Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c47.s4.16

v4.c47.s4.16

In such a world the state-craft of the Rajput ministers consisted in playing one Maratha general in Hindustan off against another, i.e., Holkar against Sindhia, so as to gain time and evade the payment of their just debts to the Peshwā. This was exactly the game played by Abdul Hamid the last ruling Sultan of Turkey who for many years staved off the overthrow of his rule by shrewdly manipulating the rivalry between England and Russia. In 1791 the diwān of Jaipur likened this Holkar-Sindhia rivalry to a combat between two wild elephants, which he was watching from a safe distance, and he frankly said that he would discharge his Raja's debt only after one of these two Maratha chiefs had asserted his superiority over the other beyond question.