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THE REIGN OF AHMAD SHAH DURRANI.
SEPTEMBER, 1887.]
put them to flight by volleys of musketry, cut off the heads of the slain, which he exhibited to Aḥmad Shah, who considered this engagement as a good omen, and invested the Khân with a robe of honour. When the Dakhani Sardârs were apprised of what had taken place, they abandoned Kunjpâr and marched to Pânîpat. Ahmad Shah immediately hastened with the Durrânî cavalry, and surrounded the enemy's camp, so that not a single horseman could leave it; whereon the Marathâs dug a deep fosse around it, to secure themselves from a night attack by the Muslims. When Ahmad Shâh perceived that they had surrounded themselves with a sangar, he was perplexed what to do, because they were so very numerous; but bethinking himself that "war is a stratagem," he retreated two or three karas, whereon the enemy imagined that the army of Islâm was not strong enough to fight, and intended by this movement to withdraw and to return to its country. Accordingly they came out from their sangar with the intention of plundering, but the Sardar Jahan Khan Popalzai, who had with his men been watching the opportunity from the jungle, forthwith rushed upon the Maratha army, attacked it, and was so successful that he is said to have cut off from five to six thousand heads, which he presented to the Shah, and obtained a great reward. The next day some Hindustani Sardars, such as Nawabs Shuja'au'ddaula, and Najibu'ddaula &c., waited upon the Pâdshah, and reported that the Marâthâ infidels had just sent some thousands of cavalry under the command of one Govind Pant [Bundela] as a guard over the women and children, to be ready to sacrifice their lives in case of an engagement in defending them. Ahmad Shah, whose zeal became inflamed by this news, ordered Haji Ata Muhammad Khan and Haji Karimdad Khan Bamizai, who had on that very day arrived from Qandahar and were present with him at the time, to mount their horses immediately for
"The armies in presence at Panipat, not counting irregulars, are given at 38,000 footmen with 41,000 cavalry and 70 guns for the Afghans, and 15,000 foot with 55,000 cavalry and 200 guns for the Marathas. Strange to say, both sides continued their negotiations, although both must have known perfectly well that nothing but the sword could decide the dispute between them. Sadashéo Rio speedily felt himself straitened for sup plies and at last consented to act against the resources of the enemy. Govind Pant Bundela was detached for this purpose, but Aḥmad Shah, seeing that the task had
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the preservation of the honour of the Hindustânî Sardârs, and to capture the said Govind Pandit without giving him an opportunity to attempt plundering the Muslims. The Hajis accordingly marched with their cavalry after the second prayers on that day, taking with them six men as spies and five hundred troopers of the risdla of Nawab 'Inayat Khan, son of Hafiza'l-Mulk Khân, from the royal camp, and betook themselves to the jungle. In the darkness of the night they went to the ford of the Jamnâ which they crossed, and encountering Gôvind Pandit with the infidel forces at the time of morning prayers, surprised them unawares, so that many of them succumbed to the merciless sword, and the rest fled. Having cut off the head of Govind Pandit, and seven or eight thousand other heads, they presented them to the Shah, whereby the credit of the Hindustani troops was increased, and his heart gladdened."
In short, both the Hindu and the Musalmân armies were for a long time in their sangars on the alert during the night and skirmishing with each other by day, two or three thousand Marâthâs being in every encounter deprived of life by the swords of the forces of Ahmad Shâh;-because supreme wisdom required that the army of the infidels should be defeated. by that of the Musalmâns, and for this reason also the Muslims became bold enough to wage. war. How else could they at a distance from their own, and in a foreign, country, with slender forces, cope with the Marathâ army, which was more numerous than ants and locusts? Verily the designs of the Lord cannot be probed by the intellect of man, and appear strange. Thus it also happened that one night something dark was moving along the flank of the army of Islâm, and puzzled an outpost of Indian sipáhis, which had its sangar there. Soon, however, a horseman issued from the dark mass, and asked in the Dakhani language, to what Sardâr the pagáh or detachment belonged. When the Musalmans heard the been committed to a force too weak to effect it properly, detached in his turn 'Ata Khan with orders to pursue the Bundels unremittingly, and, if possible, to destroy him. Govind Pant was overtaken, surprised, and slain, and this misfortune for the Marathas was almost immediately followed up by another. A convoy with a supply of treasure for their camp marched (so careless was Sadashéo Rio of his communications) into the camp of the Abdalis and was of course cut off to a man." Calcutta Review, ut supra, p. 27.
