Awadh, Faizabad and the Court of Shuja-ud-Daula

(1)

Perhaps no one will object if I say that the last example of Eastern civilisation and culture seen in India was the former court of Awadh. Other courts survive as relics of the earlier age, but the court in which the old culture and the old way of life came to their end was this one, which was established very late, showed astonishing developments, and passed away very soon. So, under the heading above, I wish to describe briefly the history of this departed court and its distinctive features.

Perhaps no one will object either if I say that the region in which this last court was established surpasses every other province of India in standing and importance. The great deeds and matchless fame of the ancient Chandrabansi dynasty, and especially of Raja Ramchandra, reached such a pitch of perfection that, finding the vessel of history too narrow and confined for them, they put on the garment of religious sanctity; and today there is hardly a village in India so unfortunate that his memory is not renewed in it every year through the religious drama of the *Ram Lila* (the yearly enactment of the story of Rama). [TN: Rama's line is usually called Suryavanshi, the Solar dynasty; Sharar's "Chandrabansi" (Lunar) is as printed.] But Valmiki portrayed the story of this most ancient, divine court of Awadh and the splendour of Ayodhya in that age with such miraculous eloquence that it is written on the tablet of every devout heart, so I need not repeat it. Those who have seen the picture of ancient Ayodhya in Valmiki's literary portrait may now see, in *Dilgudaz*, the picture of Faizabad on the same blessed soil. [TN: *Dilgudaz* was Sharar's own literary monthly, in which this work first appeared in instalments.] So I begin the course of events from the time when the foundation of this last court was laid, a court that passed away not much more than fifty years ago.

When Nawab Burhan-ul-Mulk Amin-ud-Din Khan of Nishapur came as governor (*subahdar*) of Awadh on behalf of the imperial court of Delhi, he subdued the Shaikhzadas of Lucknow and went on to Ayodhya, the ancient seat of Awadh and a revered and holy city. At some distance from the town, on a high mound on the bank of the river Ghaghra, he pitched his tent. Absorbed as he was in governing the province, he had no time to put up grand buildings, nor, simple in temperament as he was, any taste for such ceremonious pomp; so for a long while he lived in tents. When after a time the rains troubled him [1], he moved a little way off to a suitable spot and had a thatched shelter (*chhappar*) built for himself. Afterwards he had a very large square enclosure of mud wall drawn round this shelter, with four mud bastions at its four corners in the manner of a fort, so that the surroundings could be watched. The enclosure was so large that several cavalry regiments, infantry battalions, artillery parks, stables and other necessary workshops could easily be housed in it. Since Burhan-ul-Mulk had no taste for building, mud houses were made for his women's quarters and his begums as well. In short, the ruler of Awadh at that time lived in this mud bungalow in ease and comfort, whenever he was free from touring his districts and the journeys of government, and had no complaint about anything; and within a short time this seat of his government became known as "the Bungalow".

After Burhan-ul-Mulk's death, when the time of Nawab Safdar Jang began, this settlement became known as Faizabad. Such was the foundation of the city of Faizabad, which in the speed of its growth and adornment outstripped even Lucknow. Now most of the Mughal army chiefs laid out gardens and airy, refreshing pleasure-grounds round this mud enclosure for their own enjoyment, and the city began to flourish. One gate of this mud enclosure, on the west side, was called the "Delhi Gate". Outside it the sons of Diwan Atma Ram built a splendid market and, in connection with it, houses to live in. In the same way Ismail Khan the cavalry captain (*risaldar*) also built a market, and many houses of eunuchs and of various soldiers went up inside the walls.

After Nawab Safdar Jang's death ruin fell on this new settlement for a while, so that time undid what had been built in those years; for his son Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula had chosen Lucknow for his residence and lived there, though he would always spend a night or two each year in this old home of his father and grandfather. Then in 1764 he was defeated by the English at the battle of Buxar. In utter destitution he fled to Faizabad, took whatever goods he found in the fort there, set out the same night and reached Lucknow. There too he stayed only one night, took whatever came to hand, and set off on the road to Bareilly, to seek refuge with the Afghans of Rohilkhand. Nine months after the battle the English made peace with him, under which Shuja-ud-Daula was bound to pay the English five annas in the rupee out of the revenues of his country.

