Murshidabad

“ Every one in the land turned wistful eyes towards the English, but they lay inactive at Fulta, and it seemed as if help from Madras would never come. The English, therefore, tried to bring about a revolution favourable to themselves at Murshidabad, and began to look for persons who might be induced to undertake it; but this was not easy, as the Moor nobles had little acquaintance with the Europeans. ”

“ This made me change my route immediately. The
mountains of Tibet [134] appeared to me a safe and eminently
suitable asylum until the arrival in the Ganges of the forces
which we flattered ourselves were coming. I therefore directed
my route in this direction, but found myself suddenly and
unexpectedly so close to Murshidabad that for two days
together we heard the sound of the guns fired in honour of
the revolution which had taken place. It is easy to judge
into what alarm this unexpected and disagreeable proximity
threw me. ”

“ Murshid Kuli Khan transferred his residence to Murshidabad, in the neighbourhood of Cossimbazar, the river port of all the Ganges trade. The British, the French and the Dutch had each factories at Cossimbazar, as well as at Dacca, Patna and Malda. But Calcutta was the headquarters of the British, Chandernagore of the French, and Chinsura of the Dutch, all three towns being situated close to each other in the lower reaches of the Hugli, where the river is navigable for large ships. ”

“ He lost hardly a white soldier; in all 22 sepoys were killed and 50 wounded. His own account, written a month after the battle to the secret committee of the court of directors, is not less unaffected than that in which he had announced the defeat of the nawab at Calcutta. Suraj-ud-Dowlah fled from the field on a camel, secured what wealth he could, and came to an untimely end. Clive entered Murshidabad, and established Jafar Ali in the position which his descendants have ever since enjoyed, as pensioners, but have not infrequently abused. ”

“ The Mogul, Emperor, or King of Delhi, to whom the Bengal Nawabs were nominally tributary.]
[62: Orme MSS. India XI. pp. 2766-7, No. 111.]
[63: Ibid., p. 2768, No. 112.]
[64: Memoirs of Lally. London, 1766.]
CHAPTER III M. LAW, CHIEF OF COSSIMBAZAR
A few miles out of Murshidabad, capital of the Nawabs of Bengal since 1704, when Murshid Kuli Khan transferred his residence from Dacca to the ancient town of Muxadabad and renamed it after himself, lay a group of European Factories in the village or suburb of Cossimbazar. ”

“ The debates in the East India house regarding the tax levied at Juggernauth led to a change in the system; and it has since been abolished.
Allahabad and Hurdwar are the two most noted places of pilgrimage. At the latter city a fair is held annually where thousands of people go to bathe, and although the river Ganges, is very shallow there, many lose their lives. The great fair is held every twelfth year, when several companies of sepoys are generally present both to keep the peace and to prevent accidents. ”

“ The Murshid, like a shady tree, endures the severity of weathers himself and provides shade and comfort to those sitting under it. The Murshid should be against the comforts and luxuries of this world which stops the Seeker from the way to Allah, and should be a friend of Allah and His religion. While the Seeker should trust him and should not hesitate to sacrifice his wealth and life for his Murshid. The Murshid should be like a messenger of Allah and the Seeker should be like a friend of Allah. ”

“ About the beginning of the eighteenth century, a Nawab of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, territories considerably larger than the United Kingdom, had removed his capital from Dacca to Murshedabad, about a hundred miles due north of Calcutta. Here he founded a dynasty, which reigned in peace for some forty years. About 1742 a usurper seized the throne of Murshedabad, and reigned as Nawab. He died of extreme old age in April, 1756, and was succeeded by a grandson, a young man timid and suspicious, surrounded by foes eager to take his life and throne. ”

“ There is pale moonlight, and the air is fragrant. The hours before dawn dreamily pass, and we nod, and look up now and then to see clay walls and trees dusky against the night sky, and our thoughts go back to the grand old buildings we leave behind us to the north in Agra. The red stone Fort, and Palace, and Taj, and the marble courts seem to become again alive, and full of people and colour and movement, a gallant array, and the fountains bubble, and Akbar plays living chess with his lovely wives, in colour and jewels, on his marble courts. ”

