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Bajirao I: The Great Peshwa



J. Grant Duff says in "History of the Marathas":

"Bred a soldier as well as a statesman, Bajeerao united the
enterprise, vogour, and hardihood of a Maratha chief with the
polished manners, the sagacity, and address which frequently
distinguish the Brahmins of the Concan.  Fully acquainted with the
financial schemes of his father, he selected that part of the plan
calculated to direct the predatory hordes of Maharashtra in a
common effort.  In this respect, the genious of Bajeerao enlarged
the schemes which his father devised; and unlike most Brahmins
of him, it may be truly said- he had both- the head to plan
and the hand to execute."


Sir R. Temple says in "Oriental Experiences":

"Bajirao was hardly to be surpassed as a rider and was ever
forward in action, eager to expose himself under fire if the affair
was arduous.  He was inured to fatigue and prided himself on
enduring the same hardships as his soldiers and sharing their
scanty fare.  He was moved by an ardour for success in national
undertakings by a patriotic confidence in the Hindu cause as
against its old enemies, the Muhammadans and its new rivals, the
Europeans then rising above the political horizon.  He lived to see
the Maratha spread over the Indian continent from the Arabian sea
to the Bay of Bengal.  He died as he lived in camp under canvas
among his men and he is remembered among the Marathas as the
fighting Peshwa, as the incarnation of Hindu energy."


Jadunath Sarkar says in his forward to "Peshwa Bajirao I and
Maratha Expansion":

"Bajirao was a heaven born cavalry leader.  In the long and
distinguished galaxy of Peshwas, Bajirao Ballal was unequalled for
the daring and originality of his genius and the volume and value
of his achievements.  He was truely a carlylean Hero as king- or
rather as Man of action.'  If Sir Robert Walpole created the
unchallengeable position of the Prime Minister in the unwritten
constitution of England, Bajirao created the same institution in the
Maratha Raj at exactly the
same time."


Surendra Nath Sen says in "The Military System of the Marathas":

"The lover of Mastani knew well how to appeal to the religious
sentiments of his co-religionists, although he could scarcely be
considered an orthodox Brahman... Shivaji had given the Marathas
a common cry, and none appreciated the potency of that cry clearly
than Peshwa Bajirao.  Shivaji's military reforms he would not or
could not revive, but he stood forth, as Shivaji had done, as
champion of Hinduism.  People of Central and Northern India saw
in him a new deliverer."







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