The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s9.55

c7.s9.55

In 1760 the Maráthás thought it time to recommence operations against Janjira, and Rámáji Pant Phadnavis, the Sar Subhedár of the Konkan, besieged the island assisted by a corps of Portuguese. The English took part with the Sidi and hoisted the British flag at Janjira² and thus the Maráthás had a good cause of quarrel with the Bombay Government. But the disastrous battle of Pánipat in 1761, the death of the Peshwa Báláji Bájiráv, and the succession of a minor, with the internal dissensions which followed, restrained for a time the aggressive spirit of the Maráthás. Raghunáthráv, during the youth of the Peshwa Mádhavráv, aspired to rule the Marátha state, and was anxious to keep on good terms with the English, who now desired to possess territory. As most convenient to Bombay their first designs were on Sálsette and Bassein,³ but Raghunáthráv was not yet prepared to yield places so valuable and so lately conquered, and therefore the articles of agreement now concluded with him contained no territorial concession except a very doubtful one of the island of Underi or Hennery.⁴ The whole tone of the agreement, however, shows that the English were now in a much stronger position than they had ever been before, and the independence of the Sidi was so far secured that the Maráthás undertook to restore his territories and not again molest them. By 1766 the Peshwa Mádhavráv had established his own power and so far retrieved the position of the state that the wish of the English to become possessed of Sálsette or even of the islands in Bombay harbour received no attention. Thus matters continued till 1771, when with the death of Mádhavráv began those misfortunes which ended in the destruction of the Marátha state in 1818.