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Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c14.s5: § 10. Safdar Jang with Marathas and Jats invades Rohilkhand

Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c14.s5

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§ 10. Safdar Jang with Marathas and Jats invades Rohilkhand

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It only remained to punish him in his homeland. Some months after the disaster at Rām Chatāuni (13th Sep. 1750), Safdar Jang had re-established his position at the Delhi Court and completed his alliance with the Marātha generals, who were the only power in India capable of crushing the Afghāns. He promised to pay Jayāppā Sindhia and Malhar Rao Holkar Rs. 25,000 (or 35,000) a day for their contingents and Surajmal Rs. 15,000 for his Jāt force for help in the projected invasion of Rohilkhand. Ammunition and rockets were collected and some guns received from the imperial arsenal through the good offices of Jāvid Khan. [G.-i-R. 40, Siyar, iii. 36.]

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Winter is the natural time for campaigning in India, but the arrival of the Marātha allies was delayed till spring. They had first to fulfil their undertaking in Rajputana by seating Mādho Singh on the Jaipur throne and levy the promised subsidy from that State, and secondly they had to write to the Peshwā and get his consent to taking the Ruhela business in hand instead of immediately going to the South, as commanded by him, for a projected attempt to oust the Nizām from that part of India. (S. P. D. xxi. 40 and ii. 31.) It was only in the second week of February 1751 that the Marāthas could start from Jaipur. At last all his arrangements having been completed, Safdar Jang took formal leave of the Emperor on 11th February and entered his marching tents on the sandbank of Mahābat Khan. Thence he marched to Kishandās's Tank on the 18th, and was joined two days later by his ally Malhar Rao. Surajmal also arrived with his Jāt force, and the plan of campaign was now formed.

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The wazir remained some twenty miles in the rear of the fighting line and at a later stage of the war came back to his residence in Delhi. The brunt of the fighting was borne by his allies. First the Marātha light horse, 20,000 strong, made a dash and fell "like a sudden calamity" upon Shādil Khan, the Bangash governor of Koil (Aligarh) and Jālesar, who had only 4,000 horse and the same number of unreliable foot under him. Unable to oppose such odds, he fled away across the Kālī Nadī and the Ganges towards Farrukhabad. Many of his Afghāns were slain* or taken prisoner and much property seized by the victors (c. 20 March), and the whole of this large tract was cleared of the Bangash agents at one push. At the news of this disaster, Ahmad Khan at once raised the siege of Allahabad and returned to Farrukhabad with only a small remnant of his army, the mercenaries having disappeared during his retreat.*

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∗ Far Gaz. 166; S.P.D. ii. 32. S.P.D. xxvi. 176: "Ahmad Bangash sent his vanguard to oppose Malhar and the Jāt who had entered the Doāb, but it was defeated, giving up 7 or 8 elephants and 4 to 5 thousand horses to plunder. Many Pathāns were slain,

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He decided to abandon his capital and make a stand at a small fort, now called Fatehgarh, three miles east of Farrukhabad and overlooking the Ganges, near the ferry of Husainpur. Across the river was the Ruhela country, the only place from which armed aid and provisions could come to him. Here entrenchments were thrown up and the deep ravines on the land side supplied very strong natural defences.

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The Marāthas had advanced rapidly down the Doāb, meeting with little or no opposition. They invested the Afghān position at Fatehgarh, "placing their headquarters at Qāsim Bāgh, half a mile west of the fort, while the wazir proceeded to Singirāmpur, a village and ferry some eleven miles further down the Ganges. As attempt made by him to throw a bridge across the river here was defeated by an officer of Mahmud Khan, who was encamped on the other side of the Ganges, opposite Fatehgarh. Meantime, at Fatehgarh the Marāthas daily besieged the fort. On the other side, the Pathāns made repeated sorties. Little impression was effected by either side. After the investment had lasted more than a month, Sadullah

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their camp was looted. Two or three posts have been captured. Great terror of the Marāthas has spread through that part." *S.P.D.* xxi. 41 and 43; ii. 14, 14a; xxvii. 66, xxvi. 175. *Khaz. Am.* 83-84.

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Khan (son of Ali Muhammad Khan) approached with his Ruhela reinforcements of 12,000 men.

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"On 17th April, a boat bridge was thrown over the Ganges by the wazir at Singirāmpur, and the Marathas and Jats crossed over to the left or eastern bank of it. Next day Sadullah arrived on that bank, opposite Fatehgarh and joined his forces to those of Mahmud Khan. Led away by youthful rashness, Sadullah attacked the Marāthas before Aḥmad could cross over from the west bank and unite with him. After a great battle defeat fell in the end on the Afghāns. Sadullah and Maḥmud fled away with their bare lives, the first to Aonla and the second to Fatehgarh, over ten thousand of their men were slain or wounded, and all their property, elephants, horses, carpets, clothing, was captured by the Marāthas.

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"After nightfall the camp of the Ruhelas on the opposite bank was fired, and the sight of the flames struck terror into Aḥmad Khan's garrison (in Fatehgarh.) . . . During the night the Nawāb (i.e., Ahmad Khan) with his kinsmen and chiefs left the fort, and made off to the ferry of Kāmraul, 15 miles above Fatehgarh, where he crossed the river and then took refuge in Aonla. The Marāthas overtook many of the fugitives at Shikārpur ghāt, four miles above Fatehgarh, and many were slain. In the morning (19th April), the Marāthas occupied Fatehgarh, after having killed many of the remaining defenders and made a number of prisoners. The Ruhelas of Aonla . . . identified themselves completely with Ahmad Bangash’s cause. They all marched as rapidly as possible towards the Lower Himalayas,” evacuating their homes of their women and leading persons.

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The rainy season was about to begin, and the wazir, suspending the campaign till it should be over, went away to Lucknow. The Marathas cantoned in the Bangash territory, plundering the entire country to their heart’s content. The value of the booty secured by them baffled the calculation of the historian Ghulām Husain,—“one single article being worth 16 lakhs of Rupees.” Another historian, Sayyid Ghulām Ali writes, “In the invasion of the Ruhela country Malhar gained two krores of Rupees in cash, besides what he had plundered (in kind) in the cities.” [Siyar. iii. 36, Imād. 57-59, Far. Gaz. 166-167, TAh. 27b-28a, Muz. 54-56, G-i-R. 40-41, Sujān Charitra, Jang iv.]

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At the end of the rains, the Pathāns advanced towards Farrukhabad; the Marāthas retreated before them and crossed over to the western side of the Ganges. The wazir hurried back from Lucknow, crossed the Ganges, joined the Marāthas and resumed the offensive. The Pathāns were repulsed and marched up the left bank of the Ganges, retreating to Aonla. After collecting the most valuable part of their property, the Ruhela and Bangash chiefs abandoned Aonla and sought shelter at the foot of the hills near Chilkiyā.

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Here they formed an entrenchment in the forest, and fed with supplies furnished by the Rajah of Almorah they succeeded in holding their own for many months. All efforts to dislodge them from this inaccessible refuge failed. But the malignant jungle fever of this Tarāi region carried off thousands of Afghāns and Marāthas alike. (Siyar, iii. 37, G-i-R. 43.) Four months dragged on in this kind of desultory fighting till March 1752 came to an end, "The Marāthas were weary of a contest in which no plunder could be gained, and suffering from disease in a climate peculiarly unhealthy," they were eager to go back.*

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