Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c41.s1: § 1. Course of events during Mahadji's loss of the Regency of the Empire
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c41.s1
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§ 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.