A History of the Mahrattas v1.c28.12

v1.c28.12

Ahmed Shah Abdallee, before he appointed his son Timoor to the viceroyalty of the Punjab, gave him, as his minister and adviser, Jehan Khan, who apprised of the knowledge which Adina Beg Khan possessed of the resources of the country, applied to him, and for a time derived benefit from his management of some distant districts. Adina Beg was invited to Lahore, but suspicious of Jehan Khan's designs, he refused to go and withdrew to the mountains. He was therefore treated as a rebel, but he successfully opposed the troops sent against him, by raising the Seiks, who from devotees and mendicants now appeared as soldiers. He also invited the Mahrattas into the province, and Rugonath Rao, then at Delhi, embraced the proposal with alacrity, met and totally defeated the Abdallee governor of Sirhind, speedily overran the country, and entered Lahore as a conqueror in the month of May, 1758. He appointed Adina Beg Sur-soobehdar of Mooltan and Lahore,¹ and left Shabajee, a relation of Sindia’s, to support him with a body of Mahratta troops. Rugonath Rao then returned towards Poona; but his improvidence in this, as well as in most expeditions of his life, was very conspicuous; the magnitude of his conquests brought no revenue to the exchequer; and upwards of eighty lacks of rupees, over and above his receipts, were charged on the present occasion; a circumstance which, as has been alluded to, called forth the strictures of his cousin, and gave vent to those feelings of family jealousy, with which Sewdasheo Rao Bhow was beset.