The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.s1.51

v4.c21.s1.51

When the siege had lasted forty-five days, Najīb-ud-Daula purchased the protection of Holkar, and retired to his estates north-west of Delhi. The emperor could no longer resist, and Ghāzī-ud-dīn, with Ahmad Khān Bangash, entered the fort and resumed control of the emperor and the administration. His first act was to compel ‘Ālamgīr to send a force to recall his son to the capital. Vithal Rāo, a Marāthā officer who had remained near Delhi after the retirement of Raghunāth Rāo and Holkar, warned the prince that the order had been wrung from his father and advised him to disregard it, and ‘Ālī Gauhar, on this advice, crossed the Jumna into the Dūāb and occupied several *parganas*, but Vithal Rāo was induced by a heavy bribe to advise the prince to return to the capital. ‘Ālī Gauhar entered Delhi with his troops but refused to live in the fort, and lodged in a private house. He soon found himself unable to pay his troops and Ghāzī-ud-dīn advised him to send them to the districts allotted for their payment as revenue could not be collected without their assistance. The prince was once more compelled to comply, but retained at Delhi a bodyguard and some of his most trustworthy officers. Ghāzī-ud-dīn, assembling ten or twelve thousand troops on the pretext that he intended to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Nizām-ud-dīn Auliyā, surrounded the house in which the prince lodged. Some of his men forced an entrance, but ‘Ālī Gauhar, who possessed the courage of his race, caused the outer wall of the house nearest to the Jumna to be breached, and at the head of his men cut his way through the minister’s troops and rode to Vithal Rāo’s camp across the river. Vithal Rāo was now overcome with shame for having advised the prince to place himself in the power of Ghāzī-ud-dīn, and pitched tents for him near his own camp, but it was only with great difficulty that the prince reached them, for some of the minister’s troops barred his way. He would have been slain or taken but for the devotion of a gallant Sayyid who kept the pursuers employed. The Sayyid fell but the prince reached his tents and Vithal Rāo escorted him to Farrukhābād, where he was well received and supplied with money. From Farrukhābād the prince marched to Sahāranpur and took refuge with Najīb-ud-Daula, who protected him for eight months and then, fearing complications with the minister, advised him to attempt the reconquest of Bengal, where the imperial authority had long been disregarded and British influence was paramount. ‘Ālī Gauhar accepted this advice and marched first to Oudh, leaving his lieutenant to enlist troops and collect supplies. Shujā‘-ud-Daula met the prince near Lucknow, on 19 January, 1758, and received him hospitably; but, anxious to rid himself of so inconvenient a guest, supported Najīb-ud-Daula’s advice to attempt the recovery of Bengal, and was relieved when he marched on to Allāhābād.