The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.16

v4.c21.16

But this treaty did not bring peace, any more than the former settlement of the Hyderābād tribute had done. Though there were no more regular wars between the Nizām and Shāhū’s government, the events of 1727 left behind them a spirit of mutual suspicion and alarm which continued for the next four years, with occasional conflicts between local officers and small invading bands of both sides. Shambhūjī having been cast off as a broken tool, the Nizām formed a plot with Trimbak Rāo Dābhāde (the Marāthā commander-in-chief, jealous of the Brāhman Peshwā) and many other malcontents to crush Bājī Rāo. But before the two allies could complete their musters and effect a junction, Bājī Rāo’s alertness again triumphed. Hastening to Gujarāt he slew Dābhāde near Dabhoi (12 April, 1731) and broke up his party. In the preceding month the Nizām had gone to Burhānpur, suppressed a rebel, Mohan Singh, and held secret consultations with Muhammad Khān Bangash (the new viceroy of Mālwā) on the bank of the Narbadā, and now after a fruitless chase of Bājī Rāo through Khāndesh and Bāglān, he returned to Aurangābād. Unsuccessful in war, the Nizām at last entered into a secret compact with Bājī Rāo, by which the Marāthā government promised to leave the Deccan unmolested and to levy nothing beyond the stipulated *chauth* and *sardeshmukhī* from them, while the Nizām agreed to remain neutral during the projected Marāthā invasions of Hindustān, provided that they did not injure his province of Khāndesh in their northward march through it. This pact was confirmed during Bājī Rāo’s visit to the Nizām in the Christmas week of 1732. Thus Marāthā ambition was diverted to the north, and the heart of the Mughal Deccan enjoyed comparative peace.