The Maratha Empire of Pune and the Peshwas: an Overview
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Science, Technology and Development ISSN : 0950-0707 The Maratha Empire of Pune and the Peshwas: an overview *Dr.Ramya.K.R. Assistant Professor, Department of History, Government First Grade College ( Autonomous ), Gubbi. Abstract This paper attempts to study how Peshwas who were all ministers who served as the chief executives to the king and later held the highest administrative office and also controlled the Maratha empire . Maratha confederacy, alliance formed in the 18th century after Mughal pressure forced the collapse of Shivaji’s kingdom of Maharashtra in western India. After the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s death (1707), Maratha power revived under Shivaji’s grandson Shahu. He confided power to the Brahman Bhat family, who became hereditary peshwas (chief ministers). He also decided to expand northward with armies under the peshwas’ control. In Shahu’s later years the power of the peshwas increased. After his death (1749) they became the effective rulers. The leading Maratha families—Sindhia, Holkar, Bhonsle, and Gaekwar— extended their conquests in northern and central India and became more independent and difficult to control. The effective control of the peshwas ended with the great defeat of Panipat (1761) at the hands of the Afghans and the death of the young peshwa Madhav Rao I in 1772. Thereafter the Maratha state was a confederacy of five chiefs under the nominal leadership of the peshwa at Poona (now Pune) in western India. Though they united on occasion, as against the British (1775–82), more often they quarreled. After he was defeated by the Holkar dynasty in 1802, the peshwa Baji Rao II sought protection from the British, whose intervention destroyed the confederacy by 1818. The confederacy expressed a general Maratha nationalist sentiment but was divided bitterly by the jealousies of its chiefs.Several factors led to the rise of the Peshwas. While Chhatrapati Shahu was an ease-loving person, Tari Bai was selfish and narrow-minded. None of them was able to provide peace and security to Maharashtra. The Asht-Pradhan , created by Shivaji too had become ineffective in administration. In these circumstances, the Maratha nobles were contending among themselves for power. The Peshwas of Shahu, found solutions to these problems by their capabilities. They rose to be good diplomats and commanders. They provided the Marathas an ideal – ideal of extending their power and Volume X Issue VI JUNE 2021 Page No : 717 Science, Technology and Development ISSN : 0950-0707 influence towards the North. They rose above all other Maratha chiefs by sheer merit and they also led them to become the foremost power in India. The first Peshwa of Shahu was Balaji Vishwanath (1713-20 A.D.). He was the Sar Subahdar of Poona and Daulatabad when Shahu entered Maharashtra after his release from imprisonment of the Mughals. He sided with Shahu and also brought Dhanaji Jadav, the commander-in-chief of Tara Bai, to the rise of Shahu which helped him in capturing the throne of Maharashtra. Key words: Maratha Empire, Mughal, Pune, Peshwas, Baji rao, Asht-Pradhan Introduction One of India’s favorite pastimes is having acrimonious debates about its history. These debates are often reductionist, failing to appreciate the complexity and nuance of past events and the different sociopolitical milieus of pre-modern India. Too often, commentators read their own biases into Indian history, either to overemphasize the sectarian and religious aspects of interstate warfare or to anachronistically find a progressive vision of tolerance in some medieval ruler or the other’s kingdom. For the past few weeks, India’s latest historical debate has focused around the legacy of the Maratha Empire (1674-1818), triggered by a new Bollywood film, Bajirao Mastani . The Maratha Empire was founded by the Maratha warrior-hero Chhatrapati (Emperor) Shivaji, in response to the chaos and misrule that prevailed in the Deccans in the late 17th century. This occurred as the Mughal Empire expanded into southern India. Hindu nationalists revere the Maratha Empire, which originated among a Hindu warrior people of the western Deccan peninsula. Their reverence stems from the fact that it was this state that reversed centuries of steadily increasing Muslim political control over the subcontinent. By the mid 18th-century, it was the largest state in South Asia and the Mughal emperors in Delhi were its puppets. Bajirao Mastani follows the life and career of Bajirao Ballal Balaji Bhat, the Peshwa, or prime minister, of the Maratha Empire from 1720 to 1740. While Bajirao was an extremely successful general who won 40 battles, he faced social difficulties on the home front due to his second marriage to a Muslim woman named Mastani. Volume X Issue VI JUNE 2021 Page No : 718 Science, Technology and Development ISSN : 0950-0707 The Indian subcontinent in 1760. Source: Charles Colbeck – The Public Schools Historical Atlas by Charles Colbeck. Longmans, Green; New York; London; Bombay. 