Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s1: § 1. The rise of Jaswant Rao Holkar, early adventures (1798)
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s1
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§ 1. The rise of Jaswant Rao Holkar, early adventures (1798)
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For four days after the defeat and death of his beloved brother and leader Malhār II (Ch. 42 § 7), the forlorn Jaswant Holkar hid himself in Punā, and then on 19th September 1797 issued from that city to seek refuge at the Court of Raghuji Bhonslé of Nāgpur, who had promised his father Tukoji Holkar to befriend him. On the way he took a loan from a Gosāin (monk) and raised a force of two hundred retainers. He was well received at Nāgpur (c. 25 Nov.), but took to a roving life of plunder in the surrounding country for a living. In a few months Daulat Rao Sindhia learnt of his growing strength and lawless activity and wrote to Raghuji Bhonslé to arrest the young rebel. This was effected on 20th February 1798. But on his way to Nāgpur Jaswant had secured a very able and devoted adherent in Bhawāni Shankar (the son of Rāi Brijlal of Delhi, now settled in Bhopāl) who was out in search of employment. To this follower we owe a full account of Jaswant’s early career, based on intimate personal knowledge, which Bhawāni Shankar dictated and Mohan Singh wrote down in his own Persian.¹
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¹ This Persian book has been miscalled by the Marātha writers as *Bhawāni Shankar’s Diary*. It is not a diary, and is admittedly the composition of Mohan Singh from facts narrated by Bhawāni Shankar, and at the very end (after Bhawāni Shankar’s flight from Jaswant’s camp in April 1805) based on the author’s personal inquiries. Bhawāni Shankar could not hold a pen as the fingers of both his hands had been destroyed by wounds received in fighting for Holkar—by a bayonet thrust in a fight with two battalions of Dudrenec in December 1798, according to Mohan S. (f. 66b of ms.) or “by a gun shot in a former action with the English” according to Capt. J. Pester, (*War and Sport*, 468.) A much later work, the *Holkar Family Kaifiyat* (written after 1826) in Marathi, gives a different account, which I cannot prefer to the contemporary Bhawāni Shankar’s. Best account in *PRC*. vi. 25-26 (in Puna), 48, 86-90 (confined).
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Thenceforth Bhawānī Shankar acted as Jaswant Rao’s guardian, prime minister, diplomatic agent, and lieutenant in campaigns. When Daulat Rao Sindhia and Kāshi Rao Holkar sent a detachment to take delivery of the prisoner from the hands of the Nāgpur Rajah, Bhawānī Shankar contrived the young prince’s escape from his guards, in disguise, on 9th April 1798, just before the arrival of his enemies. After many hair-breadth escapes and romantic adventures, the fugitive prince made his way to the Bhil country of East Khandesh, in the wooded plateau of Akrāni,* whose lord was a Rajput baron named Rajah Bhāu Singh.
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In Central India the field was now clear for a brigand leader of boundless ambition and enterprise. The long autocratic rule of Ahalyā Bāi Holkar had ended with her death in August 1795, without her having trained a competent successor. Then had followed the lingering illness and death of Tukoji Holkar in Punā in August 1797 and the subservience of his eldest son the weakling Kāshi Rao Holkar to Daulat Rao Sindhia and Daulat Rao’s policy of reducing the House of Holkar to vassalage under himself. All these evils had combined to dissolve the administration of the Holkar dominions in Mālwa and Khāndesh. The still untamed local chieftains and wild jungle tribes and countless roving bands of armed robbers again raised their heads without fear. Every old servant of the House of Holkar considered it a loyal duty to refuse obedience and tribute to the imbecile Kāshi Rao Holkar or to his master the hated Sindhia.
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Thus the report that a brave and active son of Tukoji had openly risen against Kāshi Rao, drew to Jaswant’s side all the loyal as well as selfish servants of his father’s kingdom. All the country’s mercenary soldiers and ambitious adventurers were lured to his banners by the prospect of plunder under such a famous leader.
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∗ Bhāu Singh, the Rājput rānā of Maltwār, annexed the Akrāni pargana in the Satpurā range (in the eastern corner of the East Khāndesh district) and built the fort of Roshmal. His vassal was Jhunjhar Nāyak, the Bhil chieftain of Kherlā (spelt as Cherla in the Persian ms.). The Bombay Gaz. I. pt. ii, 633, adds that "Bhikāji the son of Bhāu S. murdered Jangar, the Bhil Nāyak of Chikli, below the hills, and in revenge Jangar's son Devji killed Bhikāji", after which the Peshwā occupied the country in 1816. Is Jangar a mistake for Junjar? There is a village named Cherla in the Bastar State, Chanda dist., C. P.
