Bajirao I

Bajirao I became Peshwa at nineteen, fought around forty engagements without losing one, and turned the Maratha state from a regional power into the dominant force in India. He succeeded his father Balaji Vishwanath in 1720 over older and better-connected candidates, on Shahu's judgement. His strategic argument was to strike north rather than consolidate south: he is supposed to have said that the Mughal empire was a withering tree whose trunk should be struck, and the branches would fall of themselves. The method was speed - light cavalry moving without baggage, living off the country, appearing where no army was expected. At Palkhed in 1728 he manoeuvred the Nizam into surrender without a general action, a campaign Montgomery reproduced in his own history as a model of mobility. In 1737 he rode from the Deccan to the outskirts of Delhi with a small force, defeated the imperial troops outside the city, and left again before a relief could assemble. Malwa, Gujarat and Bundelkhand came under Maratha control in his lifetime, and the great houses - Scindia, Holkar, Gaekwad - were established by his commanders. His second marriage, to Mastani, daughter of a Bundela ruler and a Muslim mother, was never accepted by his family and is the subject of more Indian film and legend than his campaigns. He died of fever on the Narmada at thirty-nine. Shaniwar Wada, the Peshwa palace at Pune, was built by him and burned in 1828. His son Balaji Bajirao succeeded him and presided over the defeat at Panipat in 1761. Mastani s son Shamsher Bahadur was raised in the family and died fighting at Panipat.

• Lived: 1700 CE – 1740 CE
• Nationality: Indian
• Roles: military, politician