Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c40.s9.10

v3.c40.s9.10

The Jaipur army had a mortal fear of Sindhia's superior artillery and trained battalions of musketeers, and shrank from a field action. Mahadji's salvation lay in the character of the Jaipur Rajah who had no brain, enterprise or even brute courage. As a British observer, unfriendly to Sindhia, remarked, "The Rajah of Jainagar appears to be a man deficient both in spirit and conduct, . . . a young man immersed in pleasure and exceedingly deficient in judgment, if not also in courage.* The bonds which unite the members of this confederacy are very weak, owing to the jealousy, distrust and even in some degree the opposition of interests, which may be discovered among them." [*PRC.* i. 117, 118.] The Jaipur Rajah's one policy was to avoid a decision by always putting things off to the future. In the daily skirmishes before the great battle, the fighting was done by the Rathors from Jodhpur and the troops of Hamadāni. That Mughal general angrily complained to the Rajah, "If such be the valour of your clansmen that throwing every affair on our shoulders they would stand aloof, then do you entrust all this business to me so that I shall see what I can do. If today [the 13th of July] the Rajputs had bravely exerted themselves, the war would have been decisively ended." The Rajah replied, "The war cannot be decided by skirmishing. On the day of the pitched battle you will witness the valour of the Rajputs." [*Akhbarat.*]