Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c24.s1.1

v2.c24.s1.1

Three weeks after this last battle, having settled all his business in Delhi and given Alamgir II his throne again, Ahmad Shah Durrāni, on 22nd February began his southward march for exacting tribute from the Jat Rajah. On the invader's first arrival near Delhi, Suraj Mal had sent envoys to him professing submission and he had also joined Najib Intizām and other enemies of Imād in petitioning Abdali that if he removed Imād from the wazirship as the sworn brother of their common enemy the Marathas and kept him in prison in Qandahar, then these Indian chiefs would raise 50 lakhs as tribute for him. When on 4th February the vanquished Antāji reached Mathura, Suraj Mal visited him, but positively refused to unite with him in a war against the Afghans, saying, "The Irān Pādishāh at the head of 50,000 troops has captured the Pādishāh of Hind, and no one has fired a shot at him, no one has died in resisting him. What then can I do?" [SPD. xxi. 96, 99, 100.]