Online Talk 1: #BajiRao300 by Dr. Uday Kulkarni

In the mid seventeenth century, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj founded the Maratha Swarajya, the Maratha kingdom, against the combined might of the Mughals, the Adilshahi, the Portuguese and the Siddi of Janjira. The long struggle for freedom didn’t end with Shivaji Maharaj’s coronation but went on till Aurangzeb’s death in 1707. Soon after, a kingdom under Chhatrapati Shahu took root at Satara, steered by his Peshwa (prime minister) Balaji Vishwanath.

On 17 April 1720, on the death of Balaji Vishwanath, his son Baji rao, not yet twenty years of age, was appointed the Peshwa by Chhatrapati Shahu. In the next twenty years and eleven days, Baji rao converted the small Maratha kingdom into an empire - from the Chambal and the Yamuna to the Tungabhadra. It was the last indigenous empire of India before the British Raj took over in the early nineteenth century.

#BajiRao300, our online #TalkTheWalk with Dr Uday S Kulkarni, author of the critically acclaimed book ‘The Era of Baji rao’ tells the story of Baji rao, the Peshwa who never lost a battle, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of his ascendance to the title of Peshwa.

Dr Uday S. Kulkarni, a surgeon by training and a historian by passion, is the author of ‘The Era of Baji rao: An account of the empire of the Deccan’. He joined the Indian Navy in 1979 and served in the defence forces for sixteen years, taking voluntary retirement in 1995 in the rank of Surgeon Commander. He began practicing as a surgeon in Pune and while continuing his surgical practice, he returned to his love of history in 2010 to write ‘The Solstice at Panipat’, an account of the third battle of Panipat. He has also written ‘James Wales: Artist and Antiquarian in the time of Sawai Madhavrao Peshwa’ and translated and edited ‘Bakhar of Panipat’ with Ninad Bedekar.

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