Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c26.s2: § 3. Peshwa's policy in Marwar how thwarted
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c26.s2
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§ 3. Peshwa's policy in Marwar how thwarted
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From the beginning of this campaign the Peshwa kept assuring Jayapa of his full confidence in his valour and wisdom, but urging him not to carry matters to an extreme, as the Marwar Rathors were a race of famous swordsmen, justly proud of their having never yet suffered defeat from the Marathas. He advised his general to conclude the Marwar business as quickly as possible by tact and compromise, giving to Bijay Singh his father Bakht Singh's appanage and to Ram Singh his paternal dominions, or even dividing the Marwar kingdom equally between the two. For, there was a far more important and lucrative undertaking before the Marathas in Hindustan than changing the succession in a poor and barren Rajput State. Safdar Jang had recently died, and his son Shuja-ud-daulah had succeeded him in the rich provinces of Oudh and Allahabad ; now was the time to get a large sum out of him and also to secure the transfer of the holy cities of Allahabad and Benares to the Peshwa. The force accompanying Raghunath near Delhi was too small to exact these gains and to enforce the payment of the vast tribute promised by the wazir Imad-ul-mulk. And money was sorely needed by the Peshwa ; he was helpless before his creditors and unpaid officers ; "my Government is eternally in the grip of that consumption, the malady of debt." Fifty lakhs of Rupees if realized from Hindustan would be most welcome to him now. For achieving this object it was fatal to disperse the Maratha troops over a vast area. Jayapa was again and again ordered to free himself from the Marwar entanglement by any means whatever, to satisfy Ram Singh somehow by placing four or five Rathor chieftains under him as his supporters, and to avoid the extremely hard task of crushing Bijay Singh altogether, which would have kept the Maratha army engaged in Marwar till eternity.*
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∗ Jayapa goes to Marwar,—Aiti. Patren, 122, 124. TALS. 21a. Raj. i. 37, 39. DC. Tod, ii. (details of battle.)
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But Jayapa would not listen to his master, and even less to his local chief Raghunath or to his colleague Malhar. He was obsessed by the idea of capturing Bijay Singh’s forts and winning the whole kingdom for Ram Singh.
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§ 4. Early successes of Jayapa Sindhia in Marwar, 1755.
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At first fortune seemed to favour him. The strong fort of Ajmir was stormed by a Maratha division (under the local tribute-collector and not by Jayapa), on 21st February 1755. And shortly before this, the city of Jalor, where Bijay Singh’s hereditary hoards were deposited and which was regarded as his safest refuge in a day of adversity, fell into the hands of a body of Ram Singh’s partisans. A mixed Rathor-Maratha force under Jagannath Purohit and Santaji Bābhlé had invested Jodhpur itself and their sap was approaching the walls of the Rathor capital.
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At the same time, the rigour of the blockade of Nagor began to press its garrison hard. In March 1755 one tank of water within that fort dried up and there remained only one other to keep the defenders and other inmates alive. Famine raged in the beleaguered city; salt sold at 1½ seers per Rupee, rice at 13 seers, and opium—so indispensable to the Rajput, at Rs. 20 per seer, while firewood and grass were totally unobtainable. Men began to escape from Nagor whenever they could. Bijay Singh opened negotiations for terms through a holy abbot, Gosain Bijay Bhārati, but Jayapa demanded the impossible sum of fifty lakhs. At the same time, Jayapa finding his own water-supply failing with the approach of summer, wrested from the enemy's possession a well-watered village, Tausar, seven miles south of the fort, and shifted his camp there.
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∗ Aiti. Patren, 125, 127 (kshay-rogā samān karz-rog), 131 (partition proposed). Raj. vi. 327, 341.
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Hence, there was every prospect of his being able to capture Nagor and end the war in a few weeks. So, when, towards the close of February, Malhar and Sakharam Bapu, now free from their campaigns in the Doab and Mewat, offered to come to Nagor to reinforce him, Jayapa told them that it was unnecessary as he would successfully conclude the Nagor business in a few days, and that they had better go and attack Rupnagar. Raghunath Rao, too, was put off with exactly the same reply when he reached Pushkar (3rd March) and proposed to come to Nagor and personally effect a reconciliation between Jayapa and Bijay Singh and do what he could for reinstating Ram Singh on the throne of Jodhpur.
