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.