A. D. 1713-20. FUROKHSIR-MOHAMMED SHÂH. the city he and his son went forth to meet him, and delivered up to him their late master. Jehândâr was put to death, Zulficâr shared his fate; the life of Assad was spared (1713). 43 and a great number of them were made prisoners. Some were put to death on the spot, but the chief and upwards of 700 others were led to Delhi, where they were paraded through the streets and then be they refused to renounce their religion. Bandu, arrayed in a robe of cloth of gold, with a red turban on his head, was exhibited in an iron cage. The heads of his followers were borne around him on pikes. He was given a dagger and ordered to stab his infant son; on his refusal, the child was slain, and its heart flung in his face. He was then torn to pieces with red-hot pincers. He died praising God, who had raised him up as a scourge to the iniquities of the age. The remaining Sîkhs were hunted like wild beasts, but still the sect survived, and, as we shall see, finally attained to empire. The elevation of Furokhsîr was of necessity at-headed, at the rate of one hundred a day, when tended by that of the Syuds, his protectors. Abdallah, the elder brother, was made vizîr, and Hussun, Ameer-ul-Ômrah, or commander-in-chief. They thought, as the king's character was mean and feeble, that all power would be theirs, while he would content himself with wealth and pleasure. But he had a favourite, to whom he gave the title of Meer Jumla, and both were alike jealous of the Syuds, and resolved to destroy them if possible. Their first project was to separate, and thus weaken them. Accordingly Hussun was directed to march against Ajeet Sing, the rajah of Mârwâr, to whom, at the same time, a secret message was sent, directing him to make an obstinate resistance and protract the war. But the rajah looked to his own interest, and when Hussun offered him fair and honourable terms he accepted them. One of the conditions was that he should give his daughter in marriage to the emperor; the last matrimonial alliance between the house of Timûr and the Rajpût rajahs. Hussun then returned to the capital, and a civil war was on the point of breaking out between the Syuds and the king; the monarch, however, was soon forced to submit, and to put the gates of his palace into the hands of their troops. It was then arranged that Meer Jumla should go as governor to Bahar, and Hussun to the Deckan, whither he was to lead his army without delay. The daughter of Ajeet Sing had been by this time conducted to the capital. She was lodged in the palace of Hussun, who celebrated her nuptials with the king with unusual magnificence; he then set out for the Deckan, threatening, if any further attempt were made against his brother's authority, to be back with his army in three weeks from the day he should have heard of it. The plan adopted by the court now was secretly to employ Dâûd Khân, the Patan, against Hussun. He was directed to stir up the Marattas and others, and, while affecting to co-operate with Hussun, to effect his destruction. But this circuitous course did not suit the bold, daring character of Dâûd. He proceeded openly against Hussun, and met him boldly in the field. The impetuosity of his charge bore down all opposition, Hussun's troops were flying in all directions, when Dâûd, heading a charge of 300 Patans armed with battle-axes, was shot by a ball through the head. His fall, of course, decided the fortune of the day, and Hussun then proceeded to act against the Marattas. They adopted their usual tactics; and, finding that he could effect nothing serious against them, and that his presence was required at Delhi, he made a treaty with Sâho, one of the conditions of which was that he was to levy chout over the whole of the Deckan. He was in addition to have the sirdêsmuki, or a tenth of the remainder of the revenue, and in return he was to pay a tribute of ten lacs of rupees, to furnish 15,000 horse, and to answer for the tranquillity of the country. The emperor refused to ratify this treaty, and this served to bring affairs between him and the Syuds to a crisis (1717). During this time, the Sikhs had renewed their ravages. An able general was sent against them, and they were beaten in all quarters. Bandu During the absence of Hussun, his brother the vizîr, being of indolent, luxurious habits, had committed the duties of his office to an Hindoo deputy, whose strictness caused dissatisfaction, and he was in imminent danger from the plots of the king, and of Meer Jumla, who had returned to court. He therefore assembled his adherents, and prepared to stand on his defence. They feared to attack him, and Meer Jumla was obliged to retire to his native province of Multân. But the king