On May 8th the army reached Naḍiád, after repulsing on the road two attacks by the enemy’s cavalry. This result was obtained chiefly by means of the European light artillery. Naḍiád belonged at this time to Khanderáv Gáikwár, and to punish his defection to Fatesingh, Rághobá inflicted a fine of 60,000 rupees on the town. The amount was assessed on the several castes in proportion to their reputed means of payment. The Bháts, a peculiar people of whom more hereafter, objected to being assessed, and slaughtered each other in public: so that the guilt of their blood might fall on the oppressor. The Bráhmans, who also claimed exemption from all taxation, more astutely brought two old women of their caste into the market place and there murdered them. Having made this protest, both castes paid their contributions. Rághobá injudiciously wasted seven days over the collection of this fine, and in the end only levied 40,000 rupees.
Defeat of Fatesingh, 1775.On May 14th the march was resumed, under the usual skirmishing onslaughts of the ministerial party. At Arás, where Rághobá had been defeated shortly before, he was in imminent danger of a second and still more serious discomfiture. An order mistaken by a British company, and the want of discipline on the part of Rághobá’s cavalry nearly led to a total defeat with great slaughter. The European infantry and artillery, however, turned the fortunes of the day. The troops of Fatesingh were allowed to approach in pursuit to within a few yards of the batteries, all the guns of which then opened on them with grape, the infantry meanwhile plying their small arms along the whole line. Fatesingh was obliged to withdraw his diminished forces and the army of Rághobá received no further molestations
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819. from him on its way to the Mahi. Colonel Keating then ordered a general move to Broach, where he arrived safely on 27th May, after a troublesome march through the robber-infested country between the Dhádhar river and Ámod.
The Ministerial General Retreats.Here they remained until June 8th, when Colonel Keating was about to move south again. Luckily, as it turned out for him, the nearest ford was impassable and he had to march to one higher up at a place variously called Bába Piára or Báva Pir. On his way thither he heard that Haripant, the ministerial commander-in-chief, was halting on the north bank by the ford; he therefore pushed on to make an attack on the rear, but owing partly to timely information received and partly to the confusion caused by the irrepressibility of Rághobá’s cavalry, Haripant had time to withdraw all his force except some baggage and ammunition, which, with a few guns, he was forced in the hurry of his passage across the river to leave behind. Colonel Keating at Dabhoi, 1775.Colonel Keating then marched fourteen miles north from the ford and halted before proceeding to Dabhoi, a town belonging to Fatesingh. The general ignorance of tactics and want of discipline in the native army had determined Colonel Keating not to lead his force as far as Poona, but to spend the monsoon near Baroda.
Rághobá detached one of his generals, Amir Khán, in pursuit of Ganeshpant, whom Hari Pant had left as his deputy in Gujarát. Ganeshpant with a detachment of the ministerial army had separated from Hari at the Bába Piára ford and found his way through the wild country on the north of the Tápti towards Ahmedábád. He was finally caught by Amir Khán.
Dabhoi was at this time in charge of a Bráhman governor, who submitted on the approach of Rághobá’s army. Colonel Keating quartered his force in the town, but Rághobá, after exacting a levy of three lákhs of rupees, encamped at Bhilápur on the Dhádhar, ten miles from Dabhoi. Here he began to negotiate with Fatesingh in Baroda through the mediation of Colonel Keating. Fatesingh was all the more ready to come to definite terms of agreement, as he knew that Govindráv was on the watch to recover Baroda.
Rághobá and the Gáikwárs.It is not certain what the terms proposed and agreed to really were. The only record of them is a copy sent in 1802 to the Resident at Poona by Governor Duncan. According to this document Govindráv was to lose his pension and to occupy the same position as before the accession of Rághobá. Khanderáv was to revert to the situation in which he had been placed by Dámáji. The provision of the treaty of the 6th March regarding the Gáikwár’s claims on Broach was ratified, and as a reward for the mediation of the Bombay Government, the Gáikwár ceded to the British in perpetuity the sub-divisions of Chikhli and Variáv near Surat and Koral on the Narbada. Before this treaty could be concluded, Colonel Keating received orders to withdraw his contingent into British territory and to leave Rághobá to manage for himself. This change of policy was due to the disapproval by the Supreme Government of the treaty of 6th March, which they alleged had been
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819. made inconsistently with the negotiations then being carried on with the ruling powers at Poona as well as with the authority of the Calcutta Government. The treaty was therefore declared to be invalid and the troops in the field were ordered by the Supreme Government to be withdrawn at once into British garrisons. A special envoy, Colonel Upton, was sent from Bengal to negotiate a treaty with the Ministers in accordance with the views current in Calcutta.
Withdrawal of the British Contingent.As soon as the roads were open Colonel Keating moved towards Surat, but at the solicitation of Rághobá he disobeyed his orders so far as to encamp at Kadod, about twenty miles east of Surat, but not in British territory. Here he awaited the results of the overtures of Colonel Upton. This envoy remained at Poona from the 28th December 1775 till the 1st March 1776, on which date Negotiations at Poona.he signed the treaty of Purandhar, in which the office only and not the name of the Peshwa is mentioned. By this compact the Peshwa ceded all claims on the revenue of Broach together with land in the neighbourhood of that town to the British. He also paid twelve lákhs of rupees in compensation for the expenses of the war. Sálsette was to be either retained by the English or restored in exchange for territory yielding three lákhs of rupees annually. The cessions made by Fatesingh Gáikwár were to be restored to him if the Peshwa’s Government could prove that he had no right to make them without due authorization from Poona. The treaty of the 6th March was declared null and void. Rághobá was to disband his army and take a pension. If he resisted, the English were to give him no assistance. If he agreed to the terms proposed, he was to live at Kopargaon[13] on the Godávari with an ample pension. When he received information as to the terms of the new treaty, he at once declined to accept the pension, and, as he could not understand the position of the Bombay Government with regard to that at Calcutta, he proceeded to offer still more favourable terms for further assistance.
Rághobá at Surat, 1776.Rághobá was at Mándvi[14] on the Tápti when he was finally given to understand that the British could no longer aid him. He thereupon took refuge in Surat with two hundred followers. The rest of his army which had been ordered to disperse, gathered round Surat, on pretence of waiting for the payment of the arrears due to them. As their attitude was suspicious, and there were rumours of an expedition having started from Poona under Haripant to subdue them, the Bombay Government garrisoned Surat and Broach with all the forces it could spare.
Colonel Upton meanwhile offered Rághobá, on behalf of the ministers, a larger pension with liberty of residing at Benares. This also was declined, and the ex-Peshwa fled to Bombay, where he lived on a monthly pension allotted him by the Government.
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819. On 20th August 1776, a despatch of the Court of Directors arrived confirming the treaty of the 6th March 1775. At first the Bombay Government were inclined to take this as authorizing the retention of all the territory ceded, but on further deliberation it was decided that as the treaty of Purandhar had been ratified by the Supreme Government subsequent to the signing of the despatch, which was dated 5th April 1776, it was evident that the Court of Directors did not mean to uphold the previous engagement more than temporarily, or until the final treaty had been concluded.