230 APPENDIX II action, and Murad Khan and Sarfaraz Khan, seeing no resource left them but flight, returned to Jahan Khan, and the Sikhs ravaged all the districts of the Doab. AB soon as active hostilities were commenced be- tween Najib-ad-daulah and Imad-al-mulk, the latter set out from Farrukhabad towards Delhi to oppose the former, and forwarded letters to Balaji Rao and his cousin Bhao, soliciting aid and inviting the Maratha army to espouse his cause. Bhao, who was always cherishing plans in his head for national aggran- dizement, counselled Balaji Rao to despatch an army for the conquest of the territories of Hindustan, which he affirmed to be then, as it were, an assembly un- worthy of reverence, and a rose devoid of thorns. In 1171 A. H. (1757-8 A.D.), Raghunath Rao, a brother of Balaji Rao, accompanied by Malhar Rao Holkar, Shamsher Bahadur, and Jayaji Sindhia, started from the Deccan towards Delhi at the head of a gallant and irresistible army to subdue the domin- ions of Hindustan. As soon as they reached Agra, they turned off to Shahjahanabad in company with Imad-al-mulk the vizir, who was the instigator of the irruption made by this torrent of destruction. After a sanguinary engagement, they ejected Najib-ad-daulah from the city of Delhi and consigned the manage- ment of the affairs of government to the care of Imad- al-mulk, the vizir. Raghunath Rao and the rest of the Maratha chiefs sot out from Delhi towards Lahore at the solicitation of Adina Beg Khan, of whom mention has been briefly
