MARATHAS ENTER SAURASHTRA

that he preferred not to go to his new headquarters and
was allowed to send his son, Sher Khan, as deputy for
him. On Salabat Mahomed Khan's death in A.D. 1730
Sher Khan was removed from Junagadh, and retired for
a time to Gogha. At this juncture a certain Sohrab Khan
was Governor of Surat, and Bhavsinhji Gohel of Bhav-
nagar, seeing in him a means of advancing the interests
of Bhavnagar as against those of Gogha, made friends
with him. To such an extent did he make use of Sohrab
Khan's influence that he eventually succeeded in procuring
the removal of Gogha from the Babis, who were granted
in its place a jagir at Bantwa, not far from Junagadh.
Unfortunately for Bhavsinhji, Sohrab Khan himself
managed to obtain Gogha, but by his death a year or
two afterwards, in A.D. 1735, Bhavsinhji's ambition
became fulfilled, and Bhavnagar ceased to suffer from
Gogha's rivalry. Bhavsinhji now reached the zenith of
his power and reputation. He had succeeded in a few
years in changing the petty chieftancy of the Gohels into
one of much greater importance, and by his natural
caution and long-sighted policy had succeeded in making
himself the most influential chief in the peninsula. His
reputation had been greatly enhanced by his defeat of
the Marathas, who had succeeded, however, in imposing
a regular tribute on the whole of Gujarat. The chiefs of
Saurashtra shared in paying this levy, and the first entry
of a Maratha tribute-collecting army into the peninsula
took place under Damaji Gaekwad in A.D. 1735, to be
followed less than two years after by another similar
incursion.

In A.D. 1738 Momin Khan, then Viceroy in Gujarat,
restored to Sher Khan Babi his ancestral possession of
Gogha, and shortly afterwards made him deputy-Governor
of Sorath on behalf of Himat AH Khan, nephew of Momin
Khan, who had been appointed to the Governorship by
the Emperor at Delhi. At Sher Khan's appointment a

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