§ 12. Ballad of Afzal Khan.
Among the Marathas the destruction of Afzal Khan caused the wildest exultation; it marked the dawn of their national independence. The defeat of Bijapur was complete: the chief had fallen, his army had ceased to exist, and the victory, both in respect of carnage and of booty, was the most complete possible. The incident caught hold of the public imagination of Maharashtra as the most glorious event in the history of the race. Soon a ballad was composed by the wandering bards (gondhalis) which expanded the contest into a Homeric duel with all its details and supernatural adjuncts. Every class or Marathas, from the officers of Shambhuji's Court to the soldiers in their camps and the peasants in their hamlets, welcomed the minstrel and crowded together to listen to this story of the first triumph of their national hero, set forth with graphic details which made the whole scene live before their eyes. The short ringing lines of the ballad (powada) almost reproduce the tramp of the soldiery, the journeys of the rival chiefs, their meeting, the exchange of taunts, the death-grapple, and the triumph of the Maratha army. As the bard's narrative passes rapidly from stage to stage of the whole contest, the audience follow him with breathless attention; their blood courses in unison with the verses, and they are wound up to a high pitch of excitement as the spirit of the actual march or fight catches them.
To the Marathas the fight with Afzal has always
