Cause of
Maratha Defeat in the Battle of Panipat
The
defeat of the Marathas was due to many causes. Almad Shah Abdali had a stronger
military force than that of the Marathas. Sadasive Bhao, the commander of the
Maratha forces, was no match for Ahmad Shah Abdali who was admittedly the
ablest Asiatic general of his time. The latter was a general par excellence. After the death of
Vishwasrao, he plunged into the battlefield like an ordinary soldier and lost
his life Sadasive Bhao could not maintain his lines of communication with
Delhi. The result was that for two months before the battle, the Maratha army
was practically starving. The Marathas fought with hungry bellies in the
battle-field. The Marathas had alienated the sympathies of the Rajputs and the
Jats and consequently they could not rely upon anybody’s support. No wonder,
nobody raised his finger in defence of the Marathas. The troops of Ahmad Shah
Abdali were better armend than those of the Peshwa. While the Marathas had
lances and swords, the Afghans were armed with muskets. In the hands to hand
fight, the Marathas artillery could not play its part but the Afghan muskets
helped the Afghans to win the battle.while the Afghans possessed discipline of
a very high order, the Marathas lacked the same. They were individualists and
refractory. They hated discipline with the hatred of ‘laser breeds without
law’. They extolled lawless caprice as liberty and howled against discipline,
self control and organized teamwork of true army or schools as the mark of a
‘slave mentality’ and the ‘destroyer of their clan’. The ill-disciplined Marathas
lost the day to the well organized and well disciplined Afghan troops.
Sardesai
has attributed the Maratha defeat at Panipat to the following causes: Raghunath Rao failed to maintain order and
discipline among the Maratha agents in the north. Holkar failed to restrain
Najib Khan from doing mischief. The Peshwa failed to go to the north and adjust
matters when it was yet time to mend them. Bhau Saheb failed to keep women and
non-combatants behind at Bharatpur or at Delhi. After the death of Vishvasrao,
Bhau Saheb should not have rushed headlong into the fight. Most of the Maratha
horses had died on account of starvation in the camp at Panipat and the
Marathas had to fight without their horsed. They were accustomed to fight only
with their horsed and not without them and no wonder they failed. Sardesai
thinks that it is wrong to say that the Marathas lost the battle of Panipat
because they gave up guerilla warfare.
Balaji Bajirao was a man of refined tastes,
found of luxurious life and enoying splendor and fine arts. During his regime,
the social life of Maharashtra underwent great changes, in many directions. The
camp life of the Marathas lost its original rudeness and simplicity. The Peshwa
was an expert in accounts and penmanship and exercised strict control over
receipts and expenditure. Public servants were drawn in a special institution
of the secretariat called the Phad. The
Peshwa used persuasive methods both in diplomacy and war. There is no substance
in the allegation that he favoured the Brahmans. He treated all castes equally.
He distributed patronage equally.
According
to Sir Richard Temple, “Balaji’s character was formed on the same lines as that
of his father and his disposition moved in the same direction. But though a man
of skillful address, of influence in counsel and of ability in the field, he was
inferior to his father both as soldier and as a politician. He well knows how
to utilize the talents of those about him and some of his greatest successes
were won for him by his lieutenants. Still he was ever to the front, organizing
or supervising, and he saw the Maratha power attain its zenith. It was under
him that the Maratha cavalry fully one hundred thousand strong could truly
boast that they had slaked their thirst in every stream that flowed between
Cape Comorin and the Himalayas. But he did not take; perhaps he was not capable
of taking any step for rendering this widely extended dominion advantageous to
the people. He allowed Maratha rule to continue to be what it had been from the
first, more an organization of plunder that a system of administration.
Personally he was unscrupulous in this respect, morally inferior to his father
and grandfather.”
Sardesai
points out two serious mistakes committed by Balaji Baji Rao. In the first
place, Balaji made a mistake in taking British help to crush the Maratha navy
headed by Angria, his own navy commander. Secondly, he neglected to support
Bhonsla’s clains in Bengal when Siraj-ud-Daula was being hard pressed by the
British before the battle of Palassey. Bengal had been acquired by Raghunathji
and subjected to the annual payment of Chauth in return for which the Marathas
were bound to help its subdear. When the Englishmen turned their arms against
Siraj-ud-Daula, it was the duty of the Peshwas to help him. In 1776, the
position of the Peshwa was secure. At that time, he was the most powerful ruler
in India. A move on his part against the British, both in Karnataka and in
Bengal, would have at once checked their advance. Unfortunately, the Peshwas paid
undue attention to the politics of Delhi and contracted unnecessary enmity with
Ahmad shah Abdali and brought about the disaster of Panipat in 1761 in 1761. He
had no business to go beyond the Sutlej into the Punjab. It appears that the
Peshwas did not understand the real nature of the British game and side-tracked
his attention to the Punjab. He was found wanting in sagacity and length of
vision at a crucial movement. If he had understood all-India politics, he would
have acted otherwise. The result of his folly was that the Britishers were able
to establish themselves in Bengal, Oudh and the Deccan.
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