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Delhi in Moghal Times Mahomed remained under the evil influence of Khan Dauran, the captain-general of the empire, so the Nizam, powerless to interfere, and submitted to insult, returned to the Deccan in a huff. In order to arouse the emperor to a sense of his duties, he arranged a Mahratta raid on the Northern Provinces, of which Mahomed took no notice, until the enemy, under Baji Rao, arrived at the temple of Kalika, six miles from Delhi, where a fair was going on. They defeated the king's troops, but were bought out by Saadat Khan, Nawab of Oudh. Again the Nizam was summoned, again he was treated with disrespect and his counsel was laughed at, so he entered into negotiations with Saadat Khan, and the two sent a joint letter to Kuli Khan, Nadir Shah of Persia, asking him to give the emperor a lesson. He was nothing loth, and set out in the latter part of 1738 with an army of thirty-six thousand horse; the army of Mahomed Shah, after one false start, marched out of Delhi and camped on the plains of Karnal. Nadir Shah met with very little opposition, for the Subahdars of Peshawar and of Lahore had been advised by the Nizam not to fight seriously, so the two armies soon came face to face, and for some days sat down opposite each other. Then a plundering raid developed unexpectedly into a battle, in which the troops 233