पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

THE JUDGMENT 119
up or condemn downright an individual, however great personally The final
result must be attributed to the static system and cannot be attributed to any
one actor in history.
DEATH OF NANASAHEB PESHWA
The Peshwa's death six months after the battle of Panipat, on 23rd
June, 1761, is treated as the last event of the Panipat campaign It is almost
thought as a consequence of it That the unexpected disaster unhinged his
mind by that tremendous shock, by the loss of all that was dear and valuable,
was natural enough, but it is utterly wrong to say that his death was due to
it As a matter of fact there seems to have been some hereditary defect in the
Peshwa family which made its members prone to sudden collapse of health
and wasting diseases The uneven life of camp and war had something to do
with it Nor were they free from vices Peshwa Nanasaheb particularly seems
to have been inordinately fond of the company of women He loved ease and
pleasure Beautiful young girls¹ from northern India were always requisitioned
by him This trait of his life had become known throughout India and even
the distant Kashiraj, living far away in the north at the Lucknow Court, knew
of it and thought it necessary to mention it at the beginning of his account of
the battle of Panipat The Peshwa had started from Poona in November and
had made known his plan of proceeding to the north to set the matters right
at the Delhi court in the company of Nizam Ali, the younger brother of the
Nizam Salabat Jang But his march was delayed on account of the "wait and
see" tactics of the Nizam brothers Though it was a condition of the peace
treaty after the battle of Udgir in the previous year, that the Nizam should
join the Peshwa whenever there was any urgent need² and now definitely such
a need arose due to the beleagurement of Bhau at Panipat, the Nizam brothers
would not move from their cantonments even after the cessation of rains The
need for taking Nizam Ali with him to the north arose in a double sense
Firstly, his Gardi troops with their fine park of artillery would have been in-
valuable in a fight against Abdali and the Ruhelas, next it was dangerous to
keep such a mischievous man behind, with power to do what he liked when
the Peshwa had moved north with all his troops But this was a political ex-
cuse The Peshwa was entangled in other domestic matters also For some
time, it seems, he was not keeping on good terms with his wife and had taken
it into his head to marry a second time, though three sons from the first mar-
riage were available as heirs Match makers had been dispatched far and
wide from the one end of Maharashtra to the other He was prepared to marry
a girl from any of the three³ sub-castes of Maharashtra Brahmins, Karhada,
Deshasthas or Chitpavans, to which last caste he himself belonged The
Peshwa's diary shows expenditure incurred in this search for suitable girls
where half a dozen girls have been noted The Peshwa had become so weak,
irritable and listless that his memory was failing and he could not devote him-
¹ RAJ 1.214, 3 158
² SPD 40 128.
³ SPD 2 133