White Mughals (81 page)

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Authors: William Dalrymple

52
Gardner Papers, National Army Museum, Letter 16, p.42.
53
Ibid.
54
See the Mubarak Bagh Papers in the archives of the Delhi Commissioners Office, DCO F5/1861.
55
According to the evidence Bâqar Ali Khan gave to Colonel Bowser in Lord Clive’s Report, ‘After the death of Colonel Dalrymple, the Furzund Begum (Daughter in Law of the Minister) did twice use importunities with my Begum, when on a visit at the Minister’s house, to give up her Grand Daughter to the Resident.’ ‘Report of an Examination …’, op. cit. As late as 1802 Khair un-Nissa and her mother are reported making ‘occasional visits’ to Farzand Begum’s
zenana
in for example OIOC, Mss Eur F228/58, p.24, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer, 1 April 1802.
56
Wellington, ‘Memorandum of Conversations … Dummul 26th Sept 1800’, op. cit.
57
Makhan Lal,
Tarikh i-Yadgar i-Makhan Lal
, op. cit., p.54. Lal reports that Bâqar Ali and Sharaf un-Nissa received
jagirs
and titles from the Nizam following the marriage, and that ‘Sharaf un-Nissa Begum is receiving the jagir from the government until now’, i.e. AD1819/1236AH, the time of writing.
58
Wellington, op. cit., p.176.
59
See Fisher, ‘Women and the Feminine …’, op. cit.
60
Wellington, op. cit., p.174.
61
Dhoolaury Bibi appears intermittently in William Kirkpatrick’s letters, as do her two children by him, who in Kent were known by the names Robert and Cecilia Walker: see OIOC, F228/10, p.14, 14 September 1797, for James promising to pay Dhoolaury Bibi her allowance of one hundred rupees per month during William’s absence. In William’s will, Dhoolaury Bibi is explicitly referred to as the mother of Robert Walker, and receives a legacy of twelve thousand rupees, a very large sum considering the ruinous state of William’s finances.
62
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/13, p.113, 4 August 1801.
63
‘Report of an Examination …’, op. cit., p.364. Also Khan,
Tarikh i-Khurshid Jahi
, op. cit., pp.713-14.
64
Arthur Wellesley to Colonel Close, 22 September 1800, op. cit.
65
Wellington, op. cit.
66
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/13, p.113, 4 August 1801.
67
The letter is now lost but is quoted by Lady Strachey in a letter. Kirkpatrick Papers, OIOC, F228/96, Letter from Mrs R. Strachey [Julia Maria Strachey], 69 Lancaster Gate W, to Sir Edward Strachey, Sutton Court, Pensford, Somersetshire, dated and postmarked 3 April 1886.
68
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/59, p.27, 24 October 1804, James Kirkpatrick to his father, the Handsome Colonel, on his son’s death.
69
For eighteenth-century English aristocratic men, treating women from different classes in utterly different ways as far as sexual relations were concerned, see for example Amanda Foreman,
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
(London, 1998), and Stella Tillyard,
Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox 1740-1832
(London, 1995), passim.
70
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.348, 14 March 1800, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
71
Now sadly lost.
72
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/83, Hyderabad, 23 May 1800.
73
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.30, 15 January.
74
Ibid., p.73.
75
Quoted by Buddle, op. cit., p.15.
76
See for example Lord Macartney quoted in Lafont,
Indika
, op. cit., p.158.
77
For the bore of the artillery see ibid., p.157. For the rockets see Colley, ‘Going Native, Telling Tales’, op. cit., p.190.
78
Lafont,
Indika
, op. cit., p.186.
79
Quoted by Buddle, op. cit., p.34.
80
Weller, op. cit., p.73.
81
Quoted by Moon, op. cit., p.288.
82
See Buddle, op. cit., p.37.
83
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, pp.162-75, 17 and 18 May 1799.
84
Wilkie Collins,
The Moonstone
(London, 1868).
85
Khan,
Gulzar i-Asafiya
, pp.305-15. A similar picture is painted by Mehdi Hasan, Fateh Nawaz Jung,
Muraqq i-Ibrat
(Hyderabad, 1300AH/AD1894), p.14.
86
Shushtari, op. cit., p.160.
87
Alexander Walker Papers, NLS 13,601-14, 193, Ms 13,601, f.156, Madras, 6 August 1799.
