Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s6.21

v4.c56.s6.21

Sindhia's first plan was to gather as many allies as possible, march on Punā, expel Holkar's garrison from it, restore Bāji Rao, and thus recover his own ascendancy as the Peshwā's regent. Wellesley's occupation of Punā in April, killed this plan. In the meantime Daulat Rao had been intriguing with Raghuji Bhonslé of Nagpur and trying to win Jaswant Rao Holkar as an ally in a grand Marātha confederacy to rescue the Peshwā from English vassalage and annul the Treaty of Bassein. Every move in this game was reported to the English by their numerous spies. Marquess Wellesley ordered the Resident Colonel John Collins, who reached Sindhia's camp on 27th February 1803, to demand a categorical reply from Daulat Rao whether he accepted the Treaty of Bassein or objected to it, and at the same time to invite him to join in a general subsidiary alliance with the English as his sovereign had done.