THE FIRST TWO NAWABS OF AWADH (A Thesis approved for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Lucknow in 1932) By ASHIRBADI LAL SRIVASTAVA M.A., Ph.D., D. Lit. (Luck.) D. Litt. (Agra) Sir Jadunath Sarkar Gold Medalist of The Asiatic Society. Professor & Head of the Department Of History and Political Science, Agra College, Agra. Foreword By Sir Jadunath Sarkar, D.Litt. Honorary Member, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, Etc. SECOND EDITION 1954 Revised and Corrected @ AUTHOR All rights including those of translation are strictly reserved by the Author. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or abridged without the written permission from the Publisher except for review in Newspapers or Magazines. Foreword V The Nawabs of Oudh played a very important part in North Indian history throughout the 18th century, when they were often the pivot on which the affairs of the central Government of Delhi turned. Saadat Khan's bravery in defeating the Maratha raiders of Bajirao's army whom no other imperial general could face with success, his unrivalled gallantry on the field of Karnal, Safdar Jang’s control of the empire as wazir for over live years, and finally Shuja-ud-daulah’s intervention on the side of Ahmad Shah Durrani (which completely turned the scale against the Maratnas in the Panipat Campaign) and his challenge to the nascent British Indian empire—all make the history of Oudh under the Nawabi an unforgettable part of the general history of India. Nor did its importance cease with the last-named ruler. Even in the nineteenth century, during the Gurkha War of 1814-15, Oudh formed the most useful base of the British operations in respect of food-supplies, transport and money (loan of two krores). During the Maratha War of 1803-4, it was the British grip over the sovereign and territory of Oudh that enabled Wellesley to put an irresistible pressure upon the French-drilled Purbia infantry that formed the backbone of Sindhia’s army. Dr. Ashirbadi Lai’s work is the first attempt to write a critical history of the rise of this dynasty and it has attained to a high standard of excellence. All the available sources have been used, and he has gone to the fountain-head of original Persian annals and letters. The result is a scientific history to which scholars will have to turn for a long time to come as the standard authority. This patient and minute research (a part of which was done under my eyes) has enabled Dr. Ashirbadi Lai to correct many errors of previous writers and to establish the true facts on an unassailable basis. His intensive study of the internal affairs of Oudh is a highly valuable feature of this book, as it is a virgin field, very little known to students. The same vii viii praise is due to Chapter 18 on the condition of the people. Benares was under the house of Oudh, and when in 1749 the Maratha Brahmans there were persecuting and boycotting the Prabhus (Deccani Kayasthas), the latter appealed for relief to Nawal Rai, a fellow-caste-man I This story might well have found a place here. What I admire most in this young writer is his impartial attitude : he is free from the biographers’ common failing of blind hero-worship, and has many hard things to say about the Lucknow partisan writers who have attempted to falsify history. On the whole, this volume marks the high water-mark of scho­ larship in doctorate theses and reflects equal credit on the author who wrote it and the University of Lucknow which made him write it. D arjiling : ) Jadunath Sarkar zjth June, 1933. ( r * * v Preface to the Second Edition The first edition of this book, though published in June 1933, was all written in 1930-31 and represented the first attempt, including even, it may be humbly added, the first edition of the Master-Historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar’s Fall of the Mughal Empire, Volume I (which was planned and written later than this book but published six months earlier, i. e, December 1932), to explore the Indian history of the first half of the eighteenth century on the basis of all available contemporary sources in Persian, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Rajasthani and English. During the last twenty three years a good deal ot historical literature has become available to us. This consists of (i) a few docu­ ments (farmans and sanads ) relating to the career of Nawal Rai and Yadgar-Bahaduri, a rare MS., in Persian; (ii, the later fifteen volumes (31-45) of the Selections from the Peshwas* Daftar, the Purandare Daftar (3 Vols.) and the