A History of the Mahrattas v2.c45: Chapter XXXVII
A History of the Mahrattas v2.c45
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Chapter XXXVII
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A.D. 1794.—The details in the last chapter, together with much of the preceding narrative, may tax the patience of the reader, but are for the most part absolutely necessary to elucidate our subject, and to afford a just view of the numerous authorities and interests which existed at this period among the Mahrattas. The empire founded by Sivajee now covered a vast space; and had it been possible to combine its powers, to direct advantageously the peculiar genius of its people, and to render its various parts subservient to its general strength, the Mahrattas might still have extended their conquests, and a persevering predatory warfare would probably have arrested the rapid rise of the British nation in India. But the causes which drove the Mahrattas to predatory habits, and the circumstances which allured them to conquest, no longer existed, nor had they any chief whose authority was sufficient to unite them. They now lived under governments of their own, which were generally mild; the executive authorities, even if administered by persons tyrannically disposed, were not so powerful as to become arbitrarily oppressive, but they were at the same time too feeble to call forth the resources which smaller states, better organized, could have commanded. The Mahrattas were still a military people; some member of every peasant’s family, and sometimes the fourth or fifth of a whole village had carried arms. Persons, once employed, were generally ready to return to the service when required, but pitched battles and regular warfare were unsuited to their genius¹; the Mahratta cavalry when accustomed to depend on regular infantry and cannon, lost their former surprising activity and confidence on distant enterprises; even their courage, which as a national virtue was never very conspicuous, had fallen below its ordinary level, and whilst some among them admired the wisdom of Mahadajee Sindia and extolled the advantages to be attained by disciplined armies and artillery, others, as we have already mentioned, more justly predicted from the same cause the certain overthrow of the Hindoo power.
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¹ [This statement, however true it may have been of the Marāthā troops of the eighteenth century, would not pass unchallenged nowadays. It is the British officer of the Indian Army who has wrought the change, and has taught the Marāthā regiments of the Bombay
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The great object, however, of preserving the supremacy of the Peishwa and of giving to the Mahratta nation that common excitement to action, founded on the immediate gratification of self-interest, became, for a short period, a point of much less difficulty than might have been anticipated. This tendency to union proceeded from the existing claims on Nizam Ally; in the settlement of which all the Mahratta chiefs were taught to expect a part; the death of Sindia left the entire management to Nana Furnuwees, and the English adopted a neutral policy on the occasion.
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We have before noticed the nature of the claims on Nizam Ally. They were outstanding balances for a series of years, on account of Chouth and Surdeshmookhee. Discussions on the subject had been occasionally agitated by the Mahrattas for upwards of ten years; but the alliance in which they had been associated against Tippoo had enabled Nizam Ally to procrastinate, and prevented the Mahrattas from insisting on a settlement of their affairs.
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(1791.) In 1791 Govind Rao Kallay and Govind Rao Pingley, the Peishwa’s envoys at the court of Hyderabad, formally requested that Nizam Ally would appoint commissioners for investigating and adjusting the claims of their master. After considerable discussion Nizam Ally delivered to these envoys a set of demands, under thirty-four separate heads, chiefly regarding contributions unjustly exacted and the revenues of different places improperly taken or withheld by the Mahrattas. He also demanded reparation on account of damage sustained by the inroads of Pindharees residing within the Peishwa’s boundary. To all which, full and satisfactory replies, drawn up with remarkable clearness and ability by Nana Furnuwees, were promptly returned,
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Presidency to fight under modern conditions with the same courage and persistence as the martial races of Upper India. See footnote on p. 354f, post.]
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followed by a set of articles, twenty-eight in number, demanding the adjustment of the Mahratta claims, some of which Nana proved to have existed since 1774. Nizam Ally was compelled to acknowledge some of these demands; others he evaded: but he promised in general terms to appoint some persons to settle the whole, as soon as the war with Tippoo had terminated; hoping by that time to obtain the interposition of the English.¹
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¹ Mahratta MS. and original papers.
