भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

the Pathani rule, as of yore. But earlier, he had visited India along with the
warriors of Nadirshah's invasion and was fully conscious of the growing
Maratha influence in the imperial administration at Delhi. So, he was far too
cautious in making his moves. After having secretly supplied all sorts of
armed help to the Pathans and the Rohillas in the Doab, Abdali himself
came aggressively in the month of January 1748 up to Lahore and captured
it. This was the first of his invasions of India.
1044. But the Moghal imperial army defeated Abdali's advance guards
just near Lahore and blocked his way to Delhi. Just at this time, he got
reports that his enemy, the Emperor of Persia, was preparing to invade
Kabul and that at the invitation of the Moghal Emperor to help arrest his
onward march, the Marathas had set out with a large army towards Delhi.
So considering it to be inopportune to press onwards to Delhi, that shrewd
general Abdali retreated immediately to Kabul. But before his departure, he
had it proclaimed throughout India that the whole of Punjab was subject to
the sovereign Afghan rule under him.
The first treaty of surrender by the Moribund Moghal Empire with
the Marathas
1045-46. In the meanwhile, the Moghal Emperor at Delhi had delegated
most solicitously all administrative authority over the whole of India right
from Bengal, Bihar, Orissa to Sindh (including the Subba of Multan), the
whole of Punjab, Rohilkhand, Doab and all the South Indian divisions of
the Moghal empire to the Marathas by a special treaty.
1047. By this treaty, at least by this written consent of the Moghal
emperor, the Marathas had become since that date the de facto sovereigns of
the whole of India, and the Moghal Emperor himself had been reduced to a
non-entity.
1048. The tremendous reponsibility that devolved upon the Marathas
because of this change in the imperial administrative authority was, of
course, the onerous one of defending the Moghal empire against all internal
as well as external dangers—against internal rebellions and revolts as well
as against foreign invasions. Gigantic as this responsibility was, it was only
the Maratha sinews that could bear it efficiently—the sinews that had
almost realised the dream of the foundation of Hindu—Padpadshahi! That
is why they accepted that condition of the treaty quite readily as if it was a
boon.
Abdali's second invasion of India