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Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c52: Chapter XLII. The Sindhias in Punā, 1792-1799

Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c52

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Chapter XLII. The Sindhias in Punā, 1792-1799

§ 1. What Mahādji Sindhia sought at the Peshwā's Court

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When in February 1792 Mahādji Sindhiā left Ujjain on return to Punā, he had been an exile from his native land for eleven years. These long years had been filled for him with ceaseless striving. He had fought in many a field and planted the Maratha banner on many a historic place. He had risen to unimaginable heights of glory, and had also, at times, seemed to touch the lowest depth of ruin; but he had not once left the northern theatre of his activity. And now that he had made himself the supreme dominator of Indian politics, what sort of reception would he find from his master? With many hopes and no little misgiving too, did he contemplate his coming audience with the Peshwā and the Peshwā's masterful minister Nānā Fadnis.

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During Mahādji's absence from Mahārāshtra his fame had filled the country. A generation had grown up from boyhood to manhood in the Southern land who were eager to see the face of the man who had made the Marātha name great as never before. His home-coming reminded men of the tales they had heard from their grandfathers of the splendour and national exultation at Bāji Rao I's return to Punā after humbling Asaf Jāh at Bhopāl (1738), or Chimnāji Apā's triumphal entry after the conquest of Mālwā (1729). But Sindhiā had raised the Marātha State to greater heights than these two military conquerors could do. They had brought back only treasure and trophies; he had created a Marātha Empire; he had made the Peshwā—through his vicar—the dictator of the Mughal Empire and also the protector of the noblest Rajput royal house, marriage into which was the supreme dream of every aspiring Kshatriya prince. And behind these political gains of Sindhiā stood an invincible army, which was sorely needed at home for a rough settling of accounts with that eternally defaulting debtor the Subahdār of Mughal Deccan, and for checking the ambition of the English to "thrust their feet into Mahārāshtra". The report of Mahādji's coming sent a thrill of pride and expectancy throughout his native land. The curious longed to gaze at him and his soldiers who had tamed the pride of Mughaliā and Ruhelā, Kachhwā and Rāthor alike. The oppressed looked up to Mahādji's intervention as the only means of redressing their wrongs at the hands of the Punā Government.

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But quite other feelings animated the breast of the man who conducted the Government of Punā. Nānā Fadnis quaked in fear lest the victor of Patan and Mertā should push him away from the control of the Marātha Central Government which he had exercised for fourteen years now. Nānā was extremely unpopular on account of his parsimony and greed of power and wealth, and the rigid control and joyless decorum of his administrative policy. His miserliness in expenditure prevented the ambitious and the violent from "feeding themselves" at the public expense. But the economy of Nānā Fadnis was not the unselfish guardianship of the public funds that marked the administration of John De Witt (the Grand Pensionary of Holland) or of William Pitt (the Prime Minister of George III.) The Chitpāvan Machiavel (as his modern admirers in Punā love to call him) practised stringency in public expenditure only to increase his private hoard, which had in Oct. 1792 reached two krores of rupees by his own admission. No part of it was spent in strengthening the national defence or improving the people's lot. At the same time his grasping at all authority in the State and his personal vices (pandered to by Ghāsirām the Police Prefect of Punā) had raised against him a host of enemies, who fretted in impotent rage. Hence Nānā rightly feared a gathering of his enemies around Mahādji with a view to overwhelming him.

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Or, what would be equally ruinous to him, the glamour of Sindhia's military triumphs in the North and the imperial titles and decorations that he had brought from Delhi for his master, added to the personal charm of that genial man of action would enchant the heart of the Peshwā, now about to step out of his minority—and incline him to discard the morose, stingy, ever-censorious old minister and give the ministry to the great soldier.

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At the first reports of Mahādji's march to the south, Nānā Fadnis was shaken by a wild fear that he would be treated by Mahādji as he himself had treated Sakhārām Bāpu. So, the minister for a time contemplated safety by retirement to Benares as a religious recluse and sounded the British Resident for a passport. Next he formed the infamous scheme of hiring the hereditary enemy of his nation by surrendering the Marātha claims on the Nizām in return for his armed aid against Sindhia. In the meantime he hastily called up his generals Hari Pant Fādké and Parashurām Bhāu Patwardhan to his side. But Mahādji's honesty of purpose was transparent; wiser counsels prevailed with Nānā Fadnis; and Mahādji was received at the Peshwā's Court with apparent cordiality and due ceremony, on 22nd July, 1792.

