New History of the Marathas v2.c30.49

v2.c30.49

We can here thus summarise the main causes of the Maratha disaster at Panipat : (1) Raghunathrao's failure to maintain order and discipline among Maratha agents in the north; (2) the failure of Holkar to restrain Najib Khan from doing mischief; (3) the Peshwa's failure to go to the north and adjust matters when it was yet time to mend them. These were the antecedent causes. The immediate causes were (4) the failure of Bhau Saheb with Dattaji Sindia's example before his eyes, to keep women and non-combatants behind at Bharatpur or even at Delhi at the time when he left that place to advance upon Kunjpura; (5) as soon as the two armies came face to face about the last day of October, Bhau Saheb should have at once attacked Abdali and maintained communications with his base at Delhi. He wasted two and a half months on the defensive in a besieged camp until starvation compelled him to make the last desperate effort for escape. But we have now no means of knowing why Bhau Saheb waited so long. (6) And the last culminating point was reached, when Bhau Saheb finding Vishvasrao killed, rushed headlong into the fight, perhaps under the impression, "after me the deluge." (7) One serious handicap from which the Marathas suffered may be noticed in passing. The strength of the Maratha fighter was in his horse. It was his horse that gave the strength of mobility to the Maratha army. Bhau Saheb commanded at Panipat a large body of the finest troops that ever went out from the south. But during the months of starvation in his besieged camp, most of the horses died, compelling all troopers to play the role of infantry for which they were not trained. This drawback could not be remedied.