Vishwasrao

Vishwasrao was nominal commander of the Maratha army at Panipat at eighteen, was shot through the head in the middle of the battle, and his death is what turned a hard fight into a rout. He was Balaji Bajirao's eldest son and the heir to the Peshwa office, sent north in 1760 as the figurehead of the great northern expedition with his cousin Sadashivrao Bhau in actual command - the arrangement was deliberate, giving the campaign the prestige of the Peshwa's family while leaving the decisions to an experienced soldier. Contemporary accounts describe him as strikingly handsome and popular with the troops, and he had already been present at the capture of Delhi earlier in the campaign. At Panipat on 14 January 1761 the Marathas held the centre through most of the day and were arguably winning by early afternoon. Vishwasrao, fighting from a howdah, was struck by a musket ball. Bhau came down from his own elephant to reach the body, and the empty howdah is what the army saw: the line broke almost immediately, on the belief that both commanders were dead. The Afghans returned the body. His father, already ill, was moving north with reinforcements when the news reached him and died six months later. He had been married the year before the campaign. Accounts of the battle differ on whether the fatal shot came from a jezail or a light gun. His body was cremated with Sadashivrao s presumed remains, though the identification of the latter was never settled.

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