The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.199

v4.c21.199

"Never was a defeat more complete", says Elphinstone, "and never was there a calamity that diffused so much consternation. Grief and despondency spread over the whole Marāthā people: most had to mourn relations, and all felt the destruction of the army as a death-blow to their national greatness." Most disastrous of all, perhaps, was the fact that it dealt a fatal blow to the one unifying influence in the Deccan, the prestige of the Peshwās. It is, of course, true that the Marāthās, with characteristic resiliency, recovered from what would have been a crushing disaster to a less hardy nation. In August, 1763, they won a brilliant victory over the Nizām at Rākshasbhavan. But their armies were never again the same. The Arab and Hindūstānī mercenary to an increasing degree replaced the free Marāthā trooper, and most important of all, the weakened power of the Peshwā paved the way to English interference in Marāthā affairs. Pānīpat, in other words, was the prelude to Assaye and Kirkee. To Ahmad Shāh also, the victory was a Pyrrhic one: on 22 March, after ransacking Delhi, he withdrew his army. His men, who hated the Indian hot weather, were on the verge of mutiny, and insisted on returning home with their plunder. Ahmad Shāh, accordingly, after having left Najīb Khān as regent of Delhi, retreated beyond the passes, and did not again invade India.