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Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c41: Chapter XXXVI. The Eclipse of Mahadji Sindhia

Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c41

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Chapter XXXVI. The Eclipse of Mahadji Sindhia

§ 1. Course of events during Mahadji's loss of the Regency of the Empire

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When Muhammad Beg Hamadāni with his powerful army joined the enemies of Mahadji Sindhia (on 25th May, 1787) and that Maratha chief beat a hurried retreat from Jaipur territory, the news of it at once shivered his newly built and ill-knit dominion into a hundred fragments. A world of enemies raised their heads against him;—rivals for his position as imperial Regent, heirs of old houses whom he had dispossessed, Hindustani officers whose vast alienations of Crownlands (worth 70 lakhs of Rupees a year) he had taken back, greedy old courtiers whose perquisites and corrupt influence he had curbed, and the entire North Indian Muslim society to whom the regency of a Hindu was an abomination.

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The future at this time looked utterly dark and menacing to him. But amidst the distraction caused by reverses on every side and the total absence of friends and resources in every direction in which he cast his eyes, Mahadji always nursed in his heart the two objects of keeping the regency of the Empire and of punishing the Jaipur and Jodhpur Rajahs for the damage done to his prestige. To one determination he held firmly throughout: he would not cut his losses and retire to the south, abandoning his north Indian ambitions altogether and contenting himself with the district of Gwalior which he had won from the Gohad chief four years earlier. He was a strong-willed reserved man, whose inner mind even his four intimate counsellors could not correctly fathom; he gave his ear to them but not his tongue. Hence the amazing reports sent off by the professional news-writers in his camp, that Mahadji was utterly bewildered and changing his mind from day to day. Not so; he was not a man to wear his heart upon his sleeve for the chattering jays of the hand-written press to peck at.

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In the light of the large mass of minute contemporary records and almost day to day letters from himself, his officers and observers near him preserved in the Marathi, Persian and English languages, it is now possible to see a clear thoughtful planning and a sustained consistency in his policy, with the necessary variety and flexibility in the choice of means from the day of his retreat from Lalsot to the day fourteen months later when Delhi was reoccupied in his name. A sketch of this period, if given here in outline, will save the reader from the distraction of details and the cross-currents of four or five episodal events that filled the interval.

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The eclipse of Mahadji Sindhia began at the end of May 1787 when he hurried back from the Jaipur kingdom towards his base at Dig, and it was completed on the 1st of August when he retreated from Lalsot The tide turned decisively in his favour after 17th June 1788, when under the walls of Agra he destroyed Ismail Beg's army as a fighting force. Although he took three months and a half more to re-occupy Delhi, yet after that 17th of June all people knew that Sindhia had become master again and they hastened to make terms with him. But alas! during this interval of fifteen weeks the Delhi royal family was laid in the dust and the veil of divinity that hedged them in was torn asunder by the rude hands of Afghan spoilers. It was a tragedy of even greater poignancy than the downfall of the French monarchy five years later.

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When Sindhia turned his back on Lalsot his first care was to reach a place of safety and withdraw his family and those of his Deccani officers from Dig and then send then home. Along with the women he removed to Gwalior his artillery, camp and heavy baggage, and he also disbanded his Hindustani troops and trained sepoy battalions (except a few). Thus lightening himself, he turned aside to the west, in order to interpose between the advancing Rajput army now strengthened by the adhesion of the Mughalia troops and the city of Delhi on the east. His aim was to preserve contact with the imperial capital and safeguard his son-in-law Lādoji Deshmukh Shitolé who represented him at Court as Deputy Regent. But the matter was taken out of his hands by the impetuosity of Ghulām Qādir and the cowardice of Lādoji. At the approach of this Ruhela chief, Sindhia’s agents fled away from Delhi (24th August) and Ghulām Qādir was admitted to the presence and was appointed Mir Bakhshi and Regent (*vice* Sindhia) by the frightened Sovereign (5th September.) Before this dismissal, Mahadji had decided to support his sole ally the Rao Rajah of Macheri by his presence and to strengthen himself by that Rajah’s resources as the only means of preventing a Jaipur advance to Delhi. With the loyal and unstinted aid of the Rao Rajah, he lived at Alwar from 24th August to 2nd November, and thereafter came to Rewāri, at the urgent call of the Emperor, whose palace Ghulām Qādir had begun to bombard.

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During this period Sindhia suffered heavy losses: Agra city fell to Ismail Beg on 16th September, Ajmer city to the Jodhpur Rajah on 27th August, the whole of the Doab was lost, and only the fort of Aligarh held out, to fall eventually on the 17th of February next year. While Ismail Beg’s siege of Agra *fort* was going on, a further threat to Sindhia’s power appeared in the person of Prince Jawān Bakht (Jahāndār Shāh) who came out of his asylum at Benares and reached Agra at the beginning of November. But he had no men or money, the English would not and the Nawab of Oudh could not help him in a war against Sindhia; and his own haughty irascible character, even more than the clash betwen their personal ambitions, made him quarrel with Ismail Beg, and the baffled heir to the throne at last went back to British territory (arriving at Farrukhabad about 23rd Feb. 1788). His adventure achieved no other result than to give a good fright to Sindhia and help in pushing that chief beyond the Chambal.

