Nana Saheb Peshwa

About the life of great freedom fighter Nana Saheb Peshwa

In this book, Dr Stewart Gordon presents a comprehensive history of one of the most colourful and least-understood kingdoms of India: the Maratha Empire. The empire was founded by Shivaji in the mid-seventeenth century, spread across most of India during the following century, and was conquered by the British in the nineteenth century. Using administrative documents of the Maratha polity, family papers and Histories of the Empire, Stewart Gordon explores the origin of the Marathas, their emergence as elite families, patterns of loyalty and strategies for maintaining legitimacy. He traces how the armies developed into European-style infantry and artillery and assesses the economics that funded the polity, especially taxation and credit. Finally the author considers the lasting effects the empire had on administrations, law and trade patterns of Central India, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

August 1773, Shaniwar Wada On a fateful day, the capital palace of Marathas in Poona was drenched in the blood of its own Peshwa. Marathas were still recovering from the untimely death of Peshwa Madhavrao when the sensational murder of Peshwa Narayanrao shook the empire. The political conspiracy and the murder divided the empire into two factions and brought it on the verge of a civil war. Unfazed by the threats and political pressure, Ram Shastri Prabhune, the chief justice of the Marathas, initiated the investigation into the murder of the Peshwa. Who murdered Peshwa Narayanrao? Who was the mastermind behind the conspiracy? Did Ram Shastri manage to deliver justice? What happened to the Peshwai after Peshwa Narayanrao? Inspired from true events, this is the true account of some sensational murders at Shaniwar Wada and the landmark trial by Ram Shastri Prabhune.