Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c33.s5: § 8. How the leaders' disputes ruined the Maratha interests
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c33.s5
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§ 8. How the leaders' disputes ruined the Maratha interests
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When, after the victory over Nawal Singh (6th April, 1770), the Marathas arrived on the west bank of the Jamuna near Mathura, they found that Najib-ud-daulah had reached the east bank, for they had before this opened negotiations with him and he had marched out of his home in order to co-operate with them. Envoys passed and repassed over the river for some days, confirming the alliance and giving pledges of safe conduct, and the principals on the two sides exchanged visits in their tents.
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On 25th April first Tukoji and then Ramchandra Ganesh crossed over to the east bank, and Māhādji Sindhia two days later. They encamped close to Najib’s camp. Meantime a Jāt force had crossed the river higher up for defending the Doab. But it was of no avail; the allies swept everything before them, the leaderless Jāts making no defence against such odds. Some twenty villages of parganahs Shukohabad, Sa’adabad &c. were wrested from their Jāt administrators by Najib and placed under his own collectors and troops (early in May.) The Marathas, too, seized some other places and their roving Pindharis looted many more, ravaging the entire district. Soon afterwards a rupture took place between the allies. Najib, either fearing treachery from Māhādji or believing in the false accusations of Tukoji Holkar, marched away from the vicinity of his doubtful friends (10th May) towards Aligarh.
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Meantime the ex-wazir Ghāziuddin Imād-ul-mulk had come unasked from his asylum at Farrukhabad to Agra (c. 4 May), where he was visited by the Maratha chiefs with due honour. Then he forced himself as an unbidden guest on Sindhia’s camp. This introduced a fresh complication into Maratha affairs in the North, because their reception of the mortal enemy of the house of Alamgir II at once filled Shah Alam with the suspicion that they were planning to set up some other prince on the throne and govern the Empire through Ghāzi-ud-din as his wazir. This incident also antagonised Shujā and the English towards the Marathas. But the Marathas had not really formed any plot with him against Shah Alam; they were merely wavering, uncertain what to do in the changed political situation of Delhi since their last visit in 1760. [DC. CPC. iii. 216. SPD. xxix. 260, pp. 307-310.]
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The discord among the Maratha leaders and its fatal effect on their enterprise are well illustrated in the despatches sent to the Peshwa from the spot. As early as 4th May, Nāro Narsi wrote that Sindhia and Holkar were advocating diametrically opposite policies regarding the Jāt Rajah, with the result that Maratha diplomacy had failed in dealing with all the local Powers, great and small, and their main design was defeated, while the rainy season which would enforce inaction on them was fast approaching. A later despatch (written on the 17th) informed the Peshwa, "Sindhia is for accepting the indemnity offered by the Jāt Rajah, Holkar is against it. Our sardārs are daily quarrelling; they are not on speaking terms with one another. Three sardārs are present here, and yet not a pice has been realised."
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The party led by Holkar raised the demand on Nawal Singh to eighty lakhs of Rupees! At the end of May the Jat envoy rose to 65 lakhs, which the Maratha chiefs agreed to accept; but the higgling continued about the amounts and dates of the instalments, and the Jat demand that 20 lakhs out of this sum should be written off as compensation for the damage recently done to their lands and tenants by the Maratha-Ruhela forces. The Marathas rejected the new Jat proposal and resumed the seizure of their villages in the Doab, which did not bring the payment of the indemnity any nearer. These negotiations dragged on for months without any agreement. As Nāro Narsi wrote, "So long as the water level of the Ganges and the Jamuna was low the Jats carried on their parleys, but when the rivers were flooded their negotiations fell into delay." [SPD. xxvii. 214, xxiv. 246, 255—260.]
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§ 9. Maratha demands on the Bangash and the Ruhelas.
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Towards the end of May a Maratha detachment raided the Bangash territory in Farrukhabad. At the end of June, a force from Kālpi, led by Bālāji and Gangādhar (the sons of Govind Pant Bundélé) crossed the Jamuna at the invitation of some local zamindars and invaded the Etawa district from the south, capturing a number of villages (such as Auriya) from the local Ruhela collectors. [CPC. iii. 255, 307.]
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The monsoon now set in with full vigour. Ramchandra Ganesh brought together all his forces for cantoning in the Aligarh district. Up to this time though "the Jat territory had been totally devastated, no indemnity money had been paid." But the interception of a secret letter from Najib to Hāfiz Rahmat and other trans-Ganges Ruhelas betrayed their intrigue for treacherously foiling the Maratha designs by spinning out feigned parleys, precipitated matters, and drove Ramchandra Ganesh to close with Nawal Singh's offer. The Jat indemnity was fixed at 65 lakhs payable in three years, besides an annual tribute of eleven lakhs which would commence in the fourth year after the 65 lakhs had been fully discharged. Ranjit Singh was to be provided for by an appanage yielding 25 lakhs a year. A treaty to this effect was signed by the two parties and on 10th July Ramchandra's diwan started for the Jat capital to collect the first instalment. [*SPD.* xxix. 262, 246. xxvii. 214. *CPC.* iii. 323, 445.]
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Envoys from the three Maratha chiefs then set out for the seats of the trans-Ganges Ruhelas to demand the restitution of the Maratha jagirs they had usurped during Abdali's invasion ten years ago. They refused to yield an inch of land unless the Marathas first succeeded in making Najib-ud-daulah disgorge what he had seized in the Mirat and Saharanpur districts of the Upper Doab. The baffled envoys returned, but nothing could be done before the end of the rains. As Nāro Narsi wrote to the Peshwa on 18th August, "Your troops have nothing to eat. Up till now we have carried on by borrowing 5 to 7 lakhs of Rupees. But no further loan is procurable . . . No tribute has been realised by us. All the Rajputs are watching to see what success attends our efforts to get money from the Jat Rajah." [*SPD.* xxix. 246, xxvii. 214.]
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At last the bewildered Maratha chiefs took counsel with Najib-ud-daulah again. That Ruhela, whose shrewd policy had completely triumphed in the Doab and baffled the Marathas, now played another masterly stroke and succeeded in diverting the Maratha forces from the Bangash and Ruhela territories to the Jat possessions near Delhi. He told them, "So long as you cannot exact any indemnity from the Jat Rajah, you will not get a pice from the Doab. Therefore, you should detach ten thousand men from here. They will be joined by my 5,000 troops now in Delhi, and the two together will annex all the Jat territory near Delhi and drive the Jat so hard that he will perforce make peace by paying the money.” [*SPD.* xxix. 246.]
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So, on 29th August, a Maratha force of 5,000 horse moved north towards the Ganges, but stopped soon, as the season did not yet permit any campaigning over long distances. During their enforced halt, Najib feeling the approach of death, settled the indemnity with the Jat envoys in private (*c.* 28 September) and publicly with the Maratha chiefs on 8th October in a darbar held day and night. Then he gave the Maratha generals their *congee*, sending his son Zābita khan in their company, and himself set out for his home, only to die on the way at Hāpur on the last day of the month. [*DC.*]
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§ 10. *Progress of Maratha arms after Najibuddaulah’s death.*
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On the death of Najib-ud-daulah a new scene opened and Maratha policy underwent a complete change. Freed at last from the malign influence which had hypnotised all their chiefs except the clear-sighted Māhādji Sindhia for the last seven months, Maratha enterprise in Hindustan rapidly achieved a series of brilliant successes with the most far-reaching consequences.
