BAJI RAO (peshwa of maratha)

Baji Rao (18 August 1700 – 28 April 1740) was a general of the Maratha Empire in India. He served as Peshwa (Prime Minister) to the fifth Maratha Chhatrapati (Emperor) Shahu from 1720 until his death. He is also known by the name Bajirao Ballal. Baji Rao is credited with expanding the Maratha Empire in India which contributed to its reaching a zenith during his son's reign twenty years after his death. In his military career spanning 20 years, Baji Rao never lost a battle. According to the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Baji Rao was possibly the finest cavalry general ever produced by India.

EARLY LIFE

Bajirao was born into the Bhat family of Kokanastha Chitpavan Brahmin lineage. His father Balaji Vishwanath was the first Peshwa of Chhatrapati Shahu; his mother was Radhabai Barve. Baji Rao had a younger brother Chimaji Appa and two sisters, Bihubai Joshi and Anubai Ghorpade. The eldest of his sisters was married into a Deshastha family. He spent his childhood in his father's newly acquired fiefdom of Saswad. Bajirao would often accompany his father on military campaigns. He was with his father when the latter was imprisoned by Damaji Thorat before being released for a ransom. When Vishwanath died in 1720, Shahu appointed the 20-year old Baji Rao as the Peshwa. He is said to have preached the ideal of Hindu Pad Padshahi (Hindu Empire) Bajirao intended to plant the Maratha flag upon the walls of Delhi and other cities governed by the Mughals and their subjects. He intended to replace the Mughal Empire and create a Hindu-Pat-Padshahi.

EARLY LIFE OF PESHWA

The twenty year old Bajirao was appointed Peshwa in succession to his father by Chhatrapati Shahu. By the time of Baji Rao's appointment, Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah had in 1719 recognized Marathas' rights over the territories possessed by Shivaji at his death.The treaty also included the Maratha rights to collect taxes (chauth or chauthaii and sardeshmukhi) in the six provinces of Deccan.Bajirao believed that the Mughal Empire was in decline and wanted to take advantage of this situation with aggressive expansion in north India. Sensing the declining fortune of the Mughals, he is reported to have said, "Strike, strike at the roots and the biggest tree will also fall down."However, as a new Peshwa, he faced several challenges These were His appointment as the Peshwa at a young age had evoked jealousy from senior officials like Naro Ram Mantri, Anant Ram Sumant and Shripatrao Pant Pratinidhi. This led Bajirao to promote as commanders young men like himself who were barely out of teens such as Malhar Rao Holkar, Ranoji Shinde, and the Pawar brothers. Also, these men did not belong to families that held hereditary Deshmukhi rights under the Deccan Sultanates, The Mughal viceroy of Deccan Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I, had practically created his own independent kingdom in the region. He challenged Shahu's right to collect taxes in Deccan on the pretext that he did not know whether Shahu or his cousin Sambhaji II of Kolhapur were the rightful heir to the Maratha throne. The Marathas needed to assert their rights over the nobles of the newly gained territories in Malwa and Gujarat Several areas that were nominally part of the Maratha territory, were not actually under Peshwa's control. For example, the Siddis controlled the Janjira fort.

personal life

Bajirao's first wife was Kashibai. She was the daughter of Mahadji Krishna Joshi and Shiubai of Chas, a wealthy banker family. The relationship between the couple was a happy one. They had three sons together: Balaji Baji Rao (also called "Nanasaheb"), Raghunath Rao (also called "Ragoba") and Janardhan Rao (who died young).Nanasaheb was appointed as the successor to Bajirao as Peshwa by Chhatrapati Shahu in 1740. Raghunath Rao as a military commander is credited with extending Maratha influence all the way to Punjab in 1758 Though Baji Rao was essentially monogamous by both, nature and family tradition, he took a second wife Mastani. She was the daughter of the Hindu king Chhatrasal of Bundelkhand from his Muslim concubine. The marriage was purely a political one and was accepted out of regard for the sentiments of the Bundela king. In 1734, Mastani bore a son who was to be named Krishna Rao at birth. Being born of a Muslim mother, the priests refused to conduct the Hindu upanayana ceremony for him. The boy was eventually named Shamsher Bahadur and brought up as a Muslim. After Baji Rao's and Mastani death in 1740, Kashibai took the 6 year-old Shamsher Bahadur boy under her care and raised him as one of her own.Shamsher was bestowed upon a portion of his father’s dominion of Banda and Kalpi. In 1761, he and his army contingent fought alongside the Peshwa in the Third Battle of Panipat between the Marathas and Afghans. He was wounded in that battle and died a few days later at Deeg.