“ Futteghur, as will be seen by reference to a map, is situated higher up the Ganges than Cawnpore, near Furruckabad. Practically, it is not so much a distinct town, as the military station or cantonment for the place last named. Furruckabad itself is a city of sixty thousand inhabitants; handsome, cleaner, and more healthy than most Indian cities, carrying on a considerable trading and banking business, and standing in the centre of a fertile and cultivated region. ”

“ A mahout, or driver, is very fond of whispering to his elephant some superstitious tale; which, if the animal does not understand, it is amongst the few things this most wonderful of God’s creatures does not comprehend.
MOSQUE NEAR MOORSHEDABAD. A beautiful Masjid, or Mosque (a Muhammadan place of worship) , which is on the bank forms a picturesque object; beyond which is a ghāt and some houses, near Moorshedabad, as also a long range of buildings, belonging to the palace of the Nawāb.
MOORSHEDABAD—THE PALACE. Moorshedabad became the seat of the Bengal Government A.D. 1704. ”

“ In 1704, when Moorshed Coole Khan transferred the seat of government to this place, he changed its name of Mukhsooabad to Moorshedabad. It extends for eight miles along both [Pg 431] sides of the most sacred branch of the Ganges, called Bhauguretty, or Cossimbazar, at a distance of about 120 miles above Calcutta. It is an excessively shabby-looking town; the houses are ill built, and have a mean appearance, most of them being only one story high. Some are of brick with tile roofs, others of mud; others again mere straw huts, all jumbled together without the slightest attention to regularity. ”

“ It is well known to every gentleman in Bengal, that the honour of my country and the interest of the Company were the principles that governed all my actions; and that had I only taken the advantageous opportunities that presented themselves, by my being Commander-in-chief, at the head of a victorious army, and what by the custom of that country I was entitled to, the jaghire itself, great as it is, would have been an object scarce worthy my consideration. The city of Moorshedabad is as extensive, populous, and rich as the city of London ”

“ Allahabad means the dwelling of God, and the Hindoos regard it as one of the most sacred places of India. It is a city of one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and has a strong fortress with an English garrison. It is the seat of the government of the north-western provinces, and is situated on a point of land between the rivers Ganges and Jumna, on the great Indian railroad, about five hundred and sixty-five miles from Calcutta, and about the same distance from the Bay of Persia. ”

“ The white court with its mirror tank, the white cloisters, the vista of white arches and columns, and the pale shadows of the interior had beauty,—Vereshchagin's painting had told one that,—but the Moti Musjid gave the chill of the first disappointment in Agra. The tomb of I'tamadu-daulah, father of Nur Jahan, the famous wife of Jahangir, and grandfather of Mumtaz-i-Mahal, is on the opposite side of the Jumna; far above the Taj and from the high railway bridge and from the garden terraces one has still different views of the Taj. ”

“ I walked through the city to the Jumma Musjed, the principal place of Mahomedan worship, now much dilapidated and rapidly yielding to the desolating inroads of time, without any attempt, apparently, to check or repair its ravages. A complete panorama of the city is presented to the visitor from the top of the 'musjed.' The city, unworthy of the name, is only an irregular collection of wooden hovels, extending over some two hundred acres, its form undefined. The surrounding country is picturesque, presenting a pleasing variety of mountain and water, but deficient in timber. ”

“ At that time Askabad was a mere Turcoman settlement, and I little thought when I parted from them in the forests of Finland that our next meeting-place would be in the Steppes of Central Asia.
Askabad is a flourishing modern town, built in the ordinary Russian style, with broad boulevards, one-storeyed, whitewashed houses, and possessing a church with the usual green roof. The town lies in a barren plain, which in the spring contains a certain amount of scanty herbage, and it is about six miles distant from the Kopet Dach range of mountains, which here form the Persian boundary. ”

“ No point in the Murghab region is more important than the Pendjeh oasis as an agricultural colony. It is principally confined to the limits of a single valley, some 25 miles in length and 2 miles in breadth. Dotted about its spreading expanse there are a number of tiny settlements, containing in all some eight to nine thousand households. The areas under cultivation do not return sufficient grain to support so large a population ”

