Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c29.s2.24

v2.c29.s2.24

Early in May 1769, Mahadji Sindhia marched from Ujjain to Udaipur in order to back the cause of Ratan Singh; he encamped at Bhaurasa, 16 miles east of the Sisodia capital. Tukoji Holkar went to Kota, but at Mahadji’s request joined the latter with 2,000 men, leaving the rest of his army at Sopārā (c. 10 May.) The two rival lords of Malwa immediately fell to quarrelling about the policy and conduct of the war, as their predecessors had done before them. Mahadji, though hired by Ratan Singh, was induced by Yashwant Rao Bāblé to discard that pauper and come to terms with Ari Singh as the party more likely to yield money. At first it was agreed between the two that Ari Singh would undertake to pay 35 lakhs (25 lakhs to the Peshwa and 10 lakhs to the two sardars) and that the Marathas in return would withdraw from the State and abandon the pretender’s cause. But Mahadji soon afterwards changed his mind and left everything in confusion. He merely sat down before Udaipur without investing the city. As Tukoji Holkar complained in his letter of 2 June, “I told Mahadji, ‘You have not yet run trenches. The rainy season is at hand. The Jat expedition is before us. Let us leave 2,000 of your men and the same number of mine here and march away. If we can cut off the grain and fodder supply of Udaipur, the work would be easily accomplished and the country would come under our control.' But Sindhia did not agree . . . His mind changes every hour." So, Tukoji in disgust left the camp at Bhaurasa on 2 June and marched back to his own station in Kota.