14  January 1761

It is mere coincidence that a few days after I read the Novel Panipat and posting my blog on it , the author Shri Vishwas Patil himself  wrote an article in Marathi daily Sakal on eve of the  publication of 30^th edition of the Novel by Rajhans Prakashan to earmark  the 250^th anniversary of the War at Panipat on forthcoming 14^th Jan 2011

I was more than delighted to read it. The article is titled ‘The wet wounds of Panipat” but in reality he narrates the vibrant process of creating  an exceptional entity ‘ Panipat’

He first refers to the then Defense minister of India,Shri  Yashwantrao Chavan and tells us of an anecdote where, while driving from Punjab to Delhi, as his cavalcade approached  Panipat, he suddenly makes his convoy halt and goes to the Kala Aam or the Black  Mango tree and sees grave stones of unknown Maratha Warriors .Shri Chavan sat on that ground and picking up the soil wept   like a child . Later when he came back into his own he addressed the gathering telling them the relevance of the place and the martyrdom of the Marathas during the third war at Panipat ,a place quite near the Kurukshetra where the great battle of Mahabhatata between Kauravs and Pandavs was fought .The incident describes the sensitivity of earlier politicians who were more of leaders than opportunists.Shri Y.B chavan was a erudite scholar and not just a Maratha strongman. But there could be another version for the sentimental reaction .It could well be the fact that as a strong contender for the PMs post, he could never be chosen in spite of being an eminent Maratha to replace sophisticates in Indian politics who ruled the roost for their kinship with fellow British who chose them as heirs to rule the country even in their absence as they spoke their language and with whom they could relate better due to their western education. However also , it is very likely that Y.B.Chavans own ancestors were in the thick of the Panipat war some of them attaining martyrdom.

From what the author narrates it becomes more clear that the historical fiction was a result of very systematic  and intense hard work done at a young age of 25.The task that lasted for a full three years to see the light of the day in 1987  as a masterpiece  compendium and reference  on Panipat merging  into a creative magnum  opus that combined  time management skills with writing skills  by the author shuttling between his work in government office and his recluse. An Indomitable spirit matching the valor of the martyrs who fell fighting for their country on the sacred soil on banks of Yamuna.

He tells us about the pangs of the birth of the novel and the early attempt which is aborted in the initial stages by him due to the creation not getting the form that he has visualized to become a winner. Some of the most dramatic sequences being put together in one night and at times in a trains compartment while travelling. His sojourns into the battlefields areas to relive the history and to get into the roles to feel and experience the emotions felt by the great Bhaurao are exemplary. He ultimately recreates and resurrects Sadashiv Rao Bhausaheb from the fallen to a gallant neutralizer of Afghan designs in India at the cost of his life.

Writing on an historical reality with colossal cosmic ambit, churning out  volumes in the face of complicated circumstances requires diverse abilities and responsibility  .It requires to be extremely emotive about the characters while consciously refraining from  distorting truth. It requires maintaining the timeline and chronology to corroborate authenticity of the established scholastic opinion. It requires a thorough study of the geography of the region and the cartographic details to be as congruent to the field realities impacting different scenarios. Finally it requires creativity to keep the reader engrossed and involved in the story not of victory but of failure and devastation. The reader has to get a vantage view of the champion and the challenger albeit secretly and surely while he emerges as a   sympathizer of Militant Marathas .It requires the maturity and focus of a historian and dictum of story teller rolled into a seamless metaphor .Vishwas Patil could achieve this due to his dogged desire to actually know what happened in reality during those days of confrontation and final Armageddon on the fateful day.

It is difficult to perceive the battles fought in medieval era   and the finer nuances as the author is no soldier or a specialist on cavalry or elephants or artillery .He is no specialist on canons or ammunition .He is no specialist on physical combat although he uses the apt vernacular terms for the war heads and the hardware he does falls short at times on the logistics and technicalities the text becoming descriptive and prosaic. At times he is oblivious of individual shortcomings of soldiers barring the hunger and non availability of salaries. He has no details of the provisions and the mechanism of distributions. Neither is he informed of the Afghan side about the man- animal interactions pertaining to camels and elephants. Although he does give details of the bulls and their failures due to lack of fodder. As a typical middleclass writer he is more aware about the aspirations of the clergy and the womenfolk on the Maratha sides. However ,Patil succeeds in  developing the compulsions of Bhaurao vividly .He also details the deceitful diplomacy of the Northern provincial strongmen and their mutual one-upmanship to gain from the awkward circumstances due to entrapment of Bhaus forces in the fortressed town of Panipat.

As he produces four files of manuscript he hazards rejection and refusal due to being naïve in the field of authorship and literature. It is merely by serendipity that he finds common interest in Delhi with a Marathi publisher that his work is picked up with speculation and risk with a bank loan .However after publication of the feat he earns laurel from all sides with the likes of Shanta shelke ,Shivaji Sawant of Mritunjay fame and V.V Shirwadkar who later secretly confessed  his own design to write something on Panipat a wish remaining unfulfilled .He also finds a great supporter in P.V .Narshima Rao a linguist scholar from Pune before he became the PM, who referred it to Gyanpeeth for a Hindi translation which broadened the readership in the North.One interesting prophesy which Patil  tells us is that of the great Marathi litterateur V.S. Khandekar who had declared his gut feeling that ‘very soon some  dynamic upcoming writer would rise on the horizon to write a cosmic epithet on the  epic of Panipat’ .

Panipat is in reality a tribute just like Mritunjay is a tribute to Karna.It is a tribute to Sadashiv Bhau,to Dattaji Shinde,Jankoji Shinde,to Vishwas Rao, to Pant Bundele, to Shamsher Bahadur and finally to Ibrahim Gardi.It is putting on record the contribution of these gems and 35000 men who fell and merged with the soil to deter the onslaught of Afghans and their unsecular designs. It documents the great Maratha legacy and supremacy with acts of valor and self annihilation for territorial rights and justice. Finally it also vividly brings out a familial and cultural conflicts to the fore establishing them as dominant factors in failure of wars and battles undertaken as military expeditions and engagements. There are many shortcomings which the author must have eventually realized which he must have improved in his editions as a realistic story teller however this critic has no knowledge of this aspect.

Finally the merit is evident with very respectful treatment of the adversary Ahmed Durrani by the author as he has gone on records in his memoirs to commend the valor of gallant Marathas quoting that ‘ if Legends from Kandahar (Afghanastan and Kabul)  ,Iskandar and Rustom had witnessed the bravery of the Marathas ,they would have been shocked to see the valiant  Soldiers from Deccan(Margattha) giving a   fight to finish even in face of famine and disease’

Abdalis forces suffered heavily after winning the war due to lack of monetary support forthcoming from those who benefitted from it, especially Najib .They rode back on long journey with nightmare of the battle due to weariness .Abdali could never gauge the net credit of the entire mission and was happy that he went back alive from Hindustan.If Holkars had not deserted or had he stuck to the plan of Ibrahim Gardi probably the war would have been won by the Marathas and the British would have never been able to stabilize their Union Jack in India .India would have been as independent and prosperous as Europe. However , dissensions, caste politics, regionalism  and religion fragment the Marathi populace keeping the entire state anaesthetized and stoic serving as a buffer between North and South with minimal representation in Delhi Government or Bureaucracy since  the British  willed so. One reason was the great guerilla warrior Shivaji and the other was the absurd logic of PANIPAT