tiers, he says, looked on a settlement as a victory, and he advised 'Ali Muhammad Khán to report to Court that, to please them, he had left the hills and had returned to Anwala.

Nardyan Das plunders Najib Ali Khán’s camp.

Narayan Dás, an officer of Rájah Jai Singh Sawáe, had been sent to restore order in Bhadáwar. While there, his troops got out of hand from want of pay, and plundered the equipage of Najíb 'Ali Khán, an officer in the employ of Kamr-uddin Khán, the wazír, who was collecting in Karhal.* Nawab Muhammad Khán, who at the time was faujdár of Shikohabad,* sent Amr Singh and Sháistah Khán to persuade Narayan Dás to give up the property. Purdil Khán was despatched with men to aid Najíb 'Ali Khán, and Ja'far Khán Bakhshi, who was out in the parganahs, was directed to follow. In addition Mangal Khán was sent. When the latter reached Saráe Ajít Mall, and Ja'far Khán was near Itáwah, Narayan Dás made off by the fords on the Jamna. They followed and persuaded him to deliver up one elephant, elephant kettle-drums, several swivel guns (rakhla) and cannon, with carts and bullocks. After considerable difficulty, an acquittance was obtained from Najib 'Ali Khán and forwarded to the wazír.

Story of a Mango.

I introduce here, as an illustration of manners, a story about a wonderful mango tree in Farrukhábád. One day Muhammad Khán was seated in the back seat of Muhammad Shah's hauda during a hunting-expedition. The Emperor ate a mango half a seer in weight, of very fine taste, good colour and exquisite aroma. He gave the stone to Muhammad Khán, who wrapped it in his handkerchief, and sent it to Káim Khán then at Farrukhábád. Káim Khán came out to meet it with honour as far as Soront, through which, before the founding of Kásganj, ran the road to Delhi. The mango stone was planted in the Haiyát Bágh, where is Muhammad Khán's tomb. The fruit it yielded when it grew up had no equal in Farrukhá bád, though only half as good as the original.

Whenever it began to flower, a company of infantry (najib) was stationed round it, and they kept guard over it.§ During the fruit season thirty seers of milk a day were poured over the roots. It stood at the

*Both in the Manipuri district.

+ On the Burhganga, 27 miles N. of Eta and about 60 miles N. W. of Farrukhábád.

Nineteen miles N. of Eta and about 8 miles S. W. of Soron..

§ Similar honours were paid in the time of the late Nawáb of Rámpur to the tree "Samar-bihisht" in a village just east of Thána Bhowan in the Muzaffarnagar district. This tree has an entry in the khewat or Proprietary Record all to itself. I think the Nawáb paid Rs. 300 for the tree.

head of Násir Khán's tomb, who had once been Subahdár of Kábul. Nawáb Muzaffar Jang (1771-1796) tried to propagate the tree by budding, but with the greatest difficulty the gardeners obtained one tree, which was put in the 'Ali Bágh, where it was known as the "golah" mango. Nawáb Shaukat Jang (1813-1823) once sent several of the mangoes from the tree in the Haiyát Bágh to Hakim Mahndi 'Ali Khán, chakladar of Muhamdi in Audh, who lived for many years in the Fatehgarh cantonment. Mahndi ’Ali Khán said he had eaten few mangoes equal to them, and he asked for some cuttings. Shaukat Jang gave permission, but from the day the cutings were taken, the original tree began to decay and in one year it dried up and died.

Muhammad Khan's death and his character.

The close of Nawab Muhammad Khán's career was now at hand. He was more than eighty (lunar) years old when an abscess formed in his neck. The Emperor sent a letter of condolence and one of his private physicians, Alwi Khán. The Hakim's treatment was of no avail, and on the 2nd Zil Ka'd 1156 H. (9th December 1743), Muhammad Khán breathed his last. When Muhammad Shah heard of his death, he wrote this chronogram—

Sitún-i-báb-i-mulk-i-Hind uftád.*

About three hours before his death, the Nawáb, to prove the strength with which God had endowed him, took up his bow and arrow from his bed, and aimed at the roof with such force that the arrow buried itself up to its head in the wood.