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The classic land of Mālwa had once been the fountainhead of Hindu culture. On her soil had been born the models of Sanskrit poetry and drama, science and the fine arts, dance and song, which still survive to enrich our national life. In the middle ages, romance and handicrafts had kept up the traditional fame of this province. But in the year 1798 the dark cloud of anarchy, rapine and popular suffering descended on the unhappy land. The peasant and the artisan lost the fruits of their labour and perished from brigandage or famine. The desolation of fields, the degradation of the women to servile concubinage, and the ruin of trade and industry, turned the most fruitful part of Aryāvarta into a wilderness, tenanted only by two-legged tigers and their servile jackals and unresisting human prey. This anarchy did not end with the crushing of the Pindharis by the British in the war of 1817, but continued to smoulder till the suppression of the Mutiny of 1858 and the dawning of the modern age. For Mālwa’s misery, the responsibility lies primarily on Jaswant Holkar’s unpatriotic ambition and in a lesser degree on Daulat Rao’s insane desire to extinguish the power of the House of Holkar, without having the capacity to replace it by an orderly and efficient government of his own.
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Jaswant at first declared that he was merely looting Kāshi Rao Holkar’s villages in order to force that Holkar chief to grant him an estate legitimately due for his maintenance as a younger son of the late chieftain, (as the British Resident reported in July 1798). But his plans expanded with the growth of his strength. His appeal succeeded because he appeared as the saviour of the power and dignity of Holkar from the base surrender made by Kāshi Rao Holkar to their hereditary rival. His personal ambition was somewhat sublimated by his real affection for Khandé Rao II (the infant son of Malhār Rao II), and he began to press the Peshwā, as the common master of the Marātha chiefs, to declare this infant as the lawful head of the House of Holkar with Jaswant himself as his regent and the working head of the State.
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Jaswant throve on plunder. Robber tribes of the jungle, Grāsiās and Pindharis joined him; and above all bands of Afghan mercenary soldiers thrown out of employment elsewhere. The most notable of the Pathan condottieri was Mir Khan (finally exalted by the British as Amir Khan, Nawab of Tonk), the ablest, the most ruthless, and the most unprincipled captain of mercenaries who have ever lacerated the heart of India. The character of Jaswant Rao Holkar cannot be estimated correctly if we forget the fact that he made this Amir Khan his closest instrument and sworn brother.
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In Khāndesh Jaswant’s first supporters were the Bhil chieftains, Jhunjhar Nāyak of Kherlā and Govardhan Nāyak of Mekhlā, and their Rajput overlord Bhāu Singh of Akrāni. They brought to his standards 600 mercenary Arabs and Sindhis as well as some thousands of Bhill bowmen. Thus strengthened, he plundered Kāshi Rao Holkar’s villages in that region, so successfully that within three months of his breaking prison at Nagpur, his activities came to be noticed by the British Resident at Fathgarh.*
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Soon afterwards he was hired by Anand Rao Pawār the Rajah of Dhār, in his war with the usurping minister of his deceased father. The rebel was ejected, but the Pawār defaulted in the payment of his promised subsidy. Being now planted in Mālwa, north of the Narmadā, Jaswant plundered Dipālpur and many other rich parganas of Sindhia. Success bred success. As Bhawāni Shankar narrates, “The report of Jaswant Rao’s liberality having spread far and near, flocks of people from all sides began to come and taste his bounty. Nawab Mir Khan, from the district of Bhopāl, sent to Bhawāni Shankar a letter begging to be taken into Jaswant Rao’s service.” Rs. 5,000 was sent to him to equip his force, and he joined Holkar’s camp at Shujāwalpur. Jaswant’s army was now raised to 2,000 horse and 5,000 foot. In need of money, he marched back to the Narmadā, looting the places on the way.
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∗ Letter to Governor General, 3 Aug. 1798. P.R.C. viii. No. 74. Thakur, ii. 11 (Bhil), 13 (Dipalpur), 16 (Mir Kh. Feb. 1799).
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After the Dhār adventure, in order to avoid Kāshi Rao Holkar’s regular forces (under Chevalier Dudrenec) lying in the immediate south at Indore, Jaswant made a rapid detour far to the east, raiding Nimāwar, Hāndiā city (where he recrossed the Narmadā), and Bhikangāon, (25 miles e. of Khargon).
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Then he prepared to meet two battalions of Dudrenec’s corps, who had advanced to the south of the Narmadā to hunt him down. He moved from Bhikangāon to Kasrāod, and sent his camp and baggage for safety to the difficult hilly country behind that village. The two battalions, one Telinga and one Najib, with only four guns, were heavily outnumbered, but fought bravely and were defeated and dispersed, leaving their guns and baggage behind, (end of December. 1798).
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§ 2. Jaswant Holkar crowns himself, January, 1799.
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Strong in men and money, undefeated in battle, Jaswant now turned to win his patrimony. After this victory he wrote to the Holkar Government’s officers in Maheshwar (Ahalyā Bai’s capital) to come and wait on him, if they desired their own good. Dudrenec, after learning of the defeat of his battalions, left Maheshwar and fell back on Indore. All the other officers came and offered their submission to Jaswant.
