Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s5: § 7. Battles of Newri and Satwās
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s5
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§ 7. Battles of Newri and Satwās
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It is necessary to give the full topography of the scene of the war in order to enable the reader to follow the operations clearly. Daulat Rao Sindhia's main camp and family rested near Hāndiā, on the south bank of the Narmadā. On the north bank of the river, facing Hāndiā lay the town of Nimāwar, which served as the other bridge-head to his army. A broken plain stretched for 18 miles west of Nimāwar to the town of Satwās, and the route was intersected only by small *nālās* draining southwards into the great river. Fourteen miles north-west of Satwās stood Bijwāra, at the eastern end of a pass after crossing which and debouching on the plain at the village of Dhan-talāv at its western mouth, the road reached the town of Unchaud, another thirteen miles from Bijwāra. Sixteen miles north-west of this Unchaud lay the city of Newri, and sixteen miles further off in the same direction lay Dewās. Ujjain was 22 miles north-west of Dewās and Indore 32 miles south of Ujjain. It will be seen that Daulat Rao had to avoid the country due south of his capital Ujjain, because it was very hilly, broken, and covered by Holkar’s possessions. He had to make a long detour from Burhānpur *north-eastwards* to Hāndiā and then from the Narmadā *north-westwards* to reach Ujjain. His capital lay blocked by enemy territory on the south and the west, while in the region north of it Holkar’s roving light horse had driven Sindhia’s unprotected officers and posts entirely into the defensive.
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Jaswant Rao Holkar was too good a general to miss the opportunity presented by Daulat Rao’s imbecile strategy. He at once prepared to attack his enemy’s scattered detachments in detail. By-passing Ujjain at the furthest end of the Sindhian line as too isolated a post to cut his rear or to defend itself unless strongly reinforced in the meantime, Jaswant Rao swooped down upon MacIntyre at Newri on 25th June 1801. This detachment, only two battalions of infantry and five hundred horse, was hopelessly outnumbered by Holkar’s vast hordes, but it fought desperately, inflicting severe loss (magnified to over one thousand by the Sindhian news-writers) in Holkar’s ranks. When their ammunition was exhausted the sepoys laid down their arms. MacIntyre and his other two European officers were taken prisoners, and so also were Dāji Bābu Rām, Mulchand and Rāz Muhammad’s son. Holkar’s spoils amounted to 200 horses, 400 firelocks, and seven small guns.
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Jaswant Rao followed up his victory by at once occupying the Unchaud pass and sending his troops ahead to attack Satwās. The tide of invasion flooded the level country of Satwās and beyond, preceded by groups of Pindhari light horsemen, eddying round Sindhia’s villages or combining to attack his military posts. But the defence held. Brownrigg was a commander who combined an Irishman’s desperate valour with the cool calculation and organising power of a veteran of many battles. When the Pindhari vanguard of Holkar’s army first appeared before Satwās, Brownrigg sheltering his men behind the walls of that fortified village kept them back by his gun fire. When the Pindharis fell back to their base in the pass, Brownrigg evacuated Satwās before they could return with guns and infantry, and retreating took post near the north bank of the Narmadā, some fourteen miles south-east of Satwās, within easy reach of his own base, the bridge-head at Nimāwar, opposite the camp of Daulat Rao at Hāndiā. Here all the Sindhian detachments on the north bank were assembled, and a grand park of artillery had been already built up. On 2nd July, he received further reinforcements of two battalions of infantry sent up by Daulat Rao under Devji Gauli and Sadāshiv Rao.
