Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c24.s3: § 7. Abdali's attack on Gokul
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c24.s3
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§ 7. Abdali's attack on Gokul
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Moving a fortnight behind his vanguard, Abdali himself came upon the scene. He had stormed Ballabhgarh on 3rd March and halted there for two days. On the 15th he arrived near Mathura, and wisely avoiding that reeking human shambles crossed over to the eastern bank of the Jamuna and encamped at Mahāvan, * six miles south-east of the city. Two miles to his west lay Gokul, the seat of the pontiff of the rich Vallabhāchārya sect. Abdali's policy of frightfulness had defeated his cupidity ; dead men could not be held to ransom. The invader's unsatisfied need of money was pressing him ; he sought the help of Imad's local knowledge as to the most promising sources of booty. A detachment from his camp was sent to plunder Gokul. But here the monks were martial Nāgā sannyāsis of Upper India and Rajputana. Four thousand of these naked ash-smeared warriors stood outside Gokul and fought the Afghans, till half of their own number was killed after slaying an equal force of the enemy. Then, at the entreaty of the Bengal subahdar’s envoy (Jugalkishor) and his assurance that a hermitage of faqirs could not contain any money, Abdali recalled the detachment. “All the Vairāgis perished, but Gokulnāth (the deity of the city) was saved,” as a Marathi newsletter puts it. [Raj. i. 63.]
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∗ According to Samin in *Ind. Antiq.*, p. 61. *TALS.* 109*a* says that on 20th March his camp was at Sarāi Kola, 3 *kos* from Mathura. *Koila* is 6 miles south of Mathura and opposite Mahavan. *DC.* records that on 18th March the news reached Delhi that Abdali had marched from Mathura to Vrindāvan. Raj. i. 63 says that from Mathura he detached a force to sack Gokul-Vrindāvan. I believe that in both the above works Vrindāvan is an error for Gokul, which stands 12 m. south of it and on the opposite bank of the Jamuna.
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§ 8 Jahan Khan plunders and fines Agra.
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Jahan Khan and Najib were now recalled to Abdali’s camp from their roving commission of raid and slaughter, and sent to levy contribution on Agra, thronged with the richest fugitives from the capital. The Afghan king’s plan was to advance from Agra as a base and capture the Jat forts or compel Suraj Mal to pay a large tribute. Jahān Khan at the head of 15,000 horse made a raid on Agra in the morning of 21st March. A deputation of bankers met him outside the gates and promised to ransom the city for five lakhs; but it was impossible to collect the money promptly, and the Pathan losing patience entered the city and plundered four wards of it, up to the Blue Cupola. Some massacre took place here also, the victims being estimated at 2,000. But his progress was stopped by the walls of Akbar's fort from which Mirza Saifullah (the son of the imperial qiladar) opened fire, thus preventing the invaders from showing their heads near it. Jahān Khan therefore halted for some days to exact the money from the bankers of the city. Only one lakh, out of the promised five lakhs, was raised by the local imperial officials (the qiladar, subahdar and city kotwal) from Sāmaldās the agent of Jagat Seth of Bengal, and paid, when Jahān Khan received a peremptory order to return to his master (23 March.) He set off at sunset and rejoined Abdali near Mathura on the 24th, and finally on the 28th the retreat to Afghanistan began. [TALS. 109a; Muz. 121; Samin in Ind. Antiq. 65; SPD. xxi. 111, xxvii. 146, 152. Raj. i. 63.]