A History of the Mahrattas v2.c41.10

v2.c41.10

To effect these and other contingent arrangements required some time, and had the Rajpoots pressed the war with vigour, they might probably have confined the Mahrattas to the southern bank of the Chumbul; but they only sought to suppress the ambitious pretensions of Sindia, not to annihilate the Mahratta ascendancy in Hindoostan. They therefore returned to their respective capitals when Sindia retreated, and left Ismael Beg to recover the imperial districts.⁴ Ismael first proceeded towards Agra; in the neighbourhood of which Sindia was still hovering, but he was determined to avoid another general action. At that time, however, skirmishes took place for eight successive days, and one village was repeatedly taken and retaken; but it being reported that Gholam Kawdir,⁵ the son of Zabita Khan Rohilla, was on his march to assist Ismael Beg, Sindia made a rapid retreat towards Gwalior, on which occasion many of his men perished, by losing themselves in the ravines contiguous to the Jumna.¹ Sindia had made repeated applications to the Peishwa for troops, and now wrote to Nana Furnuwees, representing that although he by no means considered his own affairs desperate, yet as he had reason to believe the English were about to form an alliance with the Emperor and the Rajpoots, he submitted to his consideration the danger that must ensue to the whole Mahratta empire, by allowing the English to establish their sway over the provinces of Hindoostan and to gain such an influence as they must acquire, if assisted by the weight of the imperial name. He strongly disavowed every feeling of jealousy, and called on Nana, if such did exist towards himself, to erase it from his mind; to ask Holkar, Hurry Punt, and Pureshram Bhow, if he (Sindia) had ever interfered with their views, and if they had not seen that all his endeavours tended to the aggrandizement of the empire: ‘we serve,’ continued Sindia, ‘a common master; let our exertions be directed to the common cause: if you personally entertain jealousy of me, ask yourself who supported you against the faction of Moraba, and put your rival Sukaram Bappoo into your power; who suppressed the insurrection of the pretended Sewdasheo Rao Bhow; beat the English at Tullygaom, maintained a great share of the war against them, and concluded an advantageous peace?—Think of these services, banish suspicion, and silence calumniators, who are our mutual enemies—let the cause of the Mahratta nation be upheld in Hindoostan, and prevent our empire from being disunited and overthrown.’²