148 MAHRATTA WAR. 



warrior, being appointed his perpetual deputy, with the 

 right of nominating a successor, acquired all the real power 

 attached to the function. Besides dazzling the eye of 

 the youthful prince by the pomp of this ceremony, he 

 gained his favour by inviting him to field-sports and other 

 amusements, whence he had been in a considerable degree 

 withheld by the austere maxims of the aged LSramin his 

 minister. In short, Sindia seemed about to supplant Nana 

 Furnavcse as the arbiter of the Mahratta state, when he 

 was seized with a violent illness, which terminated his life 

 on the 12th February, 1794. 



Mahadajee Sindia, who had been the chief instrument in 

 raising his house to be the first in Hindostan, was a person 

 of very great activity and address, long experience, and of 

 so much principle as to be supposed incapable of commit- 

 ting any very enormous crime, — a praise which cannot often 

 be bestowed on the great men of India. His death at the 

 present moment, when a danger of the greatest magnitude 

 impended over the state, may probably be considered as the 

 main cause of the ultimate decline of the Mahratta power. 

 Dying without issue, he adopted as his successor, not the 

 nearest heir, but Dowlut Rao, his grand-nephew, the son 

 of his youngest brother ; a youth only fifteen years of age, 

 who, though possessed of talents and enterprise, was without 

 that experience which would have been necessary to guide 

 him through the difficult circumstances in which he was 

 soon placed. 



Nana Furnavese, on the death of his rival, seemed again 

 replaced in the supreme direction of affairs ; but the very 

 eagerness with which he clung to power soon involved bun 

 in a deeper calamity. While he kept Madoo K;io, the pe- 

 ishwa, in very strict tutelage, he held also in close confine- 

 ment Bajee Rao, the son of Ragoba, who, iu approaching 

 manhood, displayed high accomplishments and engaging 

 manners, which rendered him an object of general interest. 

 This was particularly felt by his cousin Madoo Rao. An 

 epistolary communication was opened, and a romantic 

 friendship formed by tins.' two young men, who stood in 

 a position of such deadly rivalry. In their correspondence 

 they were wont to anticipate the moment when, delivered 

 from their present thraldom, they might form a personal 

 intimacy, and emulate the greet actions of their ancestors. 