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It was a naturally strong position, with the broad river protecting its rear, while its front and wings were intersected by many small nālās (ravines) which hindered the cavalry charges so dear to the Holkar horse. Meantime Jaswant Rao had occupied Satwās, and on 4th July 1801 he launched his grand attack on Brownrigg. He detached Plumet and Kushābā Bakhshi with four battalions of trained infantry and a large cavalry force and eight guns to assault this Sindhian post. As Holkar's horsemen galloped up to the front, they were mowed down by the accurate grape-shot fired from Brownrigg's guns skilfully dispersed along his line. The sepoys under Plumet fought with great spirit, and forced their way to Sindhia's baggage camp, but a heavy discharge of grape (or chain-shot, according to Basawan Lal) from Brownrigg's artillery kept concealed here and hitherto held in reserve, cut them down in hundreds and after a two hours' sharp contest they fell back, Plumet himself being wounded and eight of his guns abandoned in the field. But Jaswant Holkar was a general who knew not defeat. He rallied his men in person and led them on to a renewed attack by which he recovered six of his guns, but could not change the issue of a lost battle. He retreated to Satwās, with enormous losses. Brownrigg's casualties were only 107 men including Lt. Rowbotham.*
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∗ A news-writer in Sindhia's camp reports that on Holkar's side 2 or 3 sardārs and four to five hundred men were slain, and in Daulat Rao's army Devji Gauli (not true) and about one hundred horse (palak). Thakur, ii. 43 (Bāpu H. killed).
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§ 8. *Jaswant Holkar captures Ujjain, 18th July 1801*
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The defeat was decisive so far as the eastern half of the line was concerned. If there had been a military genius in command of Daulat Rao’s operations and the heavy rains had not made the soft soil of Malwa impassable for guns and laden carts, the victors would have pushed on westwards and effected a junction with Hessing’s corps advancing from Ujjain towards it. To avoid being caught between two such forces, Jaswant slipped out of Satwās and hastened back to Indore. His genius enabled him to retrieve his fame and nullify Sindhia’s triumph by a lightning blow which he alone knew how to deal. He crushed George Hessing at Ujjain only 13 days after his own repulse by Brownrigg.
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Hessing had reached Ujjain with his battalions about the 28th of May, under orders to remain on the defensive till reinforced by his master. He took post in the unfinished fort of Bhairon-garh, three miles north of Ujjain City. But on hearing of the disaster to MacIntyre, he marched out towards Shujāwalpur to join Chintāman Atmārām Wākdé,* who was vainly trying with his 5,000 Maratha horse to uphold Sindhia’s authority in that district. On the other side, Jaswant Holkar after his repulse at Satwās fell back on Indore, and called upon Mir Khan to unite with him near Ujjain for an attack. Mir Khan promptly set out westwards, driving Hessing and Wākdé before him. Leaving his camp and baggage at Tarānā (20 miles north-east of Ujjain) he arrived east of that capital, in the afternoon of 17th July. Jaswant had already arrived a few miles south of that city on the same day at noon. The two allies soon effected a junction and launched their attack on Hessing two hours before sunset. The Sindhian detachment had taken post between Gogā Shāh’s hillock and Ankpātā, with their back to the city-walls. That evening there was time for an artillery duel only.
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∗ Atmārām Shivarām Nāmdé (also Wākdé) was appointed diwān by Mahadji. He had three sons, Chintāman, Krishna Rao (whose adopted son was Balwant) and Shivarām. *Tārikh Jāgirdārān Gwalior*, i. p. 504.
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After nightfall Jaswant himself, from his base two miles behind, rode up to his vanguard (under the command of Kushābā Bakhshi) which was facing Hessing's post. During the night Mir Khan's corps and Holkar's two brigades called the Plumet Campoo (commanded by M. Fleury) and the Maharaj Campoo (commanded by Harnāth chelā) were pushed up to the front, and they entrenched themselves, blockading the enemy's position. Jaswant held a council of war with his commanders and matured the plan of attack. Next morning the fighting was renewed. Holkar's infantry was repulsed and had to flee for shelter to Mir Khan. The Pathan horse charged, but were driven back by discharges of grape. Then the rain burst "like Noah's flood". The blinding showers stopped the firing of muskets and cannon; the superiority of fire arms and discipline was wiped out; the ground turned into a quagmire. Seizing this opportunity, Jaswant Rao gave his pre-concerted signal by firing a rocket. The Pathans, the Deccani horse, and the Pindharis swarmed in thousands upon Hessing's corps, whose useless flint-locks were no match for their enemy's long spears. But Hessing's sepoys fought with desperate courage to the end, as Jaswant himself admits in his report. Out of a force of six infantry battalions and 3,000 to 3,500 Maratha horse on Sindhia's side, two thousand men were reported as killed or wounded. The Deccan horse managed to escape, but the battalions were cut up. "Of the twelve European officers, eight were killed and three wounded and taken prisoner, Hessing alone escaping. Chinto Atmārām was reported as killed. Thirty pieces of cannon and all the camp and stores of Hessing fell into the victor's hands. But the strong will of Jaswant Rao kept his soldiery from sacking the rich capital of Sindhia. Sir John Malcolm rightly praised "the order Jaswant Rao had established and the vigour of his character, (as proved by) the fact that Ujjain was not plundered after this success, but he reserved it from his troops to exact a heavy contribution himself from its wealthy inhabitants" (Central India, 2nd ed. i. 215).
