Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c48.s1.4

v4.c48.s1.4

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.*