The loss was formidable, for, while Bhau along with the bravest that followed him was sustaining an unequal struggle round their national standard, the Marathas were getting completely routed all along the line, hotly pursued by the foes. Thousands fell dead. Thousands were made prisoners whom the next morning their furious victor made to stand in row after row and butchered in cold blood. The booty the Afghans got was also immense.
But immense also was the price that the Marhatta valour had succeeded in exacting from their foes. The I’nthiins won the victory, but it was pyrrhic. On the Inst day alone they lost no less than 40,000 Moslem soldiers on the battlefield. Attaikhan, the General who cut off Govinpant’s head, Usman and several other leaders of their forces were cut down. Nazib was seriously wounded. Moreover, they knew that they owed their success as much to chance as to their estimable valour and excellent generalship.
The Marathas lost the battle but not without inflicting on their foe such severe wounds as to invalid him permanently to win the war.
For, what if the battle of Panipat was lost? The Marathas at Panipat were crushed; but then, the Marathas yet lived in Maharashtra. Each home, they say, had to mourn the loss of some one of their relations, that fell on the ghastly day of Panipat Yet there was scarcely a home then in Maharashtra that did not vow to redeem their national honour and render the martyrdom of their soldiers and generals fruitful by winning the cause for which they fell. Already the Peshwa had crossed the Narbada at the head of some 50,000 Maratha forces to check Abdally’s programme. On learning of the catastrophe that befell this people and his family in particular, Nanasaheb decided to press ahead in spite of Panipat and destroy Abdally’s strength before he could utilize the defeat and resulting demoralization of the Maratha armies in the north. Although his personal sorrow was truly unbearable and his health already seriously broken, yet h only added to his zeal to avenge his people and beat Abdalty back. He wrote letters to all the Hindu princes in the north full of courage, remonstrating with them on the suicidal policy they thought it wise to adopt of standing aside while the foes of their faith and of all Hindudom were putting forth united efforts to crush the cause of Hindu Independence altogether. He invited them all to join him in the War of Hindu Liberation and assured them that, in spite of the defeat at Panipat, he would render futile the ambition of Abdally to re-establish a powerful Moslem Empire on the ruins of that of the Moguls. ‘What matters it?’ he wrote: ‘True it is that my young prince Vishwasrao fell fighting his foe even as Abhimanyu did and ascended to Heaven. My brother Bhau and the gallant Jankoji - none known what has become of them: several other generals and men have fallen on the field. Mm then, niter nil It In war, I hc question of lueceil or defeat often depends on elinncc the will of God, So it matters not much. We will see to it again in spite of it still.”
Such undying tenacity—this faculty of staying out, that the Marathas displayed under great national disaster made them masters of India. Abdally was too shrewd to misunderstand the temper of his foes or undervalue their capacity. No sooner was the day of Panipal won than he saw that, unless he rapidly withdrew to his country, he would soon be forced to disgorge what little he had gained. Nanasaheb had milled round himself all his Sardars and men that survived Panipat. Malharrao Holkar, Vithal Shivdev, Naro Shankar, Janoji Bhosale and several other generals with their forces were concentrating in Gwalior and along with them Nanasalieb threatened to march on Delhi. This attitude of the Marathas made Suja and even Nazibkhan, nervous, who got convinced that the winning of the battle of Panipat was not to win the war against the Marathas. So they independently opened negotiations with and made flattering advances to Nanasaheb who had already come so far as Gwalior. Suja realized the fact that Abdally could not singly, or allied with them, crush the Hindus, or prop up the tottering edifice of the Moslem Empire. The Muhammadan camp broke up. Each began to seek his safety. Suja left Abdally. Abdally came to Delhi and remained there for a few weeks, Nanasaheb, with 50,000 men, was pressing him from behind. The Persians were reported to have invaded his home. This distracted the great conqueror who determined to leave Delhi and the Imperial politics to themselves and in March 1761 hurriedly re-crossed the Indus without being able to realize even one of those ambitious designs which goaded him on to cross it.
This was the last of the series of attempts Ihe Indian Muhammadans made to save their Empire from the attacks ol the Hindus by joining hands with their fierce co-religionist across the frontiers. They won the battle of Panipat and in winning it they lost the last chance of either crushing the great Hindu poweij of the Maratha Confederacy or rescuing their Moslem Empire from the death grip with which they clutched at its throat.
Never again were the Pathans able to reach Delhi. Soon they were to cease to cross the Indus itself.
