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BAPU
CULTURAL TOURS
by
Kailash
Sen &
his
friends
Gautam
Market,
Jain temples Road, Khajuraho
DHUBELA

ENGLISH
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Destination:
Dhubela and
the monumental sites in the surroundings .
Dubela offers at the same time :
1) finest examples of palaces and
tombs( Maqbara) in rich Bundela style of the times of
Kesari Maharaja Chhatrasaal, his same tomb above all,
2) the Dhubela Museum, including a
extraordinary collection of very fine Yogini statues ,
3) Tantric temples of great
historical and artistic importance, dating back to the
8-9th century and to the Chandela times.
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Location:
The Dhubela Museum is situated 2 km. to the South of
Village Mau Sahania on the Chhatarpur-Nowgaon highway, 16
km. off Chhatarpur
The monumental sites in its
neighbourhood are located in the tehsils of Chhatarpur and
Nowgaon
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Itinerary
route: We
leave Khajuraho to reach Chhatarpur, capital of its
district, and from Chhatarpur the village of Mau Sahania,
on the Chhatarpur- Nowgaon road to Jhansi. On the left the
Dhubela Museum is situated 2 km. to the South of the
Village.
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Description
-The itinerary includes,
1) some chilometres before
arriving to Mau Sahania , on the right, the **Savai
Singh tomb, fine example of Bundela style,
2) the ***Chhatrasal Dhubela
Museum, and the Hridaya Shah Mahal,
3) and running,
at the right, along the talab that is situated behind
the Museum,
3a)
the **tomb of Maharaja Chhattasaal 's wife Kamlapati, (the
Kamlapati ka Maqbara),
3
b) the
** tomb of the maharaja Chhatrasaal’ wife
Berccharani, (the Bercha Rani ka Maqbara)
3c)
the **gate of the city of Maheba and **the fortress of
Shital Garhi, seing the Badal Mahal
3d)
the***great tomb of the same Maharaja Chhattrasal,
4) coming back and turning towards
Nowgong,:
4a)
the ***Bhim Kund temple group and the
Tindani gate
4b)
the **Nag temple, on the road between the Dubela
Chhatrasaal Museum and Mau Sahania,
4c) the ***Ganesh temple and the
**Yogini Temple at the western Bitha of the Jagat Sagar,
finishing with
the visit of the **Bihariji ka mandir,
dedicated to Radha-Krishna, built in 17-18 th century
Other monuments visitables: Sun
temple, Temple of Gaurayamata, Kabir Ashram,
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Our Services: The
Bapuculturaltour assure confortable car , local guide, map
and cards for every monument of Dhubela Take care: For the
visitors it s very difficult to provide by themselves to
visit Dhubela, the monuments being located in many
differents areas at a great distance, that is hard to reach
in short times without the support of a tour cultural
operator.
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Gallery
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The great tomb of the same
Maharaja Chhattrasal
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wiew
from the great tomb of the same Maharaja Chhattrasal,
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the Kamlapati
ka Maqbara
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Italiano
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meta
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posizione
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itinerario
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descrizione
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galleria
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About Maharaja Chhatrasal, from
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharaja_Chhatrasal
Maharaja
Chhatrasal
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Budelkhand Kesri Maharaja
Chhatrasal (4 May 1649
– 20 December 1731), was a Bundeli warrior who
chose to turn against the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb
and seek to establish his own kingdom in Bundelkhand.He
lived for 82 years successfully.
He was born in Kachar Kachnai
on the 4th of May in 1649, to Champat Rai and Lal
Kunwar. Chhatrasal raised the banner of revolt against
the Mughals in Bundelkhand at the age of 22, with an
army of 5 horsemen and 25 swordsmen, in 1671. During the
first ten years of his revolt he conquered a large tract
of land between Chitrakoot
and Panna
on the east and Gwalior
on the west. His domains streched from Kalpi
in the north to Sagar,
Garah
Kota and Damoh
in the south. Some of the Mughal generals who were
defeated by him were Rohilla
Khan, Kaliq,
Munawwar
Khan, Sadruddin, Sheikh
Anwar, Sayyid
Latif, Bahlol
Khan and Abdus
Ahmed.
