पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

70 PANIPAT 1761 over a month ²⁵ That most of the letters sent were intercepted by Abdali is clear from Nana Fadnis' letter²⁶ to Ramchandrapant Natu at Delhi, which shows that this work of stopping the Maratha correspondence had begun from the third week of November, though occasionally a messenger was lucky enough to elude Abdali's patrols This should also have something to do with the Maratha distress, as the possibility of the outsiders knowing the real condition of the Maratha camp was lessened But there is no mention of any distress in the Maratha camp in the above mentioned letter of 12th December, from which it would not be wrong to conclude that Abdali had not upto that point succeeded in completely cutting off the Maratha supply from the north On that side the Sikhs and the Jats were quite well disposed towards the Marathas Alasingh Jat, the founder of the Patiala State, living at that time at Manuk, seems to have been actually helping²⁷ the Marathas as he was grateful for being relieved from the exactions of the Afghan soldiers of fortune like the chief of Kunjpura and the infamous Mian Qutb Shah The Sikhs were di- rectly interested in the result of the contest and even after the disaster were the chief beneficiaries of it Sir Jadunath's harping on the disaffected Jat villagers seems a figment of the brain There is no ground for such a supposition, though the Marathas suffered before, during and after the war by the vindictiveness of the Muslim population, who were equally numerous in those regions and incomparably more powerful than the submerged Jats and Gujars Bhau is still a hero in their ballad²⁸ and fire side stories, for whom they have the liveli- est admiration Within a fortnight of Balvantrao's death, Govindpant Bundele also met the same fate Throughout the Panipat campaign, nay, even before starting for it, Bhau had demanded money of Govindpant ²⁹ The latter sent two lakhs in the first instance and now at the beginning of December he came to Delhi with four lakhs and twenty thousand This was all he could possibly bring, though it was not even a fourth of what Bhau demanded from the beginning. Handing over the treasure to Naro Shankar, Govindpant sallied forth with his contingent and crossed over into the Doab He began to cut off Abdali's supplies coming from the trans Ganges districts and passing through the Meerut district to Abdali Bhau had intimated to Govindpant that there were none now to oppose him in the Doab as the Ruhelas had been tied up to the camp of Abdali So, leisurely and unguardedly, he continued his march, chastising the refractory local zamindars on the way He seemed to have been collecting grain also for carrying it to Bhau's camp across an upper ghat on the Jamuna, to Panipat But news of Govindpant's depredations soon reached Abdali's camp The Ruhelas became apprehensive of the safety of their homes The regu- larity of the food convoy reaching Abdali s camp through these regions had ²⁵ RAJ 3.210 ²⁶ Satara 2 300 Letter dated 12th December 1760 ²⁷ SPD 27.262, Purandare 1 416 ²⁸ BDCRI 1 ²⁹ SPD 40 129