Bhau (Brother)

By Ritesh Shirpurkar

(The third battle of Panipat – year 1761 C.E.)

A battle was fought in the eighteenth century,

The likes of which was never before fought in that century.

For the victor won a pyrrhic victory,

And the defeated had cloaked himself in immortal glory.

This was the third battle of Panipat,

The most destructive fought ever.

India has always been invaded from across the Hindu Kush,

By Turks, Arabs, Afghans and Mughals, the count of which is difficult to keep.

This was one such Afghan invasion,

Which the marathas repelled at the cost of their blood.

One was the aggressor from beyond the Hindukush,

The Durrani of Afghan clan who came here to loot.

The other went to Panipat to defend his nation,

And to fulfil a commitment he gave to Delhi’s titular Mughal.

This was the Maratha people,

Who had hoisted their “Bhagwa” and defined their frontier at Attock in Peshawar.

But now their authority was challenged in the north,

And a year earlier, they had lost the brave Dattaji Scindia** defending their cause.

A firm reply was now the need of the hour,

So the Peshwa of Marathas

Appointed his own cousin as the commander.

His name was Sadashiv, but people affectionately called him “Bhau”.

It literally means a brother,

And he lived up to that name in the fateful battle of Panipat.

Not even thirty when he accepted the difficult task,

Confident of victory, he hastened to the north.

To drive out the intruder,

And secure India’s frontiers.

That is what he appealed for, in his letters,

To secure the alliance of the northern rulers.

But Indian polity then was divided on regional lines,

Bhau thus faced the enemy alone,

 Over lack of a common national rhyme.

The Maratha generals had always led from the front,

And that day at Panipat was no different.

The Bhau led the charge of his cavalry from the front.

But the Maratha army was fighting empty stomach.

For their food supply was disrupted by the enemy for days together.

And Bhau was in a fix at this starvation of his man and litter.

He had tried to negotiate a truce,

But Najib Khan^ of the enemy camp disapproved.

This Rohilla had sweared vengeance upon the Maratha,

And had invited Abdalli to raid north India.

The Durrani had conjured up a formidable alliance,

By appealing to the religion of local rulers.

Najib prevailed upon the Shah to fight a war,

Even though Shuja, the Nawab of Audh, did try hard.

And so, the dye was cast,

And a war now eminent, whatever the cost.

The iron clad sixty thousand Durrani army was ready for the harsh winter test,

The climate suiting them the best.

Facing them was the fifty thousand strong Maratha army,

The harsh January winter of north however not making their task handy.

Although never short on courage,

They were also handicapped by the two lakhs of dependents with them.

Never being defeated in a battle before,

The Maratha people out to visit holy sites always felt secure.

However the task of feeding the lakhs had taken its toll,

And desperation drove them that day, rather than a clear plan.

The army had formed a square around them,

And had started moving towards Delhi, where the Afghan stood in their way.

The Maratha camp had planned to proceed ahead as a square formation,

With the river Yamuna on one side and fighting only to defend.

The enemy was lined up in a “C” shaped formation,

Not ready to let pass the Maratha formation.

A Durrani patrol saw the Bhagwa # approaching from far,

And the war bugle was sounded on orders of the Shah.

On the Afghan’s right flank were the twelve thousand strong Rohillas,

On the left, the thousands strong army of Najib and Shuja.

The vanguard was led by Shah Pasand Khan,

The experienced general of the Afghan clan.

A fight was now very obvious,

And the defensive Maratha square formation no longer tenable.

Facing the Rohillas was the Maratha left flank,

Led by the eight thousand men of Ibrahim Gardi Khan,

In whom Bhau trusted a lot,

For he fought with guns like the European lot.

Convinced that the Marathas needed a transition from swords and spears to guns

Bhau had appointed the Gardi to effect the change.

The Maratha right flank was manned by the Holkar and Scindia,

With the veteran Malharrao Holkar holding the charge.

The vanguard was led by the Bhau himself,

At the head of fifteen thousand strong war hardened Maratha men.

The Maratha left flank was a few kilometres ahead of the rest,

And clashed with the Rohillas at the war’s outset.

The battle was intense between the two sides,

And the Gardi’s men cut down more than their numbers of the Rohillas might.

Many divisions of Gardi perished in the fight,

And at length the Gardi’s son died in the fight.

Himself severely injured, he ensured his men fought till the last soldier.

