Nassyr-djung-nasr-ed-döwlah, second son and successor of Nizam-el-mulk, was a young man of talents, of much natural Nassyr-ed-döwlah alias Nasr-djung overawes the Marhattas by the firmness of his Govern­ment. genius, and much bravery. To his capacity for government, he joined a cultivated understanding, being fond of poetry, and often composing himself; and although raised so young to the pinnacle of power, he early exhibited a number of good qualities. He even commanded as his father’s Deputy, when the latter died of a looseness. As soon as he had assumed the administration in his own name, he marched against the Marhattas, and beat them so often, that he taught them to fear his person and to respect his dominions, as we shall soon explain in the follow­ing sheets. The dread of his power and his valour had so far taken possession of their hearts, that they did not dare to move out of their own country, during his lifetime; nor have we any instance of their having been kept in awe by any one so much as by him. Having been commanded to the presence by the Emperor Ahmed-shah, in the year 1162, he had advanced as far as the Nerbedda at the head of a numerous cavalry, when a counter-order came, with which he complied the more willingly, as his cousin, Hedaïet-muhi-eddin-qhan, was pretending to inde­pendence. He therefore turned about, and marched against him with seventy thousand good horse, and one lac of infantry.

Muhi-eddin-qhan, surnamed Muzafer-djung, or the “Victorious in War,” descended from Saad-ollah-qhan, Vezir to Shah-djehan, and was son of a daughter of Nizam-el-mulk, in whose lifetime he had enjoyed the Viceroyalty of Bidjapoor for several years together. But as soon as his uncle was dead, and he heard that his successor, Nasr-djung, had advanced as far as the Nerbedda with the flower of his troops, he availed himself of the opportunity to assume independence. With this view, he attached to him­self Husseïn-dost-qhan alias Chenda-sahab, a man of importance in the Carnatic, whose family cut a principal figure in the city of Arcat, and the latter exhorted him to render himself master of that province. This country was these many years governed by Anver-eddin-qhan, surnamed Shahamet-djung, or the “Valiant in War,” a native of Gopamä8, who had been appointed to the office of Nazem, or Military Governor, by Nizam-el-mulk himself. Hedaïet-muhi-eddin-qhan having assembled a mighty army from the French of P8lcherry*, with whom Chenda-sahab had made a treaty, attacked Anver-eddin-qhan, and after a battle in which this Governor exerted himself like a brave man, defeated him intirely. It was on the sixteenth of Shaaban in the year 1162. Nasyr-djung, who was then at Aoreng-abad, hearing of this event, resolved to chastise his cousin, and although that Capital is at no less than five hundred measured cosses* from the sea-coast, on which is seated the town of Marches against the French of P8lcherry, and is slain by a con­spiracy. P8lcherry, he hastened thither on the wings of expedition and resentment; and so early as the sixth of the second Rebi, in the year 1163, he engaged Hedaïet-muhi-eddin-qhan, and totally defeated him. The victory was at first disputed, but the zephyr of Divine assistance was at last pleased to blow upon Nassyr-djung’s drooping standards. Hedaïet-muhi-eddin-qhan was taken prisoner, and the victorious Prince, finding that the rainy season was at hand, took up his winter-quarters at Arcat. He had in his army a body of Afghans settled in the Carnatic, and commanded by Himmet-qhan, and some other officers of that nation. Those ungrateful wretches, forgetful of the favours conferred upon them by both the father and son, and unmindful of the gratitude and attachment they owed him in return, con­ceived the design of stripping their Lord both of his treasures and dominions; and joining with the Prince’s prisoner, and the French of P8lcherry, they, on the seventeenth of Moharrem, according to Astronomical computation, and the sixteenth, according to the vulgar one, fell on that Prince’s quarters at midnight, and filled them with confusion and disorder. Himmet-qhan, who had always professed himself his zealous servant, having advanced to him with a musket in his hand, fired at his breast, and laying him at his feet, he sent that mighty Prince to the Regions of Nothingness. It was in the year 1164 of the Hedjrah. After this, the camp was nothing but a scene of con­fusion and dismay and mistrust; but some of those personally attached to that unfortunate Prince, took up his body, and carried it to Aoreng-abad, where they buried it in the Garden of Saint Burnan-eddin, the Arabian, close to the tomb of his father, Nizam-el-mulk. The Poet Mir-ghoolam-aaly, the Belgramite, who had lived upon terms of friendship and intimacy with him, and had enjoyed great offices in his Court, had drawn his chrono­gram in these verses:

“The illustrious Navvab, that great lover of justice, is gone.

