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النشر الإلكتروني

The Later Mughals (1707-1803.)-By WILLIAM IRVINE, Bengal Civil Service (Retired.)

In continuation of the articles in Part I of the Journal for 1896 Vol. LXV, pp. 136-212; for 1898, Vol. LXVII, pp. 141-166; and 1903 Vol. LXXII, pp. 33-64.

Table of Contents.

CHAPTER IV.-FARRUKHSIYAR (continued).

Section 19. Sikh Campaign, capture and execution of Bandah,
July 1713 to June 1716-(Omitted, being already
printed in the "Asiatic Quarterly Review" for
April 1894, pp. 420-431.)

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20.

The Jaţ Campaign, September 1716-April 1718. 21. Continued Intrigues against the Sayyads, July 1715. 22. Return to Dihli of Mir Jumlah, January 1716.

23. Continuation of Plots: Appointment of 'Inayatullah Khan, March 1716-April 1718.

Note A.-The Jizyah or Poll Tax.

24. Sudden rise of Muḥammad Murad, Kashmiri, December 1717.

25. Sarbuland Khan recalled to Court, July 1718.

26. Attempt to seize 'Abdullah Khăn, 27th August 1718. 27. Mahārājah Ajit Singh sent for, August 1718.

28.

29.

30.

31.

Nizam-ul-mulk is summoned.

Mir Jumlah's second return to Dihli, September 1718.

Mir Jumlah pardoned, October 1718.

Husain 'Ali Khan starts from the Dakhin, November

1718.

32. Progress of events at Dihli, December 1718–January

1719.

33. Return of Muḥammad Amin Khān from Mālwah, Janu

ary 1719.

Section 34.

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35.

Arrival of Husain ‘Ali Khān at Dihli, February 1719. Husain 'Ali Khan marches to Wazirābād, 16th February 1719.

36. Husain 'Ali Khan's first audience, 23rd February

1719.

37. The Sayyads take possession of the palace, 27th February 1719.

38.

39.

40.

41.

The last day of the reign begins 28th February 1719.
Farrukhsiyar is made a prisoner and deposed, 28th

February 1719.

Death of Farrukhsiyar, 27th April 1719.

The conduct of the Sayyads considered. 42. Character of Farrukhsiyar.

Appendix I (Reign of Farrukhsiyar).

A. Farrukhsiyar's age.

B. Length of his reign.

C. Style and title in life, and after death.

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E. Farrukhsiyar's wives.

F. Farrukhsiyar's children.

G. Note on Mirzā Ja'far, Zațalli, Nārnoli.

SECTION 20.-THE JAT CAMPAIGN, September 1716-April 1718.

1

We have now to deal with another branch of that wide-spread Jāt or Jat race, which formed such a large proportion of the Sikh fighting line. Without entering into Colonel James Tod's speculations about their identity with the Goths or Getæ, it may be assumed as a certainty that, for many hundreds of years, a branch of this people has been settled in the country south of the Jamnah, between the cities of Agrah and Dihli. This region, ending on the east at the Chambal river or a little beyond it, marks the eastern limit of their advance from the west. East and north-east of that point there are practically no Jāts. Their position on the flank of the high road between two great capitals and of the routes from both those places through Ajmer onwards to the Dakhin, must in all ages have given this robust race an opening for plundering on the highways, a temptation which they found it impossible to resist,2

1 Beames, I, 134, note, says that between Jaț and Jat there is only a dialectic difference.

2 A lively picture of the dangers of this road early in Bahadur Shah's reign is given by Yặr Muḥammad, Dastūr-ul-Inshā, 130. Between Mathurā and Dihli the road had been entirely stopped for two months,, and a crowd of many hundred

Without attempting to carry very far back the history of these Jāt depredations, we find, without question, that in the reign of Shāhjahān (1047 H., 1637), they killed Murshid Quli Khan, the faujdar of Mathura, during an attack on one of their strongholds. In the next reign, that of 'Alamgir, they several times gave trouble. In Zu-1 Hijjah 1079 H.. (April 1669) another faujdār, 'Abd-un-nabi, lost his life in an attack on a village called Sorah, the home of a Jat freebooter named Kokalā, who had raided the town of Sa'dābād in the Dūābah. 'Ālamgir marched in person from Agrah, and sent on before him a new faujdār, Hasan 'Ali Khan, son of Allahwirdi Khan. Kokalā and a follower of his, Sanki, were captured and executed, limb being torn from limb; Kokala's daughter was married to the Emperor's favourite slave, and his son was made a Mahomedan.1

