in 1594, when Sultan Husain's successor,
* Purchas, 1.519 —528, as quoted in Kerr, ix. 209,212, 213.

Tavernier, i. 90.
CHAP. VII.] MUGHALS GET QANDAHAR. 131
Mirza Muzaffar Husain, surrendered his princi-

pality to the Mughal Emperor
Frequently ,
^^d entered 1 i-
changes hands his service as a
between India So also did
and Persia. jiig^ grandee.
Muzaffar's brother Rustam, the
lord of Dawar. For the next twenty-nine
years Qandahar remained united to Delhi,

though a fruitless attack was made on it in
1606, just after Akbar's death. But the Persians

were not to be denied. After negotiating in
vain with Jahangir for a friendly cession of the
fort, Shah Abbas the Great in 1623 besieged it
for 45 days, and took it from Abdul Aziz Khan
Naqshbandi, who was holding it for the Emperor.

Fifteen years afterwards, Ali Mardan Khan, the
Persian Governor of Qandahar, alarmed at the
hostile intentions of the Shah, saved himself
and his family by betraying the fort into Mughal
hands (Feb., 1638) and entering the Imperial
service, where he gained the highest rank and
office,and the personal friendship of his new

master. Shah Jahan, on getting possession
spent immense sums in strengthening the
defences and replenishing the stores and arsenals
of Qandahar and its dependencies, Bist and
Zamin Dawar.*
* For the see Erskine's History
history of Qandahar of
India,i.2iS, 220, 355; ii.
311— 319, Blochmann's Azn-i-
It now became a point of honour with the

o. ALi. < TT Persian sovereign
=•
to recover
Shah Abbas II.
prepares to rcco- Qandahan Shah Abbas II, who

^^^ '**
had ascended the throne of
Isfahan in boy wanted to
1642 as a of ten onlj^,
signalise his age by a great exploit.

coming of
In August, 1648, he began to assemble match-

lockmen and pioneers in Khurasan, la}^ in stores
of grain at convenient centres, and mobilise a
large force at Herat. At the same time the

traffic from Persia to Qandahar by this route
was stopped, in order to withhold news from
the doomed city. But preparations on such a

vast scale cannot be kept secret. At the end of
September Shah Jahan learnt of the project ; he

was even informed that the Persians would
make the attack in winter, when the heavy
snowfall of Afghanistan would prevent the
arrival of relief from India. Shah Jahan, then
at Delhi, took counsel with his ministers. It
^^^ ^' ^''^ ^^^'^^^ *o "^^ve

Shah Jahan
delays Kabul, and
sending to the Court to
""^ ^^ *
warn the nobles to join the
expedition with their quotas of troops. But a
^Âa?'/, i.
313-314. 409. 504; Elliot, vi.
130; Ruqat-i-Shah
Abbas Sani, 77 — 79, Alam Arai Abbasi (Mulla Firuz MS.),
Khafi Khan, — 122, 326; Abdul Hamid,
ii.
24 —119;
40 ; Masir-ul-Umara,
115 i.
ii. —
795 798 (Life of All Mardan
ii.
Khan), iii. 296 et seq ; Encyclopaedia of Islam, i. 167

and 168.
CHAP. VIl.J PERSIAN SIEGE. I33
winter march to Afghanistan was unpleasant ;
several provincial commanders delayed joining

the Emperor. Courtiers were not wanting to
suggest that there was no need for hurry, as a
Persian campaign in the depth of winter was
most unlikely. In a weak moment Shah Jahan
listened to the carpet knights of his Court ;
the
march of grand army was put off till the
the
next spring. Only the Mughal Governor of
Kabul threw 5,000 men and five lakhs of treasure
into Qandahar to add to its defensive power.®
Empire is not for the ease-loving victory is ;
not for the indolent. The

Q^ndlhTr.^"''^^
natural consequence of neglect-
ing an enemy followed. The
Persian king belied his tender age and character
of a drunkard. He triumphed over the depth
of winter, his lack of provisions, and other
difficulties on which the courtiers of Shah Jahan
*
Waris, 2ob-2ia, 23a; Khafi Khan, i. 684 686; —
Muhammad Afzal Husain's Xiibdat-ut-Tawarikh, (Khuda
Bakhsh MS.) 42a, (very brief). Ruqat-i-Shah Abbas
Sani, the Shah's letters to Shah Jahan before and after the
—
52 64, his letter calling upon Daulat Khan to
siege,
—
surrender the fort, 120 126, and some other epistles in which
he exults over his victory, 105 —
120 (including the failures of
Shah Jahan's sons). One of the letters to Shah Jahan
contains the curious request, "Won't you make a
free gift
of Qandahar to me, who stand in the relation of a son to
you?" (59) Tarikh-i-Shah-Abbas Sajti by Mirza Tahir
Wahid (MuUa Firuz Library) has a brief account of the
Persian capture and the failure of the Mughal sieges.
11
had built their hopes, and laid siege to Qandahar

on i6th December, 1648.
Khan, surnamed Khawas Khan, the

Daulat
Mughal commandant, adopted a foolish scheme
of defence. He threw his picked troops into
the citadel, named Daulatabad, as if matters
had already come to the worst. Three quarters
of mile from the citadel, on the north face
a
of the hill, stood two projecting guard-towers
above a flight of forty steps carved in the solid
lime-stone rock. Daulat Khan durst not hold
this isolated position. But it was a fatal
omission. The Persians at once seized this
eminence,* which dominated the citadel and

the market place of Qandahar. On 5th January,
1649, three big guns, each carrying 74 ft shot,

reached their camp. Platforms had been already
raised for them, and the bombardment of the
city began. The parapets and screens above the
fort-walls were demolished, and the Persian
trenches were safely run to the edge of the ditch.
Thence they crossed the moat
Progress of the ^^ wooden bridges and secured
**
siege.
a lodgement under the walls of
the outwork named Shir Haji and began to lay
* Manucci mentions a
story that they surpised the Mug-hal
sentry on the hilltop by following a goat-track up the hill at
night under the guidance of a goat-herd. (Storia, i. 186.)
CHAP, VII.] DESPAIR OF GARRISON. I35
mines. Here the fiercest fighting took place at

close quarters, the outwork being repeatedly lost
and recovered. presence The of their king
spurred the Persians on to heroic exertions.
Early in February, the garrison began to lose
TIrcachery
« „ t heart. They had held their
-'
among the de- own for a month and a half
against superior odds, and no

relief was in sight. Nor were
wanting traitors
to fan their discontent and alarm. Two Tartar
chiefs, Shadi Uzbak and Qipchaq Khan, with
their retainers, had entered the Mughal pay at
the end of the war in Balkh, and were now in
Qandahar. These foreign mercenaries thought
only of saving their families and property,
without caring for their master's honour. They
intrigued with the timid and the slothful among
the garrison and created a spirit of despair by
dwelling on the impossibility of reinforcements

arriving before spring, and painting the horrors
of an assault by the Persians. Their arts succeed-
ed. A portion of the garrison mutinied, deserted
their trenches and opened negotiations with the
enemy. Daulat Khan was not the leader for
such a crisis : he lost control over his men ;
instead of making an example of the ring

leaders, asserting his own authority by a stern
suppression of the mutiny, and animating the
loyal by constant visits to the different points,

he vainly reasoned with the mutineers, and then
left them absolute masters of their quarters. On
5th February, the traitors admitted a Persian
envoy within the lines against orders, and soon
a crowd of Mughal officers gathered round him
to hear the Shah's letters read. An Imperial
officer from Bist was also brought in to convince
the garrison of the surrender of that fort to the
Persians. This took away what little courage
the defenders had still left in them. The com-
mandant begged for a five days' truce, which
was granted. On nth Febru-
Capitulation of ..u „ •
j j
on
Qandahar. ^^y* ^"^ garrison surrendered
a promise of safety from the
Persian king, marched out of the fort and set
out for India. Thus Qandahar with all its stores
and armament was lost to India.* The siege
had lasted 57 days, and the relieving force
succeeded in coming in sight of the fort only
three months after its fall !
No greater blow was ever struck at Mughal

prestige than the loss of Qandahar. And the
shame of itwas equalled only when three grand
and costly expeditions, led by the Emperor's sons,
failed to wrest it from the Persians. The success
*
(For the siege by the Persians) Waris, 23a —27a Khafi
Khan, i.
—
686 690 and 693.
;
CHAP. VII.] CAUSES OF SURRENDER. I37
of Shah Abbas II served only to deepen the
disgrace of the subsequent failures of Aurangzib

and Dara Shukoh at the same place.
For the fall of Oandahar Shah Jahan and his
advisersalone must be held responsible. They

had underrated the enemy's powers they had ;
delayed their own preparations ;

and above all
they had left Daulat Khan in charge. Before the

Persians arrived, men and money had been
thrown into the fort, but not the man needed
for the occasion ;
and in \va.T it is not men but
the man that counts.
Daulat Khan* had risen to be a commander

^« ^ r .^ of live thousand. By birth a
Character 01 its -^
Mughal com- Bhati of the Panjab, his extreme

beauty in youth had gained him
Jahangir's favour and the easy office of Captain
of the Imperial Body-guard. Under Shah Jahan
he had distinguished himself by personal bravery
and enterprise in the wars of the Deccan and
the arrest of a powerful rebel. But he was now
verging on sixty and had evidently lost his old
energy and leadership of men. He had neither
resourcefulness nor power of initiative, nor
the iron will that nerves heroes to hold a
fortress till the last moment in scorn of
* Life in Masir-ul-Umara, ii.

24
— 30.
famine and impending massacre. Above all,
he utterly failed to keep in hand the diverse

races,
—
Rajputs and Hindustani Musalmans,
Afghans and Turks,
— who formed the garrison
of With an impregnable fort, a
Qandahar.
garrison of 7,000 men, and provisions and
munitions for two years,* his task was easy in
comparison with that of many an English
subaltern known to fame, an Eldred Pottinger
or a Grant (of Thobal) ;
and he failed in it. If
he had held out a month longer, the Persians
would have raised the siege through lack of
provisions. The garrison had lost only 400 men

out of 7,000 effectives when he opened the gates
to the enemy."!*
Shah Jahan had received news of the Persian
preparations for the siege of

Army sent to
Qandahar
^ as early as 30th
Qandahar, rr 1
September, 1648, but he suffered
his persuade him to delay his own

courtiers to
march to Kabul till the next spring. On i6th
Januar^^, 1649 at Lahore
he received a despatch
* When Persians captured the fort, it had a garrison

the
of 4,000 with the sword or the bow, 3000 men
men armed
armed with matchlocks, a number of large guns, vast
quantities of powder
and shot, many thousand stands of
arms, besides money, grain, oil and other provisions sufficient
for two years. (Waris, 26a and h.)
f- Waris, 26a and h.
CHAP. VII.] ARMY OF RECOVERY. I39
from Qandahar stating that the Shah had

arrived and begun the siege exactly a month
before. Orders were immediately sent to Aurang-
zib and the prime minister Sadullah Khan, to
hasten to Qandahar with 50,000 men. A bounty
of Rs. 100 was paid for every trooper who joined
the expedition, while the commanders and
ahadis got three months' pay in advance.*
1 he troops moved in two divisions,

— under
Sadullah Khan from Lahore and
under Sadullah
and Aurangzib.
^^^^^ Aurangzib
=> from Multan, '
— and met together at Bhera.

Thence the Prince himself advanced by way of
Bangash, Kohat, Jamrud and Jalalabad, arriving
at Kabul on 25th March, while the progress of
the army was delayed by the snow on the roads
and the lack of fodder for the beasts of transport.
Meantime Qandahar had fallen, and Aurangzib's
new orders were to push on and besiege the fort
before the Persians could consolidate their
conquest. The Emperor himself proceeded to

Kabul to support and direct the siege from the
rear.
Leaving Kabul (on 5th April) after a halt of

eleven days, Aurangzib reached Ghazni on the
i8th, where the absolute want of grain and fodder
* Waris, 23a and b, 2ya.

HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. VII.
140 [CHAP.
rendered his further advance impossible. But

the Emperor was inexorable. The Prince
gathered what provisions he could during a
fortnight's stay at Ghazni, and then resumed his
march. From Qalat-i-Ghilzai SaduUah pushed

on with five divisions of the army, and encamped
before Qandahar on 14th May. Aurangzib
brought up the rear two days later.
••'
Two miles outside the modern city of Qandahar,

a traveller proceeding towards
Old Qandahar the ruins of
Herat comes upon
^
described.
old Qandahar,! which Alexander
the Great is said to have built and which Nadir
Shah destroyed in 1738. It stood on an exceed-
ingly strong position, along the base and eastern

slope of a high ridge of bare rock
that rises
abruptly from the plain. The site of the city
is marked by the crumbling walls of houses and
confused heaps of bricks and debris, which cover

several acres of surface. The lines of defence
are still traceable by portions of walls that
extend with broken intervals along the crest of

the ridge. The city consisted of three distinct
* Waris, 2ja-2Sb (for the details of the marchyl.

t This description is based upon Ferrier's Caravan
Journeys {ed. 1856), 317; Bellew's Journal of a Political
Mission to Afghanistan, 232 & 233 Masson's Journeys,
;
i.
279; Waris, 26a.
CHAP. VII.] DEFENCES OF QANDAHAR. I41
parts, each on a separate eminence, and capable

of mutual defence. On the
serrated crest of the hill stood
ridge."*^*""^*^^
towers united by curtains.
many
The highest of these, called Lakah, was almost
impregnable. It contained rock-cut tanks of
water for the cit} and commanded the citadel
(named Daulatabad), which stood lower down
on the second eminence, while the town and
market-place (Mandavi), both walled round,
were situated further below on the first tableland
above the eastern Beyond the city
plain.
stretched gardens, pleasure-houses and fields for
miles and miles, to the north, east, and south-
east. Three walls surrounded the
city at such a
distance from as to enclose a large open space
it
for the encampment of a garrison in time of war.
The ramparts"-''" of the old town were built of

dried clay, strengthened bv the
The walls. .
r , ,
mixture ot
chopped straw and
stones. The material, thoroughly wetted and
stamped out, was laid in layers of eighteen
inches high at a time and allowed to dry before
the next layer was put on. Their thickness at
places was ten yards. An English officer in

1878 wrote of these walls as about the stiffest
* This based on Ferrier, 317

is Le Messurier's
description ;
Kandahar in iSyg, pp. 70 and 71.

things of the kind he had seen. On firing a

revolver at 10 yards, the bullet merely was
lodged in the face of the wall and could be
picked out with the nail. Such walls, according
to him, might have stood modern battering guns
for a length of time, and in fact some of the
British artillerymen doubted if any impression
to speak of could have been made on them.*
Beyond the triple wâlls, on the side of the plain
was a wide and deep ditch, supplied with water
from the canals of the Arghandab river.
On the north face of the ridge against which

the fort nestled, there are forty steps cut in the
rock and leading up to a cave half wây up the
hill. On the two sides of the entrance, are two
couchant leopards, and the cave itself contains
a bow-shaped chamber with a domed roof.|
Two guard-towers had been built during the
Mughal occupation on adjacent projections of the
rock to oppose an enemy's assault by this path,
because from the top of the Forty Steps guns
could command both the citadel and the city.
The fort of Lakah crowned a peak in the middle
of the ridge and defended Qandahar on its
western flank, where the hill
descended to the plain in a steep

*Le Messurier, 130 and 131.
t Bellew, 232 and 233.
CHAP. VII.] OUTPOSTS OF QANDAHAR. I43
scarp. had a gate named Ali Q^bi.* Proceed-

It
ing along the city wall from the north-eastern

corner of the ridge where the wall first leaves
the hill, we come in succession to the gates of
Baba Wali, Waisqaran, Khwajah Khizir, and
Mashuri, wall strikes the ridge
till at last the
again at the south-western corner of the fort,

where stood an earth-work bastion and a redoubt
(hissar).'\
The outposts of the province in the direction
of Persia were Kushk-i-Nakhud, situated about
40 miles wêst of Qandahar on the right bank of

a tributary of the Helmand which drains the
Maiwand valley, the fort of Bist, 50 miles further
v^êst on the margin of the Helmand, and 2amin
Dawar, north-west of Bist. The Persian frontier
station was Girishk, some thirty miles up the
Helmand from Bist. if
Aurangzib arrived before Qandahar and began

the siege on 16th May, 1640.
Siege begun.
Ihe a/i u j 1
Mughals
1
completed their
,
* So far as we can
judge from the Persian accounts
Qaitul was the name of the whole ridge. At places it looks
as if it were a peak identical with or adjacent to Lakah, but
the Adab-i-Alamgiri, 12b, distinctly calls the whole ridee
thehill of
Qaitul.
t For the gates, Waris, 24*, 286, 650 ;
Adah-i-Alamgiri,
12b, 14a.
I Holdich's Gates of India, 204, Purchas, i. 519 528

(quoted in Kerr's Voyages and Travels, ix). Ain-i-Akbari
(Jarrett), ii.
393—398.
144 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAf>. VII.
investment by throwing up entrenchments

opposite gates and behind the ridge, and
the
began to run covered lanes towards the ditch of

the fort. A body of scouts watched the ferry at
Kushk-1-Nakhud, to get earl3^ news of the coming
of any relieving force from Persia.
Next day a coup de main was attempted.
Rajahs Man Singh of Gwalior and Bhao Singh

of the Kangra Hills, led their Rajputs up the
Fortv Steps and reached the platform on the top,
but the Persian musketeers from within the
guard-towers plied their matchlocks with deadly

effectat point-blank range, and the Rajputs
were driven with heavy loss half way down the
hill, where they constructed a stockade and
held itfor some time.*'
Despite a heavy fire from the fort guns, three

covered lanes were carried to
Entrenching ^^^
,
^ ^^ ^^^ jj^^j^
,
j^
and sapping. ** j t
July. From one of these a
transverse was dug along the bank to the front
of the Khwajah Khizir gate. Windows were
opened and through them earth and tree
in this
loppings were flung into the ditch to form a

bridge, (2nd August). An underground channel
was dug w^hlch partly drained the ditch and
lowered the water-level by one yard. Another
* Waris, 286 and 2901.
CHAP. VII.] SUPERIORITY OF PERSIANS. I45
mine was carried under the ditch till it reached

the base of the outermost wall.*
Hitherto the Imperial troops had worked under
, ,«, cover and carried out their
Aurangzib's
lack of siege tasks. Now they had to come
S^^^' out into the open and storm the
fort. This could have been effected only after
overpowering the batteries of the defenders or
breaching the walls. But Aurangzib's expedition
had been planned for throwing reinforcements
into the fort and was therefore not at all equip-
ped for the unexpected task of conducting a
siege. He had not a single piece of large
cannon, while the fort in the hands of the
Persians contained many. An assault in the
face of superior artillery could have been carried
out only by troops of desperate courage and
markedly higher skill and discipline, and after
a heavy sacrifice of lives. But in this case the
superiority lay with the defenders. The Delhi
historian frankly admits, "The Persians had
grown expert in the capture and defence of
forts, by their long wars with the Turks since the
days of Shah Abbas. They were
masters of fire-arms and artillery.
rhy7nâ°t1il?r"°"
They held such a strong and
well-provisioned fort, with big guns and skilful
* Waris,
34^ and 346.
10
gunners, who in one day fired 25 times on the

covered lane which had arrived half way across
the ditch and destroyed it. Qasim Khan's mine
was also discovered and demolished by the fire
from the fort guns... The Imperialists had no
gun big enough to overthrow the parapet under
shelter of which the fort-gunners fired their
pieces, not to speak of silencing their fire."*

"So the Imperialists failed with all their
efforts." The capture of the
^'^^^
^^^""^ "^^^ hopeless, and on 5th
rfttcd"*"*'
September, Aurangzib, obeying
the Emperor's command, began his retreat from
Qandahar. He had sat down 3 months and 20
days before the fort, but
all in vain. The
retreat was hastened by the approach of the
terrible Afghan winter which Indians cannot
bear, and the news that a large Persian force,
estimated at 20,000 strong, was coming to relieve
Qandahar.
An Imperial force under Qalich Khan
had been posted for two months
Mughaladvanc- ^^^^^ ^ê fort of Bist with
ed detachment
orders to corrupt its Persian
garrison, ravage the Dawar, and

district of
send supplies of grain to Qandahar. But in
August reinforcements from Persia began to
* Waris,
336, 34^.
CHAP. VII.] PERSIANS DEFEATED IN BATTLE. I47
advance towards Qandahar, and make Qalich

Khan's position untenable. Khanjar Khan
whom he had detached with 4,000 Indian troops
to cross the Helmand and loot the district of
Kuraishi, was defeated by Najaf Quli, the

Persian Master of the Horse, and driven back
across the river with a loss of 700 slain besides
many others who perished in swimming the

stream (during the second half of July). Qalich
Khan rapidly fell back before the enemy's
superior numbers till he reached Sang Hissar on
the Arghandab, some 24 miles south-west of
Qandahar. Here strong reinforcements sent by

Aurangzib under Rustam Khan Deccani reached
him, after driving away a band of Persian
cattle-raiders who had penetrated to within a
few miles of the Prince's camp.*
The two generals joined their forces and on
25th August at Shah Mir fought
"
^ battle with the et>emy.
*Sng tec'f Sre^\
The Indian army under Rustam
Khan stood in battle order on the bank of the
Arghandab, barring the road to Qandahar.
The Persians, reported to be 30,000 strong,
stretched in a vast line for four miles from the
hill of Kushk-i-Nakhud to the river bank.
Large reinforcements had reached them that

* Waris, 29a, 34i —360.
very morning under Murtaza Quli Khan, the

Fauji Bashi. The new arrivals, eager to share
in the battle, issued from Kushk-i-Nakhud,
without stopping to water and refresh their
horses. Their general vowed that he would not
break his fast before defeating the Indians !
It was an hour past noon when the rival hosts

clashed together. The small
which retires. t j •
1 •
r
Indian army was beset in front
and the two flanks, and for three hours waged a
fierce struggle. At first the vigour of the
Persian charges shook and pressed back the
Indian Right Wing, but the troops were picked
men and did not lose order ; strengthened by
the Reserve under Rustam Khan himself, they
made a counter-charge and repelled the attack.
A dust-storm put an end to the battle. The
Persians, on unrefreshed horses, suffered much
from the hot wind and retired, leaving the
Indians masters of the field. In the hurry of
their flight they abandoned some of their artillery,
carts, horses, and arms, which the Imperialists
captured. Next day the victors advanced, but

found that the Persians had evacuated Kushk-i-
Nakhud at night and could not be caught up
even after a pursuit of 20 miles.®
* Waris, The Persian version is in Zubdat-
360-376.
ut-Tawarikh, 426 and 43a, where it is stated that as the
CHAP. VII.] LOSSES IN THE SIEGE. I49
This victory cast a dying gleam on the Mughal

arms, and Shah Jahan celebrated
Casualties dur- •. -.i .
j -j^
ing the siege.
^^ ^^^^ S'"^^^ pomp and pride :
the Imperial band played for

three days, the Court went into rejoicing, and
honours and promotions were bestowed on the
generals. But siege the
of Qandahar was
already hopeless, and ten days after this victory
it was abandoned. Aurangzib had lost two to
three thousand men and double that number of
horses, camels and oxen in the siege, and his
army had been severely tried by scarcity of grain
and fodder. Mihrab Khan, the Persian com-
•'
mandant of Qandahar, died on the day the

Imperialists began their retreat but he had held ;
his trust inviolate.
wind was very hot and their horses not yet watered and
baited, the Persians retired and found next day that "the
Indian troops in awe of the Persians had retreated and
joined Aurangzib !"
* Khafi Khan, i. 695 — 700.
CHAPTER VIII.
Second Siege of Qandahar, 1652.
The first siege of Qandahar had failed for
want heavy guns and mate-

of
"-'• The honour of the
tfrrrJ'êVr
Mughal arms required the
attempt to be repeated. The next three years

were spent in preparations on a scale worthy
of the grandeur of the task. Big guns were
cast, provisions accumulated at convenient depots
on the route, thousands of camels assembled
for transport, the friendship of Baluch chiefs
purchased along the line of communication from
Multan, and monej^ and munitions stored at the
base at Kabul.
Aurangzib had been appointed to command
the expedition. From his government of
Multan he had sent men to explore the routes to
Qandahar, and at last selected the Chacha-Cho-
tiali-Pishin line as the shortest. For years
his agents had visited the Baluch country and
CHAP. VIII.] besiegers' ARMY AND RESOURCES. I5I
contracted with the tribal chiefs for the supply

of provisions to the Prince's army during the
march and siege.*
The force sent against Qandahar numbered
_ . - between 50,000 and 60,000 men,
Au r a ng 2 i b's of whom one-fifth were musket-
^'
eers and artillery men. The
officers formed one-twentieth of the strength.
The artillery consisted of eight big cannon, some
of which carried jolb. shot, twenty of smaller
calibre, each carrying 4 or 51b. shot, twenty
swivels mounted on elephants and a hundred on
camels. The transport wâs entrusted to ten
choice elephants from the Emperor's own stables,
besides many others owned by the generals, and
three thousand camels. Two krores of rupees
were set
apart for the expenses. The Emperor
himself stayed at Kabul with a reserve of 40 to
50 thousand men, to reinforce the besiegers if

necessary, and to keep their communication with
the north open.")"
The main army,
led by the Prime Minister
Sadullah Khan, entered Afghanistan by the
Khaibar Pass and reached Qandahar by way of
Kabul and Ghazni. Aurangzib with a smaller
*
Adab-i-Alamgiri, 3a, 4a, 5a, ja, loa, iia, 966.
—
f Waris, 60a 6ia. He says that about 56,000 troops
were sent to Qandahar. Khafi Khan (i. 710) wrongly gives
the number as 70,000.
152 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VIII.
body, containing many officers and some five

thousand soldiers of his own
contingent, started
from Multan, followed the western route through
Chotiali and Pishin, and debouched through the
Panjmandrak (=Khojak ?) Pass.* The two divi-
met near Qandahar on 2nd May, 1652.
sions
On that day the siege was begun. The

divisional commanders occupied
°'
*eir appointed places round
.he'?e°U^",
the fort and set themselves to
run trenches and erect batteries. Aurangzib took
post on the west of the fort, behind the hill of
For the details of the marches, Waris 64a, and especially

—
Adab-i-Alamgiri, ga 116, which gives Aurangzib's
move-
ments thus —
Left Multan i6th February, but halted long
outside —crossed the Chenab 20th March
:
(sent his family

back
it,
to Multan), — reached the Indus by four
marches, and
—
crossed —
on 26th March Lakia, Chacha, 6th April,
it
—
Chotiali on 13th April,— Duki on 14th,—Tabaq-sar on
—Pishin (probably on 23rd, because the dates in the
19th,
—
above two authorities conflict), the Panjmandrak Pass on
26th,— reached Qandahar, 2nd May. The whole distance
between Multan and Pishin is given as 124 kos.
The route followed by the English travellers Richard Steel
and John Crowther in 1615 was, Multan the Chenab — — —
Patuali village (20 kos from the river the Indus —
Lacca —
(
—
= Lakia), enters the mountains 12 kos from Lacca, —
Chatcza = Chacha),— Duki— Secotah { = seh kotah, three
— (
crosses a mountain pass, —

Coasta Abdun Pe- — —
castles),
—
singa (=Pishin), crosses a high mountain,
and descends
into the plain—Qandahar, 60 ^0^ from Pesinga. (Kerr, ix.
—
210 212, quoting Purchas.) Pishin is spelt in the Persian
MSS. as Fushanj or Qushanj or Qushakh. A map of
Biddulph's route in 1879 is given in Shadbolt's Afghan
Gto-
Campaigns, i. and with Temple's article in the Royal
graphical Soc. Journal, 1880, pp. 190-319.
CHAP. VIII.] SIEGE COMMENCED. I53
Lakah ; his Chief of Artillery, Qasim Khan, south

of the fort, with orders to drain the ditch dry ;
SaduUah's position was south-east ; while in the
extreme north-west, facing the Forty Steps, lay
Rajah Rajrup with his Kangra hillmen. Four
other generals, occupying the intervening spaces
completed the investment."*

The work sapping necessarily took time.
of
Meanwhile attempts were made to capture some
of the outlying defences by sudden assault.
Mahabat Khan and Rajah Rajrup, in charge of
the northern line of attack, dragged two heavy
guns to their trenches and bombarded the two

towers on the Forty Steps, doing some damage
to the works. But the position was impreg-
* VVaris, 65a., Adab-i-Alamgiri, 12b. The following

was the distribution of trenches, going from the west, by the
—
north, to the east and south:
Opposite Lakah — Aurangzib, Qalich Khan, Shah
Fort
Nawaz Khan, Rajah Pahar Singh Bundela.
Opposite the Ali Qabi Gate— Baqi Khan.
the Forty Steps — Rajah Rajrup.
the Baba Wali Gate — Mahabat Khan and
,,
,,
Rajah Anurudh.
„ the Waisqaran Gate— Najabat Khan.
„ the Khwajah
Khizir"^
—Qasim Khan (Chief
Gate to the Mashuri > of Artillery). Sadullah,
Gate J and Jai Singh.
., the Earthwork Bastion — Rustam Khan.
The Adab-i-Alamgiri places Rustam Khan opposite the
Mashuri Gate, but his real position was at the south-west
corner of the fort. Qasim Khan's position was also shifted
by Sadullah. This explains the slight differences between
the two authorities quoted above.
nable ;the assault delivered here by Bhao Singh

during the first siege had failed with heavy
loss, and his son Rajrup now shrank from the
hopeless task. He next proposed to surprise
the peak of the ridge, behind the Forty Steps.
Rajrup removed his men to a position facing

the gate of AH Qabi on this hill, and entrenched
himself. Under him were many foot-musketeers
of the Kangra district, expert in hill-climbing.
His plan was to send them secretly up the hill
after midnight and, when they had surprised
the gate and entered the defences, to push up
supports and storm the hill-top itself.Prepara-

tions were made for this object ;
materials were
collected for building a stockade on the hill side,
and the two chiefs of the army were warned to
be ready to send help.
The night of Sunday, 20th June, was chosen
. . for the attempt.-'* Sadullah
A surprise
,
01 '^
QaituI hill at- Khan poured in men from the

tempted at night,^^^^^^^3 ^^ the right and left
of Rajrup's and sent 1,000 picked troops of his
own division, to form a body of supports at the
Rajah's post. Every one took the position
previously marked out for him by the Minister.
* For the
history of the night-attack, Waris, 656, and
Adab-i-Alamgiri, i6b and 17a. Life of Rajrup in Masir-
ul-Umara, ii. 277-281, does not even mention the inci-
dent. Khafi Khan, i. 711-712.
CHAP. VIII.] NIGHT ATTACK FAILS. 155
Early in the night the Rajah sent his own retain-

ers up by a track which they had discovered
for reaching the top. He himself followed them
at some distance and piled up a shelter of stones
in the hillside as his own station. The supports
marched towards the Ali Qabi gate, while their
leader, Baqi Khan, with 300 men from among
Aurangzib's retainers, joined the Rajah. The
success of this hazardous enterprise depended on
silence and secrecy. But the Mughals bungled.
Indian troops are not accustomed to silent work
at night, especially in a hilly region. The
supporting body was too large and too variously
composed to be led on smoothly and noiselessly.
There was some disagreement between Rajrup
and an Imperial officer named Muzaffar Husain,
and words were exchanged. This created a loud
noise. The enemy got the alarm
mismanaged, , ^
and stood on
, ,
•
,
their defence.
r
A*
surprise was no longer possible in the face of
alert defenders,by men climbing up a narrow
hill-track in single
file. About three hours before
daybreak the moon rose and took away the last
chance of Mughal success. Soon afterwards, ]
news came to the Rajah, who had been anxious-

ly waiting so long in his stone shelter on the
hillside, that his troops had found the defenders
of the fort on the summit awake at one place
15^ HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VIII.
and were returning baffled. So he sent his sup-

ports back and stayed there for the return of his
men. After a while a foolish servant told him
that his men had reached the hill-top and entered
the fort. The Rajah hastily believed the report,
blew his trumpet, and beat his drums. At this
signal the returning Imperial troops ran back to

him. But the truth was soon discovered the ;
Sun rose and presented the straggling assailants

on the hill-side as a clear target
*^ to the Persian marksmen. Many
jogg^
were slain and wounded on the
Mughal side, but the main portion of the loss
was undoubtedly borne by the Rajah's men who
were nearest the enemy. For this error of judg-
ment Rajrup was censured by his chief and sent
back to his old trenches.
Thereafter the only hope of taking Qandahar
_ was by carrying the sap nearer
Trenches run. , , ,
•
, n t
and breachmg the walls. In
both of these the Mughals failed. Aurang-
zib's trenches, west of the ridge, arrived within
22^ yards of the wall, and Sadullah's (east of
the fort) to a spot lo yards from the ditch. But
here their progress was arrested. "The trenches
could not be carried any nearer in face of the
severe fire showered from the fort-walls." "The
work [of sapping] was hard, and many of Sadul-
CHAP. VIII.] MUGHAL ARTILLERY WEAK. 157
lah's men were wounded and slain The enemy-

issued on three sides, and from sunset to dawn
fired their muskets incessantly from loop-holes
opened in the fort-walls, so as to give no oppor-

tunity to Aurangzib's workmen [to make pro-
gress.]"-*
In fact the Persian artillery was as excellent

as the Mughal was inefficient.
Bad gunnery j^^ Indian =»
of the Indians. gunners were bad
marksmen and their fire produced
no effect on the fort-walls. Some of Aurangzib's
men were so ignorant that they overcharged two
of his big guns with powder, causing them to
burst. Five large pieces of cannon now remained,
which were insufficient to breach the wall in two
places. In fact so notoriously bad were the
Indians in handling artillery that the main re-
liance of their kings was on European gunners,
who are in
contemporary histories as
praised
and were attracted to the
masters of their craft,
Imperial service by high pay and large rewards,
though they used to desert as soon as they could
get a chance. In the third siege, Dara Shukoh
took a body of them with him to Qandahar.j
There were other difficulties, too. Within a
Waris, 65a and b, Adab-i-Alamgiri, i6a and 156.

t Waris, 656, Khafi Khan, i. 713; Lataif-ul-Akhbar, ga.
Storia do Mogor, i. 95, 226, 232, 259.
few weeks opening of the siege the work

of the
of draining the wet ditch and running mines
had to be suspended for lack of materials.
Aurangzib now realised that the fort could be
taken only by storm. And the Emperor had
ordered that no assault was to be delivered with-
out making a breach.*
According to SaduUah's plan, all the big guns

_ ,. , „ were assembled on the eastern
fail to
Mughals », ,
•
breach the side, Opposite the Mashun gate.

eastern wall. were raised on the
Batteries
right and SaduUah's trenches (17th and

left of
22nd June.) The famous gun Fatih Lashkar and

three other large pieces were mounted here
with great labour. Every day ten rounds were
fired from each gun, but the damage done to the
screensand towers of the fort was always repair-

ed at night, and the Persian artillery was not
over-powered.| The Mughal artillery was as
weak in number as in efficiency. In the mean-
time Aurangzib set up four stockades in front of
his trenches,holding 3,000 men in all,:}: for
making a feint against Fort Lakah when Sadul-
* Adab-i-Alamgiri, 17b.
f Adab-i-Alamgiri, I4«. 15^. I7*. ^â, 15a.
{ Fromthese stockades to the fort-wall there was a fire-

a few boulders, while
swept zone with no shelter except
the soil was too stony to permit sapping. {Adab-i-
Alamgiri, i6fl.)
CHAP. VIII.] FAILURE TO MAKE A BREACH. 159
lah would breach the wall and deliver an assault

on the Mashuri gate.
But the last expectation failed. On 19th June,

before Sadullah's second battery
Sorties.
was complete, a large armour-
clad force made a sortie from the fort and fell
on his trenches. From the top of the fort and

the side of the hill a shower of musketry fire
was kept up. Though reinforcements drove the

enemy out after an hour's severe fight, the
Persians succeeded in killing and wounding
many of the Mughals. On some other nights,

too, sorties were made, some Mughal guns
damaged, and many of the besiegers carried off
as prisoners. The Persians could not be pursued,
as they quickly went back within shelter of the
fort-guns.'*
By it was recognised that the

the end of June
Mughal guns would never breach the wall on

that side. So they were removed from the Mashuri
gate to the western side. Two of the Surat

cannon were sent to strengthen the artillery in
Aurangzib's trenches, and two other big pieces,

including Fatih Lashkar, to a new battery
opposite the Ali Qabi gate, on his left hand.
Here, too, the besiegers fared no better ; besides,
*
Adab-i'Alamgiri, 16b, Waris, 656, Khafi Khan, i.
712,
l6o HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VIII.
they got no more than a week's time to use

their artillery before orders arrived to abandon
the siege.
From the commencement of the leaguer two

months had now passed away.
Persian losses.
An
attempt to corrupt Utar, the
commandant of the fort, had brought back the
taunting reply, "When you have succeeded in
weakening the fort or injuring the garrison in
any way, it will be time for me to think of
deserting to you !" About the middle of June

two high Persian officers (including Mir Alam,*
their Chief of Artillery), were blown away by a
70 lb. shot from a Mughal gun. On 26th May,
when a magazine was opened for distributing
powder to the garrison, the store of sulphur
caught fire from the hand of a careless servant
who was preparing a pipe of tobacco for the
Persian officers present. It soon spread to the
powder and there wâs a terrible explosion.

Many houses in the neighbourhood were over-
thrown, and men and horses wounded by the
flying splinters of rock. About 150 sepoys and
water-men perished in the fire, and the four
*
Called in the Adab-i-Alamgiri, "
Mir Alam, surnamed
Mir Kalan Sani, the Bishak Bashi and superintendent of the
New Bastion and Earthen Bastion," and by Waris,
"Mahammad Beg, Topchi Bashi."
CHAP. VIII.] SUCCESS HOPELESS. l6l
officers who had opened the magazine were con-

fined to bed by their burns.'''"
But with all these disasters to the garrison,

the Imperialists were no nearer
°''^'"
^^^"^^- ^hah Jahan had strict-
rftêar'
ly enjoined that there was to
be no assault before breaching the wall, and a
breach with their few guns and bad gunners was
out of the question. Aurangzib therefore wrote to
the Emperor on 3rd July, soliciting a distinct
order to storm the walls which were still intact.
It would have been madness to sanction such an
enterprise. Shah Jahan had been already in-
formed by Sadullah Khan that his guns could
effect nothing, and that the munitions had run
short, and on ist July he had replied that the
siege was to be abandoned. Aurangzib pleaded

hard for a short delay ; he offered to lead a
desperate assault on the walls, for to leave
Oandahar untaken after such grand preparations
would destroy his reputation for ever. But the
news that a retreat had been ordered spread
through the camp, the scouts fell back on the
army, and the trenches were deserted. When
Shah Jahan at last grudgingly consented to
* Waris
6sb, Adab-i-Alaingiri, i;^b, 14b, 15a.
II
l62 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VIII.
continue the siege for another month, it was

found impossible to carry out the new order.*
What had hastened the Emperor's resolve
to raise the siege was a raid
^y ^ body °f t^^ thousand
•thi^MughSter"
Uzbak horsemen, who had burst
through the western hills into the district
south of Ghazni, and threatened the Mughal
line of communication between Kabul and
Qandahar, (about 26th June). The danger was
greatly exaggerated by the Court at Kabul,
though Aurangzib assured the
Emperor that
from his experience in Balkh he was sure that
a few thousand Mughal troops could expel the
raiders. In fact, the Uzbaks fled on hearing of
the approach of the Imperial army, and were cut
off during their flight by the Afghans with the
aid of the officer in command at Ghazni, The
Delhi historian boasts that not a tenth of the
raiders returned to Central Asia alive. "j"
The
Mughal army, however, siege and
raised the
began its retreat from Qandahar on 9th July.

