Raghunathrao

Raghunathrao spent his life trying to be Peshwa, was implicated in the murder of the nephew who held the office, and brought the British into Maratha politics to get it. He was Bajirao I's younger son, commanded the army that reached Attock on the Indus in 1758 - the furthest north Maratha power ever extended - and was a competent general with no capacity for patience. He acted as regent for his nephew Madhavrao I from 1761, could not accept the young man growing into the office, rebelled, was defeated at Ghodnadi and imprisoned; released, he rebelled again. When Madhavrao died in 1772 and the eighteen-year-old Narayanrao succeeded, Raghunathrao was confined again. In August 1773 palace guards under his wife Anandibai's orders killed Narayanrao in the palace at Pune, reportedly while the boy ran to his uncle for protection; the tradition is that Raghunathrao's written order to seize him was altered by Anandibai to an order to kill. He was declared Peshwa, driven out within months by the Barbhai council, and then signed the Treaty of Surat with the East India Company in 1775, offering Salsette and Bassein for an army. That treaty is the beginning of the First Anglo-Maratha War. He died in 1783 having never held power securely for a year. His son by Anandibai was Bajirao II, the last Peshwa, who surrendered to the British in 1818 and ended Maratha sovereignty. Ram Shastri Prabhune, the chief justice who investigated the murder, resigned rather than serve under him. He spent his last years under British protection at Kopargaon.

• Lived: 1734 CE – 1783 CE
• Nationality: Indian
• Roles: politician