Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15.s12.2

v1.c15.s12.2

By this time (19th July) Safdar Jang had retreated to a position about 15 miles south of the city, between Badarpur and Faridabad. The imperialists advanced over the ground abandoned by him and stretched their lines from the Jamuna westwards to the hillock of Kālka-devi, near the Qutb Minar. A detachment from their army also sacked some villages near Tughlaqabad, bringing away money, property, cattle, men and women as spoils from them; but when besieging a mud-walled village named Garhi Maidan this force of Ruhelas was routed by a Jat army in the midst of a heavy shower (25th July) and all its guns and arms captured. [*TAh. 64a, 66a. Sujān Ch. Jang vi. 4.*] On 19th August there was a severe fight at certain points on the long line from Tughlaqabad to the Jamuna, but artillery predominated and in the evening the rebels retired baffled, after heavy losses on both sides, the Jats and the Ruhelas having been well matched. Next day the imperialists occupied Badarpur, Safdar Jang being encamped near Faridabad, four miles south. But a few days after, he fell back nine miles to Sikri (3 miles south of Ballamgarh), on 1st September, when Imād pushed on to Faridabad and beyond to two miles from the rebel position. "On the day of his entry into Faridabad, his soldiers plundered all the inhabitants of the place;