Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c29.s2.1

v2.c29.s2.1

Throughout the whole of 1762 and 1763 the Maratha power in the North was paralysed by the events at home,—Nizam Ali's invasion of Maharashtra and sack of Puna, Raghunath Dada's desertion to the enemies of his house and the civil war between him and the new Peshwa. It was only after the decisive defeat of the Nizam at Rakisban (10 Aug. 1763) that the Puna Government was free to attend to their interests in Hindustan. It also took a long time before the young Peshwa's advisers could recognise the fact that Mahadji Sindhia was the coming man and that their delay in filling up the vacancy caused by the death of Jankoji and their fatuous policy of appointing two heads to the Sindhia family with divided powers, were really ruinous to the Maratha cause in the North. Malhar Holkar's old age and recurring ill-health made a vigorous policy in Rajputana or Bundelkhand impossible, and thus things lingered on till his death (26 May 1766), when new and younger actors entered the northern scene as leaders of the Holkar and Sindhia families and Maratha pressure on Rajputana was resumed with effect. But two years before that time, the contest was complicated by the entrance of another factor, the Jat Rajah Jawahir Singh, who openly challenged the power of Jaipur and flung himself amidst the inter-State disputes of Rajputana. Throughout Jawahir Singh’s blood-feud with Najib Khan (1764-1765), Madho Singh wisely courted Najib’s friendship as a check on the insolent Jat Rajah on his western flank.