Talk:Mastani

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How many persons can actually recall the name of the mistresses of the innumerable kings and princes who strode through the pages of history since time immemorial? This question always nagged me when every Maratha history book I read, remembered to make mention of Mastani whenever Baji Rao was written about. What was so special about Mastani that historians always remembered to take note of her and then dismiss her in a single paragraph. Why did they not just forget about her when the Marathas had so carefully editted her out of all their court Bakhars. This itself is a strange phenomenon since the Peshwas were such particular record keepers that their Bakhars (or court records) mention every paise spent on everything and everybody, including every member of the family. Surely in her ten years in the Peshwa household, some expenses mmust have been made on Mastani. After all, she and her co-wive, Kashibai delivered sons within months of each other and stayed under the same roof during their confinements. Where have all those records mentioned amidst the expenses on the shawls and saris and jewelry of Baji Rao\'s mother, first wife and sisters, sister-in-laws etc etc?

Has Mastani been the most beautiful woman in the world, there would have been some genuine picture or painting of her. The two in the Kelkar and Wai museums have been denounced by historians as not depictions of Mastani herself. There are too many identification and cultural errors for them to be depictions of Mastani.

There are innumerable anomalies in the story of Mastani as it is popularly told. Here was a Kshtirya maiden, daughter of the most powerful ruler of Central India of his times and a known upholder of his religion, supposedly "giving" his daughter from a minor "wife/mistress" to the Peshwa. If she was from a mistress, would not that be a calculated insult to the man who saved Chhatrasaal life and kingdom for him? While the Peshwa was 'promised' one third of the state and given only the equivalent of 2.25 lakhs, Mastani's dowry alone was five lakhs!!

Her father, Chhatrasaal was a great proponent of the Pranami Panth which sought to unite the hindu and muslim peoples and religions, in an era when such attempts were being made in different parts of the country. Even Akbar himself married a Rajput lady and made her son his hier. but that hier was brought up in his father's religion as the country as a whole was predominantly patriarchal.

When Masstani first comes to Pune with Baji Rao she is accepted in the Brahmin household. Having been brought up in the pranami panth, with its unique combiantion of rituals and customs, she was able to adjust in the Brahmin household surprisngly well. When Baji Rao built his Shaniwar Wada, there is a corner devoted specially for Mastani as Mastani Mahal.

During her pregnancy, she is said to have lived under the same roof as Baji Rao's mother, Radhabai and his first wife, Kashibai. So much so that when Mastani entered her final trimester and was big with child, Baji Rao slept with Kashibai and mades her pregnant. Both his pregnant wives delivered sons one after another in 1734.

Yes, I did say "wife". For the present day descendants of the Peshwas are on record acknowledging Mastani as the legally wedded ( or whatever term may have been prevalent in that society in the 1730s) second wife of Peshwa Baji Rao I. It is significant that neither the king, Shahu Maharaj, nor Baji Rao's spiritual guru, Brahmendra Swami made any public denouncement of Mastani, which would have well been the case had she been the manipulative mistress that she is made out to be.

The social history of those times reveals that it was the return of shahu from Moghul imprisonment that saw the introduction of many north indian influences into maratha social life. this included various festivals and Rajput practices, including dancing girls, wine and meat consumption; for all of which Mastani was blamed. Was it a parochial bias against a highly cultured princess from Central India versus the rather simpler women of the Bhat household?

Whatever be the case, records indicate that after Baji Rao escorted Kashibai on her Narmada yatra, it was the turn of his mother Radhabai to embark on her Varanasi yatra. On her way there, she was feted by Rajput [princes and rajas. On her way back she made a stopover at Bundelkhand. The question is

Did she stay at Mastani's maika or with govind Pant Bundela who was Baji rao's agent there to collect his dues from the estate he inherited from Chhatrasaal?

What happened during that stopover that as soon as Radhabai returned to Pune, she embarked on a progrom of vilification against Mastni and drew support from the Chitpavan Brahmins, citing the Mussalman, wine and meat issue etc etc?

This vilification campaign was eventually to sap BajiRao; somuch so that for the first time in his life, he ran a fever so high that it took his life!! And in the bargain, Mastani's also, although no historical records have been left of how, when and where she actually died .

Should this myth be accepted or probed since it came on the heels of Baji Rao's announcement to his ambitious brother Chimaji that he was considering shifting out of Pune and settling down with Mastani, closer to Delhi and his Bundelkhand estates.

If anyone can tell me anything which will throw light on these questions, I will be very obliged.