Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s4.4

v4.c54.s4.4

Leaving Puna finally on 5th December 1800, after repeated delays due to his hesitating policy and the chronic mutiny of his long unpaid soldiery, Daulat Rao Sindhia reached his ancestral village of Jāmgāon (64 miles north-east of Puna) on the 23rd of that month. After a four weeks' halt here, he resumed his march on 19th January 1801 and reached Burhānpur on the Tāpti on 15th February. He then dawdled away full four months in its environments, in tiger shooting, attending dance and singing, and even kite flying. The 140 miles between the Tāpti and the Narmadā were crossed in 18 days, and he arrived at Hāndiā on the south bank of the latter river on 3rd July. And then followed another halt of four months and a half, partly owing to the necessity of calling in all his detachments from far and near in fear of Jaswant Holkar's military strength, and partly because the heavy rains had made the river unfordable and the roads impassable. These fatuous delays ruined his military position in Malwa. [PRC. vi. 386, 389. Gulgulé D.]