1905. University of Texas Libraries The film itself is very well-made, with outstanding visuals and is well worth a watch for anyone interested in Indian history and early modern warfare techniques in the subcontinent. One can observe, for example, that firearms were relatively rare, despite being present in the subcontinent ever since the 15th century. Gunpowder was chiefly used for artillery, which was widely used. The Maratha navy was also successful in fending off European navies with cannons for half a century. But, at this point in Indian history, the cavalry clearly had the upper hand, more so than poorly armed and trained infantry and elephant units, which had limited utility in battle despite always being sought out. The Maratha cavalry contributed to the success of the empire by raiding swiftly and deeply into Mughal territory and leaving with their booty before the Mughal army could catch them. Their dependence on horses and the lack of firearms in the infantry, however, proved to be a difficulty when facing European armies armed with muskets. This raiding tendency of the Marathas is what sparked a debate about the Maratha Empire in the wake of the film’s release. Detractors of the Maratha Empire allege that the Marathas only wanted a kingdom for themselves, and thus their kingdom was “never Hindu,” which ignores the fact that the dominant religion of the ruling class of any Indian state at this time was a major part of that state’s character, regardless of how the religion was interpreted or applied in a political sense. Further criticisms of the Maratha Empire allege that they were the “Mongols” of South Asia, who only campaigned for chauth , a fourth of the revenue of other kingdoms, whether Hindu or Muslim. Maratha raids against Bengal in 1742 and Jaipur in 1750 are especially criticized because these led to the deaths of many Hindus. But all this misses the point. Of course, like any other kingdom in the 18th century, the Maratha Empire meant to preserve itself, even if it meant fighting Hindus and allying with Muslims. The patchwork of states to emerge from the declining Mughal Empire at the time was so complex that it was inevitable that alliances of convenience between states of different religious denominations were the norm. There is no doubt that the Marathas, like all Hindu states, were influenced by Islamic practices, art, architecture, and warfare, and that later, Hindu nationalist historians exaggerated their Hindu credentials. Volume X Issue VI JUNE 2021 Page No : 719 Science, Technology and Development ISSN : 0950-0707 Yet there is no doubt that the imposition of the jizya tax on Hindus and the demolition of several important Hindu temples during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (who reigned from 1659-1707) would not have occurred under Maratha rule, thus incentivizing many Hindus to defect from the Mughal Empire during or after Aurangzeb’s reign. Unquestionably, the Marathas were consciously Hindu and interested in establishing Hindu political power in the subcontinent. Though, like the Christian states of Iberia during the reconquista , they were also interested in fighting and allying with whomever suited their needs at the time. Objective: This paper intends to exploreand analyze Peshwa, the office of chief minister among the Maratha people of India, originally headed the advisory council of the raja Shivaji (reigned c. 1659–80). Peshwa-ship was revived when Shivaji’s grandson Shahu appointed Balaji Vishvanath Bhat. WIth Shahu’s death, in 1749, the peshwa Balaji Baji Rao was the virtual ruler of Marathas leading to great Maratha Empire. Rise of Peshwa, the Maratha Empire Not often does one man stamp his presence in an entire sub-continent and establish an empire that spreads across the huge Indian land mass. His movements, from Delhi to Srirangapatnam and Gujarat to Berar over a twenty year period in the 18th century, were unequalled in speed and distance. His innate ability to gauge the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and spring the trap when his enemy is lulled into what appeared a position of strength was his forte. A victory in every battle is a dream for any military leader. Bajirao achieved it because he had the head to plan and the hand to execute. Around 1720, the Mughal throne had seen four occupants over two years, the Marathas were a rising power and Bajirao’s father Balaji Vishwanath had shored up Chhatrapati Shahu’s fortunes by not just obtaining a ‘legal sanction’ from the imploding Mughal, but also found a way to expand Maratha influence and power by carving separate fields of operation for the restless Maratha chiefs. A lot was left undone when Balaji Vishwanath died in 1720. A grateful Shahu looked no further than Bajirao to be his next Prime Minister at just twenty years of age over the Volume X Issue VI JUNE 2021 Page No : 720 Science, Technology and Development ISSN : 0950-0707 heads of other claimants.