Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s6.3

v3.c34.s6.3

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.