Nader Shah's invasion of India
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Emperor Nader Shah, the Shah of Iran (1736–47) and the founder of the Afsharid dynasty, invaded Northern India, eventually attacking Delhi in March 1739. His army had easily defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal and would eventually capture the Mughal capital in the aftermath of the battle.
Nader Shah's victory against the weak and crumbling Mughal Empire in the far east meant that he could afford to turn back and resume war against Persia's archrival, the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, but also the further campaigns in the North Caucasus and Central Asia.
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- Afterwards Nadir Shah himself, with the Emperor of Hindustan, entered the fort of Delhi. It is said that he appointed a place on one side in the fort for the residence of Muhammad Shah and his dependents, and on the other side he chose the Diwan-i Khas, or, as some say, the Garden of Hayat Bakhsh, for his own accommodation. He sent to the Emperor of Hindustan, as to a prisoner, some food and wine from his own table. One Friday his own name was read in the khutba, but on the next he ordered Muhammad Shah's name to be read. It is related that one day a rumour spread in the city that Nadir Shah had been slain in the fort. This produced a general confusion, and the people of the city destroyed five thousand men of his camp. On hearing of this, Nadir Shah came of the fort, sat in the golden masjid which was built by Rashanu-d daula, and gave orders for a general massacre. For nine hours an indiscriminate slaughter of all and of every degree was committed. It is said that the number of those who were slain amounted to one hundred thousand. The losses and calamities of the people of Delhi were exceedingly great…. After this violence and cruelty, Nadir Shah collected immense riches, which he began to send to his country laden on elephants and camels.
- The result of Muhammad Shah’s visit to the Persian Emperor has been seen. Some days later, on the 24th of the month, Asaf Jah was deputed to finally settle sundry matters; but, through some unknown cause, this personage railed in his mission, and was detained in the camp. Muhammad Shah himself, neglecting the remonstrances of a few well-wishers who advised a further appeal to arms, then paid a second visit to the Persian Emperor on the 26th. Muhammad Shah, as a result of this interview, found it advisable to continue in the Persian camp, and ordered a part of the royal camp equipage to be brought. This was accordingly done. By degrees all the chief nobles of the State joined His Majesty. To all appearance they acted according to their inclination, but in truth under compulsion. Nasakchis were ordered to be in attendance on them; these in reality were but spies on their actions. How strange are the freaks of fortune! Here was an army of 100,000 bold and well-equipped horsemen, held as it were in captivity, and all the resources of the Emperor and his grandees at the disposal of the Kazalbash! The Mugbal monarchy appeared to all to be at an end.
A proclamation was issued to the army that all might depart who chose, as His Majesty himself was about to return to Shah- Jahanabad. The soldiers and camp followers now departed in crowds, and, with the exception of the chief dignitaries, and a few of lesser rank, who would have thought it a crime to abandon their master at such a time, the Emperor remained alone. Tahmasp [p. 86] Khan Jalar Wakilu-s Saltanat, Burhanu-l Mulk Bahadur, and ‘Azimu-llah Khan Bahadur, were sent in advance by the Shah to have the fort prepared for his reception and to settle various other matters.
When the Shah’s camp equipage arrived from Shahabad, the two Emperors set out. They made the journey seated together on an elevated car. Muhammad Shah entered the citadel (ark) of Shah-Jahanabad in great pomp on the 8th of Zi-l hijja, seated in his car; the conqueror followed on the 9th mounted on a horse. By a strange cast of the dice two monarches who, but a short while before, found the limits of an empire too narrow to contain them both, were now dwellers within the same four walls!
The next day Nadir Shah returned the Indian ruler’s visit, and accepted the presents offered by the latter. When the Shah departed towards the close of the day, a false rumour was spread through the town that he had been severely wounded by a shot from a matchlock,1 and thus were sown the seeds from which murder and rapine were to spring. The bad characters within the town collected in great bodies, and, without distinction, commenced the work of plunder and destruction. A discharge of firearms and other missiles was continued throughout the night. The darkness of the night and the difficulty of recognizing friend or foe were the cause of numbers of the Kazalbashis being slain in the narrow lanes of the town. Scarce a spot but was stained with their blood.
On the morning of the 11th an order went forth from the Persian Emperor for the slaughter of the inhabitants. The result may be imagined; one moment seemed to have sufficed for universal destruction. The Chandni chauk, the fruit market, the Daribah bazaar, and the buildings around the Masjid-i Jama’ were set fire to and [p. 87] reduced to ashes. The inhabitants, one and all, were slaughtered. Here and there some opposition was offered, but in most places people were butchered unresistingly. The Persians laid violent hands on everything and everybody; cloth, jewels, dishes of gold and silver, were acceptable spoil.
The author beheld these horrors from his mansion situated in the Wakilpura Muhalla outside the city, resolved to fight to the last if necessary, and with the’ help of God to fall at least with honour. But, the Lord be praised, the work of destruction did not extend beyond the above-named parts of the capital. Since the’ days of Hazrat Sahib-kiran Amir Timur, who captured Dehli and ordered the inhabitants to be massacred, up to the present time, A.H. 1151, a period of 348 years, the capital had been free from such visitations. The ruin in which its beautiful streets and buildings were now involved was such that the labour of years could alone restore the town to its former state of grandeur.
But to return to the miserable inhabitants. The massacre lasted half the day, when the Persian Emperor ordered Haji Fulad Khan, the kotwal, to proceed through the streets accompanied by a body of Persian nasakchis, and proclaim an order for the soldiers to resist from carnage.2 By degrees the violence of the flames subsided, but the bloodshed, the devastation, and the ruin of families were irreparable. For a long time the streets remained strewn with corpses, as the walks of a garden with dead flowers and leaves. The town was reduced to ashes, and had the appearance of a plain consumed with fire. All the regal jewels and property and the contents of the treasury were seized by the Persian conqueror in [p. 88] the citadel. He thus became possessed of treasure to the amount of sixty lacs of rupees and several thousand ashrafis… plate of gold to the value of one kror of rupees, and the jewels, many of which were unrivalled in beauty by any in the world, were valued at about fifty krors. The peacock throne3 alone, constructed at great pains in the reign of Shah Jahan, had cost one kror of rupees. Elephants, horses, and precious stuffs, whatever pleased .the conqueror’s eye, more indeed than can be enumerated, became his spoil. In short, the accumulated wealth of 348 years changed masters in a moment.- Tazrikha by Anand Ram Mukhlis. A history of Nâdir Shah’s invasion of India. In The History of India as Told by its own Historians. The Posthumous Papers of the Late Sir H. M. Elliot. John Dowson, ed. 1st ed. 1867. 2nd ed., Calcutta: Susil Gupta, 1956, vol. 22, pp. 74-98. also in [4] [5] [6] [p. 85] Muhammad Shah’s Second Visit to the Shah:Entry of the Two Monarchs into Shah-Jahanabad. The Tazrikha is an account of Nâdir Shah’s rise to power and his invasion of India in 1739.