A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

164

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. VI

1821-2. Azim Khan's approach compelled him to retire. He went
--- first to Khairpur, and afterwards to Hyderabad, and, having
procured some money from the Sindians, he returned and
recovered Shikarpur, where he resided for a year. But
Muhammad Azim Khan again approached, the Hyderabad
chiefs pretended that the Shah was plotting to bring in the
English, and their money was this time paid for his expulThe Shah sion. The ex-king, finding his position untenable, retired
returns to through Rajputana to Delhi, and eventually took up his
Ludhiana,
1821; residence a second time at Ludhiana, in June 1821. His
and is brother, the blind Shah Zaman, after visiting Persia, and
followed by perhaps Arabia, arrived at the same place about the same
Shah ZamSn, who time and nearly by the same road. Shah Shuja's stipend
takes up had all along been drawn by his family, represented by the
his abode
at the same able and faithful Wafa Begum, and an allowance, first of
place. 18,000, and afterwards of 24,000 rupees a year, was assigned
for the support of Shah Zaman, when he also became a
petitioner to the English Government.'
Appa In the year 1820, Appa Sahib, the deposed Raja of the
Sahib, ex- Maratha kingdom of Nagpur, escaped from the custody of
Raja of
Nagpur, the British authorities and repaired to Amritsar. He would
1820-2. seem to have had the command of large sums of money, and
he endeavoured to engage Ranjit Singh in his cause; but the
Maharaja had been told the fugitive was the violent enemy of
his English allies, and he ordered him to quit his territories.
The chief took up his abode for a time in Sansar Chand's
principality of Katotch, and while there he would appear
His idle to have entered into some idle schemes with Prince Haidar,
schemes a son of Shah Zaman, for the subjugation of India south and
with the
son of Shah east of the Sutlej. The Durrani was to be monarch of the
Zaman. whole, from Delhi to Cape Comorin; but the Maratha was
1 Cf. Shah Shuja's 'Autobiography', chaps. xxvii, xxviii, xxix, in
the Calcutta Monthly Journal for 1839, and the Bahdwalpur Family
Annals (Manuscript). Capt. Murray (History of Ranjft Singh,
p. 103) merely states that Shah Shuja made an unsuccessful attempt
to recover his throne; but the following letters may be referred to
in support of all that is included in the paragraph: Government to
Resident, Delhi, 10th May and 7th June 1817; Capt. Murray to
Resident, Delhi, 22nd Sept. and 10th Oct. 1818, and 1st April 1825;
and Capt. Murray to Sir D. Ochterlony, 29th April, 30th June, and
27th Aug. 1821.