A small part}' sent back to India by the Pishin-
Chotiali-Multan road, which —
two centuries
* Aurangzib's letters, (repeating at their commencement

the contents of Shah Jahan's letters which are being replied
to), are given in the Adab-i-Alamgiri, i8a& b, iga.
f Waris, 646 8c 66a, Adab-i-Alamgiri , iSb, iga.

CHAP. VIII.] REBUKE FOR THE FAILURE. 163
later Biddulph's division followed at the end

of the Second
Afghan War, reported that the —
Baluch clans had already risen and rendered the
road unsafe. So, Aurangzib withdrew his out-
posts from Pishin and Duki, and led the army
back to Kabul, joining the Emperor on 7th
August. The Van under Sadullah had arrived
••'
eight days earlier.
Bitter was Aurangzib's humiliation at the ill-
success of the expedition. Shah

Bitter corres-
bet- j^j^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ y^-
•'
..j greatlv
v,a.iiv '
pondcnce
ween Shah Jahan wonder how you could not cap-
and Aurangzib
on the failure.
^^''^
^1 r
^he fort
..
m
• •
spite
c
of such
vast preparations." Aurangzib
protested that he had done his utmost, but
the scantiness of siege materials and insuffi-
ciency of had rendered the attempt

artillery
hopeless, as Sadullah Khan himself had testifi-
ed. But Shah Jahan angrily rejoined, "I am
not going to give up Qandahar. I shall
try
every means to recover it." The Prince pleaded
hard to be permitted to stay in Afghanistan or
the Panjab and to take part, even as a subordi-
nate, in the next attempt on Qandahar, in order to
retrieve his character as a general. For this he was
willing to forego the viceroyalty of the Deccan
* Waris, 66b, Ziibdat-ut-Tawa-
Adab-i-Alamgiri, \%b,
rtkh, 44rt & b, (very meagre).
which was now offered to him. But Shah Jahan

was inexorable he ordered Aurangzib to go to
:
the Deccan at once, and brushed aside the

Prince's excuses for his failure with the caustic
remark, had
"If believed
I
you to be capable of
taking Oandahar, I should not have recalled
your army... Every man can perform some work.
It is a wise saying that men of experience need
no instruction." Aurangzib replied by quoting
the proverb, "Whosoever has a particle of sense
can know his own good from his harm" and
pointing out that he could not have purposely
failed in his task, as he knew that it would in-
volve his father's displeasure.*
The Court ascribed the failure to the abandon-
ment of Shah Jahan's plan of
°^ *^^
fSlurr^ operations, which was that
Aurangzib should invest the fort
with half the force, while Sadullah should ad-
vance west with the other half and capture the
forts of Bist and Zamin Dawar, when the garri-
son of Qandahar would see their communication
with Persia cut off, lose heart and surrender to
the Mughals. But Sadullah Khan opposed such
a division of the force and of the scanty supply
of provisions and material, and the Emperor
Adab-i- Alamgiri, iga — 20b.

CHAP. VIII.] SHAH JAHAN DIRECTED SIEGE. 165
himself, on being referred to, confirmed the

change of plan.'*
In truth it is unjust to blame Aurangzib for
, „ . the failure to take Qandahar.
'^
Aurangzib not
the real com- was
Throughout the siege he
mander.
really second in command. The
Emperor from Kabul directed every movement
through Sadullah Khan. His sanction had to be
taken for every important step, such as the re-
moval guns from one battery to another, the
of
disposition of troops, the date, hour and point

of
assault. Fast couriers brought his orders from

Kabul to Qandahar in four days, and the Prince
had merely to carry them out. Indeed so
thoroughly subordinate was Aurangzib that dur-
ing the first month of the siege only one despatch
from him reached the Emperor, while Sadullah
corresponded frequently and the Emperor's letters
were often written to the Prime Minister, to be
afterwards shown to the Prince."!"
Unjustly held responsible for the defeat, Au-

rangzib lost the favour and confi-
Failurc of the
third siege.
^^^^^ ^f p^j^ ^^^^^^^ ^ât add-
ed a keener edge to his mortifica-
* Waris, 656, Adab-i-Alamgiri, 12a and b, 20b.
The plan, even if carried out, would have availed little.
In the next siege, a detachment from Dara's army did
held out for five
<;apture Bist and Girishk, but Qandahar
months all the same, and was not taken at the end.
t Adab-i-Alamgiri, 136, 176, 1 86, and elsewhere.
l66 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. VIII.
tion was that he had given occasion for laughter

at his expense to his envious eldest brother and
that brother's party at Court. But Dara's crow-
ing did not last long ; Aurangzib soon tasted the

sweets of revenge. Dara* led a still vaster army
and a larger part of artillery against Qandahar
and vowed to capture it in a week. His siege
dragged on for five months and in the end
Qandahar was not taken. The long history of

Dara's doings there written by the courtly pen
of Rashid Khan (Muhammad Badi)! is remark-
able only for the sickening flattery offered by his
courtiers and the insane pride displayed by the
Prince. It unconsciously but most effectively
condemns Dara and by contrast places Aurangzib

in an honourable light.
These failures left a lasting sting in the mind
of Aurangzib. Half a century later, when he
was a dying man, he heard that his son Shah
Alam, then Governor of Kabul, was enlisting
troops evidentl}'^ to dispute the succession on the
Emperor's expected death. Aurangzib tauntingly
wrote to him, "I hear that inspite of your lack of
* Dara sat down before
Qandahar from 28th April to 27th
September, 1653, with an army of 70,000 men. Two of his
heavy guns carried 112 lb. and 96 lb. shot. He was supplied
with 30,000 cannon balls, 5,000 maunds of powder, 1,500
maunds of lead, and 14,000 rockets. (Waris, 70a et seq)
—
Khafi Khan, i. 717 728.
f Lataif-zil-Akhbar.
CHAP. VIII.] MUGHAL LOSSES. 167
money you are

engaging highly paid soldiers.
Evidently you want to recover Oandahar. God
assist you Herein he recognised that the
!"""=''
conquest of Qandahar was an impossible feat.

The three sieges of Qandahar cost the Indian
treasury more than ten krores of
Cost of the JJ-i-
rupees.
^
T
In addition to 1.U-
4.
this sum,'
sieges.
the new fortifications built by
the Mughals on taking possession of it from
Ali Mardan Khan and the treasure, arms, muni-
tions,and provisions that fell into the hands of
the Persians on its capture, must have cost more
than a krore.'f Thus the Indian tax-payer poured
into the sands Afghanistan about 12 krores
of
of rupees, and more than half the gross annual
* Letter No. 4 in the Hthographed Ruqat-i-Alamgiri .
f Wehave the following data for calculating the cost

of the Qandahar wars. For the second siege 2 krores of
rupees were brought from Delhi and Agra, out of which one
krore was spent on the soldiers and officers in one ynonth.
(Waris, 6ia). The third siege occupied 5 months (against
2 months the case of the second) and- Dara's army was
in
probably 70,000, as against the 50,000 men who accompanied

Aurangzib. Hence the third siege must have cost about
seven krores. The presents to Dara on the eve of the ex-
pedition amounted to 20 lakhs, and one krore was sent
with him (Waris yoa and 71a). When starting for the
first siege, the officers were paid a bounty of Rs. 100 for
each trooper placed in the field, and as the force was 50,000
strong, this alone absorbed 50 lakhs (Waris, 23a). Before
the Persians arrived, 5 lakhs had been sent to the fort from
Kabul. In 1638, when Qandahar was betrayed to Shah
Jahan, 20 lakhs were sent with Shuja to meet the cost of the
1 68 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. VIII.
revenue of the entire empire, for absolutely no

return.*
The moral loss was even greater than the

material. The Emperor of
^"^''^^ ^^^^' "'^g^^ ^^^^^^ *^^ ^y^^ ^^
pre°sTige!
foreign ambassadors and travel-
lers by displaying his Peacock Throne and Koh-
i-noor, or the superb marble edifices with which
he had adorned Agra and Delhi. But henceforth
his military prestige was gone throughout the
world. The Persian king could rightly boastf
that the rulers of Delhi knew how to steal a fort
by means not how to conquer it by

of gold, but
strength Shah
of arm. Abbas II. had conquered
Qandahar in less than two months but two ;
Mughal princes in three long and costly cam-

paigns could not recover it, though they were
opposed by mere generals and not by any mem-
ber of the royal blood of Persia. Naturally the
military fame of Persi? rose very high. The
expedition for driving away the Persians, and 5 lakhs more

were spent on the fortifications. (Abd. Ham., ii. 40, Waris
2ia and 26a).
* The Revenue of the
Mughal empire in 1648 was 22
Proves o{ rupeeso (Abdul Hamid, ii. 710.)
t For his exultation at the capture and retention of
Qandahar, see Rziqat-i-Sliah Abbas Sani, 106 — /20, (his
exact words are different).
CHAP. VIII.] PERSIANS GAIN FAME. 169
Persians
Indian troops recognised that in the
met with more than
they had
Enhanced mili- : » j û ,î,^,,4-
tary reputation of their
,
match. And throughout
the Persians. ^f ^j^g century the rumour
^^^ ^.^g^.
of a projected invasion from Persia

used to throw
alarm.-
the Court of Delhi into the greatest
like
For years afterwards the Persian peril hung
on the western frontier of India,
a dark cloud
ministers
and the Emperor Aurangzib and his
warlike
drew their breath more easily when any
Shah of Persia died.
* Masir-i-Alamgiri, 56—58, Alamgirnamah, 974, Anec-
dotes of Aurangzib, §§ 50, 51, and 52.
CHAPTER IX.
Second Viceroyalty of the Deccan,

1653— 1658.
On 17th July, 1652, Aurangzib, then returning
from Oandahar, was appointed
t^t"he^lf/cin^°"
Governor of the Deccan for the
second time. Exactly a month
afterwards he took leave of the Emperor in
Afghanistan and proceeded to his charge. Cross-

ing the Indus at Attock on 9th September, he
passed through Delhi and Agra on 17th and 28th
November respectively, and reached the Narmada
river on ist January 1653. As the palace in
Burhanpur was not yet ready for his occupation
he encamped outside for some days, while the
repairs were being completed, and entered this
city, of Khandesh, as late as 30th
the capital
January. Here he wooed and won the graceful

singer Hira Bai, surnamed Zainabadi Mahal,
and here he lingered for the next nine months
inspite of Shah Jahan's repeated orders urging
CHAP. IX.] LIFE AT AURANGABAD. Ijl
him go to Aurangabad, the official capital of

to
Mughal Deccan. At last leaving Burhanpur on

28th October, 1653, he entered the fort of Daula-
tabad on 25th November.* At Aurangabad he
spent next four years of his life, leaving it
the
only to invade Golkonda and Bijapur, and

finally on 5th February, 1658, to contest the
throne of Delhi. Akbar was born
Here his son
(nth September, 1657), and here he buried his

wife Dilras Banu (died 8th October 1657,) and
his favourite concubine Zainabadi (probably
in 1654.)
Of Aurangzib's life during this period we have
his own reminiscences, written in old age to his
grandson Bidar Bakht "The village of Sattarahf:
near Aurangabad was my hunting ground. Here

on the top of a hill, stood a temple with an
image of Khande Rai. B3' God's grace I demo-
lished it, and forbade the temple dancers (niurlis)
to ply their shameful profession During my
viceroyalty, while I was living
Aurangzib's life at Daulatabad and Auranga-
there hunting
: • •
bad, —the
, , , , 1
and journeys. latter city havmg

been populated by me after
its first foundation [by Malik Ambar] under
* Waris, 6612,
67a and b ; hisjourney south is described in
detail in Adab-i-Alamgiyi, —
21a 24«, 2^b, 26a, 27a, 144a
and b.
t On the top of a hill, six miles due south of Aurangabad-
*72 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. IX.
the name of Khirki,— I used in my folly to

ride about, and make forced marches under
the instigations of Satan and of my own
passions. used to go far on horseback to hunt
I
the nilgau and other kinds of

game. Other idle
deeds did I do. I used to visit the lake of
Qatluq
in the valley of the watershed, Chamar Tikri
and Jitwara, and to make pilgrimages to the
tombs of the saints Burhanuddin and Zainuddin,"*
or to climb up the hill fort of Daulatabad
and to
the caves of
EUora, (which wondrous are
examples of the Creator's art), sometimes with
my family, at others alone."!
Game was very abundant in the neighbourhood
of Aurangabad. Herds of wild
Shikar near i i x -i r i
^^^'' grazed four miles from the
Aurangabad.
and nilgaus were found in
city,
Lauhgarh and Ambar.

plenty in the direction of
Tigers could be shot in the hills which hemmed
the valley round. At the lake of
Qatluq, near
the "valley of the watershed," six miles from the
fort of Daulatabad^ countless flocks of heron
rested. Aurangzib, and afterwards his sons
Muazzam and Azam, hunt the nilgau
delighted to
and the heron. The nilgaus were shot from a
fixed station as they were driven down the
* At Roza or Khuldabad, on the way to the Ellora hill,
t Kaliviat-i-Tayyibat, 'jb
— 8a.
CHAP. IX.] ILL-TREATMENT OF HINDUS. I73.
narrow and the herons were struck down

valley,
by trained hawks.*
It was during his second rule over the Deccan
that Aurangzib clearly unfolded not only his-

administrative skill and energy, but also the
limitations of his character which finally blight-
ed his fame and wrecked his empire. We have
already seen him boasting how he had destroy-
ed the temple on a hill six miles south of
Aurangabad. He is taxed by Shah Jahan with
being unfriendly to the Rajputs, and tries to
answer the charge by recommending a Rajput

captain, Rao Karan,")" to an administrative post.
^ . , Evidently there was no love
Early examples
of his religious lost between him and the Raj-
bigotry.
p^^g already. People perceive
instinctively when they are disliked, and though
they may be wrong in guessing the cause, their
feelingalways indicate correctly the spirit in
which they are being treated.

A clearer proof of his religious bigotry even in
youth is furnished by the following letter which
he wrote at this time to the prime minister
Sadullah Khan :
"The Brahman Chhabila Ram, the qanungo of propert)'-

tax of the city of Bihar, had uttered improper words with
* Dilkasha, 12 and 49. Riiqat-i-Alamgiri, Nos. 12-
and 28.
t Adah, 29a.
174 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX.
reference to the Prophet. After investigation and verifica-

tion of the charge by order of the
Emperor, Zulfiqar Khan
and other officers of the place had beheaded him, as was
required by justice. Now, the scholar Mulla Muhan
has written to me that the brothers of the accursed mis-
believer, out of bigotry, have sought justice at the Imperial
Court against Shaikh Muhammad Muala, the lord
justice,
and Shaikh Abdul Mani, the ecclesiastical judge of the
province. I, therefore, remind you of this affair, as it is
proper for all Muslims to do their utmost to assert the
rules of the Prophet's religion, and it is the
duty of kings
and nobles to protect the scholars of Islam in
enforcing the
injunctions of the Holy Law. You should exert yourself
more than your peers to close the road of the complaint of
this wretched tribe [ to the Emperor's feet
] and to take
care of the letters {i.e., explanations) of the
guardians of
the honour of the Faith."*
The city of AuRANGABADf bears the Prince's

name and commemorates his first viceroyalty.
Originally it was a petty hamlet
n^'"-d Khirki. When Malik
gS7ddest"bed:
Ambar revived the Nizam
Shahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar, he transferred
the capital to this village, and built a palace
*
Adab-i-Alamgiri, loia.
t This description of early Aurangabad is based on
Dilkasha, g, ii, 12, Tavernier, i. Masir-ul-untara, i.

146,
263, ii. 60,
Masir-i-Alamgiri, 223. Burgess, in his Cave
Temples in the Bidar and Aurangabad Districts (p. 59)
says : In 1616 Malik Ambar built at Khirki the Nurkhanda
palace and mosque, and his army raised dwellings for
themselves around it ravaged and burnt by Jahangir's
;
army in 162 1. Malik Ambar's son Path Khan named it

Fatehnagar (1628). The blackby stone mosque built
Ambar is described in Murray's Hand-book
For to India.
a description of the city in 1810, see Seely's Wonders of
Elora (2nd edj,, 367—369, 403.
CHAP. IX.] BUILDINGS AT AURANGABAD. 175
for the Sultan known as the Green Bungalow

and a mansion for himself close to the Royal
Market (Shahganj). To form a large centre of
population in a dry soil like this, the first
thing needful is water. So he constructed a

big tank close to the town and also brought
water to his own house by means of a canal
from the river near Arsul. The tank was about
four miles round, and the village grew up on
its side. Aurangzib at first resided in the fort
of Daulatabad. But it could hold only a small
body of men. So he looked round for a good
site on the plain for the seat of his government,
chose Khirki, built a princely palace there
close to the tank, and allotted lands to all his
nobles and officers to build their quarters on.
Then he removed from the fort to the new city,
which got his name and grew rapidly as the
capital of Mughal Deccan.
The splendid mausoleum or Muqbara of his
wife Dilras Banu, surnamed Rabia-ud-daurani,
is an imitation of the Taj Mahal. It was built
after his accession and was thoroughly repaired

by his son M. Azam. It is still the finest archi-
tectural ornament of the
city, and next to it
stands the vast Juma Masjid which was com-
pleted by him. Aurangzib's residence, though

greatly altered by later occupants, still remains
and is pointed out to travellers as the Alamgiri

Mahal.
Years afterwards, when he returned to the
Deccan in 1682, a wall four miles long was
built round the city by his order to protect it

from Maratha raids. The work cost three lakhs
of rupeesand was completed in four months
through the active exertions of Dianat Khan
Khafi. The city has undergone much change
at the hands of the Nizams whose first capital
it was, and of their French officers who lived
here with almost regal authority.
Wenow turn to his public life during these
five years.
Since Aurangzib had laid down the vice-

_ J .
j of the
royalty
j Deccan in Mayj
Decay and mi-
sery of Mughal Mughal
1644, the administra-
'
had not prospered.
tion there
True, the country enjoyed unwonted repose

after a half century of war with Ahmadnagar,
Bijapur, and Golkonda. True, there was no

disturbance of public peace by invasion from
across the frontier, and no expedition against
refractory feudatories. But agriculture had
not been promoted, the peasantry had not been
cherished, and new lands had not been brought
under tillage. On the contrary, much cultivated
soil had lapsed into the jungle, the cultivators
CHAP. IX.] DECCAN MISGOVERNED. I77
had declined in number and resources, and the

revenue had fallen off greatly.
This wretched state of things was the natural
. result of a succession of short
due to frequent
changes of go- viceroyalties and incompetent
vernors.
viceroy Khan-i-Dauran who s.'"''
had succeeded Aurangzib, was murdered a year

afterwards. The veteran of a hundred battles,
he also worked
hard at the administration,
transacting public business for twelve hours a
day and inspecting everything himself. But he
was so pitiless in exacting money from the vil-
lage headmen, so harsh in squeezing the ryots,

and rough and strict to all the people under
so
him, that the news of his death threw them into

a transport of joy and was celebrated at
Burhanpur as a divine deliverance.
Islam Khan Mashhadi, a very old man in-
capable of riding a horse, next governed the

Deccan forand during this short
two years,
period he estranged the Deccanis by his harsh
and strict conduct and enriched himself by sell-
ing the Government stores of the forts when
* Khan-i-Dauran succeeds Aurangzib on 28 May, 1644,
and is murdered, during absence in N. India, on 22 June,
1645. J3.i Singh then officiates for him. Islam Khan
is
appointed 17 July, 1645, dies on 2 November, 1647.
Shah Nawaz
Khan then officiates. Murad Bakhsh
is
appointed on 15 July, 1648, and Shaista Khan replaces
him on 4 Sep., 1649, and continues till September, 1652.
12
prices ruled high and replacing them with fresh
purchases made in the season of low prices !
He was keen on settling ryots on new lands,

but actually effected little during his short term.
Then followed nearly a year (Nov., 1647 —
July, 1648) of by Shah Nawaz
officiating rule
Khan. Prince Murad Bakhsh, a

dull and in-
dolent youth, not yet twenty-four, was the next
viceroy ; but he quarrelled with his guardian
and de facto governor, Shah Nawaz Khan, the
administration fell into confusion, and at the
end a year the Emperor was forced to make
of
another change of viceroys Shaista Khan re- !
placed Prince Murad in September 1649, and

held charge till he was succeeded by Aurangzib.
Thus, in eight years there were six viceroys, if
we count the acting tenure of Rajah Jai Singh
in i645."'"'
The Deccan had long caused a heavy drain

on the Imperial treasury. The province was
large, the country broken, with plenty of jungles,
and imperfectly settled and organised, and there
were two powerful States across the frontier.
Therefore, a very large force had to be station-

ed there. But as the soil was sterile in com-
—
* For Khan-i-Dauran, M. U. i. 749 758, Abd. Ham.,
ii.376, 426. for Islam Khan, M. U. i. 162 167, Abd.
—
Ham,, ii. 430. Waris, 6a. Murad (Waris, igb). Shaista
Khan (Waris, 38a).
CHAP. IX.] REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. 1 79
of Northern India,
parison with the river-plains
and the rainfall precarious and variable, bad
harvests and scarcities were too frequent, and
the standard revenue was never collected.
In spite of an abatement of 12
Revenue greatly
decreased.
i^j^^^ ^f rupees on their first ass-
essment made by the Imperial

settlement officers in the hope that the collection
in future would be more easy and certain, the
land revenue stillproved to have been pitched
too high. For the four provinces which then
constituted Mughal Deccan, it stood at three
krores and 62 lakhs of rupees a year ; but the
actual collection in 1652 was only one krore, or
less than one-third.*
Out of the total territory, land estimated to
yield ^ji Icikhs a year was as-
Public expendi-
^ •
„^Â as
ô ^:^^:^, *^ A -1
^yj.g signed jagtr to Aurangzib

and his sons, and the rest to
various officers, excluding the portion which was
created Crownland {khalsa sharifa) and of which
the revenue was collected directly by Imperial
officers! and spent at the discretion of the Em-
peror without being touched by the local gover-
nor. The financial condition of the jagirdars
depended on the actual collection of land reve-
* Abdul Hamid, M. U.
ii. 712, iii.
497. Adah, 31a.
I Adah, 31a.
l8o HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX.
nue. Aurangzib and the higher officers also

received a part of their salary in cash from the
Imperial treasury. This was a fixed amount, not

liable to variation with the agricultural condi-
tion of the year, as was the case with the income
drawn from jagirs.
The land revenue actually collected was scanty
and variable, and the arrears and remissions from
the standard assessment Hence, the
large.
public income of the Deccan did not balance the
expenditure, and thehad to be made
deficit
good by sending money from the older and richer

provinces of the empire to
Chronic deficit :
,
. . . .
the Deccan a support the administration or

drain on the Im- the South. This had gone on
°
penal Treasury.
for jêars. Once only Khan-i-
Dauran had tried to reverse the process. By
torturing the collectors and mercilessly stripping
the peasants he succeeded in collecting a large
sum, which he despatched to the Emperor with
the boastful remark, "Other Governors had to get
money from Hindustan I am sending money

;
there !" But the policy of killing the goose that

laid the golden eggs soon failed. The desolation
of the country and the misery of the peasantry
became worse than and the bankrupt
before,
administration of the South had to be kept
going by Imperial bounties from Malwa and
CHAP. IX.] JAGIRS UNPRODUCTIVE. l8l
Guzerat. Shah Jahan was alarmed at this chronic

deficit and strongly urged Aurangzib to improve
the peasant's lot, extend the cultivation, and re-

lieve the Imperial treasury from the annual drain.*
On his arrival in the Deccan, Aurangzib was
faced with a serious financial
°^
f "^^""^y
t, T^. difficulty. The actual yield of -^
oiticcrs nolding .
jagirs there. the Jagirs was only a fraction of

their nominal revenue. The
Mughal officers posted in the Deccan would have
starved if
they had to depend solely on their
jagirs in that province. Therefore, during his
first both Aurangzib and his chief
viceroyalty,
had been given additional fiefs in other
officers
and more prosperous parts of the empire, so that

they managed to live on the combined income.
And now, also, his officers besieged him with
clamour, saying that they could not maintain
their quotas of soldiers on the poor revenue of
their existing jagirs, and demanding that more
productive jagirs should be transferred to them,
so that they might be sure of getting a fixed
portion of their income at least. "j*
Everywhere Aurangzib found signs of mal-

administration, the work of his predecessors.
The actual collection was sometimes only one-
* Adah, 31a, M. U. i.
756, iii, 497, Adah, 20a, 236, 28a.
t Adah, 31a, 246, 1276.
l82 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. IX.
tenth of the normal assessment. Even Baglana,

noted for its fertility, was in no better state than
"
the other districts. Baglana has not been well
administered since Syed Abdul Wahhab's time,'"
he writes to his father. And again, " the affairs
of Painghat (Lowlands) are greatly in dis-
order," — the
" Deccan is in disorder, as it has
not been governed well for the last ten years ;"
—
" the Uzbak
of
ryots Ausa mahal
the complain of
Khan's oppression... and those of the Trimbak
Parganah about the tyranny of Darvish Beg
Qaqshal.""*
The new viceroy found it impossible to make
both ends meet. At this time
Aurangzib's the civil and military expendi-
ftnancial diffi- r i t-v i
•
culties. ture of the Deccan, exclusive of

the salary derived by the officers
from their jagirs, amounted to Rs. 31,76,000, —
out of which the cash allowances of Aurangzib
and his sons absorbed Rs. 25,43,000, and the
expenses of the artillery department, the cash
salary of certain officers, and other necessary
disbursements required Rs. 6,30,000. The only
means of providing this surn were, first the
revenue of the Crownland which actually yielded
Rs. 2,40,000, and secondly the tributes from the
rulers of Golkonda and Deogarh, eight lakhs and
*
Adab, 246, 236, 24a, 256, 26b, 30a.
CHAP. IX.] DEMANDS BETTER JAGIRS. 183
one lakh respectively. Thus there was an annual

deficit of Rs. 20,36,000, which was made good
by drawing on the reserve stored in the treasuries
of the Deccan, especially in the fort of Daulata-

bad. This cash balance fell from Rs. 80,60,000
to Rs. 40,50,000, probably in two years. But in
such a frontier province it was necessary to keep

a large reserve for emergencies. Aurangzib grew
alarmed at the rapid decrease of his cash balance
and suggested a remedy to the
Howto increase y^ u j ^ 4.„i ^
,
•
his income? Emperor: he wished to take

away from the jagirdars and
place under collectors of the Crown as much land
as would yield the 20J lakhs needed to make
both ends meet. But w^here were the dispossessed
officers be provided for ? Losing their means
to
of support with the resumption of their jagirs,
they would be forced to return to the Emperor's

Court and so decrease the Deccan army by one-
third. Such a diminution of armed strength was
unsafe with two powerful States, Bijapur and
Golkonda, across the frontier. To avoid the evil,
Aurangzib proposed that jagirs in part should be
in other
given to him and his higher officers
provinces, and that the cash portion of his salary
might be made a charge on the flourishing trea-
suries of Malwa and Surat.*

* have given the figures exactly as in my
Adab, 31a. I
Aurangzib shared the difficulty of other jagir-

dars in theDeccan in having to keep up his
normal contingent of troops on an income
reduced to a fraction of his normal pa5^
His fiefs in Multan had been fertile and
lucrative ; those in the Deccan v^rere estimat-
ed to
yield 17 lakhs less, and were, besides,
liable to frequent and large arrears in collection.
He to his "
rightly protested father, If your
Majesty wishes me to be honoured v^îth a great
viceroyalty, give me the means
The more pro-
The t?
•
.1 r ,, r^,,
ductive jagirs of worthy of it. Emperor
the officers are ordered him to exchange his
transferred to .,
_ .
,
liim, own sterile heis tor more produc- 1
tive ones in the hands of other

j'agirdars.^ Aurangzib took care to leave the
estates of his competent officers untouched, but
appropriated the fiefs of lazy or minor officers

w^ho did not deserve considerate treatment. The
Revenue Department was ordered by Shah Jahan
to transfer to him good jagirs yielding Rs.
3,17,500 in place of desolate unproductive lands
with the same nominal rent-roll. But the jagir-
dars threatened with dispossession tried to in-
authority but the items

;
when added together do not come
up to the total stated.
* Adab, But when he was Governor of
196, 25a, I73fl.
Multan he had complained of his fiefs there
being unproduc-
tive !
(See Adah, 172(2).
CHAP. IX.] NO CASH HELP GIVEN. 1 85
fluence the Emperor by accusing Aurangzib of
picking out for himself the best villages in each

mahal and leaving to them scattered possessions.
Aurangzib refuted the calumny and asserted that
he had taken entire mahals, as, in his opinion, a
mahal divided among a number of owners could
not be well administered or made to flourish.
So, the Emperor at last confirmed the transfer

of lands. •^•'
Aurangzib's second prayer, that the cash por-

tion of his pay should be sent to him from the
province of Malwa and the port of Surat, was

not granted. He was told to select productive
mahals in the Deccan either from the Crownland
or from the fiefs of the officers. The Prince,
accordingly, asked for Elichpur and Ankot, his
cash allowance being reduced by the amount
of the revenue of these two dis-
Shah Jahan's .
t-, 1 t- r j
refusal to give
tncts. but the Emperor tixed
financial the standard revenue of Elichpur
H*!^ r
relief.
greatly above its real collection,
and then Aurangzib naturally demanded cash
payment as before, instead of taking such a
losing jagir. The Emperor was displeased and
made caustic remarks about the Prince in open
Court. "j"
In 1654 twenty-five lakhs of rupees were
* Adah, 25a, 29a, 326, 33a, 36a, 41a, 366.
t Adah, 2'ja, 28a, 29a.

?86 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX.
sent to Aurangzib from the revenue of Malwa,

and for the remaining five lakhs he was asked
to take away some fiefs from the officers in
Nandurbar. But the revenue of that district
actually brought Rs. 92,000, and Aurangzib

in
desired some other jagir to make up the balance.*
The financial wrangle between father and son
dragged on for years. Shah
Wrangle be- x 1
•
^
i ^
1 ^
tween the two J^^^'^ wished to put a stop to
about Aurang- the drain of money to the Dec-
Zib s income ; . .
,
, ,
false charges and can, and here was Aurangzib
Aurangzib's de- for cash from other pro-
tcnce. asking
=»
vinces in the place of jagirs in

...
the Deccan ! The jagirdars whose lands he had
appropriated by Imperial sanction, intrigued at
Court and persuaded the Emperor that the Prince
was realising from these fiefs more than his
sanctioned pay, while the ousted officers, with
only left to them, were starving.
sterile jagirs
An incorrect reading of the revenue papers deep-
ened the same conviction in the Emperor's mind
and he angrily wrote to Aurangzib : "It is un-
worthy of a Musalman and an act of injustice to
take for yourself all the productive villages of a
parganah and to assign to others only the less

productive lands. I order you to take half a
lakh worth of less productive land in the parga-
Adah, 326, 33a, 376.
CHAP. IX.] AURANGZIb's INDIGNATION. 187
nah of Asir, and decrease your cash stipend by

the same amount,so that your actual income
[may be made normal.]" Aurangzib replied in

a tone of righteous indignation, "I have never
in my life acted unjustly, but always tried to
please God and His vicegerent on earth. You
have censured me for this lakh of rupees I
have not myself taken away these lands ;

but
the revenue officers of your Majesty's Court, by
your order before I left for the Deccan, transferred

them from Shaista Khan to me at the same
[estimated] revenue. I wonder why the revenue
officers, especially the wazh' who has a retentive

memory, did not point this fact out to you
Contrary to the usual practice, your Majesty has»
without making an inquiry or calling for my
explanation, and on merely receiving a com-
plaint, passed orders [in this case] and brought
the term Musalman into use in connection with
his perishable affair ! I am helpless. As they
have made you believe that I am getting more
than my fixed salary, and you have ordered half
a lakh of rupees to be deducted from my cash
stipend,
— what need
there of giving
is me any-
thing in exchange [of the latter]?"*
When appointing him to the Deccan, Shah
*
Adab, 41a.
l88 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX.
Jahan had urged Aurangzib to pay special atten-

tion to the improvement of the peasantry and
the extension of cultivation.
Shah Jahan's
Aurangzib
* had ^
promised to do
impatience at the
delay in improv- his best for these objects, and
ing the revenue j ^
i i- ^- ^t_ •
of the Deccan. appealed to his exertions in the

same direction during his first
viceroyalty. He
only pleaded for a sufficiently
long tenure and the men and money necessary
for his purpose. The Emperor, however, soon
lost patience. Order after order was sent to the
Prince to increase the cultivation and population.
Aurangzib was hastily censured for his failure
as an administrator, as the Emperor imagined it
to be, and he was threatened with loss of income
in order to make him increase his exertions. But
he rightly pleaded that the depopulation and
ravage caused by a generation of warfare, fol-
lowed by ten years of mal-administration, could
not be undone in two or three years. He had
been (he said) silently and steadily promoting his
object and had in three years succeeded in doubl-
ing the revenue of many mahals.''^ Very soon his
viceroyalty was destined to become memorable

for ever in the history of land-settlement in the
Deccan.
* & &
Adab, 20a b, 26b, 28a, 32a 6, 1440.
CHAP. IX.] MURSHID QULI KHAN. 189
For the purposes of revenue administration^

Mughal Deccan had been divid-
The diwans of „j .• •
. v .-^.i
the Deccan.
^" ^"*° *^*^ portions, each with
its own diwan or revenue
minister. The Pahighat or Lowlands comprised
the whole of Khandesh and one-half of Berar,
while the other 2^ subahs formed the Balaghat
or Highlands. The diwan of Painghat was
Multafat Khan, a strong civil administrator and
a man of pleasant manners, charming by his
easy sociability all who came in contact with
him. But he was after all a mere departmental
head, with considerable executive capacity no
doubt, but devoid of any genius for administrative
reform or innovation.* Glory of the latter kind
belonged to his colleague, Murshid Quli Khan^
the diwan of Balaghat, and one of the many
noble gifts of Persia to India.
Murshid Quli KhanI was a native of Khurasan

HIT .^ « f. who had migrated to India in
/-w
Murshid Quh *=>
Khan: his cha- the train of Ali Mardan Khan,

^^'^ ^^*
the fugitive Persian governor of
* —
M. U. iii. 500 503. The diwans of this period were,
(i) Dianat Khan, from the 14th to the 21st year of Shah
Jahan's reign, and again from the 22nd to the 27th (M. U^
ii.
37), (2) Multafat Khan, diwan of Painghat only from
the 25th to the 29th year, (3) Murshid Quli Khan, appointed
diwan of Balaghat in 1653 and of Painghat also on 28
Jan., 1656.
f Life of Murshid Quli Khan in M. U. iii.
493
— 500*
Qandahar. He "combined the valour of a

soldier with the administrative capacity of a
civil servant." As Paymaster of Aurangzib's
army in Balkh he had displayed ability, and
when Aurangzib came to the Deccan again,
Murshid Quli accompanied him as diwan of
Balaghat. The Emperor highly commended
him to the Prince as his adviser in revenue
matters. The him as highly,
Prince, too, valued
and soon afterwards secured for him the title of
Khan or Lord. Three years later Painghat was
added to his charge, and he became diwan of
the entire Deccan (28th January, 1656). But it
was in Balaghat that he began his revenue
reforms and first achieved success for his new
system.
A century earlier the revenue collection
of India had been brought into a
Northern
system by Todar Mai, the diwan of Akbar. But
the Deccan had no system at all. Here the
marking out of plots, the measurement of land
by chain survey, the assessment
The old irrc- ",
^ .
gular revenue of revenue at SO much

, ,
per higha,
,
administration of qj. the of the actual

sharing
produce between the State land-
lord and the cultivator, were unknown. The
Khafi Khan, i. 714, 732

—
735. Adab, 24b, 27a, 28a, 43a,
gga, 4.1a, 306, 47^. Waris, 676, loia, io6a.
CHAP. IX.] CONFUSED REVENUE COLLECTION. 19I
peasant in the Deccan cultivated as much land

as he could with a plough and a pair of oxen,
grew whatever crop he liked, and paid to the

State a small amount per plough, the rate of —
revenue varying in different places and being
fixed arbitrarily, without bearing a definite
proportion to the actual yield of the field, because

it was not the practice there to inspect fields and
estimate the quantity and value of crops.
This utter absence of system and principle in

revenue matters laid the peasantry open to the
caprice and extortion of the petty collectors.
The long wars of Mughal aggression and a
succession of rainless years, completed their
ruin. The oppressed ryots fled from their homes,
the deserted fields lapsed into the jungle ; many
once flourishing villages became manless wîlder-
nesses. Shah Jahan had reduced the revenue
of Khandesh to one-half in 1631, but even this
amount was never fully realised before Murshid

Quli's time.
The new diwaiis reform consisted in extending

Todar Mai's system to the
Murshid Quit's he worked hard
Deccan. First,' " "
Revenue System.
to gather the scattered ryots
together and restore the normal lifeof the villages

by giving them their full population and proper
chain of officers. Everywhere wise amtns and

honest surveyors were deputed to measure the
land, to prepare the record of well marked out
holdings (raqba), and to distinguish arable land
from rocky soils and water-courses. Where a
village had lost its headman {muqaddam), he took
care to appoint a new headman from the persons
whose character gave the best promise of their
readiness to promote cultivation and take
sympathetic care of the peasantry. The poorer

ryots were granted loans (taqavvi) from the public
treasury, for the purchase of cattle, seeds and
other needful materials of agriculture, and the
advance was recovered at harvest by instalments.
In one year he granted loans of forty to fifty
thousand rupees to the ryots of Khandesh and
Berar for making embankments to impound
water for irrigating low-lying lands.
To prevent partiality or corruption "this honest
and God-fearing diwan often dragged the
measuring chain with his own hands" and
checked the survey work of his subordinates. By
personal inquiry in the fields and villages he
won the confidence of the peasantry he allotted
;
the holdings with care and attention to detail,

so that the ryots prospered at the same time that
the revenue increased. He had the wisdom to
modify his system according to differences of

CHAP. IX.] NEW REVENUE SYSTEM. I93
local conditions. Where the

peasantry were
-,, , . backward and the population
of assessment of scanty, or where the villages
were situated in obscure nooks,
he left the old usage of a fixed lump payment
per plough undisturbed. In many other places
he introduced the system of metayership or
sharing of the actual produce. For this there
were three rates :
(i) Where the crop depended on
rainfall, the State took one-half of it.
(ii) Where
agriculture depended on well-irrigation the share
of the State was one-third in the case of grain,
and from -^
to ^^ in the case of grape, sugar-cane,
anise, plantain, pea-wort, and other special and
high-priced crops requiring laborious watering
and length of culture, (iii) Where the field
was irrigated from canals (pat), the proportion
of the revenue to the crop varied, being some-
times higher and sometimes lower than in lands
irrigated from wells.
His third method of revenue settlement was

the elaborate and complex one of Northern India.
The standard or maximum Government share
was one-fourth of the total produce, whether
grain or pot-herb, fruit or seed. The revenue at
the fixed rate of so many rupees per higha was
assessed and collected after considering the
quantity and quality of the crop from seed-time
?3
to harvest and its market-price, and actually

measuring the sown Hence, its name of
area.
jarib (survey). Under Murshid Quli this became

the prevalent system in the subahs of Mughal
Deccan and was known for centuries afterwards
as "the dhdrd of Murshid Quli Khan."
His excellent system, backed by his constant
vigilance and personal supervision, led to the
improvement of agriculture and increase of the
revenue in a few years. 1658 the accurate In
observer Bhimsen Burhanpuri saw not a single
piece of waste land near Aurangabad wheat ;
and pulse sold at 2^ maunds a rupee, jawar and

bajra at 3!^ maunds, molasses at half a maund,
and yellow oil {ghee ?) at four seers.*
Immediately on assuming the viceroyalty,

_,,, , , ^ Aurangzib
° sent off his own men
Official changes
made by Aurang- to the different sub-divisions to
** '
take over charge of the localities.
He official staff must be greatly
found that the
increased before the country could be brought
under proper control, and much money must be
spent before the administration could be made
efficient. And he acted accordingly. First,
therewas a wholesale redistribution of offices ;
old and incompetent men were dismissed or

removed to minor posts a number of officers of;
* Dilkasha, 25, 26, 38.