He was interred in the Haiyát Bágh, in the village of Nekpur Khúrd, pargana Pahára, half a mile or so west from the Mau gate of the city.† The tomb stands on an elevated platform and is surmounted with a high dome, which can be seen for some miles round. It was built by the Nawáb in his own lifetime. Round it he planted a garden in which was every fruit to be found at Delhi. There were forty wells for irrigation, and the income of twelve villages was spent on it. Roshan Khán, chela, had the care of it. While digging the foundations for the tomb, an iron "gaja"‡ weighing five maunds was found. The workmen proposed to fix it on the top of the dome, but Roshan Khán said he could get five maunds of iron easily enough, and he had another spike made. The iron rod thus disinterred was put down at the gate of the garden, and young men went daily to try their strength by 'lifting it. In Násir Jang's time (1796-1813) it somehow got

*Another "Tarikh" is "Dakhl-ul-jinnat wálá."

+ Káli Ráo, p. 53.

† See Kali Ráe, p. 127, for a description of what is evidently the same Gaja as that referred to in the text.

*

broken. The two pieces, in 1839, still lay near the Mau gate, and the Hindus worshipped them, saying, that it was the head of Bhim Sen's spear. Nawab Muhammad Khán to the last maintained very plain and soldierlike habits. His manner was not overbearing, he had no pride, and was free from self-glorification. He always wore clothes of the commonest stuff. In his audience hall and in his house the only carpet consisted of rows of common mats, and on these the Patháns and chelas and all persons, high or low, had to be content to sit. The Nawab sometimes sat on a cushion, sometimes without one. As the Patháns presented themselves, they uttered an “ Auji Nawáb, salám 'alaik" then sat down in rows. At meal times five to six hundred Paṭháns would sit down to the same trays. To each were given two unleavened cakes of half a seer each with a cupful of meat, and a flat dish of paláo, or whatever else there was, all receiving an equal share. The same food was placed before the Nawáb. Paṭháns generally eat paláo of cow and buffalo flesh, and this the Nawáb liked. He disliked soft bread. They say his kitchen expenses amounted to five hundred rupees a day.

When any noble from Delhi visited the Nawáb, no change was made, the same mats were spread to sit on, and the same food presented. The visitors were astonished at the contrast between his great wealth and power, and the simplicity of his personal habits. Then, for each day after their arrival, the Nawab would name some chela to entertain the visitor sumptuously.

Once Nawab 'Umdat-ul-Mulk Amír Khán, on his way from the East, passed through Farrukhábád with his followers, who were so effeminate in their habits that they applied lamp-black to their eyelids, black powder to their teeth, and red dye to their hands and feet; wearing also finger-rings, silver bracelets and ear-rings. The Nawáb himself adopted the same style. Their camp was pitched in the Lakhola Bágh, planted by Nawáb Káim Khán before his accession.† Káim Khán went to see Amír Khán, with whom he was on familiar terms, having known him at Delhi. Amír Khán proposing a visit to Nawáb Muhammad Khán, Kám Khán said he would inform “Bábá Khán" (his father) that day, and would take him the next day. Accordingly he went from Ameṭhit and told his father. Next morning the diwán-khána was adorned with a white cloth, and a common pillow was put ready. Then Muhammad Khán sat down with a high cap on, such as then usually worn at Mau. Before him were a pán-dán of painted wood

* Káli Ráe, p. 127.

† It lies outside the Kádiri gate, east of the city, between it and Fatehgarh cantonment.

Half a mile from the Ganga gate, at the N. E. corner of the city.

and a bell-metal spittoon. Amír Khán arrived and was placed at the Nawáb's side. After a little, the Nawáb taking out a prepared betel-leaf from his wooden box and a bottle of scent from a wooden casket, presented pán and scent to the visitor and dismissed him. Nawáb Amír Khán was much amused at this poor display. On the road back he said to Ķáim Khán, Though your father is a Báwan Hazári, he looks like a villager, why do you not teach him better ?" Káim Khán gave some playful answer.

