Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c29.s1.19

v2.c29.s1.19

This long contest with a nation in arms, while no dependable ally or lieutenant could be found by him in India, at last wore Abdali out: his illness too now proved to be hopelessly intractable; his soldiers became rowdy through his frequent failure to pay them, and a large contingent of them mutinied and left for Afghanistan in open mutiny. This was destined to be the last of Ahmad Shah's Indian campaigns. He realized the limits of his power, and like a true statesman confined his ambition to the attainable. He left a contented and grateful Phulkian Sikh chieftain, with largely extended territory, in hereditary charge of the Ambala district (Sarhind-Patiala), as an agent most likely to keep order and pay the annual tribute. He himself retained hold of Peshawar * and the country west of Attock, while he abandoned the Manjha districts and central Panjab including Lahor to the Sikhs; but the Sindh-Sagar and Jech Doabs in western Panjab remained a debatable land which finally came into Sikh possession in the days of his unworthy successors.