'Alamgir's prolonged absence in the Dakhin speedily weakened the imperial authority in Northern India. In their master's absence the provincial governors took their ease and winked at abuses. Favoured by this negligence, the Jāts resumed their depredations. At length in 1099 H. (1687-8) Khan Jahan, Zafar Jang, Kokaltash, and Prince Bedar Bakht, son of A'zam Shah, were sent from the Dakhin to restore order. At this time the chief stronghold of the Jats was at a village called Sansani, eight miles south of Dig, and sixteen miles northwest of Bhartpur.8 This place was taken on the 15th Ramazan 1099 H. (14th July, 1688), the chief, Rājā Rām, was killed, and his head sent to the Emperor. Prince Shah Alam, when he was put in charge of the Agrah şubah in the thirty-ninth year, i.e., 1106 H. (1694), also had trouble with the Jāts. Bhajjā, the father of Curaman, is the next leader of whom we hear, and his abode was also at Sansani. In the forty-ninth year of 'Alamgir's reign, 2nd Rajab 1117 H. (19th October, 1705), Sansanī was destroyed a second or third time by Mukhtar Khan, the then ṣūbahdār of Agrah; and shortly afterwards, on the 18th Ramazan 1119 H. (13th December, 1707), Rizā Bahādur attacked it again, sending in ten carts filled with weapons and one thousand heads.

When Bahadur Shāh and his brother, A'zam Shah, took the field travellers, including the wife of Amin-ud-Din, Sambhali, had collected. In 1712 the Dutch envoy and his party also found the road infested by robbers, who were, no doubt, Jāṭs, F. Valentyn IV, 302. The same state of things is reported in the diary of our own envoy, John Surman, a year or two afterwards, Orme Collections, p. 1694, entries of the 8th, 16th, 26th, and 30th June 1715.

1 Ma,āṣir-ul-umarā, I, 540, Pādshāhnāmah, 1, 7, Mirzā Muḥammad, 294.

2 Khāfi Khãn, II, 316, has 1095 H. (1683), but the Ma‚āṣir-i-‘Àlamgīrī is a preferable authority.

3 It is still in the Bhartpur Rajah's territory.

4 Cura, or more politely Curaman, son of Bhajjā, of Sansanī, had by this time

against each other and met between Agrah and Dholpur, Curāman collected as many men as he could, and hung about the neighbourhood of both armies, ready to pillage the vanquished. In the end, so much plunder fell into his hands, that he became from that time forth a most formidable partisan leader, with whom it was necessary to reckon in such troublous times. While Bahadur Shah was at Agrah, Curaman came in, and professing to have repented of his turbulent ways, was granted the rank of 1500 zāt, 500 horse. In Ramaṣān 1120 H., (November 1708), he helped Riza Bahadur, the imperial faujdār, in an attack on Ajit Singh, zamindar of Kāmā, where Curaman was wounded and Rizā Bahadur was killed. In 1122 H. (1710) Curaman joined the Emperor at Ajmer, and took a part in the campaign against the Sikhs at Sādhaurah and Lohgarh. He went on with Bahadur Shāh to Lähor, and was present during the fighting which took place there after that Emperor's death (March 1712). He also seems to have fallen upon and plundered the baggage of both sides impartially, when Jahāndār Shāh and Farrukhsiyar met in battle array near Agrah in Zu-l Hijjah 1124 H. (January 1713).1

