How thoroughly Baji Rao and his companions were brought up in the traditions of Shivaji and how closely they had studied the political policy and military strategy of that great leader, could best be seen both in the eloquent appeal, Baji Rao made to the Maratha leaders in the presence of Shahu, in which he expressly drew a telling comparison between the arduous circumstances under which Shivaji strove to carry the war of Hindu Liberation to the South and the relatively more favourable turn the events had taken since then, when his generation, instead of daring more in carrying the war to the north, sat doubting and deliberating as well as in the splendid campaigns against the Nizam, Bangesh and other mogul generals. The first thing he had to do was to humble the opposition of the Nizam who was the most capable of Muhammadan generals and statesmen of his time.
Baji Rao soon proved himself as worthy a student and follower of Shivaji on the field, as he had done in his aspirations and eloquence in the Council Chamber. On the 7th of August, 1727, when it was raining in torrents, Baji Rao led his army to the field. Entering Aurangabad he first levied war contributions on Jalna and the districts round about it, which were held by the Nizam. As soon as the Nizam’s forces under Ewaz Khan advanced to meet him, Baji Rao, engaging them half- heartedly a while and suddenly, out-marching his opponents, rushed towards Mahur and thence to Auranabad, giving it out that he would extract a heavy contribution from that city. The Nizam hastened to join Ewaz Khan with a view to protect that wealthy city. But Baji Rao, seeing his ruse succeed and the Nizam completely misled, left Khandesh and entering Gujarat informed the Mogul Viceroy there with grim humour that he was invading that province under the Nizam’s orders.
The Nizam, hastening towards Aurangabad, learnt to his dismay that the enemy he wanted to protect that city from, was already in Gujarat. Furious at this he wanted to beat back baji Rao, with his own weapons by imitating the Maratha tactics of surprise marches, to invade Poona, and plunder baji Rao’s territory as he went. But he was too late in learning his lessons of Maratha strategy. For, Baji Rao, anticipating all this, had already left Gujarat and with lightning rapidity entered the Nizam’s dominions again.
While the Nizam was advancing towards Poona and fancying he was performing a splendid military feat, he learnt, to his utter discomfiture, that before he could plunder Baji Rao’s territory, Baji Rao had already plundered his. So abandoning his plan of marching on Poona, he hastened to meet Baji Rao along the banks of the Godavari. The Nizam’s forces were by now thoroughly tired out, and Baji Rao wanted to give them battle even though the Nizam did not wish to do so. Instead of flying away and avoiding them as before, Baji Rao by skilful manoeuvres succeeded in tempting the Moguls to occupy a position near Palkhed almost at his bidding. Now Baji Rao suddenly took the offensive, as cleverly as uptil now he was avoiding it, and the Nizam, in spite of his big guns and heavy artillery, was completely caught and found it to his dismay that it was impossible to shake off the Marathas, and that either he should consent to the utter destruction of his forces, or agree to whatever Baji Rao dictated. The Nizam chose the latter course and recognised Shahu as the sole King of the Marathas and agreed to the payment of all arrears of Chowth and Sardeshmukhi and to the re-instatement of all the Maratha revenue officers in his own dominions.
Reference has been made in detail to this campaign, for, this is a typical example of the Maratha warfare and shows that lessons that Shivaji had taught them were not only not forgotten, 1 but improved upon and successfully employed on the fields of 1 battle in a far more extensive and intensive way by the Maratha generals that followed him.
Nor did the Mogul Viceroy of Malva fare better than the Mogul Viceroy of the Deccan did. The Marathas, ever since 1698 when Udaji Pa war raided Malva and camped at Mandwa, were attacking the Mogul forces in that province from several sides, The Hindus of that province were so disgusted with the Moslem tyranny and religious oppression that the wave of Hindu national revival that preceded the War of Hindu Liberation did not fail to find enthusiastic advocates of Hindu-pad-padashahi in Malva The Hindu people at large, led by their natural leaders, the landlords, the Thakurs and the priests of Malva, saw, in the growing power of the Marathas and the great ideal of a Hindu Empire that informed and inspired their actions, the only hope of their country’s freedom from the foreign yoke. Fortunately, for the Hindus the most influential prince in Malva w as one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the cause of Hindu independence . He was Sawai Jaisingh, prince of Jaipur. The wisdom of Chhatrasal who, when he found himself unable to defend the freedom of his little kingdom against the alien foe and was faced with the grim alternative of being reduced to vassalage of a Hindu sovereign or to ‘prosper’ under a Muhammadan and non-Hindu alien, patriotically chose rather to lose his little provincial self and identify himself with the movement of a Pan-Hindu Empire, whether that was led by the Marathas or the Rajputs or the Sikhs or any other Hindu section than to live by kneeling at the Muhammadan throne at Delhi. This w isdom of Chhatrasal guided jaisingh too.
