पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 139 it was who gave a crooked turn to the whole trend of Indian politics in the middle of the 18th century He fooled all who came into contact with him, both friend and foe He rose as a servant of Ghazi ud-dın, the Wazir, and ultimately ruined him, by his treachery He made use of Malharrao Holkar as a god father and did mortal harm to the Maratha politics in the north He brought Shuja over to the side of Abdali and sent him empty handed back to Oudh for fear of being looted by his allies Shuja did not think even of taking leave of Ahmad Shah Abdali before decamping! Najib had not done any good to Ahmad Shah either, through whose help he became what he was He made use of the Shah by the argument of race and religion, and that way completely ruined the Marathas But what permanent benefit accrued to Islam from his acts? He had misinformed Ahmad Shah about the relative strength of the political parties in India as a result of which Ahmad Shah could not reap any permanent advantage His troops could not get even their salary from him and the forty lakhs of rupees a year which Najib promised to him from the Indian lands he had conquered were never paid Not only that politically at the end of the great battle Ahmad Shah had to bestow the Wazir ship of the Indian Empire on the hated regicide Ghazi ud din, a creature of the Marathas, and not on Shuja, his ally in the late war All this is well ex emplified by this life, written by an admirer though it is 32 Bihari Lal Munshi's Short Life of Najib-ud daulah, translated by Sir Jadunath SARKAR, in the Islamic Culture, 1936 Though sketchy, it still adds a few more facts to his life It supplies details in his dealings with Dattaji Shinde, especially Najib's ruse of instructing the Afghans of Kunjpura to put on scarlet caps and move like the Persian Qzzlbashas in order to start the rumour of the coming of Abdali to India This rumour makes it clear why Sabaji Shinde, the Governor of the Panjab, returned long before the ac tual coming of Abdali and why Govindpant Bundele is found writing, very early, letters about the Shah's coming It had the effect of demoralizing the Maratha side It does not add anything to our knowledge of Panipat, however 33 Samin Shaikh Ghulam Hasan's (pen name Samin) narrative, translated by W IRVINE in Indian Antiquary, 1907 This narrative gives a vivid picture of Ahmad Shah's camp, army and political behaviour, in his Indian campaign of 1756 57 The writer is poeti- cally minded He possesses the journalist's facile pen supplying vivid descrip- tion He is gossipy too, introducing anecdotes and stories amidst his narrative In fact, he tries to reproduce from memory things reported to him by others, such as Imad ul mulk's story He wrote his piece in 1782 at the behest of Captain Jonathan Scott To judge from the production, this man's memory seems to be unusually strong, but it is idle to call it a diary as is done by Sir Jadunath SARKAR (p 293, Fall, Vol 2) The picture of Ahmad Shah's army on the march, his camp discipline, etc seem exaggerated and are more in the form of psychic vision than of sober description His introduction of poetry at intervals exemplifies his mind Sir Jadunath has used Samin's description of Ahmad Shah's army