[232] To the Council of Fort William, 5th December, 1758.
[233] Private letter to Mr. Drake, sen., 30th December, 1758.
[234] Shah Zada means "King's son;" but, in India, has latterly been always applied, by way of distinction, to the princes of the family of Delhi. Indeed, before the assumption of the title of Sultan by Tippoo, and of that of Shah by the present Vizier of Oude, no Indian Mahommedan prince or chief, in recent times, ever styled himself Sovereign.
[235] Mr. Hastings, in his letter to Clive of the 8th July, 1759, observes, "The Nabob suspects Ram Narrain to have taken the part of the King's son; which I do not wonder at, as the Nabob has never been thoroughly reconciled to Ram Narrain."
[236] Aurungzebe died at Ahmednagar, in the Deckan, on the 21st February, 1707.
[237] The name of this chief was Meer Shah-u-Deen. He took the title of his father, Ghazee-u-Deen, or, "The Champion of the Faith."
[238] This prince is often called Ali Gohur; but the title of Shah Alum (or, "King of the World") is that by which he designates himself in all his letters written at this period. The Vizier, in his letters to Clive, gives the Prince this title; and it is also that by which he has since become so well known, as titular Emperor of Delhi, throughout a long life of vicissitude and misfortune.
[239] M. Law, who was an able man, and well acquainted with the natives, was incessant in his intrigues at this period. Clive obtained copies of his letters to Sujah-u-Dowlah, whom he endeavoured to stimulate to action by representing the unsettled state of Bengal, and the certainty of a large French force soon invading that kingdom.—See Country Correspondence, MSS. vol. xiii.
[240] Antè, pp. 348, 349.
[241] Pursnath is the name given by the Jains (the sect to which the Seits belonged) to their principal idol; and their pilgrimage was to Samet Sechara, at which there is one of his most celebrated temples.