1753. Ameer al Omrah was already formidable to both the Emperor and Intizam ad CHAP. IV. Dowlah. Sooraje Mul, aware of their sentiments, conveyed intimation to the Emperor, that if he would meet him at Secundra, he would join him with all his forces, and deliver him at once from the dangers which, from the ambition of his Ameer al Omrah, impended over his person and throne. The scheme was relished; and the Emperor, under pretence of a hunting party, set forward with as great a force as possible on the road to Secundra. He had advanced as far as that city, when Holkar Mulhar surprised his camp in the night. The Emperor, the Vizir, and other leading officers, fled, disguised as women; leaving even their wives and daughters behind them. Upon this the army disbanded, and Gazee ad Dien marched to the capital, where nothing remained to oppose him. He invested himself with the office of Vizir; seized the Emperor and his mother; blinded them both; and bringing forth Yezzez ad Dien, son of the late Jehander Shah, proclaimed him Emperor, by the title of Aulumgeer the Second. revolution occurred in the year 1753.* This During the same year died Suffder Jung, Subahdar of Oude; and was succeeded Aulumgeer II. by Sujah ad Dowlah, his son. About the same time died also Meer Munnoo, Viceroy, under the Abdalee King, of the provinces of Multan and Lahore. By the severe exactions of the government, and the interruptions of agriculture through the ravages and terror of war, these provinces had for some time been severely afflicted with scarcity. Of this, one important consequence was, an accession to the numbers and power of the Seiks; for that people making it a rule to provide maintenance and occupation for one another, great numbers of persons in distress were tempted to join them; and all were readily received upon adopting the garb and principles of the sect.† The Abdallee Shah withdrew not the government of Multan and Lahore from the family of Meer Munnoo. His son was a minor; but, in quality of guardian of the minor, his mother was allowed to act in his stead. Under this arrangement, the disorder of the provinces increased. The weakness of the administration suggested to the Vizir, who now had changed his title from that of Gazee ad Dien Khan to that of Umad al Mulk, the project of wresting the provinces at once from the hands of this female superintendant, and from the dominion of the Afghauns. During the life of Meer Munnoo, the daughter of the Governess had been promised in marriage to Gazee * The Seer Mutakhareen is followed in the text. Francklin (Hist. of Shah Aulum, p. 4) says, 1755. † Seer Mutakhareen, iii. 137. 1756. BOOK III. ad Dien Khan, who now claimed fulfilment of the contract. The mother, to whom few events could yield greater pleasure, conveyed to him his bride, with all the magnificence which the importance of the nuptials appeared to require. Under the confidence and security which this alliance inspired, the Vizir detached a body of troops to Lahore, who seized, and conveyed to his camp, the deluded Governess, inveighing against his perfidy, and denouncing the vengeance which Ahmed Shah, her sovereign, would speedily exact. The fulfilment of her angry predictions was not long deferred. The exasperated Afghaun hasted from Candahar to Lahore, which was evacuated on his approach; and thence directed his march to Delhi. The Vizir, sensible of his inability to contend with the storm, eagerly solicited reconciliation with his mother-in-law, and employed her as a mediator with the Shah. The invader rejected not the prayer, but demanded a large contribution as the price of his clemency; and, in the mean time, continued his march to Delhi. The wretched Aulumgeer, having no means of resistance, opened to him the gates of the capital; and affected to receive him as a royal guest. For some weeks, Delhi was subject to all the enormities which are practised by a barbarian soldiery, on a prostrate foe. To gratify more fully the rapacity of the invader, Umad al Mulk offered to go in person to raise contributions in the Dooab, or country between the Jumna and Ganges; while the Dooranee Shah was to march against the country of the Jaat Rajah Sooraje Mul. He had reduced some fortresses, and was employed in besieging the citadel of Agra, when a plague broke out in his camp. Upon this he formed the resolution of returning immediately to his own country, without even waiting for the return of the Vizir. An interview, as he passed Delhi, again took place between him and Aulumgeer. The fallen Mogul entreated the invader of his country not to leave him in the hands of his overbearing Vizir. Nujeeb