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Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c48: Chapter XL. Sindhia-Holkar Rivalry

Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c48

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Chapter XL. Sindhia-Holkar Rivalry

§ 1. How the Sindhias surpassed the Holkars in the second generation

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For the origins of the Sindhia-Holkar rivalry we have to go back sixty years to the days of the great Baji Rao, under whom the first Holkar and the first Sindhia made their names in Maratha history. Malhar Rao Holkar started earlier in the race for greatness and he gained a higher rank in the Peshwā’s army than Rānoji Sindhia could do before his death.

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The family chronicle of the Holkars claims that Malhar’s early patronage laid the foundations of the future greatness of the humble Ranoji Sindhia and that, in the second generation the same Malhar’s influence saved the life of the young Mahadji Sindhia when the latter’s death was ordered by Raghunath Dādā, the Peshwa’s regent. Whatever doubt there may be as to these claims, the fact is indisputable that during the first generation the Holkars stood much higher on the ladder of greatness than the Sindhias.

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Malhar Holkar outlived Ranoji Sindhia by 21 years, and he was the sole “Elder statesman” of the Maratha State left after the Panipat disaster. But after his death in 1766, the relative position of the two houses came to be reversed. Malhar left no worthy son or nephew behind him, while the Sindhia family gained parity with the house of Holkar by the blood and sweat of Ranoji’s sons. Ranoji had died early (in 1745) and left them young; but they were young lions: four of his sons (or five, if we add a grandson) died on active service, while the fifth son was wounded and crippled in combat. And now, in less than six years after Malhar’s death the house of Sindhia rose to the front rank in Maratha politics under a son of Ranoji. This regenerator of the fortunes of the Sindhias was Mahadji, the sole survivor after Panipat among the sons of Ranoji. He combined Malhar Holkar’s leadership in war with a shrewdness in diplomacy and a long vision in politics which no Maratha chief before or after him could surpass. At the outset of his career (about 1768) his resources in men, money and lands were poorer than those of the house of Holkar, whose wealth and influence were being immensely increased by the long peaceful and beneficent rule of a saintly widow, Ahalyā Bāī. But by the year 1782, when the Treaty of Salbai was signed, Mahadji had made himself clearly the foremost man in the Maratha State, and when a year later (December 1784) he secured for himself the regency of the Delhi Empire, there could be no doubt of his being the dominating figure of Indian politics. It was a position which excited the jealousy of Nānā Fadnis and the heart-burning of the Holkar party.

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The curse of drunkenness lay heavy on the house of Holkar. Khandé Rao (the son of Malhar and the husband of Ahalyā Bāī), Tukoji and Tukoji’s sons Malhar and Jaswant Rao were victims of this vice, and the affairs of these besotted masters were saved from ruin only by the prudent management of their Brahman ministers. Ahalyā Bāī was merely the banker of the family, a very successful banker no doubt, but she could not command in the field, nor control distant provinces; hence her virtues counted for nothing in the manly game of war. Here the powerless and mutually quarrelsome ministers of ever-tipsy braggarts had to match themselves against a born leader of men like Mahadji Sindhia and his band of able generals. Holkar’s ministers knew the essential weakness of their position and avoided an *open* conflict with Sindhia as long as they could. The inevitable clash was further delayed by the fact of Mahadji being under a cloud from the Lalsot campaign (1787) to Ghulām Qādir’s expulsion from Delhi. But when at the beginning of 1789, he recovered his position in the Delhi imperial Government, the jealousy of Holkar was kindled again.*

§ 2. How Tukoji Holkar tried to thwart Mahadji Sindhia

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The quarrel about the relative prestige of the two families might have been put to slumber or simmered harmlessly, but a source of more active friction was the Peshwā's faulty partition of the Maratha acquisitions in North India among his generals. Here was something very material that had to be fought for. No clear cut territorial division was made among these agents by the Puna Government, but Holkar and Sindhia—with sometimes the Pawār added—were told to collect different percentages of the tribute from the *same* prince in Rajputana or Malwa.

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Peace and effective collection of tribute from Rajputana could have been enforced only by the presence there of an officer of the Peshwā—such as his brother or uncle—with authority to override Holkar and Sindhia alike. But such a legate plenipotentiary was not then available. On the contrary, Nānā Fadnis, the regent of the boy Peshwā, almost openly set up Tukoji Holkar and Ali Bahadur to thwart Mahadji and humiliate him before the public in Hindustan.

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For example, when in August 1790, Mahadji Sindhia, in an atttempt to placate the Peshwā, secured from the Emperor of Delhi a *khilat* for the Peshwā and a *farmān* appointing the latter as the Imperial Regent (with Mahadji as his deputy in that office), and according to the practice of the Mughal Government a royal pavilion (technically called *farmān-bāri*) was erected outside Mathura to receive the imperial gifts with due honour and ceremony, and all the Maratha generals at the place were invited to attend, as they were bound in duty to do,—all came except Tukoji Holkar who sent his *diwān* to represent him, as if this officer was Sindhia’s equal and Tukoji his superior. Mahadji took this public insult to heart and vowed to oust the Holkar competition from Hindustan by increasing his army. Rānā Khan pacified him.

