New History of the Marathas v2.c26.48

v2.c26.48

Between 1741 and 1748 Balaji Bajirao had led four important expeditions personally into northern India, and kept a vigilant eye on the doings of his agents acting in his name in that distant field. But unfortunately his preoccupations in the south during the next eleven years after the death of Shahu, proved too engrossing to allow him time even to pay a single visit to the north. The affairs in that quarter came to be left entirely to Malharrao Holkar and the Sindia brothers, with the Hingnes at Delhi in charge of Maratha diplomacy, Govindpant Bundele in Bundelkhand and the Doab as a civil officer, and Antaji Mankeshwar as commandant of the small Maratha contingent in Delhi. The Peshwa's younger brother Raghunathrao was indeed sent twice to the north, but he proved too weak and incompetent for the heavy task.