A History of the Mahrattas v2.c49.62

v2.c49.62

(Oct. 25.)—The armies drew out for battle on the morning of the 25th October. Holkar had fourteen battalions; six under Colonel Vickers,¹ four under Major Harding,² and four under Major Armstrong³: 5,000 irregular infantry, and 25,000 horse. Although Sindia’s infantry was in every respect much inferior to that of Holkar, Sewdasheo Bhow Bhaskur did not decline the contest, to which he was strongly urged by Captain Dawes. His cavalry and irregular infantry, including those belonging to the Peishwa, were, in point of numbers at least, equal to those of Holkar. The action began at half-past nine o’clock by a brisk cannonade, which continued with little interruption for two hours and a half. A body of Holkar’s Patan cavalry made a successful charge on the horse of the Jagheerdar of Vinchoor, but Futih Sing Manay, in a like attempt on the Peishwa’s Hoojrat Pagah (or horse on the personal establishment), was repulsed with very considerable loss. Sindia’s cavalry followed up the advantage, and those of Holkar were on the point of discomfiture, when Holkar himself, who had taken his station in the rear, sprang on his horse, and calling to those near him ‘now or never to follow Jeswunt Rao’ rallied the fugitives, and collected a compact body of his best horse, with which he met and repulsed those of Sindia.