Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s29.1

v2.c27.s29.1

The primary source for the history of the Bhāu's campaign in Hindustan (March 1760—January 1761) from the Maratha side is the long series of letters from the Bhāu to Govind Ballāl and others and several of Govind Ballāl's letters which V. K. Rājwādé recovered and printed in his *Sādhanen*, vol. i, as well as a few stray letters of that period in his vols. iii. and vi, and a small sheaf of the historical letters still extant in the Peshwās' record office and included in G. S. Sardesai's *Selections from the Peshwas' Daftar*, vols. ii, xxi, and xxvii, and two or three letters printed by V. V. Kharé in his *Lekh Sangraha*, vol. i. Only two of these touch the last battle, and that too very briefly. The *Bhāu Sāhibānchi Bakhar*, the *Pānipat Bakhar* and *Holkarānchi Kaifiyat*, in the same language, have to be rejected as later gossipy fabrications, no better than opium-eaters' tales. But what puzzles the critical historian in the *Bhāu Sāhibānchi Bakhar* is that, hopelessly mixed up with its mass of demonstrably false statements, there are some.