Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s3: § 4. Lakhwā Dādā's fights for the Sindhian Widows
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s3
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§ 4. Lakhwā Dādā's fights for the Sindhian Widows
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Lakhwā found himself clearly outnumbered by the forces of Daulat Rao, especially the trained battalions, and he wisely took to the Deccani tactics of making rapid movements and surprise attacks, skirmishing and avoiding close engagements and sieges. Of this art he was a passed master. Leaving the neighbourhood of Ujjain he marched away to the Rāghogarh district to join his ally Durjan Sal Khechi. On the way thither near Shahjahanpur he fell in with Mir Khan's brother, who was escorting Mir Khan's camp and baggage. By a sudden night attack (on 27th November) Lakhwā routed these forces (4,000 horse and foot) killing and wounding 200 of them and taking 300 Ruhelas prisoners. The fugitives fled to Purānā, abandoning to the victors all their camp, eleven pieces of artillery, some elephants, many camels and 300 horses. Three days later, Durjan Sal Khechi defeated Bālā Rao Inglé and obliged him to flee to the fort of Araun. (PRC. ix. No. 26. Mohan S. differs.) Jaswant Holkar had given up the side of the Widows, but there could be no real alliance between him and Sindhia. The Peshwā, under pressure from Daulat Rao invested Kāshi Rao with the robes of the head of the Holkar State, and thus shut out Jaswant’s darling, the orphan son of Malhar II (c. 10 December 1800.) Embittered by this disappointment, Jaswant suspended hostilities with Lakhwā Dādā, who then very wisely secured Jaswant’s neutrality by restoring the district of Shahjahanpur to Mir Khan and marching towards Rājgarh (in the Khechi country), where he arrived about 19th December. Here joining his ally Durjan Sal Khechi (the founder of the Khilchipur barony), he moved on to Bundelkhand, planning to leave the Widows under the protection of the Rajah of Datiā (Satrajit Bundela) and with his help roam about levying contributions from the jāgirs of Daulat Rao’s partisans. On the way, they overtook the forces of Bālā Rao Inglé on 28th December 1800, and after a bloody fight forced him to flee to the neighbouring fortress of Pichor, which Lakhwā invested.*
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All this time Ambāji Inglé was playing an ambiguous and inactive part. He made no haste to join Jaswant Holkar for a joint attack on Lakhwā, while he was still in Mālwa, but sought only to further his personal interests, trying to wrest Jāwad in Mewār (c. 20 Nov.); then he lay inactive at Sitāmau for sometime (Dec. 1-14), and finally joined Jaswant Holkar near Sārangpur (c. 20 Dec.), but could do nothing for his master. The two allies suspected each other of treachery, and their wrangling over the delay in paying Jaswant his promised subsidy* grew daily bitterer. Ambājī’s own army was 11,000 strong; and though Jaswant had sent to him 9,000 men, these were withdrawn at the end of January 1801, so that Ambājī gave up the idea of fighting Lakhwā but went instead to Kotā, which city he left on 2nd February to join his brother at the siege of Narwar. In the meantime, the Rajah of Datiā had joined Lakhwā’s force with 3,000 infantry, 2,000 horse and 6 guns, on 29th January and welcomed the Widows.
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∗ Bālā Rao escaped from Pichor by his usual device of treachery. “He deceived Lakhwā by means of a fictitious treaty, in which he agreed to surrender the important fort of Narwar, which belongs to his brother Ambāji, and gave hostages.” P.R.C. ix. 242.
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Jaswant Holkar had, no doubt, retired from the civil war in the Sindhian family, but Daulat Rao now concentrated overwhelming force against Lakhwā and the Bāis. He himself reached Burhānpur (on his way back from Punā) on 15th February and compelled Ambājī, by the threat of dismissal, to move against Lakhwā from the west. General Perron sent a detachment which took post at Dholpur to defeat any attempt of Lakhwā to break through to the north and enter the Agra district, which he had long ruled. The portion of De Boigne’s army which had accompanied Daulat Rao to the Deccan, under high European officers, was now pushed up across the Narmadā to close the southern road to the rebels. On 3rd April, General Perron himself started from Aligarh to reinforce Ambājī and strike directly at Lakhwā and his allies.