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(1792.)—At the conclusion of the war, Lord Cornwallis did endeavour to effect a treaty of guarantee, founded on that article of the alliance which regarded the assistance to be offered by the contracting parties, in case of an attack upon any one of them by Tippoo, believing that by such a treaty he should render a general benefit to all parties and secure the peace of India. But it was hardly to be supposed that any Indian statesman could appreciate such a design; and accordingly each of the native courts interpreted the proposal as it appeared to affect their own interests. The Nizam saw in it a disposition to assist him, and hoped to realize his meditated scheme of raising a barrier between himself and the Mahrattas, so that he might not only resist their future encroachments, but evade their present demands; at all events he had no doubt of obtaining a settlement, such as Hyder had effected with the Mahrattas, by paying a fixed tribute; and from which Tippoo, by the late treaty, was entirely absolved. The Mahrattas on the other hand viewed the proposal as an arrogant assumption of authority on the part of the British Government, and it excited their jealousy, both as affecting their political consequence and interrupting the settlement of their established dues. On the propriety of resisting this interposition both Mahadajee Sindia and Nana Furnuwees concurred; but they differed in their opinions with regard to the supposed designs of the English. Sindia conjectured that they projected an alliance with Nizam Ally for the purpose of obtaining the command of the Nizam's resources and turning them against the Mahrattas; in consequence of which, for a short time previous to his death, he carried on a friendly correspondence with Tippoo Sultan. Nana Furnuwees, although he did not perceive the benevolent purpose by which Lord Cornwallis was actuated, took a more correct view of the subject, in supposing that the English, though desirous of becoming umpires, would not risk a war unless to save the Hyderabad state from being subverted; such a conquest, however, even in subsequent success, Nana Furnuwees never ventured to contemplate. When the treaty of guarantee was submitted to the court of Poona, Mahadajee Sindia would have rejected it at once, but Nana, being anxious to keep well with the English as a check on Sindia, without giving a direct refusal, prolonged the discussion, although with no intention of assenting to what was proposed.
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(1793.)—Sir John Shore succeeded to the charge of the Government of British India, on the departure of the Marquis Cornwallis in August, 1793. Nizam Ally had supposed the latter so intent on effecting the treaty of general guarantee, that he concealed the deep interest he felt in the success of the negotiation of Poona, until he saw the prospect of its failure. He then used every argument, and held forth every inducement in his power, to obtain a separate treaty of guarantee for himself. Sir John Shore, however, did not think it advisable to compel the Mahrattas to accept the mediation of the British nation, and adhered to a system of neutrality, for a variety of reasons which it is unnecessary to enter upon. We need only remark that, whatever might have been the apparant advantage of the Governor-General's interference, if it had enabled Nizam Ally to effect his evasive purposes, it must have been recorded as an injustice to the Mahrattas.¹
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¹ [The Government of India was not definitely bound by the treaty to assist the Nizām with troops; but ‘the Nizam had been led to expect protection and had earned it by his cession of Guntur’ in 1788. Dr. V. A. Smith (O.H.I., p. 574) describes Sir John Shore as ‘paralysed by a slavish obedience to the words of the Act of Parliament of 1784 and by unworthy fear of the Marāthās.’]
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From the period when the demands of the Mahrattas were formally renewed, whilst negotiations for the treaty of guarantee were in progress, Nizam Ally, probably without imagining that actual hostilities would take place, had been increasing his military force. A body of regular infantry which, during the war with Tippoo, had consisted of two battalions under a respectable French officer named Raymond,² were increased to twenty-three battalions.
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² [François de Raymond, whom Malleson calls Michael Joachim Marie Raymond, was born in Gascony in 1755. In 1775 he was a sub-lieutenant in the service of Haidar Ali of Mysore. In 1783 he was given a commission in the French army, and acted as aide-de-camp to Bussy. Three years later he entered the Nizām’s service and raised
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His army was much augmented after Mahadajee Sindia’s death, and he hoped, in consequence of that event, the Mahrattas might be easily satisfied, or successfully resisted, even if he should not be able to obtain the interposition of the English.¹ When the envoy, Govind Rao Kallay,² renewed his master’s demands, he produced a detailed statement, showing a balance in his favour of nearly two crores and sixty lacks, or twenty-six millions of rupees. Warm discussions took place between the envoy and Musheer Ool Moolk, when at last the former was told, in public durbar, that Nana Furnuwees must himself attend at the court of Hyderabad, in order to afford an explanation of the different items of their intricate claims. The envoy replied, ‘Nana Furnuwees is much engaged, how can he come?’ ‘How can he come?’ re-echoed Musheer Ool Moolk, ‘I will soon show how he shall be brought to the presence.’ This menace was considered a sufficient declaration, and although negotiations continued till the last, both parties prepared to decide their differences by the sword.
