Peshwa Bajirao I & Maratha Expansion

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“Peshwa Bajirao I and Maratha Expansion” by V.G. Dighe, with a foreword by Sir Jadunath Sarkar, provides an in-depth analysis of Peshwa Bajirao I’s role in the Maratha Empire’s territorial expansion. The book explores Bajirao’s strategic military campaigns and diplomatic maneuvers that significantly shaped 18th-century Indian history. It also delves into his visionary leadership and the socio-political impact of his conquests, presenting a comprehensive account of his contributions to the Maratha Empire’s ascendancy.
G. Dighe, a historian, is renowned for his expertise on Maratha history. His work, including “Peshwa Bajirao I and Maratha Expansion,” offers detailed insights into the Maratha Empire’s growth and its key figures’ military and strategic prowess.
Sir Jadunath Sarkar, CIE, FRAS (1870-1958), was a distinguished Indian historian specializing in the Mughal dynasty. Educated in English literature, he later focused on 
 
history research, writing extensively in English. Sarkar served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta (1926-1928) and was knighted in 1929. His rigorous historiography and profound knowledge of Persian made him one of India’s greatest historians, compared to Theodor Mommsen and Leopold von Ranke.

 

CONTENTS

FOREWORD
PREFACE
FAMILY & EARLY LIFE
SUPREMACY IN THE DECCAN
MARATHAS IN GUJARAT
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE SIDI OF JANJIRA
JANJIRA CAMPAIGN II
JANJIRA CAMPAIGN III
MARATHA EXPANSION IN THE NORTH
MARATHA ADVANCE IN BUNDELKHAND
MARATHA PROGRESS IN MALWA
ATTEMPTS AT CONCILIATION
THE PESHWA’S DASH ON THE IMPERIAL CAPITAL
THE BATTLE OF BHOPAL
NADIR SHAH’S INVASION
THE SALSETTE CAMPAIGN
THE PESHWA AT HIS RAJA’S COURT
THE FINALE-ACHIEVEMENTS & CHARACTER
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

FOREWORD

In the long and distinguished galaxy of Peshwas Baji Rao Ballal was unequalled for the daring and originality of his genius and the volume and value of his achievements. He was truly a Carlylean Hero as King -or rather as “Man of action.” If Sir Robert Walpole created the unchallengeable position of the Prime Minister in the unwritten constitution of England, Bajirao created the same institution in the Maratha Raj at exactly the same time.
And yet no worthy study of such a career was writ- ten in English before this volume, and indeed no full and correct history of Bajirao could be written before 1930, in which year the vast mass of Peshwa State Papers (in Marathi) preserved in the Poona Daftar began to be published and a few years later Chevalier P. S. Pissur- lencar and Dr. Braganza gave to the world the invaluable original documents of that time in the Portuguese langu- age, and the Jaipur Maharaja’s archives were ransacked yielding the best raw material for the history of the Ma- ratha penetration into Northern India during those years, mostly in the Persian language. Before that date our knowledge of this great Peshwa and his times had been confined to Grant Duff’s book composed a century and a quarter ago at the dawn of Maratha historiography, which was supplemented merely by the Persian sources on some special campaigns used by Irvine in his Later Mughals and some Marathi historical letters printed by Parasnis (viz. the correspondence of Brahmendra Swami) and Rajwade (relating to the Janjira Campaign).But the revolution in Maratha historiography which has been created by the discovery and publication of ori. ginal sources in diverse languages in the life-time of the present generation, had not before this been represented by any attempt at presenting a synthesis of these materi- als. That much needed work has been now done by Dr. V. G. Dighe in the present thesis composed in 1940-41 and by Rao Bahadur Sardesai in his new Marathi Riyasat, Vol. V, published a year later.
Dr. Dighe’s work of which I was an examiner, im- pressed me so much by its outstanding merit that I moved the Bombay University to assist in printing it and placing it before the vast English reading public. This has now been done and the students of Indian history will be thank- ful to the University for its liberality to scholarship and to Dr. Dighe for presenting us with a scientifically writ- ten and full history of one of the most momentous epochs in the life of the Maratha race.
As the title of the book indicates the author’s main subject has been the expansion of the Maratha power during those eventful years (1720-1740), and naturally the details of the internal affairs of Maharashtra have been crowded out by the bigger issues of foreign policy and military adventure which had to be minutely and critical- ly studied here. But even in the domestic or constitution- al sphere a valuable contribution of Dr. Dighe is his fresh and penetrating analysis of the relations between Raja Shahu and his great minister by which much popu- lar misconception has been corrected. made a compact presentation of the subject and touched Dr. Dighe has up salient features with a commendable economy of words. But the chapters on the Janjira Campaign and the capture of Bassein in this volume are the most detailed and documented accounts of these two heroic achieve- ments of the Maratha race to be found in any language and they lead the reader by clear steps through the tangled maze of war and diplomacy and their interaction. Here is new light presented in its full splendour.
This volume will form a very valuable addition to the growing literature on Maratha History, and long con- tinue as a standard authority in its own field.
JADUNATH SARKAR

