History of Aurangzib/Volume 1/Chapter 13

by Jadunath Sarkar

Layout 2

CHAPTER XIII.

Murad Bakhsh Crowns Himself.

Muhammad Murad Bakhsh, the youngest son of Shah Jahan, was the black sheep of the Imperial family. He had been tried in Balkh, the Deccan, and Guzerat, and he had failed everywhere. A Murad Bakhsh: his character.foolish, pleasure-loving and impetuous 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.^[1] Unscrupul

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 gifts from a capricious master could not, however, win lasting devotion or true gratitude. Secondly, he had the reckless valour of soldier. Place him in the field of combat, let him face the enemy's array, and the former pleasure-seeker would assume an entirely new character; the martial spirit of Timur would fire his blood, 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 disposition, cool guidance, and timely support which we expect from the supreme commander.

Knowing the prince's incapacity, Shah Jahan His wasir. Ali Naqi,had tried to remedy the mischief by sending to him. Ali Naqi as his revenue minister and chief counsellor. This officer,^[2] 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 who formed Murad's Court. He was strict even to harshness 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 administration was under Ali Naqi's control, he was also envied by the other nobles posted in Guzerat. 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 retirement to impenetrable privacy, as well as of Dara's virtual usurpation of the Imperial authority, reached Murad towards the close of

September, and he immediately set about raising troops and calling up his officers from the districts to take counsel with them. Among these arrivals was Qutbuddin Khanis convicted of treason by means of a forged letter Kheshgi, faujdar of Pattan, and the mortal enemy of Ali Naqi. A conspiracy was soon formed between him and Murad's favourite eunuch against the hated minister. A letter in Ali 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 authorship. Murad was revelling in his pleasure-garden when the intercepted letter was brought to him a little before dawn. The prince, who had not slept off 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 proof of his treason. The minister read it, and, fearless through consciousness of his own innocence 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 being 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-upand is murdered by Murad. and is murdered wrath. Starting up he ran Ali 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.^[3] 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, 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 contributionArmy sent to plunder Surat. from the rich port of Surat. The detachment easily occupied the town which had no wall around it at this time, and began to plunder the citizens (early in November).^[4] 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,^[5] its capture was no easy task.

Shahbaz Khan 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'sSurat fort besieged. own ruin. The honest qiladar held firmly to his duty, and when Shahbaz advanced with his force to attempt an assault, he drove him back by a smart discharge of artillery. So Shahbaz had to encamp at a safe distance and begin the slow and tedious work of cannonading. But his guns being light pieces, no harm was done to the fort walls, and the siege^[6] 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

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 maunds 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 hopeless of being relieved, he surrendered on condition of a free passage to Delhi. The fort with its treasures and 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 lakhsand captured by mining. 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 headman 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 repayment, was delivered to these two.^[7]

The despatches of victory and the keys of the fort were presented to Murad at Ahmadabad on 26th December. But money was a more acceptable present, and he pressed his officers at Surat to send him all that they could, loaded on fast camels;^[8] 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 Murad forms an alliance with Aurangzib against Dara.followed by no tidings of his recovery, but letters from Delhi came fitfully and then stopped altogether, Murad's suspicions deepened into certainty. He concluded that Shah Jahan was already dead, and so got ready to contest the throne. It was necessary to look around for allies, and none was nearer to him than Aurangzib, his immediately elder brother, governing a neighbouring province and united to him by a common hatred of Dara. On 23rd December, 1652, he had met Aurangzib,^[9] then journeying to the Deccan across his province of Malwa, and the two had evidently formed a vague friendly 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.^[10]

The correspondence thus beganTheir frequent correspondence and also with Shuja. went on briskly. To hasten the and also with carriage of letters, relays of postal runners were estabished between Guzerat and the Deccan. Murad stationed two men every ten miles all the way from Ahmadabad to the Deccan frontier, (end 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.^[11] Where hearts are set on one purpose, an agreement is soon arrived at. Correspondence with Shuja was slow and interrupted owing to the immense distance 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.^[12] From the very beginning Murad places himself helplessly under Aurangzib's guidance. In letter after letter he asks for his brother's advice as to his own future steps, and writes, "I am ready to advance. Inform me of your wishes and I shall act accordingly." Indeed so wholly did Murad enter into Aurangzib's policy of throwing a religious cloak on their war of personal ambition, 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 in "reliance on the strong religion of Muhammad."^[13] In short, he was familiarising 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 haj progress and Shahbaz had sent him the first fruits of the loot of Surat city, Murad felt thatMurad sits on the throne further delay was a mere waste of opportunity. His action was also hastened by the astrologers who declared 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 to be lost. In all hurry and secrecy, at the time 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 darbar 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.^[14] and proclaims himself Emperor. The public coronation took place on 5th December with as much pomp and rejoicing as the low state of his finances would permit. The new Emperor took the title of Maruwwajuddin; his name was publicly read from the pulpits, he issued coins of his own, and conferred on his officers high-sounding titles like Murshidparast 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.^[15] Murad thenceforth affected the royal style in his letters. On 19th January, 1658, his victorious troops from Surat joined him^[16] 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 He chooses a stronghold for his family. children in safety? No man could foresee the distant end of the struggle. He might wade through his brothers' blood to the throne, and then all would be well. Or he might fail; and then would come a day of unspeakable misery for him and his family: the luckless claimant would be done to death in a gloomy prison; his head would be severed by the 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 they came of age.

