A History of the Mahrattas v2.c48.56

v2.c48.56

numbers were so inferior, that after a few skirmishes, in which they suffered severely, they would not advance unsupported by the regular battalions, before which the troops of the Byes retired, but as soon as the battalions returned towards their own camp, the insurgents also faced about and followed them. There is, perhaps, no parallel example of such an extraordinary state of affairs as that which the Peishwa’s territory presented at this period, where a rebellion against one prince was maintained within the territory of another, whom both parties acknowledged as their sovereign. The anarchy which it engendered may be conceived; the whole country suddenly swarmed with horsemen, and although plunder was not indiscriminate, great devastations were committed. The flame spread in Hindoostan; Lukwa Dada, a Shenwee Bramin already mentioned, second in importance to the confined minister Balloba Tattya, by whom Lukwa Dada had been first raised, having been suspected of disaffection in consequence of his attachment to Balloba, was deprived of power and dismissed from his employments. Being thus driven into the ranks of the insurgents, he soon raised a powerful army, repeatedly defeated the troops sent against him, and reduced the country from Oojein to Seronje.