MAHADAJEE SCINDIA. 
219 
rately fought battle near the town of Paniput, in 
which three of his brothers were slain; and he received 
so severe a wound in the knee from an Afghan bat- 
tle-axe, that he was deprived for life of the use of 
his right leg. Thus when he found himself elevated 
to the dignity of a Mahratta prince, he was already 
known, not only as an enterprising but as an able 
commander.* His whole career was remarkable, and 
he was not less distinguished for the clear-sighted 
sagacity of his policy, than for the immense acqui- 
sition which he made to his territories with very 
little comparative bloodshed. He was opposed to the 
most illustrious warrior of his time, Hyder Ali, for 
whom he proved to be more than a match in the 
cabinet, and but little inferior to him in the field. 
On the death of the sovereign of Mysore, though suc- 
ceeded by his brave but fanatic son Tippoo, whose 
furious animosity to the Company’s government lost 
him both his dominions and his life, Mahadajee was, 
when his talents both as a statesman and a com- 
mander are considered, unquestionably the most for- 
midable enemy whom the British Government had to 
encounter. By him the whole of the Mahratta con- 
federacy was directed and kept together. He exer- 
cised such a wary but politic control over the dis- 
cordant elements of which it was composed, that he 
established its power upon a firmer basis than that by 
* Few actions in the histories of ancient or modern warfare 
have been attended with such prodigious carnage as the battle 
of Paniput. Upwards of a hundred thousand of the Mah- 
ratta army perished on the field of battle, while the wounded 
and prisoners amounted to as many more. 
