469 
Chinmajee Appa, the success of his arms and councils was great 
and uninterrupted. lie enjoyed the unrivalled favour and con- 
fidence of his sovereign, Sad rajah; who, with little personal exer- 
tion or interposition in the government, devoted himself to the 
pleasures of the field and domestic conviviality; and having been 
happily conducted, by the fidelity and abilities of wise and active 
ministers, through a long and prosperous reign, he closed it by a 
natural and tranquil death, in his palace at Satarra, about the 
year 1749- 
Sad Rajah leaving no issue, Rajah Ram, his grand-nephew, and 
grandson of the preceding prince of the same name, was placed 
by the peshwa Bailajee Row on the vacant throne, the latter as- 
suming to himself the absolute government of the stale, with the 
assistance of his brother Ragobah, and Sudobah, the son of his 
deceased uncle, Chimnajee Appa, to whom were occasionally as- 
sociated his sons, Wiswas Row and Mhada Row; by whose exertions 
the Mahratlas made great progress against the Moguls in the north 
of Hindostan, and in the Deccan. The splendid administration 
of this peshwa was at length clouded by the most decisive and 
bloody defeat of the Mahralta army by the Afghans under 
Ahmed Shah Abdallee, in the neighbourhood of Panniput. The 
Mahrattas were commanded by Sudobah, Wiswas Row, Shum- 
sheen Bhadur, a natural son of the peshwa, and many of the great 
feudatory chieftains. To those three principal leaders, who were 
lost in this tremendous battle, are to be added several others of the 
highest rank and fame in the empire; in fact two only are said to 
have escaped, Malhar Row, chief of the Holkar, and Damojee, of 
the Guykwar families. No estimate has ever been ventured of 