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∗ In November 1789, Mahādji Sindhiā, in view of his projected invasion of Rājputānā, did not deem it wise to keep both the other great Marātha chiefs then in the North estranged from him. So, he gave Tukoji Holkar, as his share of the Marātha conquests in Hindustan, 15 mahals, besides promising him two others (namely Kosi and Shergarh) later. These fifteen mahals were Garh Mukteshwar and three others on the bank of the upper Ganges, Khurjā, Sikandrā, Hāpur and four others in the middle Doab, and Dholpur, Achnerā and two others south of Agra. Ali Bahādur was offered, but never actually put in possession of the Aligarh-Koil district, and his demand of 24 lakhs of Rupees a year for his military expenses could not possibly be complied with by Sindhiā, who gave merely evasive replies. (*Kālé Akhbārāt*).

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Every enemy of Mahadji Sindhia found shelter and support in Holkar’s camp, whose close ally was Ali Bahadur, who had openly defied Mahadji at Mathurā in July 1789 and was now thwarting him in Bundelkhand. Every Rajput prince who wanted to evade the payment of his tribute to Sindhia, sent his minister to Holkar to intrigue against Sindhia with Holkar’s diwan. In 1790 while Mahadji was openly campaigning against Ismail Beg and the Rajahs of Jaipur and Marwar, the envoys of these three enemy Powers were living in the camp of Tukoji though a very small contingent of Holkar’s horse had been sent to Mahadji to assist in his campaign! Above all, every anti-Sindhia plot in Rajputana was hatched under Holkar’s leadership. The situation at last became intolerable, as Mahadji again and again complained to Nānā Fadnis, but the Regent of Puna took no action.

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The local Rajahs, seeing this incurable division among the Maratha authorities in Northern India, stiffened in their attitude and evaded paying their promised war contributions and the tribute due to the Emperor, knowing full well that adequate force could not be brought to bear on them.

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In fact, the hoarded wealth of the Rajput Governments had been grossly exaggerated in the imagination of the Marathas. Their annual revenue even had sunk to one-third of the normal amount, through lavish grants to the feudal barons or usurpations by them and poor collection owing to maladministration and anarchy. Hence a debtor State which Holkar’s men had first sucked dry could yield nothing to Sindhia’s collectors coming after. This hunt for gold kept alive the quarrel between the two Maratha agents of the Peshwā in Hindustan.

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Apart from the jealous quarrel about parity in landed possessions and revenue between the houses of Sindhia and Holkar, there was a basic conflict of policy in their attitude to the Rajput princes. We have seen how in the pre-Panipat days and even during the Maratha return to the North after that disaster, Malhar Rao Holkar I had always worked at cross purposes to Dattaji and Mahadji Sindhia. While the Sindhias nursed a deadly feud with Najib-ud-daula’s family, Malhar Holkar had made Najib his “adopted son” and always thwarted the Sindhias by supporting the Ruhela cause in the Peshwa’s council and their joint operations in Hindustan.

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So, too, Tukoji Holkar now (1789) argued with Nānā Fadnis that unless the two great Rajput chiefs of Jaipur and Marwar were kept friendly (by relaxing Mahadji’s pressure on them for the tribute due to the Peshwa), they would be driven for self-preservation to join the Mughalia party and thus raise against the Maratha position in the North a formidable opposition on two fronts at the same time. Mahadji replied that the Rajputs would never come out of their own countries to fight elsewhere. (*Aiti. Tip.* iv. 13.)

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Tukoji’s idea of amity with the Rajputs amounted only to this that he would monopolise all the tribute and land surrenders made to the Maratha State by the Rajputs during Mahadji’s absence from that scene, as his compensation for Sindhia’s appropriating all the Maratha gains in the Agra-Delhi country and the Doab.

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In fact, the eternal conflict between these two irreconcilable interests ruined the Maratha hope of establishing an empire in the North. The British-Indian leaders noticed this fact very early. Resident W. Palmer wrote on 23

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March 1789,—"I do not think that joining in authority two Chiefs of such equal strength and discordant views as Sindhia and Holkar, is well calculated to ensure such a system. It is probably the expectation of the Puna darbār to preserve the influence of the State by the check which each Chief will be upon the other. But in my opinion, more will be lost by their dissensions than can be gained by the mutual jealousies, and that the Maratha interests are exposed to be totally annihilated by such a delegation to them." [PRC. i. Nos. 246, 255.]