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¹ Mahratta MSS. and English Records.
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² He was still alive when I left India in January, 1823.
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The war, whilst still at a distance, was extremely popular amongst the Moghuls; the grand army under Nizam Ally’s personal command was assembled at Beder, and the camp exhibited much bustle and animation. The most vaunting threats were constantly heard from the ill-appointed, disorderly soldiery. Poona was to be pillaged and burned, the dancing girls already sang the triumphs of their army, and even the prime minister declared in a public assembly that ‘the Moghuls should now be freed from Mahratta encroachments; that they should recover Beejapoor and Candeish, or they would never grant peace, until they had dispatched the Peishwa to Benares, with a cloth about his loins and a pot of water in his hand, to mutter incantations on the banks of the Ganges.’³
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³ Persian and Mahratta MSS.
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The minister at Poona was soon enabled to collect a very great a corps of 300, which was increased soon afterwards to 700 men. His distinguished service in the war against Tipū resulted in a further increase of his force to 5,000. At the battle of Kharda he commanded a force of more than 10,000. Raymond was granted a large jāgīr, drew a very high salary, and lived in princely style. He died in March 1798, at the age of forty-three. For opinions as to his character see quotations in Compton, Military Adventurers, &c., pp. 382–6.]
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army. No events had taken place since Sindia's death, except such as appeared favourable to Nana's power, and the prospect of sharing in the expected advantages brought to his standard all the chiefs whose attendance was important. Doulut Rao Sindia and Tookajee Holkar were already at Poona, and the Raja of Berar had set out to join. Govind Rao Gaekwar sent a detachment of his troops; the great southern Jagheerdars, composing the Bramin families of Putwurdhun and Rastia, the Bramin Jagheerdars of Mallygaom and Vinchoor, the Pritee Needhee, the Punt Suchew, the Mahratta Mankurees, Nimbalkur, Ghatgay, Chowan, Duflay, Powar, Thorat, and Pahtunkur, with many others less conspicuous, attended the summons.¹ But this was the last time the chiefs of the Mahratta nation assembled under the authority of their Peishwa.
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¹ [The Rāste (Rāstia) family were descended from the hereditary Kulkarnis of a village in Anjanvel, and first came into prominence through the marriage of Gopikābāī Rāste with the Pēshwā Bālāji Bājīrāo. She was the mother of Mādhu Rāo Pēshwā and Nārāyan Rāo Pēshwā. The Jāgīrdār of Mālegāon (Mallygaom) was descended from a Rigvedi Brahman, named Naro Shankar Dāni, who was appointed by the Pēshwā Bālāji Bājīrāo to collect the revenues of Jhānsī, and eventually attained a high military position with the title of Rājā Bahādur. The family estates were originally situated in Bundēlkhand, Khāndesh and Nāsik, but the portion in Bundēlkhand was transferred to the British Government by the treaty of Bassein. The Thorāt family was descended from one Yeshvantrāo, the Pātel of a village in Karād, who became a cavalry officer in the service of the Rājā of Kolhāpur. When he died without issue his corps was transferred to his uncle, Sīdojī Thorāt, by the Rājā, and his estates, valued at 75,000 rupees a year, were reduced to 35,000, exclusive of hereditary inām lands yielding annually 10,000 rupees. The estates lay chiefly in what is now the Vālva tāluka, Sātāra District. The Thorāt family, whose family mansion still stands in Vālva village, continued in charge of the estates until the British annexation in 1818. The Pātankar (Pahtunkur) family was descended from one Hanmantrāo, Deshmukh of Pātan, who distinguished himself under Sivājī and accompanied Vyankojī to the conquest of Tanjore. In 1692 Rāja Rām, son of Sivājī, conferred the district of Pātan, now represented by the Pātan tāluka, Sātāra District, upon Hanmantrāo, whose descendants served the Pēshwā's Government as mercenary soldiers. The granddaughter of Hanmantrāo married Sakharām Ghatge, and in 1798 their daughter Bāijabāī was married to Daulat Rāo Sindia.]
