The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c10.112

c10.112

The Peshwa Báláji had long been interfering in the affairs of Hindustán, and had incurred the enmity of Ahmad Sháh Abdáli the Afghán king, whose forces Raghunáth Ráo the Peshwa's brother, had driven out of the Panjáb. He advanced in 1759 bent on punishing them, and routed two detachments commanded by Sindia and Holkar with great slaughter. It was necessary to send a larger force to meet him, and in A.D. 1760 the grand army of the Maráthás, with the contingents of all the chiefs, led by Sadáshiv Bháu, marched into Hindustán. After some skirmishing the two armies met at Pánipat in January 1761 and the Maráthás were utterly routed. Sadáshiv Bháu, Vishvás Ráo the Peshwa's eldest son, many other chiefs, and the whole army fell in the fight. Soon after hearing the news Báláji Ráo the Peshwa died (June 1761). The defeat had a decisive effect on the fortunes of the Marátha empire. Up to this time the great chiefs had been generally obedient to the Peshwa, and had always joined his standard. Now his prestige was gone, and the chiefs became more and more independent. Doubtless this might in any case have occurred later; the distant conquests could not long have been controlled from Poona, but the defeat of Pánipat hastened the catastrophe. The minority of Báláji's successor, Mádhav Ráo a boy of sixteen, and the quarrels between him and his uncle Raghunáth, tended to the same result. When Mádhav Ráo grew up, his personal character held together the confederacy for some time; but his early death, and the quarrels as to the succession, decided the matter, and without doubt facilitated the conquest by the English.