पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

102 PANIPAT: 1761
How much property fell into the hands of the captors is very difficult
to estimate The personal kit of an average Maratha soldier was very meagre
It would be one big brass lota and a small vessel for drinking water, an iron
pan for baking bread and a brass plate on which to dine A few hundred
big vessels for storing water or cooking rice and vegetables in volume would
naturally be found in this big camp where occasionally even Brahmins must
have been fed on religious occasions, or when on visits to places of pilgrimage
on the way The clothing and bedding of an average Maratha soldier and
camp follower could not have been worth much, except for some big sardars
and officials who were probably well clad, wearing costly apparel The tents,
big and small, screens and other material of an official nature, worth some lakhs,
also came into the possession of the Afghans What the bazar accompanying
the Maratha army possessed on the last day, it is difficult to say But taking
into consideration the famine conditions subsisting in the Maratha camp, there
could not have been much of corn, grain and other articles of food and drink
The only item left worth noting was cash and jewellery A certain amount of
accumulated coin should have been found in the possession of the bazar merchants
and artisans who had received fabulous returns for their goods But most of
the army and camp followers, as well as the state treasury accompanying the
army on the march, had possibly exhausted their treasure in buying things at
fabulous prices, and many had to sell their jewellery and trinkets in order to
subsist, thus leaving comparatively very little in their pockets or on their per-
sons Possibly the accumulated sales money of the merchants had been bor-
rowed by the starving individuals in the camp and also perhaps by the state
If this surmise is true, then even the merchants' money must have disappeared
from the camp in buying victuals and fodder or other necessities Only the
unsold and unsalable articles must have remained in the camp and fallen into
the hands of the Afghan soldiers Some 20,000 slaves, male and female, were
also appropriated by the victors
Taking into consideration what has been said above, we do not think
the estimate of various writers about loot as correct "Every trooper brought
away ten or even twenty camels laden with money" is the description of
Kashiraj We think it a gross exaggeration It is true that the Marathas lost
everything they possessed, but no Maratha soldier would have on his person or
in his pocket precious metal worth more than a hundred rupees on an average
It is doubtful whether even this much had been left with him after ten months
of march through a foreign country, when looting had been forbidden, salaries
and wages not paid for the most part, and all subsisted by selling what they
possessed We know the aftermath of war Ahmad Shah Abdali found it im-
possible to pay the accumulated salaries of his soldiers and hence they mutinied
They were, so reports Nur ud din, completely dissatisfied with what they had
received as spoils, which they considered very meagre after two years of hard
campaigning The conquered territories were bestowed on the Ruhelas The
booty had also to be sold to them at nominal prices on account of the want of
cash with which to buy the necessaries The captured horses were worth only
ten or twenty rupees each¹ As a result, the unruly Durrani troops were on the
point of plundering the camp of Shuja ud daulah who decamped from Delhi