Three hundred and twenty-five years ago, on August 18, 1700, a boy was born in the coastal Konkan region of Maharashtra who would go on to redraw the political map of Hindustan and change the destiny of Bharat. Known to history as Bajirao I the Fighting Peshwa he was more than just a general. He was a storm unleashed upon a decaying empire, an undefeated warrior who carried Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s dream of Hindavi Swarajya across the Vindhyas to the gates of Delhi, and a leader whose vision forged the Hindu Pad Padshahi into a formidable reality.
Bajirao was the eldest son of Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath, the statesman who elevated the Peshwaship to a position of unmatched political influence in the Maratha court. Born into the Chitpavan Brahmin tradition, Bajirao’s early life was steeped in the language of power, strategy, and dharma. His mother’s absence and his father’s constant presence on campaigns meant that his schoolroom was the battlefield and his textbooks were the hard realities of war and politics.
In 1716, when Balaji Vishwanath was treacherously imprisoned by Dabhaji Thorat, young Bajirao chose to share his father’s captivity for two years, enduring hardship and humiliation. It was here, as a teenager, that Bajirao learned the raw truth of treachery and the necessity of decisive action.
By the time Balaji Vishwanath passed away in April 1719, the Maratha Empire was still fragile, hemmed in by Mughal forces in the north, the Portuguese along the western coast, the Sidis of Janjira, and the opportunistic Nizam in Hyderabad. At just 19 years old, Bajirao was appointed Peshwa by Chhatrapati Shahu — a decision that drew skepticism from jealous nobles, but one that would prove to be among the most consequential in Maratha history.
Bajirao was not content with defending the Deccan. In Shahu Maharaj’s court, he declared with youthful fire:
“Strike, strike at the trunk and the branches will fall off themselves… The saffron flag must fly from the Krishna to the Indus. Hindustan is ours.”
This was no empty rhetoric. In an age when the Mughals still occupied Delhi but were rotting from within — weakened by indulgence, opium, and palace intrigue — Bajirao saw the opportunity to dismantle their power at its roots. While many councillors urged consolidation in the south, Bajirao insisted on pushing northwards, arguing that the heart of the empire must be targeted for lasting victory. Shahu gave his blessing, setting loose the most relentless military campaigner of the 18th century.
From 1723 onwards, Bajirao’s cavalry became the nightmare of the Mughal court. His campaigns were marked by extraordinary speed — covering 300 kilometres in a matter of days — and devastating precision.
He swept through Malwa, secured Gujarat, forged alliances with Rajput houses, and dismantled Mughal control in Bundelkhand. His ride to rescue Maharaja Chhatrasal from the Mughal commander Muhammad Khan Bungash became a defining episode. Receiving Chhatrasal’s desperate couplet for aid, Bajirao abandoned his meal, mounted his horse, and raced with a small detachment, ordering his main army to follow. Bungash was crushed, and Chhatrasal, in gratitude, granted Bajirao one-third of his kingdom.
In over two decades, Bajirao fought 41 battles from the famed encirclement at Palkhed (1728) that humbled the Nizam without a pitched fight, to the siege of Bhopal (1738) that forced the Mughal court into humiliating concessions. Not once did he lose. British and Indian historians alike place him in the rare category of undefeated commanders, alongside Alexander and Genghis Khan.
His genius lay in mobile warfare bypassing heavily defended cities, striking supply lines, and forcing the enemy into desperate retreats. The Mughal emperor, it is said, refused to meet Bajirao out of sheer fear, unwilling to even sit in his presence.
Bajirao was not just a battlefield commander. He was a state-builder who created the great Maratha houses that would carry the empire forward: the Scindias of Gwalior under Ranoji Shinde, the Holkars of Indore under Malharrao, the Gaekwads of Baroda under Pilaji, and the Pawars of Dhar under Udaiji.
By his death in 1740, the Marathas were not only the paramount power in the Deccan but a continental force, dominating much of central and western India and influencing politics from the Khyber to Kanyakumari.
In an era still haunted by Aurangzeb’s bigotry, Bajirao’s campaigns were not merely about territory. They were about restoring dignity to Hindu pilgrimage routes, reviving temples, and reasserting the cultural sovereignty of Bharat. His was a civilisational mission, and his soldiers carried both the sword and the saffron standard into enemy lands.
Bajirao died as he had lived in camp, among his men. On April 28, 1740, at Raverkhedi on the banks of the Narmada, he succumbed to sudden illness while preparing for another campaign. Sir Richard Carnac Temple would later write: “He died as he lived, in camp under canvas among his men, and he is remembered to this day among the Marathas as the fighting Peshwa and the incarnation of Hindu energy.”
Though he never lived to plant the Maratha flag on the Himalayas, his son Raghunath Rao achieved it in 1758, carrying it across the Indus to Attock.
Comments