the empire

I. The great empire of Dehly had virtually ceased to exist; and with the murder of Alumgeer II., in 1760, the last of Final disthe emperors had passed away. His son, Ally Johur, ruption of a fugitive in Bengal at the period of his father's death, of Debly. subsequently ascended the throne, under the proud title of Shah Allum, or king of the world, when, in fact, all that actually remained to him were a few small districts in the immediate neighbourhood of Dehly. All else had been alienated and usurped, either by the viceroys or foreign powers, and was totally irrecoverable.

Details of

empire.

Commencing from the north-west, the whole of the former Afghan territory of Dehly had been conquered, and was now possessed, by Ahmed Shah Abdally. It included the former Kandahar and Kabool, some of the north-western portions of both having been gained by the Persians. Ahmed Shah had received from Dehly the cession of the whole of the Afghanistan Punjab; and to this had added Mooltan, which could and Punjab. not be defended. He was not so successful in Scinde, where the Tálpoor chiefs had asserted their independence, and were maintaining it; but his dominions were of great extent, and, as the result of the battle of Paniput proved, he was at once powerful and popular among his subjects.

II. Omitting the few districts on the Upper Ganges and Jumna which remained to Dehly, the Rohillas, who were de- Rohillas. scended from the former Afghan troops and settlers at

Dehly, had become very powerful, and were actually independent under their chief Nujeeb-ood-Dowlah; but to the period of the Emperor Alumgeer II.'s death, they had assisted him against his treacherous vizier, Shaháb-ood-deen, and were the active allies of Ahmed Shah Abdally in the campaign of Paniput. Their territory was called Rohilkhund, and occupied a position between Dehly and the lower range of the Himalayas, with the city of Bareilly as its capital.

Oudh.

III. On the south-east of Rohilkhund lay the great province of Oudh, heretofore a viceroyalty of the empire, and still preserving that designation; but now, to all intents, independent. Shujah-ood-Dowlah had succeeded his father Sufdur Jung, and for a time became the nominal vizier of the empire; but his interests lay completely apart from those of the nominal emperor, and his great power and wealth enabled him to preserve the independence he had assumed.

IV. Bengal, Behar, and Orissa were united under the government of Meer Jaffier, who, upon the support of the Bengal, English, had become Nabob, or, more properly, Nawáb. and Orissa. flis position was an anomalous one, in contrast with that of other

Behar,

nominal viceroys; for he was perfectly independent of Dehly, and, though he may have kept up communication with officers at the court, it is certain that he rendered it no assistance; and, as has been related, resisted the prince imperial when he attempted, in 1759, to assume the viceroyalty. These provinces were therefore, in all respects, completely alienated from the empire.

States.

V. The Rajpoot States had become perfectly isolated. It is The Rajpoot uncertain how long their annual tribute was paid; but it is questionable whether they had contributed anything to the imperial exchequer for some time previous to the invasion of Ahmed Shah, and it is certain that the emperor and his vizier had, for many years, been too weak to attempt to enforce payment. The principal states were Jeypoor, Joudhpoor, and Oodypoor, and there were others of minor extent and consequence, whose chiefs belonged to the Rajpoot confederation, but whose condition does not need particular specification. Over the whole of Rajpootana, the Mahrattas had imposed their demands of chouth; but they were irregularly paid, and their enforcement was by no means easy. The Rajpoots took part with the Mahrattas in the contest at Paniput, and their independence was absolute.

VI. The Mahrattas had possessed themselves of the whole of Guzerat and Malwah, having gradually driven out the

Mahrattas. imperial viceroys and garrisons. They also occupied

Khandesh, and Berar, with Kuttack; and the recent cessions by the Nizam had given them the province of Beejapoor and most part of Aurungabad. The province of Malwah had been divided between Sindia and Holkar; the Gáikwar possessed Guzerat; the Péshwah's estate of Kalpy and Jhansy extended their territories to the Jumna on the north, while south-westwards they reached unbroken as far as the northern boundary of Mysore: and they possessed, in the extreme south, the principality of Tanjore, the remains of one of the most ancient Hindoo kingdoms. Such had been their growth in territorial acquisition during a hundred years, while their demands for the national chouth and sur-déshmookhee now extended all over India.

