Swarajya - Maratha hegemony in the Indian subcontinent, a timeline (1707-1828)
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Chapter 4: Into the North
The rugged landscape of the Deccan highlands features prominently in this late 18th century painting of the Satara New School
1728
The Battle of Bhopal takes place at the beginning of February. There have been small-scale skirmishes throughout the previous month - light cavalry detachments of Dost Mohammed’s making sorties against the advancing army as it marches through southern Malwa. However, the losses on either side from these skirmishes are not significant, although Baji Rao’s advance is slowed somewhat by the need to protect their field artillery and gunpowder wagons. As the Marathas approach Bhopal from the south, still two days’ march away, the Pathans begin to array themselves into lines of battle. The open plains of Malwa are ideally suited for light cavalry tactics, and with both sides specializing in such, the battle promises to be a bloody one. If Baji Rao should prevail, the Maratha power will no longer be confined to the south of the Vindhya mountains, but will surge through central India and may even threaten the Mughal seat of power itself. If Dost Mohammed is victorious, he will stand unopposed in Malwa and will likely be able to expand his rule to other regions.
The Pathan armies were arrayed in three wings, each commanded by a member of the ruling clan - Dost Mohammad himself, his oldest son, and his brother Aqeel. It is reported that the ruler of Bhopal was suffering from illness around this time, but felt compelled to lead his forces into battle nonetheless, lest he lose face among the Pathan warrior clans by showing weakness at a time of crisis. The Marathas, on the other hand, seemed to hold the advantage. The standing army having been significantly expanded by Baji Rao utilizing the improved fiscal and credit situation, they outnumbered their opponents heavily. Another factor in Baji Rao’s favour was that the Maratha field army was now composed largely of regulars, with less than 10,000 of his 40,000 strong army made up of the landlord-warriors on horseback (watandars) that had previously been a mainstay of Maratha field armies. Taking the lessons of the Adnyapatra to heart, the Peshwa had been diligently working towards greater centralization of state power. Dost Mohammed’s cavalry, on the other hand, largely drawn from the Yusufzai tribe to which he himself belonged and supplemented by his Rajput supporters, were largely men who spent most of the year attending to their estates and revenue collection duties. That is not to say, of course, that these men were strangers to war - nearly all of them had grown up in the saddle with a saber in their hands.
Battle is joined soon after sun-up the following morning, both sides fresh and eager for the fight. The Pathan light cavalry gives a good account of itself early on, valiantly charging into the wall of pikes as musketeers and cannoneers do their best to shoot them to bits. Valour, however, is not enough to overcome the severe disadvantage in man- and fire-power and each cavalry charge is less ferocious than the last, as more and more riders are mowed down by the Maratha artillery or impaled on the long pikes of the infantrymen. Disaster strikes twice in quick succession for the defenders of Bhopal when Dost Mohammed’s son (named Yaar Mohammed) has his horse shot down from under him while leading an audacious cavalry charge into the Maratha center. He is killed by a Maratha infantryman as he attempts to stand up. Driven mad by grief, Dost Mohammed launches a suicidal charge of his own but is quickly captured, unable to fight as effectively due to age and illness. The lord’s brother, Aqeel, attempts to rally the Bhopal forces under his own banner and manages to fight defensive actions over the rest of the afternoon, preventing his own lines from being overrun by the attempted advances of the Marathas. After hostilities cease at nightfall, however, the Pathans, seeing the futility of their situation, melt away into the night, allowing Baji Rao and Malhar Rao to take Bhopal itself after only a few days of siege.
