New History of the Marathas v2.c33.7

v2.c33.7

Among northern opponents of the Marathas the Rajputs were the most powerful with Madhosinh of Jaipur at their head; but Malharrao Holkar soon succeeded in putting them down. Madhosinh and his confederates sustained a severe defeat at the hands of Holkar at Mangrol near Kota on 29th and 30th November 1761, and could no longer stand in opposition to the Marathas. Holkar was, however, called away to the south and Mahadji Sindia was for long crippled by not being at once recognized as the heir to his ancestral estates. It therefore took several years for the Maratha power to regain its pre-Panipat position in the north. The natural result of this Maratha deterioration was the easy ascendancy which the British acquired in Bengal and Bihar, where the three legitimate owners, the Emperor, the Wazir of Oudh and the Nawab of Bengal, were quickly put down during the three years following Panipat. Neither the Bhosles of Nagpur nor the Peshwa offered the least resistance to this British aggression. For young Madhavrao on gathering the reins of Government in his hands after his victory at Rakshasbhuvan (August 1763), the aggression of Haidar Ali became the most pressing problem and he was compelled to leave the northern affairs to Sindia and Holkar. Sindia, however, was for some years disabled from taking a bold action by Raghunathrao interfering in the succession dispute of the Sindian fief and declaring Mahadji a rebel.