Yesterday was the 279th birth anniversary of Madhav Rao Peshwa – one of the most towering, albeit least celebrated heroes of Bharatavarsha. Madhavrao, third Peshwa of the Maratha Empire, is someone to whom Bharatiyas owe debts we can never repay.
Even in the annals of the history of the Maratha Empire, as the architect of the restoration of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s Hindavi Swarajya goal, the life of Madhavrao Peshwa shines resplendent. As a general, he had few equals across Indian history save the likes of his Lachit Borphukan or his own illustrious kin Bajirao I Ballal. As an administrator, he was the finest of his time. As a diplomat and Statesman, he was unequalled – restoring an Empire that, to all eyes, had all but collapsed. He was young – just a teenager – when he came to power and he was young still when he met his untimely end at the age of 27. But what he did accomplished would’ve graced the entire lifetimes of many celebrated heroes Indians often celebrate.
Madhavrao was an unlikely candidate to be Peshwa. The Empire was strong under the Peshwaship of Nanasaheb. The succession was well-established under Vishwasrao – a capable diplomat, and the Empire was supported by able generals such as Sadashivrao Bhau, Gopalrao Patwardhan, Nana Fadnavis, and others. There were plans to rebuild the destroyed temples at Ajodhya, Kashi, and Prayag, to take the Bhagwadwaja to lands it hadn’t been seen in since the collapse of the Shahi dynasty almost 600 years earlier, to make common cause with the Dharmic states that held out in furtherance of the cause of Hindu Pad Padshahi. The Maratha Empire was then the mightiest power in possibly all of the Indian sub-continent.
The Third Battle of Panipat brought that all crashing down. The Marathas lost not only the heir to the Peshwaship, some of their best generals, and nearly hundred fifty thousand fighting men – possibly the finest army Bharat had ever seen. They also lost any alliances and support they had north of the Vindhyas. The treachery of the Nawab of Awadh – a supposed ally – ensured that the entire eastern reach would’ve seen the same atrocities against Hindus as once seen under Aurangzeb. Apart from the dominions of Suraj Mal Jat, raiders and plunderers ran amok across North India. Peshwa Nanasaheb fell into depression and died shortly after, leaving the State open to the machinations of his treacherous brother, Raghunathrao. To the north and the west, countless Ulemas called for jihad and began to invite Afghans, Turks, Persians and the hordes of Central Asia to invade again. To the south and east, the English and the Nizam amassed their forces. To the west were the Turks and Portuguese. And like a cancer, the unjust realm of Mysore – which Haider Ali had usurped from his employers, the Wodeyars – grew.
The date was 14 January 1761. The boy was one month away from his sixteenth birthday. The second son of the Maratha Peshwa Nanasaheb, he had silently watched the events leading up to a cataclysmic battle over a thousand miles to the north, where a hundred thousand Marathas were pitted against an alliance comprising the Afghan Rohillas, the Nawab of Awadh Shujauddaulah, Najib Khan and the invading Afghan king Ahmed Shah Abdali. His father Nanasaheb had been afflicted with a consumptive illness recently, his uncle Sadashiv rao Bhau had thus gone to the north at the head of the army. On 14 January 1761, the much anticipated clash finally broke out and at the end of the day, the Marathas who appeared to be on the verge of breaking through the Afghan Centre, had lost. In addition to those who were killed in battle, an equal number of non-combatants and dependants were massacred. It truly marked an apocalypse of sorts for the Marathas, two members of the Peshwa family including his elder brother Vishwas Rao and Sadashiv Rao were dead and twenty seven other chiefs of note had perished.
The Peshwa’s second son Madhavrao, born in 1745, was now thrust in the role of heir apparent, however his lack of experience in administration and in battle stood starkly in contrast to the abilities of his father and uncles. In June 1761, Nanasaheb died in Pune and a month later Madhav Rao was appointed the Peshwa. Even as he returned to Pune, storm clouds were gathering over the Maratha Empire. The Nizam, smarting under the defeat in 1760 at Udgir was keen to win back the huge territory he had ceded to the Peshwa, Hyder Ali who had taken the reins of Mysore in his hands, had been placed under tribute the previous year, was keen to take Maratha territory north of the Tungabhadra, the Rajputs led by Madho Sinh of Jaipur began attacks on Maratha posts in Malwa…
Their adversaries were not slow to take advantage. The Nizam soon began his march towards Pune, destroying the temples at the pilgrimage centre of Toka. In retaliation, Raghunath Rao attacked Hyderabad and burnt its suburbs. Pune was threatened forcing the people to depart for hill forts in the vicinity with their wealth. The city of Pune was attacked and denuded of its wealth by the Nizam, the temple idols of Parvati were broken and this act caused Raghunath Rao to swear revenge.
However, the army was still weak. Yet, barely fifty miles from Pune, the Nizam’s juggernaut was halted and he was trapped. Madhav Rao had meanwhile lost his initial internal struggle within the family (against his uncle) and was a virtual prisoner in his camp. Raghunath Rao gave the Nizam liberal terms, hoping for a favourable alliance in future to grab power for himself. This led to disquiet in Maratha ranks.
