Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s2.1

v4.c56.s2.1

Early next year (1802) Perron was summoned by his master to his court at Ujjain. He had his first audience of Daulat Rao Sindhia in that city on 29th March.* He was hailed by Sindhia almost as a deliverer, because there was all but civil war between Daulat Rao’s prime minister Jādav Rao Bhāskar and his father-in-law Sharzā Rao Ghātgé, each of them guarding his own house with many hundreds of armed followers. Sutherland was accused of collusion with Ghātgé in a plot for “cutting off Jādav Rao and several other sardārs of rank,” and Brownrigg of “having been a party in the intrigues of Sutherland”. But Perron sternly reasserted his authority over his army by arresting Brownrigg and threatening to court-martial Sutherland whose brigade was changed and he sent off from Sindhia’s side to Agra. Above all, Perron secured from his master a confirmation of his power, emoluments, and jāgirs and the custody of the seven most important forts in Hindustan by presenting 15 lakhs of Rupees to the insolvent Sindhia at his audience of leave-taking at Ujjain.