88
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.321, 7 March 1800.
89
Ibid., p.252, 14 September 1799.
90
Ibid., p.200, 8 August 1799.
91
James was also surprised by the scale of the ‘pension’: OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.258, 14 September, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
92
Ibid., p.174, 22 May.
93
Khan,
Gulzar i-Asafiya
, pp.309-10.
94
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.275, 15 October.
95
Ibid., p.262, 26 September, and p.269, Hyderabad, 12 October 1799, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
96
Ibid., p.269, Hyderabad, 12 October 1799, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
97
The
divan
given by Mah Laqa Bai Chanda is now in OIOC, Islamic Ms 2768. The book contains an inscription: ‘The Diwan of Chanda the celebrated Malaka of Hyderabad. This book was presented as a nazr from this extraordinary woman to Captain Malcolm in the midst of a dance in which she was the chief performer on the 18 October 1799 at the House of Meer Allum Bahadur’.
98
‘Report of an Examination … ’, op. cit., p.364.
99
Khan,
The Muraqqa’ e-Dehli
, op. cit., p.45-6, 56, 76, 81.
100
New Delhi National Archives, Hyderabad Residency Records, Vol. 20, p.218, 5 November 1799, James Kirkpatrick to Lord Wellesley.
101
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/53, p.16, 24 July 1799, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.
102
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.59, 3 February.
103
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/54, pp.151-2, September, James Kirkpatrick to William Palmer.
104
James’s proposal for the
jashn
is a fascinating document, and worth reproducing in full, for it reveals his knowledge both of Mughal etiquette in general and, in particular, of the intimate hierarchy that formed the Nizam’s household. At the top of the pile came the Nizam, his three senior wives and the princes, each of whom was to receive the different types of jewels and dresses of honour appropriate to their rank:
Rough Estimate of a great Jushn
His Highness the Nizam and the
Begums of his Mahal
To His Highness:
Jewels, nine sorts, viz 1 jiggah [turban ornament in the form of a raised bejewelled flower
spray] 1 sarpeich [a different sort of turban jewel] 1 pr dustbund [a jewelled wristband] 1 ditto Bhojbund [armband], 1 ditto bazoobund [an
armband formed of especially large jewels], 1 malla of pearls, 1 toorah [another form of
turban ornament, round and hung with pearls, associated with the end of the ornament]
. . . . . . 60,000 Rs khillut [i.e. a dress of honour, of which in the Mughal court there were five ranks] of
Badelah [gold and silver cloth]
khillut of 10 complete dresses
shawls ten pairs
kumkhauls [kincob furs] 10 pieces . . . . . . . . . 10,000
2 Elephants . . . . . . 10,000
4 Horses . . . . . . 4,000
Dinners, pawn &c . . . . . . . . . 1,000
Rs. 85,000
To the Principal Ladies of the Mahl:
To the Bukshy Begum, 9 sorts of jewels,
1 kuntee [pearl necklace], 1 pair Bhojedbund, 1 ditto bazoobund …… 4,000
badelahs, kumhuals and shawls 1,000
Rs. 5,000
To Thyneat un Nisa Begum
The same as Bukshy Begum
Rs. 5,000
To Zeib un Nissa Ditto
Rs. 5,000
To the Princes
Secunder Jah
(As with his Highness, but to the value of only) Rs 45,000
To His Bride
(Jewels as above plus 1 poownchee [‘pearls for wrists’] . . . . . . Rs. 15,000
Feridun Jah, Akbar Jah, Jehander Jah, Jumsheid Jah, Soliman Jah, Meir Jehunde Ali (‘lately born’), Humayoon
Jah (His Highnesses brother)
Rs. 5,000 each
Then comes a similar list for the household of Aristu Jah, his two Begums (’To the Begum of his Great Mahl . . . . . . 5,000 Rs [of jewels and shawls] To the Begum of his Little Mahl . . . . . . 5,000 Rs ditto’, and the same amount to his daughter-in-law Farzund Begum). This is followed by disbursements to the three different ranks of Hyderabadi
omrahs
, and finally the costs of the ‘Notch Girls, flower garlands, fireworks, illumination, Donations to shrines and victuals to poor . . . . . . 15,000 Rs.’ OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.259, 14 September, James Kirkpatrick to Lord Wellesley.