§ 3. Advocates of peace in the two rival Maratha camps

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Mahadji sincerely wished to live at peace with Holkar, so long as peace was not rendered impossible by others; he avowed a life-long friendship with the Holkar family; Ahalyā Bāi had been his friend in need with her loans, and he would not risk a rupture with the Peshwā by open war on another general of the Puna Government in Hindustan. His policy, equally wise and just, was to settle the Holkar-Sindhia differences peacefully by the superior award of the Peshwā.

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Holkar's ministers, too, wished to avoid an open trial of strength with the victors of Patan and Mertā. They knew the weakness of their own side. But their captains could not be restrained from committing little mice-like mischiefs, such as plundering small convoys on the way to Sindhia's camp or looting villages within Sindhia's sphere of influence.

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Small places like Kāmā and other cities on the eastern and southern frontiers of the Alwar State, whose limits had not yet been firmly recognised, became bones of contention between the roving generals of these two Maratha chiefs, as their just rights there had not been clearly defined.

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Each of the rival camps had its peace party. Mahadji Sindhia regarded an armed rupture with Holkar as a political blunder fatal to his far-ranging ambitious projects. Tukoji Holkar was too fond of drink to stir himself for anything else in the world; “a flask of wine under a shady bough,” by the side of a cool brook or lake, was “Paradise enow” to him, provided that the needed money came regularly either from Ahalyā Bāi or from the tributary States. The older ministers of each,—like Jivvā Dādā under Sindhia and Parāshar Dādāji under Holkar,—favoured peace like their masters. But a rupture could not be averted when the young and hot-headed Gopāl Bhāu, in the pride of his position as Sindhia’s viceroy in the North, over-rode the sober counsels of the patient and diplomatic Jivvā Dādā and adopted a hustling policy towards Holkar’s generals in the disputed areas. I reject as an enemy fabrication the story in the Holkar family chronicle that it was Gopāl Bhāu’s proud ambition to seize Tukoji Holkar and present him in chains as a captive of war before his master. But it cannot be denied that Gopāl Bhāu had no patience with Holkar’s agents and acted in a downright thrustful manner towards them. On Holkar’s side the peace party failed only when Gopāl Bhāu’s unwise attack on Tukoji at Surauli (8 October, 1792) wrecked their policy and left the field open to the young fire-eater Malhar Holkar II.

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§ 4. How the open rupture began in 1792

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In September 1792, Sindhia’s generals began to seize Holkar’s jagirs in the Ganges-Jamuna Doab and the west Mathura district. The war-cloud between these two houses after first gathering in the north-eastern horizon for some-time, soon burst at Kāmā (32 miles north of Bharatpur) and quickly moved from that district west and south, through Alwar into Rajputana proper. Kāmā was now an imperial crownland and Sindhia as the Delhi Emperor’s keeper was entitled to its revenue. But a captain of Holkar’s family named Khush-hāl Kumār Pāgyā, thrust himself into the fort with his contingent and would not leave when politely asked by Gopāl Bhāu to do so. Tukoji sent him reinforcements when Gopal Bhau’s lieutenant Lakhwā Dādā laid siege to Kāmā. After some weeks of fighting, Khush-hāl was murdered by a Rajput whose sister he had abducted, and the leaderless garrison cut their way out with their arms and rejoined Holkar’s camp.

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The contest next overflowed into the adjoining Alwar territory, where Tukoji Holkar’s nephew Bāpu Rao was out on tribute-collection. Gopāl Bhāu sent him a message to say, “We have to realise ten lakhs from the Mācheri (Alwar) Rajah. Please do not press him for your money until we have collected our dues.” Then the Sindhian generals marched to the scene in full force, and Bāpu Holkar retired to Lālsot in Jaipur territory in order to avoid a battle.

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Tukoji Holkar himself was then encamped at Bhagwantgarh, on the south side of the Banās river, 13 miles north-west of Sawāi Mādhopur. Here he was visited (on 25 September, 1792) by Daulat-rām Haldiā, the Jaipur diwan, who formed with him a plan for a combined attack on Mahadji Sindhia’s forces in Rajputana. It was settled that Tukoji would move from Bhagwantgarh to Surauli, eleven miles west of it, on the same southern bank of the Banas river (four miles south of Isardā), and begin the war on Sindhia as soon as the Jaipur Rajah got his contingent ready and issued from his capital. The Rajah’s diwan left for Jaipur, with an agent of Tukoji, in order to hasten the war preparations. At this time, one large detachment of Holkar’s army was posted at Lālsot under Bāpu Holkar, to shield the Jaipur capital from the Sindhian advance, and it was planned that he would join his uncle as soon as the projected campaign was opened.

