New History of the Marathas v2.c28.21

v2.c28.21

Raghunathrao and Holkar left for the Deccan towards the end of May 1758 having on the way performed their religious ceremonies on 5th June at Kurukshetra. The other party of Abdur Rahman and Abdussamad with Tukoji Holkar and Sabaji Sindia left for the frontier and about July planted the Maratha standard on Attock and established revenue administration in that extreme north-western region. Adina Beg accepted the responsibility of paying 75 lacs to the Marathas by way of income from the newly conquered territories of the Punjab. The revenue management was entrusted to Sadiq Beg and his Hindu banker Lakshmi Narayan. All Maharashtra felt electrified with the proud performance of Raghunathrao and his bands having reached the extreme frontier of India and bathed their horses in the Indus.⁴ It is, however, true that the Maratha possession of these distant regions did not last long, perhaps half a year. Adina Beg's death on 16th September 1758 gave the first signal of the impending danger; and later on Abdali during the summer of 1759 was able to recover from his internal troubles. He retook Peshawar in August and shortly after marched into the Punjab. But before we take up the narrative of 1759, we must first conclude the story of the return journey of Raghunathrao and his party in a false hope that all was well on the frontier.