पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

THE MARATHAS IN THE PANJAB AND BEYOND 13 queror and work as his slaves Ahmad Shah not only freed his own tribe from the clutches of a Persian ruler, but he freed the other Afghan clans also Then he welded them into a nation Instead of seeking fortune as individual ad- venturers in India and Persia, as they had done from the times of Mahmud of Ghazni, the Afghans now thought of uniting amongst themselves and set- ting out on conquering expeditions as a well knit nation To meet such a personality and such a new nation was no easy task The Marathas should have produced such a personality, or failing that, a combination of individuals who could match it Unfortunately this could not happen, and the result is recorded in the pages of history In October 1759, Jahan Khan returned with a bigger army He formed, in fact, the advance guard of Abdali's army in its new campaign The Maratha army in the Panjab, at this time, was not more than fifteen thou- sand strong Of this, five thousand under Bapuji Trimbak were in Multan, five thousand under Tukoji garrisoned Lahore, while Sabaji had another five thousand moving from place to place The only region of the Panjab which was comparatively well settled and yielding any direct revenue, as distinguished from tributes and ransoms, was the Sarhind—Jalandar area This had been placed under Sadik Beg—wrongly copied as Sandip Beg in Marathi chronicles He had consented of his own accord to pay five lakhs more than originally set- tled with Adina Beg His Diwan Lakshmi Narayan had been won over to the Maratha side The mutual relations between Tukoji Holkar and Sabaji Shinde in the Panjab were none too good Sabaji treated Tukoji as a lower official and kept the whole purse and power in his own hands ¹⁸ Tukoji at this time was a junior officer and only a servant of Malharrao Holkar and not, as is wrongly thought, one of his near relations, though he ultimately succeeded to the Holkar's jagir Malharrao wrote to Tukoji to send Holkar's share in the revenues of the Panjab to Indore Tukoji replied that Sabaji Patel had taken all the money and had allowed him only the daily wages for his troops When Tukoji remonstrated, Sabaji showed him a letter from Janakoji Shinde order- ing Tukoji to draw only wages while the rest of the account would be settled by Janakoji and Malharrao, the masters, amongst themselves As Tukoji had no intention of impeding the government machinery and fighting a civil war, he followed Janakoji's instructions According to Tukoji, without the help of Malharrao the Shindes would never succeed in the Panjab Moreover, Sabaji would never take Tukoji into confidence and settle the Maratha policy in consultation with him Otherwise, complains Tukoji, it was possible to estab- lish peace in the Panjab, had Sabaji followed his advice In his incomplete letters¹⁹ (and only two such letters have unfortunately come into the hands of historians) he clearly says that the Marathas had collected revenues from Sar- hind, the (Jalandar) Doab, Lahore, Multan and Attock From this description it is clear that the Marathas had spread up to the Indus and beyond, and not stopped at the Chinab as emphatically stated 18 Chandrachuda Daftar I.49, II.4 (To be read together) 19 Ibid. I.49, II.4.