CHAP. IX.] A NEW MUSTER OPPOSED. 195
proved ability were selected by the Prince, and

to them all of trust and importance
situations
were given.*' This change of personnel was
naturally accompanied by a reshuffling of jagirs.
As we have already seen, able officers were left
in undisturbed possession of their old jagirs if
these were good, or given better ones if

they
were unproductive. The loss of the change fell
only on the undeserving or minor officers.
After thus securing for himself and his leading
He saves his
officers
...the income necessary for
,
.
officers from a mamtammg their

contmgents,
new and strict hg fought and won for them
muster, •
, ,
another battle with the Imperial
accounts department. In order to reduce ex-
penditure. Shah Jahan ordered that every military
officer serving in the Deccan should bring his
force to the muster, and the troop horses should

be branded, so that commanders who had been
keeping than their proper contingents while
less
drawing full pay, might be asked to refund the

sums they had thus taken in excess from the
State. Aurangzib pleadedthem by pointing for
out the real state of affairs in the Deccan :
no officer could realise the full amount of

his nominal pay from his jagir; many had
failed even to take possession of the lands
Adab, 26b, 24fl & b, 256.
J96 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX.
assigned to them their main support was the

;
cash allowance paid from the Treasury. If,

therefore, by reason of the shortage in the
regulation number of their retainers, a part of
theirformer salaries was debited against them
and the amount recovered by deduction from
their pay in future, the officers wôuld be worse
off than before. The operation of the order
would decrease the strength of the army, which
*'
was a dangerous contingency in a province on
the frontier of two rich and armed rulers," Shah
Jahan had decreased the stipend of armed
followers from Rs. 20 per month to Rs. 17 or
even Rs. 15. Aurangzib protested against this
order, saying that a horseman
and the
raises
of troopers.
^^^ =*
j^^g ^^^^ ^
pay
month could not possibly keep
himself in proper fighting trim, especially as,
under Murshid Quli Khan's metayership settle-
ment, rent was now paid in kind and the rent-

had to undergo heavy expenditure in
receivers
watching and storing their share of the grain.

The price of horses (he added) had greatly risen
in the Deccan, and to make up the full comple-
ments of all the officers in the terms of Shah
Jahan's new would require the entertain-
order
ment of9,000 additional mounted retainers by
the officers. As the result of Aurangzib^s protest
CHAP. IX.] ARTILLERY IMPROVED. 197
Shah Jahan the stipend of each trooper

raised
to Rs. 20 a month, and the order about muster
and branding was apparently dropped.*
Keen on securing military efficiency, Aurangzib
of all assured that financial support without
first
which an army cannot be kept up to the mark.

About his own immediate followers he wrote to
the Emperor, "Your Majesty well knows that
I seldom make useless expenditure. What I get
from you, I
spend in supporting the army. Now,
as my men are paid in cash, my contingent will
decrease in the same proportion as my cash
allowance is reduced."!
The Deccan being far away from the centre
of the Empire, the officers posted there used to
embezzle the public money and to neglect
their duty, without fear of inspection and
detection. We have seen how one governor,
Islam Khan, used to make money by selling the
stores of the forts dear and afterwards buying
fresh provisions cheap. Fifty years afterwards
the Venetian traveller Manucci noted the utterly
decayed and neglected condition of the Mughal

^^'^^ '" ^^^^^ P^''^^- ^"* ^^ ^^5°
Improvement of
garrison artillery Mir Khalil, a very able and
by Mir Khalil. rr •
was appointedj
.
energetic ofncer,
*
Adab, 2gb, 35a, 97a.
t Adab, 33a, 172a.
igS HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX.
Inspector General of Ordnance (darogha-i-

topkhanah) for the Deccan, and he soon made
a clean sweep of the old abuses. Though
a mere inspector, "his achievements surpassed
those of provincial vicero3'S." He visited every
fort, inspected everything, great and small,

and supplied every place with the requisite store
of food and munitions. Everywhere he found
evidence of neglect and corruption. Old and
useless men were being borne on the establishment
of the artillery and swelling the
expenditure,
without doing any service at all. Mir Khalil
made them undergo an examination in musketry.
Setting up a target three yards square, he gathered
all the artillerymen and gave them the chance
of shots from their matchlocks at a range
three
of forty paces. Those who could not hit the
mark even once wêre dismissed. Old and dis-
abled soldiers were put on pension in considera-
tion of their past services. Thus in a month and
a half this "honest, hardworking, and expert
officer" effected a saving oi Rs. 50,000 a year,
while actually improving the efficiency of the
arm.* He continued at his post till i8th July,
1653, when he was transferred, on a higher rank
and pay, to the responsible post of commandant
* M. U. i. 166, 786, 787, Waris 396, 796, Storia do Mogor,
iii. 4.85.
CHAP. IX.] SHAH JAHAN DISPLEASED. I99
of Dharur, a fort on the frontier. Aurangzib

highly commended expert knowledge of
his
artillery matters and success as an administrator,

"
saying, The presence of such an officer in a
frontier fort gives me
peace of mind." His
successor was Hushdar Khan, a capital marks-
man, who held the Inspectorship of Ordnance for
a year only. The next to fill the office was
Shamsuddin Mukhtar Khan), appoint-

(the son of
ed in the middle
1654, of —
who, too, greatly
pleased Aurangzib by his ability and received
many favours from the Prince.®
Aurangzib's second viceroyalty of the Deccan

was marked by a series of wrang-
Aurangzib's dif- ^^s with his father, for which, as
ferences with version alone is
the hmpcror.
Aurangzib's
before us, the chief blame seems
to on Shan Jahan. Either Aurangzib's
fall
enemies had got hold of the Emperor's ears, or

the latter failed to appreciate the Prince's diffi-
culties in the South. But the result was that
Aurangzib was misunderstood, suspected, and
unjustly reprimanded from the very beginning of
his term of office. And the bitterness of feeling
thus roused was one of the reasons why the War
of Succession was conducted so heartlessly and
Adab, 306, 276, 396, Waris, 87a, M. U. iii.

943
— 946,
620—623.
unscrupulously. So complete was the estrange-

ment that, during this long viceroyalty of more
than five years, Aurangzib was not once invited
to visit his father in Northern India, and, what

is almost incredible, among the presents made to
the Emperor on his birthdays and the anni-
versaries of his coronation none from Aurangzib
is mentioned in the official history, though the
other princes made costly offerings! "While
Dara's sons were basking in the Imperial favour
and every year receiving jewels and cash gifts
worthy of princes, only once did Aurangzib's sons
get anything from their Imperial grand-father.

At the very time of his appointment to the
Deccan Aurangzib objected to it as his /a girs
there would yield 17 lakhs of rupees less than
the fertile fiefs he was holding in Sindh. "What,
I wonder, is the reason of this decrease and of
my transfer?" he asked. Before he had reached

the Deccan, he was taxed by the Emperor with
moving too slowly and taking four months in
going from Peshawar to his charge, which had
been without a ruler for two months. Aurang-
zib's explanation was the difficulty of the roads
and the unpreparedness of his troops, who had
just returnedfrom the arduous campaign of
Qandahar and had got no time to visit their
jagirs and collect money for fitting
themselves
CHAP. IX.] AURANGZIB SLIGHTED. 20I
Even after
out for the transfer to the Deccan.
reaching Burhanpur Aurangzib had no peace ;
the Emperor urged him to proceed to Daulata-
bad, his capital, as soon as possible after the rainy
season. The Prince excused himself for lingering
ten months at Burhanpur, on the grounds of
pressure work and the heavy rains at the end

of
of the monsoons that year. Then again, his
proposal to be given more productive jagirs in
exchange of the existing ones, was the cause
of a prolonged and acrimonious correspondence
with the Emperor, as we have seen.
In some cases the viceroy's recommendations
and promotions among his subordi-
for postings
nates were not accepted by the Emperor, and
the Prince could only protest his own helpless-
ness in the matter and justify his nominations.
In a few instances, such as the Inspectorship of
Ordnance, he carried his point after indignantly
writing to his father, "I have been a subahdar
since the age of i8 years, and I have never re-
commended a single man who has proved unfit
for his post The Chief should be
of Artillery
an expert marksman. I recommended such a

person. He
has not done any dishonest act. But
your Majesty has ordered the post to be given
to another."* On many other minor points,
*
Adab, 276, 28a & b, 29a, 1296.
202 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. fCHAP. IX.
such as elephant catching, sending mangoes to

Court, securing skilled weavers for the Im-
perial Golkonda tribute, &c.,
cloth factory, the
there were differencesbetween father and son.*
Next, Shah Jahan quickly lost patience and
complained of Aurangzib's failure to restore cul-
tivation and prosperity in the Deccan. Aurang-
zib rightly answered that it was too early to
judge him. "I have always tried to extend

tillage and increase the number of houses; but
as I am not a vain I have notmanreported it
to you. A
country that has been desolated by
various calamities cannot be made flourishing in
two or three years !...How can I, in one season
or two, bring back to cultivation a
parganah
which has been unproductive of revenue for
twenty years ?" But Shah Jahan was not satisfied.
He often made caustic remarks in open Court
about Aurangzib's promise of restoring prosperity
to the Deccan and the wretched condition of the
province. He
even contemplated a change of
viceroys as likely to mend matters, and asked
Shuja if he would accept the subahdari of the
Deccan as Aurangzib could not govern the pro-
vince well."}"
Another cause of friction was the charge of
* Adab, 177a & b, 24b, 31b, 32a, 1936, 191b.

f Adab 28a, 32a & b, Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 354.
CHAP. IX.] DISTRUSTED BY SHAH JAHAN. 203
diplomatic relations with Bijapur and Golkonda.

Aurangzib justly contended that the Mughal
envoys at these Courts should take their orders
from the viceroy of the Deccan and the Imperial
correspondence with them should pass through
"
his hands, as a better policy and in order to
secure greater obedience to the Imperial wishes."*
But this power was conceded to him only
towards the close of his administration, and even
then not fully.
Later on we find Shah Jahan charging Aurang-

zib with receiving costly presents from the king
of Golkonda without crediting their price against
the tribute due. Aurangzib easily showed that
these presents were of small value, the precious
stones were full of flaws, and they were all a
personal gift to himself and his eldest son."]" By

a Nemesis of fate, a generation afterwards
Aurangzib, then Emperor, suspected his son

Muazzam of having formed a secret understand-
ing with the king of Golkonda.
In May 1653 we
Aurangzib replying thus
find
to some charge brought against him in one of the
"
Emperor's letters, What your Majesty has heard
against me is false. I consider such conduct
Adah, 246.
f Adab, 846, 85a and h, ig2b, lojb.
towards others as very improper."* The nature

of the accusation is not known to us. Was it the
affair of Zainabadi, which must have happened
at this time ?
Again, the Emperor took him to task for

employing all the best weavers at Burhanpur in
his private factory and thereby depriving the
Imperial factory of its labour supply. Aurangzib
denied the allegation altogether, but the Emperor
ordered all cloth factories at Burhanpur to be
closed with the exception of the Imperial. This
was a public humiliation for the viceroy."!"
At one time Aurangzib was so disgusted with
being constantly misunderstood, censured, and
hampered by the Emperor, that he refused to
take a most necessary step on his own initiative.
Murshid Quli Khan had recommended an

advance of Rs. 50,000 as loan to
Aurangzib's dis- r xn j u j
gust at his ^"^ peasants or Khandesh and
father's unkind Berar. Aurangzib referred
treatment, ** simply
^ -^
Emperor, and
the matter to the
when he was told that he ought to have advanced
the money from the Imperial revenue, he replied
with bitterness, "No wonder that I did not take
the responsibility of doing it, seeing that I have
been taken to task for acts which I never did.
Adah, 26a.
t Adab, gSb, 1766.;
CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF DEOGARH. 205
In my first viceroyalty I did not wait for previous

sanction in such matters. But now I have grown
more cautious !" Indeed, in one of his letters
Jahanara he complains that though

to his sister
he had served his father faithfully for twenty
years he was favoured with much less power

and confidence than his nephew Sulaiman
Shukoh.*
Before turning to the two great wârs under-
taken by Aurangzib during this period we shall
describe his minor expeditions.
In the i6th and 17th centuries much of the
modern Central Provinces owned
The „
—, . 1 .
Gond king-
doms of the sway of aboriginal Gond
Gen- the
tral Provinces.
^j^j^^^ ^^^ ^^^ j^^^^^ j^
history
under the name of Gondwana. The great Gond
kingdom of Garh-Mandla had been crippled by
a Mughal invasion and sack of the capital in
Akbar's reign, and, later, by Bundela encroach-
ments from the north. But about the middle
of the 17th century another Gond kingdom,
with its capital at
Deogarh, greatness, rose to
and extended its sway over the districts of

Betul, Chindwara and Nagpur, and portions of
Seoni, Bhandara and Balaghat. In the southern
part of Gondwana stood the town of Chanda,

the seat of a third Gond dynasty. A king of
* Adab,
41a & b, 177a.
206 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. IX.
[CHAP.
Chanda had Court of Delhi in the

visited the
i6th century, and his family had ever since been
loyally attached to the empire, because this
was their only protection from their hereditary
foe and rival, the
Rajah of Deogarh.*
For a short time the Deogarh Kingdom be-
^^"'^ ^° powerful as to over-
Dcogarh: its
relations shadow Mandla and Chanda
with
and to take the first place among
the Gond States. Its wealth was vast enough
to tempt the cupidity of the Mughals. We have
seen how 1637 Khan-i-Dauran invaded this
in
kingdom, stormed the fort of Nagpur, and

forced Rajah Kukia to pay a large contribution
down and promise an annual tribute of ij
to
lakhs of rupees. Kesari Singh had succeeded
his father Kukia in after
presenting a
1640,
fee of lakhs of rupees to the Emperor."}"
four
But under him the tribute fell into arrears, and
repeated demands for it produced no effect.
So, in 1655, Shah Jahan ordered the country to
be invaded, especially as the Mughal army in
the Deccan had its hands free and the Rajah
of Deogarh was said to possess 200 elephants,
which would be a rich booty. Aurangzib point-
* ''
Deogarh, a village about 24 miles S. W. of Chin-
dwara, picturesquely situated on a crest of the hill." Imp.
Gazttteer, X. 206, 13. Waris, 73a.
t Chapter III.
CHAP. IX.] DEOGARH INVADED. 207
ed out that by deputing an officer to Deogarh

he had ascertained that the Rajah was really
very poor and had only 14 elephants. He there-
fore, asked for orders whether Deogarh should
be annexed or only the tribute realised, and then
added ironically, "Send me the man who has
toldyou of the Rajah having got 200 elephants,
and he will guide my troops to the place where
these elephants are !" This false information,
as may be easily imagined, had come from the
envious Rajah of Chanda. Shah Jahan ordered
Deogarh to be
conquered and annexed.
Aurangzib wrote back to say, "It can be easily
conquered, but not so easily held or controlled.
The annual cost of administration will be verj^^
high."*
On 12 October, 1655, the expedition started
in two divisions, one under
Mi-a Khan, the Deputy
.gSsfDroi^h
Governor of Berar, by way of
Elichpur, and the other under Hadidad Khan,
the Deputy Governor of Telingana, by way of
Nagpur,
— with orders to converge upon Deogarh.
Manji, the Rajah of Chanda, co-operated with
the invaders. Kesari Singh was crushed between
the two walls of foes. He humbly waited on
Mirza Khan, and promised to pay up his arrears
* Adab,
42a and b, Waris, 105a.
2o8 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX.
and to be more punctual in future. Only

twenty elephants were found in his possession,
and these were taken away. The Rajah
accompanied the victorious troops on their
return, and paid his respects to Aurangzib

on 8th January, 1656. He promised to pay five
lakhs in cash and kind in the

extorts sub-
course of the year, on account
mission.
of his tribute, present and past,
and to cede certain parganahs, the revenue of
which would be set apart for the payment of the
tribute in future. Kesari Singh with a

good
body of armed retainers
accompanied Aurangzib
to the siege of Golkonda and rendered good
service, praying only for some remission of

his
up arrears of tribute in return.*

piled
The later history of Deogarh may be conveni-
ently narrated here. In 1667
Later history
j)^^^. ^^^^ an Imperial^j^^
of Deogarh.
army entered the kingdom, and
a contribution of 15 lakhs on the Rajah,
imposed
while raising the annual tribute to two lakhs.
He had realised about half the current year's
tribute, when he was sent to succeed Jai Singh
as subahdar of the Deccan,
— an officer being left
in the Gond kingdom to collect the balance.
Towards the close of the century, a new Rajah of
* Adab, 43a, 45a, 4.6a, 47a, Waris, 1056.

CHAP. IX.] LATER DEOGARH KINGS. 209
Deogarh was so hard pressed by other claimants

to the throne that he went to Aurangzib, accept-
ed Islam as the price of Imperial support against
his rivals, and promised to serve in the Emperor's
wars with the Marathas. Aurangzib, proud of
effecting a conversion, baptised the Rajah as
Buland Bakht or Lucky (1686), But afterwards
(1699) the Rajah's rival died, he fled to his own
country and sided with the Maratha raiders!
The Emperor was too busy with his enemies in
the South to punish him. He vented his impo-
tent rage by ordering the traitor's name to be
changed in the official papers into Nagiin Bakht
or Luckless ! The Deogarh chief extended his
kingdom at the expense of Chanda and Mandla,
and founded the city of Nagpur, which his son,
Chand Sultan, walled round and made his capital.*
The little State of Jawhar stands north of
of Bombay on a plateau between
and11
Invasion of the .1 wr .
r^\ ^
^^^ Western Ghats the
Jawhar State,
Arabian Sea. On the north and
east it adjoined the Mughal districts of Baglana
and Nasik respectively, and on the south it
touched the Konkan. Through it one could have
access to the rich port of Chaul. Except in
some places in the south and west, the country
* Khafi
Imp. Gazetteer, x. 13, 206, Khan, ii.
207, 461^
14
aiO HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX.
is elevated, rocky, and forest-clad. Its safety

lay in great difficulty which an invader
the
found in crossing the Ghats and penetrating into
the country from the land side. A line of Rajahs
of the Koli tribe, founded early in the 14th cen-
tury, ruled the State, and was at this time en-

gaged in a long but successful struggle with the
Portuguese power in Northern Konkan. The
Rajah, named Sripat, paid no tribute nor owned
the overlordship of the Emperor. So, at
Aurang-
zib's suggestion, Shah Jahan sanctioned a war
against him. Rao Karan, the chief of Bikanir,
had long served in the Mughal wars of the Dec-
can. He now promised to conquer Jawhar with
his own men, if it were granted to him as a fief
on a The Rajput general

tribute of Rs. 50,000.
started from Aurangabad on 3rd October, 1655,
threaded his way through a difficult pass in the
Western Ghats and approached the frontier of
Jawhar. At this Sripat offered submission (5th
January, 1656), and bought safety by paying an
indemnity, promising to alienate
its SUCCESS
a certain portion of his territory
for the payment of tribute in future, and sending
his son with Rao Karan as a hostage. The ex-
pedition returned to Aurangzib on 20th January.*
• xiv. 87 and 88, Waris, io6a, Adab, 376,
Imp. Gazetteer^
39*. 47«-
CHAPTER X.
Invasion of Golkonda, 1656.
GoLKONDA was a very fertile and carefully

J irrigated country, with a large
Golkonda:
-, , , =• -" =>
wealth of the industrious population. The

kingdom. was at
capital, Haidarabad,
thistime the centre of the diamond trade, not of
Asia alone, but of the whole world. Numbers of
foreign traders assembled here and transacted
business. The kingdom was famous for several
industries. The steel works of Nirmal and
Indur (two villages north of the city) supplied
theraw materials for the world-famed Damascus
blades, and the local out-turn of swords, lances
and daggers was distributed in large quantities
over all parts of India. The skilled cloth-
weavers of Masulipatam were sought after for
the Imperial factories of Burhanpur and Delhi,
and the chintz woven there had a continental
celebrity. The carpet industry of Ellore,
conducted entirely by Muhammadans, was
212 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [cHAP. X.
famous for centuries. To

smiling cornfields, its
tanks teeming with fish, and flourishing handi-

crafts, must be added the diamond and gold
mines which made the name of Golkonda known
even in far-off The kingdom also pos-
Europe.
sessed in Masulipatam the best anchorage in the
Bay of Bengal and the only place on the East

Coast whence ships sailed for Pegu, Siam,
Bengal, Cochin China, the Manillas, and even
Mecca and Madagascar. The forests of the
kingdom sheltered large herds of highly prized

elephants, which added to the wealth of the
king. Tobacco and the palm flourished
exceedingly, and the excise on tobacco and

toddy juice yielded a large revenue.*'
Since his return to the Deccan in 1653, Aurang-
p , , had . zib
frequent cause to quarrel
t
tte Imperial with the king of Golkonda. The

Government. -u ^ r ^ r
annual tribute of two lakhs of
i 4. , 1 ,
hun was always in arrears, and frequent dunning

on the part of the Mughal viceroy only met with
excuses and petitions for delay. The Emperor
asked the Sultan to pay half his tribute in cash
and the other half in elephants, of which he had
a vast stable. But even this was not done. At
• This description is based on Tavernier, i.
150
— 158,
175, 274, Gribble's History of
the Deccan, i. 26(), Impertat
Gazetteer, xii. 23. Adab-i-Atamgiri, 556, 50a, 466, 370,
54*-
4i
CHAP. X.] QUTB SHAH REBUKED. 213
last Aurangzib demanded the alienation of a

certain part of Golkonda territory, the revenue
ofwhich would be collected by Imperial officers
and set apart for the payment of the tribute.*
Next, the exchange value of the hun rose from
Rs. 4 in 1636 to Rs. 4^ and finally in 1654 to
Rs. 5 each. Qutb Shah had been paying his
tribute at the old rate of eight lakhs of rupees a
year. The Mughals now demanded that the
difference due to exchange for all the past years
should be paid at once. A new burden of 20
lakhs of rupees was thus thrown on the shoulders
of the Sultan who had been tottering under the
load of the normal tribute. f
Then he was rebuked having taken his
for not
over-lord's sanction before conquering the Kar-

natak. But he was told that the offence could be
atoned for by paying a large sum as present to the
Emperor When Aurangzlb's agent, Muhammad

!
Mumin, was sent ostensibly to protect Sri Ranga,

the Rajah of Karnatak, Qutb Shah was warned
not to hinder him, with a clear hint that the
proposed could be bought off
intervention 1"^.
Lastly there was the affair of Mir Jumla which

precipitated war, and of which a detailed ac-
count will be now given.
*
Adah, 54a &
566. b,
f Atlab, 56a, Waris, 1130.
X Adab, 546-55Z>, 44a & b.
214 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. X.
The treaties of 1636 has divided the old
Ahmadnagar territory between the Emperor of

Delhi and the Sultan of Bijapur, made Golkonda
a protected tributary State, and clearly marked
out the boundary between the Empire and the
two Deccani monarchies.'* Barred in the north
by the strong arm of the Mughals, these two
States began to give employment to their troops
and a vent to their ambition by engaging in
free
a career of conquest in other directions. Bijapur

took possession of the Nizam
conquered fay Shahi Konkan, which had been

Bijapur and by the treaty with the
ceded to it •' -^
Golkonda.
Emperor, and even attacked the
Portuguese possessions north of Goa with some
success. Golkonda was cut off by foreign terri-
tory from the west. But it was in the eastern
side of Southern India that both the Sultans
found free scope for expansion. The whole of
the Karnatak, from the river Krishna to Tanjore
beyond the Kaveri, was covered with a number

of petty Hindu principalities, the jarring frag-
ments of the ruined empire of Vijaynagar.
These now rapidly fell a prej' to Muslim arms.
The Golkonda troops advanced conquering to
the Bay of Bengal, and occupied the country
from the Chilka lake to the Penner river.
Chapter III.
CHAP. X.] KARNATAK CONQUERED BY MUSLIMS. 215
Their raiding bands penetrated as far north as

Khurda, the seat of the faineant Rajah of Orissa.
The Gajapati Rajah of Ganjam was ousted by
the Golkonda Sultan in 1571. Chicacole became
the seat of a Qutb Shahi faujdar some time
before 1641, when a handsome mosque was built
there by Shir Muhammad Khan, the first faujdar.
In 1652Rajput officer of Golkonda seized
a
Vizagapatam and extending his conquest formed

a petty Rajahship.*
Bijapur advanced conquering southwards and

then turned east till it occupied the coast
between Jinji and Tanjore. Hemmed in the
north and south by the conquests of the two
Sultans, as between the two jaws of a monster,

lay the kingdom of Chandragiri, the last rem-
nant of the Vijaynagar empire, with its territory
contracted to the region from Nellore to Pondi-
cherry on the east and the Mysore frontier on
the west. On the death of Rama Raja, the
minister and virtual ruler of Vijaynagar, on the
fatal field ofTalikota (1564), and the subsequent
sack of the capital by the Muslims, his brother had
removed the seat of government to Pennakonda
*
Imperial Gazetteer, XII. 23 (Rajmahendri captured,
1572). X. 217 (Chicacole), XII. 145, XXIV. 339. Sewell's
Sketch of Dynasties, 48 &
69, (the Pained country and the
country about Kurnool and Nellore were seized and Konda-
vidu secured by bribery in 1580).
2l6 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. X.
(1567)- This brother's son transferred the capital

to Chandragiri (about At this time the
1600).
throne of Chandragiri was Sri occupied by
Ranga, who gave the site of Madras city to the
English in 1639, and whom the Muhammadan
historians Sri
style Ranga Rdyal, zamindar of
Karnatak.'--' There was now a race between the
Golkonda and Bijapur kings for the absorption
of his kmgdom the two
jaws began rapidly to
;
close from the north and the south

upon the
doomed Karnatak. In this work of conquest a
most conspicuous part was played
by Mir Jumla,
the wasir of Golkonda.
Muhammad Said, known to history as Mir

Jumla,! was a Syed of Ardstan in Persia, and
^^^ ^°" °^ ^^ oil-merchant of
Mir Jumla
prime minister of Isfahan. Leaving his native
Golkonda,
country in youth, he like other
Shiah adventurers, sought his fortune at the
Courts of the Deccani Sultans who belonged to
his sect, (1630). As a diamond merchant he
* Sewell in Sketch
of Dynasties, (110— 112) calls him Sri
Ranga III, and in A Forgotten Empire, (233-234) Sri Kanga
VI. Adah 336. S. Krishna-swami
Aiyangar's Ancient India,
296.
t This account of Mir Jumla based on Tavernier, i,
is
170, 259, 273, 284—293 295, Bernier,

16—19. Gnbble, i.
269—271, Masir-ul-umara, lii. 530—555 (life of Mir Jumla).
For his character see Talish's
Fathiyya-i-ibriyya (Conquest
of Assam),
CHAP. X.] MIR JUMLA IN KARNATAK. 217
rose to great wealth by his shrewdness and

business capacity. His wonderful talents gain-
ed him the favour of Abdullah Qutb Shah, who
made him his prime minister. Mir Jumla's
industry, rapid despatch of business, adminis-
trative capacity, military genius, and inborn
power leadership ensured his success in all
of
that he undertook. Great alike in civil govern-
ment and in war, he soon became the virtual
ruler of Golkonda :
nothing could reach the
Sultan without first securing his
approval. Sent
by his master to the Karnatak, he soon effected
a complete transformation
his vast con- .
^^^re.
u ..u
Hitherto .. t^ u ,*
Kambam^-, on
quests and wealth,
the N. E. side of the Cuddapah
district, had been the limit of Golkonda ad-
vance in that direction. All the attempts of
the Sultans had failed to conquer the uplands of
the Karnatak, where the Rajah of Chandragiri
still held
sway. Mir Jumla strengthened him-
self by securing a number of European gunners
and cannon-founders, raised his army to a high
state of discipline and efficiency, and soon
wrested the Cuddapah district. His crowning
feat was
the capture of the rock fortress of
Gandikota, hitherto deemed impregnable.
15- 34 N. 79' 12E.

2|:8 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. X.
Sidhout/"-' east of Cuddapah, was also conquer-

ed, and his captains penetrated as far as
Chandragiri and Tirupati in the North
Arcot district. By looting the rich old temples
of the South and hunting out buried treasure,
Mir Jumla amassed a vast fortune. The huge
Hindu idols of copper were brought away in
numbers, to be melted and cast into cannon I
By diligently working the diamond mines which
he farmed from his sovereign or discovered by
his own exertions, he multiplied his wealth, till
he came to be known as the richest private man
in the South and the owner of twenty maunds of
diamonds. On
entering Shah Jahan's service he
made presents worth 15 lakhs of rupees to the
Emperor, besides what he gave to Aurangzib and
his eldest son. By conquests he raised his
his
jagir in the Karnatak into a kingdom 300 miles
long and 50 miles broad, yielding a revenue of

40 lakhs a year, and possessing several diamond
mines. At his own cost and under his absolute
command he maintained an army of 5,000 well-
mounted and well-equipped cavalry, besides the
4,000 troops of the Golkonda king's service,
whose captains he had won over. His foot
numbered 20,000 strong. An excellent park of
* Sidhout is nine miles due east and Gandikota 42 miles
N. W. of Cuddapah town. Both are situated on the
Penner river.
CHAP. X.] MIR JUMLA AGAINST QUTB SHAH. 219^
and a large number of trained elephants

artillery
completed his war equipage. Thus he had
made himself fully independent of his master and
the virtual king of the Karnatak. In short, it
has been well said by one historian though that

Mir Jumla's rank was that of a noble, he possess-
ed the power wealth and grandeur of a ruling
prince.*
Mir Jumla's growing power and wealth roused
the alarm of his master. Envious courtiers were
not wanting to whisper to the Sultan of Gol-
konda that the absent wazirs armed strength
was a menace to his own security, and that the
servant's wealth overshadowed
Qutb Shah in the grandeur of the master's
jealousy tries to
ruin iVIir Jumla, Court. Qutb ShaS, too,
naturally wîshed to have a share

of his wîzirs gains. In the conquest of the
Karnatak the two had acted as partners Mir ;
Jumla had supplied the brain and leadership,

while the Sultan had lent him the necessary men
and money and the protection of his name, in the
first stage at all events. They no*v quarrelled
about the profits. Qutb Shah tried to treat Mir
* At Haidarabad a tank, a
garden, and a mansion bear
his name. Some distance outside tlie city a village (pettah)
was founded and named after him. "He has leitmany
memorials of himself in Telingana where he lived long."
{M. U., iii. 555) Waris, 1020, iiia and b, 114a, Il8a, Adab,
39a, il6a. Tavernier, i. 170W, Bernier, 17.
Jumla mere servant and to escheat to the

as a
State what he had acquired in its service. Mir
Jumla, on the other hand, knowing how weak
and worthless his master was, regarded the
conquest as entirely his own work and his
gains as the fruits of his own exclusive toil.
After having tasted regal
independence in the
Karnatak he was loth to return to the life of a
courtier.But he could not long disobey the
summons of his master. So, he once went back
to Golkonda. The Sultan conspired with other
courtiers to seize and blind him, but Mir Jumla
learnt of the plot before it was matured, and
cleverly managed to escape to the Karnatak,

vowing never to visit Golkonda again. The
Sultan kept calling him back with
increasing
persistence, but it only served to confirm Mir
Jumla's suspicion. At last the mask was thrown
away, and Qutb Shah openly undertook to crush
his disobedient servant.*
Mir Jumla now looked around for protection.
who ^^ ^^^'^'^ ^^ ^"^^^ ^^^ service
intrigues
withBijapur and of the Sultan of Bijapur, and
hold the Karnatak of him,
to
and as an earnest presented him with some
lockets {padak)richly set with diamonds and
gems, which he had extorted from the Rajah of
* Adab, 30a, 366, 72^, Tavernier, i.
165.
CHAP. X.] INTRIGUES WITH FOREIGN STATES. 221
Chandragiri,* Adil Shah was overjoyed at the
prospect of acquiring such a precious servant,

the ablest man in the Deccan since Malik Am-
bar's time. But Bijapur was only one of the many
strings to Mir Jumla's bow. He was also in-
triguing with the Shah of Persia"}" and asking for
an asylum with him. What he evidentlv wanted
to secure was a safe retreat to Persia with all
his wealth, if matters came to the worst and he

found the Karnatak no longer tenable against a
combination of his foes. Nearer home he ably
turned enemies The despoiled
into
friends.
Rajah of Chandragiri was conciliated and assur-

, , ed that he would not be further
and strengthens
his position in molested, if he stood by Mir
the Karnatak. j +
Jumia.^;
i v„„
Years tj--
ago oijapur and
j
Golkonda had almost come to blows about the

partition of the Muslim con-
Karnatak. The
querors advancing from the north and the south of
the province had met near the northern frontier
of the South Arcot district and each had wished
to push the other back.§ But Mir Jumla now
made a peaceful settlement by mutual consent :
* Adab,
iq^b Sc 196a, Waris, 119a & b,
f Ruqat-t-'shah Abbas Sani, 154 156, gfives the reply of —

the Persian kin^ to Mir Jumla's offer to enter his service.
I Affab, 366, 39a.

§ Adab, 276.
a drawn east to west some distance north

line
became the boundary between Adil Shahi
of Jinji
Karnatak and Qutb Shahi Karnatak. In addi-
tion to this, Mir Jumla made friends with
Ikhlas Khan,* the Abyssinian governor of Bija-
puri Karnatak, who probably wished to imitate

his disloyal example and make his viceroyalty
an independent State. The Golkonda generals
and troops posted in the Karnatak were already
bound by close ties of self-interest and favours
to Mir Jumla's side. The Sultan had no instru-
ment with which he could punish his refractory
servant.
Mir Jumla had also begun to coquet with the
Mughal power. Indeed, in this case the first
solicitation had come from the other side.
Aurangzib, secretly passionate

nursing his
ambition of conquering the rich State of Gol-
konda, was eager to secure such an able helper

and counsellor as the prime minis-
Aurangzib's ^^^ ^f ^j^^^ kingdom. Through
secret corrcs- '^ °
pondence for the Mughal envoy at Golkonda
winning Mir î d •
Prmce j
Jumla over.
the opened a secret
correspondence with Mir Jumla,
promising him not only protection for his family
and property against his wrathful master, but
also boundless favours from the Emperor, if he

* Adab,
39fl, 366.
CHAP. X.] AURANGZIB EAGER TO WIN MIR. 223
joined the Mughal service. He also sent an

agent, Muhammad Mumin, directly to theprime
minister in the Karnatak. But the prudent
wazir dallied with the offer and waited to see
what turn his affairs would take. So, he sent a
secret petition for appointment under the Em-
peror, in order to ascertain what terms he might
expect from that quarter.*

These intrigues with three different Courts
could not be kept secret. Qutb Shah, hearing of
them, tried to conciliate his too-powerful officer.
To his friendly overtures Mir Jumla replied that
after two years he would either attend on his
master or resign his post and leave India. f All
this time Aurangzib kept up a busy but secret
correspondence with him, and messengers kept

running from one to the other. In his excess of
eagerness the Prince even approached Muham-
mad Amin, the son of Mir Jumla. But Shah
Jahan's hesitation in replying to the Mir's peti-
tion threw the latter into alarm and doubt about
the Emperor's intentions. At last, yielding to
Aurangzib's importunity, the
Emperor offered to
Mir Jumla his protection and favour if he came
to his Court.;}: But evidently the terms were very
* Adab,
30a, 316, 34Z), 36^, 726 ; Waris, 1026,
t Adab, 346, 44a.
X Adab, 35a & b, 36a.
vague, and Mir Jumla was in no haste to accept

them. He, however, feigned
Mif JumU's and begged a year's
consent,*
duplicity. .
respite in which to collect his
property from the ports, and keep his promise

to Qutb Shah. So, he urged the Mughal Court
tokeep this agreement secret till then, for if the
Deccani Sultans discovered his successful intrigue
with the Emperor, they would, he feared, kill
him.* In fact three kings were now bidding for
his services, and he wished to make the most of
the circumstance.
Eager as Aurangzib was to secure Mir Jumla,

these delays made his heart turn sick, and he
discovered Mir Jumla's duplicity. "I think," he
wrote to the Emperor, "that Mir Jumla does not
really wish to enter the Imperial service, as he
now holds a largekingdom with many fortresses,
ports, and strongholds, and has disgusted the
Sultan of Bijapur by declining to enter his service.
His proposal to take the Emperor's pay is only
a matter of policy. He will not leave that
country so long as he can dexterously avert the
hostility of the two Sultans.""}"
Evidently Aurangzib's solicitations ceased, or

his agent at Golkonda blundered and the secret
Adab, 38a it b.
f Adab, 39a.
CHAP. X.] M. AMIn's misconduct. 225
of Mir Jumla's understanding with the Emperor

leaked out. The two Deccani Sultans, thoroughly
angry with the double-dealer, agreed to unite
their forces to crush him. It was now Mir
Jumla's turn to be as eager as he had been
lukewarm before joining the Mughals.
in He
w^rote to the Prince, "I am Shah Jahan's servant
and beg to be saved by him." But Aurangzib
now hung back. He wâited for the attack on
Mir Jumla to be actually delivered before sending
him the "strong force to escort him" to the
Imperial territory which he had promised before.*
Before Qutb Shah could muster either his
courage or his forces for the purpose of chastising

Mir Jumla, a crisis was precipitated by the
conduct of Muhammad Amin, the wazirs son.
This youngman, haughty and reckless at all
times and known as the most audacious of
courtiers even when serving a stern master like
Aurangzib, t was acting all these years as Mir
Jumla's deputy at the Court of Golkonda. His
father's wealth and glory turned his head. He
gave himself the airs of a prince,
Mir Jumla's , 1
•
.
•
. r 1 r^
family imprison- spoke slightmgly of the Sultan,

ed by king of and treated him with scant
Golkonda.
courtesy in open Court. Abdullah
* Adab, 40a, 366.
f Masir-ul-umara, iii. 620, Anecdotes of Aurangzib, § 51.
?5
Qutb Shah bore all this meekly. But at last, one

day Muhammad Amin came to Court reeling
with drunkenness, fell asleep on the king's own
carpet, and soiled it in crop sickness.
long- The
suffering king could not bear this crowning act
of insult. His anger boiled over, and he threw
Muhammad Amin and his family into prison
and attached their property (21st November,
1655.)*
This was the opportunity for which Aurangzib
had so long been waiting. Here was a plea for
invading and annexing Golkonda, whose wealth
had excited his keen longing for years past,
though he had had to keep that longing in check
in fear of Shah Jahan's sense of justice.
The Prince immediately reported the incident
to the Emperor and solicited an urgent sanc-
tion of Meantime, on 3rd December,
war.f
Shah Jahan had despatched a robe of honour
and a letter-patent to Mir Jumla, appointing
„, , , him a Commander of Five
,
Shah Jahan
takes Mir Jumla Thousand, and his son a Com-
ind orLTtl n>«nder of Two Thousand
release of his
troopers in the Mughal service,
together with a letter to Qutb

Shah bidding him not to hinder them in coming to
* M. U. iii. 531. Tavemier, i. 166. Adab, 45a.
j- Waris, 109a.
CHAP. X.] PREPARATIONS FOR INVASION. 227
the Imperial Court, nor to detain any part of

their property."-"' These letters reached Aurangzib
on i8th December, and he at once sent the
Emperor's letter on to Golkonda, commanding
the king to release the family of Mir Jumla
immediately and to send them with all their

belongings to the Imperial Court in company
with the bearer of the letter. If Qutb Shah
delayed or disobeyed the order, Aurangzib threat-
ened to send an army under his son against
him. I In the meantime, anticipating the
Emperor's sanction, he mobilised his troops on
the Golkonda frontier for a campaign. Hadidad
Khan was ordered to hasten his return from
Deogarh and to move directly on Qandahar (a
fort midway between Aurangabad and Gol-
konda), while Aurangzib's eldest son, Muhammad
Sultan, was sent (26th Dec.) with the Van of his
father's army to Nander to wait for Hadidad
Khan4
While the storm was thus brewing against him,
Qutb Shah seems to have been seized with
infatuation. He either ignored or underrated his
danger, and his anger was unallayed. Both

still
Aurangzib's warning of i8th Decembei and

* Waris, 1026.
I Adab, 566 & 57a, 45a, 77a. Waris, 1096.