Before peace was made, Shuja-ud-Daula happened in the course of this journey to pass through the city of Farrukhabad as well, where he met Ahmad Khan Bangash, who was counted among the old, experienced warriors of the time. He advised Shuja-ud-Daula: "When you go back now and take the reins of government in hand, do not forget these two pieces of advice of mine. First, never trust the Mughals, but work through your other servants and your eunuchs. Second, give up living in Lucknow and make Faizabad your capital." These words sank into Shuja-ud-Daula's heart, and when, after the treaty with the English, he set out for his dominions in 1765, he came straight to Faizabad and made it his capital. Here he now began to recruit a new army, to form new cavalry regiments and to lay the foundations of new buildings. He had the old enclosure rebuilt as a strong city wall, which was now called the Fort. He pulled down the Mughals' houses that lay inside and ordered most of his household servants to build houses outside the city wall. A plain of two miles on every side was left open round this enclosure; a deep moat was dug round it and it was put in order in the fashion of a fortification; and government servants and army officers were allowed to take plots of land in this plain suited to their rank and means and to build houses on them. As soon as the news spread that Shuja-ud-Daula had made Faizabad his seat, a whole world turned that way. Thousands of people began to come and settle. In Shahjahanabad (Delhi) things were such that everyone you saw was ready to go to Faizabad. So most of the accomplished people of Delhi bade farewell to their homeland and turned east. Day and night there was a continuous stream of arrivals; caravan after caravan came on, and the people settled here and were absorbed into the outskirts of Faizabad. Within a few days men of leisure of every people and creed, men of the pen and men of the sword, merchants, craftsmen, people of every class and every rank gathered here, and whoever came, at once set about getting a plot of land and building a house.

Within a few years two more walls were built besides the first enclosure. One adjoined the south side of the first square, and its area measured two miles by two miles; the other enclosure, a mile in extent, lay between the Fort and the outer wall. At this time the Tripolia and the Chowk market were built; their road began at the southern gate of the Fort and ran to the Allahabad road barrier, and it was so wide that ten carts could easily pass abreast. Whatever the thickness of the city wall at the ground, in the middle it was no less than ten yards, narrowing to five yards at the top. Detachments of both regular and irregular troops patrolled this wall all night and kept watch here and there. The uniform of the regular soldiers was red, and that of the irregulars black. For these soldiers thatched shelters were put up here and there in the rains, but as soon as the rains were over they were invariably taken down for fear of fire. So for the walls alone about a hundred thousand thatches were put up every year and torn down and thrown away four months later.

In the environs of the city two meadows had been made hunting preserves. One of them ran on the west from the mosque of Gurji Beg Khan to the Guptar Ghat, a considerable distance. It had mud walls on two sides, and the Ghaghra on the third. Deer, *chital* (spotted deer), *barasingha* (swamp deer), *nilgai* (blue bull) and other game had been released in it in great numbers, and they roamed quite freely and bounded away at the least alarm. The other preserve ran east of the city from the village of Janaura and the cantonment of the Gosains to the riverbank, and was six miles across. Eleven villages and their lands fell within it, but this preserve remained unfinished and the wild animals were never released into it.

Within the city proper there were three delightful gardens fit for nobles and princes to come and stroll in and enjoy their bloom and freshness. One was the Angoori Bagh (Vine Garden), inside the Fort, covering a quarter of its area; the second was the Moti Bagh (Pearl Garden), right in the middle of the Chowk; the third was the Lal Bagh (Red Garden), the largest of them all. Its flower-beds were laid out with great refinement, and every kind of delicate, enchanting flower was planted in order. It was famous throughout the province, and people far and wide longed to spend a lucky evening in that soul-refreshing garden. Every afternoon crowds of the city's young gentlemen could be seen walking in it to amuse themselves. Its delights were so famous that when the Emperor of Delhi, Shah Alam, returned from Allahabad, he went back to Delhi by way of Faizabad out of eagerness to see this garden, and stayed in it for some time. Besides these three gardens, the Asaf Bagh and the Buland Bagh also lay in the outskirts of the city on the Lucknow road.

Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula Bahadur was so keen on keeping the city in order that every morning and evening he rode out to inspect the roads and houses. Labourers with spades and pickaxes went with him. Wherever he found a house crooked or encroaching beyond its limit, or saw that a shopkeeper had taken in even a span of the roadway, he had it dug away at once and made level and straight.

Shuja-ud-Daula also paid special attention to reforming the army. The chief commanders of the cavalry were Nawab Murtaza Khan Barech and two Gosains named Himmat Bahadur and Umrao Gir. They had so many horsemen under them that each of the three had a larger force than the combined troops of all the other, lesser commanders (*jamadars*). The other army chiefs were Ihsan Kamboh, Gurji Beg Khan, Gopal Rao the Maratha, Nawab Jamal-ud-Din Khan (son-in-law of Mir Jumla), Muzaffar-ud-Daula Tahawwur Jang the paymaster (*bakhshi*), Abul-Barakat Khan of Kakori, and Muhammad Muizz-ud-Din Khan, a Shaikhzada of Lucknow. There was not one of them without a body of five hundred or a thousand soldiers under him. Besides these there were the eunuchs, and the young eunuchs being trained under their supervision, the *chelas* (disciples, household retainers) and the dependants. Under Basant Ali Khan the eunuch were two divisions of troops, that is, fourteen thousand regular soldiers, whose uniform was red. There was a second eunuch called Basant, under whose command were a thousand irregular lancers and one battalion. Under the eunuch Ambar Ali Khan were five hundred horsemen and one battalion, whose uniforms were black. Under the banner of the eunuch Mahbub Ali Khan were five hundred horsemen and four battalions. Latafat Ali Khan had the same force under him. Raghunath Singh and Prashad Singh each commanded three hundred horsemen and four battalions. Likewise Maqbul Ali Khan the first and second, and Yusuf Ali Khan, each had a following of five hundred Mughal horse and foot [TN: so printed; the sense may be two men named Maqbul Ali Khan and one Yusuf Ali Khan]; and the artillery was beyond count or reckoning.

So the whole army under Shuja-ud-Daula's control, kept at Faizabad, numbered in all thirty thousand regular foot in red uniforms and forty thousand irregular foot in black. Their supreme officer, the commander-in-chief, was Sayyid Ahmad, known by the title "Bansi-wala". In speed of loading and firing, the English army's muskets were nothing compared with their matchlocks.

Besides this force Shuja-ud-Daula had twenty-two thousand runners and informers, who brought news from Poona every seventh day and from Kabul every fifteenth. The envoys of rulers of distant lands were always present at court: one envoy of the Marathas, one of Nizam Ali Khan, ruler of the Deccan, one of Zabita Khan, and one of Nawab Zulfiqar-ud-Daula Najaf Khan, with their offices and soldiers. Apart from these many other military officers stayed here with their followings, such as Mir Naim Khan, under whose flag was a throng of Sabit-Khani, Bundelkhandi, Chandela and Mewati soldiers.

Muhammad Bashir Khan was commander of the Fort (*qiladar*). His horse and foot were spread over the city walls and gates, and inside the Fort itself were fine houses for his residence and office and barracks for his soldiers. When there was no room left even within the outer walls, Sayyid Jamal-ud-Din Khan and Gopal Rao the Maratha went outside and settled near the village of Naurahi, building their houses and camp there; and because of the same lack of space Nawab Murtaza Khan Barech, Mir Ahmad Bansi-wala, Mir Abul-Barakat and Shaikh Ihsan lived in tents between Ayodhya and Faizabad.

