New History of the Marathas v3.c37.92

v3.c37.92

Narayanrao getting disgusted with the intrigues of the two Nagpur agents, in exasperation issued prompt orders recognizing Sabaji Bhosle as the Sena-Saheb Subah and commanding the agents to proceed post-haste to Nagpur along with the third agent Bhavani Shivram who had just arrived. The orders appointing Sabaji to the Nagpur headship are dated 16th August, that is, two weeks before the murder of the Peshwa. This date thus marks the beginning of the storm that was gathering. A very influential personal servant of R'rao and Anandibai named Tulaji Pawar, now became the moving spirit of another plot which he skilfully hatched and fearlessly executed. The original plan was to seize Narayanrao, put him in confinement, liberate R'rao and make him the Peshwa. It was this Tulaji who organized the subsequent plot of murder. He was found to be the chief culprit in the enquiry into the affair. He long escaped capture and when in 1780 his evidence came to be recorded, he said, that the plot "had started in the days at Theur," meaning that the decision was taken by R'rao, while the late Peshwa was at Theur, to secure the Peshwaship for himself after he was dead. This resolution on the part of the uncle was never lost sight of, although under the circumstances he could not immediately carry it out. Looking at the affair at this distance of time and from the recorded evidence that has accumulated, one is sadly struck with the utter neglect or incapacity of Narayanrao to take the most ordinary precautions for self-protection, which for a ruler of his position would have been easy. He possessed a sour temper, which often turned his best friends into enemies.