History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c41.1

v2.c41.1

The province of Orissa was conquered from the Musalmans by the Bhonsle chiefs of Nagpur, who are wrongly called Rajahs of Berar by European writers because their ancestor Pārsojī Bhonsle was appointed collector of *chauth* by *Chhatrapati* Shāhu¹. Much misunderstanding exists even at the present day regarding the position of the Bhonsles of Nagpur. They were not the agents of the Brahman Peshwas, and being Bhonsles or people of the same village as the ancestors of Shāhjī, the father of Śivājī, they gave out that they were the agnates of the Maratha royal families of Satara and Kolhapur. They resented the usurpation of royal power in the Maratha kingdom to the best of their abilities² and Raghujī Bhonsle I had at one time even dreamt of giving a son in adoption to the imbecile *Chhatrapati* Shāhu or Śivājī III. Inexorable fate brought the fermagant Tārā-Bāī to the Court of Satara during the last days of Shāhu and permitted her to palm off an impostor as her own grandson to be adopted as the heir to the Maratha throne. It is quite possible that had a Bhonsle of Nagpur been adopted by Shāhu the trend of Maratha history might have been quite different.