BAHADUR SHAH I died in Lahore on February 27, 1712 due to spleen enlargement. But even as his corpse was getting ready to be transported to Delhi, Azim-us-Shan declared himself the next Mughal sultan.
Indeed, he had everything going in his favour, which owed to three major contributors. The first was his proximity to the seat of imperial power. This enabled him to hone the dark art of palace intrigue. The second was the prolific wealth that he had looted from Bengal. A combination of both had thus endeared him to Bahadur Shah I in the sunset of his life.
And when Azim-us-Shan appointed himself as sultan, he embarked on the priority task of crushing all challenge to his power. The challenge emanated from three of his own brothers: Rafi-ush-Shan, Jahan Shah and the bankrupt Jahandar Shah. Until the time that Azim announced that he was the next sultan, the four brothers had been openly fighting amongst themselves. Now, it was three against one.
But Azim was flushed with the self-confidence of a fool who refuses to admit even the possibility of defeat. The confidence rested on two main pillars: a numerically superior military force and an abundant hoard of money. And so, when the confederacy of his three brothers along with their troops faced him across the river Raavi (in the vicinity of present-day Hisar), Azim decided to outwait and out-fatigue them instead of firing the first shot. This is how William Irvine, in his classic, Later Mughals describes Azim’s mindset on the onset of that decisive battle.
Mirza Shah Nawaz Khan Safawi urged Prince Azim-ush-shan to take the field and give battle in the open… They believed that by one sudden onset, they could drive the…enemy’s force away. The only answer they could obtain was ‘wait a little longer.’… [Azim] had an exalted opinion of his own abilities and an equally low one of his brothers’ capacities… When they saw this state of things, his followers were much dejected and made sure that Heaven did not favour their cause.
Which was exactly what happened.
On March 18, 1712, heaven rained hell on Azim-us-Shan’s army. By late afternoon, Azim was left with just twelve of his most devoted followers. At that stage, he finally marched into the battlefield on his elephant. It was quite a pathetic sight. Within minutes, a massive shot from the enemy’s cannon hit the elephant’s trunk, carving a large hole in it. The animal dashed off towards the river, roaring in pain and fury. Azim’s mahout fell down. Another attendant named Jalal Khan Lodi, sitting behind Azim decided that his life was worth more than his master’s, and abandoned him. The elephant climbed over a high, sandy mound and jumped right into a quicksand which swallowed it along with Azim-us-Shan.
Azim-us-Shan had lasted less than a month as the Mughal sultan.
His brother Jahandar Shah was formally installed on the throne on March 29, 1712 and earned the dubious distinction as the maiden puppet Mughal emperor. His short-lived reign heralded a series of frequent murders for succession, which culminated in the ascension of the late Azim-us-Shan’s son, Farrukh Siyar. The same Farrukh Siyar whom Aurangzeb had placed under Murshid Quli Khan’s guardianship less than a decade ago.
On May 2, 1713, Farrukh appointed a weakling named Ubaidullah Muzaffar Jang as the Subahdaar of Bengal. Murshid Quli Khan was ordered to report to him. But Muzaffar Jang soon found Bengal too difficult for his abilities. After taking formal charge in December 1714, he travelled to Patna in June 1715. Then he decided not to complete the journey to Bengal and returned to Delhi in January 1716. He preferred to spend the rest of his life as a courtier than as a Subahdaar.
It appeared that no Mughal official wanted to be the Subahdaar of Bengal. And so, in August 1717, Murshid Quli Khan was elevated as the Subahdaar of Bengal.
But there was a backstory to Quli’s elevation.
It began in May 1712 shortly after the ill-fated Jahandar Shah became sultan. Farrukh Siyar seethed at this unjust upstaging. For two reasons. The first was rooted in his thirst to avenge the death of his father, Azim-us-Shan. The second was his own ambition to grab the Mughal throne. In both, he had the assured support of the notorious Sayyid Brothers. But Farrukh also needed enormous sums of money to attain his goals. Even his personal finances were pathetic. In fact, there was no money in the whole of the Mughal Empire, which was hurtling to its doom. Aurangzeb had bankrupted it.
The Bengal Subah was the only hope.
Farrukh Siyar sent a messenger to Murshid Quli Khan with a straightforward demand: give me money from the Bengal treasury. Quli coolly rebuffed him: “I am the servant of the sultan and I owe no obligation to your master, Farrukh Siyar, who is a pretender to the throne.”
An inflamed Farrukh sent a small force against Quli, which was easily repelled in a battle fought at Karimabad on the outskirts of Murshidabad. Several of Farrukh’s important generals were slain.
Now, Farrukh dispatched another fearsome general, Ibrahim Khan with a larger force. Ibrahim encamped at the Sikrigali Pass (now, Sakrigali) at the western frontier of Bengal. But before he could move any further, he received a lightning message from Farrukh: return immediately.
Jahandar Shah who was closely monitoring Farrukh’s movements thought that this was a ripe opportunity that he could exploit. Accordingly, he sent an army under his son’s leadership to wipe out Farrukh’s supporters in Agra. The timely arrival of Ibrahim Khan saved Farrukh’s day.
Which led to a fresh eruption of internecine Mughal warfare. On January 10, 1713, Farrukh Siyar, aided by the forces of the Sayyid Brothers encountered Jahandar Shah’s army at Samugarh near Agra. The so-called Mughal sultan stood no chance. He was defeated, captured and thrown into prison.
A month later, Farrukh Siyar stormed into the Red Fort and claimed it. The same day, Jahandar Shah’s head was separated from his body. Following the time-tested Muslim political precedent, the executioner fixed Jahandar Shah’s severed head atop a bamboo spear and paraded it on the streets of Delhi seated on an elephant. Jahandar’s body was carried on another elephant.
NOW, MURSHID QULI KHAN sent a respectful tribute to the new sultan, Farrukh Siyar. On his part, Farrukh elevated Quli to the post of deputy Subahdaar of Bengal. This patch-up charted a new beginning in the careers of both men.
On May 6, 1714, Quli was granted the full Subahdaari of Odisha.
And in September 1717, Murshid Quli Khan received the coveted prize: the full Subahdaari of Bengal. But Farrukh did not award it out of the largeness of his heart. Murshid Quli had bought it at a substantial cost. From 1715 onwards up till now, Quli had deposited a total of ₹ 2,40,68,000 into the Mughal treasury. He was thus entitled to the post of the Subahdaar. Once that was confirmed, Quli paid an additional one lakh rupees as a thanksgiving gesture.
As the new Subahdaar of Bengal, Murshid Quli Khan embarked on a fresh trajectory in his career, which had far-reaching consequences both for Bengal and India.
That story will be narrated in the next instalment of this series.
To be continued
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