Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s13: § 18. Tukoji Holkar raids Rohilkhand ; encounter with British troops
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s13
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§ 18. Tukoji Holkar raids Rohilkhand ; encounter with British troops
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Arrived on the east bank of the Ganges, Tukoji attacked and captured Ahmad Khan (the son of Sardār Khan, the ex-Bakhshi of Ali Md. Ruhela), who had entrenched on the river side opposite Rāmghāt, with the fortalice of Asadpur behind him. The action was short and sharp ;
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SPD. xxix. 278 and pp. 331-333, 341, 348 (Najaf Kh. engaged by the Marathas on Rs. 3,000 daily.) Ibrat. i. 222-228 (detailed.) Miskin 287-288 (present.) G. Ali, iii. 18-19 and Muna Lal 144-145 (meagre.) Bihari Lal. Gulshan-i-Rahmat.
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the Ruhelas lost 300 out of their force of 2,000 men and the Marathas 900. But a son of Ahmad Khan held out in Asadpur, which Tukoji invested. The English army at Sāhaswān, warned by the heavy sound of firing at night, made a rapid march next day and arrived before Rāmghāt (20th March.) At the news of their approach, Tukoji abandoned the siege and made a lightning raid on Sambhal (35 miles north-east of Rāmghāt) and Morādābād, both of which large cities he plundered. Then, with equal speed, he fled back, crossing the Ganges at Puth, and rejoined Visāji at Aligarh.
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We shall now return to the Maratha division left behind at Rāmghāt. At ten o'clock in the morning of 20th March, the English brigade advancing on Rāmghāt sighted the Marathas and immediately formed line of battle, all the troops priming and loading. At once a large body of Maratha horse hovering on the east bank crossed the Ganges back to Ramghat without a shot having been fired at them. Then some 3,000 of their cavalry appeared on the western bank, at first merely watching the movements of the English. After General Barker had pitched his tent, Visāji fired two 12 pounders across the river and dropped about 30 shots near this tent, killing an old woman and wounding an elephant. Two English guns immediately replied, the very second shot of which "fell among the thick of the enemy, upon which they turned tail in great confusion, and a few more rounds made the whole of them quit the shore.”
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Early in the morning of the 22nd, the English general crossed the Ganges at the ford of Rāmghāt, Shujā-ud-daulah having sent in the preceding night twenty pieces of cannon to cover the advance and some 5,000 Najib infantry to occupy a good post on the west bank. But the news of the intended attack had reached Visāji and he had precipitately fled fourteen miles behind, leaving there only a few Pindharis rummaging among the abandoned things of his camp. The English encamped on the ground so long occupied by the enemy; their General advanced eight miles westwards without coming up with the enemy; he found only small bands of Pindharis hovering afar off and a large force of Maratha horse that watched the English “from a respectable distance.” Hāfiz Rahmat Khan, who had so long maintained a dubious attitude towards Shujā, now came to the wazir’s camp, and so also did several of Najaf Khan’s officers who reported that the rest of their commanders would desert the infidels in groups of 20 or 30 at the time, as they found means of escape.
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After halting on the west bank on the 22nd, the English brigade recrossed the river to their old ground, a mile from Rāmghāt, leaving a strong body to guard that ford. Next day, at the news that Holkar was raiding Morādābād, the brigade began a rapid march north-eastwards to the rescue of the Ruhelas. At the end of the second day (26th March) news came that the Maratha raiders had fled back across the Ganges. So, General Barker returned to Rāmghāt on the 28th.
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§ 19. Settlement made by General Barker between the Marathas and the Ruhelas.
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In the meantime, during his absence the Marathas had tried to force the ford at Rāmghāt about 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th, but they had been repulsed by the heavy guns and troops left there by the Nawab of Oudh under his eunuch Mahbub Ali Khan. This was the last Maratha raid into Rohilkhand, and just one year after it that province was for ever closed to them by being annexed to Oudh and thus brought under British protection.
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The English brigade halted at Rāmghāt for 16 days more, and then marched north to a point opposite Anupsahar (30th April.) Before this the Maratha army had abandoned the Rāmghāt position on 28th March and retreated into the Doab, about 25 miles west of it. There was now an open rupture between Visāji and Tukoji, each of them blaming the other for this irreparable failure of Maratha enterprise in Hindustan after three years of effort (Feb. 1770—May 1773.) They lingered in the Etawa-Khurja region for some weeks, making preparations for their departure home. They buried all their heavy guns (the spoils of Pathargarh) near Etawa, and sent off much of their booty ahead, to cross the Jamuna by a bridge of boats at Kālpi.* On 21st April, two wakils sent by the Marathas to treat for peace were introduced by Shujā to General Barker. Shujā satisfied the Marathas by promising that he would take written bonds for 15 lakhs from Hafiz Rahmat and for five lakhs from Ahmad Khan Bangash's son and thus discharge the war indemnity promised by the Afghans to the Marathas a year earlier. [DC.] But no agreement was made by the Ruhelas for paying any subsidy to the Nawab of Oudh for his armed assistance in the Rāmghāt campaign, over and above the forty lakhs promised to him in 1772.†
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† For the Wazir's case, CPC. iv. 475, and Hāfiz Rahmat's reply, 481. Bihari Lal explains why the Ruhelas failed to pay Shujā as promised (I.H.Q. 1936.)
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This arrangement having been made as the best of a bad job, the Maratha chiefs on 5th May dismissed Najaf Khan from Aligarh with gifts, a robe of honour, jewels and Rs. 26,000 in cash and a grant of 19 parganahs out of their fiefs in that region. Zābita Khan received his *congee* from Visāji Krishna four days later. Then the Marathas themselves set out for the Deccan by way of Etawa and Kālpi. Najaf Khan, after a visit to General Barker at the English camp opposite Anupshahar (9th May), returned to Delhi on 20th May.
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∗ Capt. Macpherson writes: "15th April. News from the Maratha camp that for these two nights past they had had their horses saddled all night. Najaf Khan asked Tukoji if he intended to fight us; he replied that his men were much more inclined to plunder...18th. We are informed that the Marathas are very uneasy at their situation and that Visaji sent his Prime Minister Dado Malhar to Tukoji to accuse him of being the cause of commencing hostilities against the Wazir and English, which the other denied...(more quarrels between the two.)" [123-124.]