CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN HINDUSTAN. 75

Ahmad Shah was gradually tightening his hold over the country
of Sind and also of Baluchistan (Kalat). With regard to the latter he
seems to have assumed that the allegiance paid by the Khans of that
State to Nadir Shah had descended to him after the death of that
famous sovereign. In November 1753, the news spread abroad in
Sind that Ahmad Shah was about to enter Hindustan by way of that
country, and the 17th of January saw the Afghan camp pitched at the
town of Rohri on the banks of the Indus. On this occasion he did
not proceed further than Multan. In the meantime Muin-ul-Mulk had
died near Lahore on the 8th November of the preceding year, and
from his camp at Multan, the Abdali Sovereign issued a Commission
to the infant son of the late Governor conferring on him the Govern-
ment held by his father. The stay of the Afghan army in Multan
could not have been for any length of time, for the news of this
Commission having been issued reached Delhi on the nth February
and the Durani forces reached Kandahar on the 29th of March 1754.

For two years Ahmad Shah does not appear to have undertaken
any warlike operations, and he was probably engaged in consolidat-
ing his authority in his native land. Oriental chroniclers very rarely
condescend to record any but high political matters, expeditions, and
the coming and going of armies and of ambassadors. Domestic
affairs of a peaceful nature usually do not interest these writers.

Affairs in Hindustan had in this time been going from bad to
worse. The House of Timur was degenerating fast, and the Emperor
of the day was powerless to arrest the development of the intrigues
that divided the Muhammadan Nobility, led by the Vazier, and the
Viceroy of Oude, into different parties, whose quarrels ended in en-
counters between their partisans. The roads leading to the north
from Central India and the Deccan, were also becoming yearly more
infested with squadrons of southern horsemen drawn northwards by
the lust for plunder, and on the alert to profit by the general dis-
organization that prevailed in Northern India. Ever ready to sell
their services to whosoever paid them most, it did not matter to the
Mahrattas who it was that won, or who lost, for the substantial fruits
of success were gathered in by the wily leaders of these free lances.
In addition, there was the satisfaction of revenging the insults
suffered by them in the past at the hands of the sovereigns of Delhi
and the nobles of Hindustan.

In the midst of this wild turmoil, the effeminate descendants of
Baber vegetated in the recesses of the great Fortress Palace in Delhi,
where a semblance of regal state barely could be maintained ; and



76 THE KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN.

that under the tutelagfe of some powerful noble who acted as Vazier.
Within the apartments of the Royal Harem there were pale, shadowy,
womanisli things, bearing- the form of men, from whom a puppet
could always be selected to se-AC the ends of the predominating-
faction.

Notwithstanding the inroad of Nadir Shah, there were still some
pickings to reward the diligent efforts of those who gleaned the
remains of the harvest reaped by that illustrious freebooter. The
prospect of a winter campaign in India filled with joy the hearts of
the needy Afghan tribesmen. Enough still remained to fill their
saddle bags and their religious fanaticism was glutted with the pillage
and massacre of Hindus. ' A man may count as his own, that
which he has eaten, everything else is Ahmad Shah's ' was a proverb
long current in the Punjab. The massacres at Ballamgarh and again
at Muttra (28th February 1757), gave the Sovereign the title of Ghazi,
and his men the means of satiating their cupidity and lust.'

The stay of the Abdali monarch was cut short by an outbreak of
cholera. His unruly followers also were impatient to be off" with
their booty to the temperate climate of their native land, and on
the 27th March he began his retirement from Delhi. Prince Timur
his eldest son, who had been married to a Princess of the Royal House
of Delhi, was left to govern the Punjab. The Popalzai Chief, Jahan
Khan, was deputed to remain with the Prince, to aid him in the task
of administering the Province, and if the necessity arose in warlike
operations as well.



^ An eye witness has left on record a terrible tale of these atrocities. To
every man a damsel or two, and the night made dreadful with the lamentations
of the wretched captives who were compelled to submit to their captor's desires.
Corpses festering in the sun of the early Indian summer poisoned the air, and
myriads of flies combined to make existence in the camp well nigh intolerable.
The river Jumna that passed by the town of Muttra was reddened with the blood
of the victims of the butchery that had made the place a shambles. Seven days
afterwards the waters of the river still were stained yellow, the deeper hue of
the polluted river having by that time faded. One lakh of rupees, about ;tio,ooo
was all that reached the Sovereign's Military Chest.