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Mohan S. 93 a. PRC. ix. 28. Thakur, ii. 38. Gulgulé. Basāwan, p. 159 of my ms.)
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After this victory Jaswant Holkar remained encamped at Udāsā’s Tank, three miles north-east of the city. On 21st Sept. he made his entry into the Sindhian capital to enforce his demand of 15 lakhs as war indemnity from the city. The news-report speaks of his being the veritable god of Death to the Brahmans and as placing them under chastisement, while the women were spared any kind of molestation; but his government got less than an eighth part of what was levied from the citizens, all the rest being consumed by his officers; a great dearness of food stuff in the city killed off its poorer population. (Thakur, ii. 46.)
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The most reliable account of this battle of Ujjain is given in the despatches of Resident Collins’s agent in Ujjain, Jaswant Holkar’s letter to Bhārāmal Dādā, and the report of Lāji Ballāl’s envoy in Daulat Rao’s camp,—all of which are absolutely contemporary and based on personal knowledge. This account is supported and enriched by many details in the Holkar family tradition recorded in the *Kaifiyat*. The battle raged for two successive days; the decisive rain-burst just before the final charge of Holkar’s army is given in Bhawāni Shankar’s narrative and in Basāwan Lāl’s *Life of Amir Khan*. These sources prove the falsity of Herbert Compton’s story of the battle (*Adventurers*, pp. 255 and 363). He is wrong (i) in ascribing the conception of the attack on Ujjain to Mir Khan—whose bold initiative alone made “Holkar pluck up heart”,—as the timing of the movements of the two branches of Holkar’s army and even the assertion of Mir Khan’s eulogist, prove that the plan originated in Jaswant’s brain; (ii) Compton is not justified in asserting that “Hessing behaved in a most cowardly manner, flying at an early period of the action” and being “a half-caste son, by a native woman (really a French mestiche), of gallant old John Hessing, failed to demonstrate the doctrine of heredity.”
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The true facts are that the position of Sindhia’s detachment at Ujjain was hopelessly weak, and only a Lakhwā Dādā could have saved it. Hessing had brought back from the Shujāwalpur side to Ujjain a brigade worn out (*hirāsān*) by constant retreat before a pursuing enemy, with less than one day’s time in which to fortify his post. There was no fort in the true sense in Ujjain, but only a city wall, of no defence against artillery. Even Bhairongarh was incomplete and in ruin at this time.
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§ 9. *Sharzā Rao defeats Jaswant at Indore, October 1801.*
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Ujjain was lost to Daulat Rao on 18th July 1801. The immediate effect of the reverse was to make him send urgent calls to his generals in Khāndesh and Mahārāshtra to hasten to his side. But the rains now set in with unusual violence and made campaigning impossible for the next month and a half.
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Major Brownrigg had followed up his victory by occupying the Unchaud pass and encamping at its western mouth at the village of Dhan Talāv (*c.* 12 Aug.) Sharzā Rao Ghātgé joined Daulat Rao’s camp at Hāndiā (20 Aug.) and supplied him with a counsellor possessed of quick decision and driving power. But Sindhia’s chief gain at this time was the seduction of Chevalier Dudrenec and his son-in-law Plumet from Holkar’s service (August); though the brigades of these two officers continued in Holkar’s pay, the men lost such experienced European leadership in their next battles with Sindhia.
