Perso Indica

[Preliminary Entry] A history of Gwalior from the earliest times to 1200/1785-6 completed in 1208/1793 by Ḫayr al-dīn Muḥammad Ilāhābādī who enjoyed the successive patronage of the British, the Mughals and the Nawābs of Lucknow. In the preface, the author explains the composition of the present work as follows: after he had been shown by Doctor Bruce a  Gwāliyār-nāma which he found defective both in form and content (the Gwāliyār-nāma by Hirāman b. Girdhardās Munšī [q.v.] as suggested by Rieu, or the Aḥwāl-i qala‘-i Guwāliyār by Ḫūšḥāl and Motīrām [q.v.]?), he undertook to revise it and to supplement it with an account of British operations in Gwalior: the capture of the fort by Major Popham in 1194/1780, the subsequent operations of Colonel Camac against Mahājī Sindhia (d. 1794), and the recapture of Gwalior and Gohad by the Maratha chief. The latest event mentioned is  the poisoning in Gwalior of Rānā Čhatar Singh, the Jāṭ ruler of Gohad, in 1200/1785-6.

C. L.