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Jaswant next marched to Maheshwar and there ascended the family throne (beginning of January 1799). All the usual gifts, appointments and rejoicings of a royal coronation now took place. During the halt at this capital, his forces were raised to nearly 8,000 horse and 15,000 foot.
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Dudrenec completed his war preparations at Indore, and then, at the beginning of March 1799, advanced with six battalions and a large body of cavalry to Chauli, six miles north-east of Maheshwar. In the battle that followed Jaswant’s cavalry was mown down by the grape shot of the Frenchman’s well served artillery, and his infantry (wild Gosāin monks) were driven out of their trenches with slaughter by Plumet, the lieutenant and son-in-law of Dudrenec. Jaswant personally fought well, but had to leave a field deserted by his men, and fell back on Maheshwar. This was his first defeat and a signal disaster. It was immediately followed by the flight of most of his troops and allies to Dharampuri, a village on the Narmada 15 miles west of Maheshwar. To this place Jaswant himself, with Mir Khan, Bhawāni Shankar and other faithful followers, retired after taking away as much of Ahalyā Bāi’s jewels and treasures from her capital as he could transport.
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Dudrenec, after his victory, moved on to Maheshwar, and seized as much of the State treasure and costly articles as he could lay hands on, and levied contributions on Jaswant’s supporters in the city. Next Jaswant, who had removed from Dharampuri to Durjanpur, sent a detachment which successfully plundered the small portion of Dudrenec’s camp and baggage left behind in Indore. He rapidly increased his army by new enlistment, and set up his own outposts at Jām-ghāt and Samrur-ghāt, the two passes in the road from Maheshwar to Indore, and thus cut off Dudrenec’s supplies. After a month, the Frenchman yielded, and made peace by abandoning Kāshi Rao and acknowledging Jaswant Rao as the lawful head of the Holkar State (April 1799). Freed from all enemies at home, Jaswant Rao now set himself to taking possession of the Holkar territories in Rajputana and Mālwa and raiding Sindhia’s dominions. With the internal history of his State we are not concerned, and therefore we shall turn to his share in the Widows’ war against Daulat Rao Sindhia, which had now moved from the Deccan to Mālwa.
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Lakhwā Dādā who had become the leader of the Widows' party in North India, solicited Jaswant's alliance as early as April 1799, and incited him to attack Daulat Rao's capital Ujjain, which was then poorly guarded. The Holkar prince invested the city, pressing its rich inhabitants to pay him tribute (May), but Lakhwā soon afterwards persuaded him to retire from Sindhia's possessions in Mālwa and to give up his demands on the citizens of Ujjain. In June, Bālā Rao Inglé was engaged with his corps by Jaswant on a pay of 1¼ lakhs of rupees a month. Jaswant next turned to levy contribution from Kotā and committed great ravages in the territory of that Hādā State (July) on the Rajah's refusal to pay blackmail. At the end of August he vacated that country on getting two lakhs. (*PRC.* viii. Nos. 144-166.)
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William Gardner, a Scotsman of noble blood, who had left the King's service in India and gone to Haidarabad, now entered Jaswant's service and was sent to Indore to raise a brigade. But when only one battalion and a half had been raised he was ordered to go to Maheshwar and aid its collector in resisting the troops of Daulat Rao who were infesting Khāndesh. In a battle that followed, on 16th December 1799, the raw sepoys of Gardner were overwhelmed by superior numbers and efficiency and dispersed with the loss of four guns, Gardner himself being taken prisoner. (*PRC.* viii. 200. Mohan S. 76a.)
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Lakhwā Dādā, now again reconciled to Daulat Rao, was operating in Mewār, where Dudrenec had been employed by Jaswant Rao Holkar for some time past in trying to recover possession of the old Holkar *jāgir* of Parānā, Tonk and Rāmpurā, of which the last two, held by Kirpāl Singh Sikh, a follower of Kāshi Rao, refused him obedience. But Lakhwā captured Rāmpurā (13th March 1800) and handed it over to Dudrenec. The brigade under Dudrenec co-operated with Lakhwā in the battle of Mālpurā (16th April), but the Chevalier immediately afterwards left his side in anger at not being given half the Jaipur guns captured in that battle, though the Holkar troops had been ridden down by the Rajputs and only saved by Sindhia's brigade under Pohlmann on that day.
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Only 19 days after this victory, Lakhwā Dādā was compelled to flee from Daulat Rao's army and rise in rebellion again, owing to news of his ungrateful master's treacherous blows at his Shenvi officers, including himself and Jagu Bāpu, (5 May 1800). The Widows' War broke out afresh, and next month these ladies proceeded to Ujjain to set up a rival Government in the North. For their defence Lakhwā Dādā was recalled to Mālwa from Rajputana (early November 1800).
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We shall now turn to the civil war which was thus transferred to Mālwa and which redoubled the sufferings of that unhappy province from Jaswant's predatory activity.