Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c24.s3.1

v2.c24.s3.1

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.]