Maharaja Chhatrasal
captured Mahoba
in 1680. Upon his death on the 20th of December 1731,
Chhatrasal bequeathed Mahoba and the surrounding area to
the Maratha
Peshwa
Baji
Rao I in return for Baji Rao's assistance against
the Mughals.
Chhatrasal was a disciple of
Prannathji and accepted him as his guru
and accepted Pranami
Dharma.
In the second phase of his
struggle between 1681 and 1707, Chhatrasal suffered a
few reverses. Due to Aurangzeb focusing his main
military efforts on extending his domain into the
Deccan,
Chhatrasal did not have to face the full military might
of the Mughal Empire.
In his book "Mastani",
historian D.
G. Godse has given eloquent account of Maharaja
Chhatrasal's life and his secular values. Godse claims
that Baji
Rao I's second wife Mastani
was Chhatrasal's daughter and that relationship between
Chhatrasal and Baji Rao I was like that of father and
son.
[edit]
Further reading
Bhagavānadāsa
Gupta, Life and times
of Maharaja Chhatrasal Bundela,
New Delhi, Radiant (1980). ISBN
1-135-47177-0
Bhagavānadāsa
Gupta, Contemporary
Sources of the Mediaeval and Modern History of
Bundelkhand (1531-1857),
vol. 1 (1999). ISBN
81-85396-23-X.
"Mastani" by D.
G. Godse
[edit]
External links
Persondata
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Name
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Chhatrasal
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Alternative names
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Short description
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Date of birth
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4 May 1649
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Place of birth
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Date of death
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20 December 1731
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Place of death
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This Indian
history-related article is a stub.
You can help Wikipedia by expanding
it.
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Retrieved
from
"http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maharaja_Chhatrasal&oldid=502602854"
|
about Mastani from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastani

Mastani
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Mastani
|
 A
painting said to be of Mastani
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Born
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Bundelkhand
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Died
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1740
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Occupation
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Wife of Baji
Rao I
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Spouse
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Baji
Rao I
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Children
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2[1]
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Parents
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Maharaja Chhatrasal or Nizam
of Hyderabad
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Mastani
(died 1740) was the wife
of Peshwa
Baji
Rao I (1699–1740), an Indian
general and prime minister to the fourth Maratha
Chhatrapati
(Emperor) Shahuji.
She is said to have been a beautiful and brave woman.[2]
[edit]
Biography


Peshwa Baji Rao I
Mastani
was a daughter of a Hindu, Maharaja
Chhatrasal (1649–1731), of Bundelkhand
province,[3] and was
borne by his Persian Moslem wife. When a Mughal
chief from Allahabad,
Mohammad Khan Bangash, invaded Chhattrasal’s
kingdom during 1727-28 and imprisoned him and his
family, Chhattrasal sent a secret message, seeking help,
to Baji Rao, who happened to be on a military campaign
in the vicinity of Bundelkhand. Bajirao came to the
rescue of Chhatrasal, defeated Bangash's army, and
restored Chhatrasal to his throne. In gratitude,
Chattrasal gave Bajirao his daughter Mastani, and also a
third of his kingdom, including Jhansi,
Sagar
and Kalpi.
He also gave 33 lakh gold coins to Bajirao.
However
sources vary on this context. According to the second
view she was daughter of Nizam
of Hyderabad, Marathas who had defeated Nizam in
1734 was advised by his wife to marry his daughter to
Peshwa to foster friendly relations with the Marathas
who had become the most dominant power in India and in
the Indian Subcontinent.[4]
The
third origin of Mastani is said to be that she was a
dancer in Nizam Court and after Nizam accepted the
defeated during the meeting of Peshwa with Nizam he fell
in love with Mastani and married her which was condemned
by Brahmins and other Hindus as Baji Rao was an upper
caste Brahmin.[4]
However the most accepted
version is that she was daughter of Chatrasal with his
Persian Moslem wife. Mastani is often referred to as
Bajirao's concubine or mistress. However, she was his
lawfully wedded wife.