immediately formed another plot with rajah Jy Sing and some other leaders of importance. This brought Hussun to Delhi, attended by a body of 10,000 Marattas, and he took possession of the city, and put Furokhsîr to death (1719). Two young princes, whom the Syuds successively placed on the throne, having died in the course of a few months, they fixed on a third, who was of a sounder constitution, and whose mother, by whom he had been reared, was a woman of talent. He ascended the throne by the title of Mohammed Shâh. The power of the Syuds gave occasion to much discontent among the nobles, and insurrections took place. These, however, they suppressed; but there was one person whom they had offended, and whose talents made him formidable. This was Cheen Kilich Khân (afterwards named Asof Jâh, as we shall henceforth call him), the son of Ghâziud-dîn, of a Toorkee family, one of Aurungzîb's favourite officers. He had been made viceroy of the Deckan on the accession of Furokhsîr, but had been removed to make room for Hussun. He had notwithstanding taken the side of the Syuds in the late transactions; but to his mortification he was now only appointed to the government of Mâlwa. He dissembled his anger, and, having at length drawn together a sufficient number of troops, he raised the standard of revolt, crossed the Nerbudda, and entered the Deckan (1720), where he speedily established his authority, and defeated the troops sent against him by the Syuds. The intelligence of his success caused great consternation to the Syuds; but the emperor, who, tutored by his mother, had as yet carried himself fairly toward them, was secretly rejoiced at it, and he entered into a plot with some of his leading nobles for the overthrow of their power. It was agreed between the brothers, that Abdallah should as heretofore remain behind, while Hussun, taking the emperor and some of the suspected nobles with him, should lead an army into the Deckan. Hussun accordingly marched from Agra; but he had hardly set out when a ferocious Calmuck, hired for the purpose, assassinated him in his palankeen. His death caused great commotion in the camp. His adherents, many of whom were Syuds, took arms to avenge it; they were opposed by the party of the conspirators and the supporters of the king, and were finally overcome. When the news reached Delhi, Abdallah placed another prince on the throne, and, assembling an army, advanced to engage that of Mohammed Shâh. He was, however, defeated and made a prisoner; but his life was spared, as he was of the lineage of the Prophet. Mohammed, being now his own master, bestowed the office of vizîr on Asof Jâh, who, however, being engaged with the affairs of the Deckan, did not come to court immediately. On his arrival (1722), he found the emperor wholly devoted to pleasure, a mere puppet in the hands of his mistress and his favourites. Little harmony was therefore to be expected; the vizîr was disgusted with such conduct, while the emperor sought no higher gratification than to see his favourites ridicule the oldfashioned dress and formal manners of the vizîr. Toward the end of the following year Asof Jah resigned his office and set out for the Deckan. The emperor parted with him on terms of great cordiality, but he sent secret orders to Mobârez Khân, the governor of Hyderabad, to endeavour to destroy him and then to take his government. He obeyed, collected an army, and gave Asof battle; but he met only with defeat and death, and his head, as that of a rebel, was sent to court by the victor. Asof then fixed his seat in Hyderabad, and, though he sent from time to time presents to the emperor, he in other respects acted as an independent prince. His chief care now was to secure himself against the Marattas. The Maratta state at this period had assumed a degree of form and consistency such as it had not as yet possessed. This was owing to the Bramin Bâlajee Wiswanât, the pêshwa or prime minister of rajah Sâho. As a mean toward the future extension of the Maratta power, Bâlajee was careful to keep up the claim of chout and sirdésmuki, and in the case of the former he claimed, though he did not enforce it, a fourth, not merely of the actual revenue, but of that fixed by Todar Mal and Malik Amber. It was also part of his plan to parcel out these imposts to different Maratta chiefs, taking care that none should have so much in any one district as might make him too powerful and independent. The office of pêshwa became hereditary in the family of Bâlajee. The other great office in the state, and which balanced that of the pêshwa, was that of the Pîrtî Nidhî, or Delegate of the Rajah. Bâlajee was succeeded by his son Bâjee Râo, the ablest man after Sevajee that the Marattas