X Adab, 45a k b, Waris 109*.
Shah Jahan's letter of the thirdannouncing the

Imperial protection of Mir Jumla and Muham-
mad Amin, were disregarded by him.
On hearing (34th December) of Muhammad
Amin's captivity, Shah Jahan wrote a letter to
Qutb Shah to release Mir Jumla's family. He
felt sure that his letter alone would effect the
purpose. But " in order to
gratify Aurangzib,"
he rather reluctantly sanctioned
(^9th Dec.) the invasion of
Ja'^rof^êtuII
Golkonda, in case Muhammad
Amin was still detained.* Both these letters
reached Aurangzib on 7th January, 1656. f He

now employed finesse to ruin Golkonda. With-
out giving Qutb Shah time to receive and follow
Shah Jahan's letter of 24th December, which
explicitly ordered the release of the captives, he
declared that the king's refusal to set them free in
spite of the Emperor's letter of 3rd December
amounted to that flat disobedience of Imperial
orders which had been laid down as a necessary
condition for the invasion of Golkonda.

At once Aurangzib ordered Prince Muhammad
Sultan, (who had reached Nander on 7th
January), to cross the frontier. The young
* Waris, 109^.
Adab, 46a.
CHAP. X.] MUGHALS INVADE GOLKONDA. 229
made a dash on
Prince started (loth January) and
Haidarabad with his cavalry. Aurangzib waited
at Daulatabad with the main army for a fort-
night, because there was some fear of Bijapur

coming to the aid of Golkonda in answer to the
earnest appeals of Qutb Shah. Indeed, the Bija-
pur army under Afzal Khan had
Aurangzib been massed on the Mughal
invades Gol- .
.•, 01 ij i 1
ionda. frontier. But Adil Shah held

back in fear the danger blew ;
over, and so, on 20th January Aurangzib himself

started and quickly marched to join his son.
Shivaji had caused some disturbance on the

Mughal frontier near Junnar'- But as yet he
could be safely neglected. Moreover, his aim
was not so much to cause a diversion in favour
of Golkonda as to profit by the absence of the
Mughal troops.
Meantime, after Muhammad Sultan had entered

his territory, Abdullah got Shah Jahan's stern
letter of 24th December and at once sent Muham-
mad Amin with his family and servants to that
Prince, together with a humble letter of submis-
sion to the Emperor. But Aurangzib had so
contrived it that his submission should come too
*
Adab, 460 and b, 47a, 49a and b.
late to save him. Muhammad Amin waited on

the Prince, 24 miles from
Raid on Haida- , t •
1 i 1 / t 1 1
rabad : Qutb Haidarabad (probably on 21st

Shah flees to but the Prince refused to
JJan.),
^'
Golfconda Fort.
stop hostilities and pressed on
to the capital on the plea that Abdullah had not
yet property of the captives. Qutb
restored the
Shah's last hope was gone the Mughal cavalry ;
had arrived so fast that he had been taken com-

pletely by surprise. Confronted with utter ruin,
he sent off to the stronghold of Golkonda his
children and such valuable property as could be
easily removed, and in the night of 22nd January

himself fled from Haidarabad to that fort,
—
leaving the defence of the capital to three officers
and some 17,000 soldiers.*-''
This flight saved his life because Aurangzib's

secret instructions to M. Sultan breathed deadly
hostility :
"Qutb-ul-mulU is a coward and will probably offer no

resistance. Surround his palace with your artillery and also
post a detachment to bar his flight to Golkonda. But before
doing- so, send a carefully chosen messenger to him, saying,
'I had so long been expecting that you would meet me and
hospitably ask me to stay with you. But as you have not
done so, I have myself come to you.' Immediately on
delivering this message, attack him impetuously and,
if you
can manage it, lighten his neck of the burden of his head.
The best means of achieving this plan are cleverness, prompti-
tude, and lightness of hand."t
Waris, 1096, Adab, 49a, 806.

t Adab, 1874.
CHAP. X.] HAIDARABAD OCCUPIED. 23I
On23rd January the invaders arrived at the

Husain Sagar tank, two miles north of Haidara-
bad. Confusion reigned in the counsels of Gol-
konda. The king had never before ruled his
servants, and now he was more helpless than a
child and more unnerved than a woman. His
officers acted without concert, having no com-
mon leader and no definite plan of action.

While one minister v/aited on M. Sultan with a
casket of gems as a peace-offering, others made
a demonstration against the Mughal army, but
were soon driven back with loss. Next day the
young Prince entered Haidara-
iSr/arabld.^"*^''
t)ad. A strong party was posted
in the city under Muhammad Beg
to prevent plunder and violence, to reassure the
citizens, and to man the city walls. As the
palace and most of the houses were built of
wood, strict orders were given to guard watch-
fully against fire for, some years before this, the
;
screen of the king's Hall had been accidentally

set ablaze by a candle, and the fire had spread
to the roof and thence to the neighbouring

houses, and smouldered for fully a month.*
These arrangements were made none too soon.
Haidarabad was one of the richest cities of India.
Besides being the capital of a flourishing monar-
* Waris, Adab, 49a &"

logb &" iioa. b.
chy, it was the centre of the diamond trade of

the world and the seat of many fine arts. A vast
concourse of nobles, officers, traders, and artisans
filled the city and its extensive suburb (named
Aurangabad)* across the Musa river. From the
night of the 22nd to the noon of the 24th, plunder
raged in the city unchecked.
of the
^Plunder
j^^ ^j^^ ^^^ j^j^ ^^^^j^^ j^j^
all his costly carpets, Chinaware,
furniture, &c., besides
elephants and horses.
Muhammad Sultan inspected the royal property,
closed the doors of the palace, and placed a guard
over it. The
looting of Haidarabad was the talk
of all India in that age. As Aurangzib's equerry,
Aqil Khan Razi, wrote in his history, "Most of
the stores and property of Qutb-ul-mulk, such as
precious books and other costly things beyond

computation, were plundered by Prince M.
Sultan. ...Much of Outb-ul-mulk's property, am- —
—
ong the rareties of the age, was confiscated by
Aurangzib. But so rich was the king and so
vast his wealth that, in spite of these several acts
of looting, so much treasure was left behind at
Aurangzib's nobody could suppose
retreat that
that the treasury and palace had been looted."
Another historian, Bhimsen, records that the
Mughal army gathered much booty in the city,
^* Tavernier, i.
152.
CHAP. X.] SIEGE OF GOLKONDA BEGUN. 233
and a vast amount in cash and kind was seized

in the king's palace.*
Abdullah Qutb Shah continued to send almost
daily envoys to the Prince offering submission
and costly presents in the hope of making peace.
He restored Mir Jumla's property. But the
Prince could settle nothing in his father's ab-
sence. Abdullah had, therefore, no help but to
solicit aid fromBijapur and to put Golkonda
in a state of defence in the meantime.
Aurangzib arrived on the scene on 6th

February with the bulk of his army. With the
vigour and promptitude that

Aurangzib be- y.^^ Û his actions, he first
sieges uolkonda.
made a reconnaissance of the
fort and its environs, before retiring to his tent
to refresh himself after the fatigue of a fortnight's
forced march. A large Golkonda force, about
15,000 strong, appeared in the plain

and fired
at the Mughals from a distance. The fort-guns

co-operated with them. Evidently the position
of the Imperial army was made untenable, for
Aurangzib had to drive his elephant forward

and order a general advance of his troops for
repelling the enemy. But the struggle was long
and severe, and the losses heavy. The fight
raged till evening, when the enemy retired,
* Waris, iioa, Adab, 50a, Aqil Khan, 13, Dilkasha, 16.

some going back to the fort, others into the jungle

outside it.
Next day the siege-^' of Golkonda began.

The west side was unoccupied, but Mughal
officers entrenched on the other three sides. A
regular siege was impossible, as Aurangzib had
made a quick march with light artillery, while
the fort had guns of large calibre. Moreover,
Shaista Khan, Shah Nawaz Khan, and other
officers in command of reinforcements had not
yet arrived, nor had the big guns ordered from
the fort of Ausa."!" Aurangzib, therefore, con-
tented himself with holding the city and sur-
rounding the fort, to prevent the escape of the
king, while he waited for reinforcements and
Shah Jahan's commands. His first expecta-
fresh
tion murdering Qutb Shah and capturing
of
his kingdom by a sudden coup had failed, and
he had to resort to slower methods for which

he was not prepared. The leaguer of Golkonda
lasted from 7th February to 30th March,
and wâs conducted very languidly, because,
with the materials at his disposal, he could
do no injury to such an impregnable fortress.
Sometimes the siege-trenches were attacked by
* For the
history of the siege, Waris, lioa
— l\2b, Adab,
8ia. Tavernier, i. 166 — 169.
f Shaista Khan arrived on 21st Feb., and two big guns

from Ausa on ist March, 1656. (Waris, & b.) ma
CHAP. X.] RICHNESS OF THE KINGDOM. 235
sorties of the defenders. Battles took place with

the Golkonda troops hovering round, on nth
and i2th February in the environs of the fort,
and on 13th March at a place 20 miles from it.
The Deccanis, as usual, retired after some ex-

change of fire, being unable or unwilling to
stand the charge of the dreaded Mughal
cavalry. Their mode of warfare was Parthian^
and their aim to wear out the enemy and cut
off his supplies.
These skirmishes were varied by the almost

daily arrival of presents and offers of peace from
the beleaguered king to the invader's camp !
But Aurangzib steadily refused to make terms.

He coveted the whole kingdom
He covets the ^^ less. The
rich kingdom, nothing *=> fertility
-^
of Golkonda, the world-wide

fame of its diamond mines, the wealth of its
kings, the skill of its artisans, had roused hi&
keenest greed. Soon after crossing the frontier,
even before he had seen "the rich populous and
flourishing city of Haidarabad," he had
written
to his father, "What shall I write about the
beauty of this country

—
abundance of water
its
and population, its good air, and its extensive

cultivation,
—
which I saw on the way? At
every stage after crossing the frontier I met with
many large tanks, springs of sweet water, run-
ning streams, inhabited villages with large

patches of cultivated land attached to them.
Not a piece of land without tillage. Such a
money-yielding country, unmatched by the Im-
perial dominions, has fallen into this wretch's
hands !"* And again, "Golkonda is a spacious
kingdom, well-cultivated, rich in mines of
diamond, crystal, &c." He plied his father with
all sorts of arguments to secure his consent to
J
and urges ci. t its annexation : Outb-ul-mulk
"^
Jihah
Jahan to annex was a godless wretch, ungrateful
for Imperial favours, sunk in
vices unworthy of a king, a violator of the purity
of his subjects' homes, an oppressor against
whom the people wêre invoking the Heavens, a
heretic who had perverted all his subjects from
the pure Sunni faith, and lastly an ally and
financial supporter of the king of Persia. Not "j"
to punish such a heretical ruler would be a

failure of duty on the part of an orthodox
Islamic emperor! To miss this opportunity of
crushing such an enemy would be highly impoli-
tic. "I hope your Majesty will order annex-
ation.":!:
* Adab,
50a.
f We have two letters from the Persian king to Outb-ul-
mulk, of a later date than this year, in Ruqat-i-Shah Abbas
Sani, 19 — 23 and 89—93.
X Adab, 466, 50^.
CHAP. X.] AURANGZIB URGES ANNEXATION. 237
Aurangzib even begged Shah Jahan not to

answer Qutb-ul-mulk's submissive letter, nor to
listen to the intercessions of Dara and others on
his behalf,
— because it would result in a great
of expected gain
sacrifice When Mir Jumla's
!
son would reach the Court, he would tell the

Emperor all about the wealth and weakness of
the Golkonda king, and suggest the means of
squeezing the utmost out of him. In short, as

he wrote, the Emperor "should make the most
of this splendid opportunity. "••'
But these grotesquely mixed appeals to ortho-
doxy and cupidity, humanity and ambition, were
wasted on Shah Jahan. The Emperor was loth
to ruina brother king for merely trying to bring
his disloyal wazir under discipline. Dara, who
had been bribed and implored by the Golkonda
—
envoy at Delhi, to the intense disgust and anger
of Aurangzib,|— pleaded hard
Shah Jahan /-v u , n 1
orders peace in *or ûtb-ui-mulk, and secured

return for an
peace for him on the ^payment
' of
mdemnity. ,
an indemnity. The Emperor's

letteraccepting this settlement reached Aurang-
zib on 24th February. J But meantime his posi-
tion at Golkonda had greatly improved. The
* Adab, 4.6b, 496.
t Adab, 59a, 6gb.
X Waris, 11 16.
«iegehad been pressed closer many Golkonda ;
were deserting to the Mughals daily; and

officers
Abdullah was begging for permission to send his

mother to Aurangzib to ask his pardon, to pro-
mise the payment of the arrears of tribute and a
large indemnity, and to propose the
marriage of
his second daughter with Aurangzib's eldest son.
So, Aurangzib suppressed the Emperor's letter of
pardon to Qutb-ul-mulk (dated 8th February),
lest it should embolden the latter and make him
abate his terms. Shah Jahan, on being informed,
approved of this device for extortion l*
After long entreaties and through the media-

tion of Shaista Khan and
Negotiation for Muhammad
terms of peace. Sultan, the Queen-
*^
'
Mother of Golkonda was allowed

to visit Aurangzib's tent and personally entreat
him to spare her son.
Aurangzib agreed to restore
his kingdom on the payment of one krore of
rupeesj" as indemnity and arrears of tribute, and
the marriage of his daughter with the Mughal
Prince. But evidently Qutb-ul-mulk objected
* Waris, 1116. Aurangzib wrote to Mir Jumla (early in
March) "Qutb-ul-mulk is now craving pardon, sending his
son-in-law Mir Ahmad to me, and proposing that his mother
would wait on me and that his daughter would be married to
my son. But wish to send him to the -wilderness of des-
I
truction.'" Adab, 8ia

•j-
The amount demanded was i:^ krores {Adab, 1386) but
subsequently 25 lakhs were abated.
CHAP. X.] SHAH JAHAN ORDERS PEACE. 239
to the amount as too large, and there was delay

in the final settlement. In this interval
making
no formal truce was concluded, and a shot from
the fort-guns killed Mir AsaduUah Bukhari, the
son of the Paymaster of Aurangzib's forces.'-*
Mir Jumla, whose arrival had been eagerly

looked forward to and impatiently hurried by
Aurangzib, now reached Haidarabad and waited
on the Prince on 20th March, a day chosen by
the astrologers as lucky for a first visit.|
In the meantime, Abdullah's agent at the
Court Delhi had bought the intercession of
of
Dara Shukoh and of the Princess Imperial Jaha-

nara. Through them he unfolded to the Emperor
the true story of Aurangzib's manoeuvring, how —
Abdullah had been tricked and almost slain by
treachery, how he had not been given a fair chance
of carrying out the Emperor's orders, how the
Imperial farmans had been withheld from him,

how Shah Jahan's kind intentions towards the
suppliant ruler had been thwarted, and how an
entirely false version of the whole affair had been
given in the despatches of Aurangzib. At this
Shah Jahan's righteous indigna-
Shah Jahan, tJon boiled over. He wrote a
angry at Aurang- , , <
iib's trickery, Sharp letter 01 censure to Aurang-
zib, with orders to raise the
Waris, 11 16 and 112a, Tavernier, i.
167.
t Adab, 8\b, Waris, 112a.
240 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. X
siege and quit Golkonda territory at once. To

add the Prince's disgrace, the contents of this
to
letter were not kept secret, but became the talk
of the whole camp.'--'
So, on 30th March, in obedience to the Em-

peror's peremptory Aurangzib
orders, raised the
siege and withdrew from the environs of Gol-

konda. Four days afterwards Muhammad Sultan
was married by proxy to the Golkonda princess,
and on loth April she was brought away from
the fort to her husband's camp.
^"'^'
'7îV^ I" the presence of Aurangzib's
agents Abdullah Qutb Shah
swore on the Quran to obey the Emperor in fu-
ture,and gave them a written undertaking to
the same effect under his own hand and seal.
On 13th April, Aurangzib sent to Abdullah the

Emperor's letter of pardon, dress of honour, and
a formal agreement written by Shah Jahan him-
self and stamped with the impression of his palm
dipped in vermilion, promising to protect Qutb

Shah. At the entreaty of the Queen-Mother
of Golkonda and the ladies of Aurangzib's harem,
ten lakhs of rupees were remitted from the in-
stalment of 25 lakhs of indemnity promised for
that year.l Two months later Shah Jahan
* Adab, 59a, 6<)b, 85a. Storia, i.
235.
+ Adab, 58a, 57^, 6gb. Waris, 112a and b.
CHAP. X.] MUGHALS LEAVE GOLKONDA. 24I
made a further reduction of 20 lakhs, being the

accumulated difference in the ex-
bf tt?t«at?r'"' change-value of two lakhs of hun

since 1636.* But the king of
Golkonda, besides paying the tribute, had to
cede the district of Ramgir (modern Manikdrug
and Chinoor.)! The Mughal army set out on
its retreat on 21st April. Marching due north
from Haidarabad to Indur (now the chief town of
a district of the same name in the Nizam's
Dominions), Aurangzib turned westwards to
Qandahar (a fort in the Nander district), and

thence reached Aurangabad on 17th May. A
detachment of 3,000 was left on the frontier, to
pass the rainy season there and enforce the pay-
ment of the promised tribute. The officers who
had joined the expedition from other provinces
now returned to their own posts-lf
* Waris,
113a,
t He also gave a written promise making Muhammad
Sultan his heir. Aurangzib kept it secret but Shah Jahan ;
afterwards learnt of it. {Adab, 191 b), Tavernier, i, 169.
J Waris, II 26 &
113a. The route followed by Aurangzib
in his retreat was —
21 April, left environs of Golkonda
: —
22 &23 Apr., halted at Mir Jumla's Pettah 24 — Apr.,
reached Pettah of Qutb-ul-mulk's grandmother
(probably
Begampett, 1 7*. 38 N. 78° 17 E.) and halted 25 27 Apr., — —
30 April, reached the village of Indalwai on the Imperial
frontier (evidently Jadaltxiai, 15 m. s. e. s. of
Indur), where
a force of 3,000 troopers was left under Shah Beg,— 2
May
reached Indur, i8''-40 N. 78''-ioE.— 5 May, reached
Qandahar, i^-SS N- 77*15 E.—-6— 8 May, Aurangzib made
t6
242 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. X.
Mir Jumla had come to Aurangzib's camp at

Golkonda on 20th March more as a prince than
as a noble. Six thousand cavalry, 15,000 infantry,
J50 elephants, and a very good train of artillery

accompanied him.* The presents he made to
Aurangzib and his sons were worth several
lakhs. Summoned immediately to the Imperial
Court, he arrived at Delhi on 7th July and

presented Emperor with articles worth
the 15
lakhsy including a big diamond weighing 216
ratis. He was at once created a Commander of Six
Thousand and appointed Prime Minister in the
place of Sadullah Khan lately deceased.")"

Aurangzib had returned from the siege of
Golkonda with his greed of
territory unsated and his heart
wtngks^^'whh
Shah Jahan sore against his father. The
about the Gol- ,. .
, ,
.
,
konda booty, expedition renewed his wrangles

with the Emperor. An exag-
gerated account of the looting of Haidarabad
had reached Delhi. It was also represented to
Shah Jahan, probably by the Golkonda envoy,
that Aurangzib and his sons had taken costly
a digression to Udgir, while the army pursued its course

—
under M. Sultan, 9 May, Aurangzib rejoined the army on
the bank of the Dudhna river, —
17 May, reached Auranga-
bad.
* Waris, 112a. Adab, ii6a.
+ Waris, 112b, 1140, ii8a.
CHAP. X.] AURANG2IB A LOSER. 243
presents from Qutb Shah, without mentioning

the fact in his despatches or setting their price
off from the tribute due. Against this charge
Aurangzib indignantly protested that the
presents he had received were few and too poor
to deserve mention to the Emperor.* Further, he
complained that Shah Jahan had not kept his
promise as to sharing the Golkonda indemnity
with him, so that the Viceroy of the Deccan was
poorer than before as the result of the war. As
a financial speculation, the raid on Haidarabad
had proved a failure to Aurangzib. For the last
six months his soldiers' pay had been in arrears
and he had besides borrowed large sums to equip
his force for the war. "At the outset of this
expedition. His Majesty had written to me that

out of Qutb-ul- mulk's indemnity the jewels and
elephants should belong to the Government, and
the cash to me.... But now the ewi/re Golkonda
and financial indemnity has been taken by the
loss as the result Emperor and placed in Daulata-
of the war. u
badj ^
treasury.
u
How can tI repay
my debt for the war and the arrears of my
army, about 30 lakhs of rupees ?"t The presents
received from Golkonda had, he said, been exag-
gerated into "chest-loads of jewels" by malicious

* & b,
Adah, 84b, 85a, 107a 1926.
t Adab, 846, 190a & b.
reporters at the Imperial Court. The elephants

offered by Abdullah were unsound and of low-
price, and
the diamonds dark and full of flaws.
So Aurangzib had, as he explained, at first refused
to accept them, and at last taken them at the
entreaty of the Qutb Shahi agent

and on the
distinct understanding that the Imperial tribute
should not suffer a deduction to the amount of
their price. There was no element of conceal-
ment in the transaction ; the presents had been
received openly and shown to Mir Jumla and
other nobles, Aurangzib had even intended that
after returning to his headquarters he would send
to the Emperor all the presents received by him,
with other gems purchased with the indemnity,
and more than loo elephants in one grand
collection. But before he could carry out
this purpose, which would have necessarily
—
taken time, nay more, even before his return
from Golkonda, the Emperor had ordered him to
send and indemnity of Qutb Shah
all the presents
to Court at once. Such indecent haste implied

that he feared lest Aurangzib should retain any
thing or that any portion of it would disappear}
"Why," the Prince asked indignantly, "should
I grudge to give up a few jewels to His Majesty,
when my life itself is at his service ?" In disgust
he sent all that he and his son had received to

CHAP. X.] OWNERSHIP OF KARNATAK. 245
the Emperor with a request either to keep them

or return them to Qutb Shah. Aurangzib would
have nothing to do with them.*
Peace had been made with Golkonda, but
one subject of discord remained open. Qutb
Shah wanted to keep the Karnatak, and with
justice it
: had been won by his servant and
formed part of
kingdom. But Aurangzib
his
objected, saying that it was Mir Jumla's personal

jagir and referred the matter to
Golkonda
Karnatak
aW the Emperonj He coveted that
the j-j^}^ ^^nd large province, and had
remains open. r t~»
secured the cession or Kamgir
(between the Painganga and the Godavari) to
bring the Mughal province of Telingana closer
to the Northern Karnatak, and to secure a
route for the passing of his armies from the one
to the other without having to traverse a wide
area of Golkonda territory.^
Qutb Shah intrigued hard to retain the rich
province ;
his agent at Delhi interceded with
* Adab, 846-856, 1926, Aurangzib's letters to Shah
suddenly during the siege of Golkonda. The
Jahan stop
last was written shortly after 9th Feb. 1656. In future he
corresponds with his father through the

-vuazir. Was this
the result of strained feelings? I think this explanation
improbable. He, however confesses (in
a letter to Mir
has plenty of reasons
Jumla, written in July, 1656) that he
to be mortified and angry. {Adah, 1936).
t Adab, 58 fl & b.
X Adah, 1596 (inference).

Dara ; he promised a fresh offering of 15 lakhs

as the price of the Karnatak being left to him.*''^
But Aurangzib counter-intrigued through Mir
Jumla he appealed to the Emperor's cupidity
;
by pointing out the immense richness of the

—
Karnatak, its diamond mines, its fertile valleys,
its hoards of buried treasure of old Hindu
"
dynasties. Itwas, as he wrote, equal to the
kingdom of Golkonda itself in wealth and
extent." Mir Jumla, too, spoke from personal
knowledge more fully about the vast resources
and wealth of the province.f At last he prevail-
ed ;
the Emperor decided to hold the Karnatak
in his own hands as Mir Jumla's jagir, and Qutb
Shah was ordered to recall his officers from that
province.:}: Mughal armies under Shah Beg

Khan, Qazi Muhammad Hashim and Krishna
Rao, entered the Karnatak, but the Golkonda
officers (especially Abdul Jabbar) were loth
to yield the rich prey. They lingered there
and threw every difficulty in the path of the
* Adah, 59a, ()ia.
t Adab, 466, 59a.
X Adah, 596, 60a, 87a. As Aurangzib wrote with un-

conscious cynicism to Abdullah, " I had urged you to pre-
sent all your costly jewels and precious things to the
Emperor in order to gain his entire favour. But you did
not follow my advice. Mir Jumla, on the other hand, on
reaching the Court gave him valuable gems and so carried
his point. You cannot now recall the lost opportunity!"
{Adah-i-Alamgiri 6\a). ,
CHAP. X.] QUTB SHAH CLINGS TO KARNATAK. 247
Mughals in occupying and settling the country.
They even incited Sri Ranga Rayal and other

zamindars to recover their lost possessions.
During the next two years we frequently read of
Aurangzib rebuking Qutb Shah for this dis-
loyalty and double-dealing.**
Qutb Shah took advantage of the confusion

caused by the Bijapur War and Shah Jahan's ill-
ness, to keep hold of some forts and districts of the
Karnatak in opposition to Mir Jumla's agents.
Aurangzib had to threaten him severely, "The
Karnatak belongs to Mir Jumla, and is a part of
the empire. Banish from your mind all thought
of keeping it. You donot listen to me yet!...
Why are you trying in vain to keep it ? Recall
your officers and troops from the province, or...
I shall send Mir Jumla with a vast army to chas-

tise you and annex your kingdom."! During
the War of Succession, Qutb-ul-mulk made
further progress and wrested Gandikota and
Sidhout from Mir Jumla's men. J It was only
after he had firmly seated himself on the throne
of Delhi that Aurangzib could enforce the com-
plete surrender of the Karnatak.
* Adab, goa, igOa, 6ib, 62b, 636, 69a, 876, i6ia.
t Adab, 67a, 89a.

X Adab, 67a.
Ranga Rayal, the last nominal king of the

Sri
Vijaynagar line, saw his dominions slipping out

of his grasp as the Bijapuris advanced conquering
the Karnatak from the south and the Golkonda
generals from the north. He lost Jinji to the
former and Chandragiri to the latter, and was
practically driven out of both the Arcot districts.
As early as 1653 he had sent an agent named
Rama Rao to Aurangzib,
^ to
Old Rajah of , ,
, .
,
.
the Karnatak seek the Imperial protection

seeks Mughal the Deccani Sultans,
against
'^
protection.
But the Viceroy of the Deccan
did not interfere, possibly because the Karnatak
was too and matters were not yet ripe
far off,
for putting pressure on Golkonda. In the course
of the next two years the Rajah was driven to
extremities. In a short time he would be utterly
dispossessed of his lands. He sent another con-

fidential agent, a Brahman named Srinivas, to
Aurangzib, desperately crying for the protection
of his dominions on any terms he would deliver
:
2^ krores of rupees, two hundred elephants, and

all his hoarded jewels, to the Emperor, he would
promise an annual tribute, he would agree to his

kingdom being annexed to the empire and then
given back to him as a mere jagir. Nay more,
"if Shah Jahan's grace should be reluctant to
fall on him on account of his being a misbe-
CHAP. X.] KARNATAK RAJAH SEEKS PROTECTION. 249
liever,"* Rajah promised to turn Muslim

the
with and dependents
all his relatives Only he !
must be saved from the two Deccani Sultans ;
his territory should no longer be seized by them.j"

The action taken on this petition throws a
lurid light on the character of Mughal rule in
India. Aurangzib proposed to send an officer
of his to the Karnatak to enquire into the Rajah's
capacity to keep his profuse promises. Shah

Jahan disallowed the deputation, but ordered
Aurangzib, "after frightening
Aur angzib's
plan of securing the two Sultans of the Deccan,
a share of the
Karnatak booty
to get from them a good sum"
from Bijapur and as the price of refusing protec-
Golkonda by tion to Sri Ranga. That is, the
pretending to
protect the Raj- lion agreed to look on with in-
ah.
difference, if only the two wolves
gave him a big slice of their prey. Hearing of
* Shah
Jahan was a bigot. His early hatred of Christians
had been noticed by Sir Thomas Roe (Kerr, ix. 262). After
his accession he grew averse to giving high posts to Rajputs.
(Adab, 29a). The demohtion of Hindu temples and de-
secration of idols mark his reign only to a less extent than
his son's. He refused to release Rajah Indradyumna of
Dhamdhera (Malwa; from prison for a ransom of Rs. 50,000,
and insisted on his turning Muslim as the price of his libera-
tion, though Aurangzib himself pleaded
for the abatement
of this last condition lest it should hinder his taking possession
of his estate and the promised tribute. {Adab, ggb,
collecting
37a, M. U. ii.
265 et seq.). Kashmir Shah Jahan forcibly
In
suppressed the old custom of marriage between Hindus and
Muhammadans. {Abdul Hamid, I. B. 57.)
t Adah, 336, 34b.
these negotiations with the Mughal viceroy, the
Bijapuri generals pressed their attack, captured

the fort of Vellore, "the best in the Karnatak,"
and tried to seize the elephants. The
Rajah's
helpless Sri Ranga importuned the Mughals for
help before all was over with him. But Aurang-
zib played with the miserable suppliant as an
angler does with a fish. Outwardly he appoint-

ed one of his officers, Muhammad Mumin, to go
to the Karnatak, but wrote to Shah Jahan, "My
real object in doing so is handsome
to secure a
present from Bijapur at this opportunity." Both

the Deccani Sultans, he exultingly adds, "are
alarmed at the appointment of Muhammad Mu-
min. We
shall use this posting as a screw to
get out of them what they looted from the

Karnatak and kept concealed. Please do not
w^rite to theBijapur king before this business
(of exacting a present) is brought to completion."
He had already instructed his envoy at Bijapur
to give the Sultan to understand that if he
a satisfactory present to the Emperor,
offered
Muhammad Mumin would be recalled, and
Imperial help refused to the Rajah of the
Karnatak.*
Sri Ranga Rayal was thus left to his fate.
Crushed between Bijapur and Golkonda, he lost

* Adab, 44a & b, 34b, 546—556.
X. CHAP.] DELUDED BY MUGHALS. 25I
his all and clung only to some petty estates
which were too poor to tempt Muslim cupidity

or too difficult of access to his
Fate of the last
of the
aggressors. We hear of him
Rajah ^*.
Karnatak. again in 1657 and 1658 as trying
to recover some of his former
when Aurangzib's attention was diverted
lands,'"'
from the Karnatak by the invasion of Bijapur

and the War of Succession. His last appearance
on the stage of history was about 1661, when he
lent the prestige of his name to his vassal, the
chief of Bednur, in a fruitless invasion of
Mysore.!
Aurangzib's treatment of the Rajah of the
Karnatak and his cynical avowal of his utterly
sordid motives throughout the transaction, has
a deep political significance. To the historian
whose eyes not dazzled by the Peacock
are
Throne, the Taj Mahal, and other examples of

outward glitter, this episode (with many others
of the same kind) proves that the Mughal empire
was only a thinly veiled system of brigandage.
If explains why the Indian princes, no less than
the Indian people, so readily accepted England's
suzerainty.
* Adah,
62,a, goa (not definite''.
f S. Krishnasvvami Ai}angar's Ancient India, 297,

Sewell, 54.
252 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. fCHAP. X.
APPENDIX I.
Did Aurangzib capture Haidarabad by treachery ?
Aqil Khan Razi (12 & 13) tells the following story of
Aurangzib having falsely thrown Qutb-ul-mulk off his
guard just before the raid on his capital, "Aurangzib wrote
to Qutb-ul-mulk, 'As my son Sultan Muhammad is going
to Bengal [ to marry Shuja's daughter ], he wishes to march
there by way of Orissa. I
hope you will give him assist-
ance and let him pass through your territory,' That
simpleton at once consented, and made preparations for
showing hospitalit}' to the Prince.. ..When
the Prince, with
military equipment and war material, arrived near Hai-
darabad, the king's eyes were opened, and he fled for refuge
to the fort of Golkonda." Bernier (p. 20) and Manucci {Storia,
i.
234) but not Tavernier, tell a similar tale. But the authentic
records quoted in thischapter disprove the story. Qutb-ul-mulk
could have been under no misapprehension as to Muham-
mad Sultan's hostile intentions after receiving Aurangzib's
letter of i8th December, {Adab, 57a); and the fact of his
releasing Muhammad Amin some days before Sultan reach-
ed Haidarabad shows that he knew why the Prince was
coming.
Aurangzib, as his instructions to his son clearly prove,
wished the young Prince to murder the Golkonda king
during an interview, in the manner described in this chapter.
Therein lay his treachery.
CHAPTER XI.
War with Bijapur, 1657.
The treaty of 16:56 had turned the king of

Bijapur into a friendly ally of the Emperor of
Delhi, but left his sovereignty unimpaired. He
had not become a vassal prince, nor bound him-
self to pay an annual tribute. On the other
hand, he had been formally confirmed in
the possession of a large portion of the terri-
tory of the extinct royal house of Ahmadnagar,

the whole of which the Mughals had once
claimed.* Secure from his mighty neighbour
on the north, the Bijapur
Growth of Bija-
extend
g^j^^^ |^^
*=>
^^ his
pur kingdom.
westwards into the
dominions
Konkan, southwards into Mysore, and eastwards
into the Karnatak. The principality of Ikkeri
(or Bednur, in N. W. Mysore), had been raided
in 1635 at the invitation of a local faction, and
a heavy fine of 30 lakhs of hun imposed on its
* III.
Chapter
254 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XI.
Rajah, Virabhadra Nayak. Two years later

the invasion -was renewed and the Nayak de-
posed.""-' Shortly afterwards, a vast Bijapuri

army, numbering 40,000 and led by the famous
general Randaulah Khan, took Sira, Bangalore,
and the country north of the Kaveri (1639), and
then, advancing eastwards into the Karnatak,
went on capturing forts and cities for many
years. In 1647, the entire Bijapur army under
Mustafa Khan, the foremost noble of the State,
repeated the invasion, but met with stubborn
opposition at first. In a great battle fought
east of Bangalore,")" the impetuous valour of an
Abyssinian general, Malik Raihan, saved from
destruction the lives of
the Bijapur troops and
the honour of their king the famous : Hindu
general Vailuar was routed and his master's
T, .« cause ruined. Finally starva-
conquers the
-^
It
Southern Kar- tion opened the impregnable
fortress of Jinji to Bijapur arms
(17thDecember 1649), and the whole Southern

i' Karnatak lay open to the Muslims. The prize
thus secured was most splendid besides the ;
* Basatin-i-salatin,
(Major B. D. Vasu's MS.), 302-
305. S. K. Aiyangar's Ancient India, 293-294. Sewell,
37, names the Nayak Bhadrappa.
t In the Persian manuscripts of the Basatin-i-salatin,
the place of this encounter is indistinctly written like "Antur,
between Bangalore and Masti." There is a Wantiir, n. e.
of Bangalore. Both Attzir and Vellore are too far off.
CHAP. XI.] SHAH JAHAN AND ADIL SHAH. 255
vast rich and fertile territory annexed, the

treasure captured was valued at four krores of
/iMM.*' Westwards, Bijapur a invaded force
the Portuguese territory of Goa and Salsette
(August 1654) with some success.| In short, in
the reign of Muhammad Adil Shah (1626—56)
the kingdom of Bijapur attained to its highest
extent, power, and magnificence. His dominion
stretched from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of
Bengal, across the entire Indian Peninsula.
Ever since 1636, Muhammad Adil Shah had

lived at peace with the Emperor of Delhi, and
we read of friendly exchanges of presents be-
tween the two Courts.;); This Sultan's good
name for piety, love of justice.
Relations be- . r 1
•
1
•
tween the Delhi and care tor his subjects,—

and which was heightened bv a
Courts.
Bijapur
....
certain simplicity of understand-
ing and ignorance of the world,

— greatly pleased
Shah Jahan. The Emperor recognised the
merits of the king and the increased power of
the kingdom by addressing him as Shah or King
* Basatin-i-salatin, —
305 308, 311.
t D'Anvers's Portuguese in India, ii.
308 and 309.
X Abdul Hamid. Waris, goa, 986, loia, 1136, 117^,
(in these passages the word peshkash is used, iDut evidently
in the sense of 'present' and not in that of 'tribute).
256 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. XI.
(1648),*
—
whereas the former sovereigns of
Delhi, in their pride of suzerainty, had styled

the rulers of Bijapur as mere
Shah Jahan is j^^^^^ ^^ Lords. Some years
J
displeased why?
;
afterwards, differences had

arisen between the two."]" Adil Shah displeased
Shah Jahan by departing from the practice of
his ancestors in as much as he held Court in a
lofty palace outside his citadel and witnessed

elephant-combats in an open plain beyond the
fort instead of within it, and lastly by conferr-
insr the title of Khan-i-khanan on his premier
noble. These acts were taken to imply a pre-
sumptuous assumption of the prerogatives of the
Emperor and rivalry with the Court of Delhi.
Shah Jahan wrote him a letter of rebuke, sharp-
ly telling him to
return to the ways of his fore-
fathers, or a Delhi army would visit his domi-

nion. The letter was discussed in full Court.
The captains of Bijapur rattled their sabres
and cried out, "Let them come on ! We too are
ready and eager for such a day. We shall be

glad to measure our swords with the blades of
* Basatin-i-salatin, 324 and 325. Aurangzib refers to

the granting of this title in a letter written to Shah Jahan
in September 1654 {Adab, 44a.)
t In October 1652, also, Shah Jahan was angry with the

