पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

THE MARATHAS IN THE PANJAB AND BEYOND 5 At the end of the year 1756, Ahmad Shah himself followed, as mentioned above, and returned after leaving Taimur to rule the Panjab. It seems that Jahan Khan was only a blunt soldier and not a diplomat such as one needed to be in the disturbed conditions of the Panjab of those times. Adina Beg Khan, who had been baulked in his ambition to be the chief administrator by the Afghan intrusion, now came out of his hiding in the hills. With the help of his Sikh allies, he carried on a guerrilla war-fare and made Abdali's rule a precarious one in that area. Another complication arose on account of Mughlani Begum who had joined Abdali against her son-in-law, Ghazi-ud-din, with a view to rule the Panjab herself. She had acted as Abdali's spy and agent in digging out the buried wealth of the Delhi nobles. Ahmad Shah was immensely pleased with her and carried her back to Lahore with him on his return. He had promised the Jalandar Doab containing the best land in the Panjab with Jammu and Kashmir to the north of it as her jagir. This ar- rangement could not succeed for military reasons. Ahmad Shah revoked it and thus Mughlani Begum became a pauper, because she was too proud to receive a small pension instead. Her jagir was in the occupation of Adina Beg, and probably she began to intrigue with him against the Afghan deputy. The matters came to the point of Jahan Khan beating the Begum with his own hand and confining her. The military power of Adina Beg was strong enough to baffle the Afghan ruler, and therefore, Jahan Khan thought it best to leave Adina Beg in his post of the revenue collector for a payment of thirty-two lakhs. While Adina Beg wisely remained within his bounds, the Sikhs, perhaps with his connivance, scourged throughout the province expelling Afghan col- lectors. The Marathas who were at this time driving out Abdali's outposts in the Jamuna valley naturally supported this movement against Abdali and opened correspondence with Adina Beg. When the Marathas had completed their work in the Doab, news came that the Sikhs had defeated two Afghan generals, followed by a complete massacre and loot. Abdali's rule in his own country was also challenged by some local parties and the Shah of Iran. Finally, Adina Beg, who had the ambition to become the sole administrator in the Panjab, called in the help of the Marathas. They had already chalked out a policy of blocking Abdali at the Indus for fulfilling their responsibility of defending the Empire against both internal and external foes. At the be- ginning of 1758 they seriously devoted their attention to the problem and planned the campaign in consulation with the Wazir Ghazi-ud-din. A clear idea of the extent of the Mughal Empire is necessary for us to understand this campaign. What has been called the Panjab in the British regime was not a Mughal province. The area between the water-sheds of the Satlaj and the Jamuna had been bifurcated by the Mughals. The southern and the eastern parts of that area were included in the metropolitan province of Delhi. The northern part of the land of the five rivers proper from At- tock to Sarhind was included in the Subah of Lahore. The south-western Panjab, with districts beyond the Indus adjoining to it, formed the Multan province. The modern Sind was called Thattha province, and Kashmir was also a separate province. Beyond the Indus, Kabul and Kandahar-formed two separate provinces, out of which Kandahar was lost by Aurangzib in 1652,