The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.s1.92

v4.c21.s1.92

For more than two months after the arrival of the Abdālī's army, skirmishes continued which culminated in a great battle on 14 January, 1761, already described in the last chapter. This, the most desperate of the three contests fought on the field of Pānīpat, destroyed the great Marāthā confederation and, for a time, the power of the Marāthā chiefs. On the eve of the battle India from the Indus and Himālaya almost to the extreme limits of the Peninsula was forced to own, however unwillingly, their sway, and those tracts not immediately administered by them paid them tribute, and their numerous chiefs all owned allegiance to one man, the Peshwā. Various chiefs, Mahādjī Sindia in Gwalior, Raghūjī Bhonsle in Nāgpur and Berār, Malhār Rāo Holkar in Mālwā, and Dāmājī Gāikwār in Gujarāt, recovered portions of the Marāthā empire, but the Peshwā's authority was broken and cohesion was lost. Marāthā alliances and confederacies again vexed India, but all hopes of a Marāthā empire were destroyed at Pānīpat.