A History of the Mahrattas v1.c20.48

v1.c20.48

The Peishwa’s first proposal for exacting what he called the established tribute from Malwa, and extending Mahratta conquests into Hindoostan, was violently and, as already noticed, for a time successfully opposed by the Pritee Needhee. The latter represented it as ‘rash and imprudent; — that the head of the state might not be called upon to account for casual inroads, but that to grant such an authority to the Mookh Purdhan must draw upon them the whole power of the empire, and precipitate hostilities with Nizam Ool Moolk, whose victorious army was still at their gates. That so far from being prepared for resistance, there was a total want of regularity even in the arrangements laid down, that they could scarcely quell a common insurrection, and that entering on a war, when they had not yet secured what had been ceded, was the extreme of folly and of rashness.’ The Pritee Needhee added, that ‘he was a soldier as well as the Peishwa, and as ready as Bajee Rao could be to head any expedition, when it might become expedient; that after they had established their collectors, and arranged other parts of the country, it would be advisable, before pursuing their conquests in the north, to reduce the Carnatic and recover the territories conquered by Sivajee;—that although Futih Sing Bhonslay held Sunnuds for collecting the Mokassa of the Carnatic, his troops, from the power of Sumbhajee at Kolapoor and his abettors, Chowan, Ghorepuray and the Nabob of Savanoor, could scarcely venture to cross the Kistna, and that the first effort should, therefore, be made in that quarter.’