The Maratha Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao sent his brother
Raghunath Rao along with Shamsher Bahadur, Gangadhar Tatya, Sakharambapu, Naroshankar and Maujiram Bania and a large army towards Delhi and Punjab. They were accompanied by
Malhar Rao Holkar of
Malwa who had a long experience of
North India and its rulers. The
Marathas captured Delhi in August 1757. They decisively defeated the Rohillas and Afghans near Delhi in 1758. The defeat was so decisive that Najib Khan surrendered to the Marathas and became their prisoner.
Initial campaign of Sirhind
In Punjab,
Adina Beg Khan, along with
Sikhs was already in revolt with
Ahmad Shah Abdali who had invaded
Punjab multiple times. He decided to call Marathas for help. On 7 March,
Raghunathrao had encamped at
Rajpura where he received
Adina Beg Khan’s envoys, and was informed that the latter, accompanied by 15,000 Sikh fighters, belonging to the bands (the jathas) of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Baba Ala Singh of Patiala had closed upon Sirhind from the other side of
Satluj. A concerted attack on the fort of
Sirhind was made by the
Marathas and their associates on 8 March 1758. Ahmad Samad Khan, with his 10,000 Afghan troops, held out for about two weeks before his capitulation on 21 March. After the victory, the town was thoroughly sacked by the victors.
After defeating the Afghan-Rohilla forces, the Marathas pursued the Afghans into the Punjab.
Further conquest of North-west: Battle of Attock, 1758 and
Battle of Peshawar
The fall of Sirhind alarmed
Timur Shah Durrani and Jahan Khan at Lahore. The Afghan chiefs lost their heart and fled to
Peshawar, leaving behind their troops in Lahore under Aziz Khan.
On 20 April 1758, Malharrao Holkar and Raghunathrao attacked and conquered Lahore.
Tukoji Holkar conquered Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Kashmir, Attock and Peshawar by 8 May 1758. Thus, by May 1758,
Timur Shah Durrani, the son of Ahmad Shah Durrani was ousted and
the Afghans were chased beyond the Khyber pass. Thereafter
a strong body of Maratha troops, commanded by Datta Patel was left on the bank of Indus to protect the Indian borders from Afghan intruders before
Raghunathrao and
Adina Beg Khan returned to
Lahore with the bulk of their armies. Tukoji Holkar with 10,000 Maratha soldiers in
Peshawar, Narsoji Pandit with 4000 Maratha troops at
Attock, Babuji Trimbak with 6000 Maratha troops at
Multan and Nekaji Bhosle with 3000 Maratha troops in
Dera Ghazi Khan were posted to guard the strategically important forts.
Their conquest of the north-west has a special importance in Indian history, particularly Hindu history since, after nearly seven and a half centuries when the last Hindu King of the region Trilochan Pal Shahi had been defeated by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1020 C.E., Indus river came under Hindu rule due to the Maratha conquest of Punjab in 1758. This campaign of the Marathas led by Raghunath Rao is hailed as Raghu's Bharari - i.e. whirlwind campaign in Maharashtra even today.
I said "cross continental campaigns." Do you see the region in saffron. That was Maratha Empire/Confederacy. Do you know where the power base was? In modern day Maharashtra. From there they launched campaigns across the subcontinent. They were overland campaigns. Not just the guerrilla warfare and raids their fighting started off as in Chhatrapati Shivaji's times.