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§ 5. The Brush at Surauli, 8 Oct. 1792

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Sindhia’s generals, Gopāl Bhāu and Jivvā Dādā with De Boigne’s brigade had been advancing from the north-eastern angle of the Jaipur kingdom, conquering Bālāheri, Manpur, Gizgarh and Dāosā. On learning of the new plot hatched against their master, they at once turned sharply southwards, by-passed Bāpu Holkar (leaving him on their right), and swiftly moved down towards Tukoji Holkar’s camp on the Banās river. That chief had reached Surauli on 3rd October, and his general Bāpu could not join him in time for the coming battle. No battle, however, took place; the screen of light horse and Pindhari foragers in Holkar’s service, spread before Tukoji’s camp and, always shrinking from any action, merely tried to envelop Sindhia’s army and interrupt its supplies. Parāshar Dādāji, the minister in charge of Tukoji’s affairs, very wisely took early precautions as Sindhia’s army approached him: he sent away the heavy baggage and camp to the south and even removed Tukoji from the camp, while he himself with a light force stood at Surauli boldly facing the enemy.

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Here on 8th October 1792, Mahadji Sindhia’s generals, after a rapid march of 20 miles from Nawai (in Jaipur State), surprised and beat up Tukoji Holkar’s camp after a running skirmish for an hour or two, and captured nine pieces of artillery, 400 mares, 200 loaded camels, Holkar’s royal band, kettledrums and flag &c. Tukoji retreated from the field all that night and next day and reached Lakheri (35 miles southwards) on the 9th, and without making any halt there sought greater safety by going next day to Kesorāi Patan (30 miles further south). The victorious generals, Gopal Bhau and Jivvā Dādā, followed him up to Rāmpurā (better known as Aligarh-Rampurā, now in the Tonk State), 10 miles south of Surauli, while a light detachment under Jagu Bāpu was pushed further south in pursuit of the Holkar army.

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This beating up of a half deserted camp, which does not deserve the name of a battle,—became a turning point in the relations between Holkar and Sindhia. It utterly humiliated Tukoji in the eyes of the public. The family honour of the Holkars was wounded too deeply for Sindhia to be forgiven. A mere servant of their hereditary rival had thrashed and driven out the active head of the house of Holkar! The insult could be wiped out only with blood.

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When the news of it reached Ahalyā Bāi, her anger flamed up; in the picturesque language of the Holkar family chronicle, what was merely the scalding of a finger became an inflammation of the head to her. She promised to spare no money in raising a new army for avenging the insult and declared that she would set out on campaign in person if her officers faltered. Men were recruited at various places and sent in batches to her generals in Rajputana month after month. Tukoji had engaged the French mercenary captain Chevalier Dudrenec to raise trained battalions for him in the manner of De Boigne’s brigades in Sindhia’s service. But owing to Ahalyā Bāi’s parsimony* only four battalions could be formed, each consisting of 400 men (against 540 in a battalion of De Boigne), and from the shortness of the time they were imperfectly drilled. Besides, this force had no artillery at all comparable to De Boigne’s splendid light brass guns, copious supply of munitions, and efficient transport organization.

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The Indore Government’s one need was a pushful General. Bāpu Holkar had been an eye-witness of Patan and Mertā, and therefore knew his own military inferiority and dreaded an open conflict with Sindhia’s New Model army; moreover, he was now in broken health. Parāshar Dādāji, the man of business in charge of Holkar’s army, fully agreed with Bāpu. Tukoji Holkar was quiescent in his cups, and wished for nothing better than to be left alone with his bottles. Their policy was to make a working compromise with Mahadji Sindhia’s generals in Hindustan by mutual agreement and concession. Such an agreement was actually made even after the Surauli affair and it lasted for some four months.

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Holkar’s power for mischief having been thus neutralised for the time being, and a working compromise effected between the two parties, the Sindhian generals went back northwards to their own work in the Jaipur and Alwar territories. But in the April of next year (1793), the hatching of a second anti-Sindhia coalition by Tukoji Holkar and alarming reports of his armed preparations made the Sindhian generals again hurry to the south of the Banās river. During the six months that had passed since the brush at Surauli, Ahalyā Bāi had been raising new levies and sending them in successive detachments to Tukoji. This chief was now encamped at Jhapāit ghāt, a ferry at a sharp northward re-entrant angle of the Chambal river, 12 miles south of Lākheri city. About 14th April he was reported to be collecting forces, “Gosāin, Bairāgi, Rāngré, Rajput, Minā, Gujar, and Pathāns from Bhupāl, Kurwāi and Sironj as sebandi (militia or irregulars). The Deccani horse raised in Maheshwar (the seat of Ahalyā Bāi) was reaching him” in a continuous stream. His lieutenants were also being called in: Kāshi Rao (his eldest son) and Bāpu Holkar (the guardian of Kāshi) had already reached his camp, while Malhar Holkar (a younger son) was coming up from Maheshwar *via* Kanad, Agar, Bhansodā, and Mehidpur.

