Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c52.s7: § 7. Tukoji Holkar's sons,—his death (15 Aug. 1797). War among his sons
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c52.s7
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§ 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.