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The first and formal interview being over, Mahādji turned to the serious business that had brought him to Punā. He had come there not to receive his master's plaudits nor to read his history in his nation's eyes, but to ensure the durability of his life's work. The subjects of his discussions with the Punā Government were two:—

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First, he had to prove his claim to seven krores of rupees spent by him in the Peshwā's work in Hindustan, and secure payment of the amount so that he might discharge his own debt to the bankers.

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Secondly, for the smooth working and permanence of the Marātha overlordship in Hindustan, Holkar must be excluded from that country and its charge placed exclusively in Sindhia's hands, with no rival agent of Punā to question his orders or thwart his policy. When these two points had been gained he wished to return to North India and resume his rule there in peace of mind.

§ 2. Nānā Fadnis ruins Maratha national interests by selfishness and want of a statesmanly vision

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As regards Sindhiā's money claims, the wildest rumours born of ignorance filled the minds of the Punā ministry. When in December 1784, Mahādji was appointed regent of the Delhi Empire, the Marātha country believed that he had struck an inexhaustible mine of gold, and would henceforth not only pay his own troops but send every year millions of rupees out of the surplus revenue to feed the Punā Government.

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It was the firm belief of Nānā Fadnis that Mahādji Sindhiā was hoarding all his income in the Delhi provinces by building up a private fortune of his own and dishonestly throwing the cost of his army on his master. First, Nānā's secret agent in the North secured from an imperial record-keeper by a bribe of Rs. 3,500, a detailed copy of the official figures of the revenue of every village that had come into Mahādji's hands as the Emperor's manager. (HP. 360.) Then, in 1790 a list was sent to Nānā showing that Sindhiā had acquired in North India in cash and kind two krores and 96 lakhs of rupees besides 815 pieces of artillery, in tribute collection and spoils of war up to that year. This was over and above the annual land revenue and custom duties of the country in his charge. (Aiti. Tipané, ii. No. 12.)

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So, when Mahādji, surrounded by still unsubdued enemies in the North, had appealed to Punā for money aid, Nānā Fadnis had replied in exasperated tones,—"Unlike Visāji Krishna and Rāmchandra Ganesh of former times (1769-1773) Sindhiā is not sending to the Punā Government accounts and balances of his collections in Jhānsi and Bundelkhand. That money belongs to the Peshwā. Patil Bābā imagines that the Government here has abundance of money, but it is not the case.. Our debt to our troops is mounting higher. Such is the pressure of want on us."*

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The fact is, no one in Punā could realise how years of anarchy, war and famine had desolated the central part of the Delhi empire ; large areas had lapsed into jungle, the population had been thinned, cultivation had shrunk, and the actual revenue collection had fallen to a tenth of the normal demand or even less. No money aid was given by the Punā Government to Mahādji in his sorest need, but he was allowed, after the Lālsot disaster, to raise loans from the local bankers on his own account, under Nānā Fadnis's guarantee. These he scrupulously repaid in a few years.†

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† Nānā to Benares—PRC. ii. 136, 153. Nānā's treasure hoard, ibid, 153; his rigid economy, ibid, 175. Sindhiā's personal influence over the Peshwā, ibid.

§ 3. Puna Government's settlement with Mahādji

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Mahādji took with himself to Punā full and detailed accounts of the public income and expenditure in the Marātha sphere of influence in Northern India during his administration there from 1783 to 1791. These he produced in support of his claim to seven krores of rupees as due from the Peshwā. The Punā ministers, instigated by Holkar's local agents, raised the cry that the accounts were faked. The long and angry discussions were ended and a settlement agreed to only after Lākheri (June 1793) had shown that it was a dangerous game to shilly-shally with the victor in that battle. The Punā Court admitted that five krores were due to Sindhiā as excess expenditure justly incurred in doing his master's work.

