पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

PANIPAT 85 Peshwa's army been going on after Shivaji's pattern, there would have been no impediment like this in the camp at all. But Shivaji led few campaigns lasting more than a few months at a stretch or far away from the homes. The Peshwa's army was modelled after the Mughal pattern with all its draw- backs, which proved fatal here as they had proved fatal to Aurangzib in his campaigns against the Marathas. IV. IMPERFECT SENSE OF TIME AND DIRECTION Indians of pre-Panipat days had no maps before them to judge properly of the directions of places, etc, and so we have to take their descriptions of events cautiously. Bhau writes "Abdali has come to the south by crossing the Jamuna at Baghpat." Nana Purandare takes Kunjpura as situated on the south bank of the Jamuna. "Panipat lies 40 kosa from Delhi towards the west." With these examples from contemporary documents before us, we have to ac- cept Kashiraj's directions with correct visualisation. Sir Jadunath has bungled in his attempt to connect Kashiraj's translation with the Browne's map of the battle. This is also due to his non-visualisation of the path of the sun during the days of its highest southern declination. A man from the Maratha camp talking of Abdali's position or Kashiraj writing from the Abdali's camp about the Marathas was sure to confuse correct direction during December-January. Kashiraj has naturally taken the Maratha army as facing eastwards and so de- scribed the Afghans facing westwards on the day of the battle. Another thing incorrectly calculated by Sir Jadunath is the hours of the day. The sun rose at Panipat (latitude 29° 23' 30'' North, longitude 76° 58' 30'' East) on 14-1-1761 at 7 A.M. and set at about 5.20 P.M. (local time). The day thus consisted of about 10 hours and 20 minutes and the battle has to be described accordingly. The day was, in lunar calendar, 8th of the bright half of the month. The moon would set about mid-night on such a day and not at 9.15 P.M. as taken by Sir Jadunath. (Vide Fall 2, pp. 369, 346, etc.)