Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c28.s5.11

v2.c28.s5.11

Early in 1770, a vast Maratha army, led by Ramchandra Ganesh (the Peshwa's deputy), Visaji Krishna Biniwala, Tukoji Holkar, and Mahadji Sindhia, advanced to the north of the Chambal for restoring the Maratha authority in Hindustan which had been eclipsed for nearly a decade as the result of the defeat at Panipat, and recovering their lost estates in the Doab. Their coming was preceded by letters calling upon all the chiefs of Northern India to present themselves and pay tribute or release the Maratha jagirs they had usurped in the interval. Tukoji Holkar, the successor of Malhar, wrote a private letter to Najib to confirm the friendship between the two houses which had subsisted in Malhar's time and by which Najib had benefited so often and so signally. Najib replied, "I have for a long time past renounced the world on account of age and made Zabita Khan my heir and supreme agent. He will not deviate from your counsel."