The Marathas in Punjab

What it was: The Marathas, says the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, expanded to fill the power vacuum left by the fall of the Mughal empire and reached Delhi. They were at their height when they met the Sikhs, who were still struggling to survive Mughal and Afghan persecution. In Punjab they were briefly an occupying power in 1758 and then a neighbour and rival of the Sikh chiefs on the Delhi and Doab frontier, until the British displaced them.

The 1758 campaign: Ahmad Shah Durrani's fourth invasion (November 1756 to April 1757) left his son Taimur as viceroy at Lahore. Adina Beg, faujdar of the Jalandhar Doab, was harassed by Taimur and sought Sikh help, and with it nearly beat a Lahore force in December 1757. Unsure the Sikhs would suffice, he invited Raghunath Rao at Delhi in January 1758, offering 100,000 rupees for each day's march and 50,000 for each halt. On 8 March Raghunath Rao reached Sirhind, where Adina Beg and the Sikhs joined him. Sirhind fell on 21 March and was sacked. The allies quarrelled over spoils, and Adina Beg made peace and had the Sikhs march two stages ahead. They took Lahore on 20 April. Raghunath Rao made Adina Beg governor, left small garrisons at Attock and Multan and returned to Delhi.

Leaders, in order: Raghunath Rao in 1758. Mahadji Scindia, regent for the Mughal emperor from November 1784, until his death on 12 February 1794. Daulat Rao Scindia after him. The French general Perron commanded their northern army by 1801.

Key moments

• November 1759: Durrani, on his fifth invasion, wiped out the Maratha forces in Punjab. In January 1761 he crushed the Marathas at the third battle of Panipat.
• 4 February 1765: 15,000 Sikhs under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia beat the Ruhilas outside Delhi on the side of Jawahar Singh of Bharatpur, who had also hired Maratha troops. The Encyclopaedia says the Maratha commander Malhar Rao made a secret deal with the Ruhilas that wasted it.
• 9 May 1785: Mahadji Scindia's treaty with the Sikhs gave their sardars jagirs worth a million rupees a year if they gave up rakhi in the Ganga and Yamuna Doab. It lasted barely a month.
• 1801: Sikh chiefs asked Perron for help against the adventurer George Thomas, who surrendered, and then resented Perron's demands.
• 1 November 1803: Daulat Rao Scindia was beaten at Laswari and ceded Delhi and nearby districts to the British.
• 1805 to 1806: Jaswant Rao Holkar fled into Punjab. After consulting his sardars at Amritsar, in what is remembered as the last Sarbat Khalsa, Maharaja Ranjit Singh offered only to mediate. Treaties of 1 and 11 January 1806 took Holkar out of Punjab.

Where it stands: By 1770, says the Encyclopaedia, the Sikhs were masters of Punjab while the Marathas had re-emerged as the strongest power in India. After 1803 the British displaced the Marathas. The Encyclopaedia's account ends in 1806.