Era of the Peshwa
Balaji Vishwanath convinced Kanhoji Angre ,the Chief of Maratha Navy, to join hands with Shahu. On 16th November 1713 Shahu appointed Balaji Vishwanath his Peshwa. MaharaniTarabai established her power in Kolhapur. The Maratha power was divided. In 1719 Balaji Vishwanath went to Delhi and released Maharani Yesubai. He also procured rights to self-administration and revenue collection in six Moghul provinces. Shahu’s childhood was spent in Moghul captivity. Also the fact that the Moghuls kept him alive and released him affected him a great deal. So he advised the Peshwa to expand the boundaries of Maratha powers but to protect the Moghul throne.
Another important achievement of Balaji Vishwanath was the creation of Maratha Mandal or the confederation of Maratha generals. Under this scheme the Maratha generals they were given a limited sovereignty in the region of their influence and were encouraged to expand their regional borders in all directions. Balaji Vishwanath died on 2nd April 1720 in Saswad.
His eldest son Bajirao succeeded him. He was trained well by his father. Bajirao never lost a single battle. He was invincible in this sense. He expanded the boundaries of Maratha power. Bajirao defeated the Nizam, curbed the rebellion of some of the Maratha generals like Dabhade, helped king Chhatrasal, defeated the Siddis and the Portuguese. He led the Maratha armies into territories of Malwa, Gujrat, Bundelkhand and Delhi. A stagnated society generates infighting. Bajirao provided new avenues to the brave Maratha chieftains; they started looking towards north. Shaniwarwada, the seat of Peshwa power faces north. Marathas filled the power vacuum created by Aurangazeb’s death. Bajirao died in 1740.
His eldest son Balaji Bajirao alias Nanasaheb, as an heir, became the new Peshwa. ThisPeshwa unnecessarily sowed the seeds of dissent among Maratha generals. With the help of the British, he completely demolished the kingdom painstakingly built by Chhatrapati ShivajiMaharaj . He created feelings of animosity in the Hindu rulers of Rajputana and Malwa, fought with the Bhonsale’s of Nagpur. Instead of leading the armies to Panipat himself, he sent Vishwasrao and Sadashivrao, thus courting defeat. But it also must be noted that the Marathas were the only power that offered resistance to Ahmedshah Abdali when he attacked Delhi. They fought on behalf of entire India. Nanasaheb could not face the defeat in Panipat and died in shock.
His second son Madhavrao came to power. He had a very short tenure between 1761 to 1772, but he rehabilitated the Maratha power broken by Panipat. He encouraged the able generals Shinde and Holkar, curbed the ambitions of his uncle Raghunathrao, Janoji Bhonsale of Nagpur, Haider and Nizam. He died in 1772 without leaving an heir.
Narayanrao, the younger brother of Madhavrao ascended the throne. With him the power struggle became bloody and parricidal. Narayanrao’s uncle Raghunathrao had him killed through a conspiracy and tried to become a Peshwa himself. The court did not accept Raghunathrao as a Peshwa, so the generals crowned Narayanrao’s new born son, Sawai Madhavrao as a Peshwa at the tender age of forty days! A council of ministers Barbhaiconsisting of Nana Phadnis, Haripant Phadake, Sakharambapu Bokil, Tryambakrao Pethe, Moroba Phadnis, Bapuji Naik, Maloji Ghorpade, Bhavanrao Pratinidhi, Raste, Patwardhan, Mahadaji Shinde and Tukoji Holkar together ran the government. Nana Phadnis looked after the matters in the south while Mahadaji Shinde was to look after the matters in the north. But Shinde died in 1793. In 1795, Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao committed suicide in Shaniwarwada.
Raghunathrao’s son Bajirao II became the Peshwa in 1796. His rule continued till 1818. Before him none of the Peshwas’ rule had lasted twenty two years. Nana Phadnis died in 1800 and with him even the wisdom of Maratha power came to an end. A struggle for supremacy between Shinde and Holkar began. In 1802 Peshwa Bajirao II signed an agreement with the British for contractual forces. The Marathas and British fought three wars. The Maratha power was defeated by the British. Marathas lost because they were fighting with the representatives of a rapidly developing materialist society with the arms and mindset of a medieval culture. The Marathas forgot the adage 'The culture that has better arms is greater'. The British benefited because of the industrial revolution. Some of the causes of the Maratha defeat were the absence of nationalist sentiment, lack of complete control either over the north or the south, absence of fast and effective means of communication, lack of discipline, inability and unwillingness to occupy the Delhi throne, absence of intelligence gathering agencies and debts. The Marathas forgot that the loots can bail you out of an economic crisis temporarily but the need to find a permanent solution remains.