पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

THE BATTLE 99 certain extent, though they were massacred on the way, like Antaji Manakesh- war and Baji Hari Supekar who were killed¹⁴ by the Baluch Zamindars near Farukh nagar to the south west of Delhi Not all who ran away survived rather the majority died as a result of slaughter or by starvation and cold It is certain that some two lakhs of people died during those two or three weeks, but more died from hunger and cold than by wounds in the battle We do not believe that the Maratha camp had five lakhs of people as reported in BROWNE'S translation of Kashiraj, much less can it be ten lakhs as trans lated by Sir Jadunath ¹⁵ Another important thing to note in this affair is the absence of any de tailed account of the campaign or of the final battle from the pen of any of these renegades Malharrao Holkar's supposed confession is only an example of specious pleading specially written to order by some clever scribe Other wise no one else even tries to give the whole account Nana Purandare who was very intimate with Bhau, and was supposed to belong to his party in politics, is ominously silent about the battle, though he had occasion to write of the event From the whole tenor of the various writings about the battle, it is clear that the survivors had come to an understanding among themselves to report it in a particular manner Their additional excuse of doing so was on account of the personal and political necessities of the case The personal necessity arose out of the respect for the feelings of Parvatibai, Bhau's wife who survived and returned in the company of the renegades, as well as anxiety for the health of the Peshwa Though Nana Fadnis, Nana Purandare, Mal harrao Holkar and others seem to have been convinced very early of Bhau's death by the letters they receivd from Kashiraj, Anupgir Gosawi, Purushot tam Hingne, Ganesh Vedanti and others, they were afraid to disclose the fact for its effects on Parvatibai and Nanasaheb The political necessity was still greater The Marathas tried as far as possible to minimise the disaster by starting rumours about the safe running away of Bhau, Janakoji and others, thus trying to keep an atmosphere of expectancy for the sudden emergence of Bhau and Janakoji at any time and from anywhere, as long as they could By this method they did succeed in rallying the survivors and making a bold stand from the base at Gwalior Its definite political effect is seen in the re turn of Ahmad Shah Abdali after waiting for two months at Delhi, and still more by his political arrangement He bestowed the Wazirship of the Mughal Empire-be it noted-not on his ally Shuja ud daulah but on the regicide Ghazi ud din Khan, a protege of the Marathas He tried to conciliate the Peshwa by sending condolence messages couched in an apologetic tone, and also by opening negotiations for a political settlement ¹⁶ In response the Peshwa also tried to look at the matter in a political manner without revengeful feel ings He also sent Mir Anvarulla Khan Trimbakkar to Delhi with dresses of honour for Abdali and his Wazir Shah Wali Khan ¹⁷ But by the time Anvarulla Khan had reached Kota, he got the news of Abdali's sudden return to his own

¹⁴ KHARE 1.71 ¹⁵ IHQ 10.265 ¹⁶ SPD 21.202. ¹⁷ Ibid. 2.168.