A History of the Mahrattas v1.c22.61

v1.c22.61

A.D. 1738.—When Bajee Rao crossed the Nerbuddah, Nizam Ool Moolk was at Seronje. The two armies met near Bhopaul in the month of January; when the Nizam, instead of advancing at once on his adversary, took up a strong position in the neighbourhood of the fort of Bhopaul, with a tank in his rear and a rivulet in his front.¹ This extreme caution may be said to have decided the fate of the war; the Mahrattas, who had approached under some alarm, no sooner fancied themselves superior than they in fact became so. They insulted the Nizam in his lines; and when a part of his army chose their own position for battle, the Mahrattas attacked them with vigour. The action was principally maintained, on the part of Nizam Ool Moolk, by the Rajpoots under the son of Raja Jey Sing, supported by the troops from Bundelcund and the neighbouring Rajas; all of whom, except the Raja of Boondee, had united with Nizam Ool Moolk. The Rajpoots lost about five hundred men and seven hundred horses; the Mahrattas' loss was principally from the fire of the artillery, and estimated, by the Peishwa himself, at one hundred killed and three hundred wounded. Ranoojee Sindia, Peelajee Jadow, and Syajee Goozur were the officers who led the Mahratta troops into action. The Peishwa, during the engagement, was within two rockets' flight of the Nizam, anxiously watching an opportunity, in hopes that he would quit the strong ground on which he stood, when it was Bajee Rao's intention to have made an effort to cut him off; but in this he was disappointed. No decisive advantage was gained by the Mahrattas during the attack; but the Nizam recalled his troops and allowed himself to be hemmed in on all sides; provisions and forage soon became exceedingly scarce; a detachment from the army under Sufdur Jung and the Raja of Kotah, was intercepted and defeated, with the loss of fifteen hundred men, by Mulhar Rao Holkar and Yeswunt Rao Powar. Sufdur Jung retreated, and the Mahrattas exulting straitened the army at Bhopaul, cut off their supplies, and kept them on the alert day and night. Dispirited by privation, and harassed by tiresome watching, many of the troops, especially the Rajpoots, would have deserted, but Bajee Rao would admit of no overtures; he now had an opportunity of showing his superiority to all India, and well knew, that as long as the blockade could be secured, the greater the numbers the greater their straits. It seemed unaccountable to Bajee Rao how Nizam Ool Moolk should have thus put himself into his power. ‘The Nabob,’ says the Peishwa in a letter to his brother, ‘is both an old man and a man of experience, how he has got himself into this difficulty I cannot comprehend; it will ruin him in the opinion of all at Delhi.’