Battle of Lalsot

The Battle of Lalsot was fought between the Rajputs of Jaipur and Jodhpur against Mahadji Scindia to collect taxes from the Rajput States. Mahadji as the Vakil-i-Mutlaq of the Mughal Emperor, demanded Rs.63,00,000 from the Jaipur court however these demands were refused, upon which Mahadji marched against Jaipur with his army. A part of the Mughal army under Hamdani deserted and defected to the Rajput army before the battle.^[6][7]

Battle

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The battle commenced with the usual cannonade but the Rajput guns being bigger in size caused more damage to Sindhia's army. Sindhia, therefore, sent four big guns to Rana Khan. Unmindful of the heavy firing from the Maratha side, the Rajputs steadily pressed on. Muhammad Beg Hamdani fell upon the trenches of the Rao Raja and forced him to retreat. Babuji Vitthal and other chiefs were sent to assist the latter. After some hours of distant cannonade the real battle finally commenced at 11 o'clock. Four thousand Rathors desperately charged the artillery of Khandoji Appa. Hundreds of Nagas and other mercenary troops were slain. Even De Boigne with his sepoys was forced back in confusion. The cool Savoyard reformed his lines and reopened small arms fire; but the Rathors heeded it not. Rana Khan sent up reinforcements of Maratha horse who rallied the fugitives and renewed the combat. After a long and bloody contest, the Rajputs retired with heavy losses. But the death of Hamdani, who was struck by a cannon shot, broke the back of Rajput resistance, The Marathas, however, were unable to pursue the retreating Rajputs as it started raining in the afternoon.^[7]

Rana Khan upon seeing his left wing crumble, sent reinforcements under Shivaji Vithal, Rayaji Patil and Khande Hari, they slowly rallied the fleeing soldiers and fought "the bloodiest and most obstinate struggle of the day". The Jaipur army however did not take advantage of this opening created by the reckless charge and held their positions. The Rathors upon seeing no reinforcements, started losing morale as the Maratha reserves were now approaching them, they were finally pushed back.^[7]

The right wing of the Maratha army fared better as they unknowingly killed the Mughal General Muhammad Beg Hamdani when a stray shot from the cannon struck a tree which dropped upon him and causing him to fall off his howdah and ripped half his body open. Hamdani's soldiers made a charge at the Maratha right wing, but were pushed back. Upon knowing that their general was dead, the Mughals did not make another attempt to attack the Maratha army.^[7]

Aftermath

Mahadji was forced to retreat on 1 August 1787. Rajput claimed victory in this battle. However all successive charges by the Rathore cavalry were repulsed and no gunnery of the Marathas could be captured. The Rajputs also had higher casualties, mostly suffered by the Jodhpur army as they lost more than a thousand Rathor horsemen. On the other hand, the Marathas did not manage to rout the enemy out of their camps because they were unaware of Hamadani's death until the night, and partly because it began to rain in the after noon, making that sandy plain difficult for artillery movement, and the Marathas were afraid of the ravines in front, the on-coming dark ness and the lack of wells in that tract. So each side fell back to its camp and resorted to random firing till an hour after sunset in order to guard against a surprise attack in the darkness. Thus the battle of Tunga miscalled as that of Lalsot-"though sanguinary, had no decisive result".^[8]

Ultimately Mahadaji Shinde's forces had to retreat owing to treachery and dissensions in his own ranks and the utter failure of provisions. Knowing the situation in Rajputana and Rajput failure in Lalsot, Nana Fadnavis, the senior Minister of the Peshwa, send additional troops of 10,000 soldiers to help of Mahadji Shinde.^[8]

References