Peshwa - Legacy

Legacy

The first Peshwa to receive the status of a king was Ramchandra Pant Amatya Bawdekar in 1689 by Chatrapati Rajaram. The first Bhat family Peshwa was Balaji Vishwanath Bhat. He was succeeded as Peshwa by his son Baji Rao I, who never lost a battle. Baji Rao and his son, Balaji Baji Rao, oversaw the period of greatest Maratha expansion (see map at right), brought to an end by the Maratha's defeat by an Afghan army at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. The last Peshwa, Baji Rao II, was defeated by the British East India Company in the Battle of Khadki which was a part of Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1818). After the defeat the Maratha Empire was merged with British India. The empire was annexed to the British East India Company's Bombay province, and the Peshwa was pensioned off.