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Thus, the Maratha cause in Marwar, and in consequence of it, throughout Northern India too, was for the time being ruined by the selfish insubordination of one over-proud officer. And soon things began to turn against him. In March Jalor was recovered by Bijay Singh’s men. Jodhpur held out, and so did Nagor in spite of deepening privation hunger and thirst.* But Jayapa clung to his trenches with blind obstinacy. He wanted to wipe out the disgrace of his repulse by Bakht Singh in July 1752, and after his recent boast to the Peshwa and Raghunath he had not the face to turn back from the walls of Nagor without taking it.
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§ 5. Murder of Jayapa Sindhia, 24 July 1755.
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The exasperation grew bitterer on both sides, and at last the storm burst on 24th July, 1755. Peace-talks had been opened on behalf of Bijay Singh by Gosāin Bijay Bhārati some time ago, but no settlement was reached. The negotiator and his associates used to go and come between the city and the Maratha camp. On 24th July the Gosāin came to Jayapa’s tent with Rāj Singh Chaubān and Jajneshwar from Nāgor. They were joined by Rāwat Jait Singh Sisodiā, who was living in the Maratha camp as the Mahārānā’s ambassador, to lend his services as a neutral mediator. That day the discussion was prolonged and feelings ran high.* The Rathor envoy asked the Maratha general, “What do you mean by coming to our territory and demanding tribute? What do you take yourself to be?” Jayapa haughtily pointed to his sword as his authority. The Rathor pleaded, “Do not be too proud of your swordsmanship and strength of arm. Know that God alone can grant one man supremacy over another.” But these words only heightened Jayapa’s fury. After abusing the Rathor Rajah and his agents as cowards, he thundered out, “By the stroke of my shoes I shall collect tribute from you.” This was more than the ancient peers of Hindustan, claiming descent from the Sun and the Moon, could bear from a Brahman’s hereditary slipper-bearer. In an instant the Rathor’s dagger leaped out of its scabbard and was plunged again and again in Jayapa’s bosom; his companions completed the work with their swords. At once the alarm was sounded, and a wild tumult swept through Jayapa’s camp. The Marathas flew to arms; the three envoys of Bijay Singh were cut down, and the innocent
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∗ Raj. i. 44. SPD. xxi. 67 (for Dānaghās read Indānās), 69. xxvii. 106, 108, 105 (Ajmir captured.)
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∗ Murder of Jayapa,—TALS. 59a and *Chahar Gulzar* 400b both assert that Jayapa abused Bijay S. and the Rajputs in general during the last discussion. *Aiti. Patren*, 139, 141. (I have rejected 143 written in 1799). *SPD*. xxvii. 116, ii. 148. *DC*. under 26 July.
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The above are the authentic contemporary accounts. For the opium-eaters’ tales concocted later, see Tod, i (Personal Narrative) and *Vamsha Bhaskar*, iv. 3649-3652 (10 lakhs fine for the murder) and their echoes in Marathi in *Bhau Sahebanchi Bakhar*. A beautiful cenotaph was built at Nagor over Jayapa’s ashes.
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mediator from Udaipur shared their fate. Every Rajput present in the camp was hunted out and slain. Only Sardar Singh, the dispossessed heir of Rupnagar and a protege of Jayapa, was saved, but with the utmost difficulty.
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The crime did not benefit Bijay Singh at all. The confusion quickly subsided; Jayapa’s son Jankoji was proclaimed as the new chief in the masterless camp. The timid proposal to fall back on Ajmir was at once rejected as a cowardly surrender of Maratha rights and a blow to Maratha prestige throughout Hindustan. The siege trenches at Nagor were manned as firmly and the Maratha armies throughout the entire theatre of war presented as bold a front as before. This prompt and vigorous control of the situation was the work of Jayāpā’s brother Dattāji, the guardian of the lad Janko, and a first-rate soldier in courage and enterprise, though lacking in sagacity and diplomatic tact.
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§ 6. Rajput efforts against Marathas fail, 1755.