VII. Between Agra and Jeypore, the Játs, a tribe of martial The Játs, and cultivators from the banks of the Indus, had established Central India. themselves about the close of the reign of Aurungzebe. They were now, under their famous chieftain, Sooruj Mul, exceedingly powerful, and his capital, Bhurtpoor, was undoubtedly the strongest fortress in Northern India. South-eastward from the Bhurtpoor State, lay the province of Bundelkund, divided into several minor principalities, the chief of which was Rewah; and on the borders of Malwah a small tract of country had become

Deccan.

independent under its Mahomedan governor, the capital of which was Bhopal. All these had been overrun by the Mahrattas, and were, in essential respects, subject to them, as well as tributary. VIII. The progress of the Soobahdar of the Deccan, Nizamool-Moolk, and his descendants, has been sufficiently The Soobahillustrated to make the position of Salabut Jung, or the dar of the Nizam, as he may be called-the title by which he was best known-sufficiently intelligible. But the territory of the viceroyalty had become seriously circumscribed by the recent cession to the Mahrattas; and in the maintenance, by the English, of Mahomed Ally, as ruler of the Carnatic, the Nizam had lost all the southern portion of the dominions over which Nizam-ool-Moolk, his father, had ruled. The Patán Nawabs of Savanoor, on the borders of Mysore, of Kurpa and Kurnool, on the southern bank of the Krishna river, had also become independent, and had alienated a considerable portion of the former dominions. The territories of the Nizam now consisted of the southern portion of the Deccan ; with the Krishna river as its southern boundary, and the whole of Telingana to the sea, between the rivers Pennaar and Godavery, north of the latter, as far as the frontier of Orissa, the Rajah of Vizagapatam, or Vizianagram, had re-established an independent principality under the protection of the English; but it was of limited extent, and of inconsiderable political importance.

Mysore.

IX. MYSORE.-The traditions of this state attribute its foundation at a very remote period, about the 12th century, to two brothers of the Yádává family of Guzerat, one of whom married the daughter of a petty chieftain, and settled in the country. His descendants gradually acquired territory, and, in 1507, became possessed of Mysore, where a fort was built. The kingdom of Beejanugger was conquered by the Mahomedans in 1575, and its representatives, after many vicissitudes, and the loss of Penkóndah, their second capital, established themselves at Chundergiry, whence they endeavoured to regain Mysore; but, failing in this, dwindled into insignificant chieftains, and disappeared from the history of the period. During these struggles, Mysore had gradually increased in power and extent; and, in 1667, occupied not only the whole of the plateau of Mysore, but had extended its dominion to the Bárá Mahál, lying below the plateau to the south. The Emperor Aurungzebe's armies had invaded Mysore, and an agreement to pay tribute had been exacted by his officers from the reigning prince; but it does not appear that this was ever regularly levied, if indeed at all. In 1724 the rajah was obliged to pay a million sterling to the Patán Nawabs of Savanoor, Kurpa and Kurnool, who were in alliance with Moorary Ráo of Gooty; and the Mahrattas also claimed chouth and other dues as

mposed by Sivajee; but, on the whole, the state was singularly exempt from the convulsions and struggles of the period, and was governed by a succession of able ministers.

Affairs of Mysore continued.

