Page:Mádhava Ráo Sindhia and the Hindu Reconquest of India.djvu/64



The negotiations opened by the Quarter-Master General were conducted by Takújí, the officer who had, as we have already seen, been selected by the widowed daughter-in-law of the son of the deceased Chief, Malhár Ráo, to carry on the affairs of the Holkar clan. Though not a member of the late Chief s family by blood, Takújí assumed the traditionary policy of the House, a portion of which was alliance with tho Patháns or native Musalmáns, of whom the Rohillás were now the most actively conspicuous. Mádhava, on the other hand, was both opposed to that class by hereditary impulse and because he perceived that in Najíb, supported by the Patháns, he had the most formidable rival in his ulterior designs. It would be idle to compare the two men who now divided the diplomatic direction of Naráthá affairs as they also did the government of Málwá. The leader of the Holkar clan, who held possession of the southern portion of the province resting on