The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.117

v4.c21.117

In the following year, an irreparable calamity overtook the Marāthās. Their guiding spirit, Bājī Rāo Peshwā, worn out by his hard life in the field, suddenly passed away, at the early age of fortytwo, on the banks of the Narbadā, on 28 April, 1740. "He died as he had lived," says Sir Richard Temple, "in camp, under canvas among his men, and he is remembered to this day among Marāthās as the fighting Peshwā or the incarnation of Hindu energy." He was the most remarkable man, next to Shivājī himself, that his nation had produced. In the words of the historian of the Marāthās, his was "the head to plan and the heart to execute". Tall and commanding in appearance, he was, like all his family, famous for his good looks. He was equally great as a soldier and as a statesman. He understood to perfection the peculiar tactics of the Marāthā horse, and his campaigns against the Nizām were masterpieces of strategy. He was as chivalrous in the hour of victory as he was brave in the field. As a politician, he had the lofty and far-reaching ambitions of his father, and he lived to see the tiny Marāthā race, once "a cloud no bigger than a man's hand", spread all over India, from Delhi to Tanjore. He was an eloquent and inspiring orator, and if in private life he had something of the haughty and imperious reserve of the Chitpāvan, he was a generous master to those who served him faithfully. He made his home, during the short intervals of his campaigns, at Poona, which was fast becoming the rival of Sātārā, and here in 1732 he built the famous Shanwār Wādā, or "Saturday Palace", which he decorated with the spoils of Hindūstān.¹ Captain Inchbird, who visited Poona in 1739, describes it as well built and abounding with people, and the district in appearance more fertile and valuable than any other he had passed through. He especially noted the Peshwā's gun-foundry. Bājī Rāo left behind four children, two of whom, Bālājī and Raghunāth Rāo, familiarly known as Ragoba, rose to fame. Another son, Shamsher Bahādur, borne to him by his beautiful Muhammadan mistress Mastānī,² fell at Pānīpat. In January, 1741, he was followed to the funeral pyre by his brother Chimājī, the conqueror of Bassein, who, had he not been overshadowed by the Peshwā's transcendent genius, would have been recognised as one of the greatest names in Marāthā history: as an administrator, he was, perhaps, Bājī Rāo's superior, but he was loyally content to give his brother the credit for his achievements. His son, Sadāshiv Rāo (the Bhāo Sāhib), was destined to play a tragic part in his country's annals.