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Bijay Singh tried to seize the opportunity presented by the removal of Jayapa and to build up a coalition with Madho Singh, the Emperor, Suraj Mal, and the Ruhela leaders, for driving the Marathas out of North India altogether. He sent his agent to Delhi and through the wazir presented five lakhs to the Emperor, begging him to take the field against the Marathas and promising to pay him Rs 10,000 for each day of march and to join him with the Rajput tribal levies The puppet Padishah and his feeble wazir sent off letters summoning the vassal chiefs to the royal banner, and did nothing. Nearer home, Bijay Singh was more successful. Madho Singh, the Rajah of Jaipur, heartily entered into this plan of liberating his country from Deccani domination. He began to recruit new troops in Malwa and wrote to the Rajahs of Bundelkhand to join in this war of their common interest. He first got rid of the Maratha tribute-collector quartered on his capital, Govind Timaji, by encircling his house with troops and threatening to dishonour him, at which Govind took poison (September.)
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∗ This section,—SPD. xxvii. 112, 119, 117, 275. xxi. 71, 73, 77, 76, 80. ii. 49, 55 (which is completed by xxi. 74), 50, 51 (-53), 54, 87 (reply to xxvii. 112).
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Attacks were now delivered on the Maratha posts throughout Marwar. A band of Bijay Singh’s men, strengthened by troops from Jesalmir and Pokharan, started from Jalor against the Marathas who were besieging Jodhpur. But Dattaji was now completely master of the situation and promptly made effective arrangements for defence. While a detaining force continued before Jodhpur, a strong detachment from Dattaji’s own camp advanced against the oncoming enemy. The encounter took place at Godawas, 32 miles north-east of Jalor; the Rathors were defeated and driven into Godawas fort, which was at once blockaded by the Marathas and its provision supply cut off, so that grain sold in the beleaguered city at 2 seers a Rupee. While keeping his grip on Nagor unslackened, Dattaji sent out smaller detachments to every village where the Rathors had raised their heads.*
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Then a Jaipur force under Anurudh Singh Khangārot with allies from Shābpur, Rupnagar, Kerauli and Harawati, making a total of 25,000 men, and strong artillery, was reported as coming to the relief of Nagor [SPD. xxi. 74, 77.] The Jaipur army had at first marched in two divisions, under Anurudh and Jagannath Sah, against Naraina and Ramgarh respectively, but in fear of the Maratha detachment under Ranoji Bhoité advancing against them they had united at Ramgarh. Dattaji countered this move by pushing up to Bhoité a strong reinforcement of 6,000 men, partly composed of his own Marathas and partly of Ram Singh’s Rathor partisans. Anurudh was completely cowed by this superior force, and saw these Maratha generals on 10th October, asking for peace and agreeing to go to Dattaji for settling the terms. But on hearing that Bijay Singh’s retainers and a party of Bikanir troops under diwan Bakhtawar Mal were coming to his aid, in a body of some 2,500 fresh men, he broke off negotiations, and on 15th October set out from Ramgarh towards Nagor. Next day, from Datia he crossed the frontier and entered the Marwar territory. But during the preceding night a light force of Marathas under Bhoité, Narsingh Rao Sindhia, and Khanaji Jadav, had made a forced march from their halting place, and they now overtook and attacked the rear of the Jaipur army three hours after dawn. An obstinate combat raged for four hours. The Deccani moss-troopers galloped upon the cumbrous artillery of Jaipur, cut down the gunners, and in the end gained a complete victory. Anurudh lost seven to eight hundred men slain, and a thousand horses, 50 camels, two guns, and six tumbrils of munitions given up to plunder (16th October.) But a still greater disgrace befell him; his dead were not allowed to be removed for cremation. The Maratha losses were only two killed and forty-three wounded among the men and 70 horses.
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∗ Godawas, on the Sukri river, 32 m. n. e. of Jalor. Didwana, 55 m. n. e. e. of Nagor. Nagor, 43 m. n. w. of Merta. Daulatpur, 5 m. s. e. of Didwana. Naraina, 8 m. s. of Sambhar town. Ramgarh, 32 m. n. of Naraina and 38 m. e. of Didwana.
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Severely shaken by this defeat, the Jaipur general turned his face towards Didwana, moving by regular marches, his baggage placed in the centre of the column and his artillery in front. Constantly harassed and robbed of horses and transport cattle by the Maratha bands roving round him and his men and beasts worn out by want of water, he could not advance more than five miles a day. In this sorry plight he reached Didwana, 38 miles from Ramgarh on 20th October. During the last day of this march he had to pass twelve hours absolutely without any water, the Marathas having blocked up the wells and seized the tanks along the entire route in advance. The enemy, by repeatedly charging his rear and flanks, killed 300 of his men and took 125 of his horses and three of his guns, while large numbers succumbed to thirst.
