Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c12.s3.17

v1.c12.s3.17

The long struggle being over at last, the lord of Bundi set himself to settling its long disturbed administration and restoring its economic prosperity. But the outlook before him was most dismal. "Ummed [had] regained his patrimony after 14 years of exile. . . . But this contest deprived it of many of its ornaments, and, combined with other causes, at length reduced it to its intrinsic worth,—'a heap of cotton'. . . Malhar Holkar had the title of māmu• or [maternal] uncle to young Ummed. But . . . he did not take his buckler to protect the oppressed at the impulse of chivalrous notions. . . He demanded and obtained by regular deed of surrender the town and district of Patan on the left bank of the Chambal . . . Ummed felt his spirit cramped and his energies contracted by the dominant influence and avarice of the insatiable Marathas through whose means he [had]