The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.276

v4.c20.276

On 28 April, 1740, Bājī Rāo, the Peshwā, died, and the Turanian party at court took advantage of his death to appoint one of their number, ‘Azīm-ullah Khān, as his successor in the government of Mālwā. The administration of the Marāthā commonwealth now exhibited some of the signs of weakness which were more clearly perceptible in the Mughal empire. The expansion of their sphere of activity had been followed by the enfeeblement of the central authority and the introduction of the hereditary principle in the great offices of state and the government of those parts of their dominions which were at a distance from the royal residence. Dāmājī Gāikwar had succeeded his father Pīlājī in Gujarāt; Rānojī Sindia was established as collector of the Marāthās’ share of the revenue in Mālwā; Malhār Rāo Holkar administered from Maheshwar territory corresponding nearly to the state over which his descendant still rules, and a disputed succession in the Gond kingdom of Deogarh had already given Raghūjī Bhonsle, who was governing Berār on behalf of the Peshwā, an opportunity of intervention, and three years later he established himself in its new capital, Nāgpur. He was at this time commanding a mixed force of 50,000 men drawn from the armies of Shāhū, the Peshwā, and other chiefs and operating in the Carnatic, where it had defeated and slain Dost ‘Alī, the nephew and successor of Dāūd Khān Pānī in the eastern Carnatic,¹ and was busily intriguing to prevent the succession of Bālājī Rāo, son of Bājī Rāo, as Peshwā. His intrigues were fruitless and Bālājī Rāo succeeded.