have possessed. One of his first acts was to urge the rajah to offensive operations against the Moguls in Hindûstân. "Let us strike," cried he, "the withered trunk, and the branches will fall of themselves." The rajah gave a willing consent, and Bâjee Rao forthwith ravaged Malwa and forced the governor of Gûzerât to consent to the payment of chout (1725). By this time Asof Jâh thought himself sufficiently secure in the Deckan to endeavour to set limits to the Maratta power. Having failed in an attempt to get the chout and sirdésmuki of the district round Hyderabâd commuted for a fixed sum, he affected to doubt whether he was to pay it to Sâho or to his rival Samba, who still held the southern part of the Maratta country. The rajah and his pêshwa were highly offended, and the latter invaded Asof's territories (1727), and laid siege to Burhâmpoor. But when Asof and Samba came to its relief he suddenly drew off his forces, and rushed on and ravaged Gûzerât, where the chout had not been paid, and then, returning to the Deckan, cut off Asof's supplies in the usual manner, and forced him to renounce his alliance with Samba, and to make some further concessions. Shortly after, Samba was surprised and defeated, and forced to acknowledge Sâho's supremacy. Asof Jâh and Bâjee Râo at length deemed it would be more for their mutual interest to be at peace than at enmity, and they entered into a secret compact of mutual support. Bâjee Râo now directed his efforts against Mâlwa and Gûzerât, where he was chiefly opposed by the Rajpût rajahs, to whom the court of Delhi had granted the government of these provinces, and his success was such, that at length (1736) he felt himself strong enough to demand as a jaghîr Malwa and all the country south of the river Chumbul, with the holy cities Muttra, Allahabâd, and Benares. The emperor, however, was not brought low enough yet to concede so much, and Asof Jah, who was growing alarmed at the rapid progress made by the Marattas, resolved to march to the aid of his liege lord. Meanwhile Bâjee Râo had arrived within forty miles of Agra, while a portion of his light troops, under Malhâr Râo Holkar, were ravaging the country beyond the Jumna. Sâdut Khân, however, the governor of Oude, marched against them and drove them back. fame magnified this check into a great victory, Bâjee Rao, to efface its effects, passing the Mogul army sent under the vizîr to oppose him, made forced marches and suddenly appeared before the gates of Delhi. As his object was only to intimidate, he did little mischief, and on hearing that the vizîr, joined by Sâdut Khân, was advancing against him, he drew off his forces and retired to the Deckan (1737). Asof Jâh soon after arrived at Delhi, where he was made commander-in-chief, with the fullest powers, and the government of Malwa and Gûzerât was conferred on his son Ghâzi-ud-dîn. As Bâjee Râo having recrossed the Nerbudda at the head of 80,000 horse, Asof Jâh advanced to engage him. But, cautious from age, and relying on his artillery, instead of trying to bring on a pitched battle at once, he resolved to await an attack in a strong position near Bôpâl. The consequence was that the country round was laid waste, his supplies and detachments were cut off, and at the end of about a month he was obliged to commence a retreat, harassed by the persevering foe, and finally to enter into a treaty with the pêshwa, ceding the country south of the Chumbul, and promising to use all his influence with the emperor to induce him to confirm the cession, and to pay in addition fifty lacs of rupees to the Marattas. But ere these matters could be arranged another storm burst over the ill-fated Indian empire from the point whence such calamities have invariably come-the north-west frontier, along the vale of the Câbul. A. D. 1722-40. NADIR SHAH. 45 CHAPTER XV. Persia-Conquest of it by Mahmûd the Afghân-Nâdir Shâh-His Invasion of India-Massacre and Plunder of Delhi-Death of Bâjee Râo-Bâlajee Râo-The Rohillas -Invasion of India by Ahmed Dûranee-AHMED SHAHThe Marattas in Hindûstân-Ghâzi-ud-dîn-ALUMGÎR II. -Plunder of Delhi by Ahmed Dûranee-Conquest of the Punjab by the Marattas-Power of the Marattas-Attempt to make themselves Masters of all India-Battle of Pânîpat, and Ruin of the Maratta Power. THE Suffavee dynasty had now occupied the throne of Persia for more than two centuries; it had, consequently, like every other Oriental dynasty, sunk and lost all energy beneath the degrading influence of absolute power. In the reign of Hussun Khan (1722), the Ghiljys, a tribe of the Afghâns who inhabited the country about Candahâr, and who had some years before made themselves masters of that city, led by an enterprising chief named Mahmûd, resolved to