Meanwhile Raghoba was dominating and shaping great events at Delhi. He helped Gaziuddin to assume the office of the Imperial Vazir. He forced the Emperor to cede Gaya and Kurukshetra to the Marathas. He personally advanced and occupied Mathura, Brindawan, Gadmukteshwar, Pushpavati, Pushkar and several other religious places of the Hindus : the sacred city of Benares, too, was entered and occupied and held by a strong Maratha detachment. Thus one of the most cherished dreams of the Hindu people was at last realized and Raghoba could proudly report to the Peshwa of having liberated and recovered almost all the holy sites and cities of Hindudom from the Moslem hands. The Hindu colours waving triumphantly over those sites and cities in north, that were so endeared to every Hindu heart by a thousand holy associations, supplied yet another moral justification of the claim of the Marathas to represent and lead the great movement of Hindu liberation and Hindu- pad-padshahi. The emperor too thought that he had enough of the Marathas and showed fight. As soon as the new Vazir Gaziuddin became cognisant of the emperor’s secret design against himself and the Marathas who had raised him to the office, he invited Holkar with 50,000 soldiers, who easily routed the imperial forces so thoroughly that the very ladies of the harem were left unprotected and fell in the hands of the Marathas. They, with Gaziuddin, entered Delhi, forced their way into the palace, dethroned the old emperor and seated a new one on his throne and, as if to render the vengeance of Nemesis poetically complete, named him Alamgir-II.
Alamgir—the conqueror of the world : Alamgir-I and Alamgir-II. Aurangzeb (Alamgir-I) fancied that he could blow out the lamp of Hindu life that flickering burnt in the temple just with a breath of his imperial wrath. He swore by Allah and blew but, to his utter dismay, discovered that the faintly flickering lamp scorching his beard burst suddenly into a wildfire: the hills of Sahyadri caught it and, setting aflame a million hearts and towers and turrets, and hills and valleys, by land and sea, it grew into a great sacrificial conflagration. Alamgir I, despised the Marathas as ‘mountain rats.’ Since then the Hindu rats developed such terribly sharp and powerful claws that many a lion of Islam lay torn and bleeding at their feet in the capital of Alamgir-II. Emperor Alamgir-I did not condescend to recognise Shivaji even as a mere Raja : but his descendant, Alamgir-II, could call himself Emperor only because the descendant of Shivaji did not mind it much to allow him the luxury of the name.
The Indian Muhammandan world was thoroughly alarmed, and kept chafing with impotent rage at the extension of the Hindu power and influence. Rohillas and Pathans so badly beaten at Ferrukabad and elsewhere, the displaced Vazir and Nabobs and the Moulvis and the Maulanas who could ill bear the triumph of the Kafirs and the sight of the daily diminishing splendour at their ever weaning crescent, the emperor himself who could not feel it very comfortable in keeping up his position poised on the point of the Maratha lance, the dispossessed, the hopeless and the ambitious—all Moslem interests vowed vengeance against the Marathas, and began to revolve dark schemes of driving and destroying them altogether. Strange to say—and yet not so strange—the extension of the Marathas power in the North gave rise to a deadly antipathy even in the hearts of some of the Hindu princes, Madhavsing of Jaipur, Bijaysing of Jodhpur, the Jats and some other minor Hindu chiefs did not hesitate to ally themselves with their natural and national enemies against the Marathas, and encouraged the disaffected Moslem elements to hatch up some great plot to get rid of the only Hindu power that could cope with all who aimed at the destruction of the Hindu faith and Hindu independence. The leader of the Moslem world instinctively fell back on the old traditional scheme of inviting their coreligionists from beyond the Indian Frontier against the hated nation of idolaters and Kafirs, who, none of them could face in a fair fight, nor dupe, nor outwit in any Maschiavelian move or Aurangzebian treacherousness.
This extensive plot found fit leaders in Nazibkhan, who was a Rohilla chief and had everything to gain from the downfall of the Marathas, and in Malakazamani, who had ever been the most intriguing figure in the imperial harem and could not bear that she had to beg her bread at the hands of the hated Hindus. They decided to initiate the tactics of their predecessors who under similar hopes and fears, had invited Nadir Shah. They established secret communications with Ahmedshah Abdally and sent him pressing requests to invade India and save the Muhmmadan empire from the attacks of the unbelievers. Ahmedshah, too, had his own reason for accepting this invitation. The guilty lust of conquest had ever been his passion. But, above all, the telling fact, that the sphere of Maratha influence and power had already touched his frontiers near Multan and daily threatened to widen yet further had already made it incumbent on him to fight the Marathas out.
