This way, the animosity between the Peshwa and Raghuji went on increasing and both of them kept on preparing for a later showdown. Both of them had their representatives at Shahu’s court as well as the Badshah’s court. One of the Maratha friends, Keshavrao, was at Delhi. He wrote to Raghuji on 11 August 1742, “Your news was related by Vyankaji Devrao. We felt odd that even while Maqsudabad etc. Tehsils belong to you, there was no news pertaining to that region. We heard about your recent friendly overtures with the sovereign. The news on our side would be conveyed through Vyankaji Devrao. What have you thought about future? Bhaskarram has encamped there. Do write about the news there regularly. We too are coming there on the occasion of Vijayadashmi (Dussehra, which fell on 25 September 1742 that year).”
Just two days earlier, Bhaskarram had been the victim of Aliwardi’s surprise attack on the Ashtami day of the festival and had to flee towards Panchet.
But, with a view to understand the Peshwa’s intentions before he himself proceeded to Bengal, Raghuji asked the Peshwa in a letter on 30 September 1742, “You have asked me where I am and what my plans are. Resolving the Undri (near Nagpur) affair on 11 September 1742, we are proceeding to the Devgad province. We intend to join Bhaskarram further. Do inform what you have planned for.”
What the Peshwa replied to this is unknown. But, when Raghuji was preparing to vanquish the Peshwa, he got the news that Bhaskarram was annihilated, and he quickly embarked on the journey to Bengal along with his army. Proceeding east, he captured Cuttack. Aliwardi sent out Mustafa Khan with a ten-thousand-strong army to oppose him. A letter dated 4 May 1743 gives the news, “Aliwardi sent an army with Mustafa Khan and he followed. Raghuji moved forward and met this army and destroyed it. Mustafa was captured. Then he fought with Aliwardi. That is the news.”
Meanwhile, Aliwardi Khan was not sitting quietly. Not only did he amass his own army, but he also sent a request for help to the Badshah. Before Raghuji could reach Bengal, Badshah Mohammedshah’s officials had arrived at Murshidabad to collect the annual tribute. Aliwardi related his miserable state to the Badshah through them. He appealed to them saying disturbed conditions in his Suba rendered him incapable of sending the tribute. He specifically warned the officials, that if he was not provided immediate help, they should count the Bengal province as permanently lost. The Badshah ordered the Awadh Subedar Mansoor Ali Khan – the future Safdarjung – to go to Bengal and help Aliwardi. Mansoor Ali accordingly set out at the head of a strong army consisting of forty thousand horse including a contingent of the Qizalbash cavalry. The size of the army sent an alarm through all of Bengal. The British at Fort William wrote to the Directors of the Company, “From Patna we learn that Suba was advancing that way with 40,000 horse, reported that he had a Firman for the Subedari of Bengal.”
Mansoor Ali arrived near Patna and commanded Aliwardi’s nephew Zainuddin to hand over the fort to his troops. He had similarly requisitioned the fort of Chunar on the Ganga for his family. The British reported, “his people commit outrages, are under no command, it is said he designs to give up the Nawab of Murshidabad’s servants’ houses at Patna to plunder.”
Mansoor Ali Khan began to look more like an enemy in the guise of a friend, and Aliwardi asked him not to enter Bengal.
Here, the Peshwa had arrived in the north and was demanding the Chauth of Malwa, Bundelkhand, Allahabad etc. provinces. He had begun negotiations with the Badshah that in lieu of the Chauth revenues, the Marathas would ensure that the Empire was not troubled. The Badshah instantly provided his approval, and entrusted the responsibility to protect Aliwardi Khan to the Peshwa. He also ordered Aliwardi Khan to pay some amount to the Peshwa through the income of Bengal province as the campaign expenses.
Mustafa Khan’s defeat and Aliwardi’s own inability to fight Raghuji led to a realisation that it would be difficult to face the Nagpur Raja on his own, and he began to look for alternative methods to face the situation. It was Aliwardi Khan himself who first sought the Peshwa’s help and sent his emissary Aayamal to meet Nanasaheb at Sironj in Malwa.
To be continued…
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