ad Dowlah, a chief of Rohillas, who had lately acted a conspicuous part in the imperial service, was, at the request of the Emperor, appointed Ameer al Omrah; and to him the Dooranee recommended the protection of his master. The Vizir, upon the retreat of the Abdalees, engaged in his party Ahmed Khan, the Bungush chief of Furrukhabad, whose father had lost his life in the contest with the Rohillas. To him and his Afghauns he joined an army of Mahrattas, under Ragonaut Raow and Holkar. With this force he marched to Delhi. The Emperor and Nujeeb ad Dowlah shut the gates of the city; but, after a siege of forty-five days, the Emperor was obliged to submit; while Nujeeb ad Dowlah, by bribing the Mahrattas, obtained the means of escaping to his 1756. own district in Rohilcund; and his office of Ameer al Omrah was bestowed upon CHAP. IV. Ahmed Khan. Alee Gohur, the eldest son of Aulumgeer, was in the vicinity of Delhi, supporting himself with a small body of cavalry on some districts which he had in Jaghire. The Vizir made his father recall him; and the Prince repaired to Delhi, but refused to enter the citadel where he might easily be confined. He was, accordingly, besieged in his palace; but a few of his followers cut a passage for him through the troops of the Vizir, and he made his escape to Nujeeb ad Dowlah, with whom, and with the Subahdar of Oude, he remained for some months; and then betook himself for an asylum to the English in Bengal. The settlement which, with short-sighted policy, the Viceroy of Oude had given to a body of Mahrattas in part of Rohilcund, had fired other Mahrattas with a passion for the fertile country beyond the Ganges. Of this ambition, in labouring the ruin of Nujeeb ad Dowlah, and of the Nabob of Oude,* whose power he dreaded, and whose government he desired, Umad al Mulk resolved to make his account. At his instigation two chiefs Junkojee and Duttah Sindia, set out from Deccan, meditating no less than the entire subjugation of Hindustan. They crossed the Jumna; and driving Nujeeb ad Dowlah from the open country, besieged him in one of his forts, where he defended himself with obstinate bravery. Sujah ad Dowlah saw that the danger was common; and collecting an army marched to support him. He encountered the Mahratta army; gained the advantage, and forced it to cross the Jumna, where a considerable portion of it perished in the waters. Hearing at the same time of the march of the Abdalee Shah, its leaders were sufficiently disposed to accommodation. As soon as Umad al Mulk, the Vizir, was made acquainted with the alliance of Sujah ad Dowlah and the Rohillas, it was his desire, as his interest, to march to the assistance of his Mahratta allies. But he was now beset with a number of difficulties. The Abdalee Shah, whom he had twice offended, was in motion: The Rohillas, with the Nabob of Oude, were opposing the Mahrattas: And Aulumgeer was in correspondence with all his enemies. He resolved, without * The term Nabob, as equivalent to Subahdar, is very modern in Hindustan; and is said to have begun with Sujah Dowlah. Formerly it was not applied to the Subahdar, or governor of the Subah, but to the Subahdar's deputy, or locum tenens; the literal meaning of the word being deputy. The new use of the term is thus accounted for in the Seer Mutakhareen (iii. 167): When the Prince Alee Gohur was on the visit just mentioned, to Sujah ad Dowlah, and received the compliments of that Governor, he addressed him by the title of brother Nabob, which being reckoned an elegant compliment, passed into conversation, when the name was afterwards currently applied to him, and also to other governors. 1759. BOOK III. scruple, to deliver himself from the last of these difficulties. A trusty Cashmerian having received his commission, the Emperor was stabbed with poignards, and his body thrown out upon the strand of the Jumna; where it was stripped by the people, and remained exposed for eighteen hours. Mohee al Sunnut, a son or grandson of Kaum Buksh, the youngest son of Aurungzebe, was taken from confinement, and set up as the pageant of royalty; after which the Vizir hastened to join the conflict against Nujeeb ad Dowlah and the Nabob of Oude. He was on his march when he heard that peace was concluded; and that the Mahrattas were gone to oppose themselves to the approach of the Abdalee King. The means of personal safety now engrossed the mind of Umad al Mulk. He retired to the country of Suraje Mul, and shut himself up in one of the strongest of his forts. Upon the last retreat of Ahmed Dooranee Shah from Hindustan, he had left his son Governor of Lahore and Multan; disordered