New History of the Marathas v2.c30.52

v2.c30.52

7. Significance of the disaster.—It is a popular mistake of long standing to suppose that the third battle of Panipat destroyed the Maratha power in the north or that it essentially shook the Maratha Empire of India. Notwithstanding the terrible losses in man power suffered on that field by the Marathas, the disaster decided nothing. In fact it pushed forward in the distant sequel two prominent members of the dominant race, Nana Phadnis and Mahadji Sindia, both miraculously escaping death on that fatal day, who resuscitated that power to its former glory. Not long after the battle of Panipat the Maratha power began to prosper again as before and continued to do so for forty years, until the death of Mahadji Sindia or until British supremacy was established early in the 19th century by the second Maratha War (1803). The first set back the Maratha power received was by the premature death of their greatest Peshwa Madhavrao, which enabled the British power to come forward so easily on the stage of history and dispute Indian supremacy with the Marathas for a quarter of a century. The disaster of Panipat was indeed like a natural visitation destroying life, but leading to no decisive political consequences. To maintain that the disaster of Panipat put an end to the dreams of supremacy cherished by the Marathas, is to misunderstand the situation as recorded in contemporary documents. The truth is correctly stated by a learned scholar who asserts that,