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Baji Rao : Bāji Rao I (18Aug1700–28Apr1740) was eldest son & successor of Bālāji Vishwanath Bhat. Bālāji, one of eight ministers of Chhatrapati Shahu (grandson of Shivaji), became the first Peshwa (Prime Minister) in 1713. That Aurangzeb, after Shivaji’s death, personally descended into the Deccan, proved that the Mahrattas were his only rivals. Taking advantage of the Mogul Empire’s decline after Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, Bālāji entered into treaties with his weak successor Md. Shah, taking back not only the territories of Shivaji that Aurangzeb had usurped but also Khāndesh, & the right to levy chauth (a quarter of the annual revenue of an area as tribute) on the Moghul provinces of Gondwānā, Berar, & parts of Hyderabad & Karnataka. He also extracted the right to levy chauth in Gujarat from its Mogul governor, which Shahu awarded to his Senāpati, Khanderao Dabhāde. Upon Bālāji’s death in 1720, Shahu appointed Bāji Rao the next Peshwa & Dabhāde’s son Triambakrao, Senāpati. Bāji Rao proposed the creation of an all-India Hindu empire replacing the Moghul. His policy: “Strike at the root, & the branches will fall of themselves” was opposed not only by senior ministers who resented at being superseded, but also Mahratta chieftains such as Ranoji Shinde, Malharrao Holkar, Udājirao Pawār, Tukojirao Pawār & Jivājirao Pawār who were collecting chauth from several areas in Mālwā & later carved out their own kingdoms of Gwalior, Indore, Dhār & the two Dewas States. In 1723, Bāji Rao invaded Mālwā & Shahu gave him the right to collect chauth from Mālwā. When Triambakrao rebuffed Bājirao’s proposal to share each other’s levy, Bāji Rao appointed an agent of his own for collecting chauth in Gujarat where three Mahratta commanders: Kanthāji & Kadam Bande for Shahu, & Triambakrao’s Deputy Pilāji Gaikwād for himself & Triambakrao, were already active. While Bājirao went on to raise the Mahratta power to an all-India level with outposts like Indore & Gwalior in the north, Nagpur in the centre & Miraj & Ramdurg in the south, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I, Delhi’s viceroy of Deccan, sent an army to Ahmedabad in 1730 to replace the Mogul governor of Gujarat there by his own. Seeing Pilāji & Kanthāji going over to the Nizam’s fold, Bājirao sent a column under Chimnāji. Since the Governor of Gujarat, ceded to Chimnāji, the right to collect chauth & sardeshmukhi from Gujarat, he was replaced by Abhay Singh, who also recognized Bājirao’s right to collect taxes. Incensed at this, Triambakrao who felt Bājirao had usurped his family’s rights formed an alliance against Bājirao with Bangash, the Nizam, Shambhāji II of Kolhapur (who had become a rival claimant to the title of Chhatrapati), Pilāji, Kanthāji, & Bande. Hearing of this, Bājirao set out for Gujarat at the head of a formidable army & in the battle at Dabhoi (q.v.) in 1731, Triambakrao & Pilāji’s son were killed & Pilāji badly injured. The Nizam signed a treaty whereby he would never stray north of Hyderabad &, defeated again by Bājirao at Rohe-Rameshwar in December 1732, promised not to interfere with Maratha expeditions. Shahu & Bājirao resolved the dispute with Shambhāji II by signing the Treaty of Warna, which demarcated the territories of the Chhatrapati & Kolhapur. They avoided a rivalry with the powerful Dabhāde clan by appointing Triambakrao’s son Yashwantrao Senāpati with the right to continue collecting chauth from Gujarat on the condition that he would deposit half the collections in the Chhatrapati’s treasury. Pilāji, still bent on carving out a kingdom of his own, wheedled the right out of the naïve boy & created lifelong enmity between the Gaikwād & the Peshwa. Meanwhile, Shambhāji II had claimed the title of the Maratha Chhatrapati. The Nizam offered to act as an arbitrator. Bājirao convinced Shahu not to accept the Nizam’s arbitration offer, & instead launch an assault against him. In August 1727, Bājirao raided & plundered several of Nizam’s territories, such as Jalna, Burhanpur & Khāndesh. The Nizam invaded Pune, where he installed Shambhāji II as the Chhatrapati, leaving behind a contingent of his army headed by Fazal Beg. On 28 February 1728, the armies of Bājirao & Nizam faced each other at the Battle of Palkhed. The Nizam was defeated, & forced to make peace. On 6 March, he signed the Treaty of Mūngi Shevgaon, recognizing Shahu as the Chhatrapati as well as the Maratha