He had already annexed Multan and the Punjab to his dominions. But in 1750 the Marathas had undertaken to preserve order in and defend the provinces of Thatta, Multan and the Punjab against any internal and foreign aggression and had secured the right of levying their Chowth in them. Accordingly they had helped Gaziuddin, the Vazir of their own choice, to recover the Punjab and Multan from the hands of Abdally in 1754. This was a direct challenge thrown out to Abdally. Just then the intrigues which Nazibkhan conducted assured Abdally of the support of a widely spread and powerful Muhammadan section in India. This whetted the ambition of the Pathan conqueror to such an extent that he began to dream of winning the imperial crown of India for himself and to achieve what Nadir Shah had failed to achieve. Learning that the chief leaders of the Marathas were preoccupied in the Deccan about 1756, he crossed the Indus with 80,000 men, occupied the Punjab, took Delhi almost unopposed and assumed the imperial titles. True to the traditions of a Pathan conqueror, he even got angry and celebrated this assumption of the imperial dignity by ordering a ghastly general massacre of the citizens of Delhi for a few hours. In those few hours, not less than 18 thousand persons were put to the sword in cold blood. Thence he started to vindicate his title as the defender of the Moslem Faith by devastating the sacred places and the holy cities of the Hindus, which the Marathas had but recently recovered from the Muhammadan grip. Mathura was the first victim to fall. But it fell as does a martyr. Some 5000 Jats gave a heroic fight to the overwhelming forces of the enemy, as long as they lived. After wreaking his vengeance on Mathura, if only to spite the Marathas, the Moslem conqueror came to Gokul Brindavan, only to find a deathless resistance offered to him by some 4000 armed Nagas who had assembled there to fight or die in defence of their Gokul-Nath. Some two thousand Bairagees fell on the field, but succeeded in repulsing the foes and saving the temple of their faith. For Abdally soon marched towards Agra, took the city and attacked the fort there. Gaziuddin, the Vazir, who led that Moslem section in the North which hated the Pathans and opposed the establishment of a Pathan or Persian dynasty in India as fiercely as the Marathas did, had taken refuge in that fort and was hourly expecting the news of the Marrathas hastening to his rescue.
But what were the Rajputs of Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udipore and several other Hindu princes and chiefs doing there ? They hated the Marathas much and questioned their claim to lead the movement of Hindu-pad-padashahi. Well then, this was surely the time for them to prove that they were better fitted to lead it than the Marathas were by defending the Hindu interests in the North and by striking either singly or unitedly, in defence of the Hindu faith and the Hindu-pad- padashahi. But not a man stirred. Ahmedshah Abdally simply walked down over the plains, teeming with millions of Hindus, to Delhi, to Agra, and would have done MiiAt-htf-Ml so, as he fondly proclaimed to do, right down to the Deccan. The Moslem hordes poured down unresisted and under the very eyes of the Rajputs and Jats and several other Hindu princes and chiefs, loudly calling for vengeance on the Kafirs, trampled over the Hindu hearts and homes, temples and tirthas. But no one could raise a finger against them, till the Marathas came.
The news of Abdally’s invasion did no more damp or depress the Maratha leaders in Poona than the news of Nadir Shah’s advance had done. A powerful army led by Raghunath Rao was forthwith dispatched to the North. Abdally received the news near Agra. He was a clever and experienced general and had seen some reverses in his life. He immediately saw the danger of advancing further in the teeth of such opposition offered by such a foe and like his master, Nadir Shah, decided not to risk what was already gained by courting a probable defeat. So he immediately fell back, reached Delhi, married the daughter of Matkazamani to strengthen his claim to the Mogul crown, left a garrison of 10,000 soldiers to guard Sarhind and, appointing his son Taimur Shah as the Viceroy of Lahore, hurried back to bis country as suddenly as he had come down.