105
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.217, 21 August.
106
Ibid., p.281, 1 November.
107
New Delhi National Archives, Hyderabad Residency Records, Vol. 20, p.218, 5 November 1799, James Kirkpatrick to Lord Wellesley.
108
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.348, 14 March.
109
The
akhbars
survived in the New Delhi National Archives, Hyderabad Residency Records, where they were copied by Bilkiz Alladin in the 1980s, but have now become unusable since the records were waterlogged sometime in 1999 or 2000. Bilkiz kindly gave me access to her copies and I have worked from them. Some of the correspondence relating to them, however, is still intact in the New Delhi National Archives, Secret Consultations, 1800, Foreign Department, 15 May, No. 14, received from Mir Alam 18 February 1800. Part of the ‘Memoranda of the Papers referred to in the minute of the Rt. Hon. The Gov Gen of the 10th of May 1800’.
110
As above, also OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.338, 9 March.
111
New Delhi National Archives, Secret Consultations, 1800, Foreign Department, 15 May, No. 21, ‘Translation of a Letter from Bauker Alli Khaun to Lt Col Kirkpatrick’.
112
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Eur Mss F228/11, p.338, 9 March.
113
Khan,
Gulzar i-Asafiya
, pp.305-15.
114
New Delhi National Archives, Hyderabad Residency Records—see n109, above.
115
New Delhi National Archives, Secret Consultations, 1800, Foreign Department, 15 May, No. 22, pt 2, ‘Meer Uzeez Ollah’s report of his conference with Auzim ool Omrah 4 of March’.
116
Khan,
Gulzar i-Asafiya
, pp.305-15.
117
Munshi Khader Khan Bidri (trans. Dr Zeb un-Nissa Haidar),
Tarikh i-Asaf Jahi
(written 1266 AH/AD 1851, pub. Hyderabad, 1994), p.84. M. Abdul Rahim Khan,
Tarikh e-Nizam
(Hyderabad, 1311 AH/AD 1896), pp.167-8.
118
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/96, ‘Account of the marriage of Sharpun Nisa Begam with Colonel Kirkpatrick called Hashmat Jang, Resident, Hyderabad’. For further details see Chapter 3, n106.
119
Wellington, ‘Memorandum of Conversations … Dummul 26th Sept 1800’, op. cit.
120
Ibid., pp.175-6.
121
Ibid., p.178.
122
Khan,
Tarikh i-Khurshid Jahi
, op. cit., pp.713-14.
123
Wellington, op. cit., p.180.
124
Arthur Wellesley to Colonel Close, 22 September 1800. See Chapter 3, n15.
125
Khan,
Gulzar i-Asafiya
, p.308; Khan,
Tarikh e-Nizam
, op. cit., pp.86, 167-8.
126
See ‘Report of an Examination … ’, op. cit., p.374.
127
Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, GD135/2086, The Will of Lieut Col James Dalrymple, Hussein Sagar, 8 December 1800.
128
Dalrymple,
Letters &...
, op. cit.
129
New Delhi National Archives, Secret Consultations, 1800, Foreign Department, 15 May, No. 8, ‘Extract of a Letter from Bauker Alli Khaun, 18 February 1800, part of the Memoranda of the Papers referred to in the minute of the Rt. Hon. The Gov Gen of the 10th of May 1800’.
130
‘Report of an Examination … ’, op. cit., p.361.
131
New Delhi National Archives, 1800, Foreign Department, Secret Consultation-15 May, No. 24, point the 10th.
132
‘Report of an Examination … ’, op. cit., p.368.
133
Ibid., p.369.
CHAPTER 5
1
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/12, p.265, 26 November, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
2
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/13, p.250, 12 November, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.
3
Khan,
Gulzar i-Asafiya
, pp.549-59.
4
Ibid., p.552.
5
Bidri, op. cit., p.154.
6
Khan, in
The Muraqqa’ e-Dehli
, op. cit., p.17, the passage about the Urs of Khuld Manzil in Delhi.
7
Mah e-laqa
, op. cit., p.25.
8
See S.A. Asgar Bilgrami,
The Landmarks of the Deccan: A Comprehensive Guide to the Archaeological Remains of the City and Suburbs of Hyderabad
(Hyderabad, 1927), p.13.

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