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(December.)—Nizam Ally was first in the field, and slowly advanced from Beder along the banks of the Manjera towards the Mahratta frontier. The Peishwa quitted Poona in January, and his army marched at the same time, but by different routes, for the convenience of forage. There were upwards of one hundred and thirty thousand horse and foot in the Mahratta army, exclusive of ten thousand Pindharees. Of this force upwards of one half were either paid from the Peishwa’s treasury, or were troops of Jagheerdars under his direct control. Doulut Rao Sindia’s force was more numerous and more efficient than that of any other chieftain, although the greater part of his army remained in Hindoostan and Malwa. Jooba Bukhshee commanded immediately under Doulut Rao, and had lately joined him with a reinforcement;—the whole consisted of twenty-five thousand men, of whom ten thousand were regular infantry under De Boigne’s second in command, Monsieur Perron. Rughoojee Bhonslay mustered 15,000 horse and foot; Tookajee Holkar had only ten thousand, but of these, two thousand were regulars under Dudrenec, and most of the Pindharees were followers of Holkar. Pures hram Bhow had seven thousand men.
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Nana Furnuwees consulted the chief officers separately.¹ He appointed Pures hram Bhow to act as commander-in-chief. The Pindharees and some other horse were ordered on to plunder in the neighbourhood of the Moghul camp and destroy their forage; the heavy baggage, properly protected, remained one march in the rear, and the best of the horse with the regular infantry, supported by upwards of one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, were sent forward to attack Nizam Ally, who with an army amounting in all to one hundred and ten thousand men advanced towards Kurdla² and descended the Mohree Ghaut; a body of the Peishwa’s household troops under Baba Rao, son of the deceased Hurry Punt Phurkay, attacked the Moghuls when descending the Ghaut and being driven off with some loss, Nizam Ally on the same evening sat in durbar and received nuzurs of congratulation on his victory. On the ensuing day, when the Moghuls were on their march from Kurdla to Purinda, the Mahrattas appeared on their right, and were soon perceived to be in great force. Nizam Ally halted his own elephant, sent off his baggage to the left, and directed Assud Alee Khan with the cavalry, supported by seventeen thousand regular infantry under Raymond, to attack the Mahratta army. Pureshram Bhow prepared to receive them; he took his own station in the centre with the Peishwa’s and Holkar’s troops; Rughoojee Bhonslay commanded the right wing and Doulut Rao’s army formed the left. Pureshram Bhow rode forward to reconnoitre, supported by Baba Rao Phurkay and Khassee Rao, the son of Tookajee Holkar. He had only advanced a short distance when he was suddenly charged by a body of Patans under Lal Khan, a native of Baloochistan, who displayed great personal energy, cut down several men, and with his own hand unhorsed and wounded Pureshram Bhow. But Hurry Punt Putwurdhun, the Bhow’s eldest son, seeing his father fall, instantly attacked the aggressor and killed him on the spot. The Patans, however, did not desist on the loss of their leader: being well supported by Alif Khan, the son of the Nabob of Kurnoul, and Sulabut Khan, the son of Ismael Khan, Nabob of Elichpoor, they persevered until the advanced party of the Mahrattas gave way, and were driven back in such confusion that they communicated a panic to a great portion of their army, and thousands fled precipitately from the field. Baba Rao Phurkay, though in charge of the Juree Putka, seemed about to follow the fugitives, but was prevented by Jooba Bukhshee, who rode up, reproached him as a coward, and told him if he sought a place of safety he would find it behind Sindia’s troops.
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¹ The memoranda in his own handwriting of the different opinions were found in the Poona Records. He seems to have adopted the plans of Jooba Bukhshee and Tookajee Holkar.
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² [The proper name of this place is Kharda, and is so spelt in a report from Malet, the Resident at Poona, to the Governor-General, dated March 12, 1795. Kharda, now a town in Jāmkhed tāluka, Ahmadnagar District, situated fifty-six miles south-east of Ahmadnagar, belonged originally to the Nimbālkar family, whose mansion in the middle of the town is now in ruins. The fort to the south-east of the town was built by the Nimbālkars in 1745, and is still in good repair. (I.G. Bom., 1909, i. 412; B.G., xvii. 721 f.)]
