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Ruler

Nana Phadnavis

Minister who held the Peshwa state together

1742—1800

12 Feb 1742 – 13 Mar 1800

Balaji Janardan Bhanu, known as Nana Phadnavis, survived Panipat as a young clerk and for a quarter of a century ran the Maratha state from Pune. He kept the infant Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao on the throne, fought the British to a standstill in the first Anglo-Maratha war, and beat the Nizam at Kharda in 1795.

01The Barbhai

Nana was born at Satara on 12 February 1742 into the Bhanu family, hereditary phadnis, keepers of the Peshwa’s accounts. He was at Panipat in 1761 and got away. Under Madhavrao I he learned government in the Peshwa’s own office. On 30 August 1773 the young Peshwa Narayanrao was murdered in Shaniwar Wada, and his uncle Raghunathrao took the title. Nana and Sakharam Bapu gathered a council of ministers and chiefs, remembered as the Barbhai, the twelve brothers. When Narayanrao’s widow Gangabai bore a son on 18 April 1774, they declared the baby Peshwa as Sawai Madhavrao.

02Against the Company

Raghunathrao went to the English at Bombay, and the first Anglo-Maratha war followed. Nana kept the chiefs together, while Mahadji Shinde did the fighting; the Bombay army surrendered at Wadgaon in January 1779. Nana brought the Nizam, Hyder Ali and the Bhonsles of Nagpur into a league against the Company. The Treaty of Salbai in 1782 left the Maratha state whole and Raghunathrao pensioned off. In March 1795 the united Maratha chiefs beat the Nizam at Kharda, the last great field the Marathas fought together. That October Sawai Madhavrao fell from a balcony of Shaniwar Wada and died.

Ahmednagar Fort
Place · Founded by Ahmad Nizam Shah in the 1490s; rebuilt in stone by Hussain Nizam Shah, 1559–62Ahmednagar FortThe moated fort of the Nizam Shahi sultans, which passed to the Mughals, then the Marathas, then the British. Nana Phadnavis was held here in 1797, and Nehru wrote The Discovery of India here as a prisoner in 1942–45.Read →

03The last years

Raghunathrao’s son Bajirao II became Peshwa, and the old minister and the new master never trusted each other. In 1797 Daulatrao Shinde had Nana seized and held him in Ahmednagar fort; he was released the next year and took up the government again. He died at Pune on 13 March 1800. The British Resident at Pune, Colonel William Palmer, wrote that with him went all the wisdom and moderation of the Maratha government. Within three years Bajirao II signed the Treaty of Bassein and the Company’s troops were in Pune. Nana’s wada still stands in Pune, and his ghat and temple at Menavali on the Krishna near Wai.

Battles

Third Battle of Panipat

The largest battle fought in eighteenth-century India. The Marathas came north to keep Abdali out of Hindustan and, after two months of starvation in their entrenched camp, attacked and lost.

14 January 1761 CE

Battle of Wadgaon

In the First Anglo-Maratha War the Bombay government marched on Pune to install Raghunathrao as Peshwa. The Marathas let it come, burnt the country ahead of it and then closed in.

January 1779 CE

Battle of Kharda

The last time all the great Maratha houses took the field together under the Peshwa’s banner.

March 1795 CE

Places

Ahmednagar FortStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Ahmednagar Fort

The moated fort of the Nizam Shahi sultans, which passed to the Mughals, then the Marathas, then the British. Nana Phadnavis was held here in 1797, and Nehru wrote The Discovery of India here as a prisoner in 1942–45.

PuneStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Pune

The town where Shivaji grew up under Jijabai’s eye, and for nearly a century the seat of the Peshwas, from which Maratha armies rode to Attock and Bengal. Later it became the workshop of Tilak, Agarkar and the Deccan Education Society.

Satara and AjinkyataraStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Satara and Ajinkyatara

The town below Ajinkyatara fort where Chhatrapati Shahu was crowned in 1708 and ruled for forty-one years, while his Peshwas carried Maratha arms across Bharat. In 1848 it became the first state the British took under the doctrine of lapse.

Shaniwar Wada, PuneRuined
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Shaniwar Wada, Pune

The palace-fort of the Peshwas, from which the Maratha confederacy was run for nearly ninety years. A fire in 1828 left only the walls and gates.

Nana Wada, PuneStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Nana Wada, Pune

The town house that Nana Phadnavis built for himself in 1780, a few steps from Shaniwar Wada, from which the Peshwa’s chief minister ran the Maratha state for a quarter of a century.

MenavaliStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Menavali

The Krishna-side village near Wai where Nana Phadnavis, the minister who held the Peshwa state together after Panipat, built his country wada, a stone ghat and temples. A great bell from the Portuguese church at Vasai hangs at the ghat.

On the timeline

  • 1 March 1776

    Treaty of Purandar signedPolity

    Nana Phadnavis’ regency at Pune and the Company’s government at Calcutta sign a treaty that drops the Company’s backing of Raghunathrao. Bombay refuses to honour it, and the war goes on.

  • March 1795

    Last united Maratha victory at KhardaWar

    The armies of the Peshwa, Scindia, Holkar, Bhonsle and Gaekwad, under Nana Phadnavis’s direction, defeat the Nizam at Kharda. It was the last time the confederacy fought as one.

  • 13 March 1800

    Nana Phadnavis dies at PunePolity

    The minister who held the Maratha state together for a quarter century dies. Wellesley’s Resident wrote that with him departed all the wisdom and moderation of the Maratha government.