PREFACE

The Marathas, a war-like people, inhabit the western part of the Deccan. Their early history is lost in dim antiquity. From the 5th century onward rose mighty kingdoms in the land, the Chalukyas, the Rashtrakutas and the Yadavas which knit the Marathas into a homo- geneous people. Under the aegis of these native dynas- ties the Marathas attained prosperity beyond measure: they developed their free institutions, built lovely temples, perfected their language and enriched their literature. After that for four centuries the tide of Islam swept every thing before it. Alauddin Khilji’s warriors carried the crescent to the southernmost corner of India and with the fall of the great Vijayanagar empire in 1565 under the hammer-blows of the Deccan sultanates, disappeared the last vestige of independent Hindu power in the south. Islam became triumphant throughout the length and breadth of this land.
The defeats of their armies in the field, the destruc- tion of centuries-long dynasties and the ruin that follow- ed in the social structure of society, brought on the child- ren of the soil a feeling of despair and deep frustration and created in their mind a sort of inferiority complex that they were no match for the foreign invaders, that they were in no way worthy to administer their affairs and that it was wise to reconcile themselves to the change of rulers and bend to the wishes of their new masters. It is to the glory of the Marathas that they were the first to shake off this intellectual paralysis and strike boldly for the libera tion of their homeland. Their early struggle for swaraj under Shivaji’s leadership is now familiar to students of history in the works of Sir Jadunath Sarkar, Prof. Raw- linson, Mr. Chintaman Waidya, the two Kincaids and the essay collection published by the Shivaji Karyalaya. The consolidation of Maratha power and its expansion beyond the limits of Maharashtra under Bajirao I is a less known chapter of Maratha history and the present work is the first attempt of its kind to place it before readers in a scientific manner.
Bajirao is looked upon as the greatest personality after Shivaji in Maratha history and the story of his career has an abiding interest. His achievements may be summed up as the establishment of Maratha supre- macy in the Deccan and of political hegemony in the north. When he was called to the Peshwaship in 1720 the Ma- ratha state was in a perilous condition. It was a house divided against itself, menaced on the east by the great Nizam-ul-mulk, its march southward barred by the same power and large part of its territory on the western sea- board yet in foreign hands. At his death he left the na- tion strong and united, its friendship solicited by Rajputs and Bundelas and its alliance courted by the Mughal rulers. The policy of northward drive the Peshwa pursu- ed so vigorously soon brought the Marathas to the gates of the imperial city and made them dictators of imperial policy. These stirring events are unfolded in the follow- ing pages.
The present work was submitted to the University as a thesis for the Ph. D. degree in 1941 and is now being published in a somewhat modified and abridged form. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my guide Sir Jadunath Sarkar without whose help and encouragement the work would never have been attempted.
Thanks are due to Major Dr. Maharaj Kumar
Raghubir Sinh of Sitamau for allowing me the use of valuable Persian MSS. in his possession and Father Candes of the Portuguese Church in Poona who kindly read with me the Portuguese records on the subject. Prof. Potdar at great inconvenience to himself went through the manus- cript and made valuable suggestions. My friends Messrs. Khare, of the Itihas Samshodhak Mandal, and M. V Gujar were likewise helpful to me in the preparation of the work. Lastly I must acknowledge my indebtedness to the University of Bombay for the substantial financial help it has granted towards the cost of the publication of this work.
Bombay, 1st. Nov. 1944.
G. DIGHE
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