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By this time the regular battalions on both sides had approached within musket-shot of each other, and the Moghul cavalry were advancing to the support of their infantry with apparent steadiness, when Rughoojee Bhonslay assailed them with a shower of rockets, at the same moment that they received the fire of thirty-five pieces of cannon, judiciously placed on an eminence by Perron. In the course of a very few minutes the whole of the cavalry were put to the rout; but Raymond’s infantry stood their ground, and had even obtained some advantage over Perron’s battalions, when Raymond, by repeated and peremptory orders, was compelled to follow Nizam Ally, who had already retreated towards Kurdla. By the time the detached portions of the Moghul army had been made acquainted with their leader’s intention, the sun had set, and darkness soon augmented the general confusion of the troops. Shots still continued to be exchanged in different directions after the night fell, and few men, except those of the half-disciplined battalions of Raymond, could find their own particular division. At last the multitude, worn out by fatigue and vociferation, gradually sank to rest, or lay down to await the return of day. But in the stillness of night a small patrol of Mahrattas, in search of water for their horses, came by chance to a rivulet, where lay a party of Moghuls, who, discovering what they were, instantly fired upon them. Raymond’s sentries, being in the neighbourhood, also fired, when their whole line, who lay on their arms, with their muskets loaded as they had retreated, started from their sleep and instantly fired a sort of irregular volley. The alarm which such a discharge of musketry occasioned in the state of the Moghul army at that moment may be conceived. The uproar suddenly became greater than ever, and many of Raymond’s Sepoys, seized with the general panic, quitted their ranks and mingled in the confusion. At last the moon rose, and Nizam Ally, in perfect consternation, sought refuge within the walls of Kurdla, a very small fort surrounded by hills. Most of his troops fled, plundering the baggage of their own army as they went off : but they were not allowed to carry away this ill-gotten spoil unmolested : the Mahratta Pindharees overtook them the next day, and, without experiencing the slightest opposition, stripped the panic-struck fugitives of everything.
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The Mahrattas, advancing in the morning, found guns, stores, and baggage, and all the usual wreck of an army, strewing the ground ; but their surprise was still greater on perceiving Nizam Ally shut up in Kurdla, and about one tenth of the original number of his troops lying round the fort. No people are more active and vigilant than Mahrattas on such occasions ; their most distant parties soon heard of this joyful intelligence, and came swarming ‘to plunder the Moghuls,’ whom in a short time they had completely enclosed, and on the ensuing day opened batteries, which commanded the fort as well as the position of the troops.
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Nizam Ally endured this hopeless exposure for two days, but on the morning of the 15th March he solicited and obtained a cessation of arms. The preliminary demand made by the Mahrattas was the surrender of the minister, Musheer Ool Moolk, that amends might thus be made for the insult offered to the Peishwa, in threatening to seize Nana Furnuwees. They next exacted territorial cessions, extending along the frontier from the district of Purinda on the south to the Taptee river on the north, comprehending the fort of Doulutabad and such part of those districts, formerly conquered by Sewdasheo Rao Bhow in 1760, as had been restored to Nizam Ally. Three crores of rupees were promised on account of arrears of revenue and expenses of the war : besides which, by a separate agreement, Nizam Ally ceded territory yielding three lacks and eighteen thousand rupees, in lieu of Rughoojee Bhonslay’s claims for Ghasdana in Gungthuree, estimated at three and a half lacks annually. Nizam Ally likewise promised to pay up the arrears due to Rughoojee Bhonslay, amounting to twenty-nine lacks, and to collect their respective shares of revenue in Berar according to ancient usage, for all which the Peishwa afterwards became Rughoojee’s guarantee.
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It was with extreme reluctance that Nizam Ally agreed to surrender the person of his minister. Musheer Ool Moolk urged him to the measure, especially as, under the circumstances in which they found themselves, they did not consider the other conditions so immoderate as might have been expected. The minister was delivered over to a party of two hundred Mahrattas, by whom he was escorted to their camp. The Peishwa met him at the outskirts and received him with distinction, but his person was carefully guarded. The Mahrattas were rejoiced to excess by this triumph, and a remark of the young Peishwa, when rallied by Nana Furnuwees on the melancholy which his countenance betrayed at the time of Musheer Ool Moolk’s arrival, was as just as from him it was interesting. ‘I grieve,’ said he, ‘to observe such degeneracy as there must be on both sides, when such a disgraceful submission has been made by the Moghuls, and our soldiers are vaunting of a victory obtained without an effort.’ There were scarcely two hundred men lost by both those two great armies in the battle, though a considerable number of the Moghuls were killed in the subsequent confusion and during the time they were surrounded; but to this day it is one of the great boasts of the old Sillidars in the Mahratta villages, that they were present in the glorious field of Kurdla.
