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The Bargi Invasion of Bengal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

J. N. Samaddar
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Extract

Like the invasion of the Danes in England, the incursions of the Bargi in Bengal, were characterized by murder and rapine and every species of atrocity. There is, however, a good deal of difference between the two, for we have nothing comparable to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle to record the latter, and in the matter of other materials, we are sadly lacking. The Nagpur Marhattas have left no historical records. Consequently there are no Marhatta sources. Neither are there any letters in Marathi, at least to my knowledge, on the subject, as these raids were undertaken by the now defunct house of Nagpur. Mr. Hill in his Bengal in 1756–7, has given us a brief summary of the English Factory Records of Fort William, and the old records of the East India Company might, if thoroughly searched, yield good material. The time, however, demanded for this is beyond our power to afford. Besides the above and occasional references here and there, there are, of course, three ether books which can be profitably consulted for the purpose—Salimulla's Tarikh-i-Bangla, Riyazu-s-salatin, and the Seir Mutaherin. This practically exhausts our list of authorities for studying the subject, so far as they are available to the general student.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , October 1925 , pp. 673 - 678
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1925

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References

page 673 note 1 For an explanation of the term Bargi, see Irvine, The Army of the Indian Muyhals, pp. 37, 47, 171.

page 673 note 2 A book in Marathi on the subject was published some ten years ago, but if we are to rely on the review of the book in the Modern Review, we have to reject it as a useless modern compilation for accurate historical purposes.

page 673 note 3 This is now easily accessible in Gladwin's A Narrative of the Government of Bengal, reprinted at Calcutta by the Bangabasi, while the Riyazu-s-salatin has been well translated into English by Mr. Abdus Salam.

page 673 note 4 A new edition of the English translation of this important contemporary book, edited by the writer of this article, is just out, published by Messrs. R. Cambray & Co., of Calcutta.

page 673 note 5 As is well known, the Seir is also a contemporary record. Attention may be drawn, so far as this topic is concerned, to vol. i, p. 375. The author's father was the first to receive the information regarding the arrival of the Marhattas.

page 674 note 1 I have translated it into English and hope to publish it shortly with notes, etc.

page 674 note 2 Calcutta, vol. iii.

page 674 note 3 Vide Seir, i, 294, from which it appears that the King of Delhi had already promised Chouth to the Marhattas.

page 674 note 4 Vide Bangiya Sahitya Parisat Patrika, Calcutta, vol. xv, p. 249.

page 675 note 1 The present Bengali era is 1330. If we subtract 1158, the date given at the end of the manuscript, we have a difference of 172 years. And thus 1923–172 = 1751.

page 675 note 2 It is difficult to understand the connexion, as to why Siva should be sending his messenger particularly to Sāhu and should put the idea of Chouth in his mind.

page 676 note 1 According to the Seir, vol. i, p. 294, it was Nizam-el-Muik who was the contriver and director of this trouble. The Emperor promised to pay the Chouth to the Marhatta general, who, however, perceiving the pussilanimity and cowardice of the grandees of the court and sensible of the want of discernment of the Minister, made a treaty with both parties and kept fair with both the court and Nizam-el-Mulk. The Riyazu-s-salatin (Abdul Salam's edition, p. 337), however, refers to the fact that Mir Habib, the commander-in-chief of Murshid-Quli-khan, after Murshid's defeat went to Raghoji Bhoslah and incited him to the conquest of Bengal. Raghoji, taking advantage of Alivardi's insecure position, sent his Dewan Bhaskara Pandit, who was accompanied by Mir Habib. This does not seem to me to be correct. First Nizam-el-Mulk's name does not occur anywhere else, though Mir Habib's playing a conspicuous, though ignominious, part in these incursions is correct. Secondly, the Seir mentions on p. 384 (vol. i) that Mir Habib was still then with the Nawab. Again, on page 387 we find Mir Habib was in the Nawab's camp. At any rate Mir Habib was playing a double game, and it is quite likely that his secret instigations as well as the unsatisfactory position of the Nawab made Raghoji send his general, Bhāṣkara. The Emperor Muhammad Shah also might have thought fit to get rid of the Marhattas by inducing them to go to Bengal. The wretched condition of the Delhi monarchy warrants us in coming to such a conclusion.

page 677 note 1 It is wonderful that Riyaz, p. 340, uses these very words “to avert death by starvation, human beings ate plantain roots ”.

page 677 note 2 Cf. Seir, i, p. 392, and Riyaz, p. 341. Both these two tally with the poem.

page 677 note 3 No mention of this celebration is made either by the Seir or the Riyaz, but Salimulla refers to it. Vide Gladwin, Bangabashi edition, p. 112.

page 678 note 1 Cf. Seir, i, 403, and Riyaz, p. 345, where this accident is also mentioned.

page 678 note 2 Seir, i, p. 431 ff.