Bajirao I
Bajirao I (Bajirao Ballal; Marathi pronunciation: [bad͡ʒiɾaːʋ bəlːaːɭ]; 18 August 1700 – 28 April 1740), born as Visaji, was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy.
Shrimant Peshwa Bajirao I | |
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Portrait by an unknown artist.Date unknown | |
| 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy | |
| In office 17 April 1720 – 28 April 1740 | |
| Monarch | Shahu I |
| Preceded by | Balaji Vishwanath |
| Succeeded by | Balaji Bajirao |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Visaji Bhat 18 August 1700 Dubere, Sinnar, Maratha Empire (present-day Nashik, Maharashtra, India) |
| Died | 28 April 1740 (aged 39) Rawerkhedi, Maratha Confederacy (present-day Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh, India) |
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| Children | 5, including Balaji Baji Rao, Shamsher Bahadur and Raghunath Rao |
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During his 20-year tenure as a Peshwa, his strategic prowess expanded Maratha influence in crucial regions, he engaged in several military conflicts such as Nizam's Carnatic campaigns (1725–27) and the Maratha invasion of Deccan (1739). In Bundelkhand, he rescued the Bundela ruler Chhatrasal from a Mughal siege, gaining independence for Bundelkhand. Gratefully, Chhatrasal granted Bajirao a jagir and his daughter's hand in marriage.
In the 1730s, Bajirao asserted Maratha tax rights in Gujarat, defeating rebel Trimbak Rao Dabhade in the 1731 Battle of Dabhoi; he also engaged in a diplomatic mission to persuade Rajput courts for chauth payments. Further efforts to establish Maratha dominance in the Subcontinent saw him responsible for the Maratha raid on Delhi (1737) and conflicts with the Portuguese such as the Luso–Maratha War of 1729–1732.
Bajirao's adventurous life has been picturized in Indian cinema and also featured in novels. Bajirao's relationship with his second wife Mastani is a controversial subject; very little is known with certainty about it. She was generally referenced cryptically in books, letters or documents from that era.