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In the second half of November the Marathas spread, ravaging the districts of Etawa, Shukohabad and Qanauj. Ahmad Khan Bangash was prepared to buy them off, but Hāfiz Rahmat urged that it was better to fight than to pay. The Marathas continued recovering many places in the Doab from the Afghan hands. At the beginning of the next month Ramchandra Ganesh laid siege to Etawa, which had been taken away by the Ruhelas from the Peshwa's agents just before Panipat. This fort was now held by Kabir Khan, on behalf of Hāfiz Rahmat. After a fortnight Kabir found resistance useless as there was no hope of succour. On 15th December he vacated the fort on being granted his life and property; at noon the Peshwa's standard was hoisted on the ramparts and a Maratha garrison put in. [CPC. iii. 505, 517, 530. SPD. xxix. pp. 311-313, Shaikh Kabir is paid Rs. 50,000 as the price of the grain and stores in the fort as well as the arrears of his *sebandi* troops.]
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This close approach of the Marathas to the frontier of the district of Kora excited great alarm at the Court of Lucknow. Shuja-ud-daulah sent his son with a strong force, including Umrao-gir's Gosain corps, to the frontier post of Cawnpur by way of precaution, and wrote urging the English Governor to move up a body of their own troops from Patna to the Kora district in support (early in January 1771); and some time later he himself arrived at Cawnpur. The alarm spread even to the English city of Patna. [*CPC.* iii. 562, 564, 577.]
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But the Maratha leaders' attention was now diverted to the north,—to the Bangash principality and Delhi. At first Ghāzi-ud-din Imād-ul-mulk, the ex-wazir, arranged a treaty between the two parties; Ahmad Bangash, Hāfiz Rahmat and Dundi Khan agreed to pay 22 lakhs in the course of three years, in full satisfaction of the claim for the revenue of the Maratha territories in the Upper Doab that they had enjoyed for these ten years. Holkar tore up the treaty and demanded the expulsion of Ghāzi-ud-din and war with the Afghans. So, Ghāzi-ud-din retired in disgust to Ajmir. Early in January 1771 a clash was precipitated between a large roving band of Maratha raiders near Farrukhabad and the Ruhelas, who rushed out to attack them, killing many of the plunderers and routing the rest. Hāfiz sent a large force to strengthen the defence of Farrukhabad. Then the Marathas resumed their negotiations, because they had been further weakened by the hopeless divisions among their leaders. [*CPC.* iii. 571.]
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§ 11. Renewed quarrel between Sindhia and Holkar: failure and discredit of Ramchandra Ganesh.
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After the death of Najib-ud-daulah the quarrel between Sindhia and Holkar broke out afresh over the question of the attitude to be adopted by the Marathas towards Zābita Khan. Visāji Krishna (with the support of Sindhia) demanded from him a fee of 25 lakhs of Rupees for succession to his late father's post of Mir Bakhshi, as Najib was known to have been the richest noble in India after the Jat Rajah, while the Marathas were starving and overwhelmed with debt as the result of their futile Doab campaign. Holkar backed Zābita and pledged himself to get the Ruhela acknowledged by the Emperor as Mir Bakhshi without his having to pay anything to the Peshwa. Zābita, therefore, scornfully rejected Visāji's demand. Then Visāji and his party sent an ultimatum to Tukoji to expel Zābita from his camp. [CPC. iii. 571, 605, 614.]
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It was Ahmad Khan Bangash's ambition to be appointed Mir Bakhshi through Maratha patronage, if only Zābita could be denied that high office, and he therefore continued bidding higher and higher for Maratha favour* through his pensioner Ghāzi-ud-din (who had influence over Sindhia). At the beginning of January Tukoji had prevented a settlement being made with Ahmad and Hāfiz Rahmat ; but by the 26th of that month he had been overruled, and peace was made on condition of the Bangash paying 10 lakhs and Hāfiz Rahmat 22 lakhs. [SPD. xxix. p. 313.]
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∗ As a news-letter from the Doab reported, "All the officers of the Maratha army are Visāji's friends and they consider Ramchandra Ganesh a fool. All this is due to the instigation of Mahadji Sindhia. Visāji and Mahadji wish to make Ahmad Khan Bangash Mir Bakhshi, for he has promised them a sum of money." [CPC. iii. 605.]
