In the beginning of the year 1759, intelligence was received that the Shah Zada[234], Shah Alum (eldest son of the Emperor of Delhi), had arrived at Benares, accompanied by a force of eight thousand men, and that his purpose was to invade Bahar, to which it was reported he was invited by Ram Narrain, the Governor of that province, whose fidelity to his allegiance continued to be suspected by the Prince Meeran, and by the Mahommedan nobles of Meer Jaffier's court.[235] Before we detail the measures which the advance of the Prince led the Nabob and the English to adopt, it will be useful to say a few words upon the actual condition at this period of the imperial family of Delhi.
The power of the Emperors of Delhi, subsequent to the death of Aurungzebe[236] had rapidly declined. That artful prince had struggled through life to maintain the appearance of health in an empire which was in a disordered and decaying state before he attained it; and by his crooked policy accelerated that destruction which was completed by the weakness of his successors.
Forty years after his decease, and after the murder or death of five intermediate princes, Mahommed Shah ascended the throne, and reigned twenty-seven years. The direction of the limited power he possessed was, during the whole of that period, an object of violent contention to the turbulent and ambitious nobles by whom he was surrounded; and, while these were engaged in intrigues and hostile struggles for the possession of the Emperor's person and his capital, others took advantage of their divisions, and of the general confusion, to usurp the fairest provinces of the empire, and to transmit them as an inheritance to their descendants.
The Mahrattas, who had only fifty years before emerged from obscurity, were so powerful in the reign of Mahommed Shah, that they plundered the suburbs of Delhi; and that capital was, during the same unpropitious period, taken and sacked by Nadir Shah, who, after his terrible invasion, restored to the unhappy sovereign of India his degraded throne and distracted dominions.
Mahommed Shah died in 1747. He was succeeded by Ahmed Shah, who reigned but a few years, when he was dethroned, and had his eyes put out in 1753. He was succeeded by Alumgeer the Second, with whom perished even that semblance of authority which his immediate predecessors had preserved. Soon after his accession, he became a mere instrument in the hands of his vizier (or minister) Ghazee-u-Deen[237], the grandson of the celebrated Nizam-ul-Mûlk.
Shah Alum[238], the eldest son of the Emperor of Delhi, fled from that capital. His first object was emancipation from that thraldom in which his father and family were kept by the cruel and ambitious Ghazee-u-Deen. When at a distance from court, he began to collect followers. India, at this period, abounded with military adventurers; and the high name of Shah Alum, and the reputation of his minister Ali Murad Khan, brought many to his standard. He was kindly received by some of the principal chiefs in Hindustan; but, according to the reports at Moorshedabad, it was Sujah-u-Dowlah, the Vizier of Oude, who directed his views to the invasion of Bahar. That prince, however, artfully kept in the back-ground, until he saw the result of the attempt upon Patna, the capital of that province.
The belief of the Shah Zada being connected with the Vizier, combined with the report of his being joined by the French party under Law[239], (added to the doubts entertained of Ram Narrain's fidelity), created serious alarm to the Nabob, whose mind was agitated by other causes. His son[240] continued to pursue a conduct calculated to give him very serious uneasiness, while his troops mutinied, and refused to march unless their arrears were paid. To add to these difficulties, Jugget Seit and his brother, who have been often mentioned as the principal soucars (or bankers) of the country, had obtained leave to proceed on a pilgrimage to Pursnath[241], and had commenced their journey, when information was received that they were in correspondence with the Shah Zada, and had actually furnished him with the means of paying his new levies. The Nabob, giving credit to this report, sent to stop them; but they refused compliance with his orders, and proceeded under the guard of the two thousand men which he had furnished for their escort. These troops, on receiving a promise of the liquidation of their arrears, readily transferred their allegiance from the Prince to his bankers. The Nabob, if he had had the disposition, would probably have found himself without the means of coercing these wealthy subjects into obedience. The principal bankers of India command, through the influence of their extensive credit, the respect of sovereigns, and the support of their principal ministers and generals. Their property, though often immense, is seldom in a tangible form. Their great profits enable them to bear moderate exactions; and the prince who has recourse to violence towards one of this class is not only likely to fail in his immediate object of plunder, but is certain to destroy his future resources, and to excite an impression of his character that must greatly facilitate those attempts against his life and power to which it is the lot of despots to be continually exposed.