Wide Angle 34 - Panipat

Took me a long time to finish this one with so many transitions happening in life right now. This time, I write about something from my historical heritage again. The word “Panipat” is associated with disaster in the Marathi memory and lexicon. When someone says “Tyacha Panipat zala”, they mean, that guy was devastated. A side reference to this episode is the negative connotations of Sankrant, when one says “Tyachavar Sankrant kosalali”, it means Sankrant has fallen on the person i.e. the guy is in trouble. So why this association, well it all has to do with this earth shattering event that happened on 14th January 1761 on the battlefield of Panipat where close to 1 lakh Maratha forces got sacrificed along with many civilians which dealt a serious blow to the aspirant Maratha empire – I am talking about the Third Battle of Panipat. As the history books mention in one line, the third battle of Panipat was fought between Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Marathas and the Marathas were defeated. In today’s Wide Angle, I will not write about the battle or the strategies per se but examine the pre and after effects of the battle and more importantly, glean lessons from the defeat which in no uncertain terms was an Indian defeat. If the Marathas had won and tied up with the Sikhs who were also rising around the same time, the British would never have quite succeeded in conquering India so easily.

A little prelude:
Shivaji laid the foundations of the Maratha empire but died too soon at the age of 50 in 1680. He was succeeded by his older son Sambhaji who was very brave but probably less strategic. He was betrayed and captured by Aurangzeb who tortured him to death. Sambhaji was formally succeeded by Rajaram who was then succeeded by Shahu. However, the Maratha power had waned during this time and it mainly existed as bands of independent armies under powerful sardars e.g. Dhanaji Jadhav, Santaji Ghorpade who kept Aurangzeb busy in the last 30 years of his life in the Deccan where he eventually died. Shahu then moved to Kolhapur and handed over the office of Peshwa (Prime Minister) to Balaji Vishwanath Bhat (a Konkanastha (from Konkan) Brahmin) who not only took up administration but also unified and set up the army. On his death, Shahu chose his young son Bajirao to succeed him and run the kingdom on his behalf thus establishing that the Peshwai was hereditary.
Bajirao Peshwa is one of the well known Marathas in India and rightly so. He was a daring warrior and charismatic general. He devised the lightning raids using cavalry that won him many successes in the Deccan, Central India (mainly Malwa) and the North. He was ably assisted in these conquests by his brother Chimaji Appa. Bajirao also handpicked a few brave soliders who became his aides and famous generals and later went on to establish the three kingdoms of Indore, Gwalior and Baroda – these were the Holkars, Shindes (Scindias now) and the Gaikwads (one reason why you find so many Maharashtrians in these three cities including the ancestors of yours truly). After Bajirao’s death, his son Nanasaheb Peshwa took up the reins of the kingdom and spread the empire far and wide. It is said that the Maratha empire stretched from Attock near Peshawar to the Ganga in the East to the boundaries of Tamil Naduin the South.
Nanasaheb was very close to Sadashiv Rao Bhau who was Chimaji Appa’s son and was also the Karbhari (administrator) of the empire. The valorous soldier in the family was Nana’s younger brother Raghoba dada who had aspirations for the crown. Raghoba was the one who conducted all the conquests that took the empire past Attock. There is a term in Marathi “Atke-paar zhenda” which literally means “Flag past Attock” and signifies a huge achievement.

India before the battle of Panipat:
The Marathas had a free run of Central and North India and were sworn to protect the Mughal throne of Delhi by the Ahmadiya pact with the Mughals. This growth was a thorn in the eye of Najib Khan who was the leader of the Rohillas in Rohilkhand (in current UP). He had ambitions of being the Vazir of Hindustan and was pestered by the Marathas’ demand for more territory especially the Hindu holy places like Kashi, Mathura etc. Raghoba dada had Najib in his grip and was about the execute him once but Malharrao Holkar (who had declared Najib as his foster son) intervened and let him go. Finally, to get rid of this Maratha menace and to increase his influence in India, Najib invited Ahmad Shah Abdali to attack India and clear it of the Marathas. To do that he raised the bogey of Hindu capture of the Mughal throne and the familiar cry of “Islam in danger”. Abdali finally set off for India with a huge force of 60-70000.

The Maratha campaign starts:
In order to stop and defeat Abdali, Nanasaheb decided to send a Maratha force of significant strength. In his previous campaigns, Raghoba had drawn money from the royal treasury due to which the kingdom was already in debt. Therefore it was decided that this campaign would finance itself through raids and levies on the local populace. When Bhau complained of the wasteful ways of Raghoba, Raghoba taunted him as “Boru-Bahaddar” i.e. pen warrior. Stung by this, Bhau volunteered to undertake this campaign. He was given about 80000 forces which comprised of the Shinde, Holkar and Gaikwad armies. Since the Maratha power was at its zenith, the practice of taking wives and families along with many civilians had now got established (Shivaji and Bajirao took only the fighters along). In addition, many pilgrims who wanted to visit the holy places and could do so easily with the forces’ protection joined in. Bhau was against this and tried his best to prevent the non-fighters from coming along but had to give in to pressure. This was one of the biggest cause of the eventual rout.

