The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.163

v4.c21.163

In October, 1756, the Abdālī once more invaded the Punjab. In January of the following year he entered Delhi and plundered it, and two months later sacked the holy city of Muttra. He returned with booty reckoned at twelve million rupees, leaving Najīb Khān as his agent in Delhi, and his son, Tīmūr Shāh, as viceroy of Lahore. As soon as Ahmad Shāh’s back was turned, Ghāzī-ud-dīn once more called in the Marāthās, and in February, 1758, a Marāthā force under Raghunāth Rāo invaded the Punjab, drove out Tīmūr Shāh, and occupied Lahore (April, 1758).¹ The Marāthā power was now at its zenith. “Their frontiers”, says Elphinstone, “extended on the north to the Indus and the Himalya, and to the south nearly to the extremity of the peninsula: all the territory which was not their own paid tribute. The whole of this great power was wielded by one hand ... and all pretensions of every description were concentrated on the Peshwa.”² News of these successes were received with wild elation in the Poona court, where it was fondly believed that the Bhagwā Jhanda was “flying over the walls of Attock”.³ As a matter of fact, the wisdom of Raghunāth Rāo’s ambitious policy was open to grave doubts. It did not bring an anna to the Peshwā’s coffers, and the Marāthās were not in a position to hold the country, where both Sikhs and Muslims looked on them as hated intruders. Lastly, by provoking the retaliation of the Abdālī, it led to the downfall of the Marāthā power in Hindūstān.⁴