Walls of Attock

An example of my writing .  Discarded this part from Sahyadris to Hindukush eventually .

Did the Marathas see a view like this in April 1758 ?

THE WALLS OF ATTOCK —

The white and green waters of the Indus and the Kabuli gently caressed the base of the low hill on which stood the fort of Attock . The light coloured sandstone structure gleamed brightly under the scorching sun , while the intertwining waters of the Kabuli and the Indus rivers shimmered like an ocean of emeralds and diamonds . The holy river , the very cradle of civilisation , flowed silently and elegantly ; oblivious to the chaos unfolding on either side of its banks .
Raghunathrao gazed silently at the mountains on the other side , his hand resting on the beautiful crenellations of the fort . He could see a few empty boats still floating in the water below , remnants of Jehan Khan’s and Timur Shah’s dramatic escape to the safety of the Hindukush . His gaze turned to the small village of Khairabad on the opposite bank , with little sign of life . ‘What kind of people resided beyond this river , in those foreboding mountains ? ‘he wondered . The Indus seemed like a hallowed portal to him , a road leading to another world , rather than just another mute river . …

Sahyadris to Hindukush

Sahyadris to Hindukush

BATTLE OF KHARDA ( 1795 ) - MARATHA CONFEDERACY V/S NIZAM OF HYDERABAD .

15 January 2014 at 18:56

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The  battle of Kharda took place in March 1795 , ending up in a resounding win for the Marathas .  It is notable mainly for two reasons :

1)  It happened 34 years after Panipat , at which point all Maratha armies had supposedly  dissappeared for ever .
2)  It was the last time that the Confederacy fought as one , reminiscent of Bajirao and to a lesser extent Balaji Bajirao .



Background and cause :

Chauth and sardeshmukhi issues had been simmering between the Peshwa and the Nizam for quite some time . It was only their common war against Tipu sultan that had put the issue on a backburner . In 1791 though , the Marathas decided to push their demands through their envoys at Hyderabad -  Govindrao Kale and Govindrao Pingle . The Nizam provided his reply under 34 documents and promised to negotiate once the war with Tipu was over . Nana Phadnavis replied favourably to him , and both waited out a couple of years .

 When negotiations were re opened , the Nizam informed Govindrao Kale that the Marathasowed him  two and a half crore rupees !! .  He had also arranged for the British under Shore to be arbitrate in the dispute , much to the chagrin of the Marathas .  At the same time , the Nizam had augmented his army from 2 battalions under the Frenchman Raymond to 23 battalions ! .

Negotiations dragged on till 1794 , with the Nizam not budging from his demands and the Marathas from theirs . Finally , the Mushir Ul Mulk at Hyderabad summoned Govindrao Kale and told him that Nana Phadnis would have to come to Hyderabad for any progress to be made and that the Nizam was prepared to bring him to Hyderabad if the need arose !!  .  With the talks having fallen through , it was obvious that matter would have to be settled the old way .

 The Nizam  moves  to  Bidar : 


The Nizam of Hyderabad  alongwith Raymond , Mushir ul Mulk and the Nawab of Kurnool etc moved his  armies to Bidar by the beginning of 1795 .

From Bidar they proceeded to Wakigung and to the Mori Ghat , along the Manjiri river by February  . There was general feel of confidence in the camp , with the Nizam boasting of how Pune would be captured soon , and Khandesh etc annexed to Hyderabad  .  The Nizam had 45,000 cavalry ; 45,000 infantry and over a 100 guns at his disposal .





The Marathas coalesce at Pune :  

The Marathas under Sawai Madhavrao Peshwa , prepared to meet the challenge head on . A general call to arms was given , and a stupendous reply followed ! .

From the north , Daulatrao Shinde and Tukojirao Holkar joined the fray . From the west Gaikwad of Baroda arrived with his contingent . From the east , Raghuji Bhosale II contributed his cavalry under  . The loose Pindari mercenaries of Karim Khan joined in . Added to this were the contingents of Nimbalkar , Ghatge , Chavan , Pawar , Thorat , VInchurkar , Malegaonkar , Pant Sachiv and others who had so often rallied under the saffron standard .

Break of troops is as follows : Shinde :   25000
Holkar :   16000
Govindrao Gaikwad :  10000 (?)
Bhosale of Nagpur  : 15000  

The Peshwa's own HUzurat cavalry was under Baburao Phadke , with Patwardhan being given overall command .

All put together , the Maratha army was close to 1,00,000 alongwith a hundred guns .



The clash at Kharda : 

The Maratha army took the route via Aurangabad to Bidar , and managed to reach the vicinity of Wakigung and Paijiri .

