Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s7.6

v4.c55.s7.6

In November 1794, Daulat Rao Sindhiā made Lakhwā Dādā his viceroy of the north in the place of Gopāl Bhāu, and at the end of the next year De Boigne left Sindhia's service to return to Europe. Lakhwā ordered his deputy Nānā Rao who was posted at Karnāl, to collect revenue from the Cis-Satlaj country. Fighting immediately broke out; the Patiālā queen and Bhangā Singh of Thāneshwar defeated Nānā Rao and drove him back to Delhi (October 1795). Immediately after this Marātha reverse, a body of five thousand Sikhs burst into the Upper Doāb: "The local militia made no stand against them. The Marātha garrisons in Sāharanpur were scattered like chaff before the wind." The garrison of the town of Sāharanpur retreated precipitately and took shelter in the fort of Jalālābād. But George Thomas, detached by Āpā Khāndé Rao, appeared with a portion of his Mewāt force and the Sikhs fled away at his approach. Lakhwā Dādā then (November 1795) appointed Thomas as Warden of the Marches to guard the Jamunā frontier of the Upper Doāb, with a contingent of 2,000 infantry, 200 horse and sixteen pieces of artillery; he was assigned the parganas of Pānipat, Sonpat, and Karnāl for their pay.