The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.12

v4.c21.12

Shambhūjī of Kolhāpur had gone to Āsaf Jāh in October, 1726, and kept claiming to be placed on Shivājī’s throne. Two great Marāthā nobles, Rambhā Nimbālkar and Chandra Sen Jādav (the ex-commander-in-chief of Shāhū), were on the Nizām’s side. Shāhū’s officer (*Rājādnyā*) Chimnājī Dāmodar joined Shambhūjī in 1727 and became his prime minister. Several captains of lesser note like Thorat were also in the same camp. With their support, Āsaf Jāh assembled a large army for the invasion of Mahārāshtra in November, 1727, in the interests of Shambhūjī. But his plan leaked out, Shāhū learnt of it long in advance, warned all his fort garrisons to be carefully on the defensive, and struck the first blow by launching Bājī Rāo upon the Nizām’s dominions. The Peshwā, passing west of Pārner, forded the Godāvarī at Puntambe, and skirting the larger cities like Baizāpur and Aurangābād some distance on their west and north, burst into the Jālna and Sindhkhed districts at the end of October and sacked the country right and left. But now at last the Nizām was on the move; his advanced division led by ‘Iwaz Khān attacked the Marāthā bands dispersed for plunder (17 November) and beat them back. Bājī Rāo, avoiding pitched battles, began a series of bewilderingly rapid marches, which completely baffled and exhausted his enemy. In fact, in this cross-country race over a vast broken country, the Nizām, with his mail-clad heavy cavalry and cumbrous artillery, was completely out-manœuvred by the Marāthā light horse and toiled painfully behind it without being able to prevent its ravages or to bring it to an action. After a feint against Burhānpur, Bājī Rāo made a dash eastwards to Mangrūl, beyond Bāsim in the extreme east of Berār (20 December), and then turning sharply to the north-west, crossed the Tāptī some distance west of Chopra (30 December) and the Narbadā at the Bābā Piārā ford (14 January, 1728), and arrived within twenty-five miles of Broach. Then he swooped down due south, spending a fortnight near Songarh (forty-five miles east of Surat), and doubled back northwards across the Tāptī and the Narbadā to the ‘Alī Mohan country (fifty miles east of Baroda city) on 11 February. From this point he was recalled by news of the danger to Poona and reached Betāvad (twenty miles north of Dhulia in west Khāndesh) on 24 February.