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lection to pay the expenses of it; but in 1769 the Court of Directors prohibited the giving presents at the Punya. In 1767, at the Punya, the Nabob was seated on the musnud, Verelst, the Governor-General, was on his right, and recommended in the strongest manner to all the ministers and land-holders to give all possible encouragement to the clearing and cultivating of lands for the mulberry. It must have been a splendid sight, when, amid all the pomp of Oriental magnificence, Khelats were presented to the Rajahs or Nabobs of Dacca, Dinajpoor, Hooghly, Purneah, Tippera, Sylhet, Rungpore, Beerbhoom, Bishenpore, Pachete, Rajmahal, and Bhagulpore. The ceremony of the Punya was abolished, but the Zemindars yet keep it up in their Cutcheries, as a custom honoured in the observance and not in the breach. The annual settlement gave way to the decennial settlement, till, at last, the great landlord of the soil-the State, chose to accept a rent in perpetuity, and introduced the grand fiscal measure of the Permanent Settlement.

Few vestiges of ancient Moorshedabad are seen at this day. The lovely Mootee Jheel, or Pearl Lake, is now a desert. Of the stately palace built by Suraja-uDowla, of black marble brought from the ruins of Gour, only a few arches now remain. It was here that Clive, like the ancient Earl of Warwick-the maker and unmaker of kings-took Meer Jeffier by the hand, led him up the hall, and seated him upon the musnud, proclaiming him to be the Nabob of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and completing the ceremony in Oriental fashion by a

Moorshedabad,-Its Treasury at Clive's first Entry. 75

nuzzer of gold rupees on a golden platter. Here, too, was that rich and glittering treasury, of which 'the vaults were piled with heaps of gold and silver to the right and left, and these crowned with rubies and diamonds,' as actually found by Clive, when he made his first entry, victorious from the battle-field, and where he was at liberty to help himself, but about which, many years afterwards, when he had to defend his conduct, he declared, 'By God, Mr Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation.' There was in that treasury two crores of rupees in ready coin, and the payment of the first instalment is thus described: The money was packed in 700 chests, embarked in 100 boats, which proceeded down the river in procession under the care of soldiers to Nuddea, whence they were escorted to Fort William by all the boats of the English squadron, with banners flying and music sounding—a scene of triumph and joy, and a remarkable contrast to the scene of the preceding year, when Suraja-u-Dowla had ascended the same stream triumphant from the conquest and plunder of Calcutta.'

The Kuttera, described by Hodges in 1780, as 'a grand seminary of Mussulman learning, 70 feet square, adorned by a mosque which rises high above all the surrounding buildings,' is now all in ruins. Near it was the Topekhana, or the Nabob's artillery. Moorshud Cooly Khan, who made defaulting Zemindars wear loose trowsers, and then introduced live cats into them, lies buried here as the humblest of beings at the foot of the stairs leading up to the musjeed, so as to be trampled on

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He

by people going up. Here is an edifying tale of his humility. Jaffer Khan, sometimes also called Moorshud Cooly Khan, having a presentiment that his death was approaching, commissioned Mirad, the son of Ismail, a Furrash (a servant whose business it is to spread carpets), to erect a tomb, a musjeed, and kuthrub to be called after him, and directed that it should be completed in six months. This man, on receiving the commission, requested that he should not be called to account for any acts that he might think necessary to adopt in the execution of his work. On his request being granted, he immediately called upon the Zemindars to supply him with artisans and labourers to raise the building. fixed for the site a piece of ground which belonged to the Nabob to the east of the city. For the materials for the work he pulled down all the Hindoo temples that he heard of in or near the city, and seized all the boats in the river. The Hindoo Zemindars wished to preserve their temples, and offered to furnish all the materials at their own cost, but this Mirad refused, and it is said that not a Hindoo temple was left standing within four or five days' journey round the city. He also exercised oppression in other ways, and even pressed respectable Hindoos while travelling in their suwarees (palkees) to work at the building. By this means the work was finished in twelve months. It consisted of a Kuthrub, a Musjeed, and Minars, a Houir and Baoli and Welland Jaffer Khan endowed it in such a manner as to insure its being preserved after his death.'

In the neighbourhood of the Mootee Jheel once

Lord Teignmouth.—Suraja-a-Dowla.

77

lived Lord Teignmouth, who devoted his days to civil business, and his evenings to solitude, studying Oordoo, Persian, Arabic, and Bengali: after dinner, when reposing, an intelligent native used to entertain him with stories in Oordoo. He carried on an extensive intercourse with the natives, and superintended a small farm he writes of it, "here I enjoy cooing doves, whistling blackbirds, and purling streams; I am quite solitary, and, except once a week, see no one of Christian complexion."

Moorshedabad formerly extended over a great part of the western bank. Du Perron describes the river as dividing the city into two parts. On the right bank is

Near

the burial-ground of the Nabobs. The good Ali Verdi lies buried here in the garden of Khoos Baug. him lies his pet-Suraja-a-Dowla, who ripped open pregnant women to see how the child lay in the womb; who ordered to fill boats with men and drown them, while he sat in his palace to enjoy the sight of their dying struggles; who bricked up alive one of his mistresses between four walls; who revenged the adulteries of his mother by violating the chastity of every woman; who kept in his seraglio a female guard composed of Tartar, Georgian, and Abyssinian women, armed with sabres and targets; and who murdered persons in open day in the streets of Moorshedabad-forming the most perfect specimen of a Mahomedan character and follower of the Prophet, particularly as regards his two great tenets of making slaughter a virtue, and indulging in a plurality of wives, and an ad libitum number of con

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cubines. Forster, in 1781, mentions that mullahs were employed here to offer prayers for the dead, and that the widow of Suraja-a-Dowla used often to come to the tomb, and perform certain ceremonies of mourning in memory of her deceased husband.' The marriage of Suraja-aDowla was one of the most magnificent on record. It was celebrated by Ali Verdi, who 'kept a continued feasting for a month in his palace at Moorshedabad: all comers were welcome, every family in the city, rich and poor, partook of his hospitality, by receiving several times tables of dressed victuals called turahs, none of which cost less than 25 Rs., and thousands of them were distributed in Moorshedabad.'

On the right bank of the river was the palace of Meer Jaffier, whom his contemporaries styled 'Clive's ass.' It was fortified with cannon, and large enough 'to accommodate three European monarchs.'

To give an item of the ancient trade of Moorshedabad the Pachautra, or Custom Office books, state that, as late as Ali Verdi's time, £75,000 worth of raw silk were entered there, exclusive of the European investments, which were not entered there, as being either duty free or paying duty at Hooghly.' None of the ancient families exist now-'the greater part of the nobles have gone to Delhi or have returned to Persia.' No Mussulman here now possesses a tenth part of the wealth of Khojah Wazeed, whose daily expense was one thousand rupees. The famous Setts, of whom Burke remarked in the House of Commons that their transactions were as extensive as those of the Bank of Eng

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