Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c29.19

v2.c29.19

While these negotiations were in train, Abdali set himself to recover Kashmir from Sukhjivan Ram Khatri, the former diwan of that province, who had thrown off the Durrani authority, and seized the governorship in the name of the Emperor of Delhi. He was an exceptionally able and upright administrator, liberal in religion, charitable to the poor, a patron of poets and the financial supporter of a new history of the province. But Ranjitdev, the Rajah of Jammu, was his rival, and was induced by the Durrani wazir to come to Lahor and to undertake to guide the Durrani army of invasion by showing some undefended pass for penetrating into Kashmir. The first expedition composed of about 3000 Durrani soldiers and some Jammu auxiliaries, started in June, but returned baffled, as all the passes were found to be held too strongly for assault or surprise. A later expedition achieved complete success, Sukhjivan was defeated and taken prisoner, and Kashmir annexed to the Durrani empire. [Siyar, iii. 74, Raj. vi. 384.] During the autumn of 1762, Ahmad Shah called up to Lahor Najib and Yaqub Ali from Delhi and Agha Raza, Abdul Ahad, and Munir-ud-daulah from Shah Alam’s Court to put the affairs of the Delhi Empire inorder and end the chaos that had followed the murder of the last Emperor. It was agreed that the Durrani king would call upon all the Indian princes, with the prestige of his authority but without lending his armed aid, to recognise Shah Alam II as Emperor and instal him in his ancestors’ capital, while Najib and Munir-ud-daulah undertook on behalf of the Indian Government to pay Abdali a tribute of 40 lakhs a year. This settlement concluded, Ahmad Shah left Lahor on 12 Dec. 1762, while Najib and other Indian envoys took leave of him and reached Delhi in January 1763. [DC.]