56 W. Irvine — Tlie Bangash Nawabs of Farrulcliabdd. [No. 2, 



" office ; bad we only arms by us, we should try first wbat our swords could 

 do." Having said this, be stretched out his feet to be fettered, and each 

 of the other princes, out of affection for his brothers, claimed to be ironed 

 first. This indignity having been completed, they were placed in litters 

 under guard, and forwarded to the fort at Allahabad. The news of their 

 arrest spread consternation and despair amongst all the Afghans. 



By direction of the Wazir, Rajah Naval Rae now took up his quarters 

 at Kannauj, forty miles south-east of Farrukhabad, near the junction of 

 the Kalinadi with the Ganges. This place was selected as being midway 

 between the two Subahs of Audh and Allahabad and the new territory ac- 

 quired from the Bangash family. Naval Rae lived in the Motiya Mahal, 

 built by the founder of the large sarae at Miran-ki-Sarae, which he re-chris. 

 tened the Bang Mahal. Directly under his orders he had forty thousand 

 horsemen. There were in addition the troops commanded by Nawab Baka- 

 ullah Khan, Amir Khani Nawab 'Ata-ullah Khan, former ruler of 'Azima- 

 bad, Mirza 'Ali Kvili Khan, Mirza Muhammad Ali Kochak, Mirza Najaf 

 Beg, Mirza Mashadi, Aka Muhammad Bakir Yarmani, Mir Kudrat 'Ali Khan 

 Daipuri,* Mir Muhammad Salah Miranpuri.f From Kannauj were des- 

 patched subordinate rulers (amils) and collectors of revenue (sazdwals) 

 with orders to proclaim from lane to lane through all the villages the de- 

 feat and degradation of the Pathans. These agents, in their rapacity, 

 acting even in excess of their instructions, began to levy fines frbm every 

 inhabited place up to the confines of the towns of Shamsabad, 'Ataepur 

 and Kaimganj. The town of Mau alone escaped. It owed its safety to 

 the number of Pathans inhabiting it, of the tribes of Bangash, Afridi, 

 Toyah, Khatak, Ghilzai, Warakzai, Kochar, Dilazak, Khalil and Mabmand. 

 These stood ready day and night to repel force by force, but they refrained 

 from beginning hostilities, for fear of injury to the Bibi Sakiba who re- 

 mained in the custody of Naval Rae. 



It was arranged that Munshi Sahib Rae, an old servant of the Bangash 

 family, who knew Naval Rae before, should be sent to him. Being of the 

 same caste and having already made Naval Rae's acquaintance at Delhi, in 

 a few days he managed to be admitted to the drinking bouts, which took 

 place every night in the Rang Mahal after business was over. One night 

 Naval Rae got drunk, and knowing a little of the Shastras began to talk 

 on religion, boasting also of his bravery. Sahib Rae, pretending to be 



* Daipur is in Parganah Kannauj, it is the easternmost village adjoining the first 

 village in the Cawnpur parganah of Bilhor. 



t This Miranpur is, I suppose, the town in the Barha Sadat of the Muaffarnagar 

 district, 16 miles east of Khatauli. The 'Amad-us-Sa'dat (p. 48), tells us he was a Barha 

 Sayyad. 