Baburao Phadke was sent with an advance party to intercept the Nizam at the Mori Pass near Kharda  , which he did but ended up with heavy losses . He retreated towards the main army , hotly pursued by Raymond and his battalions . The commander in chief Parshuram Bhau Patwardhan now joined in , flanked by Shinde ,  Holkar's and Bhosale's contingents .
Very soon , war had broken out between the Nizam and the Marathas near the fort of Kharda . The drilled musketmen of Raymond clashed with those of Perron , under the Scindia . Skirmishing went on for the whole day , before both armies retired for the night  .

The Marathas now played their masterstroke . Under the cover of darkness , they attacked the Nizam with guns and muskets . The Nizam , believing there was nothing to fear , and had planned for the march to nearby Parinda fort , was rudely shaken up .  In the mayhem that followed , scores of his men were killed and a panic stricken Nizam retreated into the small fort at Kharda .




Marathas lay seige . Nizam comes to terms .  The Peshwa laid seige to the fort , while his Pindaries pillaged the deserted army camp .  After seventeen days of holding out , by which time all cattle in the fort perished and his soldiers were also driven to starvation , the Nizam decided to come to terms . A dagger and seal was sent to the Peshwa , signalling that he was ready to accept any condition imposed on him !!  The Peshwa gave a fitting reply , stamping his authority on this last great triumph .

He started off by asking for the Mushir Ul Mulk , who had insulted Nana Phadnis with his rude comments . The Nizam protested , but finally had to give in . His minister , the immediate cause of the war , was soon packed off to Pune as a prisoner .

The Nizam agreed to cede all land from Paranda fort to the Tapti river as well as fort of Daulatabad and territories which had been captured by Sadashivrao bhau in 1760 .

Further ,  3 crores 10 lacs  were obtained from the Nizam as tribute .
29 lac were given separately to Raghuji Bhosale  .
Land worth 3,00,000 annually  was given to Raghuji Bhosale .

A resounding win had been scored , stamping Maratha authority on south India for one last time  .  


_______________________________________________________________________________________________

I am Aneesh Gokhale ,  sailor , writer , trekker and history buff . My first book -  Sahyadris to HIndukush -  a novel on the rise of the Maratha empire was published recently . Visit www.aneeshgokhale.com  for more info . 

MARATHA CAVALRY

A short write up by me on the military structure of the Maratha army in the 18th century , with a special focus on the cavalry .  

As the empire spread from its confines amongst the hills and valleys of the Sahyadris , the reliance on forts and attendent guerilla warfare declined and gave rise to large contingents of cavalry . These allowed the armies mobility across the vast plains of Hindustan , enabling them to conduct lightning raids on far away places . It also enabled them to 'live off the land ', since a cavalryman travelled light . Through efficient use of his cavalry , Bajirao I  was able to travel from Pune to Delhi in few days flat - a feat unheard of in those days !! .  The cavalry could said to have been roughly divided into  -  huzurat , shiledar , bargir and pindari contingents . The last being a purely mercenary force .

 Huzurat -   The huzurat cavalry was a picked regiment of the Peshwa . They were his personal soldiers . Obviously , only the best of the best made up contingents of the Huzurat cavalry . They were paid from the government treasury. Their special stables were called huzurat paga .  

Shiledar  -    Shiledars owned both - their horses as well as their weapons . A contingent was known as 'pathak'and their leader was called  'Patki ' .  Many times these Patkis would have status of a 'sardar' .  

 The 'pathak' itself would be called ítlakhi ' incase its upkeep was through the government treasury . It was called 'saranjami pathak '   incase the upkeep was through land given for the same .

A shiledar was given a salary of Rs 25 - 30  per month .  About 1/3 -  1/2   was paid before Patkis would commit their contingents towards a campaign . This was called  'naalbandi '  

    

Bargi -    They owned neither their horse nor their weapons . Both was provided for by the ruler . The bargirs were given regular salary of Rs 5 -  10  .  Their stables would range from 10 horse to well over 500 . Heads of stables were known as 'amaldars ' . Incase of large stables , these amaldars were given the status of sardars .  Bargirs are most well known for carrying out raids deep into Bengal under the leadership of Bhaskarram Kolhatkar and Raghuji Bhosale .

Pindaris --  They were mainly  Muslim mercenaries from central  parts of India . A contingent of 1000 to 4000 was called a labhur . They were armed with spears , swords and few muskets . The pindaris lived entirely off loot and plunder .After getting some area marked out for them , they would proceed to lay it waste .The pindaris would keep whatever they looted , apart from flags , nishaan and other such symbols of someone else's rule .  The pindaris operated mainly under Holkar and Scindia .  

