Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s13.12

v2.c27.s13.12

We shall now turn to the invader’s camp and see what Abdālī had been doing in the meantime. After crushing Malhar’s rearguard near Sikandrābād in the morning of 4th March 1760, and sweeping the Marathas out of the upper Doab, he sacked and occupied the city of Koil (modern Aligarh) about the 26th and laid siege to its fort (then named Rāmgarh), which was held by Durjan Sal on behalf of Suraj Mal. The Jāt Rajah had strongly fortified it and stocked it with provisions artillery and munitions, wishing to make it a second Kumbher for the defence of his trans-Jamunā possessions. He naturally expected the place to hold out for many months; but in the meantime Abdālī’s roving detachments drove out the Jāt posts along the eastern side of the Jamunā in the Bulandshahar district, so as to bring the entire upper Doab into the hands of his faithful Najib.