Bijapur king for some reason unknown to us. {Adab, 22a.)
CHAP. XI.] PEACE POLICY OF BIJAPUR. 257
Hindustan." A haughty reply was delivered to

the Delhi envoy.
With the night came a change. A charming
story is told,* how the king wâs amusing him-
self with his chiefs and favourites on the lofty
terraced roof of his palace, under the moonlit
sky. Hours rolled on in delight. At midnight,
when other hearts were sunk in pleasure, the
all
pensive king turned his ears to the City of Bija-

pur and heard only sounds of revelry coming
from it on the night wind. "What does the
City say, Afzal Khan Ji ?" he asked of his
favourite general. ''Itonly singing the praise
is
of your Majesty's love of justice and care for
your subjects and praying for your long life, so

that the people may continue to enjoy the same
peace, plenty happiness." The pleased
and
king asked again, "What will be the result if
we encounter the forces of Delhi ?" The reply
was, "Only lamentation and grief will be heard
in the place of these joyous sounds. Whichever
side may win, every house will mourn some
» ... o< « ,,. deaths and the '^
people
^ will know
Adil Shah yields.
no peace or happine<^s." The
king brooded over the answer, preferred ease to
honour, and next morning took his haughty
*
Basatin-i-salatin, 324 326. —
For another quarrel
connecled with the Imperial dignity, Adab, 406.
17
reply back and sent in its stead a letter of apo-
logy and submission to Delhi. This long and
prosperous reign of 30 years ended with his death

at the ageof 47 (on 4th Nov.
1656),* and the
danger he had successfully averted fell on his
kingdom.
But before we can proceed to the troubled
history of his successor, it is necessary to take
up the thread of our narrative where we dropped
it at the end of the last chapter.
When returning from the Golkonda expedition

Aurangzib had sent Mir Jumla
°« «° ">e Imperial Court (7th
ImperiaTcouV,!"
May), to fill the high post of
prime minister. meantime he had com-
In the
pletely won Mir Jumla over to his interests, and

the Mir's arrival at Delhi {7th July, 1656) secured
the triumph of Aurangzib's policy of aggression
in the Emperor's council.f Mir Jumla's presents,
matchless diamonds, rubies and topazes, dazzled
the eyes of the Emperor and brought about the
downfall of the peace party under Dara Shukoh.
The land whence these jewels came was worth
annexing !
* The of the reign are described in detail in the

glories
Basatin-i-salatin, 304 — 345, especially 329 331.
—
f Waris, 113a (Mir Jumla took leave of Aurangzib at
Indur on 3 May, and left that place for Delhi four days
afterwards), 114 a. Adab, 83a, 2056. Storia, i. 239.
CHAP. XI.] DEATH OF BIJAPUR KING. 259
The late wazir of Golkonda knew all the

secrets of the Deccani Courts, the ins and outs
of the and the exact prices of all the
land,
chief of Qutb Shah and Adil Shah.*'
officers
Therefore, as an authority on Deccan questions

he was unapproached by any
,,
supports policy ^^ -^ -^
of aggression in Other courtier of Shah Jahan.

the Deccan. u- t ,
His expert knowledge was now
. ,
utilised in intriguing at the Deccani Courts

and seducing their officers. With Mir Jumla
dominating the Emperor's counsels, Aurangzib
confidently matured the plan of invading Bija-
pur on the expected death of its reigning king
who was lingering on the bed of illness. The
Mir, as one fully conversant with the country,
was urged by Aurangzib to return to him as
quickly as possible, "in order that this oppor-

tunity might not slip away.""j'
On 4th November, 1656, Muhammad Adil
Shah, the seventh of the royal
of Bijapur, died.
line Through
nLclfds.^^^^
the efforts of his chief minister,
Khan Muhammad, and the Queen, Bari Sahiba,
* Adah,
496.
f Adab, 88a and h, 91a and b, 191a (Aurangzib thanks
Mir Jumla having supported him against Dara).
for
(Aurangzib planned the invasion of Bijapur even before the
death of its king, Adab, 88aJ. Aqil Khan, 15, and Manucci
(i. 239) assert that Mir Jumla
induced Shah Jahan to sanction
the invasion of Bijapur.
260 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP, XI.
a sister of the Golkonda king, the crown \vas
placed on the head of AH Adil Shah II, a youth

of 18 years, and the only son of the late king.
The news reached Aurangzib on loth November,
and he immediately wrote to Shah Jahan, urging
an invasion on the plea that AH wâs not really
a son of the deceased Sultan, but a boy of obscure
parentage whom Muhammad Adil Shah had
brought up in the harem. In anticipation of the
Emperor's orders, he massed his troops on the
Bijapur and proposed to go himself
frontier,
to Ahmadnagar to be nearer to the point of
attack.*'
The death of Muhammad Adil Shah was
„ „,
, J followed bv disorder in the
Rebellion and
disorder inKarnatak he had conquered,
the
king om. yj^^ zamindars recovered much
of their former lands, and the Bijapuri officers
were driven to the shelter of the forts. Shahji
Bhonsla disobeyed his new master, and set up
for himself. At the capital things were even
worse. Bijapuri nobles had never been kept
under proper control by their king, and had been
wont to regard themselves as their own masters.
* Adab, 886, 60b, 145a, 1326. 'Âuranorzib writes to

Khvvajah Abdul Ghaffar that he invaded I3ijapur for the
good of the people, as the late king had left no heir ) !
Basatin-i-salatin, -^,26, 2,A7- Waris, ii8a. There was even

a talk of Shah Jahan going to the Deccan to direct the
operations. (Adab, %ghj.
CHAP. XI.] DESERTIONS FROM BIJAPUR. 261
They now quarrelled with one another and with the

prime minister Khan Muhammad for the division
of power.*' To aggravate the evil, Aurangzib
intrigued with them, and succeeded in corrupt-

ing most of them. *'I am trying my utmost,"
he writes to Mir Jumla, "to win the Bijapur
army over, then the chiefs of that country
for
will join us of their own accord." Randaulah
Khan's son and several other leading men of
the Court promised their adhesion and prepared
to desert to the Mughal territory with their
troops. After they had reached him Aurangzib
hoped to seduce the others with

'he aid of Mir Jumla. So, he
b?Ar„gS'."'
sent Rs. 20,000 to Multafat
Khan, the governor of Ahmadnagar, the nearest
point on the Mughal frontier towards Bijapur,
with instructions to distribute it among the
.deserters every Bijapuri captain who brought a
:
hundred men to the muster was to get Rs. 2,000

out of the local treasury, (evidently after the
above sum had been spent). The governor was
ordered to welcome and conciliate every arrival
from Bijapur, even when he wâs not a captain
of known position and importance. An envoy "j"
from Shivaji waited on Aurangzib proposing the

*
Adab, 896, 9ifl.
t Adab, gia, 145a & b, 1466.

262 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XU
terms on which the Maratha chieftain was will-

ing to co-operate with the Mughals by making
a diversion in the Bijapuri Konkan. He received
in reply a letter of vague promises."'*
On 26th November Shah Jahan sanctioned the
Q. , , invasion and gave Aurangzib a
J
sanctions inva- hand to "settle the affair
free
sion of Bijapur, u û u^
01rx}--
•
Jbiijapur in any wây he thought
fit/'f At the same time orders were sent to

Shaista Khan, the Governor of Malwa, to hasten
to Aurangabad and hold it during Aurangzib's
absence in the war. A force of 20,000 troopers,
partly from the Court and partly from the jagirs,

with a large staff of officers, was despatched to
reinforce the army of the Deccan. Lastly Mir
Jumla himself, with most of the officers and a
portion of the troops ordered, was sent (ist
December) to join Aurangzib.:}:
The Emperor's instructions to his son were,

first to march with Mir Jumla to the Bijapur
frontier and conquer the whole of the kingdom,
if possible otherwise, to annex that portion
;
of the old Ahmadnagar kingdom which had
*
Adab, 1446 (about July 1656), 146a (about February or
March 1657).
f Waris, Il8a, Adab, goa.

X Waris, i i8fl and 6, (list of officers sent to the Deccan.)
Adah, 1 1 8a (Mir Jumla takes leave of the Emperor on 26th
November, but actually starts from Delhi on ist December).
CHAP. XI.] SHAH JAHAN SANCTIONS INVASION. 263
been ceded to Bijapur by the treaty of 1636, and

to spare the territory of Bijapur proper on the
of an indemnity of i^ krores of rupees
payment
and the of the
Emperor's suzer-
recognition
ainty,— m>., the issuing of coins in his
name and
the public reading of his titles from the pulpit
at Bijapur. If the latter alternative was carried
out, Aurangzib was to employ the vast army

assembled under his banner in the conquest of
Golkonda. The Prince, however, was keen
upon conquering Bijapur first ; "I want to put
off the conquest of Golkonda, which can be seized

at any time we like.*'*
The war thus sanctioned was wholly unrighte-

ous. Bijapur wâs not a vassal
an act of unjust
g^^^^ ^^^ ^^ independent and '^
aggression.
equal ally of the Mughal Em-
peror, and the latter right to confirm
had no lawful
or question the succession at Bijapur. The true
reason of the Mughal interference was the help-
lessness of its bo5'-king and the discord among
his officers, which presented a fine "opportunity"
for annexation, as Aurangzib expressed it.|
* Adab, goa, ig6b.
t Adab, 88a, gib. Grant Duff, i.
155. The Bijapur
historian thus points out the wickedness of the Mughals,
"After the death of Muhammad Adil Shah, Aurangzib in-
vaded Bijapur, in violation of the treaty and solemn agree-
ment betveen the Mughals and Bijapur, and though Shah
Jahan [the maker of the treaty] was alive." Basatin-i-
salatin, 348.
Aurangzib impatiently waited for Mir Jumla's

coming and pressed him to hasten his movements.
"Let not such an opportunity (viz., the revolt
and dissension among the Bijapur officers) slip
away. Come quickly, so that we may both
start together." It was ofno use waiting for
the rest of the reinforcements ordered from
Northern India. Several officers were slow to
leave their jagtrs, in spite of strong letters from
the Emperor urging them on and Aurangzib ;
could not expect to get the whole additional

force of 20,000 men before 19th February i657.''''
Mir Jumla arrived at Aurangabad on 18th
January, and that very cay at

Mir Jumla join , ...
^"^ auspicious hour chosen by
, ,
Aurangzib with
reinforcements, the astrologers, the Prince set
War begun. .
out with him to invade Bljapur.|

As he was encumbered with heavy artillery and
siege materials, his movement was very slow ;
240 miles were covered in 43 days. On 28th
February, he reached the environs of Bidar, and
laid siege to the fort on 2nd March.:}:
A short distance south of the Mughal frontier
fort of Udgir and across the Manjira river lies
* Adah, —
90b 92a, 1956.
t y^dab, 92a, 1096, 1456, Ii8a, 1966. Kambu, 2b.
X Kambu, 2b, (both MSS. wrongly give 14 days instead

of one month and 14 days, as the time taken by tiie march.)
Adab, logb, 146a, ii8b.
CHAP. XI.] BIDAR FORT. 265
the city of Bidar. It is large and well peopled,

and the remains of fine buildings speak of its
ancient grandeur. Tradition connects it with
the father of Damayanti, the
devoted wife of Rajah Nala,
who flourished in the mythical age of the Maha-
bharat. Coming down to historic times, we
find that was captured by Muhammad
Bidar--*
Tughlaq in the 14th century, and became succes-

sively the capital of the
Bahmani Sultans and
of the short- lived Barid Shahi dynasty, both of
whom adorned it with fine palaces, tombs and
The
mosques, as memorials of their greatness.
glory of the
city the magnificent college,
is
built by Mahmud Gawan, the famous minister

of the Bahmanis (1478). On the extinction of
the Barid Shahi kings, Bidar passed into the
hands of Bijapur.
The city stands on a high plateau, 2330 feet
above sea-level. A wall with

'""P"^"*^^^ a dry ditch and glacis surrounds
fort
the city itself, and bastions
rising at various points of the wall add to its
defensive power. The fort or citadel, finished in
1432 and occupying the eastern face of the city,

* This account of Bidar is based on Kambu, 26 and
30, Adab, 146a, Dilkasha, 14, Burgess's Bidar and
—
Auraiigabad Districts, 42 44, and Imp. Gaz. viii. 170.
^66 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XI.
is of immense strength. Its wall is

4500 yards
in circuit and 12 yards in height. Three sepa-
rate each 25 yards wide and 15 yards
ditches
deep, cut in the solid rock, surround the citadel,

which contains many palaces, mosques, Turkish
baths, a mint, arsenal, magazine, and other public
edifices built of trap but now in ruin. The only
entrance is a zigzag passage from the south-
west, protected by three gateways. On the
bastions stood several guns, one of them being
23 feet long with a 19 inch bore. In the age

before modern artillery, Bidar was rightly held
to be impregnable to assault.
Aurangzib's opponent at the siege* was Siddi

„, , „. , Marian, an Abyssinian who had
biege of Bidar.
held the fort for Bijapur for
thirty years, and had collected abundance of
materials of defence and a garrison of 1000 horse,
and 4000 foot, including musketeers, gunners,
and rocket-men. Inspite of a fierce fire from the
fort walls, the Mughal sappers ^worked hard in
the inspiring presence of their chief, and in two
days carried the trenches to the edge of the moat.
Then they began to fill up the ditch. Siddi
Marjan offered a stout defence : he made several
sorties, and falling on the trenches tried to arrest
* For the
history of the siege, Kambu, 26
—3a, Dilkasha,
15, Adab, logb —
iioa, iigb, 122a, 127a, 146^.
CHAP. XI.j BIDAR STORMED. 267
the progress of the siege. But the superior

numbers of the Mughals told in the end, and Mir
Jumla's fine train of artillerj^ did great damage
to the fort walls ; two towers were demolished,
and the battlements of the lower-most wall as
well as the outer breast-works were levelled to
the ground.
The ditch having been filled up, the assault

was delivered on 29th March.
Muhammad Murad, at the head
of a select party, sallied out of his trenches^
rushed to the foot of the tower opposite Mir
Jumla's post, and planting ladders scaled the wall.
A.n accident favoured the assailants. Siddi
Marjan, with his sons and troops, was standing

close to the tower ready to repel the attack.
But a spark from a rocket thrown by the Mu-
ghals fell into a chamber of gunpowder and
grenades behind the tower. There was a terrific
explosion. Marjan was mortally wôunded with
two of his sons and many of his followers. The
garrison,appalled by the disaster, carried their
dying chief to the citadel, while the exulting
Mughals swarmed out of all their trenches and
rushed into the city, driving the remnant of the
defenders back wfth fearful slaughter. Behind
them came Aurangzib himself, with his banners
waving and his drums beating a victorious note.
and took possession of the city. The Mughals

_ ^ closely followed the retreating
"
Bidar captured. . .
garrison and took possession of

the gate of the citadel. But the fall of their
leader had taken the heart out of the defenders.
In response to the Mughal call to surrender and
promise of quarter, Siddi his death- Marjan from
bed sent his seven sons to Aurangzib with the
keys of the fort.
Thus, the stronghold of Bidar, hitherto reputed

impregnable throughout India,
°^
^^^' ^"*o the hands of Aurangzib
^kLV^°'^'
after a siege of 27 days only.
Among the spoils of victory wêre 12 lakhs of
rupees in cash, 8 lakhs worth of powder, shot,

grain and other stores, besides 230 pieces of
cannon. Well might Aurangzib exult over such
a,
victory. Well might he boast to Shivaji, "The
fort of Bidar, which was accounted impregnable,
and which is the key to the conquest of the

Deccan and Karnatak, has been captured by me
in one day, both fort and town, w^hich was scarce-
ly to have been expected without one year's

fighting."---'
* in Grant Duff, This passage is referred

Quoted i.
I57«.
to in a letter of Shivaji to the Mughal officers in 1665
{Khatiit-i-Shivaji, 2). There is a similar boast inAuraiig-

zib's letters to Nasiri Khan and Abdul Ghaffar, (Adab,
132^ iso^-;.
CHAP. XI.] MUGHAL FLYING COLUMN. 269
On Wednesday, ist April, Siddi Marjan

succumbed to his burns.
Aurangzib again visited
the city and fort, and had the Emperor's titles
publicly read out from the pulpit of the grand

mosque built by the Bahmani Sultans two cen-
turies earlier.
Meanwhile the Bijapuris had made some feeble

,, ,,
Mahabat „<
Khan attempts
^ to relieve Bidar. A
sent to ravage force under Khan Muhammad^
Bijapur territory. ^,
- .
^
. •
j 1 1
their prime minister, had been

advancing towards it during the siege but it ;
had evidently retreated without striking a blow.*

After the the fort, Aurangzib learnt that
fall of
a large Bijapuri army was being mobilised near

Kulbarga. Their light troopers arrived within
six miles of the Mughal camp and carried off
some of the transport oxen that were grazing
there. So, Aurangzib sent a force of 15,000 well
mounted and experienced troopers under Mahabat
Khan, to punish the assembled enemy and ravage
the Bijapur territory up to Kaliani in the west
and Kulbarga in the south, "leaving no vestige
of cultivation in that tract." In his march south-
wards from Kaliani, the Mughal general en-
countered the enemy on 12th April. The Bijapuris,
numbering some 20,000, under their famous
* Adab, 146a.
2^0 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XI.
chiefs Khan Muhammad, Afzal Khan, and the

Randaulah and Raihan,
sons of
°^ '^*^
A^ril!^ began the attack. Mahabat Khan,
leaving his baggage and camp
behind, advanced with the Van. The fiercest
onslaught was delivered on the Mughal Right
under Dilir Khan. The Bijapuris kept up a hot
fire of rockets and muskets from all sides, but,
as was their wont, did not engage at close
quarters. A counter-charge on the enemy's

Centre produced no lasting effect on the illusive
Deccanis. Mahabat Khan a good generil

like
kept his men well in hand, amidst the ring of

his enemies and their distracting mode of attack.
Finding his Right Wing hard pressed, he charged

the enemy with hisown followers
the Bijapuris ;
fled without standing the shock, and the Mughal
general chased them for four miles but evident- ;
ly he foimd his position insecure, as on the 14th

he fell back on Bhalki, without waiting for the
reinforcements sent under Najabat Khan.*
* Kambu, 30 and b, (for the battle of 12th April).

Adab, and b, (Aurangzib's instructions of 13th April
I25rt
to Mahabat Khan), 120a (Najabat Khan sent on 5th April
to reinforce Mahabat). Najabat Khan's force is given as
10,000 on 125a and as 2,000 on 120a the latter is more
;
likely. Aurangzib's instruction was that the two generals

should unite south of Kaliani and advance to attack
Chidgupa. But on Mahabat Khan's retreating northwards
to Bhalki, he ordered them to meet near fort Nilanga and
try to capture it by corrupting the qiladar through his
CHAP. XI.] KALIANI BESIEGED. 2'Jl
Forty miles west of Bidar, on the old road

from the holy shrine of Tuljapur to Golkonda,
stands the city of Kaliani,* the ancient capital
of the Chalukya kings and of the Kanarese
country. With the fall of the Kalachuris in the
twelfth century, it ceased to be a capital, and
afterwards passed into the hands of the Deccani
Muslim powers as a mere dependency of Bidar.
But the large mounds surrounding the town
indicate its greater extent in days of yore.
Mahabat Khan having cleared the road of
hovering bands of the enemy,
Siege of Kaliani. » •,
,
Aurangzib on 27th April set

out with light kit and arrived before Kaliani in
a week's time. The place was immediately in-
vested,! and through Mir Jumla's exertions and
supervision the siege trenches were pushed on
to the edge of the ditch by nth May. Day
and night the garrison kept up a ceaseless fire
from the walls they made fierce onslaughts on
;
Mir Jumla's trenches, but to no purpose. The

bands of the outside gave greater
enemy roving
trouble and retarded the siege. They established
brother Mamaji (or Nanaji)Deshmukh, who had made over-
tures to the Mughals. The attempt failed. {Adah, 1256,
1266-1270).
* Burgess, 23, 37, 38.
t For the siege of Kaliani, Kambu, 36 —5a. Adab (very
meagre, no detail) 113a, 139a, 149^, i56Z>.
themselves four miles from the besiegers' camp

and molested them at night by the discharge of
rockets, the favourite fire-arm of the Deccanis
and especially of the Marathas. Expert in partisan
warfare, they effectually closed the path for the

coming of provisions and couriers. The Mughal
armj could not be fed unless its food supply
was sent understrong escort. Once Mahabat
Khan himself on escort duty was hemmed round
„ , , ^^,
Mahabat Khan's
,^ the enemy
by ^ at a place
^ 10 miles
battle with the north-east of Kaliani. The
Bijapuris: ^^^j^ Mughal detachment of
2,000 was outnumbered as ten to one, but stood
its ground heroically. The battle raged long and
fiercely. "The field was obscured by the smoke
of artillery and muskets, and the dust raised by
horses' hoofs. Fathers could not look after their
sons," as the Mughal annalist writes. The brunt
of the battle fell on the Rajputs. The horsemen
of Khan Muhammad burst in vain upon the
granite wall of Rao Chhatra Sal and his Hada
clansmen. Rajah Rai Singh Sisodia, assaulted
by the sons of Bahlol Khan of Bijapur, was
wôunded and unhorsed in the press of the enemy.
Sivaram, the captain of the Maharana's contin-
gent, wâs slain with many followers of Rai
Singh, Barhamdeo and others, as is the wont
of Rajputs in desperate straits, dismounted, drew
CHAP. XI.]
SEVERE FIGHTING. -273
In reckless
their swords, and flung themselves
on the vowed to slay
enemy, and be slain.
fury
Just then a charge by Mahabat
relief arrived :
Khan broke the enemy's ranks and they fled.

Sujan Singh Sisodia and others
of his party,
though severely wounded, had not quitted the

field. Ikhlas Khan, the leader of the Mughal Van,
„ . ,
Mughal victory
had been wounded during the
,
;
j ,
r •
onset, but inspite of it he had

i i
heavy loss of
Rajputs.
ground and even driven
Yield his
back Afzal Khan's division which was opposed

to him. The obstinate struggle raged till an
hour after nightfall, when the enemy withdrew,*"
and the hard-pressed Mughals at last got the
respite they sorely
needed.
Aurangzib concentrated his efforts on pressing

the siege hard and capturing Kaliani as quickly
as he had done Bidar. He, therefore, at first
paid no attention to the Bijapuri army assem-
bled only four miles from his camp. This
emboldened them to acts of greater audacity.
A enemies posted only an hour's
force of 30,000
journey from his camp could no longer be neg-

lected. So, he cunningly announced that his
army would proceed to Bhalki in the north-east

to bring in provisions ;
but on 28th May, leav-
* Kambu, 4a.
18
ing a screen of tents round the fort, he marched

with the main body of his troops upon the
enemy's position.
The sons of Bahlol Khan attacked the Mughal
Van under Mir Jumla and Dilir
Battle of 28th
j^j^^j^ ^^^ iought
^^
with valour
May :
. .
and obstinacy for some time.

Dilir Khan received some sword-cuts, but his
armour saved him from harm. The battle soon
became general. All divisions of the two armies
were engaged with their
respective opponents.
The fight raged for six hours. The Deccanis
a running fight, in their customary
kept up
manner four times in succession were they
:
broken and as often did they form again and

face the advancing Mughals, regardless of their
thinned ranks. But at last the repeated charges
of the northern horse prevailed in the close fight ;
the Mughal army crowded upon them from left

and right, and scattered them finally their :
whole army fled in confusion the Imperialists ;
pursued them pell-mell to their camp, slaying

and capturing all that they could. Everything
found in the Biiapuri camp, —
Imperial victory;
Bijapuri camp arms, slave-girls, horses, trans-
*°°*^'^-
port-cattle, and all kinds of
property,
— was plundered ;
and the tents were
burnt down. In the evening Aurangzib returned
CHAP. XI.] KALIANI : MOAT FILLED UP. 275
to his trenches before Kaliani, his brows adorned

with victory.*'
The siege was pressed with vigour, but the

defence
by the Abyssinian
Progress of the Dilawwar was equally heroic.
The sap had reached the moat
on nth May, and by the 23rd of the month
three-fourths of the ditch had been filled up,
under the guidance Mir Jumla, with thorny
of
plants. The garrison, by hurling down lighted

gunpowder and burning naphtha and grass,
reduced these plants to ashes ;
the work of bridg-
ing the ditch had to be begun anew ; the assault

wâs delayed. Stones and earth were now thrown
into the ditch, but progress in this task was
necessarily slow. During this period of enforced

idleness detachments from the besieging army
were usefully employed in capturing the forts
of Nilanga and Chincholy."!"-—
Since their defeat in the great battle of 28th

May, the Bijapuris had not interfered with the
siege for nearly two months. At the end of
* For the battle of 28th May, Kambu, 4^, Adab, 112a,

1476, 1546. In his letters Aurangzib speaks of the
Bijapuris
generally as Zangis or Negroes. The context shows that
the term is merely used by way of abuse, and does not mean
any Negro corps in the service of Bijapur.
t Kambu, 50.
this interval, having repaired their losses they
began to assemble in order to

Mughal detach- i** 1 1 o
mcnt ravages the oppose the Mughals. So, on
*°
^^^^ ^^^y' Aurangzib sent a
KuIbaJa
large division under his eldest
son and Mir Jumla to break up their forces be-
fore they could gain formidable strength. This
Mughal corps advanced forty-eight miles, and
then, sighting the enemy's camp at a distance,
charged and broke their formation, and pursued
them for four miles. The victors proceeded,
laj'ing the Bijapuri villages waste with fire and
sword, and leaving no vestige of habitation or
tillage in their path. They reached the un-
protected hamlet near the fort of Kulbarga, the

old Bahmani capital, where they reverently
spared the tomb of Syed Gisu Daraz, a famous
saint of Southern India."*
At last the end of the siege came in sight ;
the ditch was filled up with

**^^"
bîssâ"\t
^^^"^ ^"^ ^^^' ^^^ parapets
wêre demolished
by artillery
fire, and on 29th July the Imperialists scaled a
* Kambu, 5a,
Aqil Khan states that after taking Kali-
ani, Aurangzib himself besieged Kulbarga (pp. 16, 38).
Grant Duff (i. 157) makes him besiege Bijapur But !
neither the official history of Kambu nor Aurangzib's letters

support the assertion. Aurangzib did not advance further
south than Kaliani and his son, who had penetrated to
Kulbarga, did not besiege that fort.
CHAP. XI.] KALIANI CAPITULATES. 277
tower on the other side of the moat. But the

garrison had built a wall across this tower, and
under shelter of it fought the Mughals hard
with rockets, bows, and matchlocks. The struggle
here was most obstinate. While the Mughals
were checked by the unexpected obstacle of the
wall and had to demolish it, the Bijapuris flung
on their heads lighted bombs, blazing sheets
steeped in naphtha, and bundles of burning grass.

But regardless of all these, the assailants swarm-
ed into the fort and held this portion of the
defences. Two
days afterwards, the commandant
Dilawwar offered to capitulate on condition of
a free passage out for the garrison and their
families. Aurangzib readily consented to grant
them quarter, as the place sheltered many
Muhammadans. especially Syeds.*' On ist
August the keys of the fort were delivered to
him by Dilawwar, who was given a robe of
honour with permission to go to Bijapur.
Bidar and Kaliani, the guardian fortresses of
Adil Shah's north-eastern frontier, had fallen,
and the way now seemed open for an advance
on Bijapur itself. But a cruel disappointment
was in store for Aurangzib ; his victorious career
was to be suddenly checked. The Bijapur
agents had intrigued hard at Court ; Dara's
*
Kambu, 5«.
jealousy was rising in proportion to the success

of hisyounger brother, and he at last persuaded
the Emperor to put an end to the war.*' Even
in the midst of the siege of Kaliani Shah Jahan had
repeatedly written to the Prince

onah Jahan ^ ,1 •ûr*-'
^^ P^^^^ "P ^ P^^^^ ^'*^ Bijapur
orders peace.
as soon as possible, because the
rain}' season was approaching when the Mughal

army must retire to cantonments at Bidar, and
Shaista Khan, who had been guarding Auranga-
bad during the Prince's absence, must return to
his own charge of Malwa without further delay.
Aurangzib knew that to raise the siege of Kaliani

and retire to Bidar, would only embolden the
Bijapuris and take away from them their
onh^ motive for offering terms of peace. f So,

he had sat down before Kaliani a month longer,
and brought the siege to a
°^ P^*"^^
Tf/^1 successful issue. Negotiations
°
with Bijapur.
for peace were now
opened.
The Bijapur envoy, Ibrahim Bichittar Khan,
agreed to pay an indemnity of i^ krores of rupees
and to cede not only Bidar and Kaliani, but
also the fort of Parenda with its dependent
* Adab,
177a (Aurangzib complains of Dara corresponding
with Bijapur behind his back, but two years before this
time). Aqil Khan, 16. Kambu, ioa (probably two months
later). AlamgirnamaJi 29, 83.
,
f Adab, 112b (dated early in July).

CHAP. XI.] PEACE WITH BIJAPUR. 279
territory, all the forts in the Nizam Shahi

Konkan, and the district of Wangi. The king
of Bijapur accepted these terms and sent letters
to his officers to deliver the forts in question to
the Mughals. Shah Jahan- ratified the treaty,
remitting half a krore from the indemnity, and

sending a gracious letter to Adil Shah. He at
the same time ordered Aurangzib to return with
his army to Bidar the officers and men sent to
;
the Deccan from Malwa and Hindustan were re-

called to their former posts. Mir Jumla was
directed to take possession of the newly ceded
forts in the west and then return to the Imperial
Court.*
Thus Aurangzib received a sharp check in
the hour of his triumph. He had

War abruptly . , , , ^ t
ended, without gained only the northern frmge

ensuring con- ^^st Bijapur kingdom
^f ^j^g
quest.
when his father cried halt to
him. Small as his acquisitions by the treaty

were, he had no power to hold the Bijapur king
to his promises. At the Imperial order dictat-
slackened their
ing peace, the Mughal officers
efforts and many of them set out for the Court
* Kambu, 5^, (rewards for the capture "of Kaliani, and

settlement of peace). Adab, 113a, i57<2. Aurangzib was
commanded to return to Bidar (according to Adab, 112b,
of Kambu, 56),
1986), or to Aurangabad (on theâuthority
which latter is very unlikely.
28o HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [cHAP. XI.
in Spite of Aurangzib's entreaty to stay a little
longer. The Bijapuris profited by his distrac-

••'"
tion and weakened power, and delayed fulfilling

the terms of a peace that had no armed strength
behind it. Their commandants refused to sur-
render the forts ceded by the treaty.
To complete the misfortunes of the Mughal
'^^"'^ ^" *^^ Deccan, Shah Jahan
Illness of Shah
Jahan. Mughal fell ill on 6th September and
for one week lay at death's door.
Rumours of his death spread through the Empire,
and gave rise to confusion and disorder in every
province. Aurangzib, harassed by anxiety and
distracted by conflicting plans, at last decided to
be content with what could be easily secured
from Bijapur. On 30th September he sent Mir
Jumla towards Parenda to take delivery of it,
and on 4th October he himself began his retreat
from Kaliani to the Imperial dominion. "j"
Only one episode of the war still remains to

be recorded. While Aurangzib was busy con-
quering the north-eastern angle of the Bijapur
kingdom, stirring events were occurring in its
north-western corner, where the boundary of
the Mughal district of Ahmadnagar adjoined the
Northern Konkan. Here a young and obscure
* Adab,
igja, 1496, 1576, Alamgirnamah, 29. Aqil
Khan, 16.Kambu, 6a.
f- Kambu, 6b. Adab, 157a, 169a.
CHAP. XI.] SHIVAJi's RAIDS. 281
local chief of very small means and no high fami-

ly influence, was just beginning to peep above
the horizon of history and to start on that career
of greatness whose noontide splendour was
destined to dazzle the Indian world and to leave
his name a byword for posterity. Shivaji, the
„, , ,,, son of Shahii Bhonsla, a Mara-
•'
ohivaji nego- s
ttations with the tha captain in Bijapur service,
"^ * ^ '
had taken forcible possession of
his father's western jagirs and seized hill-fort
after hill-fort in the Ghats from the agents of
Bijapur. When the Mughals were about to
invade Adil Shah's territory, he had sent an envoy

to Aurangzib's deputy at Ahmadnagar, offering
to co-operate on condition of being guaranteed
by the Mughals in the possession of the Adil
Shahi Konkan. He had received in return vague
promises favour and protection."*

of Even a
less astute man than he must have known that
such promises would amount to nothing in
practice when the need of the Imperialists would

be over. So, on the outbreak of the war, he
seized his opportunity, and in concert with the
Bijapuri officers in the neig-
raids the Im-
bo^rhood, he raided the Mughal
=»
penal dominion.
'
territory from the west. One

* Grant Duff, i. 161-162. Adah, 144b (Shiva sends agent,
July 1656), 146a (Shiva sends agent, February 1657).
aSa HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XI.
night he silently scaled the walls of Junnar with

rope-ladders, and after slaughtering the defenders
carried off ii,ooo hun, 200 horses, and much costly
clothing and jewels.^=* Bands of Maratha light
horsemen spread in all directions, cutting off
provision trains and foraging parties, plundering
the smaller towns and flourishing villages, render-
ing the roads unsafe, and carrying devastation

and alarm to thevery gates of Ahmadnagar, the
seat of the Mughal administration in that region.
An attack on the town (pettah) which nestled
under shelter of the fort of Ahmadnagar was
frustratedby a timely sortie of the garrison. But
so great was the alarm it caused that the Mughal
governor made the citizens remove their property

to within the fort as a precaution. Two other
Marathas, Minaji Bhonsla and Kashi, where
notably successful in their raids.
Aurangzib learnt of these disturbances and

. ,- , hurried reinforcements up
^ to
Aurangzib orders
reprisals against Ahmadnagar, with strict orders
'
to punish Shiva. He chastised
with his pen those officers who were slow in
marching to the scene. His letters to his officers
* The
history of the contest with Shiva is given in Grant
Duff, i. 162 —
164, Kamhu ^b, and Adab, nob ii2a(Aurang- —
zib's letters to Shaista Khan), 147a —
149a (to Multafat
—
Khan), 153a 157a (to Nasiri Khan).
CHAP. XI.] REPRISALS AGAINST SHIVA. 28^
breathe fury and revenge the Mughal captains

:
must beat the raiders back from the Imperial

dominions and make reprisals by entering Shiva's
land from all sides, "wasting the villages, slaying
the people without pity, and plundering them to
—
the extreme" ; Shivaji*s possessions, Poona and
Chakna, must be utterly ruined and not the
least remissness shown and enslaving
in slaying
the people ;— the village headmen and peasants
of the Imperial territory who had secretly abett-
ed the enemy, must be slain without compunc-
tion.
Aurangzib's new dispositions for guarding

J rr ^ 11 showed excellent com-
this tract
and effectually
protects Mughal bination and judgment. Kar-
territory.
^^,^j^ j^^^^ ^^^ p^^^^j ^^^^
Junnar, Abdul Munim at Garh Namuna, Hushdar
Khan at Chamargunda and Raisin, and Nasiri
Khan and some others at Bir and Dharur.
These officers stood facing the frontier and bar-
ring every path of the enemy's advance, so that
the Imperial ryots behind them might enjoy
peace and safety. The officers were further
bidden to make a dash forward across the
frontier, whenever thej' got an opportunity^

ravage as much of the enemy's territory in front
of them as they could, and then quickly return
to the defence of their respective posts. At last
in Ma>, 1657, Nasiri Khan, so often rebuked for

et, ,,
, ,
his slow movements and failure
,
bnivaji aefeated,
to catch Shivaji up, made a
forced march, for once, to the neighbourhood
of Ahmadnagar and upon Shiva, who escaped
fell
with heavy loss. Orders were sent to the victor

to pursue Shiva into his own and
territory
wrest all his lands which had been given up to
the Mughals by the Bijapur king in the new
treaty.* But a campaign in the Tal Konkan in
the rainy season was impossible, and Poona
escaped an invasion. When his liege-lord, the
king of Bijapur, made peace, Shivaji found it
and even ruinous to himself to continue

useless
the war with the Mughal empire single-handed.
He must try to save his patrimony. So, he sent
an agent, named Raghunath Panth, to Nasiri
Khan, with a letter offering submission and
promising loyal in behaviour
'"«"«• To this a conciliatory
wTtfil^rr/zlb.
reply was given. Then Shiva
despatched another ambassador, Krishnaji
Bhaskar, to Aurangzib begging forgive-
himself,
ness for his raids and offering to send a con-
tingent of 500 horse to the Prince's assistance.!

*
Adab, 153a and b, 1546 (rebuke for slowness), 156a
(^news of defeat of Shiva, in May, 1657), Kambu, 46.
•\ Adab, i^Gb-iSJa. Grant Duff, i.

163-164.
CHAP. XI.] SHIVA's ambition FEARED. 285
Aurangzib was then about to leave the Deccan

to contest the throne of Delhi. He received
Shivaji's submission with outward pleasure ;
but his mind was not really composed about the

Konkan he omitted no precaution to maintain
;
peace by force, for he felt con-

in that quarter
vinced that the young Maratha chief was a raid-

er whose daring was only equalled by his cun-
ning, and an ambitious adventurer who \vould

place self-interest above fidelity to his plighted
word or gratitude for favours received.*
invasion of Bijapur now ends, and the
The
great War of Mughal Succession begins.
APPENDICES.
II, —Parentage of Ali II,
The parentage of Ali Adil Shah II is not altogether free

from doubt. The Mughals declared him to be a stranger
of unknown origin whom the late Sultan had brought up like
a son, pisar-i-khanda. (Waris, Ii8a, and Adab, 886). The
Bijapur side stated that Ali was born to Muhammad Adil
Shah on 27th August, 1638, and that at the fond request
of the Queen, Bari Sahiba, the sister of the Golkonda king,
the baby was handed over to her to be brought up under
her eyes in her apartments, known as the Anand Mahal.
*
Adab, 157^, 163a. "Take care of Ahmadnagar. Keep
your troops ready, lest when Nasiri Khan goes away to
Hindustan, Shiva, finding the field vacant, should begin to
plunder" (To Multaiat Khan. Adab, i^gb). "Don't "leave
your charge at the call of Shah Jahan, lest Shiva should
sally out." (To Nasiri Khan, Adab, 1576). "At Nasiri
Khan's departure that district has been left vacant. Attend
to it, as the 50W o/" a (fo^ is waiting for an opportunity" (To
Mir Jumla, Adab, g2a). Dilkasha, 20 and 21.
The boy's birth, initiation into Islam, and commencement

of education, were all celebrated with the pomp and cere-
mony worthy of a prince of the blood, and he publicly
rode through the capital in the style of the heir to the throne.
His right to ascend the throne was apparently not questioned
by the Bijapur nobility and oflficers of the army, though they
soon afterwards began to quarrel about the division of power
and influence. But such internal discords were the usual
case at Bijapur and in every other country where the king
is weak and his officers strong and selfish. Against Aurang-
zib's theory that Ali was a lowborn lad smuggled into the
harem, stands the fact that at the time of his birth (August
1638), Muhammad Adil Shah was only 29 years old. Are
we to believe that at this early age he and his queen had
given up all hope of having any issue, and had contrived the
fraud of proclaiming a stranger's child as their son ? Some
scandalous tale about the private life of Muhammad Adil
Shah was told after his death by a Bijapur officer who had
deserted to Aurangzib, {Adah 91^), but we do not know of
its precise nature. Aurangzib himself utters a pious cry
of disbelief in it Who All's mother was is not explicitly
!
stated in the Bijapur history. In the record of an event a

few years after his accession, the chief Dowager Queen, Bari
Sahiba, is spoken of as his ivalida, but the term may mean
nothing more than adoptive mother, because in the account
of All's birth even this lady is never once described as his
mother. Possibly he was the son of a slave-girl of the
harem. But under Islamic law children of such birth are
not debarred from inheritance.
[The history of Ali Adil Shah II from his birth to acces-
—
sion is given in the Basatin-i-salatin, 345 347. Tavernier,
i. 183, repeats the prevalent story that Ali was merely
an
adopted child. Also Bernier, 197.]
III. — Corruption of the Bijapur Wazir by Aurangzib.

