Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s7.3

v3.c38.s7.3

Early next month a vast Sikh horde, on return from the middle Doab, threatened Delhi from the north, approaching so close to the capital as to assault the village of Barāri, set fire to the marts at Mālikganj and Sabzimandi, and kill some people in Mughalpurā (8th March.) At the urgent call of the Court, Shafi set out from Sikandra (15th March) for the relief of the capital. But meantime on the movement of Zain-ul-abidin and his troops from Bāghpat to Delhi, the raiders had fled away (12th March.) Shafi therefore gave up his northward march and turned against the Jat Rajah. Ranjit Singh had already made terms with Muhammad Beg Hamadāni, but Shafi refused to honour this settlement. Ranjit was willing to pay the tribute, but not to cede the jagirs of his son Randhir Singh as now demanded. Shafi therefore invaded the Jat country, marching from Agra by way of Fathpur Sikri to Sayyidpur. Making this village his base, he besieged the fort of Bayānā, three miles south of it, and took it by assault, with heavy slaughter, in 33 days (9th May.) Akhegarh and other Jat forts in that region were evacuated by their garrisons in terror and the whole district of Bayānā came under imperial control. A detachment from Shafi's army was meantime fighting the Macheri Rajah's troops near Firuzpur Jharka ; Shafi now went to their aid and began to bombard the strong fortalice of Kanwāri Pahāri (? Pahāri-Kandla.) But soon afterwards he returned southwards for the purpose of meeting Māhādji Sindhiā on the Chambal and maturing a pact with him. Hamadāni met him on the way (10th June), and the quarrel that blazed forth between these two rival generals brought Shafi's hitherto successful work to a close.