Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s12.16

v4.c54.s12.16

Such is civil war, miscalled conquest. For six months after Jaswant Rao Holkar’s coming south, the Desh districts of Maharashtra lay prostrate under the heels of ruthless invaders. As the many hordes of Holkar’s horsemen spread out like fans, their lines of advance could be known from afar by the flocks of vultures hovering over the dust clouds that hid these swarms of human locusts. Before them for many miles the roads were blocked by frantic crowds of men and women fleeing away to escape death, torture and outrage, abandoning their homes and fields. Behind the invaders were left only burning villages, ravished women, desecrated temples, polluted Brāhmans, mutilated corpses, and the living skeletons of the famished. Nothing green could be seen standing on the face of the earth.