A History of the Mahrattas v1.c25.23.1

v1.c25.23.1

Tara Bye, when the Peishwa departed to Aurungabad, sounded Ram Raja in regard to his assuming the control usurped by his servant Ballajee Bajee Rao, but not finding him fit for her purpose, she pretended to have had no serious intentions in the proposal, but dispatched messengers to Dummajee Gaekwar, representing the unprotected state of the country and recommending his immediate march to Satara, to rescue the Raja and the Mahratta state from the power of the Bramins. This request was immediately acceded to, and Tara Bye, as soon as certain accounts were received of Gaekwar’s approach, invited the Raja into the fort of Satara and made him prisoner. She then reproached him with his want of spirit; regretted that ‘she had ever rescued him from a life of obscurity, for which only he could have been destined; declared that he could not be her grandson or the descendant of the great Sivajee; that he was neither a Bhonslay nor a Mohitey, but a base born Gonedulee,¹ changed in the house where he had been first conveyed; that she would make atonement on the banks of the holy Kistna for ever having acknowledged him.’ She ordered the havildar to fire upon his attendants, most of whom, unconscious of what had happened, remained near the gate of the fort; and she directed the guns to be pointed at the houses in the town below, belonging to the partisans of the Concanee Bramins.