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∗ A report from Ahalya Bai’s Court, 26 July 1793, says that the army cost 3 lakhs a month, and the soldiers were 14 months in arrears of pay.

§ 6. Malhar Rao Holkar the Younger: Policy of aggression triumphs

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And then came Malhar Rao Holkar the younger, on the scene, and “reversed the treaty with Gopāl Bhāu.” This young son of Tukoji was a fanatical believer in the light foray tactics (*ghanimi qāwā*) which had made Shivaji, Baji Rao I and Malhar Holkar I famous throughout India many generations earlier and against enemies very differently armed. Recently this hot-headed youth had run away from home, gone to war on his own account, assembled bands of predatory horsemen and led them in looting helpless villages of the Peshwa’s dominions in Khandesh. This success had raised his prestige in the ignorant circle of Ahalyā Bāi’s advisers, and his own self-conceit to the point of madness. He now insisted on being sent to Rajputana with power to override his father’s generals, and promised to crush Mahadji’s much-vaunted New Model army by making one sudden charge with his myriads of light cavalry, *à la* Malhar Holkar the First!

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Ahalyā Bāi yielded to his boastful tongue and sent him to the Holkar camp in Rajputana, where Malhar II brushed aside the sober counsels of Bāpu and Parāshar and ordered an aggressive policy against the Sindhian generals.

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Gopāl Bhāu and Jivvā Dādā took immediate action. Moving south through the Jaipur kingdom, by way of Chātsu and Nawāi, and being joined by De Boigne’s choice brigade from Koil during the march, they arrived at Tonk on 24th April, and next day advanced to Kākor, 12 miles to the south-east, seeking the enemy out.

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Meantime, from his base at Jhapāit ghāt Tukoji Holkar had pushed one division under Kāshi and Bāpu Holkar, with Parāshar Dādāji as diwan, to Bābi, 10 miles north of Lākheri. And a decisive battle seemed imminent. But again the peace-makers intervened and tried to avert a civil war between these Maratha chiefs.

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The Peshwā’s ministers Nānā Fadnis and Hari Pant Phādké had long been trying to make up the quarrel between Sindhia and Holkar. They had made Mahādji, who was then in Punā, write to his generals in the North not to give any provocation to Holkar for the next two months and a half during which interval the two ministers were hopeful of effecting an amicable settlement between the two chiefs. Mahādji restrained his hand for four months, but no peace could be made as Tukoji persisted in replying “I will fight one battle at least to wipe off the disgrace of the defeat at Surauli.” So the Peshwā’s agent gave up the attempt in despair.

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On learning of the failure of the peace mission and Tukoji’s open declaration in favour of war, Mahadji Sindhia at last wrote to his generals in the beginning of April to accept the challenge, and they accordingly pushed on to Tonk in search of the enemy.

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While the rival hosts thus neared each other again, a last attempt at peace was made. On 12th May Parāshar Dādāji, Tukoji’s chief man-of-business, rode into Gopāl Bhāu’s camp at Oniārā to renew negotiations for a reconciliation. He conducted the Sindhian envoys to Kāshi Holkar and Bāpu Holkar, who after discussion and adjustment of points agreed to their proposal that Parāshar should next visit Tukoji and secure from that chief a ratification of the settlement made by Bāpu and Kāshi.

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Parāshar Dādāji reached Tukoji’s base about the 17th of May, told him of the settlement made in Bāpu Holkar’s presence, and asked him to name a day for confirming this agreement in the presence of Sindhia’s generals.

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But the fully ripened fruit of peace was destined to rot. For, by this time Malhar Holkar the younger had reached his father’s camp. Fired with boundless pride and ambition, he rebuked the aged Tukoji, crying out, “We have been maintaining an army for the last eight months at the cost of lakhs of Rupees in order to recover our lost prestige in Hindustan. You have now discarded the policy of fighting and thereby saving our honour, and made peace with Sindhia. This has destroyed even the little prestige that was still left to us. You remain here with your peace. I will listen to none, but deliver one battle.” So saying he next day marched away to the front. Then Tukoji turned a somersault, repudiated the agreement made by Parāshar and censured him. The baffled minister sulked in his tent in grief and humiliation.

§ 7. De Boigne’s advance : First battle at Panchilas

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Sindhia’s generals lost no time in taking up the challenge; leaving Bandria (2 miles south-west of Aligarh-Rampurā) they went to Sawāi Mādhopur on 23rd May, halted there for two or three days to place their camp in safety and lighten their force, and then returned westwards to seek the enemy out (26th). Meantime, Malhar Holkar who had usurped the supreme command of Holkar’s fighting forces, advanced from Bābi to Panchilas village and took post behind a *nala*. His army, some 15 to 20 thousand horse, besides foot, was drawn up in three cavalry divisions under Bāpu Holkar, Parāshar Dādāji, and himself, with the irregular infantry of Nāgās and Bairāgis in front and the camp behind.