Mastani
gave the Peshwa two sons, on whom their father bestowed
the jagir of Banda.
The two brothers fought on the side of the Marathas
in the third Battle
of Panipat in a.d. 1761 between Ahmed
Shah Abdali and the Marathas
and one of them is said to have been killed in the
battle.[1]
Mastani was a skilled
horse-rider, and she accompanied Baji Rao on his
military campaigns. According to legends, she was
skilled in spear-throwing and swordsmanship. She was
also a talented dancer and singer. Both Mastani and Baji
Rao's wife, Kashibai, bore sons to Baji Rao within a few
months of each other. Kashibai's child died at an early
age. Mastani's child was named Shamsher Bahadur.
However, Baji Rao's love for
his half-Moslem wife Mastani, and neglect of Kashibai
angered his mother, Radhabai. In deference to Radhabai,
Baji Rao's brother, Chimnaji Appa, tried to send Mastani
into exile. Baji Rao's son, Balaji, also tried to coerce
Mastani into leaving his father, but she refused.
Enraged by her growing influence on Baji Rao, and Baji
Rao's neglect of Kashibai, Balaji had Mastani placed
under house
arrest for a time, while Baji Rao was on military
campaign.
Mastani lived for some time with
Baji Rao at his palace of Shaniwar
Wada in the city of Pune.
The palace's north-east corner held Mastani Mahal and
had its own external doorway called Mastani darwaza.
Because of his family's intolerance of Mastani, Baji Rao
later built a separate residence for Mastani at Kothrud
in 1734,[3] some
distance away from Shaniwar Wada. The site still exists
at the Mrutyunjay
temple on Karve
road. The palace at Kothrud was dismantled and parts of
this are displayed at a special section of Raja Kelkar
Museum.[2][3]
Court records (Bakhars) during Bajirao's regime
specifically never included any reference to
her.[citation
needed] Historians
have determined that the paintings of Mastani in both
Raja Kelkar museum and Wai
museum are not authentic.[citation
needed]
In April 1740, while Baji Rao
was inspecting his lands at Khargon,
he suddenly became ill and died. Baji Rao's wife
Kashibai, his brother Chimnaji Appa, his son Balaji
(Nanasaheb), and Mastani came to Khargon. Bajirao's
mortal remains were consigned to flames on 28 April
1740, at Raver Khed on the banks of the Narmada
River. Mastani died at Pabal Village near Pune, soon
afterwards.
- Cause
of death
According
to popular folklore, Mastani committed suicide after
hearing about Bajirao's death, by drinking poison from a
ring which she was wearing. Others say that she jumped
into the funeral pyre of her husband and committed sati.
No documentation is available to confirm the actual
cause. However it is accepted that she did not live long
after Bajirao's demise and died in 1740.[5]
- Mastani's
grave
Her grave
is in Pabal. It is called Mastani's
Samadhi and is
maintained by Mr. Inamdar.[6]
Kashibai took Mastani's
six-year-old son Shamsher Bahadur (also named as
Krushnarao) into her household and raised him as one of
her own.
[edit]
Mastani in popular culture
The story of Baji Rao and Mastani
was made into a motion picture, Mastani,
directed by Dhirubhai
Desai, and released in 1955.[7]
Sanjay
Leela Bhansali announced in 2003 that he wanted to
make a film titled "Bajirao
Mastani", but he has indefinitely postponed
the project.[citation
needed]. Towards
the end of 2011, there are unconfirmed reports about
Sanjay approaching Aishwarya
Rai Bachchan for the role of Mastani and Shahrukh
Khan for the role of Bajirao.
A
Marathi serial, "Rau", was produced in the
1990s, based on a Marathi book of the same name by
historical novelist N. S. Inamdar about the life story
of Baji Rao and Mastani.
Currently
a daily serial is being broadcast on ETV
Marathi by the name, Shrimant
Peshwa Bajirao Mastani.[8]
Local lore in Pune believes
that while in Pune, Mastani used to go for her bath to a
lake (created by Bajirao specially for Mastani on Pune -
Saswad Road) with her entourage. That lake still exists
there.
