Goddard’s Bor Ghat campaign

01Up the ghat

Flushed with the capture of Bassein, Goddard hoped that a threat to Pune itself would bring Nana Phadnavis to terms. In February 1781 he marched from the Konkan, forced the Bor Ghat and occupied Khandala at its head, on the same road the Bombay army had taken before Wadgaon two years earlier. Nana did not offer battle. The Maratha horse under Haripant Phadke and Tukoji Holkar gathered on the plateau and cut the roads behind him.

02The retreat to Panvel

For weeks Goddard sat at Khandala while his convoys from the coast were attacked in the ghat. Nana refused to treat. In April, with the monsoon approaching, Goddard gave up and started back for Panvel. The Marathas fell on his columns all the way down, with Parashuram Bhau’s men among them, and the march cost him many men and much baggage. It was the Company’s worst setback of the war after Wadgaon, and it convinced Hastings that peace had to be made through Mahadji Scindia.

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 →