by revolutions, wasted and turbulent. A chief who had served with distinction under the late Meer Munnoo incited the Seiks to join him in molesting the Dooranees; and they gained several important advantages over their principal commanders. They invited the Mahratta generals, Ragonaut Raow, Shumsheer Bahadur, and Holkar, who had advanced into the neighbourhood of Delhi, to join them in driving the Abdalees from Lahore. No occupation could be more agreeable to the Mahrattas. After taking Sirhind, they advanced to Lahore, where the Abdalee Prince made but a feeble resistance, and fled. This event put them in possession of both Multan and Lahore. Placing the country under a temporary government, they marched homeward at the approach of the rains; but left a Mahratta Subahdar, who next season extended his acquisitions as far as the river Attock. It was at this very time that the army, of which we have already spoken, marched to take possession of Rohilcund and Oude: And the whole Indian continent appeared now about to be swallowed up by the Mahrattas. Had not Ahmed Shah, the Abdalee, whose empire was in its youth and vigour, been upon the stage: Had not the Mahrattas at that time been possessed of extraordinary power; the Mahrattas, in the one case; the Abdalees, in the other, might have extended their dominion from Thibet and Persia to Cape Comorin. The opposition which they made to one another opened a way for a maritime nation to introduce itself from the other side of the globe, and to acquire by rapid strides a more complete ascendant over that extensive region than any single government had ever attained before. Ahmed Shah was not only roused by the loss of his two provinces, and the disgrace imprinted on his arms; but he was invited by the chiefs and people of Hin 1760. dustan, groaning under the depredations of the Mahrattas, to march to their CHAP. IV. succour and become their King. The Mahrattas, flying before him, evacuated the two provinces at his approach; and assembled together from all quarters in the neighbourhood of Delhi. The Dooranee army was joined by the chiefs of Rohilcund, Nujeeb ad Dowlah, Saadoollah Khan, Hafiz Rhamut, and Doondee Khan. For some days the Dooranees hovered round the Mahratta camp; when the Mahrattas, who were distressed for provisions, came out and offered battle. Their army, consisting of 80,000 veteran cavalry, was almost wholly destroyed; and Duttah Sindia, their General, was among the slain. A detachment of horse sent against another body of Mahrattas, who were marauding under Holkar in the neighbourhood of Secundra, surprised them so completely that Holkar fled naked, with a handful of followers, and the rest, with the exception of a few prisoners and fugitives, were all put to the sword. During the rainy season, while the Dooranee Shah was quartered at Secundra, the news of this disaster and disgrace excited the Mahrattas to the greatest exertions. A vast army was collected; and Suddasheo Raow, commonly called Bhaow, the nephew of Ballajee, the Peshwa, and other chiefs of the greatest note, assuming the command, they marched to gratify the resentments, and fulfil the unbounded hopes of the nation. Having been joined by Sooraje Mul the Jaat, and Umad al Mulk the Vizir, they arrived at the Jumna before it was sufficiently fallen to permit either the Mahrattas on the other side, or the Dooranees, to cross. In the mean time they marched to Delhi, of which after some resistance they took possession; plundered it with their usual rapacity, tearing away even the gold and silver ornaments of the palace; proclaimed Sultan Jewan Bukht, the son of Alee Gohur, Emperor; and named Sujah ad Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, his Vizir. Impatient at intelligence of these and some other transactions, Ahmed Shah swam the Jumna, still deemed impassable, with his whole army. This daring adventure, and the remembrance of the late disaster, shook the courage of the Mahrattas; and they entrenched their camp on a plain near Pannipût. The Dooranee, having surrounded their position with parties of troops, to prevent the passage of supplies, contented himself for some days with skirmishing. At last he tried an assault; when the Rohilla infantry of Nujeeb ad Dowlah forced their way into the Mahratta works, and Bulwant Raow with other chiefs was killed: but night put an end to the conflict. Meanwhile scarcity prevailed, and filth accumulated, in the Mahratta camp. The vigilance of Ahmed intercepted their convoys. In a little time famine and pestilence raged. A battle became the only resource. The Abdalee restrained his troops till the |