Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s19: § 14. Sādashiv Rao Bhau’s plan of battle
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s19
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§ 14. Sādashiv Rao Bhau’s plan of battle
v2.c27.s19.1
Bitter was the jealousy felt by the Maratha generals towards the Bhāu’s favourite Gārdi sepoys, who were paid their salaries more regularly and at higher rates than the starving Deccani soldiery and whose mode of warfare that supreme commander had preferred to the traditional guerilla tactics which alone the Maratha army knew. Indeed, some days before the battle, Ibrahim and Malhar had almost come to blows over this difference in military policy. The Bhāu, therefore, isolated Ibrahim Khan's division on his extreme left, furthest from Malhar; and so it happened that his disciplined foot-musketeers were assembled in a very deep column (according to the French practice) in one place, instead of being distributed along his entire front, judiciously mixed up with his cavalry.*
v2.c27.s19.2
¹ their fire.... The bullets of Gustavus Adolphus were 12 to the lb.... The ordinary rate in the armies of the 18th century was 2 or 3 rounds fired per minute. The British infantry at Fontenoy carried 24 rounds per man. [Lloyd, 136, 112, 155.]
v2.c27.s19.3
Of the Bhāu's plan of battle we have no record; it can be only guessed from the known facts. He had, it appears, formed no plan except a general engagement along the entire front. From his situation, a mere break-through would have been fruitless. He could not march away with his fighting troops, as he was tied down to the city of Panipat by the presence of his women, lakhs of camp-followers and civil servants, heavy artillery, and all kinds of property acquired during seven months of successful progress through Hindustan. He had formed no base at Delhi or even at Bharatpur. Hence, his liberation could come only from a decisive defeat and flight of Abdali. His divisional generals acted throughout each on his own initiative, without receiving any reinforcement or even fresh direction from their supreme head during the changing course of the battle. Like a desperate gambler, the Bhāu staked everything on one throw of the dice, and did not arrange for a compact orderly retreat in the event of a defeat, because such a retreat was well-nigh impossible in his situation.
v2.c27.s19.4
∗ Friedrich the Great said (1755) that one should always have cavalry on the spot to help the infantry. [Lloyd, 162.]
v2.c27.s19.5
The Bhāu expected the regular sepoys of Ibrāhim Khan Gārdi to be the spear-head of the thrust from his left, while his central division under his own eyes would assail the Afghan centre at the same time. After the spear-head had penetrated into the opposite ranks, its work was to be completed by the advance of Dāmāji Gaikwād in support from behind it.
v2.c27.s19.6
§ 15. Why the Maratha right wing was paralysed.
v2.c27.s19.7
The Bhāu's absolute lack of worthy and dependable lieutenants was his greatest handicap compared with his opponent. The Maratha army of the North had no officer comparable to the brilliant galaxy of martial stars on the Durrāni side,—Jahān Khan, Shāh Pasand Khan, Atāi Khan, Karim Dād Khan, Najib and the wazir, each a match for the Bhāu himself. The Maratha right wing was composed of the contingents of Malhar Holkar and Jankoji Sindhia, a total of about 10,000 men. These troops had been beaten in every encounter with the Durrānīs and terrorized by the Afghan atrocities committed on their wounded and prisoners. They could not be brought to look the enemy closely in the face. Nor had they a single dashing leader capable of infusing a new spirit among the rank and file. Jankoji was an inexperienced youth just out of his teens. Antājī Mānakeshwar and other captains told off to support this wing, were too small men to take charge of an entire division or to call forth the devotion and obedience of the soldiery. Malhar Holkar was now a very old man and too weak to sit on horseback or to go through a fight. [Raj. iii. 516.] Even if he had retained the fulness of bodily vigour, would he, on this field, have gone back on his life’s experience and conviction in favour of guerilla tactics and against standing the shock of a pitched battle? Thus, it happened that the entire right wing of the Maratha army remained inert during the critical stage of the battle while the issue was still trembling in the balance. As these Maratha troops did not make any charge, Najib and Shāh Pasand Khan on their part merely remained on the alert, without attacking, till they could see which way the tide of battle finally turned in the rest of the field.
v2.c27.s19.8
As soon as Ahmad Shah had satisfied himself that it was not the ordinary daily skirmish of the past two months but a regular battle in full force for which the Marathas had sallied forth that morning, he ordered his own troops to form their line of battle facing the enemy. By the time this was done, the late winter sun had already risen, and the Shah galloped in front of his army inspecting every one of the divisions, and then fell back to his customary post in a red tent pitched two miles in front of his camp, and just behind the fighting troops.
v2.c27.s19.9
The battle began, as usual in that age, with a cannonade. The Maratha guns were larger and, owing to reckless aiming and faulty elevation, their shots fell harmlessly behind the Shah's troops. The Durrāni, like a wise general, reserved his fire at this stage, letting his enemies waste their powder in making an unprofitable noise. His own strength lay, not in big cannon, but in camel-swivels; and these he was resolved to use only at the right moment.