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From the Rewāri district Mahadji made a vain attempt to bring the Emperor over to his own side by sending Ambāji Inglé on an embassy to Delhi (14th Nov.) and another equally futile effort to raise Ismail Beg's siege of Agra (15-18 Dec.) At last, abandoning all field operations north of the Chambal, Mahadji retired beyond that river (20th Dec.) and encamped on the south bank of the Kumāri brook, 28 miles north of his stronghold of Gwalior. He had now no Maratha force in the north, execept those shut up in Agra and Aligarh.

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During the three months of his total exclusion from the north (20 Dec.—16 March 1788), Mahadji wisely devoted his resources to crushing the rebels and raiders in Malwa and the Rajput border land and thus set his hands free for taking a fresh initiative in the north. During this period also the Emperor led an expedition to Rewāri, met the Jaipur Rajah (3 Feb.), fought the refractory Najaf Quli Khan (12 March) and came back to Delhi on 23rd March after patching up a nominal peace with that powerful rebel. Early in April next began the new Maratha offensive in Hindustan. Fresh troops having come from the Deccan homeland, Rānā Khan was sent with them across the Chambal (4 April) and joined his constant ally, Ranjit Singh the Jat Rajah of Bharatpur.

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By admirably planned tactics and exactly timed movements, this general gave Ismail Beg the slip, surprised the siege trenches before Agra, and provisioned the fort with lightning rapidity (9 April). While Rānā Khan hovered round Agra, cutting off Ismail’s provisions in spite of many reverses in open actions, Devji Golé and Rayaji Patil recovered the Mathura district and then crossed into the Doab, convulsed Ghulām Qādir’s dominions there, and stopped the coming of provisions to the besiegers of Agra. This strategy enforced a separation between Ismail and his ally Ghulām Qādir, as the latter hurried back from Agra to the Doab to defend his own estates; and then Rānā Khan, instantly seizing the isolation and weakness of Ismail Beg, inflicted a decisive defeat on him (17th June.) The country west of the Jamuna was now cleared of Sindhia's enemies, and that Chieftain himself advanced from the Gwalior side to Mathura (4th July.) But he could not recover Delhi till three months afterwards, during which interval Ghulām Qādir sacked Delhi and blinded the Emperor. Sindhia’s agents effected the unhappy sovereign’s restoration (the *khutba* being read in Shah Alam’s name again on 17th October 1788), and Ghulām Qādir was captured on 18th December and done to death in March next. There was none left now to dispute Sindhia’s supremacy.

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The main incidents of these fourteen months were four, namely the obstinate struggle of Mahadji with Ismail Beg Hamadāni, the meteoric rise and fall of Ghulām Qādir Ruhela, Shah Alam’s campaign against the rebel Najaf Quli Khan, and the adventure of Prince Jawan Bakht which ended in utter futility. The activities of the Rajput Rajahs, the two Gosain brothers, and other petty adversaries counted only as minor episodes.

§ 2. Mahadji Sindhia’s changes of policy and measures during the eclipse of his power: estimate of his forces, money and allies

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Having thus briefly surveyed the course of events during Mahadji Sindhia’s loss of control over northern affairs, we shall study his policy and resources during the same troubled period. First of all, from his halting place near Dig he sent off to Malwa the families of his Deccani officers along with his own wives and children and all his heavy artillery, tents and surplus baggage. At the same time he bade his camp-followers and other noncombatants go away wherever they could find their bread, so that quite two-thirds of this vast horde left him [on 11th August. *Akh.* SJ. ms 74.] As for his troops he firmly refused to throw away his good money on the faithless Hindustanis still with him, though he owed them nearly a year's pay; he would spend the money more usefully on the fresh and reliable troops expected from the Deccan. The Hindustanis were offered a small daily subsistence, but the discharge of their arrears was made conditional upon the conquest of Jaipur! Their captains were offered jāgirs instead of money, in full clearance of their dues, but only in the Doab tracts of which he had been recently robbed and which they must reconquer from the usurpers. In fact Mahadji was deliberately working for the departure of these disloyal and useless troops from his army in disgust at his insolvency and the famine prices then raging; he said that their covert treason and passive conduct had led to the failure of his Lālsot campaign, and he would therefore pay cash to none but the Deccanis. [*Akh.*]

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But he also felt that the Deccani troops then with him, though thoroughly loyal, had grown stale by eight years' continuous absence from home and campaigning in north India ever since he had come to Malwa in 1780 to oppose Col. Camac, and that no great work could be got out of them; for that he must wait for the arrival of fresh troops from Maharashtra. For such fresh the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.

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But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.

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Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.

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It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.

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the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.

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But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.

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Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.

v3.c41.s2.9

It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.

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and faithful instruments he had written pressingly to the Peshwa, and indeed to every possible helper, including small men like Beni Hazuri, Dhokal Singh and others who were asked to send even a thousand men each. And he was daily scanning the southern horizon for signs of the approach of these reinforcements, like India’s thirsty bird looking out for the rain cloud, as a Marathi letter poetically expresses it.

