Author: Jadunath Sarkar

Introduction 

The Bodleian Library’s Persian MS. Bod. 59 (Sachau and Ethé Catalogue, No. 240) gives the earliest and most detailed account of the conquest of Chatgaon by Shaista Khan. The value and a few defects of the work have been described by me in this Journal for June, 1906. I give below a translation of the passages relating to this subject, supplemented by translations from the ‘Alamgirnamah’, where it differs or supplies anything new.

It is to be noticed that Shihabuddin Talish makes no mention of the siege of Chatgon during the day following the arrival of  the Mughal forces, and hence there is an inaccuracy of dates in  his account. The ‘Alamgirnamah’, on the other hand, gives a different version of what happened after the first naval battle, and almost ignores the important share which the Feringis had  in the naval victories of the Mughals, who were proverbially averse to the sea. It also tells us that all the Feringis of Chatgaon did not desert to the Mughals in company with Captain  Moor. The pages are mentioned within square brackets.

Decay of the Bengal Flotilla 

[P. 112, b.) During the viceroyalty of Prince Shuja, when great confusion was caused by his negligence, [113,a] the extortion and violence of the clerks (mutasaddis) ruined the pargunahs assigned for maintaining the nawwra (flotilla). Many [naval] officers and workmen holding jagir or stipend were overpowered  by poverty and starvation. Day by day their distress and ruin increased. When Mir Jumla came to Bengal as Viceroy, he wished to make a new arrangement of the expenditure and tankah of the flotilla, which amounted to 14 lacs of rupees.

After abolishing the old system, and just before beginning the reorganisation, he was overcome by the spells of Assam [i.e., died of the Assam queen’s witchcraft]. Many naval officers and men too perished in the expedition; so that at Mir Junila’s death the flotilla was utterly ruined.

[12, a.] [Early in 1644] the pirates came to Bagadia, a dependency of Dacca, and defeated Munawwar Khan, zemindar, who was stationed there with the relics of the nawwara—a few broken and rotten boats—and bore the high title of cruising admiral (sardar-i-sairab). Munawwar fled in confusion. Ismail  Khan Tarin and other Nawwabi officers, whom [Shaista Khan’s son, Deputy Governor at Dacca] Aqidat Khan had sent with a  small force to Munawwar, prevented the crew of their own boats from retreating by turning them round. The crew, on seeing their passengers averse to flight, jumped into the sea and swam ashore to safety. Ismail Khan and his comrades boldly made a firm stand and repelled with their bows and guns the enemy who had advanced to seize them. A musket-shot grazed the leg of Ismail Khan [122, b]. The current drove their sailor-less boats to the bank, and they escaped destruction. The few boats that still belonged to the nawwara were thus lost, and it name alone remained in Bengal.

 

Sir Jadunath Sarkar CIE (1870-1958) was a famous historian. 

The article was first published in June, 1907 issue of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal