The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.158

v4.c21.158

Meanwhile, stirring events were happening in Hindūstān, but only a brief outline of the tangled skein of intrigue can be given here.³ Nādir Shāh died in 1747, and Ahmad Shāh Abdālī, the founder of Afghānistān, continued his policy of raiding the declining empire, which he invaded in 1748 and 1749. In 1751 Safdar Jang, the Nawāb of Oudh, with the sanction of the young emperor, Ahmad Shāh, and heedless of the danger of drawing the Marāthās into disputes in the very heart of the empire, called in Malhār Rāo Holkar from Mālwa, Jayappa Sindia from Nārnaul, and Sūraj Mal the Jāt, to help him against the Bangash Afghāns, who had invaded Oudh and plundered Allahābād and Lucknow. The Marāthās drove the Afghāns into the hills with severe loss, and occupied Rohilkhand in 1751. They “sacked the whole country, not allowing a single man to escape, and every article they carried away as booty”.⁴ For their help, they were given half the Bangash territory in the Dūāb, which they held precariously till the Pānīpat disaster (1761). This was the first territorial acquisition of the Marāthās beyond the Jumna. In 1752 Ahmad Shāh Abdālī invaded the Punjab for a third time. There was a wild panic at Delhi, and the invader was bought off with promises of the cession of the Punjab and Multān.⁵