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But where he had most right to hope, he was most cruelly disappointed. The wise young Peshwa Madhav Rao II felt a generous impulse to support his hard-pressed general in the north and proposed to send a large army there under Hari Pant Phadké, the best Maratha general then in the south. But *his* Peshwa, the cold calculating Nana Fadnis, whispered that Phadké would never consent to serve under Sindhia. Chitpavan Brahmanic pride would not stoop to taking orders from a man of the Maraté caste. The Puna Government had neither the will nor the money necessary for backing Mahadji in his hour of need. Ali Bahadur, an illegitimate grandson of Baji Rao I, was then chosen to lead the proposed reinforcements, which Tukoji Holkar was ordered to join on the way. The man was utterly incompetent and had no heart for his work. Nor, indeed, had any of the Puna soldiers. They remembered how, 28 years before, a gallant army had been sent forth from Maharashtra to retrieve the disaster to a Sindhia in the north and that it had the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.

v3.c41.s2.12

But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.

v3.c41.s2.13

Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.

v3.c41.s2.14

It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.

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the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.

v3.c41.s2.16

But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.

v3.c41.s2.17

Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.

v3.c41.s2.18

It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.

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only fed the vultures and jackals on Panipat's plain, and here was a call from another Sindhia in distress in the same far-off land of evil omen. Their captains were in no greater hurry to go than their politicians were to send them. Ali Bahadur took the auspices for his march by entering his campaigning tents on 8th September, 1787, but he joined Sindhia fully fourteen months later (6th Nov. 1788), at a time when Sindhia had made himself master again unaided by a single horseman in the Peshwa's pay.* The other Puna agent, Tukoji Holkar, proved a positive hindrance and intrigued against Mahadji everywhere on the way.

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Equally complete, but far more straightforward and prompt, was the disappointment that Sindhia met with in his appeal for armed aid to the English, his allies by the treaty of Salbye. Lord Cornwallis clearly informed him of the Court of Directors' order to the Governor General to observe strict neutrality in the quarrels of the native Powers.

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But a body of new Maratha troops which had been raised for him by his devoted agents at Jāmbgāon (about 5,000 men) did join him near Gwalior in March 1788 and these helped to turn the scale against his Mughalia enemies.* De Boigne's two battalions remained faithful and rendered him the most effective service in this period of trial. And so also, but in a lesser degree and less consistently, did Lesteneau with his two battalions, except for the six months (middle of September 1787 to middle of March 1788) during which the latter mercenary parted from Sindhia on failing to obtain pay for his men.

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∗ HP. 509. Sat. i. 126. The causes of the delay at Puna, in Sat. i. 126 and also PRC. i. 203, 204 and ii.

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After the retreat from Lalsot, as throughout the preceding campaign, Mahadji's worst troubles were caused by his want of money. He had exhausted his cash and credit alike, and his seemingly vast dominions in Hindustan were yielding no revenue. This insolvency subjected him to daily humiliations after the retreat from Lalsot. On 14th August, "His funds being exhausted, when the envoys of his soldiers became most insistent for payment, he placed the ornaments of his wives before his court and said, 'This is the jāidād that I have.' Rana Khan remarked, 'What will this quantity amount to?'" [Akh. SJ. ms. 83.]

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But money did gradually reach Sindhia. "His courtiers raised a loan of thirteen lakhs on their personal security for his use." Rānā Khān and other sardars placed their gold and silver ware at his feet, and these were sent to Vrindāvan to be melted into coins. [August 1787. *Akh.* SJ. ms. 83, 86.] So also was the silver plate in Mahadji’s palace of Ujjain which was converted into seven lakhs of Rupees. [*MD.* ii. 154; earlier remittance from Ujjain, in Oct. *Akh.* 243.] The Alwar Rajah furnished seven lakhs (in August 1787),—one lakh being advanced by himself and six lakhs from the local bankers. [*Akh.* 116.] Sindhia had already run into heavy debt to Ahalyā Bāi Holkar during his campaigns in Gohad, and he durst not ask her for any large loan now. Nānā Fadnis by his personal influence induced the Puna bankers to promise Sindhia a loan of five lakhs, but refused another five lakhs which Mahadji had begged from the Peshwa’s Government as a subsidy; and even this bankers’ loan did not reach Sindhia by the end of October. [*HP.* 509.]

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∗ On 8th Feb. 1788, Palmer wrote from Sindhia's camp, "The troops which he ordered from Burhanpur for the protection of Malwa, have totally defeated the Udaipurians. [PRC. i. 202.]

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In January 1788, however, after his vigorous suppression of disorder in Malwa, his actual revenue collection increased to 12 lakhs or more. [*PRC.* i. 196, 201.] Through his agent at Jāmbgāon he received a loan from the Deccan early in March next. [*HP.* 516.]

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Thus in the course of time Mahadji gained financial relief, and in consequence of it a decisive increase of his military strength. But at first he was almost driven mad by bankruptcy and the crowding of enemies on all sides. Of these enemies the most harmful, because of their large forces and strong will, were Ismail Beg Hamadānī at the head of the old Mughalia party and Ghulām Qādir Khan (the son of Zābita Khan) at the head of a Ruhela army assembled from Ghausgarh and Rohilkhand alike. A third enemy, Najaf Quli Khan, contended himself with carving out a principality for himself in the Rewari-Narnol-Kanud region at the expense of the Rao Rajah, but his indolent pleasure-loving character rendered the danger from him to Sindhia's power almost negligible. The Jaipur Rajah, pushed from behind by the Jodhpur commander Bhimrāj Bakhshi, had been the fountain and origin of Sindhia's troubles, but he quickly took a secondary place or sank into quiescence. He had no wish to trouble the Marathas if they did not trouble him by pressing for the arrears of his tribute, —his sole aim being to preserve his own patrimony, which necessarily involved the wresting back of every bit of land robbed from him by his disloyal vassal of Macheri. But beyond his own borders he would not march; he would not molest Mahadji's retreat from Lālsot (which was a welcome riddance to the Kachhwa State); and he had no quarrel with the Peshwā, to whom he appealed, as a family friend since the days of the great Shivaji and Mirzā Rajah Jai Singh I, to stop Sindhia's aggressions. [Akh. SJ. ms. 51. Ibr. iii. 21.]

