Sadashivrao Bhau

Sadashivrao Bhau commanded the Maratha army at Panipat in 1761, the worst defeat in its history, and his body was never identified. He was Chimaji Appa's son, born days before his mother died and orphaned at ten when his father followed Bajirao within months; he was raised alongside his cousin Balaji Bajirao, the Peshwa, and became the administrator of the state - he reformed the revenue accounts and the secretariat, and had won a substantial victory at Udgir in 1760 against the Nizam. He was then given the northern command against Ahmad Shah Durrani, and the campaign went wrong in ways that are still argued about. He took a very large force with an enormous camp of pilgrims and families, brought European-style artillery that could not be moved quickly, alienated the Rajput and Jat allies whose supplies he needed, and let himself be cut off from the Deccan north of Delhi through a winter. At Panipat on 14 January 1761 the Marathas attacked, held for most of the day, and broke; perhaps forty thousand were killed in the battle and many more in the retreat. Bhau was last seen fighting on foot. Pretenders claiming to be him appeared for years afterwards. Balaji Bajirao died six months later, of shock as much as illness. The pilgrims and camp followers travelling with the army are usually estimated at several hundred thousand, and most of those who survived the battle were killed or enslaved in the retreat. Panipat is still a byword in Marathi for catastrophe. A pretender claiming to be him was tried and imprisoned in 1776.

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