THE AFGHANS LOSE INDIA FOR EVER 197

Marathas were swept clean out of Northern India for the time, and although Ahmad Shah represented pre- cisely the type of those Asiatic conquerors who had hitherto founded imperial houses at Delhi or Agra, it is a remarkable fact that the results of Panipat were quite disproportionate to the magnitude of the exploit. If Ahmad Shah had consolidated in the Pan jab a pow- erful kingdom resting on Afghanistan beyond the In- dus, and stretching southward down to Delhi and the Ganges, the history of India, and the fortunes of the English in that country, might have been very different. But his troops, . laden with booty, insisted on retiring to their highlands; his western provinces on the Per- sian frontier were exposed to invasion and revolt; and so North India gradually slipped out of his grasp. The Panjab relapsed into confusion for the next forty years, until it was temporarily consolidated under the kingdom of Ranjit Singh. Some inroads were made into India from Afghanistan, subsequently to Ahmad Shah's retirement; but the Afghan ruler's withdrawal practically closed the long line of conquering invaders from Central Asia, at a time very nearly simultaneous with the establishment in Bengal of the first conquer- ors that entered India by the sea.