Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s9.3

v3.c38.s9.3

Meantime, Muhammad Beg Hamadani had been engaged in fighting the petty chiefs all along the eastern border of the Jaipur and Macheri kingdoms,—Hindaun, Bhasāwar, Bālāheri, Kama and so on. Finding that Mahadji was victoriously pushing on from the south and Afrāsiyāb was advancing from the east, to join their forces near Fathpur, he now called in all his detachments and formed an entrenched camp guarded by artillery near Sayyidpurā, which is three miles east of Pichunā, at a point nine miles south of Bharatpur and eleven miles west of Fathpur-Sikri. This position enabled him to threaten the two roads from Khanua northwards to Bharatpur and westwards to Wer fort and the Jaipur frontier. He felt a justifiable contempt for Afrāsiyāb and begged Mahadji to stand neutral in this contest, as he was confident of defeating that "slave-child" (*ghulām bācha*) even against five-fold odds, if only unaided by the Marathas. In return, Hamadani offered to give Sindhia Agra fort and all the territory south of it after he had crushed his rival. But Mahadji was after much bigger game and rejected this petty bait; he advanced to Rupbās as promised.