The Maratha Confederacy and the Peshwas

The Peshwa began as the king’s chief minister and slowly took over the king’s power. It started when King Shahu made Balaji Vishwanath his Peshwa.

What did the word Peshwa mean?

Peshwa is a Persian word for prime minister. The Maratha king was called the Chhatrapati. In the 18th century, the Peshwa grew very strong. He came to hold great power, even over the Chhatrapati himself.

Who was Balaji Vishwanath?

Balaji Vishwanath Bhat was a Brahman officer who served Shahu. Shahu had to fight rivals for his throne. He used talks to win them over. Balaji played a big part in those talks.

When was he made Peshwa?

Shahu made him Peshwa in 1713. The Maratha historian Sardesai gives the exact day as 17 November 1713. The older British historian Grant Duff places it in 1714.

Shahu gave him almost all his own powers. So this day began the slow shift of power from the king to the Peshwa.

What did he win from the Mughals?

He won the right to collect Maratha taxes across the Deccan. In return, the Marathas agreed to serve the Mughal emperor.

• Troops: 15,000 soldiers to serve the emperor.
• Tribute: ten lakh rupees in cash every year.
• Taxes: chauth at 25 per cent and sardeshmukhi at 10 per cent.
• Area: the six Mughal provinces of the Deccan.
• Year: Emperor Muhammad Shah gave the formal grants in 1719.

How did he build a team?

He brought trusted families into the state’s service. The Bhats, the Purandares and the Bhanus were tied together in one circle. Ramajipant Bhanu was his record keeper, or Phadnis. The famous minister Nana Phadnis later came from this family.

How did his story end?

He died suddenly on 2 April 1720. One history calls his death a national loss. Shahu owed his position and fortune to this loyal servant.

Baji Rao I was Balaji’s son, and he became Peshwa at 19. At Palkhed he trapped the Nizam of Hyderabad.

How did a young man of 19 become Peshwa?

Shahu gave him the robes of the Peshwa on 17 April 1720. It happened in Shahu’s camp at Masur. Baji Rao was then only 19 years old.

He and his son Nanasaheb later led the spread of Maratha power across India.

What was his big idea?

He wanted to strike north at the weak Mughal Empire. An old history records his words in a vivid image. Strike “at the trunk of the withering tree”, he said. Then “the branches must fall of themselves.”

The trunk was the Mughal centre in the north. The branches were its far provinces.

What happened at Palkhed?

The Nizam of Hyderabad was a powerful rival of the Marathas in the Deccan. In February 1728, Baji Rao caught him in a trap.

• Date: 25 February 1728.
• Place: near Palkhed, about 20 miles west of Aurangabad.
• Trap: the Nizam was caught in a maze of country.
• Squeeze: it could get no water or food.
• End: Maratha bands quickly surrounded it on all sides.

What was Shaniwar Wada?

It was the Peshwa’s palace in Pune. Baji Rao built it as his home. Today only its outer wall and front gate survive.

• Begun: 10 January 1730.
• Moved in: 2 February 1731.
• Cost: Rs. 16,110.

He planted his generals in Malwa, raided Delhi and beat the Nizam again. His brother Chimaji Appa then took Bassein on the west coast.

Who held Malwa for him?

His generals did. In the monsoon of 1736, he told Ranoji Sindia and Malharrao Holkar to camp in Malwa. From then on, these chiefs kept permanent camps there.

Their families later became great houses. Sindia came to rule from Gwalior. Holkar ruled from Indore.

How close did he come to Delhi?

He came right up to the Mughal capital. On 28 March 1737, he made a surprise attack on Delhi.

How did the Nizam lose again?

The Nizam marched north to stop him. On 16 December 1737, Baji Rao besieged him at Bhopal. The Nizam had to accept his terms.

He signed a peace at Durai Sarai, near Sironj, in early 1738. He promised these things:

• all of Malwa for the Marathas;
• full control of the land between the Narmada and the Chambal;
• to get the emperor to confirm the grant;
• a payment of fifty lakh rupees.

