The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.183

v4.c21.183

The state of things in the Marāthā camp was now indescribable. Grief and terror prevailed. Hundreds died every day of famine, and an epidemic, the result of starvation and absence of sanitation, broke out in the vast host cooped up in this narrow area. "We were surrounded," says Nānā Farnavīs in his autobiography, "and the enemy's shots fell thickly among our tents daily.... There we remained in a state of siege for two months, during which most of the cattle of the army died, and the stench was dreadful." Attempts to open negotiations with the enemy were once more foiled by the implacable hatred of Najīb Khān.