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∗ Aiti. Tip. iii. No.

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³⁹ This letter was written on 2nd May 1790. On its being read out to Mahādji, he remarked in anger, "What is written here is very nice! We too have been out on campaign for six years. Nānā Fadnis has not inquired into what each of us has achieved and the amounts of our gain and loss. . . . Let him depute an officer here to hold an investigation. I will welcome such an inquiry, it will be to my interest. Reward or punish me or Holkar after pursuing such an inquest to its conclusion, and not after hearing one side only."

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¹⁴⁷ Discussion of Sindhiā's claims, PRC. ii. 150, 153, 157, 194 (imp.); Kharé, ix. pp. 4601, 4632. Sātārā, i. 368, 288. Holkar's objection—Hingané Daftar, ii. No. 93.

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The next question was how to pay him this sum. Mahādji Sindhiā suggested an easy method: In the nine years since 1783 he had won territories in Northern India with a nominal rent-roll of one krore or a krore and a half of rupees. In this territory the revenue was shared and collected by Sindhia, Holkar and the Peshwā (the last through the agency of Ali Bahādur, Vinchurkar, Pawār, &c.) in certain fixed proportions. Mahādji did not demand the repayment of his admitted loan of five krores now in cash, but proposed that the North Indian territories belonging to the Peshwā's share should be placed in his (i.e., Mahādji's) charge and he would gradually recover the total amount from their annual surplus.

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But Nānā Fadnis would not agree to handing over Hindustan to Sindhiā's undivided control; his whole policy was to keep other generals, like Holkar and Ali Bahādur, there as a check on Sindhiā, and he only made futile counter-proposals for paying Sindhiā's dues from Punā as the Peshwā's Government would find it convenient.

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The total exclusion of the Holkar family from the Delhi sphere of influence was a bitter pill for Tukoji Holkar to swallow; he refused to give up his jāgirs and rights in the Doāb and Rajputana and seek compensation by invading Cutch-Bhuj or the Cis-Satlaj Sikh country as was proposed by Sindhiā. And Nānā had not the force to effect Holkar's removal from Hindustan even if he had the wish for it.

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Thus, the long negotiations came to nothing tangible, and at the beginning of 1794 Sindhiā was still pursuing the mirage of an amicable settlement with Nānā Fadnis, when his dreams and worries alike were ended by a short four days' fever, on 12th February. In the ashes of his funeral pyre outside Punā perished also the hope of a Marātha empire in Hindustan, but the grouping of Powers on the political chess-board in Europe and India concealed this fact for ten years.

§ 4. Death of the Peshwā (October 1795), Nānā Fadnis's intrigues against Bājī Rao II

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During the years 1793 and 1794, the thoughts of the Punā ministers were absorbed by one problem which only grew in urgency with the passing of months. Their Government had been working under a heavy deficit for years, and the addition of the many krores adjudged as due to Mahādji Sindhiā by the settlement of September 1793 would make the financial burden unbearable to their insolvent State. Yet there was money in sight, if only it could be got at. The Nizām of Haidarabad owed several krores to the Peshwā as war indemnity and chauth, but for many years past he had evaded payment. The problem for the Peshwā's ministers was how to make this defaulting debtor honour his treaty obligations. Diplomatic discussions, appeals to friendly Powers for mediation, and even threats of coercion failed to move the Haidarabad Government to a settlement of the claim. The Nizām's ministers,—whom the Governor-General Sir John Shore at this time aptly called 'foxes in their holes'—were passed masters in the use of delaying tactics, duplicity and evasion. The Nizām possessed an immense hoard of treasure, but he would not touch it. His ministers intrigued with all the enemies of the Peshwā and fomented the jealous quarrels among the Marātha sardārs in order to prevent a decision and thus put off the evil day.

