पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

58 PANIPAT 1761
Agra to Kunjpura, a distance of nearly two hundred miles Thus he had
unwittingly lengthened his line of communication and taken a certain risk
in proceeding to Kunjpura Had he, after quickly finishing the job, crossed
over the Jamuna into Saharanpur as intended, or, failing that, at once re
turned to Delhi, he would have been saved But here his miscalculation about
the fall in the level of the Jamuna waters proved wrong as we have already
noted The second factor which delayed the Maratha army was that after
a long period of comparative starvation they had found themselves in a land
of plenty, which the army was naturally reluctant to leave and return to bar
ren Delhi The third and the human factor which made Bhau delay his march
was the encumbrance of a horde of women folk family members and priests,
who had accompanied the army for performing distant and dangerous pil
grimages under its protection Kurukshetra is less than thirty miles from
Kunjpura and it was but natural that all the devout people in the army should
wish to visit that holy place of the Mahabharata war where Lord Shri Krishna
preached his philosophy of life to the hero Arjuna But this natural desire re
sulted in an unforeseen calamity and thus proved a veritable Kurukshetra to
the Marathas
The Maratha army, after spending or rather wasting a week at Kunj
pura, moved toward the holy place for one day, but before they could reach
their destination at the first halt for the night Bhau received the disquieting
news of Abdalis beginning to cross the river, on 25th October 20 He at once
made up his mind and turned back toward Delhi with a view to intercepting
Abdali before he crossed the river But such a fully equipped army made up of
three lakhs of people can move but slowly All became disappointed and sullen as
they missed by a hairbreadth the pilgrimage to Kurukshetra They were still
more scared by the news of Abdalis crossing the river and blocking their re
turn On the first day of their return march they halted near the ancient
bridge at Karnal²¹ for the night, the bridge over the famous canal of Firuz
Shah Tughaliq and Ali Mardan Khan which flowed from the eastern to its
western side Because the editor of Bhau's Kaifiyat was unaware of the
geography of these regions, he could not with confidence read the description
in Modi script and the place of halt on the bridge Though Bhau made a
long march of fifteen miles for the day, the camp could not move as fast, so
on the next day he could cover only eight miles and on the third day came,
near Panipat Here he heard the news that Abdalis army had completely
crossed the river, bag and baggage, and was halting at Sonepat
Bhau cautiously sent a party of five thousand men under Baji Hari
Deshpande of Supa to meet and check the advance guard of Abdali and take
a view of his camp and movement there They were in the vicinity of Sonepat,
resting unguardedly after a long march Half of the party was composed of
Shinde's men who had already known and experienced the scourge of the
Durrani army Their leader asked Baji Hari to be on his guard lest he should
find himself surprised But Baji Hari's inexperienced and unbeaten troops
20 RS 1201
1 Bhau Kaifiyat p. 12.