New History of the Marathas v2.c27.37

v2.c27.37

Malika Zamani and other princely ladies of the Mughal harem came to experience actual starvation through the new Wazir's default of payment. He turned a deaf ear to their incessant pleadings, so that they in despair sent for Najib-ud-daula and held a long consultation with him about the situation. They all agreed that the Wazir was a creature of the Marathas, who had grasped all power, and that the only means of ousting the Marathas was to call Abdali to India. Thereupon Najib-ud-daula acting in the name of the ladies sent urgent and pathetic appeals to Abdali to come immediately to this land. Najib sent his own brother Sultan Khan to meet the Shah at Kabul and bring him with a sufficient force. Mughlani Begam, ousted from her power in the Punjab, wrote to the Shah, "I am ruined by the treachery of Indian chiefs. Goods and cash worth crores lie buried to my knowledge in the palace of my late father-in-law, Wazir Qamrud-din Khan, besides heaps of gold and silver stored inside the ceiling. If you invade India this time, the Indian Empire with all its riches will fall into your hands."7a