Holkar-Shahichya Itihasanchi Sadhanen (2 Vols.) in Marathi, and (iii) Bhagwant Singh ka Rasa by Sadanand, a contemporary work in Hindi. All these have been utilised in preparing the second edition, and although these have not yielded much fresh information, the material in them has furnished substantial confirmatory evidence and streng­ thened quite a few of my conclusions of the first edition, which for want of absolutely contemporary evidence had to be based on secondary authorities. For example, my surmise that Saadat Khan was over sixty years of age at his death, based though it was on William Hoey's unavailable ‘Anonymous Contemporary’, which I had no means of checking, is now a settled fact in view of Sadanand’s definite assertion on the point (Bhagwant Singh ka Rasa, Vide, Nagari Pracharini Patrika, Vol. V, 1981 V. S., p. 128). The same authority confirms that Saadat Khan was a stout and unscrupulous diplomat and annexationalist. If he could for once establish his hold on a part or the whole of the territory • of a vassal or a semi-independent chief, he would not allow it to slip out of bis grip. X The only important additions made in this edition arc ar^ altercation between Safdar Jang and Mahadeva Bhatt Hingne,. the Maratha agent at Delhi, which led to an affray and to the death of the latter, and a few fresh facts relating to the life and work of Nawal Rai. The entire book has been carefully revised. Correct modern spellings of some of the proper names, such as,. Awadh for Oudh, Ganga for Ganges, Yamuna for Jamuna, etc, have been used, and the index has been amplified and made: more helpful. The letters in Persian at the end of the volume, in the first edition have been omitted here to save space. Agra College Agra. A. L. Srivastava May 18, 1954. \ Preface to the First Edition About five years back Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, M. A.,. P. R. S., Ph. D., Head of the Department of Indian History,. University of Lucknow suggested that I should write a series' of monographs on the Nawabs of Awadh from Saadat Khaa the founder to Wajid A li Shah, the last ruler of the dynasty. The present volume is the first of the proposed series. The History of Awadh of the 18th century is not merely of local interest. It is equally important for the student of the general history of India, for the Nawabs of Awadh in that century were amongst the makers of the history of Hindustan. This volume dealing with the First Two Nawabs is a critical study based on all the available sources in Persian, Marathi, Urdu, Hindi and English in search of which I had to visit almost all: the important Mss. libraries in Northern India. The work was- begun at Udaipur in July, 1929, and was ready faired out for the press in November, 1931, when, in the first week of January,. 1932, the Lucknow University permitted me to submit it, as my thesis, for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This delayed its publication for over a year and a half. In conclusion, I wish to express my feelings of gratitude to Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji for the ungrudging help he lias always given me. My indebtedness to Dr. FC. R. Qanungo, M. A,, Ph. D., of Dacca University is great. He inspired me with the love of historical research, while I was yet an under-graduate at the University of Lucknow, and has, ever since been guiding, and helping me like a true guru of ancient India. My best thanks are due to Sir Jadunath Sarkar, the greatest authority on. the history of India, who kindly accommodated me in his own. i house like a member of his family during my stay at Darjiling in April, 1930, placed the whole of his valuable library at my disposal and freely lent me his rare Persian Mss. He very kindly xi Xil -went through about 60 pages of my Safdar Jang, which I had •sent to him for his opinion in April 1931 and corrected a few •dates on the chapter dealing with the Maratha invasion of Bangal. I am further thankful to him for his valuable suggestions and for going through the book and writing the foreword. XJdaipur, A sh irbad i L al S rivastava June 17, 1933. CONTENTS Page* Foreword viii Prcfacc to the Second Edition ix. Preface to the First Edition xi Abbreviations _ x viii BOOK I Saadat Khan Burhan-ul-mulk CHAPTER I—BOYHOOD AND EARLY CAREER, 1680-1720 ... - Saadat Khan’s ancestors, 1. Boyhood and Education, 2. Migration to India, 3. In .Sarbuland Khan’s service, 6. In Farrukh-siyar’s service, 8. Faujdar of Hindaun and Bayana, 10. Mir Muhd. Amin and Sayyid Brothers, 12. Mir Muhd. Amin ennobled as Saadat Khan, 19.