Baji Rao I

Originally posted by Temujin I just learned about him few days ago but there isn't really much information i could gather about him, any sources?   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajirao

Temujin,
   This is a decent book:
Baji Rao: The Warrior Peshwa
by E. Jaiwant Paul. Roli Books, New Delhi.

    Do you have something specifc you would like to know about him?
-Digs

Originally posted by Temujin thanks, i'll try to get that book.   the wikipedia article said he used innovative cavalry tactics. i want to know more about his tactics, as well as composition of his army and the enemies he fought.

Baji Rao was a peshwa i.e a prime minister of Maratha empire formed by Chatrapati Shivaji.  Hindu Kings deliberately did not appoint a kshatriya to the post of prime minister because in the event of a war they wanted a non kshatriya to be the counsel (akin to the appointment of consiglieri amongst Italian Mafia). The choice usually fell on the brahmins who were the learned class of india.
So Baji Rao was a brahman Peshwa.

Shivaji's army was very well managed partly due to the great man himself and the fact he had good generals and Peshwa also.  His sons unfortunately did not have his mettle and entire edifice of Maratha empire was about to crumble. At this moment the Peshwa i.e the prime minister stepped in and took the control of Maratha empire and its expansion in his own hands.

Baji Rao's enemy number 1 were the muslim rulers of Delhi. He also fought with rulers of rajasthan.  he made alliances with other Hindu rajput kings like Chattrasal.

His marathas were instrumental in the crumbling of mughal empire in India. Marathas employed quite a few French officers, who migrated to India after Napoleans defeat in Russia, to manage the artillery and infantry. General De Boigne and others made there name as well as lot of money by fighting alongside the Marathas.  The cavalry in India was quite consistent throughout the land. Hindu Indians fought with cocked wrist and rarely inflicted a wound with the tip of the blade.  The famous swords were either the khanda or the sirohi.  The cavalry was generally organized into four units.  The advance guard, rear guard and the two wings.  The best fighters were placed in the advance guard.  Cavalry depending on the numbers tried to encircle the enemy using the wings. (This is how Prithviraj Chauhan defeated Muhammad Ghori in the first battle of Taraori).  Later Marathas would first use aritllery and Infantry to shower grapes on the enemy and then would charge with the cavalry.

William Wilson Hunter the famous British Indologist goes on to describe in Chapter X page 268 of his book, ''THE INDIAN EMPIRE, ITS PEOPLE, HISTORY AND PRODUCTS'', the formidable organization of Indian kings and how they thwarted the invasions by muslims and the fact they could not be easily subdued.

Hunter says:
===Begin quote
"Within a hundred years after his (Muhammad's) death, his followers had invaded the countries of Asia as far as the Hindu Kush. Here there progress was stayed and Islam had to consolidate itself during three more centuries before it grew strong enough to grasp the rich prize of India. But almost from first the Arabs had fixed eager eyes upon that wealthy country. Fifteen years after the death of prophet, Usman sent a sea expedition to Thana and Broach on the Bombay coast (647 ? AD). Other raids towards Sind took place in 662 and 664 with no results.

[Skipped a paragraph where attack on Sind and its recapture by rajputs is described]

The armies of Islam had carried the crescent from the Hindu Kush westwards, through Asia, Africa and Souther Europe, to distant Spain and Gaul, before they obtained a foothold in Punjab.  This long delay was due, not only to the daring of individual tribes, such as Sind Rajputs, just mentioned but to the millitary organization of the Hindu Kingdoms.

[Paragraph continues where Hunter goes on to describe various Rajput/Hindu kings of this era throughout India. There were very many of them. ]

Each of these groups of kingdoms, alike in the north and in the south, had a certain power of coherence to oppose to a foreign invader; while the large number of groups and units rendered conquest a very tedious process. For even when the overlord or central authority was vanquished, the separate units had to be defeated in detail, and each State supplied a nucleus for subsequent revolt. We have seen how the brilliant attempt in 711, to found a lasting Muhammedan dynsaty in Sind, failed. Three centuries later, the utmost efforts of  two great Musalman invaders from the north-west only succeeded in annexing a small portion of the frontier Punjab Province between 977 and 1176 A.D. The Hindu power in Southern India was not completely broken till the battle of Talikot in 1565; and within a hundred years, in 1650, the great Hindu revival had commenced which under the form of Maratha confederacy, was destined to break up the Mughal Empire in India. That Empire, even in the north of India, had only been consolidated by Akbar's policy of incorporating Hindu chiefs into his government(1556-1605). Up to Akbar's time, and even during the earlier years of his reign a series of Rajput wars had challenged the Muhammadan supremacy. In less than two centuries after his death, the succesor of Akbar was a puppet in the hand of the Hindu marathas at Delhi.
The popular notion that India fell an easy prey to the Musalmans is opposed to the historical facts. Muhammadan rule in India consists of a series of invasions and partial conquests, during eleven centuries, from Usman's raid, ''circ''.647, to Ahmad Shah's tempest of invasion in 1761 A.D.
At no time was Islam triumphant throughout the whole of India. Hindu dynasties always ruled over large areas. At the height of the Muhammadan power, the hindu princes paid tribute, and sent agents to the Imperial court. But even this modified supremacy of Delhi lasted for little over a century (1578-1707). Before the end of that brief period the Hindus had begun the work of reconquest. The native chivalry of Rajputana was closing in upon Delhi from the south; the religious confederation of the Sikhs was growing into a military power on the north-west. The Marathas had cobmined the fighting powers of the low-castes with the statesmen ship of the Brahmans, and were subjecting the Muhammadan kingdoms throughout all India to tribute. So far as can now be estimated, the advance of the English power at the beginning of the present century alone saved the Mughal Empire from passing to the Hindus."
===End Quote
-Digs


Edited by Digvijay - 16-Jul-2006 at 15:30

thanks and welcome to the forum! :)