The Bijapur history asserts that the prime minister, Khan
Muhammad, surnamed Khan-i-khanan, was corrupted by
Aurangzib, and gives the following account of his treachery
and its punishment :
—
"Adil Shah had appointed Khan Muhammad, with a large
army guard the kingdom. He took post on the frontier.
to
Spies brought him news that the Delhi army
was crossing
a pass only two or three days' march off. Khan Muham-
mad by a forced march at night barred the road. Famine
CHAP. XI.] KHAN MUHAMMAD MURDERED. 287
raged in the the troops had no way

Mughal camp, but
open for escape. then wrote to the prime
Aurangzib
minister 'If you let
: me off now, there will be perpe-
tual friendship between the Bijapuris and us, and so
long as you or your descendants hold the wazirship of
the country, we shall never covet any of its territory.'
The letter reached Khan Muhammad when he was sitting
down with some learned men after his evening prayer, and,
he remarked, 'This letter will be the death of me.' After
long reflection, he replied on the back of the epistle, 'Early
next morning, getting your men ready as for a night-attack,
make a forced march and escape.' Aurangzib with his men
fell on the Khan's troops who left a path open for them, and
so he escaped. At the news of the night-attack Khan
Muhammad's officers hastened to him, found Aurangzib al-
ready fled, and urged him to chase the Mughals as there
was yet time. The Khan replied, 'We shall thus secure
peace. But if we slay Aurangzib an ocean of troubles will
surge up and [ Mughal ] armies will drown the Deccan
land. Good, that he has escaped.' So, he forbade pursuit.
Afzal Khan after using hot words left with his troops, went
to Bijapur, and reported the matter to the Sultan,
who recalled Khan Muhammad and his army to the capital.
The Khan, knowing that his death was certain marched
very slowly, with frequent halts. On the day he entered
the city, two Mughals, armed with many sharp weapons,
stood on the two sides of the Mecca gate. As the Khan's
palki entered, they fell on him and despatched him with
blows. The date was the year 1068 A. H. [ early in
November, 1657 A. D. ]...It is said that Aurangzib ordered
that the annual tribute from Bijapur to the Emperor should
not that year be paid to him, but spent in building a tomb
for Khan Muhammad." {Basatin-i-salatin, 349-351).
Now, story of Khan
this Muhammad having caught
Aurangzib in a trap in a mountain pass near the frontier,
is clearly false. The detailed official history of the Mughals
and Aurangzib's letters show that he only marched from
his own frontier to Bidar (a short distance), and then from
Bidar to Kaliani, and lastly (28 May) he made a four miles'
advance from Kaliani in order to disperse the enemy assem-
bled in the neighbourhood. There is no formidable moun-
tain-pass in this route, and at every one of these steps
Aurangzib had a strong base close behind him, viz., the
Mughal fort of Udgir when he first marched to Bidar, the
conquered fort of Bidar when he proceeded to Kaliani,

and lastly the part of his army left to invest Kaliani when
he advanced four miles from that fort. Further more, the
road between Bidar and Kaliani !iad been cleared of the
enemy by Mahabat Khan, before Aurangzib traversed it.
Khan Muhammad might possibly have hemmed round
some small Mughal detachment escorting provisions, or
even Mahabat Khan's division in its march towards Kul-
barga, (12th April) but then Aurangzib himself was too far
off to write to the Bijapur wazir the letter of temptation
described above. I think it most likely that the charge on
which he was condemned of treason and murdered was
that, having been already corrupted by Aurangzib, he
had made a sham fight in the battle of 2Sth May, when he
might have easily annihilated Aurangzib's force.
From the description in the Basatin-i-salatin appears
it
thatKhan Muhammad had an opportunity ofcrushing

Aurangzib during the latter's retreat from Kaliani or Bidar.
This theory receives some support from Aqil Khan Razi,
who writes (p. 17), "Aurangzib's army was distracted,
but he remained firm, without being at all shaken by the
departure of such high officers [ as Mahabat Khan and
Rao Chhatra Sal.] With boldness and prudence he return-
ed, unhurt and withont loss, from the place, through that
ring of enemies."
In a letter written a few days after 8th October, Secretary
Qabil Khan reports a rumour that Afzal Khan with the
Bijapuri army had crossed the Benathora with a view to
invade the viahals on "this side", evidently meaning the
newly annexed districts of Bidar and Kaliani {Adab, igja).
We read{Adab, 64A), that the Bijapuri territory north of
the river had been previously occupied and administered by
Aurangzib's officers. Therefore, his return march from
—
Kaliani to Bidar, 4th 9th October, could not have been
molested by Khan Muhammad.
Did the Bijapur prime minister, then, get and throw away,
with fatal consequences to himself, the chance of capturing
the Prince, during his retreat from Bidar to the Mughal
frontier ? The idea is plausible. The Bijapuris were certain-
ly emboldened by the distraction of the Mughals Aurang- ;
zib's army was weakened by the deputation of Mir Jumla

and the departure of several other officers for Delhi and ;
the report of his intended retreat to the Mughal frontier

had totally destroyed the Imperial prestige in that region ,
CHAP. XI.] BIJAPUR COURT FACTIONS. 289
the Bijapuris were openly insulting isolated Mughal detach-

ments and officers. But against this theory must be urged
that (i) Bidar was only 28 miles by road from the Mughal
frontier {viz., the ierry over the Manjira river) (2) Kaliani
;
and Bidar were both held by Mughal garrisons, which might

have assisted Aurangzib by falling on the rear of any Bija-
puri army surrounding him (3) Aurangzib left Bidar on
;
i8th October, and Khan Muhammad was murdered early

in November, as the news of his death reached
Aurangzib
at Aurangabad in the middle of the month. {Adah, 926.)
There was not sufficient interval between these two events
for the return of Afzal Khan to Bijapur, the summoning of
Khan Muhammad by Adil Shah, and the minister's slow
march from Bidar to Bijapur, as described in the Basatin-
i-salatin.
However, from Aurangzib's letters it is clear that Khan
Muhammad was friendly to the Mughals, and advocated a
policy of peace with them, while Mulla Ahmad was at that
time bitterly hostile to them. (During the war Khan
Muhammad openly sent an agent to Shah Jahan, evidently
to propose terms on behalf of his master. Adab, 1250.) But
this need not have meant that Khan Muhammad had been
bribed to advocate the peace policy or that he shirked his
duty in the field of battle. Before Aurangzib's invasion
Mulla Ahmad himself had visited the Mughal ambassador
at Bijapur and professed friendliness, though Aurangzib
distrusted him. {Adab, gib).
Aurangzib's own remarks on hearing of Khan Muham-
mad's murder are given in a letter from Secretary Oabil
K'lan to Mir Jumla, written in November, 1657. ^'The
Prince only says that Khan Muhammad fell a victim to the
treacherous intrigue of his false friend, Mulla [Ahmad]
Natia, and that he almost threw away his life by neglecting
to take proper steps to counteract his rival's designs, though
repeatedly cautioned by Aurangzib. {Adah, 926, 204b).
The other references to his death are in Adab, 936 and 179a.
"Khan Muhammad" is a most unusual name "Jan ;
Muhammad" is more likely.
?9
CHAPTER XIL
The Illness of Shah Jahan, 1657.
In December, 1656, the public health of Delhi

became so bad that Shah Jahan with his Court
proceeded to the bank of the Ganges at Garh

Mukteshwar, a place noted for In less its game.
than a month he returned to the capital but ;
as the epidemic continued, he again left it
(February, 1657), and went to Mukhlispur on the

Jumna, nearly a hundred miles north of Delhi.
The cool climate of this place, at the foot of the
Sirmur hills and yet within easy reach of the
capital by boat, had led him to choose it as his
summer retreat, and he had adorned it with fine
palaces for himself
and his eldest son, and given
it the glorious name of Faizabad.*
Here a grand Court ceremony was held."|" He
just completed three decades
Shah Jahan's ^^ ^xls reign and began the 31st
year on 7th March. In the

Waris. iiSb, iiga, 121a and b, (Mukhlispur described);
132a (palaces described).
t Kambu, ib.
CHAP. XII.] SHAH JAHAN AS EMPEROR. 29I
official annals of the Mughal Emperors written

by their command, every period of ten years
(called dawwar) was taken together and a volume
devoted to it. Three such decades formed an
epoch which was regarded as a sort of
(qarn),^'^
perfect and auspicious number. Shah Jahan had

completed one such epoch and begun another.
The occasion was, therefore, one of peculiar
importance and solemnity.
The reign had been as prosperous as it had
been long. The 'wealth of Ind'
its glories } /-> » , 1
•
, , ,
under this Cjreat Mughal dazzled
the eyes of foreign visitors, and on gala days
ambassadors from Bukhara and Persia, Turkey
and Arabia, as well as travellers from France
and Italy, gazed with wonder at the Peacock
Throne and the Kohinur and other jewels which
cast a luminous halo round the Emperor's person.
The white marble edifices which he loved to
build were as costly as they were chaste in
design. The nobles of the empire eclipsed the
kings of other lands in wealth and pomp. Save
for two failures of his arms outside the natiu-al
frontiers of India, the Imperial prestige stood
higher than ever before. The bounds of the
* Inayat Khan's Shah Jahan-namah (as quoted in Elliot

vii. 74). Waris, \b.
292 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XII.
"protected empire" had been stretched further

than in any preceding
reign.
°^ *^'
^^^^^" *^^ ^«""*ry itself a pro-
^Jpk""'
found peace reigned. The pea-
santry were carefully and
cherished ;
harsh
exacting governors were in many cases dismissed
on the complaint of the people. Wealth and
prosperity increased on all hands. As a panegy-
rist sang :
—
"The people are light of heart as the
Emperor bears the heavy burden
(of looking- after them^;
Disorder has fallen into a deep sleep
through his wakefulness."*
A kind and yet wise master, Shah Jahan had

himself a band of very able
gathered round
officers, and made his Court the centre of the
wit and wisdom of the land.
But some ominous shadows had already been
cast on this bright prospect, and with the passage
of time they were deepening.
One by one the
ereat ministers and generals who had contributed
to the glory of
^^^ reign were being removed
bv the pitiless hand of Death. The three best

known officers and dearest personal friends of
Shah Jahan died within the last five years :
Said Khan Bahadur Zafar Jang on 4th January,

the Abul Fazl of his age,
i6«;2, Sadullah Khan,
• India Office Library, Pars. MS. No. 1344, folio 76.

CHAP. XII, I HIS SONS. 293
on 7th April, 1656, and AH Mardan Khan, the

premier peer, on i6th April, 1657.* And, as
the giants of old passed away, the Emperor
found no worthy successors to them among the
new faces and younger men about him.j" He
had already completed 67 lunar years,:j: and the
life of warfare and hardship that he had gone
through in his father's latter years, followed by

the long ease of his own tranquil reign, had
undermined his body, and he already felt the
hand of age. What would happen after him ?
That was the question now
P-sen. in all m.nds. Often
JccLrn"™"'
and often had he talked with
his confidants about the future,§ and that future
was most gloomy.
Shah Jahan had four sons. All of them were
past youth, and all had gained experience as
governors of provinces and commanders of armi-
es. But there was no brotherly love among
them, though the three younger princes, Shuja, —
Aurangzib and Murad Bakhsh, were usually
drawn together by a common jealousy of the
* M. U.
Waris, 576, io8a ; Kambu, 16 ;
ii.
436.
f Ruqat-i-Alamgiri, No. 48.
X 25th January, 1657, was his 68th lunar birth-day,
(Waris, 120^), while his 66th solar year began 15 days earlier
(Waris, 1196).
§ Riiqat-i-Alamgiri, No. 54.
eldest, Dara Shukoh, their father's favourite and

intended heir. The ill-feeling between Dara
and Aurangzib in particular was so bitter and
had continued growing bitterer for so many
years past, that it was the talk of the whole
empire, and peace had been maintained be-
tween them only by keeping Aurangzib far away
from the Court and his eldest brother.'=^" Every-
one foreboded that the succession to Shah
Jahan's throne would be disputed, and that a
universal and complicated civil war would deluge
all parts of India with blood, as soon as he
would close his eyes or even earlier.
Shah Jahan had given clear indications that
Dara Shukoh, ^^ wished to leave the
crown
the heir desig- to Dara. As this prince was the
eldest of four brothers by the
same mother, the choice was not an act of unjust
partiality, but simply followed the law of nature
which gives to the eldest-born authority and prece-
dence above the younger ones. In order to train
him administration of the empire and to
in the
smooth the transfer of the supreme authority

to him, the Emperor had kept Dara by his side
for many years past. The viceroyalty of rich
and long-settled provinces like Allahabad, the
* Anecdotes
of Aurangzib § 2 and 5, Masum, 6b, KambU(
86, Adab, ijib, 1746, Aqil Khan, 10.
CHAP. XII.] CROWN PRINCE DARA SHUKOH. 295
Panjab, and Multan, had been conferred on him,

but he was allowed to stay at his father's Court
and govern them by deputies. At the same time
the Emperor bestowed on him rank and privi-
leges which raised him to an almost royal posi-

tion, midway between the Emperor and the
other princes. Dara now enjoyed the high title
of Shah-i-buland-tqbal, (King of Lofty Fortune),
the unprecedented rank of a Commander of
his power and

. Forty Thousand Horse, and an
-'
_
influence at income which many a kmg

Court,
might have envied. When he
attended Court he was allowed to sit near the
Emperor on a gold chair only a little lower than

the throne.* Dara's sons got military ranks as
high as those of the Emperor's younger sons,
and his officers were frequently ennobled by the
Emperor.| Dependent kings, tributary princes,
offenders under the Imperial wrath, aspirants
to office or title, all bought or begged Dara's
mediation before they could approach the Em-
peror. Government officials and new recipients
* Waris, 96a, (golden chair and title of Shah given to

Dara, 3rd February, 1655), 97a, ii20a, (Dara's pay was
oi all
l^ krores of rupees, January, 1657), 1236, {mansabs
the princes). Kambu, 6a (Dara promoted to a command of
50,000 horse, 14th September), jb (Dara promoted to a
command of 60,000 horse, with a pay of above 2 krores,
apth December), Sb, Masum, 6*.
f Waris, 96a, I i6a.

296 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [cHAP. XII.
of titles, after having had audience of the Em-

peror were sent by him to pay their respects to
the Crown Prince.'-^ Much of the administra-
tion was latterly conducted at Dara's direction
in the Emperor's presence, or even by Dara alone
with permission to use the Emperor's name and
seal. In short, everything was done to make the
public familiar with the idea that he was their

future sovereign and to render the transfer of
the crown to him on Shah Jahan's death easy.
Dara was just turned of forty-two years. He

had taken after his great-grand-
''^'^'°"'
v?ews.
fath^'- Akbar. In his thirst for
pantheistic philosophy he had

studied"]" the Talmud and the New Testament,
the writings of the Muslim Sufis, and the Hindu
*
Waris, 85a, (Ismail Hut presents a remarkable horse
to Dara), 916, ii6a (Srinagar Rajah makes Dara his media-
tor), 87b, 976 (Dara procures pardons).
t This account of Dara's philosophical studies is based
on the extracts from the prefaces of his works given
by
Rieu in his British Museum Catalogue. Dara wrote in
Persian (i) Sirr-ul-asrar, a translation of 50 of the
Upa-
nishads, completed on i July, 1657. (2) Majmua-ul-
Baharain, a treatise on the technical terms of Hindu
pantheism and their equivalents in Sufi phraseology. (3)
Dialogue with Baba Lai (really recorded by Chandrabhan).
(4) Safinat-ul-awliya or lives of Muslim saints, completed
II Jan., 1640. (5) Sakinat-til-a-wliya or the life of Mian
Mir, completed 1052 A. H. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are in
the Khuda Bakhsh Library. See also
— Faiyaz-ul-qawanin,
377 388, for Dara's correspondence with Shaikhs Muhibullah
and Dilruba.
CHAP. XII.] HIS RELIGIOUS LIBERALITY. 297
Vedanta. The easy government of Allahabad

had assisted his natural inclination, and with the
help of a band of pandits he had made a Persian
version of the Upanishads. The title of Ma/mua-
ul-Baharain ("the Mingling of Tv^ô Oceans")
which he gave to another of his works, as well
as his prefatory remarks,* proves that his aim

was to find a meeting-point for Hinduism and
Islam in those universal truths which form the
common basis of all true religions and which
fanatics are too apt to ignore in their zeal for
the mere externals of faith. Alike from the Hindu
he
yogi L^l-d^s and the Muslim faqir Sarmad,
had imbibed his eclectic philosophy, and at the
feet of both he had sat as an attentive pupil.
But he was no apostate from Islam. He had
he
compiled a biography of Muslim saints, and
had been initiated as a disciple of the Muslim
* Hewrites that although he had perused the Pentateuch,
the Gospels, the Psalms and other sacred books, he had
nowhere found the doctrine of Tauhid or Pantheism explicit-
ly taught but in the Vedas, and
more especially in the
Upanishads, which contain their essence. As Benares,
the
great seat of Hindu learning, was under his rule, he called
together the most learned pandits of that place,
and with
their assistance wrote himself the translation of the Upa-
nishads (Rieu, i. 54, quoting preface to Sirr-ul-asrar). Else-
where he states that he had embraced the doctrine of the
Sufis, and having ascertained in his intercourse with Hindu
Fakirs that their divergence from the former was merely
verbal, he had written the Majmua-ul-Baharain with the
object of reconciling the two systems. (Rieu, ii. 828, quoting
Dara's preface).
298 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [gHAP. XII.
saint Mian Mir, which no kafir could have been.*

The saintly Jahanara also speaks of Dara as
her spiritual preceptor. The manifesto in
which Aurangzib as the champion of Islamic
orthodoxy denounces Dara for heresy, ascribes
Charge of
^^ h\m no idolatrous practice
Muhammad's
heresy brought
against Dara.
or
....
denial of
,
prophetic mission, but only the

, ,
following faults :
(i) Consorting with Brahmans,
yogts and sanyasis,
— considering them as perfect
spiritual guides and 'knowers of God', — regard-
ing the Veda as a divine book, and spending
his days in translating and studying it.
(ii)Wearing rings and jewels inscribed with

the word Prabhu (*'Lord") in Hindi letters-j
(iii) Discarding prayers, the fast during the
month of Ramzan, and other canonical cere-
•
During^ his stay in Kashmir, 1050 A. H., Dara had
become a disciple of the g^reat Sufi, Mulla Shah (who died
in 1072) Dara received the initiation to the Qadiri order
in from an eminent master,
1049 Muhammad Shah
Lisanullah, one of the disciples of Mian Mir. He erected
a sumptuous dome over Mian Mir's tomb outside Lahore.
Jahanara wrote the Munis-ul-avwah, a life of Shaikh
Muinuddin Chishti, into whose order she was initiated as
a disciple or murida. (Rieu, i. 54, 358 & 357;. Dara used to
add to his signature the titles Qadiri and Haniji, which is
not consistent with a profession of heresy.
f Prabhu is simply a Sanskrit word meaning "one able
to punish and to bless", "the supreme lord". It is not the
name of any idol, but an epithet of the Deity, as innocent
of any connection with polytheism as the Arabic term Rabb-
ul-alamin ("Lord of the Universe") applied to God in the
Quran.
CHA.P. XII.] TASTE FOR HINDU PHILOSOPHY. 299
monies of Islam, as necessary only in the case

of the spiritually undeveloped, while he —
believed himself to be a man possessed of a
perfect knowledge of God.--'

Dara's own words in introducing to the read-
er theological works, clearly prove that he

his
never discarded the essential dogmas of Islam ;
he only displayed the eclecticism of the Sufis,
a recognised school of Islamic believers. If he
showed contempt for the external rites of religion,^
he only shared the standpoint of many noble
thinkers of all churches, such as John Milton»
However, his coquetry with Hindu philosophy
made it impossible for him, even if he had the
inclination, to pose as the champion of orthodox
and exclusive Islam, or to summon all Muslims
to his banners by proclaiming a holy war against
the people beyond the fold of the faith.
Then, again, his father's excessive love did

him a distinct harm. He was always kept at
Court and never, except at the third siege of
Qandahar, sent to conduct campaigns or ad-
minister provinces. Thus he
Character of
in
never acquired experience
the arts of war and government ;
* Alamgirnamah, 34 and 35. Some other charges of

heresy, such as the drinking of beer made from sugar, were
brought against Dara by Aurangzib, if we can believe
Maisum (71a).
he never learnt to judge men by the crucial test

of danger and difficulty ;
and he lost touch with
the active army. Hence he was rendered unfit
for that war of succession which among the
Mughals served as a practical test for the survi-

val of the fittest. Basking in the sunshine of
his father's favour and by an entire
flattered
empire, Dara had acquired some vices unworthy

of a philosopher and fatal to an aspirant to the
throne. Aurangzib in later life spoke of Dara
as proud, insolent to the nobles, and ungovern-
able in temper and speech.* But while reject-
ing this testimony of his mortal enemy, we may
at least believe that his unrivalled wealth and
influence were not likely to develop moderation,
self-restraint, or
foresight in him while the ;
fulsome flattery which he received from all must
have aggravated the natural pride and arrogance

of an heir to the throne of Delhi. The detailed
account of his siege of Qandahar, written by
an admirer, shows him in the odious light of
an incompetent braggart, almost insane with
conceit, capricious and childish in the manage-
* Nos. 47, 53. Anecdotes of
Riiqat-i-Alamgiri, 5,
Aurangzib, § and 4. In the Adab (260b) Aurangzib
3
writes to Shah Jahan that Dara's only qualifications for
winning his father's favour were "Pattery, smoothness of
busi-
tongue, and much laughing, while in carrying out any
ness entrusted by his father his heart was not in conformity
•with his tongue.''
CHAP. XII.] HIS WEAK CHARACTER. 3OI
ment of affairs. His history during the war of

succession clearly proves that, with all the wealth
and influence he had enjoyed for years, he could
secure very few devoted followers or efficient
lieutenants. Evidently he was no judge of
character. Men of ability and self-respect must
have kept awa}"- from such a vain and injudi-
cious master, while the mercenary self-seekers of
the army and Court must have recognised that in
following him against the astute and experienced

Aurangzib they would be only backing the
losing side. Dara was a loving husband, a doting
father, and a devoted son ;
but as a ruler of
men in troubled times he must have been a
failure. Long continued prosperity had unnerved
his character and made him incapable of planning
wisely, daring boldly, and achieving strenuously,

— or, if need were, of wresting victory from the
jaws of defeat by desperate effort or heroic
endurance. The darling of the Court was utterly
out of his element in the Camp. The centre
of a circle of flattering nobles and ministers knew
not how to make a number
obey one
of generals
masterly will and act in harmonj'^ and concert.

Military organisation and tactical combination
were beyond his power. And he had never learnt
by practice how to guide
the varying tides of a
battle with the coolness and judgment of a true

general. This novice in the art of war was

destined to meet a practised veteran as his rival
for the throne."*
However dark the future might look, for the
present things were going on well with Shah

Jahan. The usual Court festivals were celebrated
as they came round. The victory over Bijapur
led to the playing of joyous music, and the
granting of rewards and titles."}" Marriages took

place among his grand-children. He held darhars
with his usual magnificence, and received or
sent off generals and viceroys, ambassadors and
scholars.
From Mukhlispur Shah Jahan had returned
to Delhi at the end of April.
°^ ^^*^ ""^ ^^^ September,
^^57- "^''^'
jlhan"
he suddenly fell ill of stranguary
and constipation. $ For one week the royal
physicians toiled in vain. The malady went
on increasing his lower limbs swelled, his palate
;
and tongue grew very dry, and at times symp-

toms of fever appeared. During all this period
the patient took no food or nourishment, and
the medicines produced no effect on him. His
* Kambu, ga, \oa, 15a. Alatngirnamah , 99. Aqil
Khan, 33.
f Kambu, 5ft,
f For the history ofthe illness, Kambu, 6a, 7a; Alam-
îrnamah, 27, 80-81 ; Masum, 296—306 Isardas, yb—ga.;
CHAP. XII.] SHAH JAHAN FALLS ILL. 303
weakness was extreme and his pain intense,

though borne with heroic fortitude.
The daily darbar was stopped the Emperor ;
even ceased to show his face to the public from

the balcony as was his wont every morning;
the courtiers were denied access to his sick-bed,
which only Dara and a few trusted officers
watched. Immediately the wildest rumours
spread through the empire : Shah Jahan was
dead, and Dara was keeping the fact a secret
till he had ensured his own succession !
After a week the doctors at last got control

over the malady. Soup of mint and manna did
him great good, and he felt some relief. But
the needs of empire are imperative. So, on 14th
September the patient dragged himself to the

window of his bed-room (khwabgah) and show-
ed his face to the anxious public standing out-
side, to prove that he was still alive Large !
sums were given away in charity, prisoners were

released, and Dara was covered with rewards
and honours for his filial care.
But the improvement in the Emperor's condi-
tion had been slight he had still to be carefully
;
treated and nursed and his weakness continued.

;
It was more than a month (15th

October) before
he again appeared at the window in view of the
public, though papers were taken to his chamber
ostensibly to be read out for his order, and royal

letters were still issued in his name and stamped
with his seal. The acute stage of the disease had

passed, no doubt. But was now regarded
his death
as only a question of time. He knew it, and in
the presence of the nobles appointed Dara as his
successor. Then, with his mind freed from earth-
ly cares, he went to Agra to die there* quietly in
sight of the tomb of the wife he had loved so
A
change of air had also
well.
he is removed
to Agra.
^ advised by
^ the doctors. On
i8th October Shah Jahan left
Delhi and moved by easy stages to Agra. Sami
Ghat, on the Jumna, six miles above Agra Fort,
was reached on 5th November, and here he wait-
ed for an auspicious day. The journey had res-
tored him to health and he now discarded drugs
as unnecessary. On the 26th, the day chosen by
the astrologers, he made a royal progress from
Bahadur-pura, down the Jumna, in a State barge,

the people thronging both banks for miles and
miles to gaze on their beloved and long-lost ruler.
Shouts of prayer and blessings for him filled the
air. In this way he entered Agra city and put up
in Dara's mansion on the river-bank. After nine
days he entered his sumptuous palace in the Fort

and there held a darbar. At Agra he lived for
* Kambu, U.
CHAP. XU.] DARA VIRTUALLY EMPEROR. 305
the next five months. To Agra he returned after a

shortand futile effort to go back to Delhi
(April)^
and from Agra Fort he was destined never again
to issue in life.
During Shah Jahan's Dara constantly

illness
.vatched by his but

bed-sidehe also stopped
;
the visit of others to the sick-chamber.

Only
three or four officers of the highest trust and the
Court physicians had access to the
Emperor.
T^ , , ^.
"Dara tended and nursed his
Dara s devotion
to his father in father beyond the utmost limit
his illness.
^j possibility." But he showed
no indecent haste to seize the crown. All urgent
orders were issued by him, but in the Emperor's
name.* He exercised supreme authority and
transacted public affairs at his own will, but
merely as his father's agent. The tiansfer of

power to his own hands, he hoped, would be
easy, and he might wait
for his father's death
without any harm to the work of the State. He

had so long occupied in the public eye the
place at the right hand of the Emperor that he
naturally expected that his exercise of authority
on behalf of his invalid father would be accepted
without question.
When Shah Jahan's illness first took a favour-
able turn (14th September), he heaped on Dara
Kambu. jb.
ao
3o6 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XII.
promotion and rewards worth 2^ lakhs of rupees,

and again on 20th December presented him with
one krore of rupees besides jewellery valued at
34 lakhs, in recognition of his filial piety and
tender nursing during the Emperor's illness.
Dara's rank was raised to that of a Commander
of Sixty Thousand Horse, and his eldest two
sons were promoted Commanders of 15,000
and 10,000 troopers respectively.*
After the first week of illness Shah Jahan, as
we have already seen, felt some relief, but no
hope of recovery. So he piously set himself to
prepare for the next world.
Dara is nomi- Calling to his presence some
sated by Shah nj ^- ^- 1 j û
confidential courtiers and the
Jahanashissuc-
cesser, but docs chief officers of the State, he
not assume the , ,
•
, -n » r 1
ôwn. made his last will before them,

and ordered them to obey Dara
henceforth as their so\ereign in everything, at
all times, and in every place. To his successor
he gave the advice to seek to please God, to
treat the public well, and to care for the peasantry
and the army."}" Dara now had the supreme
power in his hand, though he did not assume the
crown but continued to issue orders in his fathers
name. The historj' of the next eight months is
*
Kambu, 6a, jb.
-f Kambu, Sb.
CHAP. XII.] OFFICERS RECALLED TO COURT, 307
the history of his attempt to strengthen his posi-

tion,
—
an attempt often thwarted by the necessity
of taking Shah Jahan's consent in important
matters, and also by his own faults of judgment.
His policy lacked that strength and single-
ness of purpose which it might have gained if
he had been the absolute master of the realm,
or if Shah Jahan, in full possession of his
physical powers, had dictated every step him-
self.
First of all, Mir Jumla, the confidant and

partisan of his rival Aurangzib,
He attempts to could no longer be retained as
strengthen his
t7 r 1
own Prime Mmister 01 the Jimpire.

position.
Towards the end of September
he was removed from the wazirship, and his son
Muhammad Amin, who had been acting as his
vicar at Delhi, was forbidden entrance to the
office. Orders were also sent to Mir Jumla,
Mahabat Khan, and other Imperial officers to

return from the Deccan* to the Court with the
reinforcements that they had led to Aurangzib's
army for the Bijapur war.

In the case of Mir Jumla the order of recall
was not peremptory : he was first of all to secure
the surrender of Parenda Fort from the Bijapuris.

But Mahabat Khan and Rao Chhatra Sal were
* Kambu, 6b, loa. Alamgirnamah, 29.
3o8 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHA.P. XII.
commanded come away

to immediately with
the Muhammadan and Rajput
troops respectively
of the supplementary force; and this they did
without waiting to take leave of Aurangzib.
They returned to Agra and had audience of the
Emperor on 20th December.*
Meantime Dara's partisans and followers
. received from the
Emperor promotions and high
offices, and even the piovince of
administrative
Bihar was given to him in addition to the
Panjab and Multan. Dara also set about
acquiring new friends: Khalilullah Khan was
promoted and appointed Suhahdar of Delhi ;
Qasim Khan was tempted with the viceroyalty

of Guzerat from which it was decided to remove
Murad.j*
By the middle of November Shah Jahan was
completely recovered, and important matters
which had hitherto been kept from him, could
no longer be withheld. Dara, therefore, told
him how bhuja had crowned himself and was
advancing from Bengal. Shah Jahan consented
to an army being sent against
Armies sent ,
.
, , i 1 1
•
r
against Shuja, ""^» under the leadership of

Murad and
Rajah Jai Singh. But as only
Aurangzib. . .
a prince could cope with a

* Kambu, ',6, 6b, 106, 8a. Aqil Khan, 16.
t Kambu, 6b, lâ. Faiyae-ul-qawanin, 413, 414..

CHAP. XII.] SHUJA AND MURAD REBEL.
309
prince, Dara's eldest son Sulaiman Shukoh was

joined in the command. This force, 22,000
strong, left Agra on 30th November and
encountered Shuja near Benares on 14th
February, 1658, as we shall see. Dara's most
trusted friends and best
generals were sent to
support his son, and thus he greatly weakened
himself at Agra.*
Meantime equally alarming news had arrived
from Guzerat. There Murad had murdered his
dtwan Ali Naqi (early in October), looted Surat
city pearly in November), andcrowned finally
himself {5th December). At
Dara sent him first
a letter purporting to proceed from the
Emperor,
transferring him from Guzerat to Berar. Dara
thereby hoped to set one foe against another, as
Berar was included in Aurangzib's viceroyalty.
Murad saw through the plan, laughed the order
to and neither moved from Guzerat nor
scorn,
acted against Aurangzib.j As
yet Aurangzib
had done no overt act of disloyalty or prepara-
tion for war. But
"Dara feared him most."
He learnt that
Aurangzib had allied himself with
Murad and Shuja, and at the same time was
secretly intriguing with the nobles of the Court
Kambu, ga and b. Alamgirnamah, 31. Khafi Khan, ii.

5 ;Masum, 326 406. —
I Kambu, loa and b, i\a. Faiyaz-ul-qananin, 414, 420.
3IO HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XII.
and the officers of the army. Strong letters were,

therefore, sent out in the Emperor's name recall-
ing Mir Jumla and the remaining generals from

the Deccan (early in December), and on i8th and
26th December two armies were despatched to
Malwa, the first to oppose the advance of Aurang-
zib from the South and the second to march into
Guzerat and oust Murad from the province, or,
if necessary, to stay in Malwa and co-operate
wîth the first force.*
The leadership of these two armies had gone

abegging. Noble after noble had been offered
the posts, but had declined, saying that they
were ready to fight to the last drop of their blood
under the Emperor or Dara in person, but could
not of themselves presume to resist to the bitter
end a prince of the Imperial blood. The rash

Rathor chief Jaswant alone had consented to
fight Aurangzib and even promised to bring him
back a prisoner.f So, he was sent (18 Dec.) to
Ujjain as governor of Malwa, vice Shaista
Khan, whose presence so near Aurangzib gave
Dara ground for fear. Such a great noble
and near kinsman of the Emperor could not be
safely left close to the rebel frontier, as his
* Kambu, loa.
Alamgtrnamah, 29, 34. Aqil Khan, 20 &"
21.
t Isar-das, i8i.
CHAP. XII.] ARMIES SENT AGAINST REBELS. 311
adhesion totwo younger princes would

the
have greatly increased their strength and influ-
ence. Shaista Khan had served with Aurangzib
in the Golkonda and Bijapur wars and there was
a brisk and friendly correspondence between the
two. Murad had even planned to dash into
Malwa, seize Shaista Khan, and force him to join
his side So Shaista Khan was recalled to the
!
capital, where he secretly served Aurangzib's

cause.* Oasim Khan was induced to accept the
command second army by being created
of the
governor Guzerat
of in the place of Murad.
While giving leave to the three armies sent
from Agra, Shah Jahan had besought their

to
generals to spare the lives of his younger sons,
try at first to send them
back to their provinces
by fair words if possible, otherwise by a demons-
tration of force, and not, except in extreme need,
to resort to a deadly battle. f
January 1658, the news of further develop-

In
ments reached Agra. Aurang-
Aurangzib zib had arrested Mir Jumla, who
Spe^.f »4o!
«- "-i"g 'o Delh. in obedi-
rity. ence to Imperial orders, and
seized his property, troops, and
* Kambu, lia. Alamgirnamah, 114. Aqil Khan, 21.
For Aurangzib's friendly corres-
Faiyaz-ul-qa-manin, 426.
pondence with Shaista Khan, see Adab, 102a 113a.
—
+ Masum 456. Aqil Khan, 21. Kambu, no.
artillery. The Prince, no doubt, wrote a

lying letter to the Emperor, saying that he had
arrested Mir Jumla for treasonable intrigue with
Bijapur and neglect of the Imperial business ;*

but Dara knew the true reason. Murad had
captured Surat Fort, and the preparations of the
two brothers to advance into Hindustan could
not be kept concealed
any longer. Aurangzib's
Vanguard began northward march from its
Aurangabad on 25th January. At last all the

three younger princes had rebelled they had ;
dropped the mask, language of the

or, in the
Persian annalists, "the curtain had been removed
from the face of the affair."
At Dara's instigation the Emperor threw into
prison Isa Beg, the Court agent of Aurangzib, and
attached his property. But after a time he felt
ashamed of such persecution, released the inno-
cent man, and him go to his master, whom he
let
joined at Burhanpur early in March. j"

Shah Jahan's severe illness and withdrawal
-. ^ . ^ from the public gaze had at once
.Dara tries to .
cut off news of created a popular belief that he

was dead. Dara guarded the
sick-bed day and night ;
none but one or two
. 1 i
--^3n» Alamgirnamah, 84. Khafi Khan, ii.
9. Adab, 95a, 676.
Aqil Khan 19, 20, 22.
f Alamgirnamah, 35 and 39. Aqil Khan, 18 and 33.

