Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c44.s2.17

v4.c44.s2.17

We may conveniently conclude the story of Himmat Bahādur here. Ali Bahādur steadily refused to surrender the Gosain to Sindhia even on the assurance that his life would be spared. From Punā Nānā Fadnis proposed early in September 1789, that the Gosain should be held in honourable detention in Jhānsi fort, his estates and contingent kept intact and administered by the State (and not by Mahādji), and the final decision of the Gosain’s fate would depend upon his future conduct. This letter threw Mahādji into a rage, and he replied to Nānā, “Your orders are issued in compliance with Ali Bahādur’s suggestions, and you pay no heed to my repeated letters. This man had practised diabolic arts on my life, and kept me in the agony of disease for two or three months. And yet you cherish him. This is indeed worthy of the brotherhood which you profess for me!” (HP. 561.) Ali Bahādur continued to keep the Gosain with himself. At last his own want of funds and Holkar’s failure to give him the promised subsidy, drove Ali Bahādur to blame the Gosain as the sole cause of his misery; he started negotiations with Mahādji in January 1790 for handing the Gosain over to him.