Sadashivrao Bhau

Sadashivrao Bhau (August 4, 1730 – January 16, 1761) was son of Chimaji Appa and Rakhmabai, and the nephew of Peshwa Baji Rao I. He served as the Sarsenapati (commander-in-chief) of the Maratha army at the third battle of Panipat. He died fighting at the third battle of Panipat. He had refused quarter. ^[1]

Birth and early years

Sadashivrao, born in Saswad near Pune, was the son of Baji Rao's brother Chimaji Appa.^[1] His mother Rakhmabai died when he was barely a month old.His father died when he was 10. He was cared by his grandmother Radhabai his aunt Kashibai. He was very bright from early years. He was educated in Satara. His tutor was shrewd Ramchandrababa Shenvi. Though Nanasaheb became Peshwa, he stayed in Satara.

His first military achievement was in 1746 in Karnataka, with Mahadjipant Purandare. He conquered from the Nawab of Savnurannexed and subsequently annexed the cities of Kittur, Parasgad, Gokak, Yadvad, Bagalkot, Badami, Navalgund, Umbal, Giri, Torgal, Hallyal, Harihar and Basavpattan. He crushed the revolt of Yamaji Shivdev.

During those period Mahadjipant Purandare was Diwan of Peshwa. Bhausaheb was Diwan of Bhosale of Nagpur. After the death of Shahu, Ramchandrababa Shenvi suggested to Bhau to take Peshwai of Kolhpur, but Nanashib opposed this idea. Mahadjipant Purandare resigned and Sadashivrao became Diwan of Peshwa.

He successfully led the Battle of Udgir, which weakened Nizamshahi. He won the fort of Daulatabad. The news of Ahmad Shah Durrani's march and the death of Dattaji Shinde then arrived, so he came back from Udgir to Partud where discussions were held. It was decided that Sadashivrao would go to north to resist Abdali.

Third battle of Panipat

In January 1760, news reached the prime minister Nanasaheb Peshwa that Ahmad Shah Durrani had invaded and captured the Punjab region. The Peshwa was then at the zenith of his power having defeated the Nizam at Udgir. Bhausaheb led Nanasaheb's forces in recapturing Delhi in May 1760, a battle in which artillery units were crucial in destroying the fortifications of Durrani's forces. Bhau later moved North and captured the fortified village of Kunjpura with a blitzkrieg offensive that demolished the fort's ramparts with land mines and artillery shelling and an attack of cavalry and musketeer units. Durrani went on to lose Sirhind, Lahore and Kasur to Sikh forces, and Multan and Attock to Khokhar-Khatri Muslims. Both groups were supplied with munitions by the Maratha empire.

Before this, Durrani had formed an alliance against the Marathas with other Rohilla chieftains principally Najib ud daulah and including the Nawab of Awadh, Prince Bijay Singh of Jodhpur, and Kachawa Prince Madho Singh of Amber. The last two did not join him with their forces. Bhausaheb tried his best to strike diplomatic ties with Suraj Mal Jat of Bharatpur, Rajputs, Sikhs, Shuja and Muslim leaders in North India. However, all the Muslims in North India including Shuja(Nawab of Awadh) were falsely guided and persuaded by Abdali and Najib to join the Afghans in the name of religion and to save Islam. Rajptus joined Abdali as Marathas ruled most of North India, Marathas used to collect taxes from Rajputana, had a huge say in their internal and political matters. Rajputs wanted to keep the Marathas away from at least the Rajputana. The fact that Bhau failed to forge an alliance with the Jats proved fatal on the fateful day of the final battle as the Jats held sway on the food supplies around Delhi.^[1]

Durrani recruited Afghans displaced by the war, and by November 1760, Durrani having crossed the Jamuna at Gauripur had 45000 soldiers to block Maratha passage to the south. Durrani thereafter gtradually isolated the Marathas financially and cut off his supplies from Delhi.

Bhausaheb was responsible for adjusting the hit-and-run tactics used by the Maratha cavalry, ill-suited for the heavy materiel and numerous family members and camp followers that accompanied the army (outnumbering actual combatants by an estimated five to one), to a more effective use of artillery and infantry. Though the changes resulted in several victories for the army, some of the Maratha generals (like Holkar) were unready to adopt the new strategy completely and pointed out that the new units of artillery and infantry were not compatible with the other forces in the army and that the generals were not adequately trained on the deployment of the new units. Despite reservations of his generals and a shortage of time and money, Bhau formed a unit consisting of 10,000 infantry and 50 artillery pieces.