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§ 3. Sindhia's contest with Ismail Beg: its first stage, Marathas expelled from the North.

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We shall first of all deal with the most decisive contest waged by Mahadji during the eclipse of his power. As soon as the Maratha army fell back from Lālsot, the Jaipur Rajah advanced to his north-eastern frontier and set about reducing the forts of the Narukā Rao Rajah, instead of pursuing Sindhia and driving him altogether beyond the Chambal. At this Ismail Beg and other Mughalia sardars who had joined him were discontented, as their aim was to create large estates for their own selves out of the territory once held by Mirza Najaf Khan as Mir Bakhshi. Moreover, their promised salary could not be paid out of the exhausted Jaipur treasury and a rupture took place when the Rajah tried to take away the artillery of the Telingas who had come over to his side after the battle of Tungā. [Ibr. iii. 21. Akh. 58, 63.]

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Faced with a hopeless future in the Jaipur service, Ismail Beg, Malik Muhammad Khan and other Mughalias left the Rajah's camp and marched away towards Agra, to the immense relief of the Rajputs. In addition to their Mughalia horse they had with them three battalions of sepoys and sixty guns, several of which were of large calibre. Against them Mahadji could only send Rayaji Patil with a party of Maratha light horse but no guns and no trained musketeers. In purging his army of treason near Dig he had got rid of all the Telingas and Hindustani sepoys, except four battalions under De Boigne and Lesteneau, and sent away to Malwa all his large guns, keeping only four of these and some lighter pieces. The lesson of Panipat had not been lost on him; if he chose to follow raiding tactics (*ghanimi*), he must not encumber himself with slow and heavy artillery. His striking force was now composed entirely of Maratha spearmen mounted on ponies. [*Akh.* 88. *HP.* 504.]

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Ismail Beg easily brushed aside the opposition of Rayaji Patil by means of his gun-fire and musketry action (11—15 Sep.) and arrived close to Agra. On the 16th, Lakhwā Dādā Lād, the governor of the fort, made a sortie with his Deccani horse and two battalions of sepoys led by Lesteneau, and gave battle to Ismail Beg Khan, while Rāyāji Patil fell on the Khan's rear and at first gained some success. But Lesteneau's troops had been exasperated by their salary remaining long unpaid and merely evasive replies being given by Mahadji Sindhia to their commandant's entreaty and warning. So, during this engagement they turned their muskets on their Maratha brethren in arms, and Ismail Beg, taking advantage of the confusion, made a vigorous advance. The Hindustani soldiers living in Agra opened the gates of that city to him and he captured it without resistance. The defeated Rāyāji galloped away towards the friendly base of Bharatpur; Lakhwā Dādā was cut off from his charge but contrived to re-enter the fort next day; Lesteneau joined Ismail Beg and was granted some jagirs in the north Agra district in lieu of pay. The fort of Agra, however, successfully defied the Muslims for nine months, under its exceptionally able and enterprising qiladar Lakhwā Dādā, till his master gained the upper hand again in June 1788.*

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The capture of Agra city was a great blow to Mahadji and a great gain to his enemies. Under the late Jat and Maratha rule this place had become the richest and most flourishing city in the Mughal empire and the residence of many rich or noble families as a safer place of refuge than ever-troubled Delhi. The conqueror now squeezed the inmates mercilessly in his pressing need. The city escaped a general sack by paying Rs. 35,000, but the houses of Naubat Rai (Mahadji's manager) and Narayandas (Afrasiyab Khan's diwān) were seized and dug up for treasure, yielding over three lakhs in cash and kind. With this money, Ismail refreshed his famished and ragged troops and began to enlist new men, till a force of over 20,000 was assembled under his banners. [DY. i. 286.]

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For a month and a half after this battle there was a lull on both sides. Sindhia was utterly confounded by the gathering of enemies on all sides, while his own forces numbered less than 15,000, mostly light cavalry with De Boigne’s battalions now fallen to a thousand bayonets or less, and he could see no aid coming from any quarter.

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∗ Ismail Beg captures Agra city.—H.P. 504. PRC. i. 177, 178. DY. i. 286. Ibr. iii. 22. His exactions, G. Ali ii. 258.

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At the end of October, Mahadji was forced into action. His general Ambāji Inglé (with 8,000 horse and foot) had been sent on a raiding campaign into Jaipur territory in order to create a diversion; in this he failed and also in his attempt to wrest Ajmer city which had been captured from the Marathas by the Jodhpur Rajah on 27th August. In the end Ambaji was surprised, severely defeated and forced to flee to his master's side at Alwar, with the loss of his baggage. [Ibr. iii. 53. Akh. 204—237.] Meantime, Ghulām Qādir Khan's audacious attack on Delhi (16th Oct.) drove the Emperor into making frantic appeals to Sindhia to come to his rescue.