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Ramchandra Ganesh, the nominal head of the Marathas in Hindustan, "was disgusted with these machinations" and cross-currents of intrigue in his own camp; he felt that all power had slipped out of his hands into those of Visāji allied to Māhādji. So, in "extreme dejection" he determined (c. 26 January 1771) to march back alone to the Deccan, taking his own contingent of Household Cavalry (*huzurāt pathkā*) with him. But a compromise was effected and he was prevailed upon to stay. The Maratha council of war now decided to march out of the Farrukhabad territory to Delhi, take possession of the capital, and "there establish either Ghāzi-ud-din or Ahmad Khan or anybody else who would give them money." The utter failure of Maratha war and diplomacy in the Doab in 1770 proved that Holkar's policy (endorsed by Ramchandra Ganesh) of working hand in glove with the arch-deceiver Najib, was an utter folly and that Mahadji Sindhia who had advocated the opposite policy had truer political vision. Tukoji and Ramchandra were utterly discredited in the eyes of their colleagues and master. Sindhia's counsels henceforth triumphed and, in close concert with Visāji, he took charge of the guidance of Maratha affairs; Visāji mounted to the supreme command on the crest of the rising wave of national success and these two confederates’ triumph in capturing Delhi (10 Feb. 1771) confirmed his promotion by securing the Peshwa’s assent to the supersession and recall of Ramchandra Ganesh. The ejection of Zābita Khan from their league, the check to that eternal marplot Tukoji Holkar, and the paralysing of Ramchandra Ganesh, “whom all the officers of the army considered a fool,” gave an unwonted unity and vigour to Maratha policy from this date (27th January) onwards, and striking successes were achieved in consequence. [CPC. iii. 605.]
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§ 12. The Marathas capture Delhi and escort the Emperor to his capital.
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This brings us to the Maratha relations with the imperial exile at Allahabad. On 20th December 1770, Shah Alam from his Court in that fort sent Saifuddin Muhammad Khan as his envoy to the Maratha chiefs to hire their armed aid in restoring him to Delhi, as the recent death of Najib-ud-daulah had made the possession of Delhi a pressing issue. His heir Jawan Bakht and mother Zinat Mahal lived in the imperial capital, which was guarded by a contingent of Zābita Khan’s troops (about 3000 strong), while Zābita himself with a division of the Maratha army under Holkar was then occupying the districts round Delhi in the Emperor’s name, as in his father’s time. The Marathas now held the key to the control of the Delhi Government, as Najib was dead, Ahmad Shah Durrani was dying and hopelessly entangled in his own dominions, Zābita Khan was an inexperienced youth, and Dundi Khan was stricken down with paralysis.
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While the future was looking quite dark to Shah Alam and his inner council in their ignorance as to whom the Marathas would declare as Mir Bakhshi or even crown as Emperor, Mahadji Sindhia had sent a secret letter to him professing sincere devotion to his cause and offering to escort him to Delhi if his expenses were paid. The reply was the despatch of Saifuddin Muhammad from Allahabad to the Maratha camp. A bargain was ultimately struck, though there was a hitch in the interval due to Sindhia's recall of Ghāzi-ud-din, the unpardonable enemy of the Emperor, from Ajmir to his camp.
