528 SACK OF DELHI BY NADIR SHAH. 



without a struggle to the Jhelum. * Secondly, by 

 Timur (or Tamerlane, as he is sometimes called) who 

 invaded India A.D. 1398, and who also encountered 

 but little resistance, f There is some uncertainty as to 

 the exact point where he crossed the Indus; a writer 

 in the Encyclopaedia Britannica states that it was at, 

 or near, Attock, but the late Surgeon-General Balfour 

 (a learned writer on Indian matters) thinks that it 

 was a place named " Nil-ah " near Kalabagh, where 

 some remains of the ancient town are still visible. ** 

 Thirdly, the last invasion was that led by Nadir Shah, 

 a Persian, in 1739. He also crossed the Indus some- 

 where near Attock, but met with no resistance till 

 he got near Delhi, f f Now Delhi to Lahore by rail 

 is a distance of 348 miles, and from thence to Attock 

 by the North Western Railway is a further distance of 

 252 miles, making a total of just 600 miles. The 

 appalling scenes which occurred in the sacking 

 of Delhi by this conqueror are still a matter of tra- 

 dition among the Indian people. On the loth of 

 March in that year, a garrison placed in the city by 

 Nadir Shah was almost entirely put to the sword by 

 the people ; and the next day the conqueror, whose 

 main army was encamped not far off, gave orders for 

 a general massacre, and from sunrise till midday the 

 city presented a scene of carnage which has seldom 

 been equalled ; fire which had been set to the houses, 



* Encycl. Brit., Qth Edit., Vol. xii., p. 786 -(Art. "India"). 



f Ibid., p. 793. 



Ibid., Vol. Hi., p. 62. (Article "Attock"). 



** See Cyclopedia of India, by Surgeon-General Edwd. Balfour, Vol. 

 ii., p. 341. 



ft See Historv of the British Empire in India, by Edward Thornton, 

 Vol. i., pp. 68 9. 



See Newman's Indian Bradshaw (Published at Calcutta monthly). 