right to collect taxes in Deccan. Bājirao moved his base of operations to Pune in 1728 & in the process laid the foundation for turning it into a large city. Bājirao also started construction of Shaniwār Wādā on the right bank of the Mutha River. The construction was completed in 1730, ushering in the era of Peshwa control of the city. [Cf. Tilak purchasing Gayakawādā which was thence known as Sardar-griha] Meanwhile, after death of Triambakrao, the Mughal Emperor recalled Bangash from Mālwā & re-appointed Jai Singh II as its governor. On 4 March 1736, Bājirao & Jai Singh came to an agreement at Kishangadh & on Jai Singh’s advice the Emperor appointed Bājirao Deputy Governor of the province. Jai Singh is also believed to have secretly informed Bājirao that it was a good time to subdue the weakening Mughal emperor. Bājirao had already built the Mahratta Confederacy with the Scindhia, Holkar, Bhonsle, & the Gaikwād. He also allied himself with the Rajput ruler of Amber & the Bundelās. On 12 November 1736, he started a march to the Mughal capital Delhi from Pune. On hearing about the advancing Maratha army, the Emperor asked Sādat Khan to march from Agra & check the Maratha advance. Malharrao Holkar & Pilāji Jādhav crossed Yamuna & plundered the Mughal territories in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab. Sādat Khan led a force of 150,000 against them, & defeated them. He then retired to Mathura, thinking that the Marathas had retreated. However, Bājirao advanced to Delhi & encamped at Talkotara. The Mughal emperor dispatched a force led by Mir Hasan Khan Koka to check his advance which the Marathas defeated on 28 March 1737. The Portuguese had captured several territories on the west coast of India, violating an agreement to give the Marathas a site on Salsette Island (c.241 sq. miles), north of Bombay, for building a factory, & had been practising religious intolerance against the Hindus in their territory. Bājirao dispatched an army under his brother Chimnāji against them. Chimnāji captured the Thana fort & almost all of Bassein, & gained control of Salsette after a prolonged siege. However, Bājirao was forced to turn his attention away from the Portuguese due to the invasion of Nadir Shah (q.v.) in the north. He died on 28 April 1740, at the age of 39 en route to Delhi at Khargaon, near Indore. He was cremated on 28 April 1740, at Raver-Kheda on the river Narmada. After him Nana Fadnavis managed to hold the Confederacy together in spite of the internecine squabbling among them ignited by the British. “With his death,” writes Grant Duff, “departed all the wisdom & moderation of the Mahratta Confederacy.” Ignoring Shivaji’s & Nana’s warnings never to “sign even an innocuous treaty with the English, for they have the cruel cunning to grab the whole at the first opportunity”, Gaikwād, Bhonsle, Bājirao II, Sindhia, & Holkar, all signed suicidal bi-lateral treaties with the Octopus which, by 1818 reduced them to pitiable feudatories, & laying the seed of slavery under Pax Britannica. Sri Aurobindo: Swaraj has been sometimes interpreted as a return to the old conditions of self-sufficient village life leaving the imperial authority to itself, to tax and pass laws as it pleased – ignored because it is too strong to be destroyed. Even those who see the futility of ignoring Government which seeks to destroy every centre of strength, however minute, except itself, sometimes insist on the village as the secret of our life and ask us to give up our ambitious strivings after national Swaraj and realise it first in the village. Such counsel is dangerous, even if it were possible to follow it. Nothing should be allowed to distract us from the mighty ideal of Swaraj, National and Pan-Indian. This is no alien or exotic ideal, it is merely the conscious attempt to fulfil the great centripetal tendency which has pervaded the grandiose millenniums of her history, to complete the work which Srikrishna began, which Chandragupta and Asoka and the Gupta Kings continued, which Akbar almost brought to realisation, for which Shivaji was born and Bājirao fought and planned.” Which work his son Bālāji Bājirao attempted to realise (see Pāṇīpat), & which work Tilak & Sri Aurobindo too attempted to complete; but as in all such previous attempts, in their case too, the betrayal was worse from within that from without. [Based on Sayājirao of Baroda..., Fatehsingh Gaikwād, 1989; S. Bhattacharya; Lōkamānya B.G. Tilak..., Karandikar; SABCL-1:738-39]