70 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIII, 



but the little that is known points to Srinagar having been 

 founded by a Raja named Mahipat Sah, some time after the 

 seventeenth century had begun. 1 (Imperial Gazetteer, Ed. 1908. 

 XXIII. 105; XII. 165). The Imperial Gazetteer is not a pri- 

 mary authority, and the source of the information is unfortu- 

 nately not mentioned; but the statement is, for all that, not 

 unworthy of attention. But whether the Gazetteer is wrong or 

 right, it is certain that no reference to the Srinagar of Garhwal 

 has been found in the Musalman histories that have been 

 published, which is earlier than the eighth year of the reign of 

 Shah Jahan (1044 a.h.). It is unfortunate that the chapter 

 of the Badshahnamah of Abdul Hamid Lahori, in which the 

 first Mughal invasion of the Srinagar of Garhwal is described, 

 has been omitted in Dowson's translation. It is headed " Cap- 

 ture by Najabat Khan of some of the forts of the Zamindai 

 of Srinagar and his disastrous retreat (lit. disappointed return) 

 on account of mismanagement.' 5 The heading itself is signifi- 

 cant, and the gist of it is that Najabat Khan, Faujdar of 

 the Daman-i-Koh of the Subah of the Panjab, volunteered his 

 services against the Raja of Srinagar. He would compel the 

 Raja to promise a tribute, and if he refused, he (Najabat Khan) 

 would deprive him of his territory, provided the. Emperor gave 

 him two thousand horsemen in addition to his own territorial 

 forces. His offer was accepted , and after taking several fortresses 

 (Shergadh, Kalpi, Birat, and Santur) and defeating the enemy 

 at a place called Kotal Talao, he arrived within thirty kos of 

 Srinagar. The Raja promised to pay ten lakhs to the Exchequer, 

 and to make a present of one lakh to Najabat Khan himself 

 within a fortnight. But finding that Najabat's supplies had run 

 short, and that his troops were without food, he devised all sorts 

 of excuses and, eventually, paid only one lakh after a month 

 and a half. The winter then came on, the passes were closed by 

 the Garhwalis, and Najabat had to beat a shameful retreat with 

 the loss of almost his entire army. (Badshahnamah, Biblio- 

 theca Indica Text, Vol. I, part II, pp. 90-93). The story of this 

 abortive attempt to conquer Srinagar is told in his usual man- 

 ner, with several exaggerations and comical additions, by 

 Manucci, who says that the Raja was known in his own day as 

 Nactirani (Nak-Kati Rana) (Nose-cutting Raja), on account of 

 his having granted their lives to Najabat Khan and his soldiers 

 only on condition of their leaving their noses behind them. 

 (Irvine, Manucci's Storia do Mogor, Vol. 1, 215-6 and note). The 

 Maasir-ul Urmra gives a different explanation of the origin of this 

 cunous sobriquet (Vol. Ill, 822-24), but it confirms the account 

 of Najabat Khan's failure, and there can be no doubt that the 

 Mughals were unable to establish their authority in Garhwal, or 



1 No. 525a I.M . is of the 42nd j ar (1696*7). 



