Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c16.s1.4

v1.c16.s1.4

The most pressing creditors of State were the Ruhela and Maratha auxiliaries and the Badakhshi brigade lured away from Safdar Jang's side, for whose monthly salary Imād as Bakhshi was directly responsible. Imād, therefore, first set himself to reconquer the district south of Delhi where Jāt usurpers predominated in the villages, and he planned to attack thereafter the great Jāt kingdom of Bharatpur and levy a large tribute. At the same time the Ruhela leader Najib Khan* tried to recover his dues by violence. Aqibat Mahmud reported to the Emperor that the Ruhelas were dunning Imād for their arrears and had practically kept him in confinement on 16th and 17th November. Soon afterwards a settlement was made: "The dues of Najib Khan Ruhela and Bahādur Khan Baluch, amounting to 15 lakhs, were assigned on the revenue of the Ganges-Jamunā doāb and certain villages east of the Ganges, which had formerly been in the possession of the Ruhelas. So the Ruhelas left Delhi for their homes (26th Nov.) But immediately after crossing the Jamunā they invested Patparganj and seizing the headman of the place demanded lakhs of Rupees from that mart and beat him; they did the same thing at Shāhdara, and after forcibly occupying the toll-offices (nāka) on the river bank robbed the wayfarers. They left Patparganj only after taking Rs. 35,000." In March next, Najib Khan dispossessed the official collector of Sarhind, and in April occupied Saharanpur and the wazir's jagirs in that region, but restored them in May 1754. [TAh. 87a-88b, 121a, 125a.]