The Rise of The Phoenix of Deccan- Part 3
In the last blog, we saw that the Nizam and the Marathas, both destroyed their opponent's capitals and the Marathas were now headed for Aurangabad, which was the second capital of the Nizam of Hyderabad.
Peshwa Madhavrao I, Peshwe Park, Pune
Vitthal Sundar Samadhi, Rakshasbhuvan
The Marathas had significantly weakened Nizam by their diplomatical tactics by alienating the defected Maratha sardars like Bhosles of Nagpur and Patwardhans of Miraj from the Nizam. After these sardars joined the marathas, the Nizam became a sitting duck in the maratha territory.... but the Nizam was completely unaware of these events and was inching towards Aurangabad to save his capital from the Marathas.
THE PHOENIX RISES-
The Nizam was left alone on his march towards Aurangabad along with his favourite minister Vitthal Sundar. Vitthal Sundar pleaded the Maratha sardars on Nizam's side to not leave them seeing the possibility of a clash with the marathas now seemingly inevitable. But the Maratha sardars, who as discussed in earlier blog, were appealed to their guilt of seeing Pune destroyed by Sakharam Bapu Bokil. And they alienated themselves from the Nizam giving different reasons and started joining Madhavrao Peshwa's army.
Seeing the mobile and quick maratha troops and the difficulty in matching their speed in order to reach Aurangabad in time, the Nizam left behind his heavy artillery, which was exactly what Madhavrao wanted as it would have been a suicide move to face Nizam's heavy artillery with cavalry dependent army of the Marathas. This strategy was similar to what Peshwa Bajirao I had followed against the Nizam in 1728 at the battle of Palkhed.
Finally, after a long game of diplomacy and war, the Nizam's army reached Rakshasbhuvan on 8th August 1763 and started crossing the Godavari river to reach Aurangabad and be ready for a maratha attack.
Madhavrao came to know of this and reached Rakshasbhuvan by 10th August 1763. The Marathas attacked the weakened Nizam army in the morning and a battle ensued. Madhavrao himself along with Raghunathrao participated in this battle.
Map of the Rakshasbhuvan campaign
The English historian, Grant Duff, who wrote extensively on the Maratha history has quoted that Madhavrao fought valiantly in this battle. He was leading it from the front. Both sides suffered heavy losses but the Nizam lost around 10,000 men.
In the midst of the battle, Raghunathrao's elephant was encircled by the Nizam's troops by orders of Vitthal Sundar. Raghunathrao fought valiantly and fended off the attackers but it seemed like he was about to be captured. Madhavrao, who was paying attention to all of the battlefield rushed to his uncle's aid and rescued him on time.
The turning point of this battle was the death of Vitthal Sundar. In harivanshachi bakhar, it is mentioned that Mahadji Shitole, a Maratha sardar asked Madhavrao for a village worth Rs. 10, 000 if he killed Vitthal Sundar. After he was promised the reward, he went forward with his horse towards the elephant of Vitthal Sundar and hurled a javelin which pierced the ambari of Vitthal Sundar and Vitthal Sundar was killed on the spot!
The fall of Vitthal Sundar demoralized not only the army of the Nizam but also Nizam himself. The diplomacy and war tactics of Madhavrao Peshwa turned the tables on Vitthal Sundar and the Nizam in mere months. The Nizam's army was totally defeated and the Nizam demoralized. It was clear that the marathas were far from over after the Battle of Panipat.
Partial army of the Nizam had been able to cross the Godavari and was stationed in Aurangabad. The Marathas were waiting for the flooded Godavari to pacify before they could cross and deliver the final blow on the Nizam himself.
However, after a decisive victory against the Nizam, the maratha armies now could not wait to go to their homes which were destroyed by the Nizam and repair their homes and recover their losses. Also, the advances of Hyder Ali in the Carnatic till Bidnur, a kingdom under Maratha protection forced the Marathas to end hostilities with the Nizam. Therefore, the Nizam started negotiaitons with the Marathas.
A territory of Rs. 82,00,000 was ceded by the Nizam to the Marathas which was around Rs. 22,00,000 more than the territory won in battle of Udgir just 4 years back. History had repeated itself in a more spectacular way. The forts of Ausa, Kandhar and Antur were also ceded. This was the most humiliating defeat the Nizam had faced at the hands of the Marathas since 1728.
A peace treaty was signed between the Nizam and the Marathas which lasted for the next 32 years till 1795 when the Nizam was again decisively defeated by the Marathas.
Now let us take a look at the strategic importance and achievements of this battle
1) The comeback of the Marathas-
Smaller states and enemies of the marathas had started clawing on the Maratha territories seeing at the internal conflicts and instability in the Maratha empire. The decisive victory on Rakshasbhuvan had re established the fear of the Marathas in their enemies.
2) Reduction of the Nizam to a secondary status-
After the battle of Panipat, doubts of the mastery of not only Hindustan but also the Deccan had arisen in the minds of people. The decisive defeat of the Nizam proved that the Marathas were the supreme power in the Deccan and the Nizam was reduced to a secondary and weaker status.
3) Weakening of Raghunathrao's claim on Peshwai-
As Raghunathrao had let off the Nizam on lenient terms, as dicussed in previous blogs, which led to the eventual destruction of Pune, most of the population did not trust Raghunathrao. The victory at Rakshasbhuvan elevated Madhavrao's status and strengthened his claim of the Peshwai. This led to a period of stability until Raghunathrao's next moves in 1768, five years after this battle.
4) Consolidation and centralization of power-
After the death of Nanasaheb Peshwa and the period of instability, Madhavrao proved his military and diplomatic mettle in this battle and this led to consolidation and centralization of power in his hands. Stability returned in the empire due to this.
5) Stepping stone towards avenging Panipat-
As the supremacy of the Marathas was re established in the Deccan, now they could fare south to check Hyder Ali's advances and then take a leap towards Delhi to avenge the losses faced at Panipat and become the paramount power of India again. This dream of the marathas was achieved in 9 years after Rakhasbhuvan. We will see at the final resurrection of the Marathas in some other blog.
The Marathas had consolidated and the Phoenix of the Deccan Maratha power had started rising again after facing a blow at Panipat.
It is notable that battles like Panipat had destroyed empires that existed before the Marathas, for example, the Vijaynagar empire was destroyed after Talikot battle and the Yadavas were destroyed by just 1 attack by Allauddin Khilji in the 13th century.
However, Marathas are the only power in pre- modern India who were turned to ashes several times but again rose even stronger just like the Phoenix!
This concludes the series of The Rise of the Phoenix of Deccan which proved an important stepping stone towards the rise of the Marathas to the peak once again after the battle of Panipat. Hope the readers were entertained by this blog.
We will see another golden page of history in the coming series of blogs. Until then, peace! ✌🏻✌🏻
Sources-
1) Mastery of Hindustan: Triumphs and travails of Madhavrao Peshwa by Dr. Uday S. Kulkarni
2) The Maratha century by Dr. Uday S. Kulkarni