Early in Farrukhsiyar's reign Chabelah Rām, then ṣūbahdār of Āgrah, received orders to march against Curāman, and efforts to reduce his power were continued for a long time without success, owing to the underhand opposition of the Wazir and his brother. The next holder of that Government, Samṣām-ud-daulah, Khan Daurān, not feeling strong enough to use force, tried to make terms. Curāman agreed to come to Court, and on the 16th Ramazan (5th October, 1713), when he arrived at Bārahpulah near the city, Rājah Bahādur, Rathor, son of 'Azim-ushShan's maternal uncle, was sent out to meet and escort him. Curāman marched in at the head of 3,000 to 4,000 horsemen, and was conducted to the Dīwān-i-khāṣ by Samṣām-ud-daulah in person. Charge of the royal highway from Barahpulah near Dihli to the crossing on the Cambal, was made over to him, and he soon returned home. But by slow degrees he fell into disfavour, the extent of the country he took possession of was thought excessive, his realisation of road dues was objected to, and his interference with jāgir-holders was disliked. All that a jāgīrdār could collect from him was a little money thrown to him as if it were an alms. These things were repeated to the Emperor in detail, over and over again, until they produced an effect, and he resolv ed that some action must be taken. The difficulty was to find anyone Succeeded to the leadership of the Jāts. Ma,āṣir-i-‘Ālamgīrī, 311, 498, Dānishmand Khān, under above date, Khafi Khăn II, 316, Ma,āgir-ul-umara, I, 809.

1 Dānishmand Khan, entries of the 28th Jamādī II, and 9th Rajab 1119 H. (27th September and 6th October 1707).

competent to undertake such an arduous task. Curaman had meanwhile constructed a new stronghold at a place called Thun.1

At length in the fifth year of the reign, Jamādi II. 1128 H., May— June 1716, Rājah Jai Singh, Sawãe, returned to court? from his government of Mālwah. Finding out Farrukhsiyar's secret desire to get rid of Curāman, he offered himself as ready to undertake and carry out the work. Early in Shawwal (September 1716) he received his orders, and started on the 9th of that month (25th September 1716), being the Hindu festival of the Dasahrah. Some troops under Sanjar Khan and Shamsher Khan, of the Wala Shāhis, were posted at Palwal, thirty-six or thirty-seven miles from the city, to keep communications open, and provide convoys from that place to Hoḍal in one direction, and Faridabād in the other. A large sum in cash was disbursed to Rajah Jai Singh from the imperial treasury, and he sent for troops from his own country. Serving under him were Māhārão Bhim Singh, Hāḍā, of Kotah, Rajah Gaj Singh, Marwari, and Maharão Rajah Budh Singh, Hāḍā, of Bondi,8

Thun having been completely invested, the siege began on the 5th Zü,l Ḥijjah 1128 H. (19th November, 1716). The fort was provided with lofty walls and a deep ditch filled from springs, and round it spread a thick and thorny jungle "through which a bird could hardly make its way." Supplies were abundant; indeed, (though this is probably an exaggeration), there was said to be grain, salt, ghĩ, tobacco, cloth, and firewood sufficient for twenty years. When the siege was imminent, Curaman had forced all merchants and traders, with their families, to quit the place, leaving their goods behind them. Curaman made himself personally responsible for their compensation if he gained the day, and as the property could not be removed, the owners gave their consent without much demur.4

Curāman's son, Muḥkam Singh, and his nephew, Rūpā, issued from the fort and gave battle in the open. In his report of the 7th Muḥarram, 1129 H. (21st December, 1716), the Rajah claimed a victory. He next cut down all the trees round the fort, and erected a large number of

1 Thun does not seem to be well known now. Can it be the Toond of the Indian Atlas, Sheet 50, between Dig and Gobardhan? Or is it Jatolee Thoon, 8 miles west of Sansani? An 18th century writer remarks: "Il y a encore (1767) un Thoun, mais dans un autre endroit, peutêtre pour conserver la mémoire d'une place qui, quoique malheureuse,n'a pas donnē peu de reputation aux Jats," Orme Collections, p. 4218.

2 Mace bearers were sent to fetch him on the 27th Rabi' II. 1128 H. (19th April, 1716), Kāmwar Khan, 140, 163, Ma,āṣir-ul-umară, Mīrzā Muḥammad, 293. 8 Kāmwar Khan, 140, 168, Shiu Dās, 11b.

4 Kāmwar }Khān, 168, Shiū Dās, 12b. Hoḍal, 18 or 19 m. S. of Palwal, Indian

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