A few weeks later, at Ujjain to the west, the Rajputs of the powerful Ujjainiya clan face a bloody punishment - in revenge for fighting against the Maratha forces in support of Dost Mohammed, the hereditary lands of those martial aristocrats are stripped away and many ancient noble families are turned out into the street, condemned to seek refuge with their relatives further to the north, or join the sharecroppers in eking out a living - a fate worse than death in the opinion of many a feudal landowner. The few fighting men who have survived the carnage at Bhopal attempt to resist but are quickly cut down. The stately manor houses they occupied are either appropriated for the newly established provincial government or demolished. In an unusual show of cruelty towards his co-religionists - a quality he usually reserved for the yavanas [1] - Baji Rao even orders the household temple of the Ujjainiya leader to be looted of its treasures, with the idol of Shiva being taken away to be reinstalled in Pune. Malhar Rao Holkar is appointed acting subedar (governor) of Malwa and tasked with raising two regular army divisions at Ujjain under his leadership.
1729
In the beginning of this year, Baji Rao begins to receive letters from Raja Chhatrasal, ruler of the kingdom of Bundelkhand to the north, a region which extends from the northern borders of Malwa to the southern bank of the Yamuna. He reports that the Mughal governor Muhammad Khan Bangash is amassing troops on his borders and sending raiding parties on horseback into the villages along the border. Fearing an imminent invasion, he requests aid from the Marathas. Baji Rao considers his options - knowing well that defeating Bangash would secure the new Maratha holdings in Malwa - and takes counsel with Shahu Maharaj who also favours military intervention on behalf of Raja Chhatrasal. Meanwhile, the letters from Raja Chhatrasal become more and more frantic, finally reporting that he has been besieged within his capital by a large Mughal force consisting of 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers under the leadership of Bangash. Before Baji Rao can begin preparing to deal with this faraway threat - and opportunity - however, domestic issues demand his more immediate attention and action.
The mutual resentment that has been festering between Dabhade, the governor of southern Gujarat, and Peshwa Baji Rao comes to a head. Requested to attend the Peshwa’s court in Pune to explain his continued inability to remit taxes into the Empire’s treasury, he decides instead to take up arms, but is shocked to find his own establishment divided by those in support of his decision to break away from the Peshwa’s control entirely, and those who see this move as treason [2]. In the latter camp there are several influential leaders of the Maratha administration and military presence in Vadodara, including Dabhade’s maternal uncle, Bhausinh Thoke. Mustering the four Huzurat divisions based at Pune and Aurangabad, Baji Rao marches north-west, first pouncing upon an unprepared and poorly-defended Surat, which had come under the control of the Siddis of Janjira in the preceding years. Securing Surat and its fortress with a small garrison, he marches north to confront and deal with the threat posed by Trimbak Rao Dabhade. South-east of Vadodara he is reinforced by a friendly army led by Bhausinh Thoke and the two approach the city together, screened by detachments of light cavalry.
The battle that has been brewing for years turns out to be something of an anticlimax. Soon after the fighting starts in earnest, a lucky shot from Bhausinh Thoke’s musket hits his nephew in the throat. Trimbak Rao Dabhade topples from his horse and his men, stunned, surrender to the Peshwa’s forces and are disarmed. Impressed by the level of control over his troops that Damaji Rao Gaekwad displays during the surrender and disarmament process, Baji Rao offers to pardon him and the rest of the Dabhade warriors if Gaekwad will serve him loyally as the commander of the new Vadodara regiment, which is to be made out of Dabhade’s former soldiers. Gaekwad will have no role in revenue administration, however - he will command the two new divisions based in and around Vadodara, but the revenue collection and salary disbursement will be handled by agents of the Dewani sent from Pune and installed locally.