“ Back to the Connemara, through a moving population of native men returning from the races. They mostly wore Delhi caps (like "smoking caps") , long hair in a knot and long light tweed coats, round their thin bare legs, floppy linen shaded from white to rose-red, at the lower edge a bad red and a dirty white; there was red dust in the air, and a hot sunset in front—rather sickening colour. The whole population seems to have had a holiday to see the Sahibs run some fifteen to twenty horses. They seem rather an unmanly looking crowd. ”

“ Allahabad, from its position at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna, had always been deemed a place of great importance in both a military and civil aspect. It rose to new importance by being made the seat of government for the North-West instead [Pg 215] of Agra, and also by becoming the central railway-station, from which it was arranged railways should ramify to Lahore and Peshawur in the north-west, to Calcutta in the east and south, to Jubbulpore and Bombay in the west, forming in Central India a connection with the railways in Southern India. ”

“ In the whole of the tract north of the Murchison River there are only seven hundred white people, scattered in four or five very small townships, and on the sheep-runs into which the occupied country is parcelled. The flocks in this northern territory are almost entirely shepherded by aboriginal natives. ”

“ At the time of Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 the nawab or governor of Bengal was Murshid Kuli Khan, known also as Jafar Khan. By birth a Brahman, and brought up as a slave in Persia, he united the administrative Black Hole of Calcutta. ability of a Hindu to the fanaticism of a renegade. Hitherto the capital of Bengal had been at Dacca on the eastern frontier of the empire, whence the piratical attacks of the Portuguese and of the Arakanese or Mughs could be most easily checked. ”

“ Mysore town is a place of wide roads and trees, fields intended to be parks some day, and light and air. Many houses of European origin, somewhat suggestive of Italian or Spanish villas, are shuttered and closed in, so as to give a sense of their being deserted. You drive past these silent houses and their gardens and come to the native town, which is anything but silent or deserted, and then to the new palace; the modern sight of southern India. It is brimming with life ”

“ MOHAMMEDAN CITIES.
THROUGH Mirzapore, Allahabad, and Futtehpore, I passed on to Cawnpore, spending but little time at Allahabad; for though the city is strategically important, there is in it but little to be seen. Like all spots of the confluence of rivers, Allahabad is sacred with the Hindoos, for it stands, they say, at the meeting-point of no less than three great streams—the Ganges, the Jumna, and a river of the spirit-land. To us poor pagans the third stream is invisible ”

“ Where the Murghāb enters the desert it forms the great Merv oasis, a land which, even in its decadence, is one of the most fertile in the world. This ancient seat of empire, which fell into Turkoman hands after its invasion in 1784 by the forces of the Amīr Murād of Bokhārā, has other advantages precious to a predatory race. ”

“ In Tasawuf, such person is known as Murshid, Spiritual Mentor and Guide. A true Murshid is the one who knows the way to Allah perfectly and who has reached the Divine Oneness and now, is fully capable to guide the common people who do not know the way to Allah. ”

“ Hence to Surat is three coss, being the close of the itinerary of Nicolas Ufflet.
The city of Agra has not been in repute above 50 years, [259] having only been a village till the reign of Akbar, who removed his residence to this place from Futtipoor, as already mentioned, for want of good water. It is now a large city, and populous beyond measure, so that it is very difficult to pass through the streets, which are mostly narrow and dirty, save only the great Bazar and a few others, which are large and handsome. ”

“ In the year of the Hijerah, 1041 (A.D. 1631-2) , the Emperor Shāhjahān founded the present city and palace of Shāhjahānabad, which he made his capital during the remainder of his reign. The new city of Shāhjahānabad lies on the western bank of the Jumna, in latitude 28° 36′ North. The city is about seven miles in circumference, and is surrounded on three sides by a wall of brick and stone; a parapet runs along the whole, but there are no cannon planted on the ramparts. The city has seven gates: viz., Lahore gate, Delhi gate, Ajimere gate, Turkoman gate, Moor gate, Cabul gate, Cashmere gate ”