Delays in Maratha plans:
The Maratha plan was to reach and cross Narmada and then the Yamuna before the onset of the winter in North India and engage Abdali and defeat him. However, the army had to stop every few days and sometimes take detours because the pilgrims and wives wanted to take a dip here, pray in a temple there, have weddings of their kids and so on. This led to delay in reaching Yamuna which had swollen because of the rains.

Lack of resources:
Another major impediment for the Marathas was the lack of enough money for the provisions of the army. Having 40% civilians in their entourage did not help who simply ate and raised the burden but could not contribute and had to be protected. The policy of raising resources on the go added to the strain since repeated battles across the land had left little cultivated and most of the peasants and traders were holding on to whatever was left in anticipation of the big battle that would decide who the winners would be. This problem continued till the battle itself since repeated requests to the Pune court for money/grain were turned down on the pretext of the original agreement.

Alliances:
The Marathas had alienated most of the kingdoms in India due to the plundering nature of their raids and tribute demands. They were initially joined by Surajmal Jat of Rajasthan but he wanted one thing in return for the support – the waziri of Delhi. When Bhau did not agree to it, the Raja simply walked away one day. However, Surajmal did allow the safe passage of the women and fugitive army of the Marathas after the battle was lost. The second important alliance that the Marathas lost was that of Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh who had a very fertile and rich state. Whoever had Shuja on his side was bound to be more powerful. The Marathas tried a lot to get Shuja with Shuja’s mother also vouching for the Marathas but in the end it was the silver-tongued Najib who bagged him in the name of “Islamic brotherhood”. Shuja forever repented this decision since he had a mostly Shia army and they were quite ill treated and insulted in the Sunni camp of Abdali.

Before the final showdown:
The two armies were stuck on the two banks of Yamuna, Bhau captured and sacked Delhi to make up for some revenue. This enraged the local populace around who was also provoked by the agents of Najib. Bhau then captured the important fortress of Kunjpura from Abdali’s vazir and his nephews and took away treasure kept there. This and the talks that Ala Singh Jat of Punjab was sending aid to Bhau brought urgency to Abdali’s movements and in a daring move he crossed the Yamuna at a shallow place which was shown by a local fisherman. Thus Abdali’s army was now directly behind Bhau’s. Bhau took up camp in Panipat due to its strategic location and the proximity of the Shahi canal nearby. However, Abdali encircled this force from all sides by killing numerous of Bhau’s aides around the area. The Maratha force was surrounded and had nothing to eat or drink (after Abdali destroyed the Shahi canal). Finally, in desperation Bhau decided to break out in one push.

The battle:
Details of the battle abound but in short the Marathas lost because of a few reasons: the Marathas had planned to follow the “circle” way of army arrangement where the circle sticks together and is surrounded by canons which blast their way forward and thus move out together. However, when the first successes were achieved and Abdali’s flanks were broken, couple of generals broke the circle and chased the Afghan army. This broke the arrangement and the chasing army was shot down. While initial success was theirs and there was a big gap created in Abdali’s army through which the Marathas could have escaped – the hunger of so many days affected and the Marathas simply collapsed from the sun rays. This hampered their advance. Abdali had kept a reserve army which he unleashed and quickly breached the gap. He also had a punitive squad which whipped his fleeing soldiers back into battle. Finally, Bhau had imprisoned a few Afghan soldiers and kept them as his reserves on the recommendation of his generals and these slaves created a huge ruckus that the Marathas had lost which caused a lot of the army to lose morale. Finally, the death of key leaders like Vishwarao (son of the Peshwa Nanasaheb) and Bhau as well caused disarray in the army and ultimately defeat. In the aftermath, thousands were slaughtered by the Afghans and thousands of women were captured and sold.

Aftermath:
The Marathas lost much of their cream fighting force and generals in this battle and thus their power. The shock was too much for Nanasaheb to bear and he passed away. The throne passed to his second son Madhavrao Peshwa who did much to rebuild the power but died very young of T.B. The powerful generals like Shindes, Holkars and Gaikwads eventually broke off and formed their own kingdoms. The Marathas lost much of their influence in the North and were limited to playing below the Narmada. In the absence of growth of the kingdom, the family members turned on each other and decay set in that led to the Maratha defeat at the hands of British in the early 1800s.

Well, this was a bit of Maratha history though not a happy one. Since the Peshwas eventually lost out to the British, their story is not officially told in the curriculum in Maharashtra while the more inspiring story of Shivaji is narrated more often. This also has to do with the caste factor. Hope you found some of this enlightening.