Braving the searing heat of summer, the Baji Rao drives Maratha forces hard as they travel east from Vadodara, stopping briefly at Ujjain to resupply and be reinforced by Malhar Rao Holkar and his light cavalry battalions - the new regular regiments are still being recruited and trained - and marching on to relieve Raja Chhatrasal. Knowing speed and surprise are crucial, the army eats up the miles, reaching the Ken river only 28 days later. Splitting his forces into two at Mahoba, Baji Rao arrays them on either side of the Ken river. Muhammad Khan Bangash is now cut-off from his base of operations - and supply - at Banda, and must now find another way to provide for his men. Whatever supplies the Bundelas possess are safely within the walls with them, and the Mughal army’s foragers and looters have already laid bare the nearby countryside. Knowing his army cannot hold the siege without securing further provisions, Bangash sues for peace, offering to withdraw his forces and lift the siege as long as his army is allowed to return to Banda unmolested [2]. Although Chhatrasal is willing to agree to peace, Baji Rao cautions him to play for time, knowing the situation will become more and more desperate for the Mughals as time passes, enabling the allies to demand concessions in exchange for peace. Although ordered by Shahu merely to help the Bundelas by lifting the siege, Baji Rao is now toying with the idea of starving Bangash and his forces into weakness, then attacking and annihilating them, leaving the Marathas free to swarm over the rest of central India. In the end, however, he decides not to engage the enemy directly, heeding Malhar Rao’s counsel that the cost in lives would be too great. Instead, Bangash is forced to cede the districts of his domain that lie to the south of the Yamuna to Chattrasal, giving the Bundela King lordship over the entirety of Bundelkhand.
Chhatrasal, overjoyed that the crushing defeat he was facing has been turned into glorious victory by his new ally from the south, showers Baji Rao and Malhar Rao with gifts and honors at his palace within Panna town. The Rajput king proposes that Baji Rao marries Mastani, his daughter from his favorite concubine, Ruhaani Bai to further the alliance between the two kingdoms. Baji Rao politely declines, pointing out that he is already married to Kashi Bai, and as a Brahmin is not permitted to practice polygamy by the ancient customs. However, the king is both insistent and persuasive, and Baji Rao finally agrees. The spirited and beautiful Mastani Bai becomes Baji Rao’s second wife as they are wed following Rajput customs. Although the fighting men of the army are only mildly scandalized, the gatekeepers of religious orthodoxy back in Pune will expend a lot of energy railing against Baji Rao for this perceived impiety, demanding that Shahu Maharaj dismiss him from his position.
[1] Yavana literally means ‘Greek’, however it was erroneously applied by Hindus in the early modern period to refer to anybody from the West, possibly in the belief that the Central Asian Muslims were of Greek origin.
[2] This was how the Maratha-Bundela alliance lifted the siege of the latter’s capital by Bangash IOTL.
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Mastani, as the daughter of a Vaishnavite Hindu father and Shia Muslim mother grew up in both religious traditions. AFAIK she never underwent a conversion either in OTL or in TTL.
Maun issue orthodox bramhans insisted that she was muslim because she follow certain aspects of Faith. Also there was no issue regarding polygamy among bramhans during that time. So if she totally undergo certain rituals to highlight her credentials as converted hindu it will certainly reduce ammunition in hand of orthodox Priests. In Canon his first wife also never liked his concubine and she never given status of wife by her. Best highlight her conversion and use that to soften the blow.
What is the 'mechanism' by which one can convert to Hinduism in the 1700s? I am aware of rituals such as hiranyagarbha which would allow a member of a non-elite caste to be promoted in status, but not anything that would allow conversion.
What would be the caste of a new convert to Hinduism? Without the existence of reformist organizations like Arya Samaj, it is difficult to envision how that might be done.
In any case, I have thought of a plot device to manage Chimnaji (who, as Pandit-Rao or High Priest of the kingdom, was the leader of the orthodox faction at the Peshwai Darbar) and his opposition to Mastani Bai. Stay tuned!
A.R. Kulkarni has given instances of reconversion in Maharashtra region from early modern times. He claims that there was also reluctance on Hindu society of that period to accept people back into the fold but upon pressure from rulers such as Shivaji, the reconversion was allowed. More serious objections were raised when a community desired to return to their Hindu caste after many generations. During Shivaji's rule a group of Panchkalshi converts wanted to return, however the caste council (Got Sabha) raised objections and Shivaji and later Sambhaji had to postpone decision on the matter. The rules on reconversion became tighter under Peshwa rule in mid and late 1700s. Shivaji allowed individual reconversion however main issue that reconversion of entire community and orthodox were unwilling to provide temporal rulers with such power. So there is no issue with individual reconversion like this case because there are precedents.
