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

millions of Hindus and atrocities at the orders of another imperial power of a new Allauddin or a new Aurangzeb would have swept the Hindu world. 1062. But perhaps it was because of the earnest desire and heartfelt longing of the above-mentioned millions of the Hindu commonality, who themselves being disorganized, were utterly powerless to do anything in the matter, except secretly wishing for the speedy arrival of the Marathas, who, in their opinion, were the only ones to smash the Muslim power completely or perhaps because of the original sustaining power of the Hindu nation in general, that nothing of the kind happened. 1063. For, on receiving letters from the Maratha Sardars and Gazi-ud-din and others, Peshwa Nanasahib immediately sent Malharrao Holkar under the chief command of Raghunathrau Dada, with a large army. Urgent letters were also sent to the Maratha Sardars such as Govindpant Bundeley, Barve and others, who were already in the North to render every sort of assistance to Raghunathrao. Before Raghunathrao left Indore and marched ahead, news arrived that hearing the reports of the Maratha advance, Abdali had left Mathura, Vrindaban and other Hindu places of worship and pilgrimage, and gone to Delhi and thence to Kabul, taking away all the booty he had acquired. But he had vested, before his departure to Kabul, the supreme command of that region in the hands of his son, Taimurshah, stationing ten thousand soldiers under him at Sirhind and installing his officers at various important places in Punjab. 1064. While on this side, the Maratha forces under different military leaders in the North, which had gathered together under the one command of Raghunathrao, began to punish severely all those who had begun anti- Maratha activities, relying on Abdali for support. Sakharam Bhagwant, Gangadhar Yeshwant and other Maratha Sardars entered the Doab and once again beat down the Pathan-Rohilla malfactors, released and brought into their fold Vazir Gazi-ud-din, who had been made a captive by the Abdali party. Vithal Shivadev himself marched on Delhi, and after about a fortnight's fierce fighting, entered the city triumphantly, crushing down the Abdali faction completely. The greatest of the triumphs was that the direst enemy of the Maratha and Abdali's right-hand man, Najibkhan Rohilla, was caught alive. Eventually, Abdali's settlement of the region under his suzerainty was toppled down completely. The Pathan army of ten thousand strong, which Abdali had stationed at Sirhind under the command of Abdul Samad in order to maintain his hold on the region, itself lost courage.