72 HINDOO STAN. 



inviting Nadir Shah, otherwise Kouli Khan, the Persian monarch, 

 to invade Hindoostan. It is thought, that he had intelligence of a 

 strong party formed against him at court ; but the truth perhaps is, 

 that Nizam did not think that Nadir Shah could have success, and at 

 first wanted to make himself useful by opposing him. The success 

 of Nadir Shah is well known, and the immense treasure which he 

 carried from Hindoostan in 1739. Besides those treasures, he obliged 

 the Mogul to surrender to him all the lands to the west of the rivers 

 Attock and Sind, comprehending the provinces of Peyshor, Cabul, and 

 Gagna, with many other rich and populous principalities, the whole 

 of them almost equal in value to the crown ot Persia itself. 



This invasion cost the Mogul empire 200,000 lives. As to the 

 plunder made by Nadir Shah, some accounts, and those too strongly 

 authenticated, make it amount to' the incredible sum of two hundred 

 and thirty -one millions sterling, as mentioned by the London Gazette 

 of those times. The most moderate say that Nadir's own share 

 amounted to considerably above seventy millions. Be that as it may. 

 the invasion of Nadir Shah may be considered as putting a period 

 to the greatness of the Mogul empire in the house of Timur. Nadir? 

 however, when he had raised all the money he could in Delhi, rein- 

 stated the Mogul, Mahommed Shah, in the sovereignty, and return- 

 ed into his own country. A general defection of the provinces soon 

 after ensued ; none being willing to yield obedience to a prince de- 

 prived of the power to enforce it. The provinces to the north-west 

 of the Indus had been ceded to Nadir Shah, who being assassinated 

 in 1747, Achmet Abdallah, his treasurer, an unprincipled man, but 

 possessed of great intrepidity, found means, in the general confusion 

 occasioned by the tyrant's death, to carry off three hundred camels 

 loaded with wealth, whereby he was enabled to put himself at the 

 head of an army, and march against Delhi with fifty thousand horse. 

 Thus was the wealth drawn from Delhi made the means of continu- 

 ing those miseries of war which it had at first occasioned. Prince 

 Achmet Shah, the Mogul's eldest son, and the vizier, with other 

 leading men, in this extremity, took the field with eighty thousand 

 horse, to oppose the invader. The war was carried on with various 

 success, and Mahommed Shah died before its termination. His son, 

 Achmet Shah, then mounted the imperial throne at Delhi; but the 

 empire fell every day more into decay. Abdallah erected an inde- 

 pendent kingdom, of which the Indus is the general boundary. 



The Mahrattas, a warlike nation of the south-western peninsula of 

 India, had, before the invasion of Nadir Shah, exacted a chout or 

 tribute from the empire, arising out of the revenues of the province 

 of Bengal, which being withheld in consequence of the enfeebled 

 state of the empire, the Mahrattas became clamorous. The empire 

 began to totter to its foundation ; every petty chief, by counterfeiting 

 grants from Delhi, laying claim to jaghires* and to districts. The 

 country was torn to pieces by civil wars, and groaned under every 

 species of domestic misery. Achmet Shah reigned only seven years, 

 after which much disorder and confusion prevailed in Hindoostan, and 

 the people suffered great calamities. At present, the imperial dignity 

 of Hindoostan is vested in Shah Allum Zadah, who is universally 



* Jaghire means a grant of land from a sovereign to a subject, revokable in- 

 deed, at pleasures but generally held for life, 



