Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s5.3

v4.c54.s5.3

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.