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During the action, the British envoys at the respective courts of Nizam Ally and the Peishwa were in the neighbourhood. Nizam Ally was much incensed against the English for their neutrality, which he considered an abandonment of promised friendship. On his return to Hyderabad, he dismissed their two battalions, and ordered a great increase to the corps of Monsieur Raymond, assigning districts for their maintenance in the same manner as Sindia had done. The influence of the English was further diminished by the captivity of Musheer Ool Moolk, a great friend to their nation, and it was likely to be wholly superseded by the growing power of the French party, when an event occurred which induced Nizam Ally to recall their battalions, and the intercourse formerly subsisting was gradually renewed. The event alluded to was nothing less than the rebellion of Nizam Ally’s eldest son, Ali Jah, who, from the time of the convention at Kurdla, had been actively engaged in a conspiracy, the ring-leaders of which were all of the party most inimical to Musheer Ool Moolk and the English interests.
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On the night of the 28th June, Ali Jah quitted Hyderabad, pretending to be forcibly carried off by a Mahratta, named Sewdasheo Riddey, for the purpose of obtaining the authority of his name in raising an insurrection. He was soon joined by many of his partisans and took the route of Beder, of which fortress, and several other places of less consequence, he obtained possession. The season of the year was unfavourable to his success; but the vast body of unemployed horsemen in the country (fifty thousand of the Kurdla fugitives having been discharged by Nizam Ally in one day) rendered the insurrection extremely alarming, especially as several officers of rank joined the prince, and Tippoo, as was given out, had promised to support him.
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M. Raymond undertook to suppress this rebellion. He followed the prince to Beder, pursued him to Aurungabad, took him prisoner, and was bringing him to Hyderabad; but Ali Jah, unable to face his father, put an end to his existence by poison, before they reached the capital.
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On the return of the Peishwa to Poona, Nana Furnuwees was employed in distributing the late acquisitions,¹ and in settling various affairs with the different chiefs. Pureshram Bhow and Rughoojee Bhonslay remained in the neighbourhood of the capital, but Holkar and Sindia encamped at some distance, the former at Jejoory and the latter at Jamgaom, until news arrived of Ali Jah’s rebellion, when they repaired to Poona, with what view is not ascertained, nor is there any proof that the Mahrattas were instrumental to the rebellion, although it was suspected by Nizam Ally and has been affirmed by Moghul historians.
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¹ The whole of the particulars of this distribution were found amongst the Poona records; but much confusion having subsequently arisen, the intended arrangements were never entirely completed.
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By the middle of September, Doulut Rao had obtained his audience of leave, and proceeded to Jamgaom on his route to Hindoostan;—Pureshram Bhow had returned to the family Jagheer at Tasgaom;—Holkar continued at Poona, where Rughoojee Bhonslay also remained until the middle of October, when he was dismissed with great honour, receiving new sunnuds for a portion of territory lying on the south side of the Nerbuddah, which had been originally assigned to his grandfather by Ballajee Bajee Rao in 1750, but twelve of the districts² had not yet been conquered from the chiefs who, in the confusion that followed the decline of the Moghul empire, had become independent.³
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² These were 1st. Bachaee. 2d. Beechea. 3d. Burgee. 4th. Bhowangurh. 5th. Sypoor Choureeagurh. 6th. Khooreybharee. 7th. Kuthooteea. 8th. Pullahoo. 9th. Dujwurdha. 10th. Mookundpoor. 11th. Surnalpoor. And 12th. Ramgurh.
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³ This chapter is on the authority of original Mahratta papers, Persian and Mahratta MSS., and English records.
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Nana Furnuwees was now at the summit of prosperity; without the intervention of a foreign power, he had obtained every object of his ambition. Doulut Rao Sindia was favourably disposed towards him, and his ministers and officers were more intent on forwarding their own particular views in the government of their young master, than in schemes for controlling the Poona court. Tookajee Holkar had become imbecile, both in mind and body, and his officers were subservient to Nana. Rughoojee Bhonslay was completely secured in his interests, and the Bramin Jagheerdars were of his party. The Peishwa’s government had thus every prospect of regaining the tone and vigour it had possessed under the great Mahdoo Rao, but Nana’s fondness of power, and his anxiety to preserve it, brought on a catastrophe which speedily undermined his authority, overturned the labours of his life, and terminated his days in trouble and in misery.