Soon, the Nizam had also wooed the Bhonsle of Nagpur and the disgruntled chiefs from the Maratha camp and once again marched to regain territory. Vitthal Sundar, the Nizam’s Wazir led the campaign. In August 1763, on the south bank of the Godavari, the Nizam was attacked by the Marathas at a place called Rakshasbhuvan. The Nizam quickly crossed the flooded river, but had to watch as his army was exposed to Maratha attack.
In the midst of the battle, Raghunath Rao’s elephant was surrounded by the Nizam’s forces. Madhav Rao saw this and directed the army to rescue his uncle and attack VitthalSundar. The well-directed moves of the eighteen year old Peshwa not only succeeded in the rescue of Raghunath Rao but the defeat of the Nizam. Vitthal Sundar was killed. Madhav Rao had emerged as the master and Raghunath Rao had to concede space to him, acknowledging his prowess in war.
The battle of 1763 made the Nizam a vassal of the Marathas and Madhav Rao went the extra mile to conciliate him, ensuring a thirty year peace between the two. He then took the Bhonsle to task and cut him down to size with the help of his one time ally, the Nizam! Having tackled the Nizam and Bhonsle, Madhav Rao now not only wooed back the Maratha adherents who had gone over to the Nizam but stopped any interference by his uncle in the administration. His next objective was the growing power of Hyder Ali.
Between 1763 and 1768, Madhavrao led three expeditions to the Carnatic and on each occasion brought Hyder Ali to submission; each time obtaining a tribute of thirty lakh rupees and territory. Yet another expedition in 1769 took the Marathas to the deep south, but Madhav Rao had to return to Pune due to poor health handing over the army to his uncle Trimbak Rao Pethe. In 1771, Pethe led their forces to the outskirts of Srirangapatnam, and a cannonade on the island hit the temple of Ranganathswamy. Pethe defeated Hyder Ali and his young son Tipu at the battle of Moti Talao, and obtained a hefty indemnity from them. The father and son had to escape disguised from the battle field to the fort of Srirangapatnam. The Marathas stopped the invasion only due to the ill-omen of having hit the spire of the Ranganathswamy temple, otherwise the reign of Hyder Ali was near its end.
But Madhav Rao wasn’t done yet. In his letters to his generals, he declared his intentions to restore every inch of Bharatavarsha. “…What have you gained? Have you freed the holy places of Kashi and Prayaga from foreign control?” he demanded of his generals.
Maratha forces marched north. Bhundelkhand, Rohillakhand, and even most of east Punjab fell. The Rajputs and Jats were vassalised and nominally brought into the Hindu Pad Padshahi. The English were warned off and denied lands to trade in. North, East, South – the borders of the Maratha Empire sped farther every day on the hoof trails of Maratha lancers and horse artillery. Simultaneously, the Marathas under General Trimbak Rao met the armies of Haider Ali, who was not only inflicting great atrocities on the local Hindus but also aiming at spreading his tyranny. At the battle of Moti Talav – an ancient tank built by the Hoysala dynasty long ago, the outnumbered Maratha forces crushed their foes so decisively that it would take almost a decade for Haider Ali to recover.
In 1769, a large army led by Ramchandra Ganesh and Visaji Krishna began from the Deccan to capture Delhi. Mahadji Scindia and Tukoji Bhonsle joined them in Malwa. The army meandered to the north collecting tributes from the Rajputs, defeating the Jats and occupying all the territory till the Yamuna. Najib Khan was in 1770 an old man with many ailments and seeing the power of the Marathas once again conciliated them through Tukoji Holkar, his old friend and patron. Simultaneously he secretly began uniting the Afghans at Bareilly, Farrukhabad and Meerut regions. He sent his son Zabita Khan to the Maratha camp and left for his capital of Najibabad. However, Najib was not destined to reach there and died on the way.
The departure of the shrewd and capable Najib from the scene led to Maratha invasions in the doab where Bangash was first defeated. Zabita Khan was supported once again by Holkar but opposed by Mahadji Scindia who wished to avenge the death of so many of his family at the hands of Najib Khan. Ramchandra Ganesh and Visaji were also not seeing eye to eye. The differences in the Maratha camp led to delays in the campaign. Eventually the Peshwa issued a stern warning to the chiefs and recalled Ramchandra Ganesh to the Deccan.
Madhav rao’s far seeing eye had mastered the situation in the north. He warned his chiefs against allowing the English to enter Delhi. At the same time, he asked them whether they had done anything to obtain the possession of the cities of Kashi and Mathura and Prayag in their charge from the Nawab of Awadh Shujauddaulah – who was now reduced to being protected by the English. The nominal Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II was in Allahabad under the English and sought a return to Delhi. However, the English expressed their inability to escort him there.
