Battle of Udgir

01Guns of the Gardi

In late 1759 the Marathas took Ahmednagar fort by winning over its commandant, and the Nizam’s brothers Salabat Jang and Nizam Ali marched to recover it. Sadashivrao Bhau, cousin of the Peshwa Nanasaheb, met them in the country round Udgir. He had taken into service Ibrahim Khan Gardi, a commander trained in the French style with disciplined musketeers and field guns. The Maratha horse cut the Nizam’s supplies while the guns battered his camp, and after weeks of fighting the Nizam’s army was hemmed in near Udgir and asked for terms.

02The treaty and the road north

The treaty gave the Marathas lands yielding some sixty lakh rupees a year and several of the great Deccan forts, Daulatabad and Bijapur among them, with Ahmednagar confirmed. Bhau came home as the hero of Pune. Within weeks the news of Dattaji Shinde’s death at the hands of Ahmad Shah Abdali’s army arrived, and the Peshwa sent Bhau north with Ibrahim Khan’s guns. That march ended at Panipat in January 1761.

Person · 1730 – 14 Jan 1761Sadashivrao BhauThe son of Chimaji Appa and cousin of the Peshwa Balaji Bajirao, Bhau won the Battle of Udgir against the Nizam in 1760 and was sent north the same year to meet Ahmad Shah Abdali. He took Delhi and Kunjpura, and died with most of his army at Panipat on 14 January 1761.Read →