Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c7.s2.1

v1.c7.s2.1

Descendants of the older Pathān ruling caste of the 15th and 16th centuries were now settled as peaceful landholders or captains of mercenaries in Orissā, Sylhet, Dārbhangā and Allahabad. But fresh bodies of immigrants from their mountain homeland streamed into India in the 17th century and created a large and compact new centre of Afghān population much closer to Delhi than these places.* The newcomers interposed an almost solid block between the vitally important *subahs* of Delhi and Agra on the west and Oudh and Allahabad on the east, and had grown into a serious menace to the imperial Government by the middle of the 18th century. Their Indian home, formerly known as *Katehr*, now acquired the name of *Rohilkhand* from its new dominant race. It is a tract bounded by the Ganges on the west and the Garrā (also called the Deohā) river on the east, with the Rāmgangā running almost midway between the two. But the Afghān immigrants had two considerable settlements even beyond Rohilkhand as thus defined, namely to the south and east of that province, —stretching west of the Ganges to the Kālī Nadī and beyond, and east of the Garrā up to the Sāī river.