Jaisingh championed the cause of all the oppressed Hindus of Malva—of peasants and landlords groaning under over-taxation, of Thakurs and priests who could no longer tolerate the insolent extortion, humiliation and insult of their Faith and frag race, which the existence of Moslem rule made inevitable and advised them all to invite the Mamthas to free them and found a Hindu Rajya. The noble Rajput was patriotic enough to see that, of all Hindu princes then ruling, the only organised Hindu power that could cope with and crush the Moguls and consolidate the Hindus was the power of the Maratha Confederacy. If he could not take the lead and free the Hindus from the Mogul yoke, the next best thing for htm to do was to sacrifice his personal ambitions, suppress all thoughts of mean unpatriotic and parochial jealousy and help those who could and would do it.
Jaisingh was enthusiastically backed up in this plan by the influential Thakur Nandlal Mandavai. They, on behalf of the Hindus of Malva opened negotiations with the Marathas and invited them to Malva to drive the Mlenchhas and vindicate the honour of Hinduism.’ The Marathas readily responded to this call of their co- religionists in Malva, and soon the province was attacked on all sides by the Maratha captains under C’himaji Appa, the brave brother of Baji Rao. The Mogul Viceroy mustered all the forces he could, but the Marathas showed no mind to retire and finding a favourable opportunity, they all suddenly attacked the Moslems and In a battle at Dewas killed their Viceroy.
But the Emperor did not like to part with one of the richest provinces, so easily as that. A new Viceroy was sent to give battle to the Marathas there the Malva Hindus who sympathised with the Marathas joined their ranks. The Mogul Viceroy laid terrible plans, and with the help of his huge army tried to distroy the Marathas in the passes of Mandava Ghat and other places. But the Marathas outwitted him completely with the help of the Malva Hindus and under Malharrao and Pilaji and Chimaji Appa, harassed the Mogul forces as never before and ultimately offered them terrible battle at Tiral where the Mussalmans were completely crushed and their Viceroy killed.
The joy of the Hindus of Malva at the news of this second success know no bounds. The Marathas were welcome whenever they went, and the sight of a triumphant Hindu banner -witnessed after centuries of defeat and discomfiture— sent a thrill through the hearts of the Hindus, a feeling of patriotic elevation and racial rejoicing.
Jaisingh himself writes in one of his graceful letters thanking all the actors for fighting out the sacred cause and congratulating the Marathas upon the success they achieved. A thousand thanks! Splendidly indeed you have won ! You have driven the alien out and delivered the Hindus of Malva and vindicated the honour of our Hindu Dharma and Hindu race.’
The Marathas soon restored order, dismissed all Mogul officers and began to administer the province as a regular part of the Maratha Empire.
But the Mogul Emperor at Delhi persisted in hoping against hope and sent a new Viceroy named Muhamkad Khan Bangash, a, brave Rohilla Pathan, who was so renowned amongst Muhammadan circles for his martial qualifications as to win the title of ‘The Lion of War.’ From the Imperial Court he was specially charged to crush the rising spirit of the Budella chief, Chhatrasal first, and then from that vantage point to expel the Marathas from Malva.
Muhammad Khan Bangash attacked the Budellas who, led by their illustrious chief Chhatrasal, had shaken off the fetters of Moslem rule and had been living a free political life. Chhatrasal was a great admirer of Shivaji, who was the source of his inspiration and whom in his youth he had acknowledged as his master and guide. Since then he, faithfully to the advice of his master to carry the mission of Hindu. liberation to Budelkhand, strove so mightily and successfully to free that province from the foreign rule and defend Hindu Dharma and ffindu Desha as to earn the title of - The Shield: of Hindudom - from his countrymen.
Now in his old age he found himself face to face with fierce hordes of the Rohilla Pathans in overwhelming numbers, bent on crushing his little Hindu kingdom. It was but natural for an old Hindu warrior like Chhatrasal, brought up in the Pan-Hindu spirit of Shivaji, Ramdas and Prana-nath Prabhu, to turn instinctively to Baji Rao who , as the leader of the Maratha Confederacy, represented, not only the strength but even the mission of Shivaji. He wrote a pathetic letterto Baji Rao appealing to those tender traditions of Hindu mythology, which more than anything.else roused the deepest sentiments in every Hindu heart of a common Hindu Brotherhood and a Pan-Hindu spirit.
