Treachery. CHAP. VII. gigantic scale. Aurangzeb left Kábul and returned to Delhi. One Kasim Khan was appointed governor of Kábul. He sought to lull the Afghans into a sense of security. He won them over by an affectation of friendship. He abolished all taxes; probably he had found it impossible to collect them. He showed none of the haughtiness and severity of former governors; he mingled freely in Afghan assemblies without followers, and often without arms. He wanted the Afghans to give up Shuja, but found he was treading on dangerous ground. The Afghans were enchanted with Kasim Khan, but they would not betray Shuja. Festivities at Perhaps the greatest festival in Muhammadan Peshawar. households is the circumcision of the eldest son. Kasim Khan prepared to celebrate the event in his own family with public rejoicings. Games and exhibitions were to be held in the great square of Peshawar. There were to be elephant fights, horse races, and palanquin races. The festival was to be accompanied by a great feast in the square. Massacre of All the Afghan grandees were invited to Peshawar; they came without fear or suspicion. Shuja was invited, but sent an excuse. The exhibitions were brought to an end and the feast began. It was held on a large platform, covered in with an awning on the roof and sides. Suddenly, in the midst of the feast, Kasim Khan gashed his hand in cutting a melon; he asked leave to retire; his leaving the assembly was a signal for massacre. Bodies of musketeers had been posted in houses overlooking the platform. They poured volleys of musketry on the Afghan guests. There was no way of escape. Armed squadrons filled up every avenue. The massacre spread weeping and ears of the Afghans, and was soon at the head of a large army. To this day it is a mystery whether the man was Shuja or an impostor. Mahábat Khan, governor of Kábul, believed him to be really Shuja. He made no attempt to suppress the outbreak; he refused to interfere between Aurangzeb and his brother. CHAP. VII. Shuja. The rebellion grew into a national movement. The Another Shah Afghans accepted Shuja as their Sultan. They indulged in dreams of the restoration of Afghan dominion in Hindustan. Their ancestors had been defeated by Baber and conquered by Akbar. They resolved to avenge the wrongs of their fathers; to reimpose the Afghan yoke from the Kábul river to the mouths of the Ganges. takes the field. The Moghul empire was evidently in sore peril. Aurangzeb The army of the Dekhan was brought up and dispatched to the north-west. All the available forces of the empire were hurried off to the banks of the Indus. So imminent was the danger, that Aurangzeb took the field in person. He left his seraglio behind; he had neither palanquin nor elephant; he appeared on horseback, lance in hand, in the first rank of the army. details. The war lasted for more than two years, but little Absence of is known of the details. The river Indus was crossed in the old fashion on wooden rafts supported by inflated ox-skins. Mahábat Khan was sent back to Delhi, and died on the way; it was said that he was poisoned at the instance of Aurangzeb. Nothing was apparently effected in Kábul. The Moghul army was harassed day and night by constant attacks of Afghans. Shuja, or his representative, was secure in the recesses of the mountains. At last treachery was tried, and treachery on a Treachery. CHAP. VII. gigantic scale. Aurangzeb left Kábul and returned to Delhi. One Kasim Khan was appointed governor of Kábul. He sought to lull the Afghans into a sense of security. He won them over by an affectation of friendship. He abolished all taxes; probably he had found it impossible to collect them. He showed none of the haughtiness and severity of former governors; he mingled freely in Afghan assemblies without followers, and often without arms. He wanted the Afghans to give up Shuja, but found he was treading on dangerous ground. The Afghans were enchanted with Kasim Khan, but they would not betray Shuja. Festivities at Peshawar. Massacre of Perhaps the greatest festival in Muhammadan households is the circumcision of the eldest son. Kasim Khan prepared to celebrate the event in his own family with public rejoicings. Games and exhibitions were to be held in the great square of Peshawar. There were to be elephant fights, horse races, and palanquin races. The festival was to be accompanied by a great feast in the square. All the Afghan grandees were invited to Peshawar; they came without fear or suspicion. Shuja was invited, but sent an excuse. The exhibitions were brought to an end and the feast began. It was held on large platform, covered in with an awning on the roof and sides. Suddenly, in the midst of the feast, Kasim Khan gashed his hand in cutting a melon; he asked leave to retire; his leaving the assembly was a signal for massacre. Bodies of musketeers had been posted in houses overlooking the platform. They poured volleys of musketry on the Afghan guests. There was no way of escape. Armed squadrons filled up every avenue. The massacre spread weeping and wailing throughout Kábul. Shuja fled away, and cпAP. VII. and_CHAP. was heard of no more. angzeb. Aurangzeb vehemently condemned the perfidy. Perfidy of AurHe called Kasim Khan to Delhi; he degraded him to the second rank of grandees; shortly afterwards he raised him to the first dignities of the empire. No one can doubt that the massacre of the Afghans was the joint work of Aurangzeb and Kasim Khan.56 lysed. Afghan affairs gave no further trouble. The people Afghans parawere paralysed by the massacre. Nothing more is told of them throughout the reign of Aurangzeb. cesses. The current of history reverts to the Dekhan. Sivaji's suc Whilst the Afghans had been threatening the gates of the empire, the expeditions and exploits of Sivaji were the terror and wonder of the Dekhan. The Mahratta prince levied chout on the territories of the Moghul as well as on those of the Sultan of Bíjápur. He levied open war on the Sultan of Bíjápur, to whom his fathers had been vassals. He extended his kingdom of the Konkan, and prepared to assert himself in the eyes of the world as an independent sovereign. affairs. The year 1674 is a standpoint in Mahratta history. European The English at Bombay were making the acquaintance of Sivaji at the very time he was preparing to be installed as Maharaja. The Europeans in India were in a transition state. Charles the Second was revelling at Whitehall; the Portuguese were labouring to keep up a show of magnificence at Goa; whilst wealth, trade, and power were passing into the hands of the Dutch. The English were settling down in 56 Manouchi through Catrou. Mussulman writers are silent about the massacre, and only allude to the wars against the Afghans. CHAP. VII. their forts at Madras and Bombay, and struggling to keep up a few exposed factories in Bengal. Bombay embassy to Sivaji, Coronation of Mahratta fron tier. A Mr. Oxenden was governor of Bombay. Ten years before he had been agent at Surat, and succeeded in keeping the Mahrattas out of the English factory. Since then Sivaji had become a great man. Oxenden wanted to open a trade through Sivaji's territories into Bíjápur. Accordingly he went on an embassy to Sivaji, and was an eye-witness of the coronation.57 The Maharaja was installed on the throne of the Konkan in Moghul and Rajpút fashion. Brahmans performed their preliminary ceremonies. The new Maharaja made pilgrimages to pagodas. At last, on the day appointed, Sivaji took his seat upon the throne. He received gifts and congratulations from all present. He was surrounded by the insignia of sovereignty borne aloft on lances-the golden fishheads, the scales of justice, and other well-known symbols. He was solemnly weighed against heaps of gold and silver, which were afterwards distributed amongst the Brahmans. In 1675 another eye-witness describes the state of the frontier between the Mahrattas and the Moghuls. The bone of contention between the two was the fortress of Joonere, about sixty miles to the eastward of Bombay. Sivaji was born at Joonere, but the Moghuls held possession of the fortress.58 A Dr. Fryer went from Bombay to attend the 57 Early Records of British India; a History of the English Settlements in India, as told in the Government Records, the works of old travellers, &c. By the author of the present history. The book will be occasionally cited throughout the remainder of the volume. 58 Joonere is in the district of Poona. |