The Marathas, in spite of their preoccupation in the Deccan advanced as rapidly as they could, undoing all that Abdally had done. Sakharam Bhagwant, Gandadhar Yashwant and other Maratha generals entered the Doab and put down the Rohillas and Pathans who had meanwhile revolted against them. The Vazir Gaziuddin was rescued. Vithal Shivdeo marched on Delhi and, after a strenuous fight for a fortnight or so, took the capital and captured alive Nazibkhan, the arch enemy of the Marathas and the chief instigator of the Pathan plot. Thence tfre Marathas advanced to meet the forces of Abdally, some 10,000 strong stationed at Sarhind, under Abdul Samad, and defeating them took their general captive. Now they determined to press on towards Lahore. The rapid successes of the Marathas had so alarmed Taimur Shah, the son and Viceroy of Abdally, who held the Punjab and Multan for him, that he dared not face them in the field. So he withdrew, Raghunathrao entered Lahore in triumph. Jahankhan and Taimur attempted to effect a clever and well-ordered retreat. But the Marathas soon came, chasing them so hotly that the retreat soon became a rout. Abandoning all that was less valuable than life, the forces and the son and Viceroy of him who had come to crush the Marathas and conquer an Indian Empire, could only seek their safety in an ignominious flight before the Marathas. Their camp was looted, an immense booty in money and material was taken, and the Geruwa banner, that Ramdas handed over to Shivaji, was at last planted on the very northern frontiers of Hindustan.
The Hindus reached Attock. For the first time since the dismal day when Prithviraj fell, a triumphant Hindus flag waved proudly on the sacred river of the Vedas. The Hindu horse of victory drank the waters of the Indus, gazing fearlessly at himself as reflected in its crystal tides.
As the news of these splendid achievements of their forces reached Maharashtra, it simply electrified the nation. Antaji Mankeshwar wrote to Raghunath Rao “Lahore is taken: the foe driven out and chased beyond the frontiers: our forces reached the Indus: glad news indeed ! It had cowed down all the disaffected elements in the north, Rajas and Raos, Subhadars and Nabobs. Only the Marathas could avenge the wrongs done to our nation. They alone have wreaked the vengeance of all Hindustan on Abdally. Words fail to convey the fullness of my feelings. Heroic deeds have been done, no less heroic than those of the avtars.”
It is no wonder that the Marathas were thus surprised at their own achievements. From Dwarka to Jagannath, from Rameshwar to Multan, their sword had triumphed, their word was law. They openly proclaimed themselves as the defenders and successors of the Indian Empire, and vindicated their claims against all those who came to contest it from Iran, Turan or Afghanistan, from England, France or Portugal. Shivaji’s mission of Hindu-pad-padashahi was almost realized. The teaching of Ramdas had been translated into deeds. They had carried the Hindu colours in triumph to the very banks of the Indus and, as Shahu had commanded Baji Rao to do, were likely to carry them yet further.
For the occupation of Attock suddenly widened the sphere of their influence and the horizon of their political activities. It could no longer confine itself within the four walls Of Delhi. Agents and emissaries and ambassadors poured in the Maratha camp, from Kashmere, Kandahar and Kabul. A time was when the dispossessed Hindu elements to a ‘gadi’ invited help from the Moslems of Kabul and Persia. Now the tables were turned. Petitions and prayers were daily received by Raghunath Rao from the disaffected elements of Kabul and Kandahar. Writes the general of Nana Saheb on the 4th May 1758.
“The forces of Sultan Taimur and Jahankhan were routed and their very camp, with all their belongings, fell in our hands. Only a few could recross Attock alive. The Shah of Iran has defeated Adbally and has personally written to me pressing me to advance further on to Kandahar and proposes that, when Abdally is thus crushed between our allied forces, he would recognize Attock as the frontier of our empire. But I do not know why we should confine ourselves to Attock. The two provinces of Kabul and Kandahar belong to our Hindustani empire ever since the days of Akbar to, Aurangzeb. Why then should we hand them over to the foreigners ? I think that the king of Iran would be glad to confine himself to Iran and refrain from contesting our claim to Kabul and Kandahar. But whether he likes it or not, I have decided to treat them as a part of our empire and exercise our sway over them. Already the nephew of Abdally, who claims his position has approached us, pressingly requesting help from us against Abdally. I mean to appoint him as our Governor of that part of our empire that lies beyond the Indus and dispatch some forces to back him up. For the time being, I must hasten back to the Deccan. My successors will see that these extensive designs bear fruit and our regular administration is introduced in the provinces of Kabul and Kandahar.”