[edit]
References
^ a
b
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=76&page=35
^ a
b
Tribure
India accessed 3 March 2008
^ a
b
c
Rajakelkar
Museuem accessed 3 March 2008
^ a
b
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=UkDi6rVbckoC&pg=PA27&dq=mastani+daughter+of+nizam&hl=en&ei=iw-LTtupB8yrrAe498H0AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA
^
[1]
^
Mastani's
grave
^
Mastani
at the Internet
Movie Database
^
ETV
website
[edit]
Further reading
Godse,
D. G. Mastānī,
Pôpyulara Prakāśana, 1989 (Marathi)
Anne
Feldhaus. Images of
women in Maharashtrian society.
SUNY Press (1998), p.
70.
Stewart Gordon. The
New Cambridge History of India vol. 2 part 4: The
Marathas 1600-1818.
Cambridge University Press (1993),p.
130.
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Abou Baj Rao
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baji_Rao_II
Baji
Rao II (1775– 28 Jan.
1851), also Rao Pundit
Pundham, was Peshwa
of the Maratha
Confederacy, and governed from 1796 to 1818. His
reign was marked by confrontations with the British.
[edit]
Biography
Baji Rao was the son of Peshwa
Raghunathrao
and Anandibai.
Raghunathrao defected to the English and caused the
First Anglo
Maratha war that the English lost. Peshwa
Sawai Madhavrao committed
suicide in 1796, and died without an heir, and with
the assistance of Daulatrao
Scindia and Nana
Phadnavis, Baji Rao became Peshwa. Writes Manohar
Malgonkar, the versatile English novelist of India
in his book The
Devil's Wind:
"Only someone
perversely gifted could have succeeded in squandering so
vast an inheritance in so short time or disgraced a
noble name so thoroughly. He was mean, cruel,
vindictive, avaricious but surprisingly well-read and
shrewd in financial dealings. He was above all a moral
and physical coward, the only Peshwa held in contempt by
his subjects. Of course he was more a victim of
circumstances. He was born in 1776 when both his parents
were in imprisonment of Peshwa's cabinet. Till the age
of 19, he along with his brothers were kept in
confinement denying even basic rights of education. He
lost both his parents early & was unfortunate to
have inherited legacy of father & mother who both
despite from same Brahmin family were involved in the
murder of young Peshwa (In relation"Nephew")
Narayanrao in 1774 AD. As such, being heir of murderer,
he was always looked down upon by his dukes & Earls
& other ministers & thus by his subjects also.
His every action was watched with prejudice by people &
it is said that though a good administrator &
builder of modern day Pune, he was often labeled as
incapable & coward Peshwa. A popular
song about him ran as follows:
We emptied the well And drained the land
dry, To grow a tree of thorns, "Running"
Baji Rao.
Continues Malgonkar
"As a Peshwa he made a
deplorable overlord, a man delighted in humiliating his
feudatories, seizing their estates on flimsiest of
pretexts and what worse, someone imagined that their
womenfolk too belonged to him".
After the death of Phadnavis in 1800,
the Maratha leaders Yashwantrao
Holkar of Indore
and Daulat
Rao Sindhia of Gwalior
contested for control of the empire; their rivalry made
its way to Pune,
seat of the Peshwa. Holkar ultimately triumphed, and
Baji Rao fled west to Bombay
in September 1802 to seek the willing hands of the
British who were waiting for this opportunity with great
patience. There, he concluded the Treaty
of Bassein in December 1802, in which the British
agreed to reinstate Baji Rao in return for the Marathas
allowing British
troops in Maratha territory and paying for their
maintenance, and acceptance of a British political agent
(Resident) at Pune.
Holkar and Sindhia resisted the British intrusion on
Maratha affairs, which resulted in the Second
Anglo-Maratha War of 1803-1805. The British
triumphed, and the Marathas lost due to misunderstanding
created between Hokars & Scindias & treachery at
all the battles done by Scindia's French & other
European Officers & were forced to accept losses of
territory.