The Marathas now moved to Delhi, capturing the town from the army of Zabita Khan. They then offered to bring Shah Alam II to Delhi and reinstate him on the throne. The capture of Delhi along with the old Maratha posts in the doab meant they had taken back the territories lost in the wake of Panipat in 1761. On 6 January 1772, the Mughal king was brought back to Delhi by Mahadji Scindia and placed on the Mughal throne. At this time, Maratha armies had spread out across the country from Delhi to Srirangapatnam.
Shortly after Shah Alam took his seat in Delhi, the Marathas with the Mughal force led an expedition to punish Zabita Khan who refused to part with the arrears due to the king. Defeating him on the Ganga at Shukratal, the Maratha horse entered Rohilkhand and took the fort of Pathargad where Najib Khan had stowed all the riches he had gathered since the battle of Panipat. Many Maratha slaves were also said to be in the fort. The fort was therefore stormed and the entire family of Najib Khan turned out. Immense wealth in gold and silver fell into Maratha hands totalling a sum of a million rupees in value. Parting with a small amount for the Emperor, the Marathas turned towards the doab. The Emperor now turned against his benefactors, and Visaji Krishna with Mahadji once again had to attack Delhi where they defeated the army of Najaf Khan, a chief employed by the king, and Rene Medec, a European adventurer. Having strengthened their hold on Delhi a second time, the last part of their plan was brought into action; the invasion of the territory of Shujauddaulah.
Within ten years of the disaster at Panipat, the foes of Bharat were fleeing India in their thousands, the betrayers of Sadashivarao – from the Nawab of Awadh to the lords of Lahore – were shrinking while the armies of the Maratha were pouring into Delhi.
For the first time since the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192, the Bhagwadwaja fluttered proudly atop the walls of Delhi.
But as he poured his life into the restoration of the Maratha Empire, Madhavrao’s own life force bled out.
By the time he was twenty five, he was dying of tuberculosis – incurable at the time. An assassination attempt on his life, probably orchestrated by Raghunathrao, weakened him further. He began to retire from public life, to the Ganesh Chintamani Temple at Theur.
Madhav rao realised that most of his objectives had been completed and the Maratha flag had once again begun to flutter over most of the country. The end was not far however…and dictating a nine-point Will to his confidante Nana Phadnis, he passed away in the temple of Chintamani Ganesh at Theur not far from Pune. On the 18th November of 1772, he breathed his last.
In his Will, he extracted a promise from his ministers that they would strive to recover the Hindu holy places of Prayag and Kashi. In the years to come however, this was not to be. Shuja was by then a defeated prince at the mercy of the English forces. The Maratha chiefs in the north too could not agree on a strategy and the campaign to Prayag was abandoned. The death of the Peshwa further dampened their spirits after a continuous three-year campaign in the north.
The Anglo-Maratha war broke out when Raghunath rao sought English help and continued for the next eight years. The Empire that Madhav rao built in a short space of eight years and the new team of leaders eventually managed to overcome the English and a treaty was signed in 1782.
In the short tenure and the even shorter life of Madhav rao, his administrative and military skills were the reason the Maratha state could rebuild its strength after the debacle of Panipat. Never before had a Peshwa met challenges on a nation-wide scale and overcome the odds in such a short time. Madhav rao’s discipline was legendary and his high expectations kept his chiefs on a leash. It has been rightly remarked that the debacle at Panipat was not as hurtful to Maratha fortunes as the early death of this excellent prince.
By the time of his death at the extremely young age of 27, Madhavrao had accomplished all Bharatavarsha and Dharma could’ve asked of him.
He had restored the Hindu Pad Padshahi to the heights of its old glory. He had defeated the Nizam and humiliated Haider. He had restored the Hindu Pad Padshahi, making Shah Alam the puppet Mughal Emperor a vassal of the Marathas. He had destroyed the roving bands of Afghan and Persian raiders who had plagued India since the death of Bajirao I, and financed the development of ports and cities. He spent his short life in nothing but service to Bharatavarsha.
Madhavrao was far-sighted and wise beyond measure even with foreign policy; even before the battle of Plassey, he was known to caution his generals about the rising menace of European invaders. In a memorable letter, he warned Mahadji Shinde “… you must never allow the English to make a lodgement at Delhi. If they once obtain a footing, they can never be dislodged… They have seized strategic points and have formed a ring around the Indian continent from Calcutta to Surat.”
Madhavrao had new infrastructure built all over India; even now the Holkar bridge near Pune – named after the Holkars who repaired it in the nineteenth century – stands testament to his administration’s success. New ponds were excavated, new temples were raised, trade and security was re-established across Maratha domains. He lowered taxes and funded new businesses. He banned the forced inclusion of farmers & peasants as porters into armies, making a new more professional Maratha force. From Attock to Cuttack to Tanjore, he established rule of law and security of roads – a feat not possible even under the rule of the ‘great’ Mughal emperors.
In the time he wielded power, Madhav rao was the monarch, the Prime Minister, the General on the field and the builder of a just and financially viable system.
And each of these achievements was done between the ages of 16 and 27. That is not only stunning, but incredibly inspirational.
