New History of the Marathas v2.c33.5

v2.c33.5

" Ahmad Shah Abdali the victor of Panipat was hardly in a better plight. The year 1761-62 proved that this best Asiatic general of his age could win battles but not the subsequent dominion. He failed to reap the harvest of his amazing successes. His vision was bound by the narrow limits of his mountainous homeland of Afghanistan with the Punjab if he could possibly annex that province. Hence when his soldiers mutinied for arrears of pay and pressed for immediate return, the Shah Abdali retraced his steps and marched back to his country throwing back his life's chance. His withdrawal from the scene of his recent successes let loose pent up forces, brought new personalities on the stage and effected such a change in the situation that the Shah no longer remained the master of it."¹ His advance through the Punjab was so successfully held up by the Sikhs, that he gradually lost all that he had gained during ten years of hard fighting. Between 1762 and 1767 he struggled manfully to put down the Sikhs but was beaten in the end. He had by then lost both his health and vigour, sank into inertia and died rather a miserable death a few months before the Peshwa Madhavrao.