Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s10.31

v2.c27.s10.31

The defection of Suraj Mal was even more ruinous to the Maratha cause than Shujā’s choice of hostility a month earlier. The Bhāu had no longer a single friend left north of the Narmadā. The Maratha relations with the Jāt kingdom had been marked from the first by grasping tyranny. Their unprovoked siege of Kumbher (1754) had been ended only by the promise of a tribute of 30 lakhs. Moreover, the expansion of the Jāt power from the Mathurā-Agra district over the Jamunā into the middle Doab crossed the line of Maratha ambition there. Suraj Mal had built and richly stored the fort of Rāmgarh (now called Aligarh), intending to make it a second Kumbher in the midst of his Doāb possessions, and Govind Ballāl, the Maratha governor of the tract immediately south of it, had planned (middle of May) to capture this fort and replace Jāt rule by his own in that region. [Raj. i. 187.] Though the design could not be put into execution, thanks to Afghan pressure, this unfriendly attitude could not be kept a secret from Suraj Mal. When the Bhāu entered Jāt territory on 8th June, he no doubt issued strict orders to his men not to molest or rob his ally’s subjects. The Peshwā had also advised the Bhāu not to dun Suraj Mal for the unpaid balance of the tribute of 1754. [ SPD. xxvii. 255. ] But