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So, leaving Alwar on 28th October, Mahadji arrived between Rewāri and Pataudi (4th Nov.), and here he was brought to a halt for a month. His enemies at Delhi gained complete control over the Emperor and secured an order forbidding him to approach the Court (15th Nov.), and Sindhia could do nothing but wait passively for the longed for reinforcements to arrive. Prince Jawān Bakht (Jahāndār Shāh), eldest son of Shah Alam, left his asylum at Benares to try his hand at recovering his paternal dominions or at carving out a principaplity for himself. He reached Mathura (via Farrukhabad and Jalesar) on 1st November, but after a fruitless journey to Agra for concerted action with Ismail Beg, he broke away from that reluctant ally and went off to Delhi on 8th December. During the prince's alliance with Ismail Beg, Mahadji felt that he must strike a blow for the relief of Agra, or he would be pressed by enemy forces on three sides and expelled beyond the Chambal. Therefore, leaving Rewāri early in December, he moved* towards Sikandra (Agra) where Ismail Beg lay in camp. The Maratha force was inferior to their enemy in number, dispirited by their late reverses, and without any big artillery. But Sindhia made a last desperate attempt: after appealing to his followers' honour, he sent Rana Khan ahead with 10,000 horse. Ismail Beg promptly marched out to the encounter with a strong body of horse and foot and 33 pieces of cannon (on 16th December.) The Maratha horse, vowing to fight bravely, made repeated charges on Hamadani's army and inflicted some loss. But Ismail Beg, forming his men into one dense column, attacked the enemy centre, carrying everything before him by the volume of his fire. At last the Marathas were repulsed with heavy loss; De Boigne's trained battalions, firing well-directed volleys, formed a defensive shield round Mahadji and safely brought him out of the field. But Lakhwā Dādā had profited by this diversion of the besiegers, to sally out and convey much foodstuff from outside into his fort.

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∗ *DY.* i. 235 reports Mahadji Sindhia as present at *Kaul jhil*, 12 *kos* from Agra towards Delhi, on 15th Decr. The only place there with a faintly similar name that I can find in the *Indian Atlas* is *Konrai*, between Dig and Kumbher, with a marsh near it. Campaign in *Ibr.* iii. 70-72.

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The fugitives from the battle of Sikandra retreated to Dholpur, and were rallied there by Sindhia. Ismail Beg came up close behind, and here a second battle was fought on the 20th of the month. The Marathas offered a gallant defence, but were broken by repeated charges led by Ismail in person. and their case became hopeless when a powder-chest exploded. Then, abandoning all further struggle, they drove their horses into the Chambal and crossed over to Sindhia's own dominions. Their camp and all their baggage were plundered, and their post at Dholpur fort was invested by a detachment of the enemy, while Ismail went back to his camp before Agra fort, and Sindhia retreated beyond the Chambal and the Kumari rivers, to 28 miles north of Gwalior.

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The last trace of Maratha authority in Hindustan disappeared after this retreat. Mahadji had now not a single friend north of the Chambal except Ranjit Singh Jat, and no post except two or three which were beleaguered by the enemy.

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One disaster followed another: Ajmer fort* capitulated to Bijay Singh on 24th December without making the least defence. Najaf Quli seized Gokulgarh, Ghulām Qādir captured Khurjā and besieged Mursan and Aligarh, while Anupgir Gosain took Firuzabad.

§ 4. Second stage of contest: Maratha guerilla activities, but Ismail Beg still dominant

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But within a week of this retreat, Mahadji had pulled his men together and formed a new and very effective plan of campaign. He now concentrated his available forces in the Gwalior region and set them to subdue the revolted tributaries of Kerauli and Narwār and other places in that province. The new policy began to bear fruit in February. The Rānā of Kerauli was forced to make terms; the rebel chiefs in the Gwalior region were suppressed, and the Udaipuri bands that had violated the Mālwa frontier were defeated by a fresh Maratha force moved up from Burhanpur. The Rāghogarh Rānā's son, after escaping from his prison in Bhilsā, had been disturbing the country, but Rānā Khan reconquered the Khichi State and Mahadji wisely made friends with the Rānā by restoring him to freedom and his dominions, on the promise to pay tribute.* And by the middle of March, Sindhia was in a position to resume his offensive north of the Chambal.

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∗ Ajmer lost.—The fort was in charge of a brother of Mirza Rahim Beg. Sher Khan jamadar was defending it, but his family lived in the city, below the fort. When the Jodhpur Rajah took the city on 27 Aug. almost without a blow,—"Mahadji's subahdar did not fire even for an hour,"—the victors placed piquets on the houses where Sher Khan's wives and children lived, and these latter took poison in fear of being dishonoured. [Sat. i. 120 Akh. SJ. ms. 188, 194. MD. ii. 154.] For some time Ambaji Inglé and Jivaji Bakhshi fought Rodoji Khawas outside Ajmer city and provisioned the fort, but they were expelled by the Rajputs in October. [Ibr. iii.

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⁵³ Akh. 225, 231—241.] The fort fell on 24 Dec., "the qiladar and his wife are dead; the fort did not resist even for a month or fortnight." [MD. ii.

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¹⁵⁴ PRC. i. 192.]

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∗ Mahadji, Jan.-March 1788.—MD. ii. 161. PRC. i. 194—206.