Not only did the Hindus feel the rigors of the Afghan methods. The same
author has left on record an equally graphic account of the methodical and
thorough manner in which the Palaces in Delhi of the nobility were searched
for treasure, by the Nasaqchis (military police) of the Abdali Monarch. The
son of the late Vazier Kamar-ud-din Khan (killed in action) had bid ;£2,ooo,ooo
for the office of Vazier to the puppet monarch of Delhi, and had hoped to have
been allowed time to collect the money. The Afghan Sovereign however \yished
it paid down on the spot, and when it was not forthcoming, orders were issued
to make a thorough search for the buried hoards reputed at ;£20, 000,000 left by
the late Vazier. Only about a quarter of a million rewarded the zeal of the search
parties. Not only did they search this Palace, but the residences of other nobles
were entered and ransacked. The city of Delhi echoed with cries of " bring
gold ! bring gold !" and an exceeding great fear fell upon the inhabitants. —
Indian Antiquary ; January — March 1907. — W. Irvine.



CHAPTER IX.



Ahmad Shah Abdali — continued.

PRINCE Timur had not an easy task assigned to him when he
was appointed to govern the Punjab after his father had set
out for his own country. The inroad of the preceding winter
had reduced the affairs of India to a condition of the most
complete disorganisation. In the Punjab itself the Sikhs had revolted
and the Prince and Jahan Khan had their hands full with these turbu-
lent sectaries, when a discontented local Muhammadan chief invited the
Mahrattas to enter the Province. The latter had been hovering round
the capital of Hindustan, o\\ the watch to take advantage of any
chances that might offer, and they were not slow to avail themselves
of this invitation. The Sikhs either expelled or killed most of the
Afghan officials in charge of outlying districts, and the Afghan Governor
of Sirhind, who had hitherto held his own against the Sikhs, was slain
by the Mahrattas on their advance towards Lahore. The Prince and
Jahan Khan, unable to hold the Province with any prospect of success,
in the month of March 1758, took the road towards Peshawar, and were
pursued as far as the jhelum River by the Mahratta Cavalry. The
whole of the Punjab as far as the Indus was overrun by the latter.

In 1759, Jahan Khan Popalzai entered the Punjab and advanced
unopposed to Wazirabad ; the Mahratta leader, Sahibji Patel, fall-
ing back first to Batala, and then continuing his retreat to Jullun-
dur. The Vazier who had identified himself with the Jats and the
Mahrattas, was called on to take the field with them, and declare him-
self openly. In Lahore the prayers were read in the name of Prince
Timur and money was also coined in the name of the Prince.

While order had been restored to some extent in the Punjab,
Hindustan was in a condition of anarchy, Mulhar Rao Holkar was at
the head of a large force near Jeypore, where Raja Madhu Singh kept
him engaged. In Delhi an attempt had been made to remove the



7^ THE KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN.

Royal Family to Agra, but the disorders culminated in the assassination
of the puppet Emperor Alamgir II. This imbecile Ruler had been
induced to place himself in the power of his faithless Vazier, Imad-ul-
Mulk, and at the instigation of the latter, a Moghal Rasaldar, Balabash
Khan, murdered the wretched Sovereign, and his corpse, stripped of
all its cheap finery, was cast naked on the sands of the Jumna. This
event took place on November i>8th, 1759. Another member of the
Royal Family named Muhi-ul-Millat was raised to the throne under
the title of Shahjahan II.

In the meantime the Durani Sovereign had other matters to
attend to. It is believed that in the summer of 1758 he was obliged
to march into Baluchistan, where his feudatory, Nasir Khan of Kalat,
is known to have become restive under the ever increasing demands for
tribute which he paid in return for the government of his country, and
personal service at the head of the armed forces of the tribesmen.
According to a local chronicle the small fortress of Kalat detained the
Shah for forty days, and then only the diplomacy of Shah Wali Khan
induced the refractory Khan to submit to his suzerain.