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With the end of the rainy season, fighting was renewed, Sharzā Rao joined Brownrigg on 1st October, and the vast Sindhian army with their powerful artillery* moved confidently towards Ujjain. Jaswant Holkar immediately evacuated that city and hastened to the defence of his own capital Indore, where he encamped at Khazrāni, a mile north-east of the city. An agent of Sindhia immediately occupied Ujjain, but Sharzā Rao with the army, by-passing Ujjain, pushed on towards Indore.
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∗ Bhawāni Shanker estimates this force as 6 battalions of Filose, 6 battalions of Brownrigg (*i.e.* Sutherland’s corps) and 25,000 horse. (95b).
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On 5th October 1801 the rival hosts made contact in the plain enclosed by the Siprā and the Kān rivers north of Indore, and the fighting continued for ten days. Holkar's scouts under Fath Singh Māné first exchanged fire with the enemy's vanguard on the 5th. But Brownrigg advanced methodically towards Indore, forming his men into a huge column, protected by artillery in front and flanks and sheltering his baggage in the centre. Nothing could stand before science and discipline, and Jaswant Rao Holkar was forced to betake himself to the old light foray tactics (*ghanimi*) which proved futile now. As the Kotā news-writer in Sindhia's camp reported, "Holkar is not fighting face to face, but practising *ghanimi*. He cannot make a stand before our guns, and our troops are chasing him back". Jaswant displayed great personal bravery and always pushed on to the thick of the fight, but he had to yield ground every day.
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On the 11th of October he staked everything on an attack in full force. The reckless fury of this charge broke the battalions of Filose, who formed Sindhia's van, no supports came up from behind, and the remnant of these battalions fled for shelter to the cavalry of Sharzā Rao, who abused Filose in the filthy language of which he was a master and charged him with cowardice and treason. Unable to bear this public disgrace, the poor Eurasian youth cut his own throat.* But the day was not really lost. Brownrigg had kept his battalions steady with "strengh in reserve", and poured a deadly fire of grape upon Holkar's troops, who had as usual dispersed for plunder, thinking victory already achieved. Terrible execution was done upon their dense masses, and they broke and fled. Jaswant himself was charged by fifty of Sindhia’s cavalry, but he manfully stood his ground with only five companions and saved himself.
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∗ Compton, p. 352. Malcolm in his *Central India*, i. 220-226 gives a somewhat different account of the battle. I have relied on the despatches of Resident Collins (*PRC*. ix) and the news-letters of Gulgulé's agent.
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At last their methodical advance brought Brownrigg and Sharzā Rao within two miles of Indore, and here the decisive battle was fought on the 14th. On that day, too, Jaswant displayed the greatest personal courage and persistence, but he was hopelessly outclassed in artillery, and his trained brigades had lost their beloved and experienced European leaders, through the desertion of Dudrenec and Plumet and the imprisonment of their successors, Fleury and Malé, by the suspicious Jaswant. Holkar’s campoo troops were now under a timid and incompetent leader, Harnāth chelā or slave. [Mohan S. 95 b. Thakur, ii. 47.]
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The fighting raged throughout the day. First, the orderly tactics and steady fire of Brownrigg’s battalions totally broke up the Holkar campoo under Harnāth and they took to flight. At the sight of this the myriads of Pindari horsemen forming the rear of Jaswant’s army vanished quickly. In the meantime, in the other sector of the field, the division under Mir Khan was pressed very hard, and Jaswant advanced there to see things for himself and bring relief. Many of his horsemen followed him, thus leaving that sector of the entrenchment very thinly held. Seizing this opportunity Brownrigg launched his infantry for the final blow. They stormed the enemy’s trenches at the point of the bayonet. After a last desperate counter-attack by Jaswant himself, which for a time wrested back three of his abandoned guns, the struggle ended at sunset. Holkar’s defeat was complete; all his guns, numbering more than one hundred, his camp and stores were captured by the victors. Jaswant fled away to Kushālgarh and Jāmghāt; and here most of his cavalry who had escaped death in battle by a timely flight, soon rallied round him, and with them he took to a life of predatory warfare, roaming all over the country, untramelled by artillery or disciplined infantry, in the manner for which his great ancestor Malhar Holkar I was famous.