The raids of the Pindaris,
irregular horsemen who resided in the Maratha
territories, into British
territory ultimately led to the Third
Anglo-Maratha War of 1817-1818 which ended in the
defeat of the Bhosles, Holkars and other maratha
feudatories. On Nov 5, 1817 on the day of Pournima, the
British Resident at Pune, maintained and paid by Baji
Rao for his 'protection', attacked Baji Rao II's army
led by his Attorney Mor Dixit. Bajirao II could have won
this battle had he not halted progress of his forces by
succumbing to the request of British Resident
Elphinstone for a ceasefire. Baji Rao watched the battle
that ensued between his forces and the British from a
hill now called Parvati.
This battle is referred to as Battle
of Khadki. He moved his forces to Garpir on
outskirts towards present day Solapur road to block the
British forces coming from Jalna but treachery of one of
his dukes, Sardar Ghorpade Sondurkar, led to his forces
withdrawing as the sound of the gunfire came too close.
Later he captured Chakan Fort from British troops and
repulsed the attack of Ghodnadi's Company Regiment at
Korgaon, where lots of company officers as well as
soldiers were killed including loss of guns at the hands
of his feudatory Tryambakji Dengle. Five British columns
set out after him in full cry, slavering at the thought
of the "Prize money" that lay at the end of
the chase. After running for five months from one fort
to another, awaiting promised help from Scindias,
Holkars and Bhosles, Baji Rao II surrendered to Sir
John Malcolm. Much to the chagrin of the Company's
Governor-General
Francis
Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings (no
relation to Warren
Hastings, the first Governor-General
of India), Malcolm was prepared to keep him a
lifelong prince, allow him to retain his personal
fortune and pay him a pension of a hundred thousand
pounds every year. In return, Baji Rao II would have to
live in a place assigned by the British along with his
retainers on the condition that he would never return to
his homeland at Pune. He would also have to forsake all
his claims to his heritage and could not style himself
as Peshwa but there was no objection to call himself as
'Maharaja'. The only reason why 1st Marquess
of Hastings ratified the treaty made by Malcolm was
his conviction that Baji Rao II would not live long as
he was already above 40 and many of his ancestors did
not live much beyond that age.
To keep Baji Rao II under watchful
eyes, the British selected a small village on the right
bank of Ganges at a place called Bithur
near Kanpur,
where they had one of their biggest military
establishments. The place selected was exactly six
square miles in area and in it, together with his
relatives and others who moved from Pune
along with him in 1818, there were about 15,000
inhabitants. He had once ruled 50 million. There Baji
Rao added 5 more wives and led an empty life, spending
the day time in religion. Contrary to the Company's
wishes, he lived for another 33 years and died in 1851
at Bithur.
There were many stories making the
rounds in the Court of Gwalior about Baji Rao II, where
Malgoankar’s grandfather P. Baburao was a
minister. One such story was about the ghost of a slain
Peshwa, Narain Rao, haunting Baji Rao throughout his
life that was widely known to many people due to Baji
Rao II’s unceasing efforts to exorcise the ghost.
Narain Rao was the fifth Peshwa who was allegedly
murdered with the connivance of Baji Rao’s parents
as was mentioned earlier. In order to get rid of the
ghost, Baji Rao employed the priests of Pandharpur, a
temple town of Maharashtra on the banks of a local
river. Initially the priests succeeded in driving away
the ghost and in gratitude, Baji Rao II ordered the
building of a riverside embankment in Pandharpur, which
still bears his name. However when Baji Rao II was
exiled to Bithur the ghost re-appeared and started
haunting again. Since he was forbidden to visit his
homeland, he performed religious penances prescribed by
the priests of Benares and was extravagant in
distributing alms to Brahmins. He built temples, bathing
ghats, performed endless poojas (religious prayers),
underwent countless stringent fasts, fell at the feet of
sadhus and soothsayers, etc., but the ghost wouldn’t
leave him. It stayed with him till end warning him that
his line will end with his successor, his house will
burn to ashes and his clan will perish. Much later, in
July 1857 during the Indian
Rebellion of 1857, after their successful re-capture
of Kanpur, the British
forces burnt down Bithur, including the residence of
Baji Rao II (wada) where many members of his extended
family except his adopted son, Nana Sahib, resided.