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Ibr. iii. 106-107 narrates: When Mahadji crossed the Chambal to Gwalior, he found the atmosphere of that region changed. Territories were seized by the Rajahs of Narwar, Datia, Kerauli, Kota and Udaipur. Rana Chhatra Singh [captive Gohad chief]'s relatives emerged from every lane and troubled the Maratha grantees. . . Sindhia collected himself quickly and sent Rana Kh. with 5,000 men against the Rajah of Narwar, who after some fighting fled into his fort, but soon submitted through lack of provisions and sent Rana Kh. back by paying a fine and restoring the usurped mahals. Apa Khanderao chastised the rebels of the Gwalior district. By his order Rana Chhatra Singh was poisoned to death and his body taken out of Gwalior fort and burnt. Mahadji released the Rajah of Raghogarh from prison and sent him back to Raghogarh on his swearing to be loyal and pay tribute regularly in future. Ambaji with a large force suppressed the rebels in the Ujjain district and up to the Mewar frontier. These campaigns restored the morale of the Maratha army. [On 23 Feb.] Mahadji himself set out to punish the Rajah of Kerauli, whose capital was besieged, till he begged to make peace through Bapu Vital Rao, paid tribute and ceded the lands he had seized.

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Sindhia's one true and steady friend was Ranjit Singh, the Jat Rajah, whom he had conciliated by the cession of his ancestral forts and promises of restoration to the glory of Suraj Mal's reign. The instinct of self-preservation made Ranjit Singh, like the Rao Rajah of Macheri,[*] cling to Mahadji. The avowed aim of Ismail Beg was to recover all the Jat territory that Mirza Najaf Khan had once conquered and thus reduce the Jat kingdom to a petty zamindari, as it had been under Badan Singh. Ranjit had made use of the two months following Sindhia's retreat beyond the Chambal to increase his levy of his brave clansmen and he also took advantage of Ismail Beg's want of money to seduce (through the agency of Shah Nizam-ud-din) his starving and discontented mercenary troops. One of these former deserters from Sindhia, namely, Malik Muhammad Khan, on seeing his jagirs, Koil and Jalesar, seized by Ghulām Qādir Khan and that Ruhela chief now joined to Ismail Beg, left the Beg and came over to Ranjit Singh,

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[*] The Rao Rajah of Macheri (Alwar) had appealed to Sindhia thus,—"If you come to my support the ruining of Jaipur would not be difficult. But if your design be otherwise, tell me plainly, so that I being a zamindar only may make terms with the Jaipur Rajah." And again, "By joining the Maharajah [Sindhia] I have made all others my enemies. If he marches away to that side my kingdom would be lost." [Akh. SJ. ms. 92, 196.]

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along with Mons, Lesteneau (2 battalions) and Jahangir Khan (one battalion), on promise of better payment. "Every day numbers of cavalry and infantry used to leave Ismail and Ghulām Qādir for the Jat camp. Ismail Beg formed a pact with Ghulam Qadir for partitioning the entire Jat country between themselves, as well as the Maratha acquisitions in the north, marking out their respective boundaries beforehand." [Ibr. iii. 106.]

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The Jat Rajah made a pressing appeal for reinforcements to Mahadji whose hands had been recently freed by his suppression of all the Rajput invaders and local rebels of Malwa and strengthened by the near approach of a body of fresh Deccani troops raised by his agents in Jambgaon (but none of the Peshwa's promised reinforcements.) On 16th March 1688 he despatched a strong body of horse with one battalion of sepoys and a few guns across the Chambal to join the Jats. [PRC. i. 208.] The strength of his enemies had been increased by Ghulam Qadir joining Ismail Beg near Agra (c. 24 March.) But the aims of the two chiefs were conflicting, and after a few days the Ruhela went back to the Doab (c. 31 March) in order to press his attack on Firuzabad. But during his short stay in Agra, the Maratha detachment that had crossed the Chambal was driven back with loss across the river after three days' skirmishing (25th-27th March) by a southward advance of Ismail Beg.

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[DC. PRC. i. 208-210. Ibr. iii. 107-108.] This forward movement was a feeler on the part of Mahadji Sindhia, and it failed because the detachment was too small, the Jat Rajah was not prompt enough in uniting with it, and Ismail Beg was too quick in crushing it in its isolated condition.

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On 4th April, a much larger, but still light, force was sent across under his ablest general Rānā Khan. It consisted of 10,000 horse and De Boigne's two battalions of musketeers. Hearing of the Maratha advance, Ismail Beg again left a thin screen in the siege trenches before Agra and marched south. At his approach, this Maratha division fell back from Rupbās to Dholpur without venturing on a battle, and the Beg lay encamped at Rupbās and then near Dholpur, watching the ford on the Chambal. Rānā Khan, Rāyāji Patil, Jivā Dāda, and other Maratha generals next made a rapid detour, forded the Chambal unperceived some miles to the west of Dholpur, and being joined by the Jat army on the way turned Ismail Beg's rear and surprised the besiegers of Agra. These last, in their depleted strength could make no resistance ; their commanders, Ismail Beg's old father and Umrāogir Gosāin, had lost heart and were quickly defeated, the Gosāin being carried away as a prisoner and their baggage, horses and elephants plundered (7th April.) The victors fell back on Āchhnerā. [DY. i. 233, 285, 298. Sat. i. 132. HP. 518, 520. Ibr. is confused.]

