Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c12.s2.5

v1.c12.s2.5

When the demand of 24 lakhs worth of territory for Mādho was placed before Ishwari Singh, he was rightly indignant at the Peshwā's partisanship of his rival and especially at his intervention in a domestic dispute of the Kachhwā royalty, and wrote in reply, "There is a unique and hereditary friendship between the Peshwā and myself. Bālāji Rāo cannot imagine how thick my father was with his and what services he rendered to Bāji Rāo. Even now I do not deviate from the Peshwā's request. But this question is one of inheritance of ancestral property. We are Rajahs and must follow our hereditary usage. It is a case of territory; how can I oblige him in this? I had previously given Mādho Singh what Malhar had pressed me to give him on the ground of service to the State. He now asks for more. How can I give him without fighting? How can I bring down upon myself the name of a coward and an unworthy son by dividing my entire kingdom with a younger brother? The Peshwā and Malhar want more territory to be given to Mādho Singh than before; but it cannot be done. God alone gives kingdoms. He exchanged turbans [with Malhar], the fruit of which pact he has witnessed by this time." [S. P. D. ii. 11, xxvii. 26 and 18-19, xxi. 17.]