पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

68 PANIPAT. 1761 the Maratha camp, and to the south east of it, they began to clear the jungle so as to make easy approach possible $^{18}$ They cut down the thick bushes of short palasa (dhak) trees and prepared a somewhat level battle field and planted a pillar there The site of this new battle field seems to have been, from the description in the ballad,$^{19}$ at Chhajpur, beyond which a big nullah separated it from the Afghan camp They began to drag out their movable cannon to this place and, standing behind them, to challenge the other side to come out and dare battle Cut to the quick by these challenges, the Ruhelas one day came out and began an engagement by firing from a distance The Marathas advanced a little but by this time it was about sunset Seeing that the Marathas would take some time to reach back to their camp, Najib's brother came out to deliver a flank attack as the Maratha army turned its face in the direction of their camp At this unexpected attack the Marathas had to leave their guns and run pell mell, which again drew the Ruhelas far- ther on, close on their heels They almost reached the edge of the Maratha camp when soldiers from the camp came out, finding their comrades in danger The Ruhela cavalry fled away, taking advantage of the pitch darkness of that new moon night, but their infantry was closed in from all sides They fought with their usual bravery and created havoc in the Maratha camp by their marksmanship They were well nigh defeated, with great slaughter of fifteen hundred Ruhelas, and pursued upto a distance But in the midst of this vic- tory, Balvantrao Mehendale received a bullet shot and came down from his horse Seeing that he was a sardar of some consequence, the Afghans tried to cut off his head so as to carry it as a trophy back to their camp, but some Maratha horsemen, noticing it, turned back to snatch it away just when it was being cut Khanderao Naik Nimbalkar was responsible for dragging back the corpse of Balvantrao Mehendale by the feet in the thick of that fight, though himself wounded Both parties then returned to their camps Though the Marathas were victorious, the death of Balvantrao had taken away the zest out of it from them There was a great wailing in the Maratha camp on that night of the 7th December, 1760 Balvantrao's wife, Lakshmibai, was one of the few women who had accompanied their husbands to that famous battlefield Her son, Krishnarao, alias Appa Balvant of later fame, a boy of fourteen or so, was also with them in the camp, still she at once took the decision of of- fering herself as a Sati on her husband's funeral pyre No dissuasion by Bhau himself or by the mother of Nana Fadnis, who was Balvantrao's sister, was able to change her decision She courageously made over her son to Bhau's care and faced immolation, making that incident the most dramatic in the whole Panipat campaign The seventh of December is taken as a turning point in the Panipat campaign No doubt it deprived Bhau of a most intimate lieutenant. The biased Maratha Bakhars and, following them, some Persian chronicles, have shown Balvantrao as the villain of the piece The Kaifiyat merely depicts the difference of opinion between Bhau's advisers from the south, and the north $^{18}$ Ibid. 14-5 $^{19}$ BDCRI 4.179