The date is disputed. Sardesai dates the peace 7 January 1738. Grant Duff puts it about 11 February. Both agree on the year.

How was Bassein won?

Bassein was a Portuguese fort on the west coast. Baji Rao made war on the Portuguese there. He placed his brother Chimaji Appa in charge of the fight.

Chimaji reached the walls of Bassein on 7 February 1739. The Marathas captured the fort. One history calls it “one of the most glorious episodes of Maratha history.”

How did Baji Rao I’s life end?

He died on 28 April 1740. His son Nanasaheb became the next Peshwa. By 7 September 1740, Nanasaheb was signing state papers as Peshwa.

At Panipat the Marathas lost a huge battle to Abdali, the Afghan king. It ended their dream of ruling from Delhi.

Who led the Maratha army?

His cousin, Sadashivrao Bhau, took command of the army. People usually called him the Bhau Sahib.

The Peshwa’s eldest son, Vishwasrao, went too. He was 17 years old. He was the commander only in name.

Who stood with Abdali?

Two Indian allies joined the Afghan side. One was Shuja-ud-daula, the Vazir (chief minister) of Awadh. The other was Najib Khan. The Afghan horsemen were fierce and well led.

What happened on the day of battle?

The battle came on Wednesday, 14 January 1761. In the centre, the Bhau and Vishwasrao charged the division of Abdali’s chief minister.

A little after two in the afternoon, Vishwasrao was badly wounded. He died of the wound. Seeing this, the Bhau came down from his elephant into the fight.

The Marathas were defeated. One estimate says nearly 75,000 Marathas were killed.

What happened to the leaders?

Many were lost, and some deaths are still argued about.

• Vishwasrao: his body was not disfigured by death. He looked like a person who sleeps.
• Ibrahim Khan Gardi: he commanded Maratha artillery. He was taken alive, badly wounded, and then put to death.
• Jankoji Sindia: he too was captured wounded and later killed.

The Bhau’s fate is disputed. Sardesai says the bodies of Vishwasrao and the Bhau were found. Grant Duff says the Bhau’s fate “was never accurately known”.

Who saw it and wrote it down?

A famous eyewitness account came from Kashiraj Pandit. He wrote it in Persian. He was a secretary of Shuja-ud-daula, so he stood in the Awadh camp on Abdali’s side. He had friends in both armies.

What came next for the Peshwa?

Nanasaheb died on 23 June 1761, a few months after the battle. With Panipat lost, the Marathas’ hope of ruling from Delhi was gone.

They recovered fast under the young Peshwa Madhavrao I. Power also spread to four great families who served under the Peshwa.

Who was Madhavrao I?

He was the Peshwa who rebuilt Maratha power after Panipat. He got the Peshwa’s robes from the king at Satara on 17 July 1761. He ruled for eleven years and four months, from 20 July 1761 to 18 November 1772.

• Recovery: the Marathas bounced back quickly in his time.
• Delhi: Mahadji Shinde won back Delhi in 1771.
• Kindness: he stopped the practice of forcing villagers to carry army baggage.

How did his short life end?

He fell ill with consumption, a lung disease. In his last year he could not leave his bed.

He died at Theur, near Pune, on 18 November 1772. He was in his 28th year, so only 27 years old. He left no son. His widow, Ramabai, died on his funeral fire.

An old history says the plains of Panipat were “not more fatal” to the empire than his early death. In plain words, losing him hurt as much as losing Panipat.

What were the five houses?

After Panipat, the Marathas split into several states under different chiefs. These chiefs were held together in a confederacy, a union of chiefs. The Peshwa at Pune stood at its head.

Did every house start the same way?

No, they rose in different ways.

• Sindia and Holkar: Baji Rao I used them as commanders and camped them in Malwa.
• Gaekwad: Pilaji Gaekwad was a Maratha chief who worked with Dabhade. Pilaji once joined a plot with the Nizam and Dabhade against the Peshwa. He was murdered at Dakor on 14 April 1732.
• Bhonsle of Nagpur: Raghuji Bhosle was a separate chief at Shahu’s court. He was not one of Baji Rao’s Malwa commanders.

