The Rise of The Phoenix of Deccan- Part 2
In the last blog, we saw that the Nizam had started marching towards Pune on the advise of Vitthal Sundar and the Marathas were contemplating their next step against the Nizam. Let us now move towards the counter moves of the marathas and some strategic manouvers which significantly affected the outcome of this campaign against the Nizam of Hyderabad.
STRATEGIC AND DIPLOMATIC MOVEMENTS OF THE MARATHAS-
Prominent places in the campaign
Dedeveshwar sansthan, Parvati, Pune
Vitthal Sundar was the most prominent minister in the Nizam's court. He was the one responsible for defections of Maratha generals like Gopalrao Patwardhan of Miraj and Janoji Bhosle of Nagpur to the Nizam's side. He also had a lion's share in the rise of Nizam Ali, the current Nizam of Hyderabad.
Vitthal Sundar was responsible for the renewed attack on Pune. The Nizam continued his march towards Pune. Here, Raghunathrao contemplated an attack on the marching Nizam's army; which is exactly what was desired by the Nizam as the Maratha army could not match the Nizam's heavy artillery.
Madhavrao, who was still in Raghunathrao's confinement gave a brilliant plan of attacking and looting Nizam's territories instead. This strategy was similar to Peshwa Bajirao's ways.
As the Nizam marched towards Pune, almost all the common citizens left for forts like Sinhagad, Lohagad, Rajmachi etc. for shelter and food. Even though all this was in progress, the marriage of Narayanrao Peshwa, the third son of Nanasaheb Peshwa was done on Sinhagad on 22nd April 1763.
The Nizam besieged Pune and started looting the small villages surrounding the city such as Chinchwad, Talegaon, Vafgaon, etc. After Pune was eventually breached, the Nizam's army wrecked havoc on the city and a session of pillage and plunder began.
The idols of Mahadev, Hanuman, Ganesha, etc. in various temples of Pune were demolished. Even the temple built by Nanasaheb Peshwa on Parvati, the Devdeveshwar was not spared!
The forts of Lohagad and Rajmachi were eventually looted. The Nizam's army did not spare even a piece of cloth on the body of the citizens and even Nana Phadnavis was one of the victims of this loot.
The population of Pune at the time was around 60,000. Major part of it was displaced. Half of the houses in Kasba Peth of Pune were destroyed. The city sustained huge losses due to unchecked plunder of the Nizam's army. Eventually, the Patwardhans who had defected to Nizam's army along with many other Maratha generals began to feel guilty for their defection seeing the pillage of their master's capital and the demolition of temples and idols.
On the other hand, the Maratha army was marching towards Hyderabad. They planned to loot Hyderabad in a counter move to the Nizam attacking and looting Pune. By 5th May 1763, Madhavrao Peshwa had reached Sangareddy in the vicinity of Hyderabad. They had looted the Nizam's territories falling on the way to Hyderabad such as Naldurg, Solapur, etc. The outskirts of the city of Hyderabad were also looted but unlike Nizam, the city was not denuded of its wealth.
The next target of the Marathas was the second capital of the Nizam, Aurangabad.
The maratha army of around 45,000 was no match for a direct confrontation of the swollen army of the Nizam of 1,32,000 along with heavy artillery as of now.
Hearing that the Maratha army had not fallen for his trap of a direct attack and looted Hyderabad instead, the Nizam now started heading towards Aurangabad, which was his second capital. He feared that after Hyderabad, the Marathas would target his second capital as a revenge for the plunder of Pune.
Nizam, along with the defected Maratha sardars started marching towards Aurangabad. By now the month of June-July 1763 had set in and it was gradually starting to rain.
As mentioned, there was a sense of guilt in the Maratha sardars on seeing their master's capital denuded and their temples destroyed.
Sakharam Bapu Bokil, one of the "Three and a half wise men" of the time started his diplomatic moves to appeal to the guilt of the defected Maratha sardars such as Patwardhans of Miraj and Bhosles of Nagpur.
Sakharam Bapu Bokil
Emissaries were secretly sent to these generals and they gave in to secretly switch sides. If these generals switched sides, the might of the Nizam would diminish considerably.
It was a norm that the Maratha generals used to concentrate on farming in the rainy season and would go out on campaigns post rainy season on Dusherra.
Taking advantage of this, many maratha generals started returning home on the pretext of rains approaching including Patwardhans and Bhosles.
The Marathas on the other hand continued their march on Aurangabad while the Nizam inched closer in the defence of his capital.
The stage was now set for a final showdown as the Nizam unbeknownst to him was now considerably weaker as compared to his strength in the months of April- May 1763.
The strategic and diplomatic movements of the Marathas of not confronting Nizam directly and trying to bring back their defected generals was a game-changer in this campaign against the Nizam.
The final showdown was to restamp the authority of the Marathas on the deccan and was a step towards re-establishing themselves as a paramount power in India.
To know about this final showdown which reduced the Nizam to a secondary status in the Deccan and silenced all the enemies of Marathas who were hopeful of regaining power after the setback of Panipat; stay tuned for the next part of this blog!
Till then, peace!✌🏻✌🏻
Sources-
1) The Mastery of Hindustan: Triumphs and travails of Madhavrao Peshwa by Dr. Uday S. Kulkarni
2) The Maratha century by Dr. Uday S. Kulkarni