It was not till the end of 1759 that Ahmad Shah was able to enter
the Punjab in response to an appeal made by Najib-ud-DauIah, the
Rohilla chief, to defend Islam from the assaults of the Hindu infidels,
who were in great force and threatened to over-power the followers
of the Prophet. In November the Durani Sovereign invaded Jammu
and received the submission of the Rajah. As the country along the
direct route from Lahore to Delhi had been ravaged by the Mahrattas^
Ahmad Shah marched to the Jumna by Ludhiana keeping towards the
hills, and crossed into the district between that river and the Ganges,
after a skirmish with the Mahrattas on 9th January 1760. The Rohillas
held this tract. Supplies were forthcoming, and having been joined by
the Bangash Nawab of Farukhabad, the Afghan Sovereign took the offen-
sive and sent forward a force of cavalry to locate the enemy, whom they
found near Sirhind. A running fight was kept up to within a short distance
of Delhi, where the Mahrattas concentrated their forces, and Ahmad Shah
with his main army having crossed the Jumna, also joined his advance
guard. A battle was fought in February 1760, the Mahrattas were put to
flight, their leader Dataji Sindhia was killed, and the Afghans pursued
the fugitives as far as Narnol to the south of Delhi. In the meantime
Holkar, who was at the head of a considerable force of southern horse-
men, tried to intercept a large convo}' of supplies and treasure from
Afghanistan destined for the army of Ahmad Shah. The greater part
of the convoy escaped across the Jumna, and Ahmad Shah despatched



THE MAHRATTAS ORGANISE AN ARMY. 79

15,000 horse to deal with Holkar. These troops are said to have
traversed the distance between Narnol and Delhi in a day and a nig-ht,'
rested the next day in the city and riding- out again at midnight, they
surprised Holkar's camp at Sikandra. The Mahratta chieftain, with
300 companions fled away on barebacked horses, leaving the remainder
of his men to take care of themselves. His camp fell into the hands
of the Afghans. Ahmad Shah returned to Delhi. The country in the
vicinity of that city had been devastated, and the monsoon was setting
in, so he decided to cross the Jumna, and form a cantonment for his
troops between that river and the Ganges. At Anupshahr, about thirty
miles from Delhi, he passed the season of the rains. In July 1760,
Shuja-ud-Daulah, Viceroy of Oude, arrived in the Afghan Camp.

Jankoji, nephew of Data, had carried to Poona the news of the defeat
of the Mahrattas, and great preparations were made to collect an army
and to equip it for service against the Afghans. Every effort possible
was made to insure success. The Mahratta regular cavalry was stiffened
by the presence of nine battalions of Indian infantry each 1,000 strong,
armed with flintlock muskets and provided with a train of artillery, the
whole disciplined and instructed on the European system. These were
led by Ibrahim Khan, Garadi, an Indian soldier of fortune, who is
believed to have been trained under French officers and to have risen in
the French service from an ordinary messenger or mace-bearer, to be
the commander of their Sepoy battalions, with which he is said to have
deserted to the Mahrattas. A cloud of irregular horsemen, Pindaris,
also joined the main army which had collected round the Bhagwa
Jhanda, or national standard, and which was set in motion to the
north to restore the prestige of the nation, and to assert their claim to
the sovereignty of India.

A junction with Holkar at Muttra was effected without opposition
and as the Jumna was impassable (owing to the heavy and long
continued rains), the Mahrattas turned aside to Delhi and entered the
city on the 22nd July 1760. Yakub Ali, Bamizai, a kinsman of Ahmad
Shah's Vazier ^, held the fortress palace with a small garrison, and
inside the walls were the families of the Durani Chiefs. An attempt to
escalade the Asad Burj failed, but Ibrahim Khan placed three guns in
position and shelled the Palace. The Afghan Governor surrendered, and
was allowed to depart with his troops and the families in his care, and

^About 75 miles by road.

'^Nawab, Mohsin ul-MuIk, Yakub Ali Khan, was the descendant of a Bamizai,
who had settled in Shahjahanpur, Rohilkand, some generations earlier. Yakub
Ali had been sent by Najib-ud-Daulah on a mission to Ahmad Shah and the
Vazier Shah Wali had recognized his Indian kinsman's relationship.



8o THE KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN.

on the 3rd of August he crossed the river, and joined his Master at
Anupshahr. The Mahrattas stripped the Palaces of the remains of
their ancient splendour and obtained, it is said, 17 lakhs of rupees
{£ 170,000). Soon after they were compelled to evacuate the city, for
they had exhausted the supplies round the walls. On the loth
October 1760 they marched out of Delhi.

Two Afg^han officers held the fort of Kunjpurah on the right bank
of the Jumna above Delhi, keeping open communications with
the Punjab. Ahmad Shah moved to the aid of his outpost, but though
the rains had ceased, the river was impassable, and the Mahrattas who
had reached Kunjpurah, reduced the fort by means of Ibrahim Khan's
artillery, unmolested by the Afghan main army. The ruler of Oude
advised Ahmad Shah to try the ford at Bagpat, lower down the river,
and about 20 miles north of Delhi, and on the 28th October the Duranis
reached the ford. It was even then barely practicable, but Ahmad
Shah determined to make the attempt: the leading division of his
guards showed the way. Some waded and others swam their horses
across, and each horseman carried a foot soldier behind him. No one
was drowned, but as the crossing was effected under the fire of the
Mahratta videttes, a good many were killed before the opposite bank
was gained.