Look for more info in Kulkarni, A.R. (1970). "Social Relations in the Maratha Country in the Medieval Period". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress
Look for more info in Kulkarni, A.R. (1970). "Social Relations in the Maratha Country in the Medieval Period". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress
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I won't be getting Mastani Bai converted as I want Shamsher Bahadur to be raised as a Muslim, but thanks for the information. I will check it out.
Shamsher Bahadur and all the hard work and sacrifice he did for the Maratha Empire, including his death fighting alongside his nephew and cousin at Panipat, is often overlooked by Marathi historians, so I will be featuring him prominently. His multicultural upbringing will play a role in what I have planned for him.
Why should he be muslim? He is natural son of baji Rao. Mastani's father is Rajput and of Kshatriya caste while baji Rao is of Brahman caste. It is Anuloma marriage which is a Sanskrit term that is used in the Manusmriti, that is the Laws of Manu, to describe a hypergamous union between a high born man and a woman of a lower standing (by birth) relative to the respective man. Manu explains that the evolution of different castes among mankind occurred due to the union of two persons who did not belong to the same rung in the caste or class ladder (by birth and not wealth or status in society) relative to each other.
According to Manu, marriage within the same caste, that is, between two persons who belong to the same rung in the ladder, is excellent. Anuloma marriages are considered as "going with the grain" unions. As per Hindu scriptures, Anuloma marriages or unions are not advocated but were tolerated and accepted historically.
Yes, but this can only be done if the Puneri Brahmins are willing to accept that Mastani is a Rajput Hindu and not a Muslim. The fact that Chimnaji is Pandit-Rao and does not personally want Mastani to be recognized as wife is likely a major cause.
I always surprised why in Canon Baji Rao not just given lesser tile to his natural son and declared him as hindu. He would be able to integrate well within maratha framework with such title.
Mastani is a concubine in case of her children they always get caste of father. In this case that make them automatically hindu even if according to caste system he alloted less dignity compared to his true born siblings. So it does not matter if his mother practice some muslim ritual as a father baji Rao hold absolute authority over his children during that time according to scripture and traditions. Maybe a bramhans subcaste or the caste of his grandfather from his mother's side.
Mastani is a concubine in case of her children they always get caste of father. In this case that make them automatically hindu even if according to caste system he alloted less dignity compared to his true born siblings. So it does not matter if his mother practice some muslim ritual as a father baji Rao hold absolute authority over his children during that time according to scripture and traditions. Maybe a bramhans subcaste or the caste of his grandfather from his mother's side.
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Considering the fact that IOTL Shamsher Bahadur was a general and his son was subedar of Bundelkhand, I think he did alright for a religious minority nobleman living in a rather orthodox society! Still, he is a very tragic figure for how much he was overlooked and I am going to remedy that in this timeline.
Baji Rao was a Chitpavan Brahmin also known as Kokanastha Brahmin.
Baji rao wanted him to be accepted as a Hindu Brahmin, but because his mother was a Muslim, Brahmin priests refused to conduct the Hindu upanayana ceremony for him. Later, he converted to Islam. Why not give him caste of Kshatriya like his grandfather? He only converted due to rejection by orthodox priests. If baji Rao willing to let him accepted as a Kshatriya he would have remain a Hindu.
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There is no such thing as matrilineal inheritance of caste, much less inheritance of caste from one's maternal grandfather.
Besides, I want Shamsher to be raised Muslim as he was IOTL for plot and narrative reasons. As I am the God of this timeline, that is what will happen.
And if you think getting the Brahmins to accept that one is a Kshatriya is possible simply by making a declaration, please look into how much trouble Shivaji Maharaj had to go through to get his rajabhishekam done in 1674 (IIRC).
That's fine. I just want you point out is that baji rao's stubbornness responsible for this situation. He insisted to declare him a bramhans. Orthodox bramhans were not wish to relinquish such authority to a temporal rulers without a fight. It led to canon situation when baji Rao forced to bow down before clergy.