Chimaji Appa

Chimaji Appa took Bassein from the Portuguese in 1739, ending their power on the west coast of India, and died within months of his brother Bajirao. He was the younger son of Balaji Vishwanath and worked as his brother's second for twenty years, holding the Deccan and the home territories while Bajirao campaigned north - an arrangement that is much of why the northern campaigns were possible at all. He destroyed a Mughal army at Amjhera in 1728 and led the force that stormed the fort at Vasai after a siege of more than two years, using mines to breach walls the Portuguese had held for two centuries; the garrison was allowed to march out with honours, and Portuguese India was reduced to Goa, Daman and Diu. He was also the household's enforcer against Mastani: with their mother Radhabai he refused to receive her, had her confined at Pune while Bajirao was away, and withheld the sacred thread from her son Shamsher Bahadur. The quarrel was never resolved. Bajirao died of fever on the Narmada in April 1740 and Chimaji died in December of the same year, aged thirty-three; the Maratha state lost both its commander and its administrator inside eight months. Temples at Vasai and a memorial at the fort commemorate the campaign. The bells taken from Portuguese churches at Vasai were distributed to Hindu temples across Maharashtra and several still hang. His son Sadashivrao Bhau commanded the Maratha army at Panipat in 1761 and was killed there. Vasai fort is now a protected monument.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history