Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s6.2

v2.c22.s6.2

∗ Ahmad Shah Abdali in Delhi, 1757 : the most detailed and authentic sources are *DC.* (invaluable) and *TALS.* 80-102, with graphic touches in the narrative of Shaikh Ghulam Hasan Samin, tr. by W. Irvine in *Indian Antiquary*, 1907, (which has many inaccuracies of date due to its having been written 25 years after the event.) The Maratha letters, so valuable and accurate at other times, fail us during this period, as Antāji Mānakeshwar fled away from Delhi on 19th January and Bāpu M. Hingané on 7th Feb., and what they wrote afterwards was distant hearsay; so also were the private newsletters received at Jhansi or Aurangabad and communicated to the Peshwa. Antaji's gasconade and reviling of Bāpu must be taken with a grain (or rather an ounce) of salt. The two 18th century histories of Abdali, *viz.*, *Mujmil* and *Tarikh-i-Husain Shahi*, are meagre about this period and the latter work is often confused and inaccurate. *Tarikh-i-Muzaffari* and Shakir's *Memoirs* are very brief, and *Siyar-ul-mutakhkharin* is only a secondary and very distant compilation of a quarter century later. Miskin only tells us of Mughlāni Begam's doings and his own sufferings (129-139.) Nur-ud-din is short but useful.