The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.11

v4.c21.11

Unable to keep the Marāthās within their own limits, Āsaf Jāh took refuge in diplomatic machination. Malcontents among Shāhū’s subjects and those ministers of his government who were jealous of the Peshwā’s ascendancy all found welcome at the Nizām’s court. By their advice, he planned to create division and weakness in the Marāthā state by undertaking to instal Shambhūjī of Kolhāpur (the first cousin of Shāhū) as the head of the Marāthā royal family (*Chhatrapati*) and to make an equal partition of Shivājī’s kingdom between the two cousins. He attached the ancestral estate (*watan*) of the house of Shivājī, which Shāhū had so long enjoyed and to which Shāhū like all other Marāthās felt an almost religious attachment. The attempt ultimately failed through the utter incapacity of the Nizām’s puppet Chhatrapati and the unreliability of his Marāthā allies, but mainly because of the superior genius and energy of Bājī Rāo. It left behind it two results very harmful to the Nizām’s interests: Shāhū was bitterly estranged from him, and Bājī Rāo’s ascendancy in the council of his king became unrivalled.