CHAP. XII.] DISORDER IN THE EMPIRE. 313
ministers in his confidence had access to the
Emperor. Even the people of Delhi, therefore,

had reason to suspect that Shah Jahan was no
more. The rumour spread to the farthest provin-
ces with the proverbial speed of ill news. The
evil was aggravated by Dara's injudicious action.
To smooth the path of his own accession, he set
men to watch the ferries and stop all letters and
messengers going to his brothers in
Bengal,
Guzerat, and the Deccan. He also kept their
Court agents under watch lest they should send
any report to their masters.*
But this only wrought greater mischief. Igno-
rance and uncertainty are more
o^LTnd cent: dangerous than the knowledge

sion throughout of truth. The princes and people
the Empire.
m
•
. , ,• t
provmces, with
the distant
their regular news-letters from the Court sud-

that the worst
denly stopped, naturally concluded
had already come to pass. What letters they got
indirectly only confirmed the belief.
While their
official news-writers and Court-agents at the capi-
tal were being guarded by Dara, other people of
the city contrived to smuggle letters out to the
princes, offering their devotion and reporting

the
gossip of the market-place about the condition

*
Alamgirnamah, 28. Kambu, %b. Faiyag-Ml-qawanin,
418. Masum, 30a and b.
ofShah Jahan, which was a compound of truth

and falsehood.* It was clearly the interest of
such men, w^ho from their low position had no
access to the inner circle of the Court, to send
misrepresentations likely to fan the ambition of

the younger princes. Above all, the princess
Raushanara intrigued vigorously for Aurangzib
from within the harem and guarded his inter-
estsj" as against Dara's.
Shah Jahan being given up as dead, all the

confusion and disorder of a Mughal succession
broke out, and the evil was intensified by the
expectation of a four-sided duel between his
sons, each with the army and resources of a
province at his back. Everywhere lawless men
caused tumults, the ryots refused to pay the
revenue, zamindars disobeyed
the the local
governors or tried to rob and conquer their rivals ;
foreign powers, especially in the

north-east,
violated the frontiers and made inroads into the
Imperial territory. Wicked men of every class

took advantage of the political trouble to raise
their heads, and thereby added to the disorder.
The local authorities were paralysed by un-
certainty and anxiet}' about the future, and law
* Kambu, 86.
f Alamgirnamah, 368.
CHAP. XII.] SHAH JAHAN BELIEVED DEAD. 3*5
and order suddenly disappeared in many places.*

Such is the curse of autocracy: when the one
central authority, from which all have been
accustomed to receive their orders and to which
they have ever taught themselves lo look up for
guidance, ceases to exist, all the officers become
bewildered and helpless like children.
The younger princes in their provinces got
. ready to contest the throne,
bhuja and
c, t .
f
Murad crown Shuja and Murad crowned
*
themselves.
Aurangzib played
a cool and waiting game, w^hile carefully in-
creasing his resources and army. Even when
Shah Jahan began to show his face to the public
It was openly
again, the mischief did not cease.
said all over the empire that Shah Jahan was
really dead, and that a slave who bore some
resemblance to him, disguised in the Imperial
robes, personated him on the high palace-balcony,
and received the salams of the public standing
below.| Letters in Shah Jahan's hand and seal
were issued to the princes and the nobles, but
they did not remove the suspicion. Murad
* and 28. Kambu, 8A. Masum, 306.
Alamgirnamah, 27
The Rajah of Kuch Bihar raided Northern Bengal and
Kamrup, while an Assamese army occupied Kamrup
including Gauhati. (Fathiyya-i-ibriyya, 6 and 7). Adab,
94fl. The official history Alamgirnamah and Aurangzib's
letters Shah Jahan in
to the Adah speak of the disorder in
by "Dara's usurpation."
the country caused
t Masum, 32a and b.
3^6 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. Xll.
echoed the sentiments of others when he asserted

that these letters were
really written by Dara,
an expert imitator of Shah Jahan's hand, and
that the late Emperor's seal was
necessarily in
the possession of his successor.* Even those who
did not go so far, thought with that
Aurangzib
Shah Jahan was either dead or a helpless invalid
entirely under Dara's control, so that he had
practically vacated the throne. Some even assert-
ed that Dara had wickedly
fiung his helpless
father into prison and was doing him to death.t
The three younger brothers, therefore, very
plausibly asserted in their letters to the Emperor
that their loving minds had
' °°
been unsettled by these alarm-
Agj.^
ing rumours, and they were
marching on Agra to see their father with their
own eyes and satisfy themselves as to his real
condition. Thereafter (they promised) they
would return peacefully to their provinces or
loyally do whatever their father would personally
command them. Their marching on Agra was
no sign of rebellion. Had they not hastened
thither from their head quarters without
waiting
Faiyag.ul-qawanin, 418, 425, 429. As a matter of fact
both Shah Jahan and Dara wrote m the same
ityle of hand,
as the signatures of the two in some Persian MSS. of the
Khuda Bakhsh Library show.
t Isardas, ga. Adab, 200b.
CHAP. XII.] REBELS MARCH ON AGRA. 317
for permission, when they heard of Jahanara

being burnt? And was not Shah Jahan's present
illness a more serious affair and a greater cause
of anxiety to them ? Thus argued Murad in one

of his letters.*
When the agents of Aurangzib and Murad at
the Imperial Court w^rote to their masters that
the Emperor had fully recovered, Murad frankly
refused to accept such letters as genuine. For,
Dara had previously imprisoned these agents,
and their houses were still watched b}' his men ;
they could not communicate the truth, but had

to write to the dictation of Dara's secretarj\
Hence their letters contained only what Dara
wished his brothers to believe. Nothing (Murad
argued) would disclose the truth except a march
on Agra and an interview with the Emperor
Seeing is believing.
himself."!"
Events moved apace. On 20th March, 1658,
Aurangzib set out from Burhanpur, crossed the
Narmada on 3rd April, joined Murad on the 14th,
and attacked the Imperial army the next day.
The period of intrigue and diplomacy now ends,
and the appeal to the arbitrament of the sword
begins.
*
Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 425.
f Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 418 ; Masutn, 44a and b.
CHAPTER XIII.
MuRAD Bakhsh Crowns Himself.
Muhammad Murad Bakhsh, the youngest son

of Shah Jahan, was the black sheep of the Im-
perial family. He had been tried in Balkh, the
Deccan, and Guzerat, and he
hScwSe"''' had failed everywhere. A
foolish, pleasure-loving and im-
petuous prince, his character had not improved
with age. Though too old now to plead the
excuse of youth and inexperience, he had not
learnt to apply himself to business or to bridle
his passions. Worse still, he had not the gift of
choosing capable agents, or even of treating them
with the necessary confidence and honour when
he happened to get any such men.* Unscrupul-
* He
quarrelled with his guardian, Shah Nawaz Khan,
during his viceroyalty of the Deccan, and was consequently
removed from the province. (Waris, 38a. Khafi Khan, i.
701).
CHAP. XIII.] MURAd's character. 319
ous flatterers swayed his counsels, and made his

Court no fit place for honest and self-respecting
men. But Murad had also the virtues of his
defects. Careless of every thing else, he was
indifferent to money, and his outbursts of violence
or sensuality alternated with fits of liberality.
Such irregular and indiscriminate from a gifts
capricious master could not, however, win lasting

devotion or true gratitude. Secondly, he had
the reckless valour of soldier. Place him in the
combat, let him face the enemy's array,
field of
and the former pleasure-seeker would assume an

entirely new character ; the martial spirit of
Timur would fire hisblood, he would resistlessly
force his way to close grips with the enemy, and,
amidst the carnage raging round him, forget
every other feeling save the fierce delight of
slaughter. Waverers, no doubt, took heart from
the example of such a leader, and a charge
when pressed home by a prince of the blood
often scattered the enemy's ranks. But his
personal valour was a poor compensation for
his lack of generalship. The doughty fighter
did only the work of a lieutenant, and failed
to afford his troops the far-sighted disposi-
tion, cool guidance, and timely support
which we expect from the supreme com-
mander.
320 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XIII.
Knowing the prince's incapacity, Shah Jahan

had tried to remedy the mischief
«'fl5,>. Ali
jj^.^
tjy sending to him AH Naqi as
his revenue minister and chief
counsellor. This officer,* conscious of his own
ability and honesty, and proud of enjoying the
Emperor's confidence, looked down with scorn

on the flatterers and boon companions w^ho form-
ed Murad's Court. He was strict even to harsh-
ness in conducting the government, and his
honesty and vigilant care of the public revenue

raised against him a host of enemies among those
who wished to profit by the prince's ignorance
and extravagance. As the whole adminis-
tration was underNaqi's control, he v/as
Ali
also envied by the other nobles posted in Guze-
rat. His draconic punishments left him without
a single friend in the province.
And soon his enemies got their chance. The
news of Shah Jahan's severe illness and retire-
ment impenetrable privacy, as well as of
to
Dara's virtual usurpation of the Imperial author-
ity, reached Murad towards the close of
My account of Ali Naqi and his murder is based upon

Khafi Khan, ii.
7
— q, Isardas, loa and b, Kambu, ga.
The date of the murder was most probably some day in the
first week of Octobtr, as confirmation of the news reached
Auranj>zib (reluming from Bidar) on 29th October, and the
first rutnours had come some days earlier {Adab, 201b).
Alamgirnamali, 135,
CHAP. XIII.] ALI NAQI ACCUSED. 32 1
September, and he immediately set about raising

troops and calling up his officers from the dis-
tricts to take counsel with them. Among these
^î^^^^ ^^^ Qutbuddin Khan
is convicted of
treason by means
Kheshgi, faujdar of Pattan, and
of a forged letter
^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^j. ^^^.^
A conspiracy was soon formed between him and
Murad's favourite eunuch against the hated
minister. A
letter in AH Naqi's hand and seal,
professing adhesion to the cause of Dara, was
forged and given to a courier, who contrived to
get himself arrested by Murad's road patrol,

without betraying its real Murad
authorship.
was revelling in his pleasure-garden when the
intercepted letter was brought to him a little
before dawn. prince, who had not slept off
The
his night's debauch, was in no fit mood to reflect
wisely or to detect a plot of a type most familiar

in Muslim history. He burst into wrath and
ordered Ali Naqi to be dragged to his presence.
The minister was reading the holy book when
he got the summons, and hurriedly put on his
Court dress as he went. Murad sat on a chair,
spear in hand. Bridling his anger for a moment
he asked Ali Naqi, "If a man plans treason
against his master, what should his punishment
be?" "Death," replied Ali Naqi promptly and
boldly. Then Murad flung the letter to him as
21
proof of his treason. The minister read it, and,

fearless through consciousness of his own inno-
cence and good service, he scoffed at his rivals
who had forged such a clumsy instrument, and
taxed his master with lack of wisdom in not be-
ing able to see through the forgery and to know
his true friends from his foes.
This was too much for Murad, who had been
so long quivering with pent-up
wrath. Starting up he ran Ali
VmurS'''"^"^^
Naqi through with his spear,
shouting, "Wretch in spite of all my favours you
!
have turned such a traitor !" The eunuchs present

fell on the unhappy victim and completed their
master's work.* The reign which began with

this tragedy was to end in one equally horrible.
For the murder of Ali Naqi, Murad had to atone

with his own life-blood, four years later, in a
dismal prison, before the pitiless eyes of enemies,
* If we can trust Khafi Khan's gossip, AH Naqi fell a
victim to a faqir's curse, "Ali Naqi was so strict in ad-
ministration and chastisement that for a trivial fault he
would order the offender's bile to be squeezed out. One
day they brought to him a faqir arrested on suspicion of
theft, and the minister, without making any investigation,
ordered his bile to be pressed out. The faqir under torture
turned his face to the heavens and cried out, 'You are slaying
me unjustly. I pray" thai you too may meet with a similar
fate under suspicion.' But we must remember that a. faqir's
garb is the commonest of all disguises in India and the
one first adopted by criminals trying to escape the officers
of justice.
CHAP. XIII.] MURAD ATTACKS SURAT. 323
without a single friend or sympathiser by his

side.
The honest minister having been removed from

the path, the reign of lying flatterers and eunuchs
began. Murad was enlisting troops in large

numbers and needed money badly. So he sent
an eunuch named Shahbaz Khan with 6,000
troopers and war material to levy contribution
from the rich port of Surat.
The detachment easily occupied
pI«nTerS«rat.*°
the town which had no wall
around it at this time, and began to plunder
the citizens (early in November).'-*" But the
Imperial treasury, enriched with the custom duties
of the greatest Indian port of the age, was
situated within the fort, where the chief
merchants had also deposited their wealth for
safety. As the sea flanked the fort of Surat on

three sides and its walls bristled with guns and
swivels at every yard's interval,| its capture was
no easy task.
* Isardas, 10^ and iia. In Adab, 20512, Qabil Khan
writes thatAurangzib's courier returned from Murad and
reached his master, north of Bidar, on 23rd Nov. with the
news that Murad's army after capturing the city and district
of Surat was engâged in besieging the fort.
f Description of the fort of Surat in Isardas, ila Faiyaz-

;
ul-qaivanin, 421. William Finch in 1609 thus describes it,

"The castle of Surat is on the south side of the river,. ..well
walled, and surrounded by a ditch. The ramparts are
provided with man}- good cannons, some of which are of
ShahbazKhan first tried to corrupt the

commandant of the fort, Syed Tayyib, through
his friend Mirza Kamran, by saying that the
astrologers had predicted the throne for Murad,
and therefore to resist him was two court one's
own ruin. The honest qiladar held firmly to his

duty, and when Shahbaz advanced with his force
to attempt an assault, he drove
Surat fort be- ,
j^j^ ^^^j, -'
^ ^^^^^ discharge
=•
sieged
of artillery. So Shahbaz had to
encamp at a safe distance and begin the slow
and tedious wôrk But his guns
of cannonading.
being light pieces, no harm was done to the fort
walls, and the siege* dragged on for weeks.

Four or five big guns sent from Junagarh were
too long in arriving. Success could be secured
only by other means. Under the guidance of

some Dutch artificers, he ran mines. The
vast size. In front of the castle is the maidan [or

esplanade]."
* For the siege of Surat Fort, Isardas, iia and b ;
Tavernier, i. 328-329 Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 421, 422 (mine

;
fired on 20 Dec), 423, 459, 461, 462 Khafi Khan, ii. 7 ; ;
Alayngirnamah 134 (meagre). In a letter to Shaista Khan,

,
Murad pretends that he had merely sent his men ( six —

—
thousand troopers with guns!) to draw his salary assigned
on the Surat treasury as usual, when the qiladar, acting in
Dara's interest, shut the fort gate in their face and opened
fire on them and that at the same time a letter from the
;
at Court was intercepted reporting the death

qiladar's son
ot Shah Jahan, Murad claims to have acted merely in
self-defence. {Faiyaz, 454).
CHAP. XIII.] FORCED LOAN FROM SURAT. 325
garrison tried to discover and destroy them, but

without success. One of the mines crossed the
wet ditch a yard below its bed, and reached the
base of the outer earth-work technically called
the Shir Haji. The chamber was filled with 50
tnaunds of powder and the charge fired (20th
December). The explosion was terrible. Forty
yards of the wall, with 40 swivel guns, 600
artillery-men and some kinsmen of the qiladar,
were blown up. Syed Tayyib retired to the
citadel, but disheartened by his losses and hope-
less of being relieved, he surrend-
.t"^. .
"^^P*""^^ ered on condition of a free pas-
^
Dy minings.
sage to Delhi. The fort with its
treasuresand guns passed into the hands of

Murad, whose exultation at it knew no bounds.
Shahbaz Khan assembled the merchants and
demanded from them a forced loan of ten lakhs
of rupees. After much higgling the amount was
reduced to one-half, and this sum was advanced
to Murad's agents by the two richest merchants
of the city, Haji Muhammad Zahid (the head-
man of the traders) and Pirji Borah, on behalf of
the entire mercantile
community of Surat. A
bond for the amount, stamped with Murad's seal
and endorsed by Shahbaz as security for repay-
ment, was delivered to these two.*
Khafi Khan, ii.
7,250-251. According to Adah (20^0)
The despatches of victory and the keys of the

fortwere presented to Murad at Ahmadabad on
26th December. But money was a more accept-
able present, and he pressed his officers at Surat
to send him all that
they could, loaded on fast
camels for, in the meantime he had crowned
;•••"
himself and begun to bestow offices and rewards

and to enlist new troops on a scale that soon
exhausted his treasury.
When the news of Shah Jahan's illness was
followed by no tidings of his re-
Murad forms an ,
, , x-w 1 1
•
alliance with Au- covery, but letters from Delhi

rangzib against came fitfully
-^
and then stopped
Dara.
altogether, Murad's suspicions
deepened into certainty. He concluded that Shah
Jahan was already dead, and so got ready to
contest the throne. was necessary to look
It
around for allies, and none was nearer to him than

Aurangzib, his immediately elder brother, govern-
ing a neighbouring province and united to him
by a common hatred of Dara. On 23rd Decem-
ber, 1652, he had met Aurangzib,| then journey-
ing to the Deccan across his province of Malwa,
the contribution impossed was 7 lakhs, of which a part was

reahsed and a bond taken for the remainder. The money
was collected from the merchants in the city long before
the fall of \.\\Q.fort.
*
Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 461, 465.
t Faiyaz, 412. Adah, 23^.
CHAP. XIII.] INTRIGUE AMONG PRINCES. 327
and the two had evidently formed a vague friend-

ly understanding against Dara. But their plans
now took definite shape in the shadow of the
Emperor's approaching death. Curiously enough,
on almost the same date (middle of October)
both brothers suddenly remembered that they had
not corresponded with each other for a long time
past ;
their brotherly love welled out ; and each
wrote to the other a letter mentioning in a neutral
tone the news of Shah Jahan's illness. But each
letter was carried by a confidential messenger who
was charged with certain oral communications

which it was unsafe to put down on paper. The
two letters crossed each other on the way.
Murad also wrote (19th October) a letter to
Shuja proposing an alliance, and it was sent
through Aurangzib's province, who helped the
courier to proceed to Bengal and entrusted to
him a letter of his own to the same purport.*
The correspondence thus began
Their frequent i_
•
1 1 t' u ^ û
c o r r espondence went on briskly. 1 o hasten the
and also with
carriage of letters, relays of
Shuja. , i_i- 1 1
postal runners were estabiisnea

between Guzerat and the Deccan. Murad
stationed two men every ten miles all the way
from Ahmadabad to the Deccan frontier, (end
*
Adab-i-Alamgiri, i6ga and b, ijob. Faiyaz-ul-
âtwanm, 433-434, 417.
of November). Aurangzib continued the system

eastwards to his own seat of government, and
also proposed to Shuja a similar regular and joint
service for the prompt conveyance of letters, —
his men supplying the
relays of runners from
Aurangabad to the frontier of Orissa, and Shuja's
servants taking charge of it from there to Raj-
mahal. Each prince also sent confidential agents
to the Courts of the other two.* Where hearts
are set on one purpose, an agreement is soon
arrived at. Correspondence with Shuja was
slow and interrupted owing to the immense dis-
tance and lack of roads, and hence only a
general agreement was formed with him. But
between Aurangzib and Murad letters passed
quickly, and the two soon matured a plan of
concerted action. For secrecy of correspondence
Aurangzib sent to Murad as early as 23rd October
the key to a cypher to be used in future. From "j"
the very beginning Murad places himself help-

lessly under Aurangzib's guidance. In letter
after letter he asks for his brother's advice as to
his own future steps, and am ready
writes, "I
to advance. Inform me of your wishes and I
shall act accordingly." Indeed so wholly did
Murad enter into Aurangzib's policy of throwing
• Adab, 171a, 205a and b ; Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 421, 422.
f Adab, i6gb. Faiyaz, 424.
CHAP. XIII.] MURAD CROWNS HIMSELF. 329
a religious cloak on their war of personal ambi-

tion, that his letters assume a sanctimonious
tone calculated to raise a smile in those who
knew of his private character. Taking the hint
from Aurangzib, the gay reveller of Ahmadabad
poses as the champion of Islam ;
he threatens
Dara with extirpation as the enemy of the holy
faith; he refers to his eldest brother as the
Mulhid (Idolator),
— the very term adopted
by Aurangzib and his Court-historians and ;
he professes confidence about his future

success on the strong religion of
in "reliance
Muhammad."* short, he was familiarising
In
himself with the phraseology of one who would
soon become a Padishah Ghazi, or " Emperor
waging war on infidels."
While his diplomacy was thus making happy
progress and Shahbaz had sent him the first
fruits of the loot of Surat city, Murad felt that
further delay was a mere waste of opportunity.

His action was also hastened by
Murad sits on .1
*^^
.1 u
who j ^1
declared
j
the throne astrologers
with one voice that at 4 hours
24 minutes after the sunrise of 20th November

there was such a conjunction of auspicious
planets as would not happen again for many

years to come. The moment was too precious
*
Faiyaz-ul-qavuanin, 427, 432.
to be lost. and secrecy, at the time

In all hurry
indicated Murad mounted a throne in his Hall
of Private Audience, with only a few trusted
officers as witnesses. Then he appeared at the
public darhar and conferred titles, posts, and
—
rewards, the last being as yet in the form of
promises only The news was imparted in
!
absolute confidence to his general Shahbaz in

the besiegers' camp before Surat, with instructions
to communicate it to one other high officer
only.* The public coronation
'"ok place on 5.h December
htmse/Emp:'"'
with as much pomp and rejoic-
ing as the low state of his finances would permit.

The new Emperor took the title of Maruwwa-
juddin his name was publicly read from the
;
he issued coins of his own, and conferred

pulpits,
on his officers high-sounding titles like Murshid-
parast Khan Fatih Jang, Sultan Niaz Khan,
and Tahawwur Khan. In the district towns,
too, the new Emperor's titles were proclaimed
from the pulpit, and the band played joyous
notes. An envoy with gifts was sent to Persia
to announce the glorious accession. The
zamindars hastened to Court to pay their
respects to the newly risen Sun.| Murad

* Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 473-474.
t Faiyaz'ul-qawanin, 474-475, 464, 460. Alamgir-
namah, 134.
CHAP. XIII.] WHERE TO LEAVE FAMILY. 33I:
thenceforth affected the royal style in hi&
letters. On
19th January, 1658,
his victorious
troops from Surat joined him*" at Ahmadabad ;

he was now quite ready to start for Agra,
and
waited impatiently for Aurangzib's signal.
Before Murad could leave his province and
embark on the perilous contest for the throne,.
there was one matter of supreme importance to
be settled. Where was he to leave his wives and
children in safety ? No man
He chooses a could foresee the distant end
stronghold for j •
his family.
, ,
of the struggle.
,
He might^ wade
, , 1
through his brothers' blood to

the throne, and then all would be well. Or he
might fail and then would come a day of

;
the
unspeakable misery for him and his family
:
luckless claimant would be done to death in a

gloomy prison head would be severed by the
;
his
rude hands of slaves, critically examined by his
victorious rival, and finally exposed to the public
gaze his widows would be dragged to the

;
loathsome bed of their husband's murderer his ;
tender children would be consigned to dungeon

and either drugged with opium into imbecility
or strangled to death when came of age.
they
Murad, therefore, looked about for some strong-
hold where his family and those of his chief
* Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 464, 426.
HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. t1
332 [CHAP. XIII.
adherents might reside in safety during his

absence and even tide over
any temporary reverse
to his arms, some
refuge to which he himself
might gallop for shelter after the wreck of his
army on an adverse field. Junagarh, at first con-
templated, was rejected as too far off Cham- ;
pan ir was finally chosen. ••'
From the very outset Murad was for

drawing
the sword and throwing the
Aurangzib'scau- ,, j -i a ,
tious policy and scabbard away, while Aurangzib
Murad's impa- on him a cautious and
ticnt zeal. ^^ged
'^
_
temporising policy. Murad pro-

posed that the brothers should march at once
from the South and attack Dara before he had
time to consolidate his power and win over the
captains of the Imperial army posted far and
near. Aurangzib pressed him not to take any
compromising step or set up the banner of revolt
openly, but to wait, to dissimulate, and to send
hollow friendly letters to Dara, till they should
know for certain that Shah Jahan was dead. He,
therefore, condemned Murad's siege of Surat and
public coronation as acts of too precipitate and
open a character. But to such remonstrances
Murad replied that Shah Jahan was already dead
and that Dara's cunning hand had forged their
father's style of writing and affixed the Imperial
Faiyas'ul-qawanin, 420, 478.
CHAP. XIII.] MURAd's impatience. 33J
seal to the letters issued Shah Jahan's name.

in
He rightly pointed out that no reliance could be

placed on the letters from their agents at the
capital reporting the old Emperor's recovery,
because the houses of these agents were watched
by Dara's men and they were compelled to write
to their distant masters false news at the dicta-
tion of Mir Salih, the brother of Dara's secretary,.
Raushan-qalam.* In letter after letter,

up to the
actual starting for Northern India, we see Murad
all fireand haste, while Aurangzib is cold and
hesitating. Murad urges passionately but in vain,
"To wait for true news from the Court is to lose
time and assist our enemy sooner you
;"
— "The
advance from Aurangabad to Burhanpur, the
better for our work and truer to our agreement ;"^
— "We are losing time and letting our business
by waiting for certain news of Shah Jahan.
suffer,
Our enemy is growing stronger (in the mean-
time/';
— "Let us start together for Agra. It
only
remains for you to give the order."j"
Aurangzib had suggested to Murad that a

diversion should be made against
^''^
Dara by instigating the Persians
Pe'^rS"^
and Uzbaks, to invade Afghanis-
tan, which was then a province of the Mughal
*
Adah, 170a and b, 205a. Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 418, 429.
t Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 418, 421, 422, 425, 427. Adab, 205a.
empire. This infamous counsel to bring a

foreign enemy in to settle a domestic quarrel, was
at first rejected by Murad as unnecessary ; "As I
know that the Persians, even without any

prompting on our part, will make a move
to wreak vengeance for the past, it does not seem
proper for us to show eagerness and to direct

them (to an invasion of India)." A little later
Murad changed his mind, and, reporting the
rumour of the death of Shah Jahan, begged
armed aid from the Persian king. The latter
replied that he had massed 30,000 men in
Oandahar besides another force in Khurasan, in
readiness to intervene in India, but in the mean-
time he was sending a high officer with some
presents as envoy to Murad, in order to learn
the real state to affairs in Hindustan. After his
coronation (December) Murad sent a letter to
Shah Abbas II. by the hand of Taqarrub Khan,
to announce his accession and press for military
assistance. The Shah in reply assured Murad
of his friendship, and stated that he had already
warned the Persian generals and nobles to be in
readiness and had ordered provisions to be col-
lected for a four or five years' campaign in India,
and horses to be sent to Farah, Bist, and Qanda-
har, and would despatch a force of musketeers by
sea to Surat to aid Murad, while the rest of the
CHAP. XIII.] ALLIANCE WITH AURANGZIB. 335
Persian army would march inland through

Qandahar to Kabul.* These promises either
the Shah did not mean to keep, or they were
rendered unnecessary by Aurangzib's rapid and
decisive success.
From the first Aurangzib had volunteered to
help Murad, but on what terms ?
Terms of part- ^ . . . .
, ,.
Evidently the understandmg
nership between
Aurangzib and v^âs that after their common
Murad.
enemy had been vanquished,
the brothers would divide the empire among
themselves. Yielding to Murad's request,
Aurangzib sent him the following definite and
solemn written agreementf just before the
march into Northern India :
"Whereas the design of acquiring the throne

has now been set on foot, the standards of the
Prophet have turned their faces to their goal,
and all (my) pious aim is to uproot the bramble
of idolatry and infidelity from the realm of Islam
and to overwhelm and crush the idolatrous chief
* This account of the
negotiations with Persia is based
on Faiyaz-itl-qawanin, 422, 427, 430, 464, and Ruqat-i-
— —
Shah Abbas Sani, 13 16, 23 28 (to Murad). The Shah also
intrigued with the Deccani Sultans and received from Dara
a petition for aid and a request to conquer Bhakkar. Ruqat-
i-Shah Abbas Sani, to Adil Shah (16 19,93 100), to Outb — —
—
Shah (19 23,89 93), — to Dara — 10), to the Governor of
—
Multan (210 214).
(7
f Adab-i-Alamgiri, ySb-jga. It is also quoted in the

Tazkirah-i-salatin-i-Chaghtaia.
336 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. XIII.
with his followers and strongholds, so that the

dust of disturbance may be allayed in Hindustan,
—and whereas my brother, dear as my own
heart, has joined me in this holy enterprise, has
confirmed anew with strong (professions of) faith
the terms of co-operation (between us previously)
built on promises and oaths, and has agreed that
after the extirpation of the enemy of Church and
State and the settlement of public affairs he will
Stay firmly in the station of alliance and help,
and in this very manner, at all times and places,
and in all works, he will be my companion
and partner, the friend of my friends, the
foe of my foes, and will not ask for any land
besides the portion of Imperial dominions that
will be left to him at his request, therefore,
—
I write that, so long as this brother does
not display any (conduct) opposed to one-
ness of aim, oneness of heart, and truthfulness,
my love and favour to him

daily increase ;
wîll
I shall consider our losses and gains as alike, and

at all times and under all conditions I shall help
him I shall favour him even more than now,
;
after my object has been gained and the God-

forsaken Idolater has been overthrown, I shall
keep my promise, and, as previously settled, I
shall leave to him the Punjab, Afghanistan, Kash-

mir, and Sindh (Bhakkar and Tatta),
— the whole
CHAP. XIII.] DIVISION OF EMPIRE. 337
of that region to the Arabian Sea, and I shall
make no objection to it. As soon as the Idolator

has been rooted out and the bramble of his
tumult has been weeded out of the garden of the
—
empire, in which work your help and comrade-
ship is
necessary,
—
I shall without the least delay
give you leave to go to this territory. As to the

truth of this desire I take God and the Prophet as
wit7tesses !"
Aurangzib's confidential Aqil Khan

officer,
Razi, tells us a few details of the terms of the

alliance.* "Aurangzib, deeming it politic to be
united with Murad, sent him a loving letter beg-
ging him to come to him, and making this
solemn promise and agreement (i) One-third :
of the booty would belong to Murad Bakhsh and

two-thirds to Aurangzib. {2) After the conquest
of the whole empire, the Panjab, Afghanistan,
Kashmir, and Sindh would belong to Murad, who
would set up the standard of kingship there, issue
coins, and proclaim his own name {khutba) as
king."
At last Murad's period of impatient and irk-
some waiting ended. Early in February, 1658,
Aurangzib, then starting from Aurangabad, wrote
to him to march out of his province about the
time when he himself might be expected to reach
*
.^qil Khan, 25.
22
338 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. XIII.
the Narmada.® For a long time Murad had been

uncertain as to which route the Imperial army
would take in approaching Gu-
fr^m G«z"ra7^"
zerat -whether by way of Ajmir
in his north or from Malwa in
his east. At the end of January his spies brought
him news that Jaswant had arrived near Ujjain
with only three or four thousand troopers. So,
Murad made light of the enemy and set out from
Ahmadabad (25th February) north-eastwards by
Modasa, crossed the frontier of his province on
13th March, and reached Mandesor on the 14th,
occupying the villages of Malwa on the way."]"
We next hear of him a good deal southwards at
Dohad, on 4th April. In the meanwhile he had
learnt that Jaswant's force was many times strong-
er than hisown, and so he had hurriedly retreat-
ed towards his own territory to wait for news of
Aurangzib, of whom he had not heard anything
during the entire month of March.J
Jaswant had issued from Ujjain westwards by
the Banswara road, and taken post six miles from
Kachraud, to wait Murad. That prince was
for
then 36 miles away, and on learning of the ene-

* Alamgirnamah, 43 ; Faiyaz, 430.
t Faiyaz, 426, 428, 433, 440—444. Modasa, 33* 28 N.
73* 22 E. {Ind. Atlas, 22 N. E.). Mandesor, 24 N. 75'5 E.
{Ind. Atlas, 35 S. E.).
\ Faiyaz, 445; Kambu, 11 a.
CHAP. XIII.] JUNCTION OF FORCES. 339
my's strength and position, he prudently made a

detour to avoid Kachraud and arrive nearer to
Aurangzib's line of advance. In pursuance of
this plan Murad marched south-east from Dohad,
crossed the Jhabua, and encamped at
pass of
Mandalpur (probably Barmandal.)"'* Here, on

13th April, he received a confidential messenger
from Aurangzib and the news of
and joins Aurang- in the
zib near Ujjain. » arrived
the latter having
neighbourhood. Then Murad

resumed his march, and next day he joined Au-
rangzib on the way, a few miles north-east of
Dipalpur. The armies of the two brothers were
now united, because the enemy was at hand and
a battle was imminent.
* Isardas, 17a.
Alamgirnamah, 56-57. Aqil Khan, 22.
Dohad, 22*50 N. 74*20 E. (Sheet 36 S. W.) Kachraud,
23*25 N. 75*21 E. (36 N. E.), 36 miles N. W. of Ujjain.
Jhabua, 22*46 N. 74*39 E. (Sheet 36 S. E.). Barmandal,
22*51 N. 75*8 E., stands 29 miles west of Dipalpur and 46 m.
south of Kachraud (Sheet 36 S. E.). There is a place named
Mundla 7 miles west of Dipalpur. Dipalpur, 22*50 N.
75*36 E. about 24 miles S. S. W. of Ujjain.
<^
CHAPTER XIV.
A.URANGZIB ADVANCES FROM THE DeCCAN, 1658.
From 4th October when

Aurangzib
1657,
from the war with Bljapur, to 25th Janu-
retired
ary 1658, when he began his march towards

Hindustan as a claimant to the
Anxious time throne, he passed through a
for Aurangzi jjiost anxious and critical time,
before the war of
succession. Events which he could not pos-
sibly control were moving fast,
and he was bound to move also if he was
not to perish. And yet the future was so
dark and the danger of every possible course of
action so great, that a wise decision was ex-

tremely difficult to make. His present position
was daily growing more untenable, while the
future was ominous. But the difficulties, great and
complex, which he overcame raise to the

highest pitch our admiration for his coolness,
sagacity, power of managing men, and diplo-
matic skill. If it be urged that these do not
CHAP. XIV.] AURANGZIB's DILEMMA. 34I
completely account for his success and that he

was also beholden to Fortune, then the impartial
historian of the period must admit that Aurang-
zib had done everything to deserve Fortune's
help.
Whichever wa}'^ Aurangzib turned, he was
faced with danger. The exulting Deccanis
interpreted his retreat from Bidar as a confession
of defeat. TheBijapuris boasted that they had
rolled the tide of Mughal invasion back their ;
armies tried to hem the Imperialists round ; and

their local officers drove out isolated Mughal
outposts. Even the Sultan of Golkonda seized

the opportunity of the retirement of Mughal
troops he renewed his efforts to retain a hold on

:
the Karnatak and tried to seize some villages

near the frontier fort of Udgir."*'
Yet Aurangzib could not remain where he

„.
His ,^, «
critical posi-
was.
, The news had got out *=•
tion in the Dec- that the Emperor had ordered
peace to be made and recalled

the additional troops sent to the Deccan. It was
impossible for Aurangzib to punish the Bijapuris

by arms, or to overawe them by a display of
superior force. He could not even safely stay
* The Bijapur historian asserts that Aurangzib escaped

with his army from the Bijapur territory only by bribing the
wazir Khan Muhammad {Basatin-i-salatin, 349.) Adab,
job, 197a.
342 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XIV.
in their territory. A cruel fate threatened to

snatch away from his grasp the fruits of his long
and costly war with Bijapur, just when he was
about to taste them. True, Adil Shah had
agreed by solemn treaty to pay a huge indemn-
ity and to cede the fort of Parenda and a large
tract of land. But how could he be held to his
promise now ? Concessions wrung by force could
be maintained by force alone.
Aurangzib, therefore, determined to play a
game of boldness in order to realise the terms of
the treaty before the Bijapuris could recover
from their recent defeats or learn of the full ex-
tent of the weakness and distraction of the
Imperial Government. He at first gave it out

that he would stay at Bidar in readiness to
punish the Bijapuris if they broke their word.
Later on he announced a wish to march in
person to Ahmadnagar, and actually sent his
army under his son there, in order to overawe

the refractory qiladar of
He is forced to
Parenda, who was not yielding
choose between .
two evils : to lose up his charge. In his letters to

^°'
^^J^P"' ^^ frequently invoked
the'crownT
his father's authority in demand-
ing the payment
quick promised in- of the
demnity and theatened war in case of default.
But this policy of facing round to Bijapur and

CHAP. XIV,] TO TURN TO NORTH OR SOUTH? 343
making military demonstrations in the South

had its drawbacks too. The affairs of Hindus-
tan had necessarily to be neglected. The long-
er Aurangzib delayed in maturing his plans for
contesting the throne, proclaiming himself a

claimant, and marching on Hindustan, the
greater was the time that would Dara gain for re-
calling the captains from the Deccan,

chief
winning over officers and men far and near, con-

solidating his own power, and effectually counter-
acting Aurangzib's possible designs. Moreover,
during this period of suspense all ambitious and
selfish men go over to Dara in the
wêre likely to
belief that and slow Aurangzib would
the timid
never make himself Emperor.*
If, on the other hand, Aurangzib concentrated
, „ , his forces, made a public
^ claim
or to lose all the
gains of the Bija- to the throne, marched north-
pur w r.
and openly broke with
wards
the Imperial government by enlisting troops and
forcibly detaining with himself the officers order-

—
ed back to the Court, then he would, no doubt,
check Dara in time, he would secure the adhe-
sion of ambitious adventurers. But at the same
time the helpless condition of Shah Jahan, the
civil war among the princes, and the temporary
collapse of th e Imperial authority would become

* Adab, 94a.
patent to Bijapur, and hope of getting Paren-

all
da or the promised indemnity would be gone.

And at the same time his other enemies in the
South would raise their heads Golkonda would
:
recover the reluctantly ceded and eagerly coveted

province of Karnatak Shivaji would raid the
;
Junnar and Ahmadnagar districts. In short, the

fruits of the last two years' warfare in the South
would be totally lost to him.

The whole history of Aurangzib's changing
anxieties and hopes, plans and
The policy he
followed.
devices, and the variations of
policy with every fresh deve-
his
lopment during this eventful period, is clearly

and fully unfolded in his numerous confidential
letters to Mir Jumla preserved in the Adab-i-
Alamgiri.^ Briefly put^ his first plan was to rea-

lise the terms of the Bijapur treaty as quickly as
possible and then, secure about the Deccan, to

embark on the struggle for the throne. The suc-
cess of this plan, depended on the Bijapuris
promptly keeping their promises, before the
secret of Shah Jahan's helpless illness leaked out.
The letters tell the story of how the hope of a
speedy settlement with Bijapur daily grew fainter
*
Adab, 92a —
95a (Aurangzib to Mir Jumla), 197a 206a
—
order of Aurangzib, to Mir Jumla), 1786
(Qabil Khan, by
(Qabil Khan to Aurangzib).
CHAP. XIV.] CONSULTATION WITH MIR JUMLA. 345
and fainter, how he tried diverse means to get

the promised territory and money, how he
conceded to Bijapur one by one the hard terms
wrung out of it by the treaty,
— till at last, in
despair of getting anything from Bijapur, he

gave up all thought of the South, and turned his
undivided attention and resources to the pursuit
of his schemes in Northern India.
Compelled to give up for the present the

idea of further conquests from
Mir Jumla sent on 28th
Bijapur, Aurangzib,
to get Parenda »,»• t
Fort. September, sent Mir Jumla 1
towards Parenda to take delivery

of the Fort in terms of the treaty. Qazi
Nizama, who accompanied the Mir, was
soon afterwards deputed to Bijapur to realise
the promised But before the Mir's
indemnity.
departure, Aurangzib had held long and secret
consultations with him and taken his advice on
every contingency
possible in anticipation.
Even Mir Jumla had gone towards Parenda,
after
Aurangzib wrote to him almost every day, and

important oral messages were delivered and
consultations held by means of
with him
confidential officers like Shaikh Mir and Abul
Fath, who made repeated trips between the
Prince and the minister. Not a step was taken
without first seeking Mir Jumla's advice. "I
34^ HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XIV.
have no friend or confidant but you," as Aurang-

zib told him.
The Prince set out on his return from Kaliani

on 4th October and reached
Aurangzib re- Bidar in five days. A Mughal
°
treats from -^
Kaliani garrison under Ali Beg was left

to hold Kaliani. At Bidar,
according to the Emperor's last orders, Aurang-
zib was to halt and keep hold of the conquered
territory. But untoward events rendered his

stay here useless and even dangerous. High
officers like Mahabat Khan and Rao Chhatra Sal
had left for Delhi at the Imperial summons.
Another great general, Nasiri Khan, though
entreated by Aurangzib to stay till he was
relieved, had abandoned his post at Bir to return
to his charge of Raisin in Malwa. The retreat
of the army from Kaliani was taken to mean an
abandonment of the new conquest. The Bija-
puris grew bolder and attacked detached
Mughal parties wherever they could find them.
Their general Afzal Khan with a large army
crossed the Binathora river and advanced to
recover the Kaliani and Bidar districts.
Worst of all, the Bijapuris intercepted near Nal-
drug Aurangzib's despatch to Mir Jumla together
with the deciphered copy of a secret letter he
had received from his agent at Delhi, and thus
CHAP. XIV.] INTRIGUE WITH HIS BROTHERS. 347
they learnt the truth about Shah Jahan's critical

condition and the hostility between Dara and
his brothers.* Aurangzib himself was growing
more and more anxious at having got no fresh
letter from Delhi for several days past. Was.
his father dead? If so, he must make an attempt
for the throne without further loss of time.
he provided for the future with his usual

So,
foresight and wisdom. Bidar Fort was repaired,
the ravages of the late siege restored, its artillery
properly arranged, and the necessary provisions

and munitions stored. A garrison of 5,500
under Mir Jafar was left here. At this time
Aurangzib wrote to Murad a letter which merely
said, "You have not written to me for a long
time past.... I shall soon return to Aurangabad.
You must have heard the news about the
Imperial Court." But his real message, pro-
posing an offensive and defensive alliance be-
tween the two brothers against Dara, was orally
entrusted to Allah Yar, the confidential messenger
who carried the letter to Murad. He also wrote
similar lettersto Shuja in Bengal. A commu-
nication received from Delhi on the 17th, after a
*
Kambu, 6b. Adab, igja, 203a, 1496, 157b. Aqil Khan,
i6. Naldrug, 27 miles N. E, of Sholapur {Ind. At. 57).
348 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. XIV.
long silence, only confirmed his suspicion that

^ndJ T3'j
Bidar Xto ^f.
Shah Jahan had lost his control
the
old Mughal tcrri- and that affairs at Court had
taken a new turn. Therefore,
he made up his mind, and started from Bidar
on i8th October, 1657.*
Immediately there was the greatest rejoicing
in the Deccani kingdoms. Here were the
Mughals abandoning their late conquests as
untenable ! vain did Aurangzib try to put a
In
bold face on the matter in vain did he write to
;
Qutb Shah : "The retreat of my army was

due to a wish to reassure the people of Bijapur
who were frightened by its presence and had
abandoned the cultivation of their lands, and
also because I had got news that my Begam's
illness had increased. ""j" The plea was too
palpably false to be believed. While his van-
quished enemies were raising their heads in the
South, and a storm was brewing against him in
the North, Aurangzib received one of the
severest domestic shocks : the
.ttlrjLni:. day after leaving J idart he

learnt that his principal wife
*
Adab, g2b, i6ga and b, igga. Kambu, 6b.
f Adab, jia.
I Adab, 198a, asserts that Aurangzib learnt the news on
19th October one march out 0^ Bidar, but igoa states that
the news reached Aurangzib's Court at Bidar in the night
preceding the iSth.
CHAP. XIV.] RETURN TO MUGHAL TERRITORY. 349
and the mother of three of his sons had died at

Aurangabad on the 8th of the month.
Shah Jahan had ordered Aurangzib to stay at
Bidar ;
but the prince now
got a plausible excuse
for marching to Aurangabad, viz., to console his
children newly bereaved of their mother. For
some weeks after leaving Bidar he did not write
any Emperor, nor give any reason
letter to the
for his return to Aurangabad."^ But he corres-

ponded frequently with Shuja and Murad, espe-
cially the latter, who was nearest to him, and
thus built up an alliance against Dara, Murad's
first letter, sent with a confidential servant named
Muhammad Raza on 19th October, had crossed

Aurangzib's letter to him (written about the
15th). And now, assured of his support, Aurang-

zib sent him a cypher in which their
the key to
future correspondence was to be conducted, as
"prudence is needful, and writing in the ordinary

alphabet is not proper."!
On leaving Bidar, Aurangzib's plan at first was
to go to Pathri, some 120 miles
north,where the road for Bur-

c«ui^*yfor"news
of Shah Jahan's
hanpur and Hindustan branches
condition. „ , , i- , a
off from that leadmg to Auran-
gabad. If he heard of Shah Jahan's death on the

* Adab,
198a and b.
f Aurangzib to Murad {Adab, i6ga~ijoa), to Shuja (Adab,
—
170a I7i«). Murad to Aurangzib {Faiyaz, 413 435).
—
35° HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [cHAP. XIV.
way he would follow the former route and march

into Northern India otherwise he would set his
;
iace westwards and return to Aurangabad, the

But the period of un-
seat of his viceroyalty.--''
certainty was only prolonged no decisive infor-

;
mation came from Delhi, and for weeks after

leaving Bidar, Aurangzib passed his time in the
greatest anxiety and vacillation.

