पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

16 PANIPAT 1761 given a prejudicial colour by the author of the Bhau Bakhar, so as to make it appear as a clandestine agreement between Govindpant and Najib to support the latter When the Shindes entered the Doab, Najib Khan was brought to the Maratha camp to discuss terms with Dattaji The author of the Bakhar says of this interview that Janakoji, Naro Shankar, Antaji Mankeshwar and other Sardars wanted to arrest Najib Khan this time, but Dattaji, through the advice of Govindpant, at once forbade them from entertaining such a treacherous thought This was in conformity with the whole Maratha tradi- tion as exemplified in history and in accord with their general feeling Had the Marathas ever taken to what they themselves called "Moglai lava" or "Moglai maslat," meaning thereby the politics of treacherous arrests and mur- ders, their whole history would have perhaps been written otherwise, though it is a moot point in history whether they would not have been more successful —barring the moral stigma—in their undertakings thereby Najib, however, got a new lease of life by his double dealings in this affair Had he flatly refused to help the Marathas in building a bridge over the Ganges, they would have possibly found out some other means of gaining their ends Dattaji had the intention of proceeding to Bengal post haste be- fore the monsoon had set in and the rivers flooded He had planned to canton in Patna²⁵ and thence to bring pressure on Bengal during the monsoon His plan was completely foiled by the delaying and promising tactics of Najib When a month passed and the monsoon actually set in, he pleaded his in ability to do the needful, and promised to build the bridge after the rains Side by side he was hatching a conspiracy of driving away the Marathas from the north It seems that Emperor Alamgir II was himself a party to this con- spiracy, being fed up with the tyrannical Wazir Malika Zamani, the Dowager Empress, was whole heartedly behind the idea or, perhaps, she herself was the originator of it, as depicted in all the Marathi chronicles Najib Khan is depicted as following her orders and wishes Madhosingh of Jaipur and Bijesingh of Marwad were also whole heartedly supporting Najib in his invi- tation to Abdali to come back to India and drive the Marathas south of the Narmada once for all Najib was so clever in keeping the whole project secret that even Govindpant Bundele,²⁶ who was a near neighbour of his and always on the alert for news of any kind, was unaware of this internal correspondence carried on for two years between these parties, and even sending of special en- voys to the court of Abdali at Kandahar The Marathas came to know of this secret only when Abdali actually entered the Panjab and began to drive away the Maratha outposts in that province, in October 1759 This bespeaks of great looseness in the management of Maratha affairs That they should have no information of projects for ousting them and should not have properly ap- praised the characters of the various persons engaged in activities against their rule, shows that their intelligence department had none of that efficiency that it had in the times of Shivaji and Rajaram in the previous century This weak- ness was fatal to the Maratha Empire. ²⁵ Ibid. 2.101. ²⁶ Ibid. 60.126.