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Then, leaving the environs of Farrukhabad (about 27th January 1771), the Maratha host marched by way of Mainpuri, Shukohabad and Aligarh to Patparganj opposite Delhi (5th Feb.), after looting and burning Sikandrabad on the way (c. 2nd Feb.). On Thursday, 7th February, Saifuddin left the Maratha camp, forded the Jamuna, caused the Delhi Gate of the capital to be opened, assured the citizens that they had now nothing to fear from the Marathas, and going to the Jāmi Masjid made Musavi Khan Baluch's brother, then in charge of the city on behalf of Zābita Khan, proclaim Shah Alam, and demanded the surrender of the fort. Under orders of the Queen Mother, Qāsim Ali (Zābita’s qiladar) refused to deliver it and opened fire from the walls in defence. The resistance of the masterless citadel was futile. A short bombardment by the Maratha guns made a breach in the Asad Burj and soon brought the qiladar down on his knees; he made terms for a peaceful surrender* at noon on the 9th. Early in the morning of the tenth, Bālā Rao Govind, an officer of Sindhia, entered the fort, posted his own troops in charge of its ramparts, and expelled Zābita Khan’s garrison. A Maratha contingent of 5000 horse occupied the city.
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Visāji was appointed by the Crown Prince collector of the districts round Delhi, especially to the north, which Najib had so long appropriated to himself. Sindhia and Visāji now† became all in all in the counsels of the Prince and at his Court. What were the victors to do next? Their most pressing need was money. The Heir and the Queen Mother were really powerless. So, negotiations were opened (12th March) with the Emperor through the Crown Prince, for bringing Shah Alam back to Delhi at the head of a Maratha force and restoring the fort to his officers, in return for 25 lakhs as expenses and the cession of Mirat and some other districts, besides giving the Maratha chiefs the right to appoint all imperial officials below the wazir and take half the nazar paid by the newly appointed functionaries.
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∗ CPC. iii. 605-665. DC. SPD. xxix.
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²⁶⁵ Shaikh Qāsim the qiladar was paid Rs. 11,000 by Bala Rao, probably as the salary of his sebandi troops. (Ibid, p. 314.) † Holkar kept himself at a distance, and his ally Ramchandra Ganesh sulked in aloofness at being completely eclipsed by his rival. On 26th April a proclamation was read that the Peshwa had appointed Visāji as leader of the Marathas vice Ramchandra recalled. DC.
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The Emperor now prepared for marching out of Allahabad to Delhi, which the Marathas had agreed to hand over to him in return for the promised subsidy. On receiving the first instalment of it, they delivered possession of the fort to his agent on 2nd August. In the course of his march to Delhi the Emperor arrived near Farrukhabad, and demanded a succession fee or tribute from the son of Ahmad Khan Bangash who had recently died. But Fakhr-ud-daulah, the chief minister of the Bangash Government, assembled thousands of Afghans from the country around and made preparations for war. The Emperor called Māhādji Sindhia to his aid. Sindhia with a vast force of horsemen and artillery made a rapid march to that side. But when he arrived at Marhera, Fakhr-ud-daulah, in terror of the Maratha arms, at once yielded and made peace with the Emperor. Mahadji retraced his steps from Marhera, disappointed in his expectation of rich booty from Farrukhabad, but he made no complaint as "he had lofty ambitions about the future." [*Ibratnamah*, i. 200.] On 18th November he waited on the Emperor at Nabiganj and formed his escort to Delhi, which was entered on 6th January, 1772.*
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§ 13. *Visāji Krishna triumphant; Ramchandra Ganesh dismissed, his later history.*
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We shall here complete the story of the Maratha dissensions in the North. The news of the capture of Delhi on 10th February 1771 caused the wildest exultation at the Court of Punā. It recalled to the memory the capture of the same imperial city by the Bhāu on 2nd August 1760, and was popularly believed to have undone the work of Panipat. The credit of this "great achievement" was given to Visāji and Sindhia. On 26th April, the Peshwa's orders were received at Delhi appointing Visāji Krishna to the command of the Maratha forces in Hindustan, supplanting Ramchandra Ganesh. That fallen chief set out from the environs of Delhi, in the deepest humiliation, for the Deccan. But Holkar and Sindhia sent some of their highest officers to intercept him at Faridabad and induce him to come back. To them he replied, "I have no quarrel with Sindhia or Holkar. I am going away to the Deccan because Visāji has not given me the Peshwa's letter. He is sending me off after lowering my position, and I can therefore return only if these two generals and Visāji come here and personally entreat me to go back.” This was done, after he had proceeded to Palwal.
