At this time the Peshwa and Raghuji were struggling with each other in Bengal. Due to this, Satara forces could not arrive to help Murarrao Ghorpade. In March 1743, the Nizam took control of Arcot, and dispatched a challenge to Murarrao asking him to hand over Tiruchirappalli. His huge army laid siege to the fort. However, well-stocked with provisions that could withstand a long siege, he refused to hand over the city and the fort. The siege dragged on for six months without any impact on the fort. The Nizam realised that the fort could not be taken by force. He, therefore, began negotiations with the embattled Murarrao. The Nizam offered Murarrao two lakh rupees and the fort of Penukonda, not far from his base at the fort of Gutti, if he handed over Tiruchirappalli. With no succour on the way, Murarrao accepted the offer, evacuated the fort on 29 August 1743, and handed it over to the Nizam. The transaction was described by Ananda Ranga Pillai, “By these means Asafjah, who is an astute man, gained his object, but at the same time Murarrao gathered renown.”
This way, the Nizam removed Murarrao and took control of Tiruchirappalli on 29 August 1743. He unfurled the Badshah’s standard there. Meanwhile, the Maratha army went ahead to block him, but there was no battle. At first, the Nizam appointed a trusted aide named Khwaja Abdullah as the Regent to the boy Nawab at Arcot. However, the very next morning Khwaja Abdullah collapsed and died. The Nizam, therefore, summoned an old hand in his service named Anwaruddin Khan to take over the guardianship of the young Nawab. Anwaruddin had joined the Mughal army in the reign of Aurangzeb, and over the years had shown ample evidence of courage and loyalty to the Nizam. As a security for his good behaviour, however, Anwaruddin’s third son Mohammed Ali remained as a hostage at Hyderabad.
Anwaruddin Khan’s ability had been tested more than once in the preceding years. Babuji Naik was keen to obtain a Jagir in the Carnatic and had come with a large army towards Hyderabad, where in the Nizam’s absence, just a small army remained. Babuji sent a letter to Anwaruddin Khan asking him to pay the usual tribute and close the matter. Anwaruddin refused and preferred a war to paying any tribute and with a small army confronted Babuji Naik and defeated him at Andole, some ninety kilometres from Hyderabad.
After Bajirao’s campaign near Shrirangapatnam in 1726, Shahu had not entrusted the Peshwa with an invasion of the south. With Babuji Naik’s defeat, the Peshwa’s involvement in the Carnatic was to begin.
A Persian source, which perhaps belongs to the early days of Nanasaheb’s appointment as the Peshwa, states that Nanasaheb Peshwa began from Pune with a large army and intercepted the Nizam’s army. The records of this campaign are scant in Marathi letters, and it is only Anwaruddin’s biographer Burhan who gives some details of this campaign. The Peshwa’s army completely surrounded the Nizam and forced a siege. Seeing his demoralised army, the Nizam advised a payment of tribute. However, Anwaruddin remained silent. Noticing his silence, Shahanawaz Khan, a minister with the Nizam said to him, “The silence of the Saheb, what does it mean? Pandit Pradhan is no Babuji Naik. The one is not to be compared to the other, the other was a drop, this is the sea.”
The chronicle by Burhan that eulogises Anwaruddin then goes on to describe how he decided to stand forth boldly before the large army. Nanasaheb, dropping the plan of war, came and met the Nizam, who greeted him with “a Khilat, Itr and Paan”, and all the “formalities of conversation and conventions of friendship,” were adhered to. The later rise of Anwaruddin Khan is attributed to this stoic resistance on his part.
Returning from Tiruchirappalli, the Nizam took rest for some months at Arcot. While he was here, the British and the French sent him some gifts to keep him happy. His huge army established their terror everywhere. The disorder that had prevailed in the region, had caused the western trade to stop completely. He appointed his grandson Muzaffar Jung on the administration of the Balaghat ranges in the Carnatic by giving him Jagir at Adoni. By March 1744, the Nizam felt assured enough to leave the Carnatic and returned to Golconda.
The Carnatic would have settled down but for an assassination soon after. The Nizam’s arrangement at Arcot did not last for long. Among the old soldiery were some disgruntled Afghan mercenaries. The occasion chosen for their revolt was the wedding of one of the Nawab’s relatives. As the boy Nawab along with his many relatives arrived at the venue and took their appointed seats, the Pathans with their leader Abdul Khan made a boisterous entry and demanded an immediate payment of their arrears. Anwaruddin Khan had not yet reached the venue. Hirasat Khan, one of the nobles, tried to reason with the Pathans, but they refused to let the young Nawab leave the place.
As tempers rose, a rough soldier grabbed the young Nawab’s robe, which prompted an altercation between the Afghans and the Nawab’s party. Just then, Anwaruddin’s procession was also seen arriving. A young nephew of Hirasat Khan said to Abdul Khan, “You wretch! Is it for you to draw the Nawab’s robe and force him to sit down? Here comes the procession of the Nawab. He will have you beaten like dogs.”
The retort was sufficient for a sudden flaring of tempers. Swords and daggers were drawn. Hirasat Khan along with Abdul Khan and several others were killed. The boy Nawab was stabbed to death. Sixteen of the Pathans were killed in the ensuing melee. Anwaruddin Khan came on the scene and ordered an immediate retribution against the Pathans. He then sorrowfully reported his failure to protect the Nawab to the Nizam. The common people of the city whispered that Anwaruddin and Murtuza Ali had a role in the entire episode. Although the Nizam was highly displeased, he found no person other than Anwaruddin worthy of being appointed as the next Nawab. The Walajahi dynasty of Arcot thus began with Anwaruddin Khan.
To be continued…
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