पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

4 PANIPAT 1761
ever the case, it worked against the interests of Safdar Jang as well as his al-
lies, the Marathas.
Having once supported the Emperor against their former ally, the
Wazir, the Marathas should have consistently supported him thereafter. In-
stead they joined the upstart and unscrupulous new Wazir in deposing the
Emperor and placing a new man on the throne. This method of changing
their policy and allies to suit the interests of the intriguers at the Delhi Court
ultimately cost the Marathas very dearly. They successively alienated the
Rajputs, the Jats, the Oudh Wazir, as well as the Ruhelas, leaving not even one
constant and staunch supporter of their cause. This looseness further increased
on account of the conflicting self-interests of the various Maratha commanders
and statesmen. All this has to be borne in mind when we come to judge the
Maratha vicissitudes in north India, and its final culmination in the disaster
of Panipat.
After the fourth invasion of Ahmad Shah Abdali, which came like an
avalanche on the Delhi monarchy in 1757, the Empire was as good as broken.
The Marathas came on the scene when the whole region from Agra northward
had been looted to the last pie by Abdali. Even Ghazi-ud-din, their own
nominee, had become disgusted with the Maratha behaviour. So he accepted
the arrangement of Abdali, who appointed Najib as his military agent in the
Delhi affairs. Following the advice of Abdali, he had started with two young
Delhi princes to establish the Mughal rule in the lost dominions of Oudh and
Allahabad. Just when he was about to attack Shuja-ud-daulah who had suc-
ceeded Safdar Jang, the Marathas entered the field, dispersed the Wazir's army,
and again established their own supremacy at Delhi by ousting Najib. It
seems that after this new revolution, they entered into a new treaty with Ghazi-
ud-din. In place of the right to Chauth (one-fourth), they fixed their share
at half of all the revenues that they might gather from the erstwhile Mughal
dominions. Of course, there was no possibility of their getting anything with-
out the application of force, which meant war on all fronts of Delhi. With
a view to prevent Abdali from ever entering India, they now thought of
establishing the Mughal rule in the lost region of the five rivers and beyond.
Ahmad Shah Abdali, while returning to his own country with immense
loot in May 1757, left his son, the boy Taimur Shah, at Lahore as his Viceroy,
with Jahan Khan, his best general, as his guardian. Besides the Afghan party
of Abdali, there were two other claimants to the land of the five rivers. One
was the Mughal party headed by Mughlani Begum, the ambitious, self-willed
and profligate widow of Mir Mannu, the other was the democratic party of
the persecuted Sikhs. Mughlani Begum had at first tried to rule with the help
of her favourites, but in 1756 Ghazi-ud-din brought her under his control.
He married her daughter, Umda Begum, and made Adina Beg Khan, who had
already made himself powerful by raising a vast army to include the Sikhs, his
deputy. Later on, when Ghazi-ud-din found out his mother-in-law's real char-
acter, he got her kidnapped by one of his assistants and brought her back to
Delhi. He thereby also secured for himself her vast fortune. The Wazir's
deputy ruled at Lahore for six months but was soon ousted by Abdali's nominee.