With the multitude of people and the throng of soldiers, the city, and the Chowk in particular, was so crowded that it was hard to get through, and impossible for anyone to walk straight along without being held up. Faizabad was not a city but a forest of human beings. In the market there were heaps of goods from country after country, and hearing that Faizabad held a choice gathering of refined grandees and free-spending nobles, caravans of merchants came laden from every direction; and since goods, however costly, sold at once, a steady flow of the very finest things had begun. At any time you would find Iranian, Kabuli, Chinese and European merchants with very costly, heavy goods, and the more profit they made, the more their greed grew, and they brought new goods with still greater search and effort. Some two hundred Frenchmen who had settled here, such as Monsieur Gentil, Monsieur Son Son and Monsieur Pedroz [TN: the last two names are read from the print and are uncertain], were in the government's service and maintained ties of alliance with Shuja-ud-Daula's state; they trained the soldiers and had cannon, muskets and other weapons of war made under their supervision.

Munshi Faiz Bakhsh, author of the *Tarikh-e-Farah Bakhsh*, through whose kindness I know these events, was himself alive at that time, and what he wrote he wrote from his own observation. He says: "When I first left home and went to Faizabad, I had only reached Mumtaz Nagar, four miles from the western gate of the city, when I saw that under a tree all kinds of sweets, hot food, kebabs, curries, breads and *paratha*s (flaky griddle breads) and so on were being sold; there were stalls of free water (*sabil*); *nan-khatai* biscuits, various kinds of sherbet and *falooda* were on sale too; and hundreds of people were jostling at these shops to buy. I thought I had entered the city and was in the Chowk itself, but I was puzzled that I had not yet come to the city gate, so how had I got inside? When I asked, a passer-by said: 'Sir, the city gate is four miles from here. What are you thinking of?'

"Marvelling at this answer, I entered the city and found an astonishing bustle. There was colour and there were amusements. Wherever I looked there was dancing, jugglers were performing, and people were busy with all kinds of shows and spectacles. I was dumbfounded at the splendour and the noise. From morning to evening and from evening to morning there was no time when the sound of the ceremonial drums (*naubat*) and the regimental kettledrums could not be heard. To mark the watches and the hours the *naubat* was beaten again and again and mallets struck the gongs, and the din of it nearly split one's ears. On the roads there was a constant procession of horses, elephants, camels, mules, hunting dogs, cows and buffaloes, bullocks, carts and cannon, beyond all counting and reckoning. It was hard to walk along the road.

"I found a city of wonderful splendour and dignity, in which well-dressed, well-mannered young gentlemen from among the people of Delhi, skilled physicians of the Greek (*Yunani*) school, troupes of male and female performers of the highest class, and famous, accomplished singers from every city and place were in the government's service, drawing large salaries and living lives of pleasure and ease. The pockets of high and low alike were full of rupees and gold *mohur*s, and it seemed as if no one here had ever seen poverty or want even in a dream. The Nawab Wazir (Shuja-ud-Daula Bahadur) was wholly occupied with the city's prosperity and splendour and the well-being of his subjects, and it seemed that in a few days Faizabad would claim equality with Delhi."

Since no ruler of any state or city lived with such refinement and magnificence as Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula, and since one could also see that nowhere else were people so ready to spend wealth so recklessly on every task and every occasion, the finest artisans, craftsmen and students of every kind and from every place bade farewell to their homelands and made Faizabad their home. At all times there was a great body of students here from Dhaka, Bengal, Gujarat, Malwa, Hyderabad, Shahjahanabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Kabul, Kashmir, Multan and elsewhere, who studied in the colleges of the learned and went home again after drinking their fill at the spring of learning that flowed in Faizabad. If only the Nawab Wazir had lived ten or twelve years more, a new Shahjahanabad would have risen on the bank of the Ghaghra, and the world would have seen the face of a new, living Delhi.