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On hearing of this reverse, Ismail Beg hurried back to Agra, confirmed his pact with Ghulām Qādir, called him to his side with his troops from the Doab, and the two exchanged turbans and dined together in sign of full brotherhood. As agreed before, the two chiefs, masking their siege of Agra fort, set out to conquer Bharatpur. Their combined strength at this time was reported as 12,000 horse, 25,000 infantry and a hundred guns. The Jat and Maratha armies when taken together were numerically as strong; but the Marathas were disheartened by repeated defeats and the brave Jats had no worthy leader; moreover, they were incomparably inferior in field artillery and heavy cavalry. Therefore, the only tactics they could pursue were to circle round the Muslim army at a safe distance and cut off its provisions. This they successfully did for some time. On 19th April the two armies came in contact, and next day at Kiraoli, four miles south of Achhnera, a severe battle was fought with heavy casualties, the slain numbering one thousand and the Jat army losing 12 guns and many standards. The Jats and Marathas fell back on Bharatpur, and the victors advanced to lay siege to that city. The Jat Rajah heartened the Marathas and induced them to continue the struggle. A last battle was fought, at Jaginā, two miles north-east of Bharatpur, on 1st May, which produced no decisive result, though Rānā Khan received a bullet wound.* The historian Khair-ud-din ascribes the Maratha failure to the treason of their ally Jahāngir Khan, who had joined Ranjit Singh with two battalions and ten guns, and fired only blank charges at Ismail Beg's army, and when Ismail had thus entered his ranks unharmed, Jahāngir opened real fire on the Jats and Marathas advancing behind him. "At last Rānā Khan retreated in the evening, the victors seizing much of his property in the field. But owing to the slaughter of thousands that day, neither side had any strength left for fighting."

§ 5. Third stage of contest: Ismail Beg's disastrous Jat invasion and consequent Maratha predominance

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So, Ismail Beg deemed it unwise to attack Bharatpur,† and in company with Ghulām Qādir proceeded to capture Kumbher which was poorly garrisoned and whose defences had been suffered to fall into neglect. The garrison of Kumbher, with no commander of ability or courage to lead them, lost heart after only one afternoon's bombardment and evacuated the fort at night. Next morning (3rd May) the two Khans entered the fort and seized all the property accumulated there since the days of Rajah Suraj Mal. Thousands of muskets and swords and immense quantities of grain and munitions were thus gained.

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∗ PRC. i. 217. Ibr. iii. 108-109. DY. i. 287.

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† Ibr. iii. 109-114. DY. i. 288, 297. PRC. i. 219. G. Ali. iii. 260. MI. 330-331.

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Ismail Beg pressed for an attack on Dig before the Jats could recover from the shock of the loss of Kumbher. Leaving their booty in the conquered fort, the two generals marched on Dig. At night Ismail Beg ordered ladders to be made of all the flagstaffs in his army after detaching the colours, in order to deliver an escalade. Arrived at the village of Bhaj two miles east of Dig, the impetuous Hamadāni reconnoitred the fort and ordered an assault that very afternoon. Dismounting his troops, he himself led them on foot, sword and shield in hand. Coming near the fort wall he sat down, utterly exposed, without any shade or tent, and sent his men on to scale the wall. "The scene that followed was like Doomsday. The fire from the walls killed hundreds of the Muslims at that short range and the cannon balls rebounded again and again. On the immediate right and left hands of Ismail Beg, forty men were struck down and a soldier seated at his elbow had his head blown away by a shot. Once the assailants reached the counterscarp and tried to descend into the ditch for climbing the wall opposite. The garrison crowding on the ramparts showered on them shot, bullets, rockets, powder-balls (huqqa), large stones, blazing naphtha and logs of wood and brick-bats that came to hand. Hundreds were slain and thousands wounded; the remnant fled away" (c. 18 May.)

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At last Ismail Beg retreated from this hopeless attempt. The Maratha and Jat armies, biding their time, now fell on the abandoned Muslim camp and plundered everything there. Rānā Khan and the Jats chased the fugitives up to Fathpur Sikri, effectively cutting off their provision supply, so that grain sold in the Muslim camp at five seers to the Rupee. After refreshing his troops as best he could for a week at Fathpur, Ismail Beg left the place with his ally on 25th May and encamped in the Bāgh Dehra garden outside Agra.

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As soon as the two Khans retreated from the disastrous attack on Dig, Mahadji Sindhia sent a strong detachment of his best cavalry (stiffened with more new arrivals from the Deccan) to cross into the Doāb and plunder Ghulām Qādir's newly acquired territories there.* Knowing full well his own inferiority in numbers and artillery and the demoralisation of his troops, Sindhia formed a very judicious plan of campaign which quickly succeeded. He kept the enemy enveloped by roving Deccan horse from a safe distance and greatly distressed them for provisions, while his newly arrived fresh troops from Maharashtra were sent to raid the Doāb and thus compel Ghulām Qādir to hasten to the defence of his own possessions there. This would leave Ismail Beg alone, and then it would not be difficult for the Marathas to crush him in his isolation. As a Maratha envoy wrote, “The troops of the Jat Rajah and Sindhia hover at a distance of 8 to 10 *kos* around the army of Ghulām Qādir and Ismail. In whichever direction these two Khans turn their faces, our men do not stay but flee away, being too afraid to stand a fight.”

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∗ Dy. i. 278, 295, 285, 300. HP. 518, 520-522. PRC. i. 220, 222. Ibr. iii. 114-117 (unsupported.)

