A History of the Mahrattas v1.c30.29

v1.c30.29

Towards the end of the fair season Rugonath Rao had assembled a force of upwards of fifteen thousand men, with which, in hopes of being joined by Janojee Bhonslay, he encamped, first on the banks of the Godavery, and afterwards in the neighbourhood of Dhoorup, a fort in the Chandore range. It was at this period, when despairing of having another son, that Rugonath Rao adopted Amrut Rao, the son of a Concan Bramin, whose family surname was Bhooskoottee. His principal supporters in rebellion were Dummajee Gaekwar, who sent him some troops under his eldest son Govind Rao, and Gungadhur Yeswunt, the Dewan of Holkar, who was not only a zealous partisan of Rugonath Rao, but entertained a personal pique against the Peishwa, the origin of which is too remarkable to be omitted. At a public Durbar in Poona, after Rugonath Rao had retired from the administration, Gungadhur Yeswunt took an opportunity of saying, in a contemptuous manner, ‘that in the present affairs his old eyes could distinguish the acts of one who only saw with the eyes of a boy’; Mahdoo Rao, to the astonishment of all present, jumped from the musnud, or cushion of state, on which he sat, and struck him a violent blow on the face; a singular instance of the effects of anger in a Bramin Court, among a people remarkable for their decorum.