Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s7.2

v2.c27.s7.2

But there was a fly in the Peshwā's cup of honey. On 27th January he had received a letter from his officers in the Delhi region written on the 8th before, reporting that Abdāli had invaded India again, swept the Marathas out of the Panjāb, forced Dattāji Sindhia to raise the siege of Shukartal without securing any indemnity from Najib Khan, and had himself crossed over to the Gangetic Doāb and effected a junction with the Ruhelas, while Dattāji had fallen back on Delhi, and that a decisive battle was expected to be fought on the next day. After this followed an ominous silence from Northern India for three weeks, while the Peshwā's anxiety went on deepening day by day. Then news began to trickle through from the North-Indian correspondence of bankers received at Aurangabad, that Dattāji had fallen, Jankoji had fled away in headlong rout to Rajputana, and the Maratha army in Hindustan had ceased to exist. An official letter reached the Peshwā on the 15th (or 16th) of February to confirm this tale of disaster. At one blow all his gains in North India had been wiped out, and he must again fight for the Maratha control over the Delhi empire and build up his supremacy in Hindustan from the very foundations. [Raj. i. 155, 157, 164, 165. SPD. i. 83,9.]