Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c41.s3: § 4. Second stage of contest: Maratha guerilla activities, but Ismail Beg still dominant
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c41.s3
- Language
- English
§ 4. Second stage of contest: Maratha guerilla activities, but Ismail Beg still dominant
v3.c41.s3.1
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.
v3.c41.s3.2
∗ 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.
v3.c41.s3.3
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.
v3.c41.s3.4
¹⁵⁴ PRC. i. 192.]
v3.c41.s3.5
∗ Mahadji, Jan.-March 1788.—MD. ii. 161. PRC. i. 194—206.
v3.c41.s3.6
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.
v3.c41.s3.7
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,
v3.c41.s3.8
[*] 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.]
v3.c41.s3.9
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.]
v3.c41.s3.10
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.
v3.c41.s3.11
[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.
v3.c41.s3.12
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.]
v3.c41.s3.13
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."