Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s8.38

v3.c38.s8.38

The new commander-in-chief’s aim was to crush Muhammad Beg Hamadāni who had made himself independent in the Dholpur region and was obstructing revenue collection in the Agra province.* Gosāin Himmat Bahadur, who had been Shafi’s envoy with Māhādji Sindhia, was now Afrāsiyāb’s chief counsellor, and kept urging his new patron to bring Sindhia to the Delhi Court and thereby effectually check all his Mughal rivals and the English intriguers. Afrāsiyāb felt that alone he could not cope with Md. Beg, a born soldier. For some months past letters had been going in the Emperor’s name and in that of his Mir Bakhshi begging Māhādji to come to Delhi, deliver his sovereign and restore the imperial administration to its former glory by undertaking the regency. Sindhia’s hands were now free: he had crushed his persistent rival in North Malwa, Rānā Chhatra Singh of Gohad, by storming Gwalior fort (31 July 1783) and seizing Gohad and the Rana’s person (25 Feb. 1784.) On hearing of the Emperor’s projected journey to Agra, he promised to meet him immediately on his arrival at that city and settle the terms by a personal discussion. But this meeting was delayed by more than three months for reasons which we shall now relate.