History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s3.44

v3.c33.s3.44

Such is the normal course of the successive steps in the fall of kingdoms. We are here reminded of the fall of the Maratha kingdom eight centuries later. There was a stubborn struggle in the beginning by the combined Marathas against the English in 1803. The Maratha confederacy was defeated in the battle of Assaye by the greatest general of the English, Wellesley, much as the great Hindu confederacy was defeated by the masterly tactics of Mahmud in 1008 near Hazro. Bajirao, like Trilochanapāla, submitted and consented to maintain a subsidiary force at Poona, of British regiments. This was the opposite of what was stipulated by Anandapāla's son. He, as the usual fashion then was with subordinate kings, promised to maintain at Ghazni a force of two thousand soldiers for the service of the Ghazni empire at his cost. The British method of compelling subordinate kingdoms to maintain a British force at their capital was more effective and efficient for accomplishing extinction and was tantamount to the imposition of a heavy tribute for the time being. That final extinction overtook Trilochanapāla soon enough (after about 4 years) as we shall presently see; but in the parallel case of Bajirao, it overtook him after the lapse of 15 years.