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The Sindhian army advanced from the north-east, marching in De Boigne’s favourite column formation; his trained infantry battalions and artillery protected the front and the two flanks, the Deccani horse took shelter in the centre of the column, and a small force of musketeers and some light guns guarded the rear. Before such a compact formation, the Holkar cavalry with their Cossack tactics merely hovered round beyond the range of its fire, unable to stop its advance.

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Early on the 29th of May, De Boigne on sighting the enemy’s position, deployed his infantry in line of battle and turning a quarter circle struck Holkar’s front and opened artillery fire on their stationary masses. Bāpu Holkar and Parāshar Dādāji well knew the futility of Malhar’s boasted charging tactics and left him alone to try them, while they kept their own divisions safe by not moving up to the attack. Malhar Holkar at the head of his own troops (the left wing) made a detour round Sindhia’s army and attacked its rear. Here, instead of finding a confused crowd of servants, transport animals and baggage, he was met by a steady line of disciplined musketeers with light guns and *chevaux de frise* before them. Malhar’s cavalry found it impossible to hurl itself upon its opponents in the one impetuous charge so long dreamt of by him. While the attack was thus halted by these obstacles to a cavalry sweep, De Boigne’s rear-guard ploughed their enemy’s ranks with grape shot and bullet. Soon afterwards, Lakhwā Dādā arrived with the Household Cavalry (the *huzurāt*) to aid the defence. Malhar’s bolt was shot, he fled away with the broken remnant of his troops.

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Meanwhile in the front line, De Boigne’s light guns had been working havoc among the stationary Holkarians, whose only missile weapons were erratic rockets and some rusty old firelocks. While Holkar's army was thus engaged in its front and left, Sindhia's Pindharis made a detour by their own left and encircled and plundered Kashi Rao Holkar's camp in the rear with hardly any opposition. These enveloping tactics can succeed only against primitive armies.

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At the sight of Malhar's wing returning thinned and disordered from their advance, the entire army of Holkar broke and fled away, abandoning their baggage. The spoils taken by the victors included 175 horses, 50 camels, 3 palkis, 4 camels loaded with treasure, besides quantities of rockets, swivel guns mounted on camels and other arms, and the entire baggage of Kāshi Holkar.

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The defeated army of Holkar fell hurriedly back and by continuous retreat reached its base camp near the town of Lākheri, about 18 miles to the south. Gopāl Bhāu spent the night after the victory in the enemy's abandoned camp near Panchilas and then followed them up to Bābi (30th May) and Balwān (31st),—the last named place being six miles north-east of Lākheri.

§ 8. Topography of the Theatre of War at Lākheri

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This village of Balwān lies three miles south-east of the Indargarh Railway Station; Lākheri is situated six miles south-west of Balwān, under shelter of the long range of hills running north-eastwards from Kotā to Indargarh. As the modern traveller hurries by the Nāgdā-Muttrā Railway line from Sawāi Mādhopur towards Kotā, a gap in the line of hills on his right four miles south of the Indargarh station gives him a glimpse of the new city of Lākheri lying under a dark cloud of smoke from the many chimneys of its modern cement factory. A mile west of the factory area the old city of Lākheri nestles under the western hill range. In between the two cities, old and new, but a little to the north of them lies the lake of Lākheri, in a fork of the hills whose lower end has been dammed up with a wall. South of these towns, the country is level down to the Chambal and this side has been utilised by the branch railway line running to the cement factory. Through the gap east of Lākheri runs the modern road from that city to Indargarh in the north.

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This gap, about three furlongs in width is surrounded by a jungle tract, which begins some three miles from Balwān on the east and stretches up to the outskirts of Lākheri on the west. It is a broken ravine-scored area, covered with scrub jungle and thickets, composed mostly of *babul*, *nim*, dwarf tamarind and *ber*. The hill on the north or right hand of the pass was densely wooded up to its top.

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On the 1st of June, De Boigne started from the halting place of Balwān, after sending a message to his chief Gopāl Bhāu, saying, “The path leading to the pass of Lākheri is just wide enough for one cart, and the thick forest is unfavourable to cavalry movements. I am going alone with five battalions to cut down the jungle.” They agreed to the plan of clearing a path through the forest that day, and advancing with the full force to fight a pitched battle the next day. Therefore, after detaching De Boigne with his pioneers, the Maratha army rested in its camping ground at Balwān.

