Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c28.s1.7

v2.c28.s1.7

But his peace was disturbed by the mutiny of his Durrani troops who clamoured for their pay,—now two years in arrear,—and also insisted on being immediately led back to their mountain home, as they would not spend another summer on the Indian plains. Najib was called upon to pay the cost of his deliverance from the Maratha menace by Durrani arms. He tried hard to shift the burden from his own shoulders by presenting Nāgar Mal the envoy of the Jat Rajah (21st Feb.) and opening negotiations for the payment of a tribute by that prince in return for Abdali’s forgiveness. But the Queen-mother Zinat Mahal hated Suraj Mal as the protector and ally of her husband’s murderer and she knew from the past that Suraj Mal was only playing to gain time and would pay nothing unless compelled by force. So, she induced the Durrani wazir to dismiss the Jat envoy with a direct refusal. On 8th March, Shah Wali Khan, with Prince Jawan Bakht and Zinat Mahal, set out for Agra in order to put pressure on Suraj Mal; but the Durrani soldiers refused to march to the Mathura region where they had daily lost hundreds of their brethren from cholera in this very month of March only four years ago. The increasing disorder among his troops compelled Ahmad Shah to decide on a prompt return to Afghanistan and he recalled his wazir. In the meantime, a riot had broken out between Shuja’s Shia followers and the Shah’s Sunni troops, and the Nawab of Oudh, in high anger at this return for his valued assistance during the late war with the Marathas, left for his province on 7th March. On the 13th of that month the Shah began preparations for his retreat. Leaving Delhi city on 20th March he halted for two days in the Shalimar garden north-west of the city, and began his return march on the 22nd, reaching Ambala on the 27th. A Maratha letter reports that there was a three days’ plunder of Delhi by his retreating troops.