Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s3.25

v2.c27.s3.25

Thus Dattāji found that while his front was blocked by the Afghan conquest of the Panjāb and Sarhind, his right flank was uncovered by the enemy’s occupation of the entire Doāb. The invaders might easily cross over to the western bank at Delhi, or further south near Mathurā, and cut into the Maratha rear. Dattāji quickly fell back upon Delhi, in order to avoid the very trap in which the Bhau was caught ten months later. Leaving Kunjpurā on 27th December, he reached Sonepat on the 29th and halted there for five days to observe the enemy. The wazir re-entered his mansion in Delhi on 28 December and set about entrenching the eastern face of the capital along the bank of the Jamunā. Ahmad Shah Abdali, who had now been joined also by Hāfiz Rahmat Khan, Dundi Khan, Mullā Sardār, Sadullah Khan and other Ruhela chieftains of Rohilkhand proper, encamped at Luni, six miles north-east of Delhi, on the other side of the Jamunā. So, Dattā fell back from Sonepat to Barāri, some ten miles north of Delhi, on 4th January 1760.