Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c24.s4.5

v2.c24.s4.5

Such were the unspeakable sufferings of the harmless peasants and traders, whose only crime was their supposed wealth. Then outraged Nature rose up in wrath. Abdali had encamped at Mahāvan 13 miles downstream of Vrindāvan. The river, its level now very low at the height of the dry season, was choked with the half-burnt and unburnt bodies of suicides and slaughtered persons ; and in three weeks’ time the Indian sun did its work. The water reached Abdali’s camp after washing Vrindāvan Mathurā and other places, all upstream, which had been turned into slaughter-houses by his order. A cholera epidemic broke out at Mahāvan and daily 150 of his soldiers began to die of it. There was no remedy, no medicine available ; “it cost Rs. 100 to buy a seer of tamarind, a drink made of tamarind being prescribed with benefit." The loss of horse-flesh was equally heavy in the Afghan army. His surviving soldiers clamoured for returning home. Abdali's hands were forced. He wrote to the Emperor (on 26th March) that he was about to turn back, and he sent off fast riders to recall Jahān Khan and Najib from Agra.* These two rejoined him on the 24th. A second domiciliary visit was paid to Vrindāvan to realize the contribution laid on that city after the raid of the 6th. And in these four days a last despairing effort was made to get something out of Suraj Mal. He had promised a tribute of five lakhs to the Shah and a gift of two lakhs to his ministers, but, thanks to the unlooked for epidemic, he evaded "paying even a kauri." As Abdali's real intentions were not finally known for some time, Suraj Mal's envoys accompanied his camp parleying up to the north-western suburb of Delhi, and when from that place the Afghan army unmistakably set out for their home, fast camel-riders brought the happy news to Suraj Mal, and he unceremoniously turned out of his fort the two negotiators of tribute (Jugalkishor, and an Afghan officer) whom Abdali had left there.