This September when I visited Raipur in Chattisgarh, I took some time out to visit a famous Ram Temple called Dughdhahari Math. The name literally means one who only feeds on milk. The first temple priest,  Balbhadradas, is believed to have lived only on a milk diet, hence the name.  The temple is spread across a large area and has community kitchen, hostel for students and a school in addition to religious structure. One can imagine that the temple was useful for surrounding populace not just as a place of worship but also for community gatherings and education.

This temple was built by King Raghoji Bhonsale when Raipur was part of Berar state. As is known, Bhonsales of Nagpur were one of the many governors of Maratha Kingdom. This got me thinking that there undoubtedly must be many such buildings and other contributions made by Marathas during their reign in large area of India for 100 years of so. I tried searching for books which talk about contribution of Marathas to India but there is hardly any authentic work available. One can find multiple books talking about Mughal and other medieval Kings but hardly anything on Marathas and for that matter others like Sikh or South Indian Kings. Marathas, in fact, have made significant contribution in keeping alive Indian ethos and culture and resisting complete “Persianization” of India. We have seen countries which have been invaded by Islamic rulers and have lost their indigenous culture completely. After European rule over such countries, any last traces have also gone away. One such example is Philippines. From a majority Hindu nation, Philippines’ people converted to Islam completely. With Spanish and later American rule, today the religion of majority of population is Christianity. The culture is distinctly Spanish. This did not happen in India and rising of Maratha kingdom was one of the biggest reason why India did not lose its culture entirely.  

There are many Maratha kings and warriors during Maratha reign we should know about, starting from the great Chatrapati Shivaji and Sambhaji to female warriors like Lakshmi Bai. We will cover fascinating history of some of these warriors in a series of articles. Instead of going by the chronological order let me pick up a warrior whose name is in the news recently. He was the one who thundered with a 36 kilograms DandaPatta sword in the battlefields. He never lost a single battle in his life, a battle record better than Napoleon Bonaparte. He was the one who expanded Marathas’ Hindu kingdom beyond Vindhyas to Central and North India. He was Shirmant Bajirao Peshwa (I), lovingly known as Thorale Bajirao (elder Bajirao) among Maharashtrians. Undoubtedly Shivaji’s name is first and most prominent when talking about Maratha Empire for he was the one who instilled the confidence in Marathas that they can defeat Mughals. Bajirao, however, is the one who made Hindavi Rajya of Shivaji -pan-Indian in true sense.

Born on 18^th August 1700, Bajirao became 4^th Peshwa (Prime Minister) in 1719 at a young age of 19 years. At the time of his appointment, Maratha Kingdom was struggling from internal and external struggles. While there were threats from Nizam of Deccan, Siddis of Janjira and Portuguese, Maratha Family itself was divided between and Shahuji and Satara factions. At such a turbulent time Bajirao proposed a radical step of invading Mughal territories so that Shahuji’s empire becomes big enough to galvanize other Indian states. This proposal after some opposition from other ministers was finally accepted by Shahuji. Bajirao did not disappoint Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj. He fought various battles for 20 years after becoming Peshawa and famously was never defeated. In the process, he made Marathas a Pan Indian force with boundaries extending almost all of North India.

Bajirao started his Mission first towards North with Malwa campaign in 1723 and was successful in collecting taxes from south of Malwa.  Meanwhile in 1725 an obstruction to this campaign came in the form of ambitions of Nizam of Deccan. Nizam was helped by Bajirao to win a battle against Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah in 1723 after he rebelled against the emperor’s transfer orders. Nizam later tried to achieve sovereignty over Deccan. Nizam knew that Marathas were his biggest hurdle in achieving this ambition. He started working against Shahuji and Bajirao. Nizam first made his intentions clear by sending an army to drive out Maratha tax collectors from North Karnataka in 1725. Later in 1727, he refused to pay Chauth (part of his tax revenue) to Marathas, citing a rival claim to Maratha throne by Sambhaji (II) and Tarabai. Just to humiliate Marathas he went to the extent of offering arbitration in the family feud of Marathas. Bajirao advised Shahuji against accepting any such offer and started a war campaign against Nizam. Bajirao captured Khandesh, Burhanpur and Jalna areas from Nizam. Meanwhile Nizam opened another front in Pune. He attacked the city when Bajirao was busy capturing Nizam’s territories. He defeated the city’s thin defense force and installed Sambhaji (II) as ruler. Bajirao returned towards Pune and came face to face with Nizam’s army at the battle of Palkhed on 28^th Feb 1728 and won the battle hands down. Nizam accepted the defeat in this battle and gave rights of tax collection to Shahuji in Deccan.

Once this biggest threat in Maratha backyard was taken care of, Balaji restarted his northward campaigns. He sent a huge army to Malwa in 1728 under the command of his own brother Chimaji Appa along with few generals like Scindia, Pawar and Holkar. By 1729 Maratha warriors had reached as far as North-West of present day MP and south of Rajasthan.

 In 1729 Bajirao helped Chatrasal defeat Mughal army in Bundelkhand. Chatrasal gave Marathas huge Land rights and this is where Bajirao married Chatrasal’s daughter Mastani. The movie “Bajirao Mastani” released recently shows Bajirao enjoying good time with music, dance and love. However, looking at the number of war campaigns he had been part of, Bajirao surely did not have so much time for such a good life. There are some glaring mistakes in the movie as far as historical facts are concerned. Mastani was not a courtesan but a King’s daughter and Kashibai could not dance due to her arthritis and probably a limp in her leg but was shown as dancing away in ‘Pinga’ song.

Anyways, taking forward our story, Bajirao sent forces to Gujarat in 1730 and won the tax collection rights from Mughal governors. However, Maratha army’s commander general Triambak Rao Dabhade rebelled against Bajirao as he considered Gujarat his family’s sphere of influence. The reason was that Dabhade family had been part of ransacking of Gujarat multiple times in past. Dabhade was supported by Gaekwads and Bandes of Gujarat in his rebellion against Bajirao. However Bajirao defeated them in battle of Dabhoi, where Triambak Rao Dabhade was killed.

Between year 1734 to 1736, Marathas were busy controlling Siddis of Janjira and this was probably the only time when Bajirao did not take part in a large scale army campaign and the battles with Siddis were handled by Chimaji Appa. In 1737, however came the biggest win for Bajirao. He defeated Mughals in Battle of Bhopal. This is when he got sovereign rights over entire Malwa region for Marathas from Mughals. In 1740 he was on the way to Delhi with a strong force of 100,000 troupe when he got a heat stroke and died of a high fever at a young age of 40.

There are many regions in India where the entire culture has changed from an Indic culture to Islamic one. People who have seen the culture of hinterlands of Khandesh in Maharashtra or of western UP will understand what I am talking about. It was Bajirao who successfully stopped the spread of Islamic culture with his relentless campaigns against Mughals. What if Bajirao was able to reach Delhi and what if he had controlled affairs of Maratha Kingdom for another 20 years? Could he possibly have made India united and strong enough to stop British invasion? We will never know for history is full of ‘what-ifs’ which do not offer any answers.