The Mahrattas who were marching towards Sirhind were as-
tonished to learn that the Afghans had crossed the river. Divided
counsels prevailed in their host. Holkar and other influential chiefs
advised the usual tactics of their nation, and stood out for the
predatory system of carrying on hostilities. Ibrahim Khan was all
for taking up a position and fortifying it with field works on which his
o-uns could be mounted. The predilections of Sada Sheo Bhao, who
had witnessed the successes of infantry in the French wars in Southern
India, favoured this plan and it was decided to adopt it. The army
retraced its march to Pasinah to the south of the town of Panipat,
and finally fell back to that place, and raised strong fieldworks to
protect their camp, and also placed the town in a defensible condition.
The nature of their entrenchments can be judged from the fact that
as recently as 1872, the late Sir Denzil (then Mr.) Ibbetson was able
to trace a part of the works in the plain to the south of Panipat.^

The baggage of the Afghan army and the artillery was carried
over by elephants, and after halting his troops to allow them to dry

1 Mr. Ibbetson's Settlement Report of the Karnal district.

Another account says that 25,000 Mahratta cavalrj' had occupied Sarai Sam-
halka and were driven out by the Afghans.



t



THE OOOK-PIT

of

mDIA

Scale of Miles



Rest House a

PANIPAT

Mdhratta Lines
Stni




THE AFGHAN ARMY CROSSES THE JUMNA. 8 1

their accoutrements, Ahmad Shah advanced, on the ist of November,
by Sonepat to Sarai Samhalka, and took up a position beyond this
place.

For two months the armies faced one another. The Mahrattas
are said to have established a Runkham, a place where sing"le combats
took place, and in these encounters the individual skill of the Mahrattas
as adroit men at arms enabled them to kill their Afghan antagonists
who accepted their challenges. The videttes and scouting parties of
both armies were also in daily contact, but the balance of success ^ in
these encounters lay on the side of the Afghans ; and their good
fortune reduced the enemy to great straits for supplies. The ford at
Bagpat allowed Ahmad Shah to draw his from the Antarbed, the
country between the Jumna and Ganges, where his staunch ally
Najib-ud Daulah was predominant. A partial but fierce engagement
on the 6th December terminated in favour of the Afghans.

Gobind Punt Boondela, a Mahratta official, who was in charge of
the Etawah district, attempted to make a diversion in favour of his
countrymen by advancing on Meerut, the head-quarters of Najib-ud-
Daulah, in order to lay waste the country round it. Five thousand
horsemen were detailed by Ahmad Shah to stop the Pandit, led by the
son of Abdus Samad Khan, who had been killed at Kunjpurah. He
crossed the Jumna at Bagpat, drove the Mahrattas from Shahdara, and
from Ghazi-ud-din-nagar (the modern Ghaziabad), and on the same
day that this action had been fought (iSth December), the Afghans fell
on Gobind Punt in his camp at Jalalabad. He was killed and his
men dispersed. With the head of the Mahratta leader raised aloft on
a spear, and with the plunder of his camp in their train, the Afghans
rejoined their main army.

A detachment of Mahratta cavalry, each man carrying a bag of
treasure, mistook the Afghan camp for their own, and were cut off
before they found out their mistake. The successes of the Afghans
had reduced the Mahrattas to great straits, for the former used to ride
abroad without fear, cutting off foraging parties and stragglers, while
the latter cowered behind theii massive field works. The negotiations
which they had commenced, soon after leaving the Deccan, in order to
detach the Ruler of Oude and the Rohillas, from the Afghans, proved
ineffectual. These parties were not indisposed to listen to the

^ Path Khan, brother of Ibrahim Khan Garadi, is said to have been repulsed
in a night attack on the Afghan lines.

An attack on the Mahratta camp was ultimately repulsed with a loss of 3,000
men — only 500 of the Rohillas, under Inayat Khan (the nephew of Hafiz-ul-
Mulk Rahmat Khan), who had formed the attack, returned to their lines, wounded.

