There is something deeply heartbreaking about the fact that the greatest cavalry general of 18th-century India never lost a single battle in his life, yet was brought down not by an enemy but by an unfortunate siutation.
Peshwa Baji Rao I was 39 years old when he died on April 28, 1740, undefeated in every battle he had ever fought. Baji Rao’s body was exhausted due to ceaseless wars and military campaigns. Then he caught a virulent fever while being encamped in a village named Raverkhedi and passed away on the banks of the Narmada.
What most people miss about Baji Rao is how quietly revolutionary his leadership was. He promoted young men like Malhar Rao Holkar and Ranoji Shinde as commanders even though they did not belong to hereditary Deshmukh families of the Deccan sultanates.
Peshwa Baji Rao I: Merit over Lineage
In a world defined by lineage and hierarchy, he chose merit. That was a radical step that no one ever thought ‘Pick the Best Man, Not the Best Name’!
His personal life was equally ahead of its time and equally misunderstood. His love for Mastani, the daughter of Maharaja Chhatrasal, was fiercely contested by his own court and family. Their son Krishna Rao was born in 1734, but since his mother was Muslim, Hindu priests refused to conduct the upanayana ceremony and the boy became known as Shamsher Bahadur.
Some historians believe the emotional weight of this social rejection, combined with relentless military campaigns, quietly eroded his health long before the fever arrived.
When Baji Rao became Peshwa, Maratha territorial limits were confined to tracts in Western India. By his death, the Marathas had conquered a large part of Western and Central India and were dominating the South of India up to the peninsula. Twenty years. One man. A continent rearranged.
Sir Richard Carnac Temple put it best: “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.”
On April 28, we remember a man who reshaped the subcontinent and left too soon to finish what he started.