So it is wrong to say Baji Rao I founded all five houses. Only two of them grew from his generals.

Quarrels at Pune gave the British a way in. Three Anglo-Maratha wars followed, and the third one ended the rule of the Peshwas.

What went wrong after Madhavrao?

The next Peshwa, Narayanrao, was murdered in his 18th year. A group of ministers called the Barbhai then took a stand against Raghunathrao. They ran the state as a kind of regency in the name of Gangabai.

Two famous soldiers and statesmen stood out in these years:

• Mahadji Sindia;
• Nana Phadnis.

Nana Phadnis is credited with building the first all-India alliance against the British. He joined hands with old rivals, Hyder Ali of Mysore and the Nizam of Hyderabad.

How did the first war go?

The First Anglo-Maratha War ran from 1775 to 1782. Four agreements mark its path:

1. Surat, 1775: Raghunathrao signed with the British on 6 March.
2. Purandar, 1776: a new treaty signed on 1 March. It had 19 articles, though two were later struck out.
3. Wadgaon, 1779: a British force had to sign a “disgraceful” convention.
4. Salbai, 1782: signed on 17 May, with Mahadji Sindia acting for the Peshwa.

The Treaty of Salbai had 17 articles. It gave back all land won since the Treaty of Purandar.

Who won is disputed. One NCERT chapter says there was “no clear victor”. Another NCERT chapter’s timeline calls it a Maratha victory.

What was the Treaty of Bassein?

It was a deal that tied the last Peshwa to the British. On 25 October, Holkar beat the Peshwa’s side in a battle near Pune. Baji Rao II fled to Bassein on the coast.

There, on 31 December 1802, he signed the Treaty of Bassein. It was a defensive alliance with the British.

• Troops: he took a British force of at least 6,000 regular infantry.
• Payment: he handed over districts yielding 26 lakh rupees to pay for it.

From then on, the Peshwa relied on British troops.

How did the second and third wars end it?

The Second Anglo-Maratha War lasted from 1803 to 1805. The British gained Orissa and the lands north of the Yamuna. These lands included Agra and Delhi.

The Third Anglo-Maratha War came in 1817–19. The British removed the Peshwa. Baji Rao II surrendered. The Marquis of Hastings approved the terms. The Peshwa was sent to Bithur, near Kanpur, with a pension. The Raja of Satara was put back on his throne.

The span is disputed. One chapter dates the third war 1817–19. A timeline in the other gives only 1818, the year Maratha power ended.

In the end, the British took India from the Marathas more than from the Mughals or any other power.

Exams test the treaties with the British, the Mughal grants and a few Maratha terms. Here are seven real past questions, newest first.

The site’s key gives (d), all three statements. Statement 2 names a Maratha general of that century.

The answer is (d), the Treaty of Salbai of 1782. Surat, Purandar and Wadgaon all came earlier in the same war.

The answer is (a), 4-2-3-1. Surat came in 1775 and Purandar in 1776. Wadgaon followed in 1779, and Salbai closed the war in 1782.

The answer is (a), Baji Rao II. He had fled to Bassein after Holkar’s win near Pune.

The answer is (c). In return for 15,000 troops, the Marathas could collect chauth and sardeshmukhi in the Deccan.

The answer is (a). The site’s key says the Sayyid brothers raised Farrukhsiyar to the throne in 1713, not Jahandar Shah.

The answer is (b). Upari farmers were tenants who did not hold the land by birth.

What traps should you watch for?

1. Shaniwar Wada. Work began in 1730, and the family moved in during 1731.
2. Two Bassein events. Chimaji took Bassein fort in 1739. The Treaty of Bassein came in 1802.
3. Salbai, not Bassein. Salbai ended the first war in 1782.
4. Ibrahim Khan Gardi. He was captured wounded, then killed. He did not die in the fighting.
5. Third war. It ran 1817–19, though some timelines give only 1818.