Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15.s2.2

v1.c15.s2.2

Muin collected his forces, advanced northwards to meet the enemy, and made his base at Sadra, 3 miles east of the modern Wazirabad on the Chenāb. From this place the Afghan position was several miles distant.* Scouts and foraging parties from the two sides daily rode into the intervening belt of land, fought skirmishes, and fell back on their own camps in the evening. This kind of desultory warfare continued for months, and the campaign could not be pressed to a decisive issue, as both sides were weak, Abdali’s expedition being really intended to probe the defensive strength of the imperial frontier. But the scene of war was devastated and the continued strain and hardship began to tell upon Muin’s Mughalia troops. So, at last he made peace through the mediation of a holy man, Maulavi Abdullah (about February 1750.) Abdali was promised 14 *lakhs* of Rupees as the annual surplus revenue of the "four mahals"—Siālkot, Pasrur, Gujrāt and Aurangabad,—which Muhammad Shah had assigned to Nādir Shah by treaty. They were, no doubt, to be still governed by the Delhi Emperor's agents and in his name; but the Afghān, all the same, got the first slice of India proper. [*Siyar*, iii. 30; *Muz*. 27; *Bayan* 248-249; *TAh*. 8; *Miskin* 4.]