Acting on his Jamadar's advice, Godji, who was badly off for funds, shut the city gates and refused to let the merchants go till they paid large sums of money.
Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro, then reigning in Sindh, had invited Hyderabad; sent him £1500 (1000 mohars) for his expenses and a palanquin with an escort of 100 men; and on his arrival received him with every honour.
Ghulam Shah and Punja, at the head of the Sindhi army, quit Hyderabad accompanied by an immense body of followers, who, it is said, raised the strength of the expedition to about 70,000 men.
Crossing the Rann, the Sindh army, after a heavy march of twenty seven miles, found Nara deserted, and the wells filled with stones.
But the minister was no general, and, quietly encamping in a strong position close by on the Jara hills, allowed the Sindh troops to refresh themselves.
Taking advantage of the disorder, the Sindh soldiers climbed the hill sword in hand, and destroyed almost the whole army, leaving among the slain Jivan the minister, three sons of the Thakor of Nara, and many other leading chiefs.
Affecting a keen alarm, he warned Ghulam Shah that there were 360 forts each as strong as Sandhan, and that Bhuj itself was guarded by the choicest troops of Navanagar and Radhanpur.
From this constant subject of dispute, and perhaps from the manner in which he had regained his post, the Rao was never well disposed to Punja; and, when he had repaired his forts, raised a militia, and established his power, he determined to rid himself of his minister.
Nara he again found deserted, and except at the small fort of Muru, where a Rajput garrison of eighty men resisted and were all massacred, he advanced unopposed within sight of Bhuj.
Encamping at Rodar Mata within five miles of the town, he despatched his minister, Gidomal, with some men of distinction to demand, as had before been promised, the Rao's sister in marriage.
About this time by building at Ali Bandar a bank across the Kori mouth of the Indus, Ghulam Shah stopped the source from which the great rice-lands of Lakhpat drew their water supply; and the rice tract gradually became a salt waste like the rest of the Rann, leaving the Cutch state poorer by a yearly sum of about £20,000 (8 lakhs of koris).
This was granted, and from the respect in which his family was held, he succeeded so well that the Rao, having the highest opinion of his abilities, anxious to get him as minister, ordered him to Bhuj.
This fear led him to collect a small body of Sidis who continued to increase in number till all the power of the Darbar rested with them.
So overbearing were they that, at last, the ladies and principal officers of the palace, to free the Rao from their power, seized his person and kept him in confinement till the whole body of Sidis, more than 400 in all, were driven from Kutch.
Enraged at this insult Godji retired in disgust to Mandvi where he stayed building a palace and paying no heed to public affairs.
[5] About 1775, Miyan Sarfaraz Khan (1772-1777), Ghulam Shah's son, the Kalhora ruler of Hyderabad in Sindh, entering Cutch, took the route of Khavda and Sumrasar, intending to march to Bhuj, but the accounts of its strength frightened him, and leading the army to Chobari and Kanthkot, he married the daughter of the Thakor, and levying fines at Adhoi and other places returned to Sindh.
On Mir Bijr's elevation to power, two Beluchis, who had assassinated his father, sought refuge in Kutch, and, as the Rao refused to give them up, the province was again invaded and much of Abdasa plundered and laid waste.
Elated by his success, Mirza Kurpa Beg, upon his return to Bhuj, threw off all subjection to the Rao and began to act with great insolence, especially towards the two Sindh refugees.