JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 
Part I.—HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. 
No. IV.—1878. 
The Bangash JSTawabs of Farrukhdbdel—A Chronicle , (1713—1857). —Bg 
William Irvine, C. S., Fatehgarh, N. W. B. — Part I. 
From the time of Farruklisiyar’s accession in 1713, the imposing 
fabric of the Mughul Empire began to fall asunder. In the hands of weak 
and dissolute princes, surrounded by self-seeking and incompetent courtiers, 
the central power rapidly withered and decayed. As control relaxed, the 
provincial governors usurped more and more, in fact if not in name, the 
attributes of sovereignty, and transmitted their authority to their heirs 
with little more than the nominal concurrence of the faineant descendants 
of Babar and Akbar. To this period of disintegration can be traced the 
origin of nearly all the great Muhammadan principalities which the English 
found, when they first intervened in Indian politics. From ’Ali Ward! 
Khan, a subahdar who died in 1741, descend the Nawab-Nazims of Bengal ; 
the Nizam of Haidarabad represents the family founded by Nizam-ul Mulk, 
Asaf Jah, Subahdar of the Dakhin from 1713 to 1748 ; the kings of Audh 
sprang from Sa’dat Khan, Burhan-ul Mulk, appointed Subahdar of Audh 
in 1713; the Bohelas achieved their independence in the early part of 
Muhammad Shah’s reign ; and the Jats of Bharfcpur first rose into impor¬ 
tance at the time when Churaman became the ally of ’Abdullah Khan, 
Kutb-ul Mulk, the rebellious Wazir of Muhammad Shah. The Bangash 
house, which founded Farrukhabad and acquired a considerable territory in 
the middle Duab, arose at the same time and in the same way as its more 
famous rivals ; and although in the end it fell upon evil days, there was 
a time when its prospects of future greatness were little, if at all, inferior to 
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