The Point of No Return: Deterioration and Despair (December 1760)

Marathi History Book Reading Session Summary

The Warning: Things Are About to Get Tragic

The Narrator's Preface

The Tone Shift:

• "A lot of bad things are going to happen"
• "Tragic from now until battle itself"
• "Not pretty"
• "Lots of death and destruction"
• "People getting clobbered"

The Intensity:

• Things going downhill very fast
• "Very quickly"
• Marathas starting to starve
• Abdali taking control of resources
• Peshwa in Pune doesn't know reality
• "False bravery" attempting counterattack

The Realization:

• Next month+ will be catastrophic
• Everything deteriorating
• No good options remaining
• Only worse choices ahead
• Battle becoming inevitable in worst possible circumstances

The Maratha Collapse: Starvation and Demoralization

The Multiple Crises

The Resource Crisis:

• Starving army
• Running out of food
• Running out of supplies
• Running out of money
• Can't sustain indefinitely

The Psychological Crisis:

• Getting demoralized
• Hunger sapping morale
• No allies in area
• Totally alien territory
• Can't count on local support

The Coalition Failure:

• Sikhs didn't come to aid
• No Sikh-Maratha alliance
• Sikhs didn't sacrifice supplies
• No mutual understanding
• Completely alone

The Peshwa's Impotent Response

The Attempt:

• Peshwa "willing to put life on line"
• "False bravery" attempting help
• Trying to mount counterattack
• Can't go forward due to health
• Tb preventing bold action

The Reality:

• 1,500 miles distance
• 4 months to reach battlefield
• Rivers and terrain obstacles
• Health deteriorating
• Moral support only (meaningless)

The December Skirmishes: The Games Begin

The Intervening Period

The Timeframe:

• Month and a half before actual battle
• Many skirmishes during this period
• Major events happening
• Getting progressively worse for Marathas
• Bad for Maratha morale

The Scale:

• Each skirmish like whole battle on smaller scale
• Big-time battles despite being skirmishes
• Significant casualties
• Real combat, not just probing

The Death of Appa Barwant Rao Mehendri

Who Was He?

His Status:

• Upper-level commander (Bhau's level)
• Very important commander
• In perfect sync with Bhau
• Appa Barwant Chowk in Pune named after him
• On same wavelength with Bhau

His Alliance:

• Unlike Holkar-Bhau tension
• Mehendri and Bhau completely aligned
• Both believed in same strategy
• Both advocated artillery-focused warfare
• United in vision

The December Skirmish Death

The Battle:

• December skirmish involving major commanders
• Jankoji Shinde's group getting weaker
• Mehendri goes to help Jankoji
• Gets surrounded by Afghan forces
• Trapped in difficult position

The Beheading Attempt:

• Afghan forces trying to behead him
• Trophy mentality (like scalp-taking)
• Capture = decapitation goal
• Had captured him
• Attempted execution

The Rescue and Death:

• Maratha forces learned of capture
• Came to his aid
• Saved him from decapitation
• But half his head already cut off
• "Half dead" when rescued

The Final Insult:

• Died before leaving skirmish
• Dead body brought back
• Afghans didn't get trophy
• But took his life anyway
• One of Bhau's best commanders gone

The Significance

The Loss:

• Not ordinary commander
• Upper-level strategic figure
• Bhau's trusted ally
• Could have inspired army
• His loss demoralizing

The Brutality:

• Shows Afghan tactics
• Scalping/trophy mentality
• Dehumanizing warfare
• Psychological terror
• Evidence of savagery

The Age Factor:

• Possibly 40s (guessing)
• Not young/quick
• Maybe slower reactions
• Wrong place/wrong time
• Combat fatigue factor

The Strategic Reassessment: Bhau's December Communications

The December 23 Letter

The Context:

• After month+ of stalemate
• After numerous skirmishes
• Marathas getting worse
• Still projecting confidence

The Content:

• "Don't worry about bills"
• "We are here, we'll take care of it"
• Bills = payment obligations
• Still trying to pay vendors
• Reassuring about finances

The Subtext:

• Money still an issue
• Trying to maintain normalcy
• Vendors still supplying (somehow)
• Credit system still functioning
• Can't fully acknowledge crisis

Nana Fadnavis's Assessment

The Overview:

• "Everything went as per intention"
• Except for Mehendri's death
• General strategy on track
• But losing key commanders
• Attrition taking toll

The Emerging Pattern

What's Becoming Clear

The Mathematical Reality:

• Skirmishes = major battles (casualties similar)
• Each month losing commanders
• Each month losing soldiers
• Each month weaker position
• Trajectory toward catastrophe

The Psychological Reality:

• Morale declining steadily
• Hunger eroding confidence
• Cold weather taking toll
• Deaths of important figures demoralizing
• Sense of doom building

The Strategic Reality:

• Can't win through attrition
• Afghans better positioned for waiting
• Marathas deteriorating
• Must break stalemate soon
• But any break = desperate attack

The Dual Attrition Strategy

What's Happening

Both Sides Doing Same Thing:

• Trying to cut each other's supplies
• Trying to starve opponent
• Trying to demoralize enemy
• Trying to force attack
• Waiting for first to break

The Maratha Problem:

• Breaking faster
• Losing commanders
• Losing soldiers
• Losing supplies
• Losing hope

The Afghan Advantage:

• Breaking slower
• Supplies more assured
• Leadership more united
• Morale more stable
• Time is their ally

The Atmosphere: Winter and Death

The Physical Environment

The Cold:

• December cold biting
• Northern India winter severe
• Marathas unprepared (summer clothes)
• Afghans prepared (leather coats)
• Physical suffering increasing

The Darkness:

• Literal: winter darkness earlier
• Metaphorical: atmosphere growing dark
• Sense of doom increasing
• Hope fading
• Despair building

The Accumulating Deaths

The Pattern:

• Krishnaji Joshi: stray bullet
• Appa Mehendri: beheaded
• Unnamed soldiers: skirmishes
• Each death = demoralizing
• Pressure building

Key Themes

1. The Irreversible Decline - Marathas deteriorating faster than Afghans
2. The Attrition Trap - Both using same strategy, one breaks faster
3. The Command Loss - Important commanders dying (Mehendri)
4. The Physical Suffering - Cold, hunger, inadequate equipment
5. The Psychological Collapse - Morale declining with each death
6. The False Optimism - Still projecting confidence while deteriorating
7. The Inevitable End - Only question is when, not if
8. The Brutality - Afghan tactics showing savagery and terror

Where This Leads: By December, the Maratha position is crumbling. Mehendri's death in a skirmish—half his head cut off before rescue—shows the brutality of what's happening. Each skirmish costs commanders. Each cold night costs soldiers to freezing. Each day costs food to starvation. Bhau still sends letters trying to reassure people about paying bills, but the reality is deteriorating rapidly. The Afghans are stronger, better supplied, better positioned, and more patient. The Marathas are breaking faster. The question is no longer whether they can win. It's whether they can survive.

December came and with it the cold that killed as surely as swords. Appa Mehendri went into a skirmish to save Jankoji Shinde. The Afghans surrounded him. Cut at his head with swords. His soldiers came and saved him from beheading—barely. But half his head was already gone. He was "half dead" before they brought his body back. One of Bhau's best commanders. The one who believed in the same strategy. Dead before the real battle even started. And the skirmishes kept happening. Each one another battle. Each one costing more commanders, more soldiers, more hope. Winter had come. The cold was killing. The hunger was killing. And the Afghans were patiently waiting while the Marathas slowly broke apart.