attempt the overthrow of the Persian power, with which for some years they had been at war. At the head of only 25,000 hardy warriors, Mahmûd marched from Candahår, and directed his course for Isfahân, the Persian capital. In the vicinity of that city he encountered the Persian army, of far superior number, splendidly equipped, and well supplied with artillery. But victory was on the side of the warriors of the mountains, and the wealthy and luxurious city with 200,000 inhabitants was invested. Though the Afghans were now only 20,000 in number, by their activity and vigilance they were enabled to repel all sallies, and cut off all supplies, and, after sustaining the horrors of famine for six months, the town was forced to surrender. The king came forth at the head of his nobles, and placed the crown on the head of the conqueror. After a reign of little more than two years, Mahmûd died raging mad, and was succeeded by his nephew named Ashreff (1724). This able prince defended his dominions with success against the Ottoman Turks and the Russians; but he failed in his contest with the Persians led by the greatest man that modern Persia has produced. A son of Shah Hussun, named Tamasp, had fled from Isfahân, and taken refuge with the tribe of Kajar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Here he was joined by a predatory chief named Nâdir, a native of Khorasan, whose daring exploits had rendered him famous in the country. Nâdir, attaching his fortunes to the royal cause, took the name of Tamasp Coolee, or servant of Tamasp, and, under his able guidance, the troops of Persia finally succeeded in driving the Ghiljyes out of the country (1729). Having carried on wars with success in various quarters, Nâdir finally felt him- | self sufficiently strong to depose Tamasp, and place the diadem on his own brows. This he did with great solemnity in a general assembly of his army and of all the great officers of the realm on the plain of Môghân (1736). Nadir now resolved to avenge on the Ghiljyes the evils they had inflicted on Persia, and to restore Candahâr to the empire. After sustaining a long siege, that city surrendered (1738), and his conquest of the Ghiljye territory brought him now into contact with the dominions of the empe rors of India, who, as we may have observed, had always possessed the region through which the river Câbul flows. Aware of the distracted state of the Indian government, he took advantage of its tardy recognition of his title, and, making it and some other matters a cause of quarrel, he seized the city of Câbul, and marched for the Indus. Meeting with little or no opposition, he advanced toward the Jumna, and at length, within one hundred miles of Delhi, he encountered the army of Mohammed Shâh (1739). The troops of India would have been in no case a match for the hardy warriors led by Nâdir; but the jealousy which prevailed between Asof Jâh and Sâdut Khân contributed still further to enfeeble them. They were therefore easily overcome in the engagement which ensued, and Mohammed was obliged to enter the camp of Nâdir, and accompany him to Delhi. In that city the Persian troops, whose discipline was high, conducted theinselves with much propriety, until, upon a report of Nâdir's death, the inhabitants rose and killed about 700 of them. Nâdir then, after making fruitless efforts to appease the tumult, and having been himself assailed with missiles as he rode through the city for that purpose, gave orders for a general massacre. The butchery lasted from sunrise till late in the afternoon, when he issued orders for it to cease. The number of the slain is variously stated from 150,000 to 8000, but that of 30,000 seems nearer to, though perhaps under the truth. But it was money, not blood, that Nâdir sought in India, and the work of pillage now began. Every thing of value belonging to the crown was seized, torture was employed to make the nobles and the inferior inhabitants discover their wealth; the governors of provinces were forced to yield contributions, and Nâdir at length, having obtained all the wealth that he thought India could bestow, quitted Delhi after a residence of fifty-eight days, taking with him a treasure estimated at upwards of thirty millions sterling. He formed a treaty with Mohammed, whom he replaced on the throne, by which all the provinces west of the Indus were ceded to Persia; and this treaty put a final end to the rule of the house of Timûr in Afghanistân. The state of misery and distress in the capital and the empire may easily be conceived, and it might have been expected that the Marattas would have taken advantage of it to extend their power in Hindustan. But Bâjee Rao preferred resuming operations in the Deckan, where