 _____________________________________________Ref :  Marathyancha Itihas - Kulkarni n Khare -  vol 2 . Univ of Pune         State at war in south asia - Pradeep Barua ___________________________________________________________________________________________

I am Aneesh Gokhale , a trainee navigating officer by profession . My first book - Sahyadris to Hindukush - a novel on the rise of the Maratha empire , detailing the years between 1740 and 1758 was published recently .  

Books I referred to .

Following is a list of books I referred to while writing Sahyadris to Hindukush



References :



1. History of the Marathas ( Vol 2 )    --                                  Grant Duff



2. History of the Marathas ( Vol 2)     --                                  Kincaid and Parasnis



3. Mughal administration                                                          Sir Jadunath Sarkar



4. Fall of the Mughal Empire                                                    Henry George Keane



5. History of the Afghans                                                           J.P. Ferrier



6. Among wild tribes of the Afghan frontier  --                         T.L. Pennell



7. The French in India                                                                 Col. G.B . Malleson



8. The Nizam                                                                               H.G. Briggs



9. History of the Sikhs                                                                 Cunningham



10. The Seir Mutaqherin                                                                Syed Ghulam Hossein Khan



11. A month in Peshawur and lady’s



ride through the Khyber                                                            L.R. Trevelyan



12. Poona in bygone days                                                               Rao Bahadur Parasnis



13. Shaniwarwada                                                                           Newase



14. Nawabs of Oudh



15. Maharashtra State gazetteer



16. Pune District Gazetteer



17. Satara District Gazetteer



18. Letters written in a Maratha camp ---                                    Thomas Duer Broughton



19. History of Marathas ( collection of essays in Marathi )  ---  Univ of Pune .



20. Marathi Riyasat ( Marathi )      -----                                      G.S. Sardesai



21. Marathi Riyasat ( Marathi ) ---                                              G.S . Sardesai



22. Balaji Vishwanath ( Marathi )  ---                                         Dikshit

Sahyadris to Hindukush - A beautiful journey

Its been six months now since  'Sahyadris to Hindukush '  was published .  People have been telling me its a good book , that they enjoyed reading . Nothing can be a bigger reward for me . My hard work of over two years has finally paid off !! And now , without doubt , onto the next one .  This one is done and dusted . :D .

  But to tell you the truth , I miss the journey . Yes having a book in your hands with your name printed on it is cool , but the beautiful journey to get there is something truly awesome . Of bringing alive peoples and places far away . Of bringing to life now derelict and abandoned monuments in your minds eye .Picturising long dead people as living entities like you and me  . Of imagining and feeling their pain , defeat , triumph and victory , across this huge chasm of time and space  .

I think I am being too hapazard here . Let me begin right from when I thought aboout this book .

I initially wanted to write pure fiction . An alternate history revolving around - what if  the third battle of Panipat had not taken place ? What if the Marathas had continued their northward push ? They would have reached the Hindukush mountains , and again encountered fiercely independent tribes . Once again , just like their native Sahyadris , guerilla warfare , hit and run attacks , the works would have come into play . But researching the topic , I found that the spread of the Maratha and Afghan empires in the 18th century was a rather unknown story in itself . Little has been written regarding how the Marathas reached Attock and Cuttack . Even less so about the simultaneous rise of the Afghan persona Ahmed Shah Abdali .

Thus started the quest for finding information , assimilating it , taking notes and then converting it into a dialogue fit for a novel ! . A journey that took me from the basalt precipices of the Sahyadris in Maharashtra to the durbar at the Delhi .  From the Shaniwarwada at Pune to the dusty fields of Awadh . I went through books and photos and tried recollecting my own visits to these places . I myself undertook the journey to a few of them . Back home , I could then paint a vivid enough picture of each setting . Going through books by British and Marathi authors alike  , I tried my very best to imagine the personalities described - the Peshwa , the Mughal , Safdarjung . It was fun , trying to invent the entire personality . I could not just write - he was a cruel person . That cruelty had to be brought into the character . The circumstances that brought about his cruel deeds had to be painted . And above all , the place and time had to match . When people read about the Imad ul Mulk blinding the Mughal , they should imagine a tumultous Mughal court . A Delhi in chaos . I hope I have managed to achieve this . Only my readers are best placed to tell this :) .