[edit]
In Defence of Bajirao
Bajirao II has been panned as deceitful by
all English writers. It is said he plotted against them
even before the ink at Bassein ran dry. The treaty of
Bassein was fashioned in peculiar circumstance and the
Peshwa, to regain his seat of power, had no option to
play the English against his opponents, the Holkars and
his brother Amrutrao in Pune. Immediately he secured
this objective he tried to shake off the treaty in
insidious ways and later when he felt his independence
to deal with the chiefs being stifled, more openly. Yet,
he lacked that fire and risk taking ability or
warriorship that his grandfather Bajirao I was known
for. All his diplomacy crashed before his own weak
soldiership. Bajirao II could have lived a most opulent
life amongst all princes of India, yet in 1817 he chose
to throw it away and cross swords with the powerful
English war machine, to try to retain his independence.
The English armies looked after their soldiers well and
in battles like the one at Koregaon (31 Dec 1817), the
Peshwa could not achieve complete victory due to the
intrepid fight put up by the British army. Opposing
Bajirao II and the Marathas of the day were stalwarts
like Wellesley, Malcolm and Elphinstone. Daulatrao
Scindia and Yeshwantrao Holkar could not match the
genius of these English stalwarts. The 'style' of
fighting changed, also, and French generals abandoned
Scindia before important battles.
Bajirao II, himself, was not trained
in the craft of war or to rule. Kept in prison
practically since birth, his education was neglected,
something his mother always lamented. The death of Sawai
Madhavrao Peshwa propelled him to the office of Peshwa
with the help of a very young Daulatrao Scindia, adopted
son of the great Mahadji. Bajirao had neither an army
nor a treasury, and so he remained a puppet of the
Scindia - till Scindia finally left to look after his
Northern domains in 1801-2. The war between Holkar and
Scindia erupted shortly after and Bajirao sought
Scindia's help to keep the warrior Holkar at bay. The
combined armies of Scindia and Peshwa were defeated at
Hadapsar near Pune in 1802 and the Peshwa left Poona, as
he feared being killed by Yeswantrao Holkar (owing to
his killing a Holkar a few years earlier for rebelling
against his (Peshwa's) authority). Bajirao II quit Poona
and went to Bassein where the English offered him
allurements to sign the Subsidiary Treaty in return for
the throne. After deliberating for over a month, and
after threats that his brother would otherwise be
recognised as Peshwa, Bajirao II signed the treaty
surrendering his residual sovereignty, and allowing the
English to put him on the throne at Poona. The English
armies then waged war and defeated the Scindia and
Holkar armies separately. The divisions in the Maratha
confederacy therefore helped the British defeat the
Maratha power. It is ironic that at a time when British
armies boasted of men like the Wellesley brothers at the
helm of affairs, the Marathas had small leaders without
a strategic vision like Bajirao II, Daulatrao Scindia
and Yeshwantrao Holkar. The death of Tipu
Sultan in 1799 and of Nana
Phadnis in 1800 had indeed cleared the path for
British sovereignty in India on the back of Indian
soldiers.
Bajirao II began to feel his
subservient status after 1811, and challenged the
whittling down of his authority by the new English
Resident Mountstuart
Elphinstone. This accelerated after the 1815 murder
of an agent of the Gaikwad,
named Gangadhar Shastri, at Pandharpur.