he engaged in hostilities with Nasir Jung, the son and deputy of Asof Jah. He met, however, with a more vigorous opposition than he had anticipated, and was glad to come to an accommodation with his opponent. He then set out on his return to Hindustân, and had reached the Nerbudda when death surprised him (1740). His successor in the office of pêshwa was his son Bâlajee Râo, who was also a man of considerable ability. But he had potent rivals and enemies to contend with, and it required all his address to overcome their intrigues. The most formidable of these rivals was Ragujee Bôsla, who had the charge of collecting the chout in Berâr and the forest-country to the east of it, which rendered him in fact nearly the sovereign of that region. He even attempted to collect the chout to the north of the Nerbudda, but Bâlajee marched in person into that country; and while he was there, and was preparing to insist on the execution of the treaty concluded with his father by Asof Jâh, Ragujee invaded Bengal. The emperor, in his alarm, offered to Balajee the cession of Mâlwa, on condition of his aiding him against Ragujee. The offer was gladly accepted; the pêshwa forthwith marched through Bahar and reached Moorshedabâd, the capital of Bengal, in time to protect it against Ragujee, whom he routed and drove out of the province. He then returned to Sattâra (1743), against which he found Ragujee in full march; and so strong was the confederacy that had been formed against the pêshwa, that he deemed it advisable to detach Ragujee from it by conceding to him the right of levying tribute in Bahâr and Bengal. Ragujee's attempts on Bengal were finally concluded by the cession of Cuttac, the southern part of Orissa, and the annual payment of twelve lacs of rupees as the chout of Bengal (1751). The deaths of Asof Jâh and of Rajah Sâho occurred during this period. The former returned to the Deckan to suppress the rebellion of his son, Nâsir Jung, and he died there in the year 17487; Saho's death occurred in the following year. A series of intrigues for the succession followed; but the pêshwa succeeded in placing a prince, named Rajah Râm, on the throne. He was then engaged in hostilities with the successor of Asof Jâh, who was aided by the French; but we shall defer our account of these transactions. The most remarkable event in Hindûstân at this time was the rise of the Rohillas, a people destined to act a conspicuous part in the future history. Numbers of the Afghâns of the district of Rôh (whence they were called Rohillas) had been in the imperial service. There was among them a man named Ally Mohammed, who was said to have been a Hindoo, and who had been adopted by a Rohilla soldier. He entered the army as a common soldier, and, being a man of talent and energy, he rose, like so many men of the same character, to some rank and influence. He obtained the management of some jagheers; he gradually increased his possessions and took more and more of the Afghâns into his pay and service, and at length he felt himself strong enough to refuse remitting the income of the lands he held to Delhi. He defeated the troops sent against him, and eventually became master of the country between the Ganges and Oude, henceforth named Rohilcund. The emperor at length took the field against him in person, and he was then obliged to submit and content himself with the government of Sirhind (1745). The north-west frontier was destined to send more plunderers in on India. Nâdir Shâh having become abhorred for his tyranny by the Persians, a conspiracy was formed against him, and he was assassinated in his tent near Meshîd (1747). Ahmed Khân, the chief of the Afghâns of the Abdâlee tribe, who were in his service, having made a fruit 7 When he was first made viceroy of the Deckan (above, p. 43), the title of Nizâm-ul-Mulk, i. e. Regulator of the State, had been conferred on him; and this has been the title of his descendants down to the present day. 8 The original seats of the Abdâlees were the mountains of Ghôr, but they were now settled principally about Herât. Ahmed, from some unexplained motive, changed their name to Dûranees, by which name they are known in Indian history. less effort to avenge him, retired with his men into his own country; and his influence was such, that within a short time he was declared king at Candahâr, and his dominions extended from the Indus to the frontiers of Persia. Knowing the weakness and the wealth of India, where he had been with Nâdir, he resolved to attempt conquest in it, and, passing the Indus with only 12,000 men, he took Lahore and advanced to the Sutlej. Here an army under the vizîr and prince Ahmed was prepared to oppose him; but he crossed the river where there was