Finally on 14 January 1761, the Marathas, who were on the verge of starvation made a bold effort to break the blockade and issued forth to battle. The attack on Durrani was fierce and his wazir was found sitting on the ground eating mud and telling his fleeing soldiers that Kabul is far off. The battle was in the favour of Marathas till about 2 pm in the afternoon, when a stray bullet hit Vishwasrao and Durrani managed to throw in ten thousand troops who had fled the battle along with fresh 500 slave troops that guarded him. Bhausaheb was surrounded along with jankoji Scindia and Ibrahim gardi, while Malhar Rao Holkar managed to slip away. Fighting to the last man, Bhausaheb perished in battle. Durrani had noted the huge number of non-combatants following Bhausaheb's army, and ordered an attack on their camp, slaughtering large numbers of civilians and soldiers' families. The resulting casualties and refugees fleeing to the Maratha camp caused overcrowding, supply shortages and shook the morale of Bhau's army, forcing him to turn his attention to safely transporting the civilians to Pune. In January 1761, Bhausaheb faced famine and was blocked reinforcement due to Durrani's control of key transportation routes.^[1]

Bold textBold text'==Final battle and death== After not receiving a reply regarding the terms of the treaty, Bhau decided to try to break the siege and allow the civilians under his protection to escape to Rohtak and Jind.

Sadashivrao Bhau along with Ibrahim Khan Gardi had planned and were executing a battle strategy to pulverise the enemy formations with cannon fire and not to employ his cavalry until the Afghans were thoroughly softened up. With the Afghans now broken, he would move camp in a defensive formation towards Delhi, where they were assured supplies but jealous of the exploits of their artillery chief envious Maratha generals overacted while some left battlefield leaving their defences open resulting in the defeat of the Marathas.

Durrani was taken unaware by the early morning attack, and decided to counter-attack during daylight. Durrani faced heavy initial losses, ultimately moving his forces out of range of the artillery bombardment and awaited Bhau's attempt to break the civilians out of the battlelines, a plan that was brought to his attention by spies placed in Bhau's camp. While Bhau's forces were split between escorting civilians and defending the battle, Durrani planned to kill the opposing leader and Vishwasrao, Bhau's nephew and heir to Nanasaheb Peshwa. A stray cannon shell hit Vishwasrao's head and he died on the spot. Bhau departed the battlefield to visit the corpse and plunged into the army, with devastating effect on the morale of his troops. Durrani attacked to take advantage of the confusion and weakness of Bhau's forces. Bhau counter-attacked but ultimately the army was defeated and any remaining civilians were massacred.^[1] Bhau kept on fighting till his last breath and died fighting on the battlefield.(ref Kashiraj Pandit bakhar). His body without head was found in the heap of dead bodies 3 days after the war. It was identified by the maratha Vakil who were with the camp of left marathas with kashiraj pandit, the wazir of Shuja Udaulla. Bhau's body was cremated with all rituals. The next day, his head was found, which was kept hidden by one Afghan soldier. It was creamated and the ashes taken for visarjan to Kashi. (Vishwas Ptil, Kashiraj Pandit bakhar)

Establishment of artillery units

While observing several battles, Bhau witnessed the effectiveness artillery and light-weight guns mounted on British ships and began incorporating artillery units in the army of Balaji Baji Rao. Bhau enlisted the services of Ibrahim Khan Gardi, who brought with him 2,500 trained soldiers and fifteen cannons. Bhau also employed European mercenaries who used be in the employ of Tulaji Angre before his defeat. Notable among them was an engineer named Le Corbosier, who was an expert in foundry and in handling explosives. Within two years, Balaji Baji Rao's Infantry-Artillery division had 10,000 men and 56 guns.

Bhausaheb was a man of strong. The Maratha relations with the Jats and Rajputs were not cordial. This led to their non-cooperation and an acute shortage of supplies.

He was brave and courageous but acted on the spur of the moment. On seeing the demise of his beloved Vishwasrao, Bhausaheb came down from his elephant, climbed on a horse and plunged into the enemy army, without realizing the consequences. His troops thought that he had fallen and that they were leaderless. This led to chaos. However, Bhau did not leave the battlefield and fought till his last breath.^[1]

Family

His first wife's name was Umabai. She gave birth to two sons who died as soon. Umabai died in 1750 His second wife was Parvatibai. She accompanied Sadashivrao during war of Panipat. She did not believe that Bhausaheb died in battle.

References

• Uday S. Kulkarni, Solstice at Panipat - 14 January 1761 Mula Mutha Publishers, Pune 2011 ISBN 978-81-921080-0-1
• Tryambak Shankar Shejwalkar, Panipat 1761 (Deccan College Monograph Series. I.), Pune (1946)
• Pramod Oak, "Peshwe gharanyacha Itihas"