Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c53.s3.4

v4.c53.s3.4

At Punā Daulat Rao Sindhiā was very hard pressed for money. His vast army and extravagant Court required a large flow of income. Mahādji had left him only a legacy of debt as the result of his glorious campaigns in the North. But not one pice of the five *krores* adjudged to be due to him from the Peshwā in the settlement of September 1793 had been paid. The war indemnity promised by the Nizām at Khardā could not be realised except by another invasion of his territory. Any tributes paid by the Rajput princes were eaten up by the army stationed in their country. Daulat Rao, therefore, had to find money if he was not to starve, or to be mobbed to death by his starving soldiery. His chosen minister Bālobā Tātyā had failed to provide the necessary funds during his two years of office. In this situation, Nānā Fadnis, through his old follower Sharzā Rao Ghātgé, secretly assured Daulat Rao that large sums could be easily collected if he only changed his ministers. The weakminded young prince swallowed the bait. On 26th October 1796, he suddenly arrested Bālobā Tātyā and Bhāu Bakhshi, who were Nānā's enemies, and recalled Abā Chitnis, a partisan of Nānā.