no ford, got into their rear, and took the town of Sirhind, where their stores and baggage lay. He then assailed the entrenched camp of the Indians; but, being repulsed in several attacks, he repassed the river and marched homewards (1748). Within a month after the battle of Sirhind the emperor Mohammed died, and was succeeded by his son Ahmed Shah. The late vizîr had been killed by a cannon-ball at Sirhind, and the office was now vacant. Ahmed offered it to Asof Jâh, and on his declining it he gave it to Sufder Jung, the son of Sâdut Khân the viceroy of Oude. As Ahmed Dûranee was at this time engaged in the western part of his dominions, the vizir, Ally Mohammed being now dead, thought the occasion good for making an attempt to destroy his neighbours the Rohillas. He committed the charge of the war to the Afghân chief of Furrockabâd, but, this general happening to fall in battle, the vizîr endeavoured to derive advantage from that event, by depriving his widow of the greater part of her territory. The people, however, rose and called in the Rohillas; the vizîr was obliged to take the field against them; his numerous but ill-disciplined troops yielded an easy victory to the enemy, and the Rohillas soon appeared before the walls of both Lucknow and Allahabâd (1750). The vizîr saw now no resource but to call in the Marattas. He applied to the two chiefs Holkar and Scindia, to whom the pêshwa had given settlements in Malwa, and the promise of a large subsidy induced them to lead their forces to his aid; he also was joined by the rajah of the Jâts. At the head of this combined force, he defeated the Rohillas, and drove them to the lower ranges of the Himalaya. As he permitted the Marattas to levy their subsidy from the conquered territory, it was many years before the country recovered from the effects of their ravages (1751). When the vizir returned to Delhi, he found that Ahmed Dûranee had again invaded the Punjâb, which had been ceded to him by the emperor on his demand; he also found that his own influence with the emperor and his mother had been engrossed by a favourite eunuch. This difficulty he easily removed by inviting the favourite to a banquet, at which he caused him to be assassinated. But this only raised up to him a more formidable opponent in the person of Shuhab-ud-dîn 9, the grandson of Asof Jah, a young man of great energy and ability, whom he had himself patronised and raised to the rank of Ameer-ul-Ômrah, with the title of Ghâziud-dîn. This young man readily joined the emperor against his benefactor. A civil war was carried on for six months in the streets of Delhi, when 9 His father, Ghâzi-ud-dîn (see p. 44), died in 1753, at Aurungobâd, by poison it was said, when on his march against his brother, Salabut Jung. A. D. 1754-60. POWER OF THE MARATTAS. the vizîr, learning that a body of Marattas was coming to the aid of his opponents, consented to make peace, and retire to Oude. Ghâzi-ud-din then turned his arms against the Jâts, and, while he was thus engaged, the emperor, who was grown quite weary of his arrogance and insolence, withdrew, under the pretence of hunting, with what troops he had about him, in order to try to effect his emancipation, but Ghâzi-ud-din soon sent the Marattas after him, who made him a prisoner. He forthwith repaired to the imperial camp, where he deposed the emperor, and put out the eyes of both himself and his mother. He then placed on the throne a prince of the blood royal, under the title of Alumgîr II. (1754.) The ambitious and active Ghâzi-ud-dîn soon after tried to recover the Punjâb from the Dûranees; but he resolved to proceed by stratagem, not by force. The widow of the late governor ruled it in the name of her young son, and the vizîr, advancing to Lahore under the pretext of espousing her daughter, to whom he was betrothed, surprised the town, and made the regent a prisoner in her bed. Ahmed Shâh, as soon as he heard of this treacherous deed, put himself at the head of his army, and speedily appeared within twenty miles of Delhi. Here Ghâzi-ud-dîn, by means of the late regent of the Punjab, with whom he had been reconciled, obtained his own pardon. But Ahmed required money, and Delhi became a scene of plunder and massacre, as in the time of Nadîr; for, though Ahmed was not ferocious like him, he was not so well able to restrain his troops, by whom a massacre still more wanton and barbarous was perpetrated on the Hindoo pilgrims at Muttra. The hot weather, which the Afghâns cannot endure, coming on, and causing mortality among them, Ahmed led his troops home. He espoused a princess of the house of Timûr, and at the request of the feeble emperor, as a protection to him against the vizîr, he made an able Rohilla