‘Come, oh Baji! And deliver me from the clutches of this faithless foe, even as Vishnu saved the Gajendra.’
This old friend and disciple of Shivaji, being^beset by the Moslem when he turned to the Marathas for help as aHindu to a Hindu, could not but rouse them to mighty patriotic efforts. With breathless speed Baji Rao, with Malharrao and Pilaji Jadhav and twelve other Maratha generals marched out at the head of 70,000 men. Meeting the old Hindu hero, Chhatrasal at Dhamorah, he picked up the remnants of the Bundela forces with him and continued his march, though the rainy season had set in.
Muhammad Khan, puffed up with the easy victories he had won over the little Hindu kingdom of Chhatrasal whom he had driven from his capital, thought himself entitled^ during the rainy season, to a rest which a_victor deserved. While he was thus living in a fool’s paradise, the Hindu armies, paying no heed to the torrential rains, dense forests and forbidding mountains, suddenly fell upon Muhammad Khan Bangash and held him fast in their clutches at Jaipur in (1729). Beseiged, beaten and defeated so thoroughly by the Marathas was the Moslem: ‘Lion of war’ that to save his very life he had to ignominiously flee from the battlefield, leaving all Bundeikhand and Malva in the hands of the triumphant Hindus. The old Budella King re-entered: his capital in full state, amidst the welcoming-cheers of the citizens and the-.deafening.boom: of the victorious Mar a th ac ann o n s.
So grateful did the old hero feel towards the Marathas that he adopted Baji Rao as his third son. On his death, true to this, a third portion of his kingdom was actually handed over to Baji Rao. This touching incident in itself is enough to prove how noble had been the underlying principles that formed the spring of their actions and made the Hindus of Baji Rao’s generations rise above personal or parochial considerations and feel themselves bound together by ties of blood and race and religion, and inspired them to mighty efforts to achieve political independence and found a great Hindu Empire.
The flight of this third Muhammadan Viceroy from Malva and Budelkhand made the Marathas, master of those regions and provided them with a vantage point from which they aimed to carry the War of Hindu Liberation into the very heart of the Mogul Empire.
While these campaigns were being fought out in Malva and Bundelkhand, the Maratha arms and statesmanship were achieving results as great and abiding in Gujarat. Pilaji Gaikwad, Kanthaji Bande and latter on Chimaji Appa himself kept on harassing the Mogul forces in Gujarat so strenuously as to force the Mogul Viceroy to sign a treaty by which he agreed to pay Chowth and Sardeshmukhi to the Marathas. But the Mogul Emperor, indignant at this humiliating engagement, sent Abhayasingh and charged him to drive the Marathas out of Gujarat. Abhayasingh, unlike Jaisingh, was out for himself and his self-glorification, and this tendency made him blind to the fact that he was in no way better equipped to take the lead of the Hindus in their struggle for political independence than any other Hindu prince. The Maratha Confederacy was the only Hindu power which had shown itself capable of achieving this noble task. But Abhayasingh’s love for personal advancement made him blind to this fact and drove him so far in his opposition to the Marathas in Gujarat as to invite Pilaji Gaikwad, under the pretext of negotiations, to the city of Dakore — a spot sacred to the Hindus and therefore, safe from suspicions — and in spite of its sanctity and the pledged word of a Rajput, get him assassinated.+++(5)+++ But he soon realised that he was guilty not only of a crime, but a great blunder.
For the Marathas were not the people who could be cowed down by the murder of a leader here or there. War and battle and death were their playmates from their youth, and for generations they had grown in the camp.
It should be noted that as in Budelkhand and Malva, so in Gujarat, the Hindus as often invited and usually sympathised with he Marathas and at times actively fought under their banner. For the very Kolies, Bhils, Waghris and other martial Hindu tribes in Gujarat were fiercely enraged at the murder of Pilaji, whom they loved and rose to avenge his blood, against the Mogul forces. The Marathas poured in from all sides, took Baroda by storm in 1732 made it what still it is, the maratha capital of that province, and made it impossible for Abhayasingh to maintain his ground; while Damaji Gaikwad invaded Jodhpur itself and forced Abhayasingh to hasten back to the defence of his hereditary principality. Damaji thereupon whirled round, and soon took Ahmedabad itself, and rendered it, not only impossible but even unnecessary for the Mogul viceroy to return to Gujarat again, as that whole province was lost to the Moslem Empire about 1735