Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 33.19.6

33.19.6

Being arrived beyond Ahmed-nugur, he informed his Commanders as well as his army of his intention, and he declared that he meant no less than to pay those freebooters in kind, by burning their habitations and sacking their country. He was as good as his word, and putting his design into execution everywhere, he advanced within ten cosses of Poonah, where he encamped. The inhabitants of that Capital had fled with their families, either to the strongholds, or to some difficult mountainous tracts; and the city remaining empty, it was set on fire, and with all its buildings, levelled with the ground; and both that city and its territory were plundered, sacked and ruined; nor was anything spared. Let us admire that Providence, which by Divine ways of its own, could bring about such an unexpected change. Three years before, whilst Baladji and his nephew, Sada-syo, were alive, the Marhatta name was so much respected from the bottom of Decan up to the walls of Lahor, that no man could be found daring enough to lay his hand upon a straw belonging to a man of that nation; and behold! a short time after, Pünah itself, the Capital of that formidable Marhatta Empire, falls a prey to gangs of plunderers, and those buildings, that had cost lacs upon lacs, are plundered and sacked, and then given for food to a devouring fire.