Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s6: § 7. Marathas force the Ruhela lines on the Ganges below Hardwar
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s6
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§ 7. Marathas force the Ruhela lines on the Ganges below Hardwar
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The campaign was promptly started. A body of imperial troops led by Mirzā Najaf Khan with the Maratha army under Tukoji Holkar, Mahadji Sindhia and Visāji Krishna, crossed into the Doab. Shah Alam himself left Delhi only eleven days after his arrival there, and marched ten miles behind the army, by way of Loni, Bagpat, and Ghausgarh to Chāndpur,* near the west bank of the Ganges, 15 miles due east of Rurki.
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∗ This Chāndpur (three miles east of the Pathri railway stn. on the Hardwar line) should not be confounded with Chandi ghat, situated on the opposite bank of the Ganges and seven miles north of it, i.e., one mile south of Hardwar.
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Meantime the defiant foe had matured his own plans. Zābita lodged his treasures and the families of all the Ruhela chiefs in Pathargarh (the stone fort of Najibabad) with a small garrison, while he himself took post at Shakartāl with some 4,000 troops and distributed the bulk of his army along the eastern bank of the Ganges from that fort up to Hardwār 38 miles northwards. He hoped to repeat his father's resounding success against Dattaji Sindhia in 1759 and at the same time guard against any incursion into the Najibabad district across the uppermost reaches of the Ganges like Govind Pant Bundele's raid in the November of that year. But Zābita was not Najib, and the Marathas profited by the lesson of Dattaji's failure to leave Shakartāl untouched and to concentrate all their strength on forcing the Ganges in its uppermost and shallowest part. The season too favoured the invaders. It was now the depth of winter and the Ganges water had touched its lowest level.
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Over these 38 miles the Ruhela forces were posted in groups, entrenching the east bank at every known ford and holding it in strength. The Marathas dug trenches opposite them on the west bank, and then very successfully deluded the enemy. They had decided to deliver their blow at Chandighat, just below Hardwār, at the northern extremity; but they caused it to be noised abroad that they would cross several miles further down, and even sent their camp and baggage away from Chandighat and spent several days in seeming idleness and neglect at this vital point. Then after the Ruhelas had been thrown completely off their guard and diverted from the real point of attack, the invaders began their crossing.
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On 23rd February, three hours before sunrise, the Marathas drove their horses into the river at Chandighat, reached the sand bank in midstream unperceived, and advancing to the further bank fell upon the Ruhela trenches sword in hand. The surprise was complete, but the defenders soon rallied, fired their muskets and rockets, and then rushing out pressed the assailants back into the river. Meantime Najaf Khan had reached the island in midstream, and halting his camel-swivels there opened fire at close range on the crowded Afghan ranks opposite. His deadly fire decided the issue. Karam Khan Razzar and four or five other sardars, fighting in the front rank of the enemy, were the first to be shot down. Then the Ruhela army fell back; only Sādat Khan Afridi with a few hundred brave men held the ground against ten thousand imperialists and Marathas who had crossed over by this time. His horse fell under him, he himself was shot in both thighs, but he changed horses and fought on till he was stricken down with more wounds. His men fled away, but his brother Sādiq Khan, though severely wounded, made a reckless charge upon Najaf Khan himself. All people gave way before this wounded tiger, horridly striped with running blood all over his body and growling out the Afghan battle cry ān! ān! The desperado reached the elephant of Najaf Khan, who was roused by the challenge and crying out, “Yes, I am ready for you,” struck Sādiq Khan with his spear, while the servant in the back seat of his *hauda* shot the Afridi down. With him the last trace of resistance ended; the Afghans broke and fled in headlong rout.
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The heads of the fallen Ruhela generals were severed and sent to the Emperor. Ali Muhammad Khan, blind of one eye, a wounded colonel of Zābita’s army, was captured when hiding himself among the bushes on the river bank. The news of this splendid victory, the first in his reign, reached the Emperor in his camp, ten miles in the rear, at noon. The entire credit for it was rightly given to Najaf Khan, and it became the first step of his ladder to supreme eminence in the State. “The Emperor showered favours on him, and stretching his own beard with both hands towards Najaf Khan, cried out, ‘Yet have saved my honour.’”*
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∗ *DC.* G. Ali, ii. 284-296. Muna Lal 125-127. Miskin 276-277. *Ibrat.* i. 203-207. Bihari Lal (tr. by me in *I.H.Q.* 1935, pp. 641 *et seq.*)
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§ 8. Flight of Zabita Khan ; capture of Shakartal.
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The victory was decisive. The Afghan resistance had been shattered at one blow. All was now confusion terror and despair in Zābita Khan’s ranks. Every ford held by his men was abandoned and the contagion even spread to Shakartāl. When the news of the Marathas having established themselves in full force on the eastern bank of the Ganges, with the road to the Ruhela homes open before them, reached Zābita that evening, he went to beg armed aid from his brother-in-law Faizullah Khan, who had encamped with some 4000 men opposite to this fort. “Faizullah who had never seen a battle, in terror declined the proposal to assist in the defence of Shakartāl, but that very night took the road to Rampur, whence after only a night’s halt he fled to the Tarai jungles with his family and treasures, setting fire to his capital.”
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The desertion of his sole ally and the flight of all his troops made Zābita Khan’s position utterly untenable. So, late that night he abandoned Shakartāl and fled away on an elephant with only 40 attendants, to join his ally in the northern hills. Indescribable confusion reigned among the leaderless Ruhelas at Shakartāl: “the whole camp was breaking up in flight, the bazar was deserted, the tents were on fire . . . . . The roads on the eastern bank leading to Najibabad were crowded with Afghan fugitives, who were cursing their Mughalia comrades" [as the cause of the defeat.] Zābita's uncle Afzal Khan was captured.
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The myriads of Maratha light horse now overspread the fair province of Rohilkhand in a resistless flood, because every Afghan chief of note, including Hāfiz Rahmat and the sons of Dundi Khan, had taken refuge in the Tarai with their women and troops, leaving their cities to their fate. The memory of the Maratha incursion in Safdar Jang's cause in 1751 was still fresh and all their great chiefs except two were now dead; and of these two remaining giants of old, Sardār Khan was dying and Hāfiz a brokendown old man disgusted with life by squabbles with his son and brethren.
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After the victory the Emperor marched south down the right bank of the Ganges to Shakartāl, which he reached on 1st March. But there was no prize left in that fort now. Immediately after the flight of Zābita and his army, "the Gujars and Mewātis living in the environs of Shakartāl plundered that masterless tract worse than the Marathas ever did. When the victors arrived at that fort they found only sacked and blazing houses. Only a few pieces of artillery, too heavy to be removed, were secured by the Marathas."*
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∗ DC. Miskin (present) 278-279. Ibrat. i. 207.