Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s25.1

v2.c27.s25.1

“The booty captured within the entrenchment was beyond calculation, and the regiments of Khans (i. e., 8000 troopers of Abdāli clansmen) did not, as far as possible, allow other troops like the Irānis and Turānis to share in the plunder ; they took possession of everything themselves, but sold to the Indian soldiers handsome Brāhman women for one *tuman* and good horses for two *tumans* each.” [Nur-ud-din, 50*b*.] The Deccani prisoners, male and female, reduced to slavery by the victorious army numbered 22,000, many of them being the sons and other relatives of the sardars or middle class men. Among them ‘rose-limbed slave girls’ are mentioned, which shows that the Maratha officers during their victorious occupation of Delhi had imitated the Peshwa’s example and replenished their harems with the fair-coloured beauties of the northern hill range, for whom there were regular markets in Delhi Lahor and other great cities. Besides these 22,000 unhappy captives, some four hundred officers and 6,000 men fled for refuge to Shujā's camp, and were sent back to the Deccan with money help by that Nawāb, at the request of his Hindu officers. The total loss of the Marathas after the battle is put at 50,000 horses, captured either by the Afghan army or the villagers along the route of flight, two hundred thousand draught cattle, some thousands of camels, five hundred elephants, besides cash and jewellery. "Every trooper of the Shah brought away ten, and sometimes twenty camels laden with money. The captured horses were beyond count, but none of them was of value; they came like droves of sheep in their thousands." *