Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s14.1

v2.c27.s14.1

The Nawāb of Oudh possessed by far the strongest army and best artillery in Northern India. His Gosain troops were the most reckless fighters among the Hindus and formed a compact brotherly corps of ten thousand horse and foot, and he had besides a number of able and devoted Shia officers in his service. Each side held out to Shujā the bait of making him the wazir of Delhi after placing Shah Alam on the imperial throne.* On behalf of Abdāli, Mālika-i-Zamāni, the honoured widow of the Emperor Muhammad Shah, visited Shujā, and later Jahān Khan (the Durrāni commander-in-chief) and Najib Khan (the invader's plenipotentiary in his Indian diplomacy.) The Bhāu tried hard, by means of special ambassadors (Shyāmji Ranganath) and personal letters to counteract this move. He assured Shujā that it was the duty of both of them to bring about the restoration of the Timurid dynasty at Delhi and that the Marathas' sole aim was to administer the empire in concert with him in the way best for all. But it was well known that Maratha support alone had enabled Imād-ul-mulk to murder two Emperors and all but succeed in killing a third ; hence, the Bhāu's present anxiety for the glory and welfare of the Delhi royalty was hardly convincing. He next appealed to Shujā's mother in the name of the old friendship that had existed between the Marathas and her husband. But she could not forget that they had, ever since his expulsion from the wazirship, backed Imād, the mortal enemy of the house of Oudh and of the Shia sect in general.