ASAF-UD-DOWLAH, nawab wazir of Oudh from 1775 to 1797, was the son of Shuja-ud-Dowlah, his mother and grand mother being the begums of Oudh, whose spoliation formed one of the chief counts in the charges against Warren Hastings. When Shuja-ud-Dowlah died he left £2,000,000 sterling buried in the vaults of the zenana. The widow and mother of the de ceased prince claimed the whole of this treasure under the terms of a will which was never produced. When Warren Hastings pressed the nawab for the payment of debt due to the East India Company, he obtained from Asaf's mother a loan of 26 lakhs of rupees, for which he gave her a jagir of four times the value ; he subsequently obtained 3o lakhs more in return for a full acquittal, and the recognition of her jagirs without interference for life by the company. These jagirs were afterwards confis cated on the ground of the begum's complicity in the rising of Chai Singh, which was attested by documentary evidence. The evidence now available seems to show that Warren Hastings did his best throughout to rescue the nawab from his own incapacity, and was inclined to be lenient to the begums.
See G. W. Forrest, The Administration of Warren Hastings, 5772_ 1785 (1892).