The sword of destiny did not give him time to display his great talents—he

went away so soon;

He was martyred the seventeenth of Moharrem,

And the afflicted Poet has discovered his chronogram in these words:—

The sun is gone, raise your lamentations and weep*!”

The Hand that wrote the events of Nassyr-djung’s life in Is succeeded by his cousin, Hedaïetmuhi-eddin-
qhan. Heaven, having so suddenly closed its book, Hedaïet-muhi-eddin-qhan, from being kept a close prisoner, assumed the ensigns of Royalty, and displayed the standard of command and dominion. Taking with him a body of French, and the ungrateful Afghans, he set out from P8lcherry for Haïder-abad. But the Supreme Avenger had already sown the seeds of retribution for the murder of Nassyr-djung, and they had taken so deep a root, that both the new Prince and the Afghans harboured already the utmost distrust and resentment* against each other. The former had even taken measures with the French for destroy­ing the Afghans, and especially Himmet-qhan, the Carnatican; so that on the seventeenth of the first Rebi, exactly two months after Nassyr-djung’s murder, at a time when the army was encamped at Lacra-pilly, and seemed to have hidden the whole earth under the immense extent of its tents, the new Prince suddenly mounted his elephant with an intention to attack the Afghans, and to make an end of them. Himmet-qhan, who was upon his guard, advanced to meet him at the head of a numer­ous body of his own countrymen, and it happened that, by a particular disposition of a watchful Providence which sought to avenge Nassyr-djung’s murder, both the perpetrators, that is, Himmet-qhan and Hedaïet-muhi-eddin-qhan, were slain in the engagement. Hedaïet-muhi-eddin-qhan is the first in India who sought assistance from Nazareans*, and who by introducing those strangers into his dominions ruined his own family. There was then in the army a certain Ramdass, a black Brahman of Sicacol, who had enjoyed a small pay in some of Nassyr-djung’s offices, and this man, who had the merit of having successfully intrigued with the French, and procured the death of Nassyr-djung, had been taken into favour by the new Prince, and made a Prime Minister, and honoured with the surname of Radja Ragonat-dass. This man came now to cut an important figure. As to Hedaiet-muhi-eddin-qhan, he was fond of study and knowledge, and was versed in books; but he made a parade of his learning, and his friends have praised him too much. During that two days’ reign of his, Baladji-räo, the Marhatta, had marched from Poona to Aoreng-abad with a numerous army, which Shah-nevaz-qhan, the Governor of that country, found means to send back by a present of fifteen lacs of rupees.

Hedaïet-muhi-eddin-qhan having lost his life in expiation of Nassyr-djung’s murder, and Himmet-qhan with his Afghans, those sworn enemies of Nizam-el-mulk’s offspring, having been sent to roam in the desert of Nothingness, Ramdass, who had assumed the office of Deputy-General, and had the French in his party, raised to the throne Séyd Mahmed-qhan, surnamed Selabet-djung, or the “Steadfast in Battles,” third son of Nizam-el-mulk. The new Prince immediately, on his accession, attached to his service both Ramdass and the French, with whom he marched to Aoreng-abad, where he passed the rainy season; and on the return of the fair weather, he marched out with an intention to chastise Baladji-räo for his late invasion. With that view he assembled his troops at Ahmed-nagor, from whence he continued his route directly to Poona. Baladji-räo, without suffering him to come so far, met him half-way with an army of fifty thousand horse, but was defeated; at which time the French with their quick musketry and their expeditious artillery drew smoke from the Marhatta breasts. Selabet-djung, after that victory, ruined and devastated the whole country as far as Poona, where a greater engagement took place on the beginning of the year 1765. It was in Moharrem, in which whole month the moon had remained eclipsed; and the Marhattas, together with their General, having been endlessly busy in performing the religious duties enjoined on such a particular phenomenon, they were set upon in the night with so much success, that they lost a vast number of men, which the French consumed in shoals at the fire-altars of their artillery. Baladji-räo, who was actually busy at his devotions, and naked, had hardly time to throw himself upon an unsaddled mare, on which he saved his life, by flying with all his might. The implements of his worship*, which were all of gold, fell in the hands of both the Mussulmen and the Nazareans. But notwithstanding this mighty victory, such was the spirit of division that had seized Nizam-el-mulk’s family and army, that the victorious Selabet-djung, so far from reaping any fruit from this victory, was himself in imminent danger, and on the point of succumbing.