Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c44.s2.6

v4.c44.s2.6

Delhi having been won and Ghulām Qādir caught before the year 1788 ended, Mahādji Sindhia was at last free to undertake his plan of work in Hindustan. Setting Mirzā Ismail Beg and Najaf Quli Khan to fight for the same jāgir (Rewāri-Nārnaul) and thus neutralise each other for a time, Sindhia turned his leisure at Mathurā to securing his special objects. One of these tasks was to carry out the order of the Punā Government to get the holy places of Mathurā transferred to the Peshwā’s administration by an imperial rescript. But Mathurā City and its satellite village of Vrindāvan did not between them make up all the shrines in the Vaishnavs’ Holy Land. The whole district, called Braja, was dotted with countless scenes of the Divine Cowherd’s antics ; and devout pilgrims make it a point to visit all the spots in this area of about 200 square miles. The district was interlaced with the jāgirs of several former Mughal grantees, and it took Mahādji years to persuade the imperial Chancellory to transfer the whole of the district to the Peshwā’s agents. The formal grant for it actually reached Mahādji’s hands in January 1791. (H.P. 588.)