Part 33 (1/2)

He therefore urged his master to ”strike the withered trunk, when the branches will fall of themselves,” and roused the lazy, somewhat luxurious Saho to such enthusiasm that he swore he would plant his victorious standard on Holy Himalaya itself.

The career of Saho-plus-Baji-Rao was singularly successful. Ere long, after hara.s.sing the Dekkan, he forced his rival, Samba, to yield him almost the whole Mahratta country except a portion about Kolapur.

Having done this, he turned himself to engage the Moghul force of thirty-five thousand men which had marched on him with the avowed object of delivering Saho from the terrible tyranny of Baji. This was defeated, and Saho-c.u.m-Baji proceeded to apportion various parts of Southern India amongst the great Mahratta families. The Gaekwars of Baroda date from this time. The Holkar of those days was but a shepherd-soldier, and the Scindias, though of good birth, a mere body-servant of the Peishwas.

Malwa was the next emprise, and though its Afghan governor effected his own personal escape by means of a rescue party from Rohilkand summoned by his wife, who sent her veil as a challenge to her brethren's honour, the whole rich province fell into Mahratta hands.

The Rajah of Bundulkhund, alarmed, acceded to Baji-Rao's demands, and Jai-Singh of Amber, hastily summoned by the Moghuls to defend their cause, after a futile and half-hearted resistance, also yielded.

He was more of a scientist than a soldier was Jai-Singh, and would have been remarkable in any age for his astronomical work. His 'List of the Stars' is still of importance.

Hitherto, all these aggressions had been made by the Mahrattas under cover of claims; those ill-defined, widespread rights of share and taxation which Bala-ji had started. Now, seeing his opponent's weakness, Saho-c.u.m-Baji's demands rose, until even Moghul supineness could not submit to his terms.

Nothing daunted, the former advanced on Delhi itself, but while his light cavalry under Holkar were ravaging the country about Agra, they were attacked and driven back by the Governor of Oudh, a man evidently of some spirit, for he had actually left his own province to defend the adjoining one.

The skirmish was magnified into overwhelming victory by the Moghuls, and this so irritated Baji-c.u.m-Saho, that he conceived and put into practice what was more an impish piece of mischief than a serious a.s.sault.

Leaving the imperial army which had come out solemnly, solidly, to repel him on the right, he led his swarms of active freebooters by a _detour_ to its rear, and then contemptuously disdaining an attack on the pompous martial array, made one almost unbroken march to the very gates of Delhi.

Here was consternation indeed! The Mahrattas at the very steps of the throne, while the court army was seeking them in the wilderness!

His object, however, was mere intimidation; as he phrased it himself: ”Just to show the emperor that he could come if he liked.”

So, after repelling with heavy loss one sally caused by the Moghul misapprehension of a retrograde movement he made beyond the suburbs (which was due to his desire to prevent damage by his freebooting followers), he retreated as he came, just as the befogged, bewildered Moghul army, duly bedrummed, beflagged, and bedisciplined, was on the eve of arriving at Delhi.

A sheer piece of devilry, no doubt. He had meant to have crossed the Jumna and looted the rich Gangetic plains, but the rainy season was due, and there was more comfortable work to be done in the Dekkan.

Asaf-Jah, still active though old, followed him so soon as the weather permitted, and he could manage to sc.r.a.pe together sufficient soldiery; but so low had the power of the Moghul fallen by this time, that he had to start with a bare thirty-five thousand men. Then ensued a campaign of some months on the old well-known lines.

The regulars marching with difficulty, the irregulars hara.s.sing the line of march. The Moghuls entrenching themselves scientifically, the Mahrattas cutting off supplies, laying waste the country for miles, looting every baggage-train that tried to get in, and finally cutting off all communication with the base. There was nothing for it finally but retreat; a slow retreat of 4 or 5 miles a day, the enemy's light cavalry hanging on the rear, hara.s.sing the disheartened army in every possible way. There could be but one end to it--almost unconditioned surrender.

Baji-c.u.m-Saho demanded the cession of all Malwa, the country between the rivers Nerbudda and the Chumbal, and an indemnity of fifty lacs of rupees, or five millions.

Weighted down with these fateful terms, for which he promised to gain the emperor's sanction, poor Asaf-Jah continued his way Delhi-wards, Baji-c.u.m-Saho marching a few days behind him to take present possession of his conquests. Whether Asaf-Jah's efforts would have resulted in confirmation of these terms or not cannot be said; for this was in the year of grace 1738, and in the November of that year Nadir the Persian invaded India.

THE INVASION OF NaDIR

A.D. 1738 TO A.D. 1742

The old cry once more!

Over the wheat-fields of the Punjab, just as the seed was bursting into green, that cry--

”The Toorkh! The Toorkh!”

Surely no land on the globe has suffered so much from invasion as Hindustan? The mythical Snake-people first, coming from G.o.d knows where.... Then the Aryans, with their flocks and herds, from the Roof of the World.... Next the well-greaved Greeks, leaving their indelible mark on Upper India.... So through Parthian, and Scythian, and Bactrian, to the wild, resistless influx of Mongolian immigrations.

Then finally Mahmud and Mahomed, Tamerlane and Babar ... last of all, Nadir the Persian.