It was the result of only nine years of Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula's residence that made Faizabad what it was, and even in those nine years he graced the city only for the four months of the rains; the rest of the time was spent in touring his dominions and in hunting and pleasure trips. Shuja-ud-Daula's natural inclination was towards moon-faced women and song and dance, so that courtesans and troupes of dancers became so numerous in the city that no lane or street was without them; and thanks to the Nawab's rewards and favours they were so prosperous and wealthy that most of the *randi*s (courtesans) were *dera-dar* (keeping their own establishment of tents), with two or three splendid tents each. When the Nawab toured the districts and was on the march, their tents too set out with royal pomp, loaded on carts alongside the Nawab's own tents, guarded by ten or twelve *tilanga*s (sepoys). And when the ruler's way was this, all the nobles and chiefs too adopted the same way without scruple, and courtesans began to travel with them all. (Although this fostered immorality and shamelessness, there is no doubt that the abundance of these beauties of the market and the free spending of the nobles increased the city's splendour many times over, and Faizabad was decked out like a bride.)

In 1773 Shuja-ud-Daula made a journey westward. The splendour and bustle of the royal camp on this journey was beyond description. It seemed as if a great city were travelling along with the Nawab's banner of fortune. By way of Lucknow he reached Etawah, which the Marathas held. In a single assault he took it from them and made it his own, and, entering the territory of Ahmad Khan Bangash, encamped at Kauriaganj and Kasganj. From here he wrote to Hafiz Rahmat Khan, ruler of Bareilly: "Last year I sent ten million rupees to Mahadji Sindhia the Maratha, who had taken from you all your territory in the Doab. By paying that sum I freed your territory from his hold and handed it over to you. So now pay at once the sum of five million that I paid on your behalf." Hafiz Rahmat Khan gathered all his Afghan chiefs and kinsmen and said: "Shuja-ud-Daula is looking for an excuse to fight. It is best that the sum demanded be paid. I will give two million from my own pocket, and you raise the remaining three million." The short-sighted Pathan chiefs replied: "We have seen Shuja-ud-Daula's men; what match will they be for us? As for the English troops with him, when we fall on their guns with drawn swords they will all lose their wits. There is no need to give or take anything." Hearing this, Hafiz Rahmat Khan said: "As you wish; but I tell you now that if the fortune of battle turns, I will not come back from the field alive, and whatever comes of it, you will have to bear it."

In any case, Shuja-ud-Daula did not get the answer he wanted. He marched out with his army. Battle was joined, and its end was just what fate had already made Hafiz Rahmat Khan foretell. Hafiz Rahmat Khan fell a martyr and his rule came to an end. But Shuja-ud-Daula Bahadur too did not live to enjoy this victory. The battle was fought on 13 Safar 1188 AH (1774). On 11 Shaban Shuja-ud-Daula marched from Bareilly and came to Lucknow. He spent the blessed month of Ramazan in Lucknow. On 8 Shawwal he marched from Lucknow and entered Faizabad on the 14th. It was only nine months and ten days after the victory, and he had not had even a full month and a half of rest at home, when on 23 Ziqada 1188 AH (1775) he departed for the eternal world; and alas, with his death the age of Faizabad's progress came to an end too.

At that time the greatest influence in the government of Awadh was that of Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula Bahadur's wife, Bahu Begum Sahiba, who was also considered extremely wealthy. With her consent Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula took his seat as ruler; but his moral character was very bad, and his companions thought it best to keep mother and son apart. After spending a few days in hunting and pleasure trips, Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula Bahadur settled in Lucknow, where he sat and harassed his mother, again and again demanding money from her.

Because Bahu Begum Sahiba remained there, Faizabad kept some measure of splendour as long as she lived. Although even in her lifetime Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula's misconduct disturbed Bahu Begum Sahiba's peace, and with it the peace and order of Faizabad, as long as this honoured lady lived even those quarrels and disturbances lent the place a kind of liveliness. With her death the history of Faizabad ended and the age of Lucknow began, which I shall describe next.

Notes

[1] Sharar's note: All these facts about Faizabad are taken from Munshi Muhammad Faiz Bakhsh's *Tarikh-e-Farah Bakhsh*. I have not seen the original book, but I have its English translation by Mr William Hoey, printed at the Government Press, Allahabad, in 1889.