afghanistan
Nadir Shah had deliberately timed his entry into Delhi so that his
first full day in the Mughal capital coincided with Nauroz, the start of the
Persian New Year. This festival held immense symbolic significance, for
both the Persians and Mughals were familiar with its ancient traditions
and mythological associations. In the Shah Nama, the great Persian epic,
Nauroz was the day when Jamshid, one of the great heroes of ancient
Persia, ascended the throne of Iran and inaugurated a Golden Age. At
Jamshid’s coronation all the rulers of the world are said to have bowed
down before him and acknowledged him as Lord of the World. 4 Nadir Shah
evidently saw his conquest of Delhi in a similar light and the equation of his
reign with that of Jamshid suggests a certain degree of megalomania. The
conquest of Delhi did indeed earn Nadir Shah great fame, not just in the
Muslim world but in Europe too, for accounts of his campaigns were read
by, among others, the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte. Yet at
the very height of his success, everything began to fall apart. Nadir Shah
may have seen himself as the new Jamshid, but he failed to learn a lesson
from the tragic end of this hero, for the evil Zahhak eventually slew him.
Seven years after his greatest triumph, Nadir Shah too was assassinated
and his empire broke up.
Even before Nadir Shah entered Delhi, reports had spread of the extor-
tionate tribute the Persian monarch had imposed on Muhammad Shah
in return for not looting the city. Delhi at the time was in the grips of an
economic crisis and the merchants and middle classes, who would have
borne the brunt of the exactions, were deeply resentful at this demand. The
day after Nauroz, Nadir Shah tried to address the problem of shortages by
ordering shopkeepers to reduce the price of grain and sending a Qizilbash
guard to take control of the grain silos. The cut in the price of grain did
not go down well with Delhi’s shopkeepers and they gathered in large
numbers outside the storehouses to protest that the price cap meant they
were unable to make any profit. The situation quickly got out of hand and
several of the Qizilbash were slain; it was even rumoured that Nadir Shah
had been shot or poisoned. The riot continued throughout the night with
Nadir Shah’s troops unable to contain it and on the following morning,
when Nadir Shah rode out to assess the situation, an angry crowd stoned
him and his escort. Then a shot, fired from a nearby building, narrowly
missed the king and killed one of his bodyguards.
The assassination attempt was the last straw. Nadir Shah climbed onto
the roof of the Roshan al-Daula mosque overlooking the Chandni Chowk
and ordered 3,000 of his troops to draw their swords and leave no one alive.
For six hours they rampaged through the bazaar, slaughtering, raping,
nandana
(Nandana)
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