First Anglo-Maratha War

01Raghoba and the Treaty of Surat

Peshwa Narayanrao was murdered in his palace in August 1773, and his uncle Raghunathrao, Raghoba to the Marathas, took the office. Narayanrao’s widow Gangabai then bore a son, Sawai Madhavrao. The ministers at Pune, led by Nana Phadnavis and Sakharam Bapu, the Barbhai council, ruled in the infant’s name and drove Raghoba out. He went to Bombay, and in March 1775 the Treaty of Surat bought Company troops for him with the promise of Salsette and Bassein. Raghoba and Colonel Keating won a fight at Adas in Gujarat that May.

02Wadgaon, Goddard and Gwalior

Calcutta disowned the Surat treaty, then backed the war again. In January 1779 a Bombay army climbing towards Pune was hemmed in by Mahadji Scindia and Tukoji Holkar and signed the humiliating Convention of Wadgaon. Warren Hastings answered by marching General Goddard across India. Goddard stormed Ahmedabad and took Bassein in 1780, and Captain Popham scaled the rock of Gwalior. But Goddard’s push up the Bor Ghat towards Pune in 1781 was driven back to the coast with heavy loss.

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 →

03Salbai

Mahadji Scindia, beaten in the field by Camac in Malwa in 1781, became the broker of peace. The Treaty of Salbai was signed on 17 May 1782. The Company recognised Sawai Madhavrao as Peshwa, gave Raghoba a pension and handed back almost everything it had taken, keeping Salsette and a few islands near Bombay. The Marathas promised to keep the French out. Mahadji came away as the guarantor of the treaty and the strongest Maratha chief in the north.