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Meanwhile Muhammad Khán had given orders to his chela, Ja'far Khán, the chief Bakhshi, (who gives his name to the Mohulla Bazarya Ja'far Khán), to provide such an entertainment that his master's name should not be a byeword in Delhi. Ja'far Khán got out some thousands of silver vessels, he cut up many thousand rupees' worth of gold brocade, and spread scarlet broad-cloth all over his bágh. He sent for all the favourite singers, and made ready the most exquisite meats. Nawáb Muhammad Khán sent to tell Nawáb Amír Khán that a feast was ready at Ja'far Khán's house. After dinner, Amír Khán's men proposed making over the silver dishes for safety to the servants of the house, but Ja'far Khán refused them, saying they were the perquisite of the khidmatgárs. The gold brocade was taken away by the singing-women and their men. Amír Khán was now loud in his praise of Muhammad Khán. At his next visit, the Nawáb made him a handsome present, and excused himself for having entertained him so badly, on the ground that he was only a soldier.

Nawáb Muhammad Khán was a great lover of the fair sex. We know that he had twenty-two sons and twenty-two daughters who grew up and were married. For the number of his concubines he was like a second Solomon. He had, they say, seventeen hundred women in the private apartments of his palaces. There were besides nine establishments (akhára) of one hundred women each, taken from all classes, Káchi, Chamár, Koli, Rájput, Banya, Báhman, Sayyad, Mughal, Pațhán and Shekh. Many had seen their lord's face but once, yet all their life long they received the monthly allowance first fixed. Of the seventeen hundred, some nine hundred had died in the Nawáb's lifetime; their tombs were in the Buland Bágh*, where no men were ever buried. Some days after the death of Kám Khán became known, the Bibi Sahiba, Muhammad Khán’s widow, like a sensible woman, threw open the doors of the Bará Mahal, sending word to the inmates that they had three days given them, in which they might leave if they liked. Those that stayed would get bread of barley and clothes of gazi (the commonest quality of cotton cloth), for neither Muhammad Khán nor Káim Khán was there to provide for them. About four hundred women clected to leave with all their property, and four hundred only remained to eat the Bibi Sahiba's barley bread.

* Just outside the Mau gate.

The Chelas.

Slavery is a part of the Muhammadan legal system, but there must be, I think, few instances, in which it has been carried to the length practised by Muhammad Khán. Slaves were preferred to equals or relations as deputy governors of provinces, slaves led his armies, he even kept a bodyguard of slaves.

One of the reasons assigned for this preference is the trouble given by his brother Patháns of Mau. Many of them at one time had farming leases of parganahs. If the Nawáb complained of embezzled revenue, their answer was, that they would fight, but not pay. If one of them was imprisoned as a defaulter, all the other Paṭháns rose in arms till he was released. For this reason, it is said, some years after his rise to power, the Nawáb remitted large sums to Afghanistan, and induced a colony of the Bangash tribe to emigrate and settle in the city of Farrukhábád. From among them he selected eighteen leaders as Jam'adars. They were petted in every way, the Nawab looking on them as his own right arm, and to them his daughters were given in marriage. He gave them land for their houses on the side of the city nearest to the Ganges, and the quarter to this day bears the name of Bangashpura.

Another expedient resorted to was to seize the sons of Rájputs and Bráhmans, who were then made into Muhammadans. Some were obtained by consent, some by payment; others were the sons of revenue defaulters, whose sons were seized and made Muhammadans. Thousands of boys were thus obtained and taught the precepts of Islám. From them were selected the leaders of the army, and the collectors of land revenue in the parganahs.

Muhammad Khán had quite a passion for increasing the number of his chelas. All his managers (Amils) and deputies (Súbahdars) had orders to send him all the Hindu boys, whom they could procure between the ages of seven and thirteen. When they grew up, they were placed in his police or army, or were appointed to manage the Nawáb's private affairs. Whenever an 'amil had a fight with a troublesome village or invested it, he seized all the boys he could get, and forwarded them to the Nawáb. Others became Muhammadans of their own accord. In this way, every year one or two hundred boys were made Muhammadans, and by the end of his life the Nawáb had made some four thousand chelas. Many of these were killed in battle in the Nawáb's lifetime, many died without issue, and many were The descendants of the rest still exist, and are distinguishnever married. ed as Ghazanfar-bachha (progeny of Ghazanfar), the title of Muhammad Khán having been Ghazanfar Jang. During the Nawáb's lifetime these men were never styled chelas, they were always known as Tifl-i-Sirkár (sons of the State). All places of trust were given to them, the Nawáb's