पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

68 PANIPAT. 1761
the Maratha camp, and to the south east of it, they began to clear the jungle
so as to make easy approach possible $^{18}$ They cut down the thick bushes of
short palasa (dhak) trees and prepared a somewhat level battle field and
planted a pillar there The site of this new battle field seems to have been,
from the description in the ballad,$^{19}$ at Chhajpur, beyond which a big nullah
separated it from the Afghan camp They began to drag out their movable
cannon to this place and, standing behind them, to challenge the other side
to come out and dare battle Cut to the quick by these challenges, the Ruhelas
one day came out and began an engagement by firing from a distance The
Marathas advanced a little but by this time it was about sunset Seeing that the
Marathas would take some time to reach back to their camp, Najib's
brother came out to deliver a flank attack as the Maratha army turned
its face in the direction of their camp At this unexpected attack the Marathas
had to leave their guns and run pell mell, which again drew the Ruhelas far-
ther on, close on their heels They almost reached the edge of the Maratha
camp when soldiers from the camp came out, finding their comrades in danger
The Ruhela cavalry fled away, taking advantage of the pitch darkness of that
new moon night, but their infantry was closed in from all sides They fought
with their usual bravery and created havoc in the Maratha camp by their
marksmanship They were well nigh defeated, with great slaughter of fifteen
hundred Ruhelas, and pursued upto a distance But in the midst of this vic-
tory, Balvantrao Mehendale received a bullet shot and came down from his
horse Seeing that he was a sardar of some consequence, the Afghans tried to
cut off his head so as to carry it as a trophy back to their camp, but some
Maratha horsemen, noticing it, turned back to snatch it away just when it
was being cut Khanderao Naik Nimbalkar was responsible for dragging back
the corpse of Balvantrao Mehendale by the feet in the thick of that fight, though
himself wounded Both parties then returned to their camps Though the
Marathas were victorious, the death of Balvantrao had taken away the zest out
of it from them There was a great wailing in the Maratha camp on that night
of the 7th December, 1760 Balvantrao's wife, Lakshmibai, was one of the
few women who had accompanied their husbands to that famous battlefield
Her son, Krishnarao, alias Appa Balvant of later fame, a boy of fourteen or
so, was also with them in the camp, still she at once took the decision of of-
fering herself as a Sati on her husband's funeral pyre No dissuasion by Bhau
himself or by the mother of Nana Fadnis, who was Balvantrao's sister, was able
to change her decision She courageously made over her son to Bhau's care
and faced immolation, making that incident the most dramatic in the whole
Panipat campaign
The seventh of December is taken as a turning point in the Panipat
campaign No doubt it deprived Bhau of a most intimate lieutenant. The
biased Maratha Bakhars and, following them, some Persian chronicles, have
shown Balvantrao as the villain of the piece The Kaifiyat merely depicts the
difference of opinion between Bhau's advisers from the south, and the north
$^{18}$ Ibid. 14-5
$^{19}$ BDCRI 4.179