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At last the Marātha Government's patience was worn out, and they decided to use the only argument which the Court of Haidarabad ever understood. In January 1795 a vast Maratha army set out from Punā under Nānā Fadnis, the Peshwā, and Parashurām Bhāu Patwardhan. This was the last time that all the Marātha sardārs without any exception, gathered under the national banner in the field. After a short campaign, marked only by the cowardice and folly of Nizām Ali Khan, he was driven into the village of Khardā (11th March) and there forced to make a complete submission promising an indemnity of five krores (payable in three years) and a cession of territory worth 30 lakhs a year, and delivering his minister Mushir-ul-mulk into the hands of the Marāthas as a hostage.

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The treaty was concluded on 27th March. But only seven months after it, an event happened which nullified all the gains of the treaty and brought to the Peshwā's throne its destined destroyer Bāji Rao II. The young Peshwā Mādhav Rao II died of an accident on 27th October 1795, and a scene of hopeless bewilderment and mischief opened in Punā. Two months later General De Boigne who had served as a sobering influence on Daulat Rao Sindhiā, left his service for return to Europe, and that young prince was left free to prance to self-destruction.

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The story of the revolutions that began in Punā in 1795 is no doubt the direct concern of the historian of Mahārāshtra. But as their repercussion naturally shook the Marātha administration in Hindustan, the present history must trace their course, though in outline only.

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The nearest heir of the dead Peshwā was Bāji Rao, the eldest son of that Raghunāth Dādā who had sat on an uneasy throne for eight months after the murder of Nārāyan Rao Peshwā in August 1773. Nānā Fadnis had effectually kept him out of power and relentlessly tracked down and punished with death or torture every participant in the conspiracy against Nārāyan Rao and every leading supporter of Raghunāth. Moreover, he had doomed Raghunāth Dādā, his wife, and three sons (Bāji Rao and Chimnāji Apā sprung from his own loins, and Amrit Rao an adopted son) to long and humiliating captivity. Their hearts were sore against him, and if Bāji Rao now gained the throne Nānā Fadnis would inevitably lose his power and wealth, and if he escaped death by reason of his sacred caste, he would certainly be subjected to public humiliation and secret torture.

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Nānā Fadnis’s one thought was how to keep Bāji Rao out of the succession. He proposed to set aside the entire house of Raghunāth Dādā as blood-stained, and give the Peshwāship to a boy from a collateral line to be adopted by the last Peshwā’s widow as her son. Nearly all the chief men in the State objected to this violation of hereditary right. Then Nānā changed his plan; he would make Raghunāth’s younger son Chimnāji Apā, a boy of eleven, Peshwā (Feb. 1796), so that the old minister might enjoy a further long lease of power as the guardian of the minor. This proposal also met with public disapproval.

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Four months were wasted by Nānā Fadnis in these manoeuvres and indecision, till all his supporters abandoned him and he was driven to come to terms with Bāji Rao, who had secretly won over Daulat Rao Sindhiā (through his minister Bālobā Pāgnis) by promising to pay him 1¼ crores of Rupees in cash and lands worth 25 lakhs a year, as the price of his support. On 11th March 1796, Bāji Rao and Nānā Fadnis made a solemn pact by which they guaranteed each other’s position as Peshwā and prime minister, without the intervention of Sindhiā, who thus lost his claim to the money promised before. It bitterly antagonised Daulat Rao, and started a series of almost kaleidoscopic changes. Nānā, finding his own life in danger from Sindhiā’s troops, suddenly left Punā (21st March) and went to Satara and thence to Mahād in the western hills. Punā was left without a master.

§ 5. Chimnāji made Peshwā. Daulat Rao supreme in Punā (May 1796)

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At last, Parashurām Bhāu forced the late Peshwā’s widow to adopt Chimnāji Apa as her son (25th May) and had him invested in the Peshwā’s robes on 2nd June, while Bāji Rao was kept a close prisoner in Daulat Rao’s camp. By this coup, Sindhia became the dominant factor in the Peshwā’s Government. Nānā Fadnis could not bear to part with a power which he had enjoyed for twenty years, nor was he sure that when shorn of power he would be able to save from the grasp of his successor his hoarded treasure, which rumour had swollen to nine krores of Rupees. "He now directed all the engine of his wealth and diplomacy to escape from Sindhia's clutches.... From (his refuge in) Mahād, for full five months (June-November 1796) he exercised all his diplomatic skill and spent much of his treasure not only in keeping back Sindhia's forces from approaching him, but (also) in enlisting the support of several outside Powers."

