पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

SADASHIVRAO’S APPOINTMENT FOR NORTHERN INDIA 47
Bhau’s difficulties were increased by the Peshwa’s ignorance of northern
Indian affairs. It was customary for the Maratha army to subsist on the land
they marched through; but, after experience, the people of the regions through
which they marched had become wiser than before, and left nothing on the
spot to be carried away by the Marathas. Bhau had himself taken Raghunath-
rao to task for not being able to defray the expenditure of his campaign, and
now he could not possibly ask for funds from the Deccan. The stress of cir-
cumstances, however, obliged even the proud Bhau to beg for funds. The
Peshwa first ordered the revenue collectors in the north to pay half the revenues
to Bhau. This order only facilitated equivocation by the delaying collectors
They would write to the Peshwa that Bhau had taken the whole revenue from
them and write to Bhau that they had sent the whole money to the Deccan.
Bhau, therefore, over-riding the Peshwa’s orders, asked the collectors to send
the whole amount to him only. Still no money was forthcoming from anybody
Bhau had received two lakhs’from Govindpant and eighty thousand from Babu-
rao Koner of Jhansi. This was all he was able to receive at Delhi. While
Bhau was besieged at Panipat, Govindpant brought four lakhs and twenty
thousand to Delhi at the beginning of December, only a quarter of which
reached Bhau’s camp in safety. Besides Govindpant, some other collectors
like Gopal Keshav of Bhander (SPD, 29-12) also seem to have forwarded
their collections to Delhi after Bhau’s move to Kunjpura. The capture of
Delhi had placed an additional burden on Bhau’s depleted treasury because he
had now to provide for the palace-expenditure which came to more than a
lakh per month.
There is some ground for suspicion that Bhau’s plans were being ob-
structed by certain forces in Poona, antagonistic to him. Gopikabai, the wife
of the Peshwa, always feared, it seems, the complete usurpation of power by
Bhau as he was already the sole administrator. The Peshwa was every day
growing weaker and weaker both physically and morally. This fact also en-
hanced the lady’s fears. She, as well as the Peshwa’s advisers in Poona, espe-
cially the wily Sakharam Bapu, who it should be noted, was with the Peshwa in
the Deccan and had not accompanied Vishwasrao to the north, as wrongly
stated by Sir Jadunath,⁷³ seem to have been responsible for advising the
Peshwa to withhold any more help to Bhau for fear of his increasing power.
Sakharam Bapu was perhaps the cleverest brain in the Poona Court of those
times. He was from very early days a sort of rival to Bhau in diplomatic
matters. The Peshwa seems to have used Bapu as a tool to keep a balance
of power at the Poona Court. Bhau’s ways were open and straightforward.
Bapu’s conduct was exactly the reverse. The two could not go together with
these contrary dispositions. Sakharam Bapu had, therefore, always sided with
the party opposite to Bhau. He accompanied Raghunathrao in his north
Indian campaigns as his chief adviser and administrator. Though Raghunath-
rao as the master cannot be absolved from the blame, the chief responsibility
for the financial mismanagement of his campaigns should be properly placed
on Sakharam Bapu’s shoulders. Being conscious of his share in the guilt,
⁷³ Fall 2.240 (foot note)