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He durst not move out of Didwana. Similarly his expected allies, the men of Bijay Singh, were cooped up at Daulatpur (5 miles e. of Didwana.) A convoy of food coming from Bikanir to the Jaipur army in Didwana was cut off by the Marathas near Daulatpur, a hundred men of the escort being killed and the rest put to flight. The greatest scarcity raged in the Rajput camps; rice sold at 3 or 4 seers the Rupee, while fodder was almost unprocurable. Anurudh saw all hope of succour vanish and the way for advance and retreat alike closed. He came out with 200 horse and saw the three Maratha generals facing him on 31st October, but nothing was settled. Bijay Singh, too, sent envoys from Nagor proposing to visit Dattaji for arranging terms of peace (about 5th November.)
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§ 7. Jaipur and Marwar Rajahs make peace with Marathas, Feb. 1756.*
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In the mean time, on hearing of Jayapa’s murder, the Peshwa had ordered reinforcements to Marwar for retrieving the Maratha position there. The first to arrive was Antaji Manakeshwar, with 10,000 men (including Jat and Bhadauria allies), who had started from Kunch on the bank of the Jamuna on 4th September, and by making a safe detour through the hills by way of Indragarh, Khatauli and the Lakheri pass, had entered Jaipur territory near Nevai. Without coming to Nagor, he first ravaged the Kachhwa territory and then joined the Maratha force before Didwana (4th November), helping to make the blockade complete.
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∗ This section.—SPD. xxi. 70, 82, 83, 85. ii. 54, 56, 62, 63, 65. xxvii. 128. Aiti. Patren 142.
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The year had been marked by drought, and even in the open Maratha camp grain was selling at five seers a Rupee, while fodder was so scarce that a Rupee's worth of grass a day did not suffice for one horse. The water level in the wells had sunk to 225 feet below the surface. The situation within the blockaded city of Nāgor was even worse. At last life there became well-nigh unbearable, and on 12th November Bijay Singh slipped out of Nagor with 300 foot and 100 horse, intending to join the Jaipur army at Didwana. But finding that place enveloped by large enemy forces, he quickly changed his route and fled in headlong haste to Bikanir, where he arrived after ten hours of ceaseless riding.
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But the situation was no better at Bikanir. Around that city all the wells had dried up for 24 miles round, and Bijay Singh's attempts to raise a fresh army there failed. So, early in December he returned to Nagor, and reopened peace parleys with Dattaji. Madho Singh decided to secure the release of his army in Didwana by promising five lakhs of Rupees to the Marathas.
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The Maratha forces assembled in Rajputana were in overwhelming strength at this time (the end of 1755) and the Rathors could make no head against them. So, at last, Bijay Singh bowed to the inevitable and agreed to make peace on the following terms (end of February 1756) :
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(i) Ajmir fort and district were to be ceded to the Marathas in full sovereignty.
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(ii) A war indemnity of fifty lakhs was to be paid,—25 lakhs in the course of one year and the balance in two years more.
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(iii) The city of Jalor and half the territory of Marwar were to be delivered to Ram Singh, while Bijay Singh would rule over the other half and the cities of Jodhpur, Nagor and Merta. None of these terms except the first one was ultimately fulfilled.
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These negotiations having been concluded, at the end of February 1756, Dattaji halted before Nagor for some time, in the hope of collecting the money, and then moved on to Merta, and thence to Rupnagar, against which city he opened trenches on 22nd April. Here another division of the Maratha army under Shamsher Bahadur joined him on 5th May and completed the investment. Bahadur Singh, the usurping junior prince of the Rupnagar State, submitted to the invaders and yielded his city to his elder brother Sāmant Singh, whom he had ousted and whose cause had been taken up by Rām Singh and the Marathas. Then Dattaji returned (early in June) to his own fief of Ujjain,* while Shamsher Bahadur went back to Malwa. Thus, the Marwar adventure of the Sindhia family, begun four years ago, at last ended.
Linked texts (3)
- Selections from the Peshwa Daftar — Marathi
- Vaṃśabhāskar — Sūryamall Miśraṇ 1840, raj
- Bhāūsāhebāñcī bakhar — Marathi