Tipu formed a large corps of young Muslim lads whom he called his sons and now provided them with handsome young wives from the Hindu fold. These atrocities were perpetrated during the wet months of 1785. In Malabar he had converted, in one stroke, a hundred thousand Hindus to his faith. Portuguese missionaries wrote that 'he tied naked Christians and Hindus to the legs of elephants and made the elephants move around till the bodies of the helpless victims were torn to pieces.' In 1786 he declared himself emperor and had the khutba read in his name in all the mosques throughout his kingdom. His contention was that 'those idiots who introduce the name of Shah Alam in the khutba act through ignorance since the real condition of the so called emperor is this: that he is actually enslaved and a servant of the Scindia. So to pronounce the name of someone dependent on the infidels while reciting the sacred khutba was blasphemy.
This episode will cover the sad end of the Marathas as a power, a period of nearly 60 years. It was the beginning of the end of the Maratha power, which began with Mahadji's death and
ended with the 1857 First War of Independence.
Ram Shastri Prabhune conducted an enquiry and found Raghunathrao the culprit in addition to another fifty persons of which there was one female servant. 'The law,' he thundered 'was above the individual.'
The intrepid judge fearlessly argued the point and told Raghunathrao on his face that he was himself found to be the chief culprit and as such deserved the capital punishment. Raghoba asked indirectly whether a person who had committed a crime under unavoidable circumstances and now wanted to repent could seek penance.
When his point was put forth, Ram Shastri boldly declared, 'Dehant prayaschitta shivay doosra kahi prayaschitta nahin,' meaning 'the only penance was capital punishment or a death sentence.' Never before in the history of India or for that matter in any country a sitting judge had passed a death sentence on the ruling monarch. It was a rare show of judicial independence which we possibly do not see even in today's times. Those present in the court could not believe what they had just heard. There was a hushed silence...
Nanasaheb had taken the Marathas to the largest extent possible. In south, the Peshwa had won against the Nizam. So there was no challenge there. While Delhi was the capital of the Mughal empire, the power seat was Pune. In 1758 it felt as if the Marathas could hold their power over Punjab sitting in Pune, 1500 kms away. This was a mistake in hindsight. To hold power in the country one had to take charge of the throne at Delhi which the Marathas were unwilling to do allowing the Mughal emperor to rule. If only the Marathas had taken charge of Delhi, history would have been different.
The flat plains of Panipat had seen the battle in 1526 and 1555 where Babar defeated Ibrahim Lodi and Akbar defeated the Afghan army led by Hemchandra, aka Hemu, who was captured and beheaded by Behram Khan.
Now two and half centuries later, two mega armies stood waiting for a battle.
What kind of enemy's strength are we talking of? There are many records, one of them is written by Kasiraj, a sixty year old man, who was part of Bhau's huge army. He wrote his Kasiraj bakhar, nearly nineteen years after the war. He estimates Abdali's men to be around eighty thousand while the Marathas had seventy thousand. There are many historians who have given different figures but what we are looking is the fact that they two armies were well matched.
It was the arrival of Robert Clive, as the governor of Bengal which was to change the scene in India permanently. It is interesting to note that Robert Clive started his career as a mere clerk in East India Company. Clive met the emperor at Allahabad and got the permission for himself and the East India Company, the Diwani of the three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Diwani gave them the right to collect revenue and dispose of them without the responsibility for the provincial administration and without the appearance of complete annexation. The emperor, the suzerain authority, Shuja of Awadh and the Nawab of Bengal were links of an indivisible chain. The emperor was the central master while the provincial servants in the traditional Mughal hierarchy were Shuja and the Nawab. Now, Clive ensured that he could operate without the interference of any. It was a masterstroke!
Folklore has it that Chhatrasal sent a wandering bard to Pune with a message for Bajirao. The story goes that the Peshwa heard the bard singing outside his palace-
Jo gati grah gajendra ki
So gati bhai hai aaj
Baaji jaat Bundel ki
Baaji rakho laaj
Meaning,
'Know you Baji rao; I am in that same sad plight in which a famous elephant was when caught by a crocodile. My valiant race is on the point of extinction. Come and rescue my honour.'
The Badshah growled once more. He dismissed the men holding the weapons and indicated to a group of men who wore iron claws. At his glance, two of them came near Sambhaji. One of them behind him and one facing him. From his neck to the spine and from his throat to his stomach, the men pulled his skin down as the trumpets and horns started blowing. The men shouted Deen Deen! Skin peeled off Sambhaji's back, neck, chest and stomach. His whole body was a bloodied mess.
But Sambhaji did not allow his voice to be heard by anyone present. He did not scream or shout. Clenching his teeth he bore the intense and almost unbearable pain. His body, now red with blood, shivered from head to toe. Like the milk which gathers at the base of the Shivalinga, his blood gathered at his feet. Aurangzeb laughed hysterically, seeing Sambhaji's body now peeled like the way a butcher skins a goat.
Sambhaji's death was a big blow to the Marathas. He was the rightful heir and a daredevil; someone who could have challenged Aurangzeb had he not been given up by his own family members.
The Marathas were not to give up so easily. The few years after Sambhaji's death were ruinous and confusing. Sambhaji's younger brother Rajaram, who was nineteen, and his mother Tarabai stayed at the Raigad fort. Yesaji Kank, a veteran since Shivaji's time, did not waste time to declare Rajaram as the king within a week of Sambaji's capture. This was a clear message to the Mughals that the Maratha monarchy was alive and kicking and that the Marathas were too.
Aurangzeb was not going to sit quietly. He sent Itikad Khan (later called Zulfikar Khan) to Raigad to capture Rajaram and his mother.
Sambhaji and Kavi Kalash were stunned into silence. Was it really happening or was it a dream? Ikhlas Khan had tied the two. Out of sheer desperation and anger, he slapped Sambhaji. Kaviraj, seeing Ikhlas Khan touching Raje's face, spat at him in disgust. Ikhlas Khan was enraged now and took out a whip tied around his waist. He whipped Sambhaji and Kavi in frustration before tying them on a horse back. Their clothes had been torn apart. They were made to wear a green dress, like the other soldiers.
It was late in the night when the group reached Pune. The soft diffused light of the ashtami moon spread over the ground. The guards at the gate came out adjusting their guns hearing the horses. One of the guards challenged,
'Kaun hai?'
One of Ibrahim's men stepped forward and slapped the guard hard shouting, 'Badtameez! Khansahab ko pehchanta nahin?'
The other guards hastily bent in mujras and salaams. The route was now clear. Ibrahim moved forward in a casual yet dignified manner as if nothing had happened. It was silence all over sans the intermittent warning shouts of the guards parading the area. Most of the Mughal troops were tired of the day long Ramzan fast and were fast asleep after a heavy meal.
The story of the Marathas starts with Shivaji for most of us. The action happened in what is called the Deccan and its geography and politics plays an important role. We must understand what the Deccan means, who ruled there and what was the condition of the Deccan part of India before, and when, Shivaji was born.