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§ 5. Battle of Seondha. Death of Lakhwā Dada
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The champion of Mahādji’s Widows felt his cause hopeless, as he was without money, and heavily outnumbered. His unpaid soldiery began to desert him. The net was closed round him on the north, west and south, and the hunters were coming up very close. But he would not surrender; he fought skirmishes with Ambājī’s men in March, and at last fell back to Seondha, forty miles due east of Gwalior, in the only direction still open to him. In the fort of this place he lodged the Widows for safety, while he himself encamped under the walls of the town with 10,000 cavalry, 5,000 infantry, and 32 guns, determined to fight General Perron who arrived within 20 miles of him on 22nd April, 1801.
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∗ Bhawāni Shankar says that Ambājī actually paid Jaswant five lakhs (f. 87a). The British Resident records the report that Jaswant was angrily demanding from Daulat Rao ten lakhs as compensation for the losses caused to Holkar’s dominions by the depredations of the Widows’ partisans (P.R.C. ix. 239).
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At Seondha* was fought the last battle of the ablest and noblest of Mahādji’s generals now surviving. It was a hopeless contest, but Lakhwā stood his ground manfully against odds which would have disheartened any other man. On 3rd May 1801, Perron attacked and after a sharp and murderous conflict, carried a redoubt of the rebels, capturing five guns there. He immediately followed up this victory by storming a second redoubt. The Datiā Rajah was mortally wounded; Lakhwā himself was wounded in the hand by grape shot and the wound festered till his death nine months later. The Grāsia allies deserted the lost cause, and the Bāis, with the invalid Lakhwā Dādā and their surviving sardārs, fled away by the Chandāveli pass to Datiā (arriving there on 9th May). That capital could not long harbour them. Their unpaid soldiery went away in search of bread.
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But the war was not pushed to a bloody end by the victors. Perron had to leave for Northern India immediately after his victory, in order to settle scores with the Sikhs and George Thomas. Ambāji arrived near Datiā (c. 20 May), but had to give up all designs against that town; he set on foot negotiations for reconciling the Bāis to Daulat Rao, and himself started (c. 2 June) for Narwar, en route to Mewār. The details of these negotiations can be read in *P.R.C.* ix. 255 and 40.† The Widows’ War now ended by being engulfed in a colossal contest between Daulat Rao Sindhia and Jaswant Rao Holkar, whose final result was the loss of Maratha independence.
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∗ Seondha.—*P.R.C.* ix. 249-254. Fraser’s *Skinner*, i. 185-187. Gulgulé D., letter of 22nd May 1801. † On 19 Feb. 1802, Resident Collins reported “Ambāji Inglé has consented, on the part of D. R. Sindhia, to give the Bāis possession of Āntri, a hill fort in the vicinity of Gwalior and parganas yielding an annual revenue of two lakhs.” [C.’s letters of 5 Oct. 1801 and 19 Feb. 1802 not printed in *PRC.* ix.]
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This is a fit place for concluding the mournful story of Lakhwā Dādā’s last days. At the end of September 1801, he was reported as levying soldiers on the strength of some money supplied by Jaswant Bhāu Kerkar and other supporters of the Bāis, and trying to secure allies. (Resident Collins to G.G., 5 Oct.) But he could effect nothing with his small means, and festering wound. The dying warrior was offered an asylum by the Mahārānā of Udaipur. After passing some time at Jāwad, he took shelter in Sālumbar, and here a four days’ fever put an end to his earthly sorrows and sufferings, on 7th Feb. 1802. (Rajādhyaksha’s Jivva Dada, p. 264 and letter No. 329.)*