Murad, therefore, looked about for some stronghold where his family and those of his chief 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 contemplated, was rejected as too far off; Champanir was finally chosen.^[17]

From the very outset Murad was for drawing the sword and throwing the scabbard away, while AurangzibAurangzib's cautious policy and Murad's impatient zeal. urged on him a cautious and temporising policy. Murad proposed 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 seal to the letters issued in Shah Jahan's name. 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 dictation of Mir Salih, the brother of Dara's secretary, Raushan-qalam.^[18] In letter after letter, up to the actual starting for Northern India, we see Murad all fire and 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;"—"The sooner you advance from Aurangabad to Burhanpur, the better for our work and truer to our agreement;"—"We are losing time and letting our business suffer, by waiting for certain news of Shah Jahan. Our enemy is growing stronger (in the meantime)";—"Let us start together for Agra. It only remains for you to give the order."^[19]

Aurangzib had suggested to Murad that a diversion should be made againstIntrigue with Persia. Dara by instigating the Persians and Uzbaks, to invade Afghanistan, which was then province of the Mughal 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 meantime 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 collected for a four or five years' campaign in India, and horses to be sent to Farah, Bist, and Qandahar, and would despatch a force of musketeers by sea to Surat to aid Murad, while the rest of the Persian army would march inland through Qandahar to Kabul.^[20] 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 partnership between Aurangzib and Murad. Evidently the understanding was that after their common 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 agreement^[21] 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 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 oneness of aim, oneness of heart, and truthfulness, my love and favour to him will daily increase; 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 Idolator has been overthrown. I shall keep my promise, and, as previously settled, I shall leave to him the Panjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Sindh (Bhakkar and Tatta),—the whole 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 comradeship 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 witnesses!"

Aurangzib's confidential officer, Aqil Khan Razi, tells us a few details of the terms of the alliance.^[22] "Aurangzib, deeming it politic to be united with Murad, sent him a loving letter begging 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 irksome 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 the Narmada.^[23] For a long time Murad had been uncertain as to which route the Imperial armyMurad marches from Guzerat would take in approaching Guzerat,—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.^[24] 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 stronger than his own, and so he had hurriedly retreated towards his own territory to wait for news of Aurangzib, of whom he had not heard anything during the entire month of March.^[25]

Jaswant had issued from Ujjain westwards by the Banswara road, and taken post six miles from Kachraud, to wait for Murad. That prince was then 36 miles away, and on learning of the ene

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 pass of Jhabua, and encamped at Mandalpur (probably Barmandal.)^[26] Here, on 13th April, he received a confidential messenger from Aurangzib and the news of the latter having arrived in the neighbourhood. Then Muradand joins Aurangzib near Ujjain. resumed his march, and next day he joined Aurangzib 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.

1. 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).
2. My account of Ali Naqi and his murder is based upon Khafi Khan, ii. 7—9, Isardas, 10a and b, Kambu, 9a. The date of the murder was most probably some day in the first week of October, as confirmation of the news reached Aurangzib (returning from Bidar) on 29th October, and the first rumours had come some days earlier (Adab, 2016). Alamgirnamah, 135.
3. If we can trust Khafi Khan's gossip, Ali Naqi fell a victim to a faqir's curse. "Ali Naqi was so strict in administration 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 that 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.
4. Isardas, 10b and 11a. In Adab, 205a, Qabil Khan writes that Aurangzib'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 engaged in besieging the fort.
5. Description of the fort of Surat in Isardas, 11a; Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 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 many good cannons, some of vast size. In front of the castle is the maidan [or esplanade]."
6. For the siege of Surat Fort, Isardas, 11a and b; Tavernier, i. 328-329; Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 421, 422 (mine fired on 20 Dec.), 423, 459, 461, 462; Khafi Khan, ii. 7; Alamgirnamah, 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 qiladar's son at Court was intercepted reporting the death of Shah Jahan. Murad claims to have acted merely in self-defence. (Faiyas, 454).
7. Khafi Khan, ii. 7, 250-251. According to Adab (205a) the contribution impossed was 7 lakhs, of which a part was realised and a bond taken for the remainder. The money was collected from the merchants in the city long before the fall of the fort.
8. Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 461, 465.
9. Faiyaz, 412. Adab, 23b.
10. Adab-i-Alamgiri, 169a and b, 170b. Faiyaz-ul-qawanm, 433-434, 417.
11. Adab, 171a, 205a and b; Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 421, 422.
12. Adab, 169b. Faiyaz, 424.
13. Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 427, 432.
14. Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 473-474.
15. Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 474-475, 464, 460. Alamgir-namah, 134.
16. Faiyaz-ul-qawamin, 464, 426.
17. Faiyas-ul-qawanin, 420, 478.
18. Adab, 170a and b, 205a. Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 418, 429.
19. Faiyas-ul-qawanin, 418, 421, 422, 425, 427. Adab, 205a.
20. This account of the negotiations with Persia is based on Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 422, 427, 430, 464, and Rugat-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. Rugat-i-Shah Abbas Sani, to Adil Shah (16—19, 93—100), to Qutb Shah (19—23, 89—93), to Dara (7—10), to the Governor of Multan (210—214).
21. Adab-i-Alamgiri, 78b-79a. It is also quoted in the Tazkirah-i-salatin-i-Chaghtaia.
22. Aqil Khan, 25.
23. Alamgirnamah, 43; Faiyaz, 430.
24. Faiyaz, 426, 428, 433, 440—444. Modasa, 23° 28 N. 73 22 E. (Ind. Atlas, 22 N. E.). Mandesor, 24 N. 75'5 E. (Ind. Atlas, 35 S. E.).
25. Faiyaz, 445; Kambu, 11a.
26. 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.