6



82 THE KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN.

overtures made to them, for they had the Mahrattas ever at their
doors. Najib-ud-Daulah was obdurate, and declined to listen to any
proposals, and as long as he proved resolute, the others were ashamed
to withdraw from their Afghan alliance. '

Driven to despair by imminent starvation and the unsanitary con-
dition of their camp, the Mahrattas resolved to risk a decisive battle.
Long before dawn their troops had fallen in, and a last message
was sent to the agent, through whom the negotiations had been
conducted, and who was in the camp of the Ruler of Oude — Kasi Rao
Pandit, who has left a graphic record of the decisive battle he witnessed.
This letter was received at 3 a.m., and immediately the information was
conveyed to Ahmad Shah. In the gray light of the dawn of the 14th
January 1761, the scouts of both armies had come into touch, and the
Durani mounted one of the chargers always ready saddled, and pro-
ceeded to draw up his line of battle in advance of his camp, ^^ where
a tent had always stood as his station of observation.

The Mahrattas advanced slowly, and their guns began to play as
they came within range of the enemy. The discharges of firearms
gradually became heavier, and the Garadi (Ibrahim Khan), rode up to
the Bhao and saluting him, told him he would now see that the regular
infantry had deserved their pay, on the prompt discharge of which he
had always insisted. Galloping back to his division, he ordered his men
and guns to cease firing. Two battalions were detailed to protect
the flank of his column from attack by the Durani horsemen of Bar-
khurdar Khan and Amir Beg, and with a colour in his hand he led the
other seven battalions of infantry to attack the Rohillas, under Hafiz
Rahmat Khan and Dhundi Khan, with the bayonet. The Rohillas
were crushed after a desperate struggle, and the advance of the Durani
cavalry were repulsed by the steady behaviour of the two battalions
detailed for this purpose, but six of Ibrahim Khan's regiments were
almost annihilated and he was severely wounded by several spear
thrusts. 3



^ It is said that Ahmad Shah was approached regarding an arrangement
but he refused to entertain any proposals. He had come to make war on the
infidels, and he was bent on fighting. Asiatic Researches, Vol. I., 1799.

^ According to another account, this position had been occupied by the Afghan
guns, and during the day by the various divisions which were however withdrawn
at night, leaving the artillery men and an escort with the guns. These were
almost taken by surprise by the Mahrattas in the misty light of the early
dawn. There was just time to strip off the canvas covers and to fire the loaded
pieces.

^ Damaji Gaekwar's horsemen were to support the infantr}' attack, but the
brunt of the combat was borne by the infantr}'.



THE BATTLE OF PANIPAT. 83

All the troops were engaged, and the Mahrattas under the per-
sonal leadership of the Bhao and Wiswas Rao, were almost suc-
cessful. Ten thousand Afghans were driven before their onset, for
the Afghans received the charge at the halt. The Persian musketers
were ridden down, and it was the personal intrepidity of the Vazier
Shah Wali Khan which snatched the victory from the enemy.
Sheathed in full armour he dismounted from his horse to rally the
broken Afghans, and at the head of his clansmen, the Popalzais, and
the Baluch contingent, he showed a front, while messengers were de-
spatched to Ahmad Shah demanding reinforcements. The latter sent
1,500 of his guards to clear the camp of fugitives with orders to slay
all who refused to return to the field. Ten thousand of his guards
(apparently fresh troops) were led at a gallop against the Mahrattas,
while their efforts were seconded by the stout Rohilla Chieftain Najib-
ud-Daulah, and by the men of Shah Pasand Khan and Amir Khan.
It was noon when Ahmad Shah received intelligence of the state of
affairs in his centre, and about one, the succours reached the Vazier.
About 3 p.m. Wiswas Rao was wounded and unhorsed and had
to be lifted on his elephant. The battle was stubbornly contested,
but the Mahrattas had shot their bolt and were spent with
their exertions. All of a sudden "as if by enchantment" the
Mahrattas turned their backs and fled at headlong speed. The
instant they broke the victors pursued them with the utmost fury.
The final effort had been made at close quarters with sabres and
battle axes, and the carnage was said to have been dreadful, as no
quarter was given when the Mahrattas broke. The pursuit was kept
up for a distance of about twenty miles, it is said. There remained
the standing camp of the enemy to be plundered, and the town of
Panipat which was crowded with fugitives and followers. The
prisoners were arranged in lines, and a little parched grain and some
water was given to each one, and then the task of butchery commenced,
and was carried out in cold blood. In the Durani Camp every tent
(with the exception of those of the Shah and his principal officers), had
piles of heads before the entrance. There were said to have been
500,000 souls in the Mahratta Camp, and only a fourth of their
fighting men escaped. The inhabitants of the country rose against
the fugitives and killed all whom they caught. Antaji Mankeser, a
chieftain of high rank, was killed by the zamindars of Farukhnagar.