Hours of fighting on the Maratha left flank,

Had decimated the entire twelve thousand Rohilla army at hand.

The Gardi thus proved his loyalty to Bhau,

When many generals in Maratha camp frowned upon the Gardi’s green hue.

The Maratha centre led by Bhau,

Joined the fight soon after to face the Afghan foe.

This was the flower of the Maratha army,

The battle-hardened soldiers of swift Deccani cavalry.

Each carried a twelve feet long spear,

Tied by a few feet long sling to their rear.

On approaching the enemy in front,

They galloped at full speed to meet the enemy upfront.

In the right hand they held the spear, ready to be thrown at the enemy a few feet in front,

In the left they held the unsheathed sword to strike upfront.

The cavalry thus galloped with the horses’ reins let loose,

The entire sight of such approaching Maratha cavalry,

Made the enemy’s heart sink in their boots.

The cavalry just cut through the enemy ranks,

Reaching the last enemy soldier and never returning back.

This unique style of theirs,

Had thus created for the Maratha arms throughout India, a terror.

Alas! that day was however different,

For their dependents, they had to return.

Over the next few hours the Maratha centre repeatedly charged,

And the Shah’s men had no answer to this impetuous charge.

Thousands of their ranks perished,

The remaining tried to make a hurried retreat.

Shah Pasand Khan got down from his horse,

And said to his retreating soldiers “Don’t run, where will you find safe ground?”

By noon the Afghan right and centre had completely collapsed,

And it seemed that the Maratha charge had done its task.

However the Maratha cavalry was by now exhausted by the repeated attacks,

This was the charge of a starving men and horses.

By now the sun was discharging its scorching heat,

And many a Maratha soldiers fainted for want of water and food.

At this critical moment in the battle,

Abdalli launched his camel regiment.

Each camel carried two soldiers,

One manning the camel, the other firing a ‘shaturnal’.

This was a long twelve feet hand held gun,

Discharging one bullet at a time and then turning back to reload the gun.

The camel division split into two files,

And fired at the Maratha centre in waves from left and right.

Abdalli also ordered his personal guards to shoot at his own retreating soldiers,

And this ensured that many returned to the centre.

Shah Pasand Khan’s centre thus stood its ground,

The Maratha vanguard however getting decimated by bullets all around.

One bullet hit Vishwasrao,

The eldest son of the Peshwa accompanying Sadashiv Rao.

The Bhau had pledged for his safety to the Peshwa,

The site of his now dead nephew now teared his heart.

Determined now not to go back to South.

He got down from his elephant and mounted his trusted “Dilpak” horse.

For next many hours he repeatedly charged into the Durrani army,

Losing however more and more of his men in successive sorties.

Somewhere after noon he sent a message to Malharrao,

To carry the dependents away from the war.

The last charge was literally led by just fifty men,

Ready to meet an eminent death at enemy’s hands.

He was requested to abandon the cause,

That he should live to fight another day, although today everything is lost.

“What will I reply to my cousin when he will ask

where is my Vishwas?”

So said Bhau and mounted on his horse,

To seek a soldier’s death and dignity in a lost cause.

When last seen, the Bhau was fighting with his spear,

Severely wounded and surrounded by Afghan soldiers.

They wanted the jewels he was wearing on his person,

But the half dead Bhau refused quarters.

He was finally slain on the battlefield on the day of winter solstice $ ,

When people in Deccan were celebrating “Sankranti”, unaware of his plight.

A battle was lost that day on the bloody battlefield of Panipat,

But the marathas had achieved something nobody could ever.

Such a reply was given to the invasion,

That Abdalli failed in all his future missions.

The stricken field of Panipat soaked in so much blood,

That a mango tree there, it is said, bore black mangoes next season.

It was the same tree under which stood Bhau,

And commanded his brave maratha troops.

A “Kala Amb” memorial is now at Panipat erected,

From the wood of the same mango tree to honour the dead.

The sacrifice of marathas bore fruit just a decade later,

When they captured Delhi from Najib, the traitor.

The people from Panipat still remember Bhau,

And still mourn for him as if one of their own was slew.

* Bhau – Marathi word for brother

** Dattaji Scindia – Died a year earlier in 1760 fighting Abdalli near Delhi

^ Najib Khan – ruler of Rohilkhand, to the east of Yamuna

# Bhagwa – the ochre-coloured Maratha flag

$ Winter Solstice – this day is celebrated as “Makar Sankranti”

By Ritesh Shirpurkar