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The Jāmbgāon contingent, 5,000 horse led by Devji Gavlé, was now advanced from its post near Mania (nine miles north of Dholpur) northwards across the Utangan to join Rānā Khan’s division. Avoiding the still beleaguered fort of Agra, these troops first entered the Mathura district and expelled Ismail Beg’s posts there and occupied Vrindāvan. One of the enemy battalions 700 strong with two guns posted here, in trying to escape into the Doāb, was overtaken on the bank of the Jamuna, four hundred of the men were killed, some others perished in trying to ford the Jamuna and also in the sinking of two ferry boats, and all their fire-arms (700 muskets and the two guns) as well as 25 horses were taken.

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Then the victorious Devji hastened 16 miles northwards to Chirghāt and thence crossed into the Doāb, in order to convulse that country and cut off the grain convoys coming from that tract to the two Khans’ camps before Agra. The Ruhela thanahs at Mot and Mahāvan were driven out with slaughter and seven guns were captured here (4-10 June.) Koil city was sacked for six hours. The new strategy bore the expected fruit at once. Ghulām Qādir would listen to no appeal of Ismail Beg, but immediately sent away the bulk of his army from Agra to the defence of his own Doāb possessions. The rising flood of the Jamuna threatened his communication across it, and in alarm he himself crossed over with the rest of his army (15 June.)

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For some weeks past the Marathas had been also making predatory night incursions on Ismail Beg's baggage camp with success, always taking care to run away with their spoils before they could be brought to an action. Ismail Beg, deserted by his ally, now found life unbearable: his provision supply was totally stopped, his starving ragged soldiers with their captains were daily deserting him for the Jat camp. Lesteneau and many Mughalias and Telingas had gone over to the enemy many weeks ago. And then, within two days of Ghulām Qādir's departure the crushing blow descended on the Hamadāni (17th June.)

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§ 6. Fourth stage of the contest: Ismail Beg finally crushed at Agra, 17th June 1788.

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In this decisive battle* of the entire campaign, Sindhia's planning showed consummate generalship and promptness of movement, joined to unfailing combination. The Jat-Maratha alliance had by this time been perfected; the courage and endurance of the Jat peasantry had been hitherto unavailing for the lack of capable leaders; but now the Marathas supplied this brain power, while the French-led musketeers added the necessary steadying element to the mobility of the Deccan light horse. These facts explain the completeness of the victory.

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∗ *DY.* i. 300, 303. *HP.* 524-527. *Sat.* i. 137. *Ibr.* iii. 116-119. *PRC.* i. 223. *G. Ali* iii. 264-267. *ML.* 331.

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As soon as Ghulām Qādir began to transport his troops from Agra back into the Doāb, Rānā Khan sent fast couriers to recall Devji Gavlé from the Doāb to his own side. The junction was promptly effected and then the general set out in full strength to attack Ismail Beg. Meantime, Sindhia had heartened his troops for the critical contest by sending Rs. 113,000 and a hundred horses for distribution among them and attached ten pieces of artillery to the battalions of Lesteneau and De Boigne. The Telinga commandant Rāmru with four battalions and sixteen guns under him, was worn out by his privations in Ismail Beg's thankless service, and offered to desert to Rānā Khan. The pact was confirmed by a promise of Rs. 60,000 to him in bankers' bills, besides a jagir, on the eve of the battle.

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In the fateful morning of the 17th of June, Rānā Khan massed his French-led infantry in the centre with the artillery in front. His two wings were formed by two powerful bodies of horse, while a third cavalry division was posted behind the infantry with orders to wheel round at the right moment and fall upon the enemy's rear.

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As the Maratha-Jat army came in sight of Ismail Beg's camp in Bāgh Dehra, a suburb of Agra, his captains took it for the usual daily demonstration of their timid enemy and did not care to arm for battle. But the steady advance of Rānā Khan and the fire of his artillery soon precipitated an action. Ismail Beg's guns in position replied with a lively cannonade which caused much greater loss to the Marathas, whose artillery was smaller and moving. Then Ismail Beg, with an impetuosity and courage worthy of Muhammad Beg Hamadāni's heir, charged the Maratha horse in person without waiting to form his battle order. The Deccan cavalry met the attack with equal bravery and crowded upon him from the two wings, "so as to strike his force in the waist." Gunfire ceased on both sides, and a severe fight at close quarters raged for an hour. But the disciplined sepoys of De Boigne and Lesteneau crushed all opposition before them by their cool and successive volleys, while Ramru with his four battalions withdrew from Ismail Beg's side without firing a shot. By the end of this time the Maratha reserve cavalry had made a detour and fallen upon Hamadāni's rear camp and set fire to the tents. Thus enveloped, first the servants and then the soldiers of the Muslim army took to flight and plunged into the Jamuna for the Doāb. Ismail Beg, engrossed in the fight, cast his eyes on his right and left and found none but a few friends present. In despair, he sought to court a soldier’s death by galloping into the thick of the enemy. But he had already received three wounds and Najaf Ali Khan (the son of Muhammad Beg) seizing his bridle turned him back from the lost field. The fallen general entered Agra city with only fifteen troopers, took his favourite mistress on his own steed, and going to the Jamuna bank drove his horse into the river and crossed into the Doāb. His wife, however, was drowned in trying to cross the river on an elephant.

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