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∗ *DC. CPC. iii. 695, 717, 812, 828, 888, 895, 987. SPD. xxix. 89; pp. 317-321. Ait. Charitren, iv. p. 111.*
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At this turn of affairs, Visāji grew angry and left Delhi with the Household Cavalry of his master, crossing the Jamuna and going to Ghaziabad (c. 22 May, 1771.) Thus a new twist was given to the Maratha puzzle and their leaders assumed a new grouping. Visāji Krishna stood out in absolute isolation, while Sindhia and Holkar allied themselves with Ramchandra Ganesh. As the Peshwa's agent wrote from Visāji's camp, “Our domestic dissensions have been made manifest to the public. Visāji has broken with both the Maratha-caste sardars and gone off abandoning the control of Delhi. His antagonism to them for the sake of Ramchandra is ruining our plans. People are saying that unless the two Maratha-caste sardars support him, nothing undertaken by Visāji can succeed.”* Mahadji and Tukoji wanted to give the supreme command of the army in Hindustan to Ramchandra once again, but Visāji kept firm hold of Delhi fort and sent his correspondence with his rival to the Peshwa for his orders.
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∗ *SPD.* xxix. 265, 266, 268, 269, 272. *DC.* *CPC.* iii. 810, 812.
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The Peshwa’s reply was a stern reprimand to the two sardars for violating his previous order about superseding Ramchandra Ganesh. So, Visāji was confirmed in his office, and is henceforth designated in the Persian records of the time by the curious title of “Peshwa” i.e., the supreme chief of the Marathas in the North.
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Poor Ramchandra Ganesh, after being flouted and beaten to and fro like a shuttlecock, at last left Delhi for the Deccan (10th September 1771). A body of silahdar cavalry had been seduced by him from obedience to his successor and these men lingered in Sitaram’s Sarai (outside Delhi) for some months after, but were paid their arrears of salary and won over in April 1772.
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Visāji Krishna now became the head of the Maratha forces in Hindustan without a rival. But he was too weak a man to enforce obedience on Sindhia and Holkar, or to unite them in the national cause. Henceforth Maratha policy in the North parted into two irreconcilable paths, Sindhia and Holkar each took his own line regardless of the other’s, and no joint enterprise for the common interest of the nation was possible. Briefly put, henceforth Sindhia by acting individually and secretly wormed himself into the Emperor’s confidence. Holkar, on the other hand, antagonised Shah Alam by supporting Zābita Khan with demonstration of force, while Visaji Krishna cared only to get possession of the region north of Delhi for himself.*
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After returning to Punā, Ramchandra Ganesh tried to show his resentment at his supersession and to throw public odium on his master, by following the Muslim trick of "turning faqir." He stripped himself naked, with only a towel tightly drapped round his waist, took a beggar's bowl in his hand like a *sannyasi*, and went through the streets of Puna for two days, making a parade of begging alms of grain from the citizens, who were more amused than shocked by this mummery (July 1772. Khare, iv. 1904.) The Peshwa sternly forbade him to make a fool of himself in public. Ramchandra long kept up the hope that another turn of Fortune's wheel would overthrow Visāji Krishna, whose place in Delhi he would then get. But Madhav Rao's death that November and the murder of his successor ten months later, dashed all his hopes to the ground. Visāji Krishna amassed a fortune in the North, which he devoted to the cause of his patron Raghunāth Dādā in the war for the Peshwaship that began in 1774.
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∗ At Pānipat, in the temple enclosure outside the city, there is a small temple with a Persian inscription stating that it was built by Visāji's son Mahipat. In a neighbouring temple a beautiful piece of sculpture representing the purely Maratha god Dattātreya has been preserved.
Linked texts (1)
- Selections from the Peshwa Daftar — Marathi