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Sharzā Rao defeated Gujā Kumbar and Krishnāji Mahādik, who were holding Indore for Jaswant, and took possession of that city, a few days after the victory in the field. He now began to exact retribution from Holkar’s capital for the oppression lately done by Jaswant at Ujjain. “Though the residents of the city offered to pay him 15 lakhs, he would not agree, but looted the place and began to dig up the floors and burn down the houses. For two days the city was sacked by the soldiers, but on the third order was restored by the highest authorities.” After some weeks the victors withdrew from the town and Holkar’s men reoccupied it. (Mohan S. 97 a. PRC. ix. 33. Gulgulé, letter of 19 Oct. 1801.)
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§ 10. Jaswant Rao Holkar’s movements and aims, Oct. 1801—April 1802
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After Sindhia’s generals had defeated Holkar at Indore (14th October), Daulat Rao himself at last crossed over to the north side of the Narmadā and arrived at Ujjain on 11th November. He could not follow up his victory, because of his utter lack of money and the daily mutiny of his long-unpaid soldiery. In dread of Jaswant Holkar’s military genius, Daulat Rao had recklessly increased his army, enlisting fresh light cavalry by the thousand and recalling his detachments from the districts where they had been feeding themselves. No finance minister could provide for such a bloated host. Moreover, Lakhwā Dādā was still roving in Mewār, and a strong detachment from Sindhia’s army was detained there to oppose him.
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Peace between Sindhia and Holkar was felt to be an urgent necessity by all thoughtful ministers and well-wishers of Mahārāshtra, in view of the lightning strokes by which Marquess Wellesley’s diplomacy and arms were bringing British paramountcy over all the Indian States nearer and nearer. They had been entreating Daulat Rao and the Peshwā to effect a reconciliation with Jaswant Rao Holkar and thus restore the solidarity and strength of the Marātha nation. But the claims of these two chiefs could not be harmonised by any ingenuity, as both of them lacked the spirit of patriotic self-sacrifice.
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Jaswant Holkar demanded (i) that Daulat Rao Sindhia should hand over to him his prisoner Khandé Rao II (the minor son of Malhar Holkar II), to be set up as the formal head of the Holkar State with Jaswant himself as his regent and actual manager of affairs; (ii) that every village and fort in any part of India that had ever belonged to the Holkars should be restored to Jaswant, and the Houses of Sindhia and Holkar should be granted absolute parity in respect of territory, income, and the allowance of power and resources by their sovereign the Peshwā. Such a parity had been enjoyed by the first founders of the two houses, under Bāji Rao I and Bālāji Bāji Peshwās; but in 1801 the proposed arrangement would have meant a clean sweep of the gains made by Mahādji Sindhia during a long and strenuous career, and a revival of the constant bickering between Holkar and Sindhia in all parts of India where they happened to be employed together. (iii) Thirdly, that Daulat Rao should cease to support Kāshi Rao Holkar with money troops or influence at the Punā court, in his claim to the headship of the House of Holkar. On none of these points would Sindhia yield.
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Reaching Ujjain on 19th November 1801, Daulat Rao encamped at Datta’s Akhārā, in the environs without entering the city. But in less than a month he was driven out of the place by the famine and pestilence raging in and around it. Resuming his march on 12th December, he moved about in Malwa, via Samhāten, Sānver, Dhār, Badhnāwar and Kachraud, till he returned to his camp outside Ujjain on 28th December at the end of that year, to begin that momentous march to the South which ended only with his defeat by General Wellesley in 1803.
