Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c28.s10.23

v2.c28.s10.23

Backed by the wazir, Suraj Mal ousted Bahadur Singh (Bar-Gujar) the faujdar of Chakla Koil (Aligarh), and even took from him his paternal stronghold of Ghasira (40 miles south of Delhi) after a three months’ siege. The fighting here was most obstinate : 1,500 Jats were slain by gunfire from the fort-walls ; and at last Bahadur Singh in despair slew all his women, threw the gates open, and rushed upon the enemy with twenty-five desperadoes like himself, who perished to a man (23 April 1753.)* During Safdar Jang’s rebellion against the Emperor, Suraj Mal joined his former patron and took a leading part in the fighting round the imperial capital. The rising failed, and Suraj Mal was glad to make peace with the Emperor through the new wazir Intizam-ud-daulah (25 Oct.) The imperial Bakhshi Imad-ul-mulk, who had not been a party to this treaty, next launched a campaign and freed the country south of Delhi from Jat encroachments ; Ballabhgarh and Ghasira were wrested from the Jats and even the Aligarh and Jalesar districts east of the Jamuna. [Ch. 12 § 2.] Carrying the war into the enemy's own territory, Imad co-operated with the Marathas in the siege of the Jat stronghold of Kumbher. After four months (Jan.-May, 1754) the fort remained untaken, * and the besiegers were glad to go away on receiving promise of an indemnity of 30 lakhs of Rupees. [Ch. 12 §5.] Holkar's raid on the Emperor's camp at Sikandrabad (25 May), which followed within a week of the raising of the siege of Kumbher, and the change of Emperors by Imad-ul-mulk (2 June) introduced chaos into the Delhi administration and the Jats joined in the plunder of the country round the imperial capital, "with this advantage on their side that after Malhar Holkar and Imad-ul-mulk had left, the Jats were sufficiently in time to profit by the general consternation into which the one or the other had put the capital and its environs." [Wendel, 71. SPD. xxvii. 90.]