Secretly, Bajirao II began gathering an army ostensibly
to fight the Pindaris. Finally, but too slowly, he made
his move in 1817 and his army attacked the British
residency in Poona. The Battle
of Khadki was neither won nor lost and after losing
the skirmish at Yerwada due to treachery, a few days
later Bajirao II chose to leave Poona rather than
inflict hardships on the city. His running battle with
the British continued for four months until, having lost
his army, his Generals and many wars, he surrendered to
John Malcolm in 1818 and was pensioned off. Bajirao's
story deserves to be retold and re-analysed. His
personal life was no different from the rulers of the
time. He tried to shake off his treaty with the British,
but was not strong enough to build an all-India
coalition. Scindia stayed neutral and did not move
against the British. His proteges, Nana
Sahib, Rani
Laxmibai, Tatya
Tope and Rao Saheb, were at the forefront of the
1857 war of independence that followed his death in 28
January 1851 at Bithoor near Kanpur.
It was not the fault of Bajirao II that the
bonding between the Maratha Sardars, especially
Bhosale-Shinde-Holkar and many such others, had weakened
substantially since the 1790s. The power of the British
and their political connections across India had
increased phenomenally. Such a situation — nothing
less than "Shivaji Maharaj" — could have
re-established the Maratha supremacy. Unfortunately,
Bajirao II was neither born nor trained to be the head
of the Maratha Confederacy. At least he showed the will
to fight against the British until the end, unlike the
Shinde, Holkar, and Bhosale, who shook hands with the
British to save their skin. Even the Chhatrapati himself
(the owner of the state), Pratap singh, withdrew his
support to save his Gaddi.
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See also
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References
Malgoankar,
Manohar; Devil’s Wind, Orient Paperbacks,
New Delhi, 1972
Vaidya, Dr. SG; Peshwa Bajirao II
and the downfall of the Maratha power (5th ed.)
1976, Pragati Prakashan, Nagpur, India.
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Further reading
The
Marathi historical
novelist N. S. Inamdar has written two books on the
career of Peshwa Baji Rao II. The last Peshwa has been
much-maligned by historians. In these novels, Inamdar
tries to show the Peshwa in different light. A person
who was imprisoned in his childhood for a crime which
was supposedly committed by his mother Anandibai,
a person who came to the Peshwai not knowing the ABC's
of politics, and a person who was in the wrong place at
the wrong time.
The
first of the books is "Jhep"
(1963) is actually based on the life of Trimbakji
Dengle who was a guard of the Peshwa and rose to become
his chief
minister (Karbhari). He helped the Peshwa resurrect
the Peshwai from the ruins after the Second Anglo
Maratha War. He also tried to form a sort of coalition
with some kings to try to overthrow British rule. In
this he failed and the British framed him in a murder
of an eminent man Gangadhar Shastri (chief minister of
the Gaekwad) and he was arrested. The Peshwa wasn't
willing to give up his much-valued prime minister and
was willing to start a war against the British but
Trimbakji asks him to lie low and wait until the right
time has come.
The second book is
"Mantravegala"
(1969) is a sort of continuation of "Jhep".
The difference is that "Jhep" deals more with
the personal life of Trimbakji whereas "Mantravegala"
deals with the personal life of Bajirao between the
years 1817-1818 and the Third and last Anglo Maratha
war. In the initial part of the book Baji Rao is very
angry that the English are constantly interfering in
the affairs of the Maratha kingdom to a great extent.
He is secretly making plans to destroy the British once
and for all. He knows it will not be possible but still
wants to attempt it nonetheless. He frees Trimbakji
from the prison in which the British have imprisoned
him but refuses to acknowledge to Mounstuart
Elphinstone that he is behind it. Also some Maratha
chieftains are aiding marauders called the Pindaris who
have harassed the British. They ask the Peshwa to stop
the chieftains from aiding the Pindaris which he says
he cannot do. Finally the Pindari War takes the form of
the Anglo maratha war. In the initial part of the war
Baji Rao wins some battles as the British are caught
unawares. But the British manage to defeat the Maratha
chieftains and finally Baji Rao himself. He is made to
give up the Peshwai (which is abolished) and is exiled
to Bithur (near Kanpur). The book very beautifully
captures the Peshwa's feelings and thoughts. His hatred
of the British, his acknowledgement of his past
mistakes (like refusing to accept Yashwantrao
Holkar), his sadness at not being able to father
any childs (all his children died very early or were
stillborn) and also his last tearful farewell to
Trimbakji at the end of the books.
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