Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s2.2

v4.c55.s2.2

Anand Rao Narsi Yerulkar who used to carry Mahādji's messages to the Emperor from 1780 to 1786, proved the reverse of the required diplomatic agent. In a drunken frolic during the Holi festival of March 1786, he gave mortal offence to Shah Alam by parading through the Marātha camp an old man and a boy, dressed out in rags and tinsel ornaments to caricature the pauper Emperor and his favourite daughter. Mahādji's son-in-law Lādoji Sitolé who was next sent to Delhi (in August 1786) as the Maratha Resident, proved a failure by reason of his lack of spirit; he ran away from the capital as soon as he heard of Mahādji’s repulse at Lālsot (August 1787). Then came the interruption of Ghulām Qādir’s ascendancy. After Mahādji had recovered his supremacy, he appointed in August 1789 a man whom he knew to be a *persona grata* with the Emperor and who he hoped would prove a moulder of Muslim opinion in the capital. This man was Shāh Nizāmuddin.