Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s3.18

v2.c27.s3.18

There was nothing left for Dattāji now but to raise his futile siege (8th December.) He effected the withdrawal of his camp in safety, because Najib, with his smaller army, wisely abstained from tempting Fate by coming out of his trenches† and meeting the Maratha horse in the open before he could be reinforced by the invincible legions of Abdali. From Shukartal, by way of Muzaffarnagar, the Bārha Sayyids’ country, Dattaji marched northwards and crossed the Jamunā at Rāmra-ghat near Pānipat (c. 20 Dec.) Here he got the correct intelligence that Abdālī’s vanguard under Jahān Khan, Shāh Pasand Khan, and Abdus Samad Khan had entered the Banur and Chhat district (16 miles north of Ambālā city) on the 15th, and that their front skirmishers had occupied Ambālā and “were advancing, daily foraging right left and in front, beating the jungle and shouting for 20 or 30 miles on each hand.”