expected from the education he received from ignorant women and Court eunuchs and it is not surprising that in his time all decency and propriety were banished from the Oudh Court. His conduct at times was so revolting that the British Resident, Colonel, afterwards Sir John, Low, was compelled more than once to decline to see him or to transact business with his minions.
The state of his kingdom had reached so incurable a stage of decline, that nothing but the assumption by the British Government could preserve it from utter ruin.
Of the ten crores left by his father in the reserve treasury, he spent all but 70 lacs, while the nobles, dreading his vindictive spirit, had him poisoned[1] on the night of the 7th July, 1837. His remains were interred in the Karbala[2] to the south-east of the Imambara, or tomb of Mulka Afak; wife of Mahomed Ali Shah, situated north of the Gumti and approached by the road leading over the Iron Bridge.
The reader will be able, from the foregoing, to form an idea of the wealth of Lucknow at this time, and I may also mention that the ex-Minister, Aga Meer, left the capital, in October, 1830, with 800 carts and numerous camels and elephants, conveying property to the value of 25 crores, for Cawnpur, where he settled and died two years afterwards. Aga Meer was succeeded by Hakeem Mehndee Ali Khan, who was recalled from Furrukhabad and appointed premier of the kingdom in 1831.
9.—MAHOMED ALI SHAH, 1837—1842.
As Nasir-ud-din Haidar had no legitimate son, his uncle, Naseeh-ud-daula, son of Sadat Ali Khan, succeeded him after a violent attempt on the part of the Padshah Begum, adopted mother of Nasir-ud-din Haidar, to get the above named illegitimate son, Moonna Jan, put on the throne. On hearing of the demise of the King, the Padshah Begum, a bold imperious woman, who had been living in seclusion at Ilmas Bagh with Moonna Jan, forcibly entered the palace with an armed body of retainers and placed him on the throne: for this act both of them were deported to Chunar; here they remained as State prisoners, in the Fort, on a joint monthly pension of Rs. 2,400, which was continued to them up to the time of
- ↑ Two females, sisters of the King’s prime favourite, Duljeet, from whose hands alone the King would receive any drink, are generally supposed to have poisoned him, at the instigation of the Minister, Nasir having called for some sherbet a short time before his death, which was given to him by the elder, Dhania Mehri.
- ↑ Karbala is the name of the city where Husain is buried, but it generally means the burial place of Tazias, which is a representation of the tomb of Husain.