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Daulat Rao Sindhia's threat of attacking Nizām Ali to exact payment of the Khardā indemnity was Nānā Fadnis's opportunity. He made a secret pact with Mushir-ul-mulk (the Nizām's agent in Punā),* most selfishly bartering away all the national claims on the Nizām in exchange of his armed aid against Sindhia. He also formed a faction at home, among the jealous rivals of the house of Sindhia, such as Tukoji Holkar, Raghuji Bhonslé II, the Rajah of Kolhāpur, and Bābā Phādké. "But more than all else, Nānā managed to win over Bāji Rao himself to his plan. Bāji Rao was now a prisoner closely watched by Sindhia, who was going to deposit him as a life-prisoner in the fort of Asirgarh. To avoid such a fate, Bāji Rao readily listened to Nānā's overtures and the two became temporarily reconciled to each other."

§ 6. Bāji Rao proclaimed Peshwā

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Nānā had an ally in the very citadel of his enemy. Sakhārām Ghātgé, surnamed Sharzā Rao, was a Maratha of the sardār family of Kāgal, who had joined Nānā's personal guards as a poor military adventurer, and gained his confidence by his courage, loyalty and unscrupulous resourcefulness. When Nānā Fadnis fled away from Punā (March 1796) Sharzā Rao passed into Daulat Rao Sindhiā’s service, and soon acquired the greatest influence over him, especially by holding out to his new master the bait of marriage with his beautiful young daughter Baizā Bāi, (a marriage which was eventually celebrated on 26th Feb. 1798). He now worked in the interests of Bāji Rao, over whom Sindhiā had placed him as keeper. Through Sharzā Rao, the prisoner opened communications with Nānā at Mahād for being declared as the Peshwā. Nānā agreed and again through Sharzā Rao’s secret insinuations managed to persuade Daulat Rao to arrest and confine both Bālobā Tātyā and Parashurām Bhāu who were then conducting the Government (26th October 1796). Chimnāji Apā was also removed from his throne and placed in detention. Nānā Fadnis returned to Punā and there at a public ceremony (on 26th Nov.) Bāji Rao II was proclaimed as Peshwā, and Nānā Fadnis became outwardly the supreme executive head of the Government again.

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∗ Govind Rao Kālé arranged a secret treaty between Nānā and Nizām Ali, which was signed on 7th Oct. 1796. By this contract all the huge war indemnity and cession of territory imposed upon the Haidarabad ruler, were entirely annulled, on condition that Nizām Ali wholeheartedly assisted in installing Bāji Rao in the Peshwāship with Nānā as the sole administrator. (Sardesai, iii. 318-320). The quotations here are from Sardesai's New History of the Marathas, vol. III.

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The newly enthroned Shrimant immediately plunged into sensual enjoyment in private, while he made an outward show of constant religious devotion worthy of the priestly head of a “Government belonging to Brāhmans and cows.” The ship of State without a helmsman drifted from bad to worse. The veteran prime minister, though nominally restored to his supreme position, “remained sulking as a private onlooker, unable to exercise any effective control over the administration.” As the price of this political *coup* all the claims on the Nizam were written off by Nānā.

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The derelict Punā Government was utterly insolvent. Daulat Rao Sindhiā was no better off owing to his huge inflated army bill and shrunken revenue-collection from war-ravaged estates. Though Bāji Rao devised and carried out ingenious schemes for squeezing money out of the people, his debts remained unpaid. The first half of the year 1797 passed in this placid stagnation, till at last on 15th August, when Tukoji Holkar died, a storm burst on the Maratha Government, whose unforeseen consequence was to hasten the loss of Maratha independence.