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After easily passing over three miles of open ground from Balwān, De Boigne placed his five battalions on guard and set the pioneers to work. As they advanced making a road and arrived near the mouth of the pass, they were suddenly assailed by a heavy fire of rockets and guns. The General climbed a tree to reconnoitre. There lay before him the entire army of Holkar spread out on the plain behind a marsh. The mouth of the pass was entrenched and held by a crowd of irregular infantry consisting of wild Gosāins and Bairāgis, or married monks fighting for hire; on their left stood Chevalier Dudrenec’s line of the four battalions of trained infantry he had raised for Tukoji Holkar. The second line of the enemy was formed by the Deccani horse, in three large divisions (5,000 to 7,000 each) which were led by Bāpu Holkar (right, with Kāshi Rao’s contingent), Parāshar Dādāji (centre, with Tukoji’s own contingent), and Malhar Holkar (left). These were formed in the open ground some distance behind the pass. The rear was made up of Holkar’s Pindhari horde (about eight to ten thousand strong) who were mere looters mounted on small ponies. Still further in the rear, close to the city lay the tents and baggage of this army.

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Dudrenec is said to have had only five guns of his own, against 80 under De Boigne, and the disparity in trained infantry was nearly fourfold, 1,600 men against 6,000. There were some old and very ineffective cannon with Holkar’s troops. The Gosāins and Bairāgis had some antiquated matchlocks, besides swords and spears. But their favourite weapon of offence was rockets, of which they had an ample supply carried in carts to the firing line; these could do no harm at all comparable to artillery fire, but they were chiefly useful in making unbroken horses stampede, and also in causing fires in the enemy’s munitions by a rare lucky hit.

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Gopāl Bhāu’s command included 20,000 cavalry of his own and De Boigne’s First Brigade, consisting of ten battalions (544 bayonets each), with 500 Ruhela infantry and a regiment of select cavalry (300 sabres) attached to it. He had 80 excellent light guns of improved French design, which fired smaller balls, but with the same range as his enemy’s heavier pieces. But his transport and supply system was a wonder for that age. Each light gun was drawn by 8 oxen and its separate munition-waggon by 12 oxen. Each battalion had attached to it five guns,—two of them three-pounders, two six-pounders, and one a caronade (8-pounder or larger). For each three-pounder gun 400 rounds, for each six-pounder 300 rounds, and for the caronade 45 rounds of grape and 12 shells, were carried into the field. To a regiment of cavalry were attached four three-pounder galloper guns, each drawn by two horses, with four camels each carrying 60 rounds for each galloper. Camels also transported water to the troops.

§ 9 The Battle of Lākheri

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Immediately after completing his reconnaissance with the help of a telescope, De Boigne decided to deliver his attack without waiting for the next day. Sending urgent messages to the camp to call up the rest of his battalions and artillery and to inform Gopāl Bhāu of this unexpected change of plan and to request the support of the Deccan cavalry, he formed his troops in line of battle. The country leading from Balwān to the Lākheri pass, after the first three miles is intersected by ravines and dry brooks and encumbered with jungle. Therefore, De Boigne had to deploy his full strength gradually as his battalions and guns came up in succession.

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He began the battle with the small force he had at first at hand, by sending forward three of his battalions and a body of Ruhela irregular infantry under Abdāl Khan, which was specially trained for storming hills, to carry the pass that led to the enemy's position. No adequate artillery support could be given to the attack for some time, and this small advance-guard was assailed by a storm of cannon-balls and rocket-fire from the defence trenches on the heights and thrown back with heavy loss. De Boigne then wisely led his men back to the shelter of the trees on the two sides, where the enemy's big "guns of position" could do them little harm. But Holkar's army by the prodigal and useless expenditure of its scanty supply of powder and shot at this initial stage, ran quite out of munitions when the real crisis of the battle came later and it could then make no reply to De Boigne's massed artillery.

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The enforced halt among the woods enabled the rest of De Boigne's infantry and guns to come up. He deployed his column and formed his line of battle, unlimbered his guns, and opened fire upon the enemy with a crushing superiority.* Meantime the sound of the enemy's opening artillery had carried the news of the action to the Maratha generals in the camp before De Boigne's couriers, and Gopāl Bhāu had sent Lakhwā Dādā up with Sindhia's Household cavalry (Pāgā) to reinforce the vanguard. The infantry battalions were thus heartened by the sight of strong cavalry support behind them on the left, which guarded them against any attack from the rear.

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Thus clearing the pass, De Boigne issued from it into the more open ground beyond, which was however too much cut up by ravines and covered with trees and jungle to allow regular manœuvring or free-firing. But just then an unforeseen accident threatened disaster to his force: "A bullet hitting the iron side of an open munition waggon caused a spark to flash, which exploded that waggon and the fire spreading, twelve other tumbrils blew up at the same time, while ten or twelve guns were thrown out of their carriages and rendered unserviceable. The confusion spread to the infantry, and the enemy horse, advanced with rapidity to profit by the disorder. De Boigne, who saw the storm coming, immediately retired his men some yards into the forest," and kept them standing ready to meet the attack. As the Holkarian cavalry came out of their back line into the open plain before them, they were subjected to a withering fire of 6,000 muskets firing by platoons and 80 guns ranged close ahead in a semi-circle, and fell into disorder after losing many men and horses for nothing.

