While the Battle of Attock is well known and quite famous, what is not as well known is that Attock was not the farthest that the Maratha empire had ever reached. The farthest they reached was Peshawar.

Today, 265 years ago, the Maratha Empire reached its farthest distance away from Pune that it ever reached – over 2000 kms – almost till the borders of Afghanistan.

On 8 May 1758, in the Battle of Peshawar the Marathas defeated Timur Shah Durrani and Peshawar was captured and annexed into the Maratha Empire. The Marathas were led by Raghunath Rao Peshwa & Malhar Rao Holkar, who just days before this had annexed Attock in the famous battle of Attock.

After their victory at Attock, the Shah of Persia Karim Khan then wrote to Raghunath Rao complimenting him on his success and suggested they attack Abdali on two fronts and then divide his territory among themselves, the Persians keeping Kabul and Kandahar while ceding Peshawar and Lahore to the Marathas.

Reporting his success to the Peshwa at Pune, Raghunath Rao wrote “Lahore, Multan, Kashmir and so on, subahs before Attock, ought to be brought under control. Some has been achieved, some more is left which I will soon complete. Ahmed Shah Abdali, his son Taimur Shah and Jahan Khan our army chased, and looted their armies. With the residual force, with difficulty, Taimur Shah and Jahan Shah reached Peshawar which is beyond Attock”.

In his letter, Raghunath Rao also conveyed the Persian king’s proposal. However, he added, “The subahs of Attock and Kandahar have been part of Hindustan from Akbar to Alamgir’s time. Why should we give those to vilayetis (foreigners)?”. Hence, they did not ally with the Shah of Persia and attacked Peshawar themselves. Thus enabling the the Maratha rule to reach its furthest extent. All the way up to Peshawar.

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