§ 7. Tukoji Holkar's sons,—his death (15 Aug. 1797). War among his sons

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When Ahalyā Bāi, the widowed daughter-in-law of the founder of the house of Holkar, died (on 13th August 1795), she left no descendant in the male line behind her. During her long reign of nearly thirty years, her troops were led by Tukoji Holkar, a distant cousin, as her servant. After her death the Punā Government recognised Tukoji as the head of the Holkar State, because he was the only able and grown-up member of the family and best known to the troops and the officials. But Tukoji was at that time a dying man. His health had broken down from drink, self-indulgence and slothfulness, and he was then living in Punā under medical treatment. As death came nearer, Tukoji was filled with despair about the future of his dominions. He had four sons by three different wives. The eldest Kāshi Rao was a half-witted cripple, entirely dependent on others. The second son Malhar II, was an unmitigated ruffian; his insane pride, reckless violence, contempt for good counsel, habitual drunkenness, and incurable addiction to the predatory way of life brought him from the rank of a prince down to the level of the vulgar Pindhari looters who filled the Holkar army. His father confessed that every measure of love or harshness that he had taken had failed to reform this youth. For his brigandage he had been kept confined in a fort. His fatuous conduct in the Lākheri campaign was the shame and sorrow of his father's ministers.

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Tukoji's third son Jaswant Rao, had a taint of insanity which burst out openly in his later life as the effect of his drug habit; but he was a youth of extraordinary courage, resourcefulness and adventurous spirit, though without a particle of that generosity and wisdom which a ruler of men ought to possess. The youngest, Vitoji (born of the same concubine-mother as Jaswant Rao), had been trained for no worthy work and naturally took to a life of robbery.

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Tukoji Holkar in his last days, declared Kāshi Rao as his successor and got from the Peshwā robes investing him as the head of the Holkar State (29th January 1797.) The storm-clouds immediately gathered. Malhar demanded that Kāshi Rao should live at Maheshwar as the sleeping head of the State, while he himself should lead the army and conduct the administration as his regent or deputy. Kāshi Rao naturally objected to being treated as a cypher. Malhar immediately left his father's camp and took post at some distance, where he began to enlist soldiers. Adventurers and criminals began to flock to such a master, raising his force to 1,500 men. The old father in despair cried out, "If in my very lifetime your brotherly love has turned into hatred and hostility, God knows how it will end after I am gone." But his entreaties to his sons to live in amity failed. Jaswant Rao bade defiance to Kāshi Rao and joined Malhar, and so did Vitoji. They openly vowed to wrest the sceptre from Kāshi Rao and put him in prison.

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The rebels sent off agents to stir up rebellion and raise money by plunder in the Mālwa and Khāndesh territories of their father. In the midst of this threatening chaos, Tukoji Holkar closed his eyes on 15th August 1797. Kāshi Rao in self-defence bought Daulat Rao Sindhiā's armed aid for putting his rivals down. The Sindhian ministers jumped at this opportunity of making the house of Holkar a helpless dependant of the house of Sindhia, and thus ending their acrimonious rivalry of the last two generations.

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On 14th September a detachment of Sindhia's troops attacked Malhar Rao's camp by surprise, and that gallant prince was slain when resisting with only a dozen followers around him. Jaswant Rao was wounded and fled away from

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[^ *]: Malhar's own mother warned Ahalyā Bāi, "You are keeping Malhar with yourself, but you do not know his character!" M. Riyāsat, Uttar II, p. 25. Thakur, Holkar Sadh, i. 268, 273, 260, 402 (confinement in a fort). The worthy son refused to see his mother's face. PRC. ii. No. 257, vi. No. 24-26. Mohan S.

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his dead brother's side, and after a time he made his way to Nāgpur, whose Raja had once been charged by Tukoji to protect Jaswant like his own son.

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§ 8. Daulat Rao Sindhiā dominant in Punā. Mahādji Sindhiā's widows are driven into war

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Thus Daulat Rao Sindhiā was left dominant in Punā; Sharzā Rao Ghātgé was his chief counsellor and the Peshwā Bāji Rao his ally, while the ostensible wazir Nānā Fadnis sulked in impotence and intrigued secretly to thwart Sindhiā and reduce his power. "Sindhiā's armed strength joined to Bāji Rao's wicked tendencies and guided by Sharzā Rao's vile counsel, became now a terror to all chiefs, bankers and leaders in the Marātha State. . . . While Nānā offered Daulat Rao a large sum for leaving Punā and going away, Bāji Rao at the same time went still further, promising Sindhiā two *krores* for saving him from Nānā's vengeance. . . . Daulat Rao urged that he could not move unless his troops were paid . . . . Bāji Rao said that he could not supply funds to Sindhiā; he held Nānā Fadnis responsible for his miseries, and gave a written permission to Sindhiā to seize Nānā's person and take away his treasure by force." (Sardesai, iii. 331-333.) So, on the last day of the year 1797, Nānā Fadnis was treacherously arrested by Sindhia's captain Michael Filose and kept under detention in Daulat Rao's camp.

