444 A Sketch of the Malwmeclan History of Cashmere. [No. 5. 



ood-deeu Khan as his Naib. He, however, on arriving in Cashmere, 

 was imprisoned by Eakr-ood-dowlah, who soon afterwards appointed 

 his own Naib Kazie Khan and left the conntry. 



During his absence the imprisoned Aswaim-ood-deen Khan (A. D. 

 1 736,) managed to escape and to get the upper hand of Kazie Khan, 

 who fled. Cashmere has now, since the beginning of the century, 

 exhibited the spectacle of a province governed by the creatures of 

 an absent ruler, himself the courtier of the supreme Emperor, who, 

 in his turn, by this time of the declension of the Mogul power, was 

 generally a mere puppet in other hands, and but little his own 

 master. Observing this, it can scarcely excite surprise that the 

 various Naibs should have taken advantage of the state of things ; 

 and endeavoured to render themselves more or less independent. 



In fact from about this time we shall find most of the governors 

 of Cashmere in common with those of the other provinces of the 

 tottering Mogul throne, little short of independent rulers. In the 

 year Hejira 1 151, (A. D. 1738,) Nadir Shah having overrun Kabool 

 and Peshawar, set out on his invasion of Hindustan, and on his 

 arrival at Lahore was met by Eakr-ood-dowlah, whom he appointed 

 viceroy of Cashmere, and then resumed his march towards Delhi. 

 As his progress during the invasion belongs to the general history 

 of India, we need not to follow it further than as it effects the pro- 

 vince whose history is our subject. The battle of Paniput ensued, in 

 which many Cashmerie nobles, officers of Mahomed Shah, were 

 slain, and Delhi was subsequently sacked by the soldiers of Nadir 

 Shah. After due submission to the conqueror, Mahomed Shah was 

 reinstated on the throne, and thus Cashmere still remained a pro- 

 vince of the Mogul empire. 



Meantime Eakr-ood-dowlah had returned to Cashmere, of which 

 he remained master for forty days, and coined in the name of Nadir 

 Shah. The Cashmeries however, (A. D. 1738,) objecting to an 

 Emperor of the Shiah sect, turned out his Soobahdar in an emeute, 

 and, shortly afterwards the news arrived that Nadir Shah had 

 spared the province to the Emperor Mahomed Shah, who in fact 

 the following year bestowed the Soobahdaree on Anatoola Khan 

 (A. D. 1739,) who appointed Abul Burkat his Naib, and followed 

 in person three months afterwards. A quarrel soon ensued between 