All was fine as far as events in Maharashtra , Delhi , Nagpur  and such places in India were concerned . My biggest challenge was bringing alive Pashtun culture . The Pakhtuns are a race situated on the Pak - Afghan border . To paint a convincing picture of Abdali and his Pathans , I felt the need to understand Pakhtun culture . The Pakhtun highlands , the rugged people . And therein was the hurdle .

I was apprehensive of chatting up Pakhtuns . Especially those of Pakistan . Marathi Brahmin befriends Pathans from Pakistan -- huh -- enough to give heart attacks to kattar panthis on both sides :D  .

I was apprehensive , given the kind of mahol around us , that it all might be a waste of time . That I might receive a barrage of anti Hindu and anti India comments , and that would be it as far as my research concerning Pakhtuns went .
  So for about 3 months I sat on it . While I tried to learn as much as I could via books written by British authors . These same British authors had also written books on Marathas and called them everything from thieves to pirates to looters etc . Supposing their assessment of Pakhtuns was also wrong ?
  So I thought , what the heck . I got on to the border less world on the internet and asked my doubts regarding Pakhtun culture , history , Pakhtunwali etc .

To my surprise , I was received with the utmost politeness . No random comments against India or Hindusim . Yes our opinions differed , but never did the tone go out of hand . The Pashtuns have a code of conduct - Pashtunwali -  in which Melmastia or hospitality is number one . I believe I saw the internet version of it . Hope to see the real version some day  :D .
   After that , I engaged in long discussions regarding Pathans , Pakhtun history n culture . I cross checked my descriptions of the Khyber Pass and Peshawar and Kabul with people who had actually been to those places ! It all helped to give my novel that 'authentic 'look .  With their help , I could insert Pashto dialogues in my book , which brought say a scene at the Qissa Qahani Bazaar alive ; apart from making the book truly unique .
  All this obviously led to my being friends with other Pakistanis and Afghans too and today I can safely say that a few of my best online friends are from Pakistan :)  . I do hope I get to see them in person some day .

Another reason was that I wanted to produce a balanced work . Pro Maratha but not religious fiction . Pro Hindu but not based on sectarian bashing of the other :) . The days I spent with my Pathan friends helped me produce this balanced world view .
  Perhaps I ran into exceptions ! Who knows !! But for sure I have stopped stereotyping the entire country .


And so the pieces started falling into place . The basic structure of the book was ready . Many of the pieces had been filled in . I would take my raw manuscript and go over again and again , reminscing of those times .
It had been a worthwhile journey , I had put myself in the saddle of an ordinary Maratha soldier when their armies swept across India . I was the proverbial fly on the wall when politics of intrigue played out in Delhi and Kandahar and Pune and Satara . And I became a traveller who travelled as best as he could to the hallowed lands of the Khyber . It was a journey worth undertaking .

Part 2  --  Business end . Cutting chopping checking looking for publishers :) 

What got me working on ' Sahyadris to Hindukush '

Well ,  so why did I choose to write on such a topic . 


I have always liked to trek , hike and roam in the Sahyadri mountains of my native state – Maharashtra . These hills , full of forts and steeped in history , sparked my interest in the subject. I like to read about history , about wars and battles fought long back as a leisure activity . Out of this hobby was born a wish to write a book myself ! 
Actually , I started off wanting to write a story 

based on an ‘alternate history’ . A ‘what if’ scenario centered around ‘what if the third battle of Panipat had not happened ?’ . What would history be like if the Marathas had continued their northward push ? . As I researched the subject however , I found that there is much to be discovered in the factual history itself ! . That the real story of the rise of the Maratha empire is a fantastic , unique and largely unknown story in itself !
There is a term in Marathi , used to denote achievement , which translates as ‘ carried flags beyond Attock’ . What connection does the language and the people have with a town on the Indus , deep inside present day Pakistan ? What relation does a city have which rhymes with Attock , but is on the Mahanadi – Cuttack ? This book has come out of an endeavour to find answers to these questions . It has been a journey of over two years ,which has taken me back in time to the 1740’s and 1750’s , when our long dead historical personalities were alive and the Shaniwarwada , forts at Satara and Panhala and the Red Fort at Delhi were living , breathing places .
When reading about the Marathas in mid 18th century , we are bound to come across Ahmed Shah Abdali .Who indeed was this person ? The answer has been another beautiful journey , possible only on the world wide web ! I have made a virtual tour deep inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan . From the chilly autumn of Kandahar and through the fabled Khyber Pass to the Qissa Qahani bazaar of Peshawar , I came across , and was generously helped by Pashtuns from these distant and mysterious places , which we have heard about only in stories !
This then , is a story of victory . Written by an avid reader , trekker and history buff .  


' Sahyadris to Hindukush ' is a historical novel .