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"The main object of the perpetrators was to squeeze as much treasure from the Minister, his friends and collaborators as possible. During this period Sharzā Rao and his henchmen perpetrated indescribable atrocities on the populace of Punā and its neighbourhood." But in March 1798 the widows of Mahādji Sindhiā threatened to march in force to Punā and appealed to the Peshwā to make Daulat Rao pay them the allowance worthy of the late chief's wives which Daulat Rao had promised them, but withheld so long. These ladies were loved and honoured by high and low alike, and they would form a centre round which the growing discontent against Daulat Rao’s tyranny would rally and thus raise a formidable opposition to his power.* The Shenvi party in the administration were their devoted adherents, and common enmity would also induce Nānā Fadnis to go to the same camp.

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Sharzā Rao therefore struck quickly and struck hard. In the last week of March, he arrested Nārāyan Rao Bakhshi (the son of the famous general Jivā Dādā), Devji Gauli (a captain with a long record of distinguished service to the family), Rājaji Patil and Rāmji Patil and many other partisans of the widowed ladies. Next, Nānā Fadnis and Bālobā Tātyā were removed to Ahmadnagar fort for safer custody. When the Sindhian widows arrived at Koregāon Daulat Rao began to parley with them for a compromise. But Sharzā Rao entered their apartments, whipped them and dragged them out for being sent off to some prison-fort. Then a faithful old captain named Muzaffar Khan took up their cause, and a civil war on a vast scale broke out near Punā. The widows, led by Lakshmi Bāi on a State-elephant attacked Sindhiā’s camp at Wanowri at midnight (8th June), and Daulat Rao was forced to promise compliance with their demands. But he used the respite thus gained to make a treacherous attack on their camps (25th June) at Bhāmburdā. The ladies took to a running fight and Daulat Rao, being quite unable to suppress them, restored Nānā Fadnis to liberty (15th July), as the only man who could conduct the administration and restore peace in the Peshwā’s State. At the same time he threw Sharzā Rao into prison, as the root cause of all these troubles.

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But Nānā Fadnis was no longer the dictator of the State that he had once been, and knowing his own really weak position he made no attempt to reform and stiffen the administration, but let matters drift. “Bāji Rao, utterly perplexed in the midst of the growing trouble, fell prostrate before Nānā Fadnis and implored him to take charge of the administration again (14th Nov. 1798). Nānā melted at this theatrical performance of the crafty Peshwā and resumed his work.” The deceitful Bāji Rao, soon afterwards, changed his mind and secretly begged Daulat Rao not to go away from Punā, leaving him to the tender mercies of Nānā Fadnis and men like Bālobā Tātyā and Parashurām Bhāu Patwardhan who, Bāji Rao urged, would bring about his deposition and place the worthier Amrit Rao on the throne.

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∗ The three wives were Lakshmi Bāi, Yamunā Bāi and Bhāgirathi Bāi. But a morganatic wife of Mahādji named Kesarji was highly praised for her wisdom and influence for good, and Daulat Rao used at first to take her advice (in 1794 and 1795 only). *Akh.*

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Soon afterwards the Widows’ rebellion moved southwards to Kolhāpur and received full support from the local branch of the house of Shivāji (May 1799). Daulat Rao, finding the country turning against him, hurriedly brought Bālobā Tātyā out of confinement in Ahmadnagar and sent him along with Ābā Chitnis to meet the princesses and pacify them by swearing to provide their maintenance. Thus by the end of August 1799, the Widows’ War was temporarily closed.

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