Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c12.s2.30

v1.c12.s2.30

The shock of this blow spread to outside the capital. The Rajputs rose in the villages and killed the couriers of the Marathas wherever they could catch them, so that the roads were closed to them. Two days later (12th January) the Maratha army marched away from the gates of Jaipur to a place some eight miles off. Eight days passed in threats of war, after which (on 19th January) Madho Singh’s wakils waited on the two generals and on his behalf disclaimed all previous knowledge or share in the riot, which they described as a sudden and spontaneous explosion. They pleaded for a compromise, saying that the dead were dead beyond recall. The Maratha leaders, too, felt that with their present forces they were powerless to avenge the massacre. Jaipur city was impregnable to assault, the country was large and peopled by a warlike race. So, they agreed to forgive the past on the following conditions : (1) the restoration of all the horses captured in the city, (2) payment of compensation for the property plundered, and (3) delivery of orders on bankers for the ransom previously agreed upon.* Even then strained feelings and mutual suspicion continued and the Rajah and Malhar refused to see each other. The Maratha generals were being constantly pressed by Safdar Jang’s agent Rajah Ram Narayan present in their camp to hasten to his aid in the Bangash campaign, for which he agreed to pay 50 lakhs of Rupees as soon as the Afghan was defeated. But Mādho Singh put off payment from day to day with smooth promises, and thus more than three weeks were wasted before the Marathas could leave Jaipur territory. Meantime a terrible scarcity raged in their camp; rice sold at four seers, oil at 2 seers, *ghee* at 1½ seers, millet flour at 8 seers, and horse gram at 16 seers for a Rupee. No provision came to them by the regular way of trade; only their foraging parties brought in a little grain by raiding the villages. On 7th February, Malhar was encamped 24 miles east of Jaipur, and a few days afterwards he resumed his march to Agra by regular stages in order to join Safdar Jang. [S. P. D., xxvii. 64 and 65.]