For, on the ruins of Panipat another Hindu power rapidly rose in the Punjab. That power was the rising confederacy of the Sikhs. These brave people had slowly built up their Church which often cemented by the blood of martyrs, promised soonj to rise into a powerful state. Under the leadership of their tenth Guru, the lion like Govind and Banda, the warrior and the martyr,- both of whom will ever continue to be worshipped amongst the greatest of national heroes of the Hindu Pantheon,—the Sikhs- fought for the cause of Hindu Independence in the Punjab. Under Banda they succeeded for a while in liberating a partofj their land. But the task of dealing a death-blow to thd Muhammadan power in the Punjab and bringing the holy landofS the five rivers under Hindu sway was reserved for the Marathas. This they accomplished and though they were fighting far off from their homes and had to beard the loin in his own den, they’ did it and carried the Hindu standard right upto Atock for the first time, since the days of Prithviraj. While the repeated attempts of the Moslems and of their great coalitions under Nadir Shah and Abdally to revive the Moslem power in India were being brought to naught by the dogged resistance of the Marathas, the Sikhs were getting a breathing time to organise themselves into a powerful confederacy. This new Hindu power deprived Abdally of whatever little satisfaction he might have reaped, in return for the tremendous price he had to pay throughout his Panipat campaign by annexing the Punjab anew to his dominions! For although the Punjab thus slipped off from the hands of the Hindus of Maharashtra, it could not continue in the hands of the Moslems. For the Hindus of the Punjab attacked Abdally’s posts as soon as he truned his back and in spite of his twice crossing the Indus again, recovered their native land. Soon the Marathas too re-entered Delhi—once more became the leading soverign power of all Hindustan. The Sikhs too though they never could extend their sway beyond their frontiers even upto Delhi on the eastern side, yet grew powerful enough to maintain their independence against all comers from across the frontiers. Never again would the fierce fanaticism or the insatiable lust of land of the Pathans or the Turks, goad them on to cross the Indus. On the contrary the Sikhs crossed it and carrying the Hindu standard triumphantly upo the banks of the Kabul, paid back the compliment. So thoroughly had they cowed down the fanatical turbulence of the Moslem tribes of the frontier districts that the name of the Sikhs became a synonym of terror in the Pathan homes.
Thus from the Pan-Hindu point of view, the Muhammadans failed to gain their objective. They won the battle of Panipat, but in winning it, they lost the war they had been waging against those who aimed to establish Hindu-pad- padashahi and in spite of Panipat, had to leave the Hindus, masters of all Hindusthan from Attock to the seas.
But while the Hindus were fighting out this gigantic national struggle against their Muhammadan foes in the north, yet another combatant managed slyly to creep into the lists and kept watching the fierce game. It was he who more than any one else had every reason to chuckle at the fall at Panipat, which dealing out heavy blows to both the combatants there forced the Marathas to postpone their intended invasion of Bengal and consequent strangling of the infant English power that was only recently born there on the plains of Plassy. If any one really won at Panipat, it was neither of the combatants who so furiously fought there, it was that sly intruder who kept watching the game and was clever enough to take advantage of the weakness of both the combatants.
But, although it is true that Panipat gave a new lease of life to the East India Company and forced the Marathas to drop a while their intentions of settling their final accounts with the English, yet it must not, thereof, be supposed that the English secured any very lasting advantage thereby alone. For the Marathas—as we shall see as we proceed—soon recovered from the shock of Panipat and but for the civil war that broke out amongst them and the untimely death of their able leaders, would have perhaps been able to win even against the English in spite of Panipat. The English owed their success not so much to the defeat of the Marathas at Panipat, as to the civil war that later on broke out amongst them.
For, as Major Evans Ball writes: ‘Even the battle of Panipat was a triumph and a glory for the Marathas. They fought in the cause of India for the Indians and though they were defeated, the victorious Afghans retired (had to) and never again interfered in the affairs of India.’
As the news of Abdally’s precipitate return and Suja’s and Nazib’s supplicating overtures reached the Maratha camp, HI aaruraJly rejoiced at the favourable turn events had taken. NaroShanfcer wrote just within a couple of months after Panipat: God be praised: the Marathas—or to quote Hingne—’the forces of the worshippers of Hari’ still continue to be the masters of Ind.’ The heroic phrase that their great leader had uttered leapt from lip to lip and everyone in Maharashtra was found exclaiming, ‘What does it matter ? After all it is a war. We will see to it again.’
In the meanwhile the health of Nanasaheb was going from bad to worse. For the last two years or so, he was showing signs of a general breakdown. Just then came the harrowing news of Panipat. He strove as bravely as a man could under the stress to bear it all and suppressing his personal sorrow, enthused and enabled his nation to tide over the demoralization of a defeat and rise equal to the occasion to present a bold and conquering front to all. But in his heart, the loss of his Vishwas and his Bhau and the bravest of his Generals and men overwhelmed him with the grief that nothing could solace. His already declining health rapidly broke and soon this great leader of Maharashtra who had made her mistress of all Jnd passed away on the 23rd of June 1761. He was only 41 when he died.
It is needless to say anything here as to his capacity and character. His deeds have already spoken louder than words can ever do. His civil administration too was so just and popular that his reign is still gratefully remembered by his people. It was reserved for him to practically realize Shivaji’s ambition of establishing Hindu-pad-padshahi. He, in fact, freed almost all Hindustan from the hands of Moslems. Under him the Hindus reached the highest pinnacle of glory they ever attained for the last seven hundreds years or so—ever since the fall of Prithviraj. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest personalities—if not the greatest—of his time in the world.
This untimely death of Balaji, alias Nanasaheb, was a loss as great as—if not greater than—the loss, the Marathas had to face at Panipat. The two crowded so disastrously together that the nation very naturally took some time to recover from the shock.