New History of the Marathas v2.c28.18

v2.c28.18

At Lahore, therefore, Raghunathrao and his advisers found the situation easy and favourable. Abdussamad Khan who was a prisoner in Maratha hands, with characteristic double-dealing offered to undertake the defence of the frontier against Abdali on behalf of the Marathas. From Poona the Peshwa despatched Abdur Rahman with all haste to Lahore with instructions to Raghunath to make the best use of him in the scheme he was now executing. Raghunathrao, therefore, consigned the trans-Indus regions of Peshawar to these two Muslim agents, Abdur Rahman and Abdussamad Khan, posting them at Peshawar, with a considerable body of troops. They were asked to capture the territory of Kabul and Kandahar which had formerly been parts of the Indian sphere of the Mughal Empire and which had been lost since the days of Muhammad Shah. This meant a complete extinction of Ahmad Shah Abdali, a man of supreme resourcefulness and capacity in which he equalled or excelled even Nadir Shah. Herein lay the hidden danger, which no one then could gauge or foresee. After all it is the personal factor that predominates in human affairs and that cannot be predetermined.