Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c52.s1.2

v4.c52.s1.2

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.