A History of the Mahrattas v1.c29.55

v1.c29.55

Mahdoo Rao, whilst anxious to conciliate his uncle and willing to relinquish as large a share of power as was consistent with the dignity of his situation and his duty to the state, had to contend with the intrigues of party and to resist the counsel of his mother, Gopika Bye, who, naturally jealous and inflamed by the violent behaviour of Anundee Bye, the wife of Rugonath Rao, advised her son, as a measure of self-preservation, to place his uncle under restraint. Mahdoo Rao, however, long entertained hopes of being able to avoid such an extreme measure. Rugonath Rao, though frequently perverse, was not untractable, except when exposed to the influence of his wife; he probably would have acceded to his nephew's views, but for the malicious and desperate woman, by whom his ambition and resentment were alternately excited. The Peishwa was sensible that Rugonath Rao could at this period obtain the aid either of Nizam Ally or of Janojee Bhonslay, and, as affairs then existed, perhaps of both. For although Nizam Ally boiled with resentment against Janojee, on account of his treacherous defection, there was as yet no breach between them which could not have been speedily accommodated for purposes of mutual aggrandizement. Nizam Ally, during this year, had made a successful campaign south of the Kistna, and had reduced his brother Busalut Jung to submission and obedience. The conquests of Hyder Ally and the Nabob of the Carnatic, or rather his supporters the English, prevented him from extending his sway over those countries to the southward of the Kistna conquered by Aurungzebe, and forming a part of that viceroyalty which his father had seized and to which he had succeeded by usurpation and murder.