On i8th October he learnt from a letter of his
agent at Delhi that Shah Jahan had become
helpless on the 2ist came another letter, saying
;
that the Emperor's illness was decreasing. A third

letter, received on the 22nd, brought news of an
opposite tenour Dara had become supreme at

:
Court and was daily strengthening his position.

A secret message from the Collector of Agra,
evidently professing devotion, reached Aurang-
zib at this time. It only confirmed his worst
suspicions the very fact of such a letter being

:
written meant that a demise of royalty had taken

place or was very imminent ; "one of these two
alternatives must have happened, Shah Jahan —
is either dead or a helpless invalid."!
In view of these facts Aurangzib proposed to

send his son Muhammad Sultan with an army to
Burhanpur, to close the ferry over the Tapti river,
* Adah, igSfl.
f Adah 199a
— 2006, 1696.
CHAP. XIV.] BIJAPURl BUPLICITY. 35I
to detain in the Deccan nobles like Nasiri Khan

then returning north at the Imperial summons, and
also to assemble the local landholders in the
Prince's serviceand enlist new troops. But to do
so would have been to commit himself openly it ;
would have been an overt act of rebellion, which

he could not have explained away if Shah Jahan
recovered. Aurangzib, therefore, hesitated and
asked Mir Jumla's opinion, who condemned the
proposal and requested that Muhammad Sultan
should be sent towards Parenda instead.*
In fact, while days and weeks wore on without
. ,, « the expected event taking place
pairs of getting at Delhi, Aurangzib and Mir
Parenda Fort,
j^^j^ ^^^^ wistfully looking
towards Parenda. Every letter of Aurangzib to
the Mir contained an urgent order "to settle the
affair of Parenda as quickly as possible, in order
that the most important business of all may be

undertaken before it is too late." The minister
still flattered himself that the fort could be
secured by threat or bribe, and both these means
were employed in turn. But Aurangzib made a
more correct estimate of the character of the
Bijapuris and their future line of action than

Mir Jumla did. He frankly wrote, "No trust in
the words of the Bijapuris.... They used to lie
* Adab, 200a, 20ib.
even in the life-time of Khan Muhammad (who

was in our interest). There is no hope that the
affair (of peace) will be accomplished.... No good
waiting in vain near the fort of Parenda."*'
Mir Jumla, however, persisted in his own view.
At his request Aurangzib sent
while Mir Jumla him solemn written promises of
ismore hopeful ,
the
^. => favours addressed to
and tries all sorts
of means.
qtladar Parenda to induce
of
him to give up the fort. But the
attempt failed. Then Mir Jumla tried a show of
To please him, Aurangzib reluctantly sent
force.
Muhammad Sultan with a part of the army from
his side at Pathri (4th Nov.) to join the Mir near
Parenda. The young prince was told to place
himself under Mir Jumla's orders, and "to be
judgment."|his
guided entirely by
Mir Jumla had hoped that the force accom-
panying Sultan would be exaggerated by popular
report and this would cow down the Bijapuri
qiladar. Aurangzib even made a public declara-
tion that hewas himself going to Ahmadnagar
to coerce the Bijapuris, and ordered the palace
there to be got ready for his use. J But all
these tricks failed. The news of Shah Jahan's
* Adab, 200b, 930 and b.
t Adab 201b, 203a and b.
X Adab, 71a, 1503.

CHAP. XIV.] EFFORTS TO GAIN PARENDA. 353
illness became public. The Bijapuris shrewdly

guessed the situation. They knew that Aurang-
zib,with his depleted force and distraction about

the succession, was not prepared to renew the
war them, and so they delayed yielding
wîth
and paying the promised indemnity.
their forts
Mir Jumla, still hoping against hope, lingered
near Parenda, trusting that his envoy at the
Bijapur Court would influence the Sultan and
his Ministers and secure the peaceful surrender
of Parenda. Though every moment was preci-
ous for "the most important business of all" and
Aurangzib was impatient to get Mir Jumla back
at his side to make the necessary preparations
for war with Dara,
yet he permitted the Mir to
continue in that quarter with M, Sultan for
weeks longer, if by so doing he expected to get
Parenda. About 6th December Sultan was
recalled to his father's side and Prince Muazzam
was sent in his place to Mir Jumla's camp near
IT.-'
But the hope of getting Parenda and the war-

indemnity grew fainter and fainter, and, as the
complexion of affairs at Delhi grew more and
*
Adab, g^b-gâ, 946.
23
more ominous, Aurangzib relaxed and finally

abandoned all his claims on
After three mon- r>-- j^-j^ ir- j
ths Mir Jumla re- îjapur and tried to make friends
turns without sue- with Adil Shah in a fashion
cess to Auranga- •
^ î
jj^j^ amusing to those who know
i i
not
the crooked ways of diplomacy.
As early as the end of October he had instructed
Mir Jumla to terminate the affair of Bijapur by
giving up all claims to Parenda and tribute, and
remaining content with Adil Shah's promises and
oaths to maintain peace on the withdrawal of
the Mughal army. But evidently Mir Jumla still
hoped to get the cessions, and so he did not then

adopt the policy here recommended. He spent
three months in the Bir district, wîthin easy
reach of Parenda, in the vain hope of inducing
the Bijapuris to keep their promises. At last
even he was undeceived he confessed that there
;
was no good in staying there any longer. His

return to Aurangabad was hastened by a pe-
remptory order of recall received from Shah Jahan

about 22nd December. Leaving Bir about the
27th of the month, he reached Aurangabad about
the first of January, 1658.*
* Adab, 202b, 94&.

CHAP. XIV.] AURANGZIb's PREPARATIONS. 355
Aurangzib had arrived at Aurangabad on nth

November, 1657, and set himself
Aurangzib at
his
to the task of preparing the way
Aurangabad :
.
preparations for for his own succession to the

the war of sue ^^rone. He had one eye turned
cession :
-^
on Mir Jumla at Bir and another

on Shah Jahan at Agra. The idea of his march-
ing to Ahmadnagar to overawe the Bijapuri
officers was definitely abandoned. On 28th
October he had taken a very necessary precau-
tion by sending a force under Malik Husain to
Handia to seize all the ferries of the Narmada
and prevent correspondence between Dara and
the Mughal officers in the Deccan. He also
wrote friendly letters to the Gond Rajahs of
Deogarh and Chanda, through whose territories
his road to Agra lay. A few men in his camp
who had tried to send news
Agra wêre punish- to
ed and carefully watched, and a secret courier
was expelled. At the same time he urged his
forms an alii-
^"^"^^ ^° ^^^^^C^ "^^S : "We
ance with Murad should be on the watch to get
and Shuja. , ,, -j ,, tt-
news from all sides. His
alliance with Murad was made strong and its
terms clearly defined. Letters were frequently
sent to Shuja, both by way of Agra which route —
was unsafe, being in his enemy's hands, — and also
through Orissa. But distance forbade any useful
league or concerted action between these two

brothers. So, they were content to vow mutual
friendshipand a common hostility to Dara.*'
But what line of action was Aurangzib to
adopt now ? His followers were
"'"^^
from dIih!. looking up to him to declare his
policy. A prompt decision wâs

required from him ;
but a decision at this stage
was most difficult to make, and beset with
dangers. The news from the Imperial Court was
conflicting. The first intimation of Shah Jahan's
illness was followed by a long silence from
;
about 8th October to the i8th he received no
tidings of his father's condition.

Then (on iSth
October) he learnt from his agent at Delhi that
Shah Jahan had lost all control and that the state
of affairs at the capital had taken a new charac-

ter. Three days came a letter
afterwards
(written on the 5th) saying that Shah Jahan's

illness was decreasing and that he was conduct-
ing business without difficulty. The next day

brought another letter (dated the loth) from his
at Court, which stated that Dara had
agent
virtually usurped the government and was doing
everything at his own will,
— changing officers,
taking away jcigirs, and collecting men and

money, though the orders were issued in Shah
« Adab,
93a, 2016, 1706, 203a.
CHAP. XIV.] SEEKS MIR JUMLA's ADVICE. 357
Jahan's name. Other communications from Agra

only increased his distraction and uncertainty
about Shah Jahan's real condition.
His followers were equally distracted. As he
wrote to Mir Jumla, "The army
Aurangzib's dis-
traction :
province, after a year's
^f ^^-^^ r j >
hard campaigning, has lost heart

on hearing of the Emperor's illness, and has been
unsettled in various ways. They are in greater
trouble than can be described. Many (of my^
officers want to return to the Emperor."* How
harassing Aurangzib's anxieties were and how
open to objection every possible line of action
before him was, will be seen from the following
letter which he wrote to Mir Jumla in cypher :
"The desires of my well-wishers can be realised only

„, secret^ 1 ^^ when the occurrence of Shah Tahan's
His letter
^^^^^ -^ verified, and the news of it
to IVlir Jumla ^^rives. Otherwise, what probability is
asking what^^^^^ ^^^^ j^ ^j^^ Emperor's lifetime
policy to Choose. ^^^^^^ ^^^ divulgence of the heart's
^,^^
secret desire of my other comrades (allies) such a work will
be undertaken, and the project of advancing and crossing
the (frontier) river carried out ? But I gather from my Court
agent's letter that it is impossibe for the Emperor to recover
from this disease he has not strength enough left to pull him
;
back to life. Most probably the affair has (already) become

past remedy.
If in such circumstances, I
delay in equipping my army
and publishing my claim (to the throne), in what hope will
men consent to keep my company? If the officers here,
seeing my negligence and indifference, return to the Court,
and Dara becomes aware of my condition, it will be impossible
*
Adab, 936.
for me to attract other worldlings and seekers of rank.

So,
I have determined on this :
— if we can quickly conclude
the
affair of Bijapur, it will be good, because then I can reach
Burhanpur before the screen is withdrawn, Shaista Khan
recalled to Court, somebody else appointed in his place (as
Governor of Malwa), and Dara wins over the zamindars (of
that province) and seizes the forts of Raisin, Mandu, etc.
The fort of Raisin, which is under Nasiri Khan, can be got
(by us) now without effort, and the army of this province can
be led by hope to accompany me, and fresh troops may be
carefully enlisted.
But if the Bijapur affair is delayed, and my scattered forces
cannot be concentrated, and, in the meantime, the true news
(of Shah Jahan's death) arrives, the time for most of the
above works will have already slipped away. That is the
reason why I have been hurrying you."*
When, in the 4th week of December, Mir Jumla

received a strict order of recall from Shah Jahan,
Aurangzib's depression reached its lowest point.

He wrote to his confidant "Friend, God assist :
you ! What shall I write about my own troubled

state or describe how the days pass over me ? I
have no remedy save patience.""]'
Murad, too, was urging him in letter after
. , letter, to be immediately up and
,
Aurangzib '
.
wishes to wait doing, and not to give Dara

and watch.
further time to strengthen his
own and cripple his brothers* power
position
beyond repair. But Aurangzib refused to raise
the banner of rebellion before knowing for certain
that Shah Jahan was dead. His own army was
* Adab,
940.
f Adah, 95a.
CHAP. XIV.] PLANS OF THE COURT. 359
small, and he was making desperate efforts to

collect the sinews of war by securing the payment
of at least one portion of the Bijapur indemnity.
Possibly also, he waited to let Dara show his

hand and divide his strength by attacking one of
the brothers first.*
But the quick march forced Aurang-

of events
zib's hand. He learnt by 24th November that
Dara had decided to send an Imperial army
against Shuja who was advancing from Bengal.
Shah Jahan's policy (he inferred) was clearly
this So long as a few days of his life remain
:
'
and out of regard for him no unfilial movement

is undertaken from any quarter, he will make such
arrangements that after (his death) no injury may
be done by any (of the other three princes) to
Dara.'t
Dara's plan with regard to the South was now
fully unfolded. He wanted to
weaken each of his two brothers
A?unfoW°ef'
there and set one against the
other. For this he made the helpless Shah Jahan
transfer Berar from Aurangzib to Murad and
remove the latter from the viceroyalty of Guzerat.
But Murad had discussed with Aurangzib and pre-
* Anecdotes of Aurangzib, § 6. Adah, 205a.

f Adab, 205b.
pared himself beforehand for such a contingency ;
he refused either to take Berar or to give up

Guzerat."* Dara then two Imperial armies
sent
under Jaswant Singh and Qasim Khan, the
governors-designate of Malwa and Guzerat, to
bar the path of Aurangzib and expel Murad from
Guzerat, These two forces left Agra on i8th and
26th December. Murad's jagirs in Malwa were
taken away, and Shaista Khan removed from
that province as friendly to Aurangzib. In De-
cember, Murad crowned himself and took Surat

Fort by force and such overt rebellion could
;
not be left unpunished by the Imperial govern-

ment. Lastly, Mir Jumla received a formal Impe-
rial letter of recall which it would have been flat
rebellion to disregard. Similar letters reached
Aurangzib's officers.j"
The time for action had at last arrived.

Further inactivity under these circumstances
was impossible Aurangzib hoped ever to be
if
king or even to live in freedom. His mind was

made up. He sent a most flattering letter to
Mir Jumla, highly extolling his wisdom, thank-
* Faiyaz, 413-414.
+ Adab, 946, 2026. Kambu, loa.

CHAP. XIV.] MIR JUMLA ARRESTED. 361
ing him for his entire devotion to his interests,

and placing him above all his other followers :
—
"I know you are faithful to your word. Your intention
in going to Hindustan was and is no
Aurangzifa in- other than to increase my power and
vites Mir Jumla grandeur and to make me succeed in
to his side to my heart's desire. You have often said
help in prepar- hearing, 'I wish for Hfe only
within my
ing for war. see the master of mankind
that I may
(
= Aurangzib) on the throne; and in
realising this aim I value not my life or property.' Now is
the time to display your devotion. I do not need others in
making the necessary equipment for this business, while you
are alive. I care not for those (officers) who have been
estranged from me by reason of my partiality to you. Come
to me, so that with your advice I may engage in prepara-
tions for the work of gaining the crown."*
Mir Jumla returned to Aurangabad about ist

January, 1658, avowing that he was going to
Agra to viâit on the Emperor. But a plot had
been already contrived him and
between
Aurangzib, and a little play was acted to save
the Mir's family at the capital from Dara's
vengeance. Mir Jumla feigned fear of Aurang-
zib's intentions and refused to see him, saying,
"As I have been ordered by the Emperor to go
to him, I have no choice but to
He arrests Mir 1 »» * -i 1
•
Jumla by collu- obey. Aurangzib sent him a

sion, on a false his
friendly message through
Muhammad.0Sultan,
charge of treason.
son "to
drive all suspicion out of his mind" and to
* Adab, 2056, (a report of Aurangzib's words that Qabil

Khan wrote to Mir Jumla).
3^3 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XIV.
persuade him to visit the Prince in order to re-

ceive an important oral message for the Emperor.
As soon as Mir Jumla entered the chamber of
Aurangzib, he was arrested at a preconcerted
signal,* and all his property and artillery seized
by Aurangzib in the name of the State. But the
mask had not yet been thrown off, and so
Aurangzib gave an ostensible reason for this
act he publicly announced that Mir Jumla was
:
thus punished because he had not sufficiently

exerted himself against Bijapur and was in secret
collusion with the two Deccani sultans But !
his real motive comes out in the letter which he

wrote to the Mir after defeating Dara, when he
set him free and said, "You insisted on going
back to the Court at an inconvenient time in

spite of urging you to the contrary.""}" The
my
captive wazir was lodged in the prison-fort of
Daulatabad, to be released, restored to his
property, and promoted to the highest rank of
the nobility with the honoured titles of Premier
* Kambu, lob. Aqil Khan 20. Alamgirnamah, 83 and

84.
+ Aqil Khan, 20. Adab, 6jb, 95a (Aurangzib writes,
"That imprisoned you was not due to any disloyalty on
I
your part. Only you showed remissness in exertion and

insisted on going back, &c.") Khafi Khan writes "Aurang-
zib imprisoned Mir Jumla at Daulatabad as a stroke of
policy to prevent his ill
repute." (ii. 9). The official his-
tory, Alamgirnamah also admits that Mir Jumla was arrest-
ed "for political reasons'' (84).
CHAP. XIV.] PRETENCE OF LOYALTY. 365
Peer (Khan-i-khanan) and Faithful Friend

(Yar-i-wafadar), as soon as Aurangzib made
himself Emperor."'-''
Even atthis stage Aurangzib was not prepared

to break openly with the Imperial Court by
taking an irrevocable step. He urged Murad to
abate his ardour and practise subterfuge. For
himself he announced that his loving heart had
been distracted by hearing sad rumours about
Shah Jahan, and that like a dutiful son he was
going to
Agra to see his father in his illness, re-
lease him from Dara's
control, and thereby save
the empire from alarm, confusion and tumult.
As his pious journey to his father was likely to
be resisted by Dara's creatures, he was taking his
army with himself but his mission was entirely
;
pacific.So he wrote to Shah Jahan and the

new wazir Jafar Khan."]"
In the meantime, from the beginning of January
I]
he had been pushing his military preparations

most vigorously on. First, he wanted to settle
the problems of the Deccan and secure the sinews
of war. Letters were written to Qutb Shah press-
* Adab,
96a. Alamgirnamah 191, 563.
f Alamgirnamah, 41. Kambu \ia. A. S. B. MS. F.
56, pp. 54 57.
— Masum 44a-45fl (incorrect paraphrase.)
Adab, I23fl, (after the battle of Dharmat). Faiyaz 466-467
(Murad to Jafar Khan).
ing him to pay up the balance of his indemnity.

TT. ^ J. , , Since his return from Haidara-
History of his
dealings with bad Aurangzib's tone towards
'
Golkonda king had been
the
harsh and chiding. He was particularly displeas-
ed at Abdullah having intrigued with Dara and
poisoned the Emperor's ears against him. He
frequently duns him for the arrears of tribute and
the balance of the promised indemnity, urges him
to banish from his mind the vain dream of keep-
ing hold of the Karnatak, and wârns him to

withdraw from that province his officers (especial-
ly Abdul Jabbar), who were obstructing Mir
Jumla's agents there. Further the Golkonda
king is commanded to restore the relays of post-
men by Mir Jumla from Mughal
established
Deccan to the Karnatak across the Golkonda
territory. When Qutb Shah prayed for the remis-
sion of a part of his indemnity, Aurangzib taunt-
ingly replied, "What can I do? You better
appeal to Jahanara and Dara, and through
their mediation submit a petition to the Em-
peror." And again, "You do not keep your pro-

mises but are listening to wicked and ruinous
advice. I cannot save you !""*
During the invasion of Bijapur, Qutb Shah is
asked to send a contingent of auxiliaries. "You

* Adab, 59a —636, 69^-700 (Aurangzib to Qutb Shah).
CHAP. XIV.] POLICY TOWARDS QUTB SHAH. 365
have kept 32,000 horsemen inspite of your (pre-

tended) poverty. Send me 5,000 of them quickly,
as you promised. Do
not delay in providing the
arrears Recall
of tribute. your men from Mir
Jumla's estates in the Karnatak." A harsh and
rude officer, Mir Ahmad Said, was sent as Mughal
envoy to Golkonda to hustle the defaulting king
and exact the arrears of tribute. "When Aurang-

zib retreated from Bidar, he thus rebuked Qutb
Shah "I learn that on hearing of the march of
:
the Imperial army from Bidar and the circulation

of some rumours (about Shah Jahan's death)
false
among the vulgar, you have changed your atti-

tude of fidelity, and your silly ministers have
given you improper counsels,
—
so that you are
making delay in sending escort and despatching

the collected arrears of tribute ; you are trusting
to a fox-like policy and are passing your time
idly under a false hope Relying on false news,
you have ceased to keep your former promises !"'*
But soon afterwards his own needs forced
Aurangzib to assume a gentler

whose king is at
^ p-^^^ j^^ instructed Mir
last conciliated.
Ahmad
not to pain the king's
mind in realising the tribute due. Later on, the
objectionable envoy was recalled
and one more
acceptable to the king was sent in his place, with
* Adah, 6ga, yoa-yia.
366 HISTORY OF AURANG2IB. [CHAP. XIV.
instructions to behave gently to him. When his
Vanguard was being sent to Burhanpur, Aurangzib

urged Qutb Shah thus "Now is the time for you
;
to show your friendship and exert yourself that

nothing unfriendly may be done." A little later,
when Aurangzib himself marched northwards to

contest the throne, he sent a most conciliatory
letter toQutb Shah, urging him to guard the
frontiers of Mughal Karnatak from mischievous
persons and not to encroach on the Imperial

territory.*
Aurangzib also sentfriendly epistles and
presents to the Queen Mother of
^'
Jth Bijapurf Bijapur, urging her to expedite
the payment of the indemnity,
and next despatched a secret oral message to her.
to Burhanpur he wrote
Just before marching
again to her "I hope the Deccani sultans
: will
remain quiet (during my absence) and you will

keep your promise (about sending the indemnity
money), so that I may reward you when I have
become Emperor."!
We have seen how as early as October
Aurang-
zib had proposed to Mir Jumla a friendly settle-
ment with Bijapur by abandoning all claims to
the territory and indemnity promised by that
* Adah, 64, T\b, 65a and b, 72a.
I Adab, 51 6-526.
CHAP. XIV.] BIJAPUR FRIENDSHIP SOUGHT. 367
State in the recent treaty.-'-' This policy, held in

reserve atthat time, was now put in practice.
Adil Shah was informed by the Prince, "At Mir
Jumla's wicked advice I had attacked your
kingdom as well as Golkonda. Guard your
people well. Let there be peace and happiness.
Remain loyal and keep your promises....! agree
that (i) the fort of Parenda and
Large conccs-
-^^ dependent
^ territory,
•" the
sions promiseo
to Adil Shah in Konkan, and the m(3/ia/ of Wangi,
friendship.
which have been annexed to the
empire, together with that
portion of the Karnatak which had been granted

to the late Adil Shah, — should be left to you as
before, and(2) out of your promised indemnity
of one krore of rupees, thirty lakhs are remitted.
Protect this country ; improve its administra-
tion. Expel Shiva who has sneaked into posses-
sion of some forts of the land. If you wish to
entertain his services, give him Jagirs in the
Karnatak, far from the Imperial dominions, so

that he may not disturb them. Send the reduced
indemnity. Be loyal, and you will be amply
rewarded. — I am going to Hindustan with my
army. Now is the time to show your loyalty
and friendliness. The late Adil Shah had
promised to send a contingent to me, should an
* Adah, 202a and b.
3^8 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [cHAP. XIV.
occasion for it arise. Do you send me at least

10,000 cavalry. I shall grant you the territory
up to the bank of the Banganga. I promise not
to accept the offer of Shahji or of the sons of
Bahlol and other officers of yours to enter my
service. So long as you remain faithful, no
officer of this Court will molest your dominion.
Should any one come from Hindustan to invade
your country, I shall defend it."*"
The concessions here made were ample beyond
Adil Shah's fondest dreams, and he knew that
they would be withdrawn as soon as Aurangzib's
need was over. Indeed the above offer contained
conditions liable to great latitude of interpreta-
tion and afterwards, in his hour of victory
;
over his rivals, Aurangzib seized this loophole to

repudiate his promises and to demand more than
all that Bijapur had agreed to yield by the
treaty of August, 1657.I
But some money realised from the Deccani
sultans now into
Aurangzib's hands and
fell
helped to equip him for the arduous struggle for

the throne.J Mir Jumla's wealth and excellent
*
Adah, i62a-i63fc.
t Adah, i6Tb.
X The public money in the Deccan just before the invasion
of Bijapur was 64 lakhs of rupees, — viz., Reserves of 20
lakhs at Daulatabad and Asir, and of 30 lakhs in the other
public treasuries, Golkonda indemnity of 2 lakhs of hun
CHAP. XIV.] AURANGZIB's FRIENDS AT COURT. 369
park of artillery, served by European gunners,

were of inestimable use to Aurangzib, who had
attached them early in January. These "supplied
the much-needed means of Aurangzib's
progress
towards his object, at this critical time," as the
historian Aqil Khan Razi points out.
All this time Aurangzib was intriguing active-
ly but in secret with the

Aurangzib in- .
, •
, . .
courtiers at the capital and the
trigues with the
nobles at Court officers in the provinces
and the generals.
high
•
1, », , v o
(especially Malwa). Some anec-
dotes have come down to us which prove that
Aurangzib was regarded by the ministers and
even by Shah Jahan himself, as the ablest of
the princes. I find it impossibe to reject them
entirely as prophecies made after the event.

Of all the four sons of Shah Jahan he had the
best reputation for capacity and experience ;
the known record of his actual performances
was most varied and distinguished. Evidently
all self-seeking nobles and officers recognised
(=10 lakhs of rupees) realised by Ahmad Said about Dec.

1656 {Adab, 1956, Waris, 121b.), Bijapur present of four
lakhs of rupees in cash and kind brought to Aurangabad by
Abul Hasan, in the 3rd quarter of 1656 {Adah, 191a). From
this total must be deducted the cost of the war with Bijapur
and bribes to Bijapuri deserters, against which the 12 lakhs
worth of booty taken at Bidar was a partial set off. What
wealth, if any, Aurangzib and Muhammad Sultan secretly
took from Qutb Shah we know not but popular report ;
it.
greatly magnified
24
him coming man, and hastened to secure

as the
their future by doing him friendly turns or at
least by sending him secret assurances of their
support. As Dara reported to Shah Jahan,

"Aurangzib is winning over the nobles and the
pillars of the State. He is doing his work by
means of secret epistles."*=*
The enlisting of newhad been going
soldiers
„.
His ...^ ^ bounty of one
on apace. A •'
military
p reparations month's pay wâs advanced to
completed. ^jj recruits. Muhammad Beg
in Khandesh was ordered to select and engage
as many Bundela infantry and Buxari artillery-
men of reputation as he could get. Two officers
were sent to bring 2,000 maunds of saltpetre

from Balapur and to buy sulphur and arsenic
at Surat and convey these materials to Burhanpur
for manufacturing gunpowder. Lead for mak-
ing shot in sufficient quantity was stored at
Burhanpur and Handia. A quantity of gun-

powder and fuses, evidently taken from the
Deccan forts, accompanied the Vanguard led
by Muhammad Sultan. A thousand soldiers
were enlisted by Sultan Beg in the sarkar of
Bijaygarh. Many Maratha chiefs also joined
Aurangzib with their contingents. In this way
* Nos. 54 and 5, India Office Pers.
Ruqat-i-Alamgivi,
MS. 370, f. 8ia, Kambu, 86, \oa, Aqil Khan, 23.
CHAP. XIV.] HIS CHIEF FOLLOWERS. 37?
his army was swollen to 30,000 picked troopers,

besides Mir Jumla's excellent train of cannon
served by English and French gunners.*
Aurangzib was even stronger in officers than in

men and material. During his rule
°^ *^^^
^^ *^^ Deccan he had gathered
^liiczT^^
round himself a band of very
able servants, all attached to him by gratitude
and some by personal affection. They did him
signal service during the contest for the throne,
often giving up their lives in stemming the
enemy's onset in the hard fights of the War of
Succession. Those who survived naturally rose

the
to the highest offices, and were at once
throne and ornaments of his Court
pillars of his
during the early years of his reign. Such
were
Murshid Quli Khan the diwan, Shaikh Mir the
warrior and confidential adviser, Aqil Khan

Razi the equery and personal attendant, Qabil
Khan the facile and trusty secretary, Khan-i-
Zaman the energetic Inspector of Ordnance,
Muhammad Tahir, a veteran captain raised to
the peerage as Wazir Khan, the
envoyfaithful
Isa Beg (created Mukhlis Khan), the highborn

and experienced Shamsuddin Mukhtar Khan,
*
Adab, 936, 168^-169^, Isar-das (i6a) and
Aqil Khan
at 30,000 strong. Also
(25) both estimate Aurangzib's army
Kambu, iib. A. N. 42.
and above all that jewel of a servant, Mir Jumla,
great in war, greater still in counsel. Of the

Imperial officers who had served in the Deccan,
besides Multafat Khan, his able son Hushdar
Khan, Najabat Khan, Qazi Nizama and some

others, Aurangzib secured the adhesion of Nasiri
Khan, recently transferred from the Deccan to
Malwa. Lastly, he released from prison and
took with himself Rajah Indradyumna of
Dhamdhera,* a valiant Rajput of Malwa. Two
other of the most devoted Hindu followers of
Aurangzib were Rao Karan the Rajah of Bikanir

and Subh-Karan the Bundela chieftain of Datia
and father of the more renowned general Dalpat
Rao.
Before leaving the Deccan he took steps to
maintain his hold on the country
His arrangements
for keeping hold
during his absence. Shah Beg
,^. i, j r ,
of the Deccan Khan was recalled from the
during his ab- Karnatak with his detachment, '
scnce.
and ordered to guard the pro-
vince. Prince Muazzam was left at Aurangabad
with two high officers and a strong force to carry
on the government and to prevent the public
peace from being broken by Shivaji. Aurangzib
did not lose his fear lest that "son of a dog," as
he called the youthful Maratha leader, should
*
Adab, 99, M. U. ii.
265.
CHAP. XIV.] MARCH TO HINDUSTAN. 373
seize the opportunity of his absence. His new-

born son Muhammad Akbar was left in Fort
Daulatabad with his harem, but two other sons,
Muhammad Sultan and Muhammad Azam, ac-
companied him to the war. Some forts were
also repaired and a wall of defence built round
the suburb of Karan-pura, as the absence of the
main army in Northern India might tempt
spoilers. The officers were ordered to engage
houses at Aurangabad and Burhanpur and leave
their families there. Money was given to them
in aid of these necessary
arrangements.*
On hearing of Murad Bakhsh's coronation and
Mir Jumla's arrest, Shah Jahan
He openly ,
. .
, , .
marches north- ^^"* letters oi reprimand to his

wards to contest two them to
sons, ordering
the throne.
return to the path of obedience
and duty. But they pretended to see only Dara's
hand in these Imperial letters, and insisted on
going to the capital to pay their respects to the
Emperor in person. At last, his preparations
being -well advanced, Aurangzib considered
further delay useless, especially as Jaswant Singh
and Qasim Khan on reaching Malwa were sure
to strengthen Dara's interest there and organise
the local zamindars to bar the road from the
—46; Dilkasha,
1 8 —Adab
*
2 1 .
20ia, 168b, gia, 123a ;
A. N. 43
South. So, after giving to Murad the impatiently

expected notice to start, he sent his eldest son
with the Van towards Burhanpur (25th January,
1658) and himself left Aurangabad with the rest of
his army eleven days afterwards (5th Feb.). He
now began to exercise royal prerogatives, bestow-
ing titles, posts, and promotions of mansab (rank).

Muazzam was created Viceroy of the Deccan and
Wazir Khan that of Khandesh.^--
Burhanpur was reached on i8th February, and
here the organisation of the
y^j. g ,
he halts army and the preparations for

one
the march were completed. A
month's halt was made in this town. Aurangzib
had written a letter to Shah Jahan inquiring
about his health and hoping that the Emperor
would soon completely recover, look after the
administration himself, and put an end to
Dara's usurpation of the supreme authority. But
day by day only alarming news of the Court
reached him. His agent Isa Beg, too, arrived
from Agra and fully unfolded the state of affairs
there, saying how after his illness Shah Jahan
doted on Dara to an extreme and that Prince
had made himself Emperor in all but the name.
Isa Beg was the bearer of secret messages from
* A.
N., 42 —46. Aqil Khan, 24—26. Kambu, 106.
Masum, 42b — 45a.
CHAP. XIV.] CROSSES THE NARMADA. 375
many nobles, professing devotion to Aurangzib

and asking him to push on to the capital, without
fearing the largeness of the Imperial army, as it
was at heart hostile to Dara.

Encouraged by these promises of support and
unwilling to let Jaswant Singh have more time
to consolidate his power in Malwa or close the
northern road effectually, Aurangzib set out from
Burhanpur on 20th March. From Mandwah he
sent his eldest son back to arrest
^"d imprison Shah Nawaz Khan,
NrwalTha^^^
who was unwilling to accom-
pany Aurangzib in his open rebellion, and had
lingered behind at Burhanpur under false pretexts.
This high officer, though he was the father-in-law
of Aurangzib and descended from the royal blood
of Persia, had to sacrifice liberty to loyalty,
(26th March). By Aurangzib's order, he was kept
a prisoner in the fort of Burhanpur for seven
months.*
At Mandwah there is a parting of the roads
to Hindustan. One path run-
crosses the •
i.1. >. J 1
Narmada ^^^S north-eastwards crosses the

Narmada at Handia. But
Aurangzib took the other route, turned to the
46 — 53,
* A. N. Anecdotes of Aurangzib, § 6,
209,
Kambu, Aqil Khan, 23-24. Mandwa Is a station on
106,
the G. I. P. Railway, 19 miles N. N. E. of
Burhanpur,
{Ind. Atlas, Sheet 54).
north-west,and in seven marches reached

Akbarpur on the bank of the Narmada, the
stream that has divided Southern India from
Northern since time immemorial. Here he
forded the river without the least opposition
(3rd April) and then marched due north towards
Ujjain, through the pass overlooked by the hill-
fort of Mandu.
On 13th April he reached the environs of
, . . Dipalpur and learnt that Murad

„ ^
and joins Murad. , , . ,
had arrived some miles west of

him. A messenger was sent to invite the younger
Prince to join him without delay. Next day,
both the armies began their march, and on the
way, near the lake of Dipalpur, the brothers met
together their armies were united
; and with ;
redoubled strength and confidence they pushed

on towards Ujjain to encounter Jaswant, who
was only one day's march in front. In the even-
ing Aurangzib encamped at the village of
Dharmat, on the western bank of the Gambhira
(an affluent of the Chambal), and decided to
fight the enemy next day.*
*
Akbarpur, 22-9 N. 75-32 E. on the Narmada, 13 miles
west of Mandlesar {Ind. At. Sh. 37 N. E.) The hill-fort
of Mandu is 14 miles north of Akbarpur, Dipalpur, 22*50
N. 75-36 E. (Sh. 36 S. E.) N. 75-43 E. is
Dharmat, 23
12 miles north of Dipalpur, 2 miles S. W. "of the Fatehabad
Railway Station, and 14 miles S. S. W. of Ujjain. (Sh. 36
N. E.) A. N, 53—56, Aqil Khan, 26, Isar-das, 17.
D3 Sarkar, ( 3ir) Jadunath
4.61 History of Aurangzib
I
332
I v.l
Roberts
UnHunr=itv of Toronto

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if V II »B SlSa

4. Chaitanya's Pilgrimages a>id Teachings,

mrita, Madhya-lila, pp. 320+ .. 2

S. K. Lahiri &: Co., 56 College Str., Calcutta.

G. A. Natesan; 3 Shunkurama Chetti Str., Madras.

JADUNATH SARKAR, M.A.,

Professor, Patna College.

Reign of Shah Jahan.

M. C. SARKAR & SONS,

Fullest expansion of Mughal empire under Aurangzib,

European trading companies,

in Aurangzib's last years, xiv — causes, xv—materials of

his history : official annals or namahs, xv — private histories

written by officers, xvi — two histories by Hindus, xvii —

Chapter I. Boyhood and Education.

Chapter II. The Bundela War.

Chapter III. First Viceroyalty of the Deccan.

mits, 36— Bijapur territory ravaged, 37 —peace with Bijapur :

itsterms, 38— treaty with Golkonda, 41 — extent of Mughal

53 — Kheloji Bhonsla 54. slain,

Chapter IV. Marriage and Family

nissa, 68 —others, 70—Jahanara burnt, 73 — recovers, 75 —

79 — Guzerat the land:and the —

Chapter V. War in Central Asia.

106—peace negotiations, 107

Chapter VI. Governorship of Multan and Sindh.

Ii8 —the Hot tribe controlled, —

Chapter VII. First siege of Qandahar.

128 — commercial importance, —

Chapter VIII. Second Siege of Qandahar.

losses,160 — siege abandoned, 161 — Uzbak 162 — raid, bitter

correspondence between Shah Jahan and Aurangzib, 163 —

men, 167 — military prestige, 168.

Chapter IX. Second Viceroyalty of the Deccan.

Aurangzib goes to the Deccan, 170 — his life there, 171 —

182 — no help from Shah Jahan, 185 wrangle between —

Chapter X. Invasion of Golkonda.

214 — Mir Jumla : his career and conquests, 216 —jealousy

Chapter XI. War with Bijapur.

Aurangzib begins the invasion, 264 — siege of Bidar, 265—

269— 270 —siege of Kaliani, 271 —

his raids, 282 — how checked

Chapter XII. Illness of Shah Jahan.

theological studies, 296

character, 299 — Shah Jahan 302 — removes to Agra,

304 — Dara's devoted attendance, 305 — Dara nominated as

armies sent against brothers, 308 — Aurangzib's doings,

and confusion the provinces, 313 — Shuja and Murad

crown themselves, 315 —and march on Agra, 317.

Chapter XIII. Murad crowns himself.

Chapter XIV. Aurangzib advances from the

Aurangzib's anxiety and —

Bijapur or to Delhi 342

from Bijapur, 351 — various devices —

returns baffled, 354— Aurangzib's preparations for disputing

Mughal Deccan, 372

history of India for sixty years. His own reign

teenth century and stands forth as a most

power was formed.