पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

16 PANIPAT 1761
given a prejudicial colour by the author of the Bhau Bakhar, so as to make it
appear as a clandestine agreement between Govindpant and Najib to support
the latter When the Shindes entered the Doab, Najib Khan was brought to
the Maratha camp to discuss terms with Dattaji The author of the Bakhar
says of this interview that Janakoji, Naro Shankar, Antaji Mankeshwar and
other Sardars wanted to arrest Najib Khan this time, but Dattaji, through
the advice of Govindpant, at once forbade them from entertaining such a
treacherous thought This was in conformity with the whole Maratha tradi-
tion as exemplified in history and in accord with their general feeling Had
the Marathas ever taken to what they themselves called "Moglai lava" or
"Moglai maslat," meaning thereby the politics of treacherous arrests and mur-
ders, their whole history would have perhaps been written otherwise, though
it is a moot point in history whether they would not have been more successful
—barring the moral stigma—in their undertakings thereby
Najib, however, got a new lease of life by his double dealings in this
affair Had he flatly refused to help the Marathas in building a bridge over
the Ganges, they would have possibly found out some other means of gaining
their ends Dattaji had the intention of proceeding to Bengal post haste be-
fore the monsoon had set in and the rivers flooded He had planned to canton
in Patna²⁵ and thence to bring pressure on Bengal during the monsoon His
plan was completely foiled by the delaying and promising tactics of Najib
When a month passed and the monsoon actually set in, he pleaded his in
ability to do the needful, and promised to build the bridge after the rains Side
by side he was hatching a conspiracy of driving away the Marathas from the
north It seems that Emperor Alamgir II was himself a party to this con-
spiracy, being fed up with the tyrannical Wazir Malika Zamani, the Dowager
Empress, was whole heartedly behind the idea or, perhaps, she herself was the
originator of it, as depicted in all the Marathi chronicles Najib Khan is
depicted as following her orders and wishes Madhosingh of Jaipur and
Bijesingh of Marwad were also whole heartedly supporting Najib in his invi-
tation to Abdali to come back to India and drive the Marathas south of the
Narmada once for all Najib was so clever in keeping the whole project secret
that even Govindpant Bundele,²⁶ who was a near neighbour of his and always
on the alert for news of any kind, was unaware of this internal correspondence
carried on for two years between these parties, and even sending of special en-
voys to the court of Abdali at Kandahar The Marathas came to know of this
secret only when Abdali actually entered the Panjab and began to drive away
the Maratha outposts in that province, in October 1759 This bespeaks of
great looseness in the management of Maratha affairs That they should have
no information of projects for ousting them and should not have properly ap-
praised the characters of the various persons engaged in activities against their
rule, shows that their intelligence department had none of that efficiency that
it had in the times of Shivaji and Rajaram in the previous century This weak-
ness was fatal to the Maratha Empire.
²⁵ Ibid. 2.101.
²⁶ Ibid. 60.126.