पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

KUNJPURA 53

river-bank was steep and the water deep, crossing was very difficult, if not impossible. Sadashivrao Bhau, after the first fortnight of August in Delhi, moved¹ his camp from Kalkādevi to the south of the city on the bank of the Jamuna to the west of the city near Seetaram's serai beyond the canal, and this camp seems to have extended upto the Shalimar gardens to the north-west, thus covering an area of more than three miles in length from north to south. Here he lived for almost seven weeks, till he began his northward march to Kunj- pura in the first week of October. The Maratha army suffered great priva- tions² in this camp. The food supply of Delhi was derived from the eastern Doab side in normal times. But this region was in the possession of Najib Khan and Abdali. Besides, the Jamuna was in flood making commercial in- tercourse difficult, if not impossible. Added to the food and fodder scarcity, there was the scarcity of money. No money was forthcoming from any source; neither from the revenue collectors of the Maratha lands in north India, nor from tribute, nor even from loans. Even men of position had to keep from starvation by selling their jewellery and other personal belongings.³ The result was a great deterioration in the physical stamina of men and ani- mals. It must have also told on the morale of the army, though in this case the cool courage and optimism of the commander-in-chief counteracted, to a great extent, the evil effects of the same.⁴ Placed in this quandary, Bhau had recourse to such things as taking out the silver ceiling of the Diwan-i-khas to coin money wherewith to pay a bare subsistence allowance to the troops as stated before.⁵ But this was only a stop-gap. The nine lakhs of rupees derived from this vandalic source were just sufficient to feed the army for one month. During a period of three months, only two weekly payments to the soldiers had been made possible, so precarious was the situation. Nor was it possible, while the rains continued, to get out of this plight. The future plans of Abdali were as yet inscrutable. The early setting in of the rains that year with the continuous high flood level of the Jamuna for four months had miscarried the earlier plans hatched by Sadashivrao Bhau to meet Abdali in a pitched battle. The waiting-time factor had gone against the Maratha anticipations. Shuja-ud-daulah's pusillanimous efforts to be on good terms with both the parties had at last resulted in his completely falling under the influence of the wily Najib. Even after going over to the side of Abdali, Shuja still continued his efforts for peace during the rainy season, but to no purpose. Nana Phadnis accuses him of chicanery, though the historian of Oudh vouchsafes his good intentions.⁶ All the same, Bhau would not rely on such a broken reed and decided to open the campaign against Abdali by

1 RAJ 6 404; SPD 27.258. 2 SPD 130, 131 3 Aitihasika Tippane 1 14 4 RAJ. 6 101. 5 SPD 27.257.