पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

PANIPAT 73
free, now recovered Kunjpura with Atai Khan's help and made it impossible
for the caravans to move on that side Added to this, fire started, either pur-
posely or by random cannon shot, and destroyed the big haystacks heaped in
the Maratha camp 39 This misfortune turned the situation from bad to worse
and finally into utter helplessness As a result of this mishap, twenty thousand
followers issued from the Maratha camp one night to gather firewood and
fodder in the neighbouring woods, but they were overtaken, surrounded and
massacred piece-meal by a body of five thousand horse under Shah Pasand
Khan who was patrolling that area After this slaughter, terror struck the
Maratha camp and nobody seems to have ventured out
In the terrible cold of December and January, the Marathas, with
their scanty clothing meant only for the cold in the Deccan, suffered terribly
in addition to the want of sufficient quantities of good food and firewood As
if this was not enough, it rained heavily that winter, generating biting winds
in their wake 40 Thousands of bullocks, horses, mules and even men died of
this calamity The unburied animals and corpses on the intervening battle
field putrified the air 41 The crowded camp where within a small area men
had to perform all their physical duties made it terribly dirty and full of
noxious air Nana Fadnis vividly describes these conditions in his auto-
biography
Such was the condition of the Maratha camp and the state of the men
and animals who were to offer battle to the strong, stalwart, efficient and un-
perturbed Afghans who were well supplied with necessities and fully inured
to these climes and circumstances
As we have said above, we are completely in the dark as to Bhau's aim
in not sallying out for battle three weeks earlier when he received the news of
Govindpant's death Such a step would have appreciably reduced the suf
ferings which the Maratha camp had to endure in the last period The men
and animals would have been found in better condition for a march or a
fight, before their reduction by starvation and misery for three weeks more
Even their morale would have been found better and still Bhau would not take
such a step A casual remark in the Bakhar (p 136) also supports the view
that "had the Marathas started the next day after the heavy massacre of the
Ruhelas in the intervening daily fights, the Afghans had no strength then to
overpower the Marathas" "But," so remarks the chronicler, "the fate had
ordained otherwise and so the Marathas remained inactive, carrying on the
waiting game!" We do not know whether this was a case of fortune first
taking away the wit and then striking hard afterwards
Our wonder increases still more when we find the chronicles reporting
the discussion in the Maratha camp previous to the battle While Bhau,
judging that the army could not pull on even for a day more, wanted to offer
battle the next day, Malharrao and Janakoji were proposing to postpone the
39 RAJ 6 406
40 Sardesai Commemoration Volume p 259
41 BDCRI 4 181