In 1757, the Mahrattas, under Balajee Ráo Péshwah, had exacted an agreement from Mysore to pay thirty-two lacs, or 320,000l., as arrears of chouth; and the revenue of fifteen districts had been pledged to them in liquidation; but Hyder Ally, who had risen from a low position to be general-in-chief of the troops of the state, had expelled them. In 1759, they had reinvaded the country, and Hyder Ally, after a brilliant campaign, had proved so successful, that the Mahrattas, on payment of the stipulated sum, surrendered their claim to the assigned territory. Thenceforward Hyder Ally became Hyder Ally. supreme in Mysore; and not only pursued the predatory system he had organised, but reduced in succession Bednore, Chittledroog, Hurpunhully, and other small states lying to the north and west of Mysore, and, extending his conquests considerably to the south, increased the dominions of Mysore to a very considerable extent. The legitimate rajah of the country was eventually deposed by him, as will be hereafter related; but at the period now under record, 1761, Hyder Ally was the supreme executive authority in Mysore. He had formed no political alliances or connections, and was alike opposed to the Mahrattas, the Nizam, the Nawáb of the Carnatic, and the English. The overtures made to him by M. de Lally had been interrupted; but he retained an esteem for, and sympathy with, the French, which afterwards became more fully developed.

He deposes the rajah.

X. Mahomed Ally, protected by the English, was now secure The Nawab of in his possession of the Carnatic, and was independent the Carnatic. alike of the Nizam and of Dehly. His dominions were considerable. To the north they extended to the Pennaar river; to the west they were bounded by Mysore, and on the south by Tanjore; but they contained many small Hindoo principalities, which were portions of the original dominions of the great Beejanugger and Chôla kingdoms, and over these his authority was doubtful. These petty states, however, possessed no political significance.

Tanjore.

XI. TANJORE had been established by Sivajee, on the ruins of the ancient Hindoo kingdom, and his brother, Venkajee, had been created its rajah. It still remained to his descendants; but it was weak, and lay at the mercy of the stronger powers in its neighbourhood, though for the present it was not seriously molested. The English and French transactions with it have already been detailed.

XII. TRAVANCORE and COCHIN complete the southern states of

India; but at the period under notice they possessed no importance whatever; and the same may be said of the smaller Tarvancore states of Coorg and Bednore, which lay west of Mysore, and Cochin. and were dependent upon it.

XIII. The Portuguese, since their unsuccessful war with the Péshwah, had shrunk into insignificance. They still The Portupossessed Goa and its dependencies, with a few other guese. factories; but they took no active part in the political affairs of India.

The French.

The English.

XIV. The French power in India had been broken by the result of the capture of Chándernagore and Pondicherry, and by the departure of M. Bussy from Hyderabad. The attempts to regain it have to be recorded hereafter. XV. The English, by the results of their policy in Bengal and in the Carnatic, had established the basis of their political authority; but, as yet, their territorial acquisitions were very insignificant. The thirty-eight villages they had acquired round Calcutta, the grant made by Salabut Jung near Masulipatam, in the Northern Circars, small strips of land near Madras, Fort St. David, and Negapatam, constituted their only possessions on the eastern and southern sides of the continent. On the western coast, they occupied the island of Bombay, and they had not relinquished their conquest of Gheriah to the Péshwah. They had also captured the fort of Surat from the Moghul governor, which they held independently of the Gaikwar of Guzerat.

CHAPTER XIV.

OF EVENTS IN BENGAL, FROM THE BATTLE OF PANIPUT TO THE BATTLE OF BUXAR, 1761 TO 1764.

India.

AHMED SHAH ABDALLY was not tempted by his victory over the Mahrattas to assume the government of India, or even Ahmed Shah to delay his departure for his own dominions, to which returns from he immediately returned; and the Mahrattas, humbled for the time by their defeat, retired into Malwah and the Deccan. In Bengal, after Clive's departure, Mr. Holwell assumed Changes in charge of the presidency, pending the arrival of Mr. Calcutta. Vansittart, a Madras civilian, who had been selected by Clive, and received his nomination from England. Mr. Holwell had always been opposed to Meer Jaffier; and the members of council, influenced by him, prepared a scheme for a new revolution, by which Meer Jaffier was to be

super

Proposed revolution at Moorshidabad.