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Just as the enemy horse stopped and hesitated, De Boigne launched his select cavalry on them. This body of only three hundred troopers, mounted on superb horses and accoutred in the sumptuous style of the famous Bengal Cavalry of the British East India Company's army, charged with the compactness and force of a bullet. Their green coats and red turbans were at first lost to view in the wavy ocean of ten thousand parti-coloured jackets and tight twisted orange pugrees of the Deccani horse. The blow was struck at the psychological moment. At the impact of disciplined valour, Holkar’s rabble on horseback began to scatter like chaff before the wind. Emboldened by this sight, the entire Sindhian cavalry, under Jivā Dādā and Gopāl Bhāu, fell upon the shaken Holkarians and turned their retreat into a hopeless rout, chasing them out of sight from the battle-field.

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∗ Holkar's guns were of heavier calibre, but De Boigne's were double in number and equal in range, and could be fired with greater quickness and accuracy by his European gunlayers.

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By this time it was well past noon. Holkar’s troops who had been up and in arms since day-break and working for eight hours under the burning sun of June in Rajputana, were at last overcome by thirst. Worn out with toil, raked by De Boigne’s guns to which they were no longer able to reply, and dying of thirst with no hope of water supply, the Holkarian army now broke up rapidly. As their Rajah’s family chronicler admits, “Our troops began to cry out for water. In Sindhia’s campoo camels continued to bring skins full of water, but on our side there was no water. Therefore, the Gosāins and Bairāgis ran away. Munitions ran short in our five [four] battalions. . . Even the Maratha horse took to flight.”

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Where was Malhar Holkar II at this time? As his father’s cavalry left the lost field and issued out of the pass, they found Malhar lying in the water of a tank by the roadside quite senseless. The pot-valiant hero was cooling his wine-flushed head after ruining his family prestige and the lives of hundreds of brave men. As the *Holkar Kaifiyat* comments on it: “He in reliance on whom they had made the reversal of the treaty, was in such a condition!”

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With the flight of the Gosāins and Bairāgis and of the Pindharis and Marātha horse behind them,* the entire Centre and Right wing of Holkar’s army disappeared. The Deccanis vanished like smoke, leaving the fight to be continued by the Hindustanis on both sides. Holkar’s left wing still stood firmly. It was now a duel between two trained infantry forces, each under European leadership.

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∗ One MS. of *Holkaranchi Kaifiyat* gives the reading that Bāpu Holkar signalled with his scarf to Dudrenec to retire, and then the army broke up. The other MSS. omit this version; but it is quite credible; Bāpu as a cool-headed and experienced General must have

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De Boigne called upon Chevalier Dudrenec to surrender, but the call was gallantly refused and a fight to the finish ensued. Dudrenec, by a prompt tactical move pivoting on his right and marching *en echelon*, had extended his line from the left, into the gap created by the vanishing of Holkar’s centre, and though absolutely denuded of cavalry support, he tried to guard his flanks with fire. But his numbers were hopelessly weak, 1,600 bayonets against 6,000 and his guns had been rendered useless by the exhaustion of powder, and there was no reserve or support within sight. Left utterly alone in the field, and hemmed in front by De Boigne’s ten battalions and on the two flanks and rear by Gopāl Bhāu’s returned cavalry, with sixty light brass guns firing on them at point-blank range, Holkar’s northern sepoys fought on till they were almost all annihilated. There was no escape possible, and none was sought. All their European officers were either killed or wounded; Dudrenec himself escaped death by falling into a heap of the slain.

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Holkar’s defeat was complete and the battle decided the Sindhia-Holkar rivalry for domination over Hindustan.

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The loss on Holkar’s side was very heavy. Dudrenec, in an interview with Ahalyā Bāi on 27th August, reported that 800 to 900 men had fallen on his side; this evidently refers to his four battalions, which would mean more than 50 per cent fatal casualties. The deaths among the Maratha horse have not been estimated anywhere, and we are only told, in the accounts that reached Punā, of “great destruction” having been wrought among them. But they took to flight so quickly that more of them died of thirst and fatigue

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found out that the day was lost and he rightly tried to save his army for fighting another day.

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on the way than those that fell on the field, chiefly as victims of De Boigne's fire. Sindhia's loss was even slighter than at Mertā. The fugitives suffered unspeakable hardship from lack of water on the route for some days after leaving Lākheri. (MD. ii. 241. Gulgulé D. Holkar Kaif. 64.)

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From the hard-won field, Gopāl Bhāu marched and occupied Holkar's abandoned camp near Lākheri city. The spoils of victory included 38 pieces of cannon, ten cart-loads of rockets, 200 horses, 50 camels, three palkis, four camels laden with treasure, besides all the tents and baggage. (Kalá Akh.)

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