Battle of Sindkhed

01The Nizam without Bussy

For six years the French general Bussy and his trained troops had kept Salabat Jang on the throne of Hyderabad and the Marathas at a distance. In 1757 Bussy was drawn into the Northern Circars and the quarrels of the Nizam’s court, where Salabat’s younger brother Nizam Ali was already reaching for power. The Peshwa Balaji Bajirao saw his chance and sent his cousin Sadashivrao Bhau into the Nizam’s territory with the Maratha horse.

02Cornered at Sindkhed

The Nizam’s army marched to meet him and was caught near Sindkhed, the old seat of the Jadhav family in Berar, where Jijabai, the mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji, was born. The Maratha cavalry cut its supplies and closed round it in December 1757. Without Bussy’s battalions the Mughal army of the Deccan could not break out. Salabat Jang and Nizam Ali sued for terms early in 1758 and gave up districts to the Peshwa, among them lands round Naldurg.

Dynasty · 1713–1818 CEThe Peshwas of PuneThe Peshwas were the hereditary chief ministers of the Chhatrapatis, and from 1713 to 1818 they ran the Maratha state from Pune. Under Bajirao I and his son Nanasaheb the Marathas became the strongest power in India, until Panipat in 1761 and the British wars that ended the line in 1818.Read →