Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s16.1

v2.c27.s16.1

The ten months of waiting and uncertainty were over. At last the two rivals for dominion over Hindustan had come to grips exactly in that arena where such contests had been fought out age after age. Arrived within reach of his enemy at Pānipat, Ahmad Shah Abdali, like a true master of war, held his troops strictly in hand, in a compact body under his eyes, never letting them extend beyond support. At first he followed a cautious watching policy in order to discover his enemy's strength and plan of war, before showing his own hand. For a week he silently suffered his stray cattle and horses* on the outskirts of his army to be carried off by the Maratha foragers and their Pindhari underlings, and strictly kept his troops back from sallying out for their recovery.