chief, named Najeeb-ud-doula, commander of the forces at Delhi (1757). Ghâzi-ud-dîn, who was then at Furrockabâd, set all the regulations of Ahmed Shâh at nought; but, not feeling himself alone sufficiently strong, he called in the never-failing aid of the Marattas. He was joined by a force under the pêshwa's brother, Ragoba, and taking possession of Delhi, he laid siege to the fortified palace. It held out for a month, at the end of which time the emperor (Najeeb-ud-doula having previously made his escape from it) opened the gates, and received Ghâzi-ud-din as his vizîr. Ragoba then was induced, by the intelligence he received of the state of the Punjab, to attempt the conquest of it. He met with no opposition, the Dûranees retiring over the Indus at his approach; and, leaving a Maratta governor, he returned to the Deckan (1758). Shuja-ud-doula, son of Sufder Jung, of Oude, and the other Mohammedan princes of India, seeing the great increase of the Maratta power, now combined for their mutual protection. The Marattas immediately invaded and ravaged Rohilcund in their usual manner; but Shuja-ud-doula fell suddenly on them, and drove them with great loss over the Ganges, and, as they heard that Ahmed Shâh was on his march, they proposed a peace, to which the confederates agreed. The Duranee Shah, who had been engaged in reducing the Belooches in the southern part of his dominions, marched up the 47 Indus to Pêshâwar, and then crossed it, and keeping to the mountains, as it was the rainy season, advanced till he reached the other side of the Jumna. He there fell on a body of the Marattas, commanded by Scindia, which he cut to pieces, their leader being among the slain. Another division, under Holkar, as it was making southwards was overtaken by the Dûranee troops sent in pursuit of it, and utterly destroyed (1759). At this time Ghâzi-ud-dîn, fearing the vengeance of his royal master should Ahmed Shâh be victorious, issued his orders for the murder of that unhappy monarch, and placed another prince of the family on the throne; but his puppet was never acknowledged. Shâh Alum, the heir, was at this time in Bengal, where we shall meet him in the progress of our narrative. The Maratta power was now at its height; nearly all India, from Himalaya to Cape Comorin, was either directly subject to it or paid it tribute. The pêshwa, who was its real head, had brought it to a degree of order such as it had never previously known. Its army, instead of consisting of mere marauding bands, now contained a large body of well-mounted and well-paid cavalry, and a force of 10,000 infantry, disciplined by those who had served with the Europeans on the coast of Coromandel. It also possessed, for the first time, a large train of artillery. The pride and self-confidence which this force produced was only stimulated to exertion by the account of the disasters of Scindia and Holkar, and it was resolved to make a strenuous effort for the complete empire of India. The command of the Maratta army was given to Sedasheo Râo, the pêshwa's cousin, thence called the Bhâo, i. e. Brother. He was accompanied by Wiswas Rao, the pêshwa's son and heir, and by all the great Bramin and Maratta chiefs. He advanced to Delhi, which had a small Dûranee garrison; the Marattas entered by a neglected bastion, and the citadel yielded to the power of their artillery. The Bhâo plundered the palace and every public edifice of all their ornaments; he seized the splendid throne, and stripped off the silver ceiling from the hall of audience. He was going to proclaim Wiswas Râo emperor of India, but he was induced to delay it till he should have driven the Dûranees out of the land (1760). It was the advice of the prudent old rajah of the Jâts, that the Marattas should leave their infantry and artillery in his country, and carry on the war in the usual Maratta fashion with their cavalry, and the climate would then, he said, soon force the Dûranees to retire. But the Bhâo spurned at this counsel, and resolved on regular warfare. Ahmed Shâh was at this time encamped on the frontiers of Oude, arranging matters with Shujaud-doula and his other allies; and as soon as the rains permitted he put his troops in motion, and advanced toward Delhi. A bold and rapid passage of the Jumna which he made inspired the Marattas with such respect for his prowess, that to be out of his reach they retired to Pânîpat, and there they formed an intrenched camp, defended by their numerous artillery. The Bhâo's force consisted of 55,000 regular and 15,000 irregular cavalry, with 15,000 disciplined infantry. He had 200 guns, and numerous wall-pieces, and a large supply of rockets, which were much used in Indian warfare. The whole number within his lines, in |