पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

THE BATTLE 99
certain extent, though they were massacred on the way, like Antaji Manakesh-
war and Baji Hari Supekar who were killed¹⁴ by the Baluch Zamindars near
Farukh nagar to the south west of Delhi Not all who ran away survived
rather the majority died as a result of slaughter or by starvation and cold It
is certain that some two lakhs of people died during those two or three weeks,
but more died from hunger and cold than by wounds in the battle We do
not believe that the Maratha camp had five lakhs of people as reported in
BROWNE'S translation of Kashiraj, much less can it be ten lakhs as trans
lated by Sir Jadunath ¹⁵
Another important thing to note in this affair is the absence of any de
tailed account of the campaign or of the final battle from the pen of any of
these renegades Malharrao Holkar's supposed confession is only an example
of specious pleading specially written to order by some clever scribe Other
wise no one else even tries to give the whole account Nana Purandare who
was very intimate with Bhau, and was supposed to belong to his party in
politics, is ominously silent about the battle, though he had occasion to write
of the event From the whole tenor of the various writings about the battle,
it is clear that the survivors had come to an understanding among themselves
to report it in a particular manner Their additional excuse of doing so was
on account of the personal and political necessities of the case The personal
necessity arose out of the respect for the feelings of Parvatibai, Bhau's wife
who survived and returned in the company of the renegades, as well as anxiety
for the health of the Peshwa Though Nana Fadnis, Nana Purandare, Mal
harrao Holkar and others seem to have been convinced very early of Bhau's
death by the letters they receivd from Kashiraj, Anupgir Gosawi, Purushot
tam Hingne, Ganesh Vedanti and others, they were afraid to disclose the fact
for its effects on Parvatibai and Nanasaheb The political necessity was still
greater The Marathas tried as far as possible to minimise the disaster by
starting rumours about the safe running away of Bhau, Janakoji and others,
thus trying to keep an atmosphere of expectancy for the sudden emergence of
Bhau and Janakoji at any time and from anywhere, as long as they could
By this method they did succeed in rallying the survivors and making a bold
stand from the base at Gwalior Its definite political effect is seen in the re
turn of Ahmad Shah Abdali after waiting for two months at Delhi, and still
more by his political arrangement He bestowed the Wazirship of the Mughal
Empire-be it noted-not on his ally Shuja ud daulah but on the regicide
Ghazi ud din Khan, a protege of the Marathas He tried to conciliate the
Peshwa by sending condolence messages couched in an apologetic tone, and
also by opening negotiations for a political settlement ¹⁶ In response the Peshwa
also tried to look at the matter in a political manner without revengeful feel
ings He also sent Mir Anvarulla Khan Trimbakkar to Delhi with dresses of
honour for Abdali and his Wazir Shah Wali Khan ¹⁷ But by the time Anvarulla
Khan had reached Kota, he got the news of Abdali's sudden return to his own

¹⁴ KHARE 1.71
¹⁵ IHQ 10.265
¹⁶ SPD 21.202.
¹⁷ Ibid. 2.168.