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We now turn to Jaswant Rao Holkar. Having lost his guns and equipment in the battle of Indore (14th Oct. 1801), he fell back half way towards his real capital Maheshwar, but soon afterwards returned and recovered Indore (c. 10 Nov.). He next took to a roving life, plundering the country far and wide, and wearing out the detachments sent out by Sindhia in pursuit of him. His tactics are well described in the news-letters from Daulat Rao's camp: "Holkar is not fighting face to face, but practising light foray tactics (ghanimi). Our fauj go in pursuit of him and he cannot make a stand before our guns." And, again, "He roams about the country, never standing up to an open fight, but burning the villages, closing the roads to traffic and swooping down on our provision supplies. . . . Everything is dear in our camp; Holkar has left nothing in any village". When agents of General Perron visited him with a message, "Jaswant pointed to his horse and spear, and directed the men to tell their master that the former at all times afforded him a shade to sleep in, and the latter means of subsistence". (Gulgulé, PRC. ix. No. 50. Malcolm, i. 220 et seq.)
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In the course of this roving career, Jaswant Holkar moved so fast and so far that one almost loses his breath in following his steps on the map. His expulsion from Indore on 14th October was retrieved by the restoration of his rule in that capital early next month. But he himself ranged over the country far and near,—being reported at places as far apart as Navlai (c. 10 Nov.), Hatod (12 m. n. w. of Indore, c. 15 Nov.), Maheshwar (c. 23 Nov.), Indore (c. 2 Dec.), Pratapgarh and Mandesor (c. 6 January 1802), Jhabuā, Nāthdwārā (in Mewār, end of January), back again in Kota (c. 20 Feb.), Manpur (mid-way between Ujjain and the Narmādā, c. 23 March), and again in Maheshwar (end of March). His policy in the end was to induce his eldest brother Kāshi Rao, to remove with him from Malwā to their ancestral dominions in Khāndesh, south of the Narmādā, and there successfully defy Sindhia's forces in concert with the Bāvan Pāgā sardārs, who had risen against the Peshwā and the Peshwā's defender Sindhia. Kāshi Rao had left Punā when he found Daulat Rao's position there very weak and had come to his father's fort of Shendhwā in Khāndesh, near the end of the year 1800. Losing all hopes of being established in his father's position and provided with sufficient money and force by Daulat Rao, the eldest Holkar prince moved from Shendhwā to Ahalyā Bāī's capital Maheshwar on 14th Aug. 1801. He had sent his congratulations to Jaswant on his victory over Sindhia at Ujjain in the previous month, and now after much writing Jaswant Rao came to Maheshwar and persuaded him to leave that city for Khāndesh in his company.
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But on the way Kāshi Rao slipped out of the camp with his wife and followers, in the night of 3rd May 1802, and fled to the fort of Shendhwā, because he could not trust his ambitious and over-bearing younger brother. Tutelage under Jaswant Rao would have been a change more humiliating than vassalage under Sindhia; and more dangerous too, because Jaswant's avowed policy of establishing the child Khandé Rao II as the lawful head of the House of Holkar with himself as the regent, would have reduced Kāshi Rao to the impotence of a dependent pensioner, who might be thrown into prison or strangled any day at the regent's political need. Hence, he broke away seeking safety in isolation. After Sindhia's victory at Indore (October 1801) a detachment of his army under Gopāl Bhāu was sent to operate in the country south of the Narmadā. Here it came into collision with the forces that Jaswant Holkar began to send across the river from December onwards. Only skirmishes were fought, with varying results but no decision. Sindhia's position here was further weakened by the rebellious Bāvan Pāgā sardārs making common cause with Holkar, and this running sore did not heal before the fall of the Peshwā.
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The war in Khāndesh dragged on languidly during the first quarter of 1802, and then the scene rapidly changed. In April, Jaswant himself crossed the Narmadā and joined his army in Khāndesh. Kāshi Rao having publicly abandoned him (3 May), Jaswant chalked out a new policy; he decided to put pressure on the Peshwā to declare the infant Khandé Rao as the head of the Holkar State, with Jaswant as its working chief, on terms of absolute parity with Sindhia. This scheme he carried to success with relentless force and practical skill in the course of the next five months, but at the cost of Maratha independence.
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CHAPTER XLV
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CIVIL WAR IN MAHARASHTRA, 1802