50 
W. Irvine —The Later Muahals. 
[No. 1, 
affairs. Nor, being a soldier who had come into office without much 
preparation for civil affairs, was he very competent to deal with tbe 
details of administration, for which, moreover, he had no natural 
taste. Everything was left to his man of business, Ratn Cand, 
a Hindu of the Baniya caste, and a native of a village near the 
Sayyads’ home at Jansath. 1 2 He had been recently created a Rajah 
with the rank of 2,000 zat. The chief dispute centred upon the 
question of appointments to office, the fees paid by those receiving 
appointments being a recognised and most substantial source of 
emolument. Ratn Cand, in addition to these customary fees, exacted 
large sums, which were practically bribes or payments for the grant 
of the appointment. By Mir Jumlah’s independent action in bringing 
forward candidates and affixing the seal to their warrants of appoint¬ 
ment, without following the usual routine of passing them through 
the wazir’s office, the emoluments of both the chief minister 
and of his head officer were considerably curtailed. It is a matter 
of little wonder, therefore, that Qutb-ul-Mulk felt aggrieved at the 
unusual powers placed in the hands of a rival such as Mir Jurnlah. 
This noble was much more accessible than the wazir, and was not given 
to the extortionate practices of Ratn Cand. Naturally, men in search 
of employment or promotion sought his audience-hall rather than that 
of Qutb-ul-Mulk. The wazir suffered, in this way, both in influence 
and in income. Moreover, Mir Jurnlah allowed no opportunity to pass 
without depreciating the Sayyad brothers, and brought forward argu¬ 
ments of every sort to prove that they were unfitted for the offices that 
they held. 8 
The quarrel which had broken out in the first weeks of the reign 
was patched up in the manner already recounted. But no thorough 
reconciliation had been effected ; nor, considering the character of 
Earrukhsiyar, was any such reconciliation to be expected. The Sayyad 
brothers could never be certain from day to day that some new plot was 
1 Mv old acquaintance, Rae Bahadur Nihal Chand, Agarwal, an Honorary 
Magistrate of Muzaffarnagar, in a letter of the 1st Dec., 1893, informs me that Ratn 
Cand was a native of Jansath town, where he had bnilt a handsome house, now in a 
ruined state, but still in the hands of his impoverished descendants. He belonged to 
a sub-caste of the Agarwals called Rajah-hi-barddari ( i.e ., the Rajah’s relations), the 
reference being to Rajah Agar Sen, the reputed founder of the caste, their ancestor 
having been that Rajah’s son by a concubine. The epithet of Baqqdl (shop-keeper) 
attached to Ratn Cand’s name, is the Persion version of the vernacular caste name 
Baniya or Mahajan (trader). None of these words necessarily implies that Ratn 
Cand had ever kept a shop; they are the name of his caste. Many Baniyas by 
caste may still be.found in the employ of the State, in all grades. 
2 Khafi Khan Ila, 739, Khushhal Cand, 399a. 
