Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c58.s2.8

v4.c58.s2.8

Daulat Rao had declared war against the English on 1st August, and yet for more than three weeks he made no use of his undoubtedly superior strength. In fact, his counsellors only talked and waited. Their plan was to persuade Jaswant Rao Holkar to join them, after which the three sardārs would march together to Punā with the consent of the Peshwā, and induce him to discharge his English protectors and call a conference of all his feudatories which would restore the Marātha empire to its normal condition as before the death of Tukoji Holkar. This nice scheme depended for its success on two conditions: first, that Jaswant Rao Holkar would heartily join Daulat Rao without being guaranteed the old absolute parity of their two houses, and secondly, that the Peshwā would prefer Jaswant or Daulat Rao to the English as his protectors. The utter hollowness of these hopes was proved by the panic which seized Punā at the mere report that their three highest sardārs intended to visit their master’s capital as loyal servants: the citizens began to arrange for flight to the villages, the English erected sand-bag batteries for defending the approaches to Punā, and the Peshwā contemplated a return “to his former place of asylum”, i.e., Bassein! [Kharé, xiv. 6692.]