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184 phantom of the Moghul empire. On the one hand was the Mohammedan Afghan, Ahmad Shah, eager to recover the Panjab and to take vengeance on the new power that had robbed him. On the other was the Moghul vizir of Oudh, Shuja'-ad-daulah, son of Safdar Jang, supported by the forces of the eastern provinces. Between lay the prostrate capital, overawed by the host of the Hindu Marathas. There was not even a Moghul emperor to hold the balance, for the harmless figurehead, Alamgir, had been murdered by the vizir in 1759, and the heir, Shah Alam, had fled to the protection of the British in Bengal in dread of sharing the same fate. Among all the bold adventurers who played the king in India at this time, none was more remarkable than Ghazi-ad-din, the youthful grand-nephew of Asaf Jah, who dominated the political situation from 1752 to 1759 by sheer audacity and brilliant recklessness. The murder of the emperor, however, was a stroke that overreached itself, and when the Afghan Shah moved down upon the capital, the unscrupulous young assassin fled for his life. Ahmad Shah found the throne empty, and proceeded, as master of the situation, to take steps for the maintenance of the Mohammedan power in India.

The decisive moment came on January 6, 1761. The Marathas were intrenched at Panipat with a force of 70,000 cavalry and 15,000 infantry, nine thousand of whom were thoroughly disciplined under a Mohammedan who had served in the French army in India under Bussy. The commander-in-chief was the