When Raghuji went to Berar in 1730, Konherram Kolhatkar and his brother Bhaskarram accompanied him there. The young appointee’s first task was to confront his uncle Kanhoji. At the village of Bham, Raghuji attacked Kanhoji, captured him and took him to Satara where he was imprisoned. A pleased Shahu issued a fresh grant-notification to Raghuji giving him the right to conquer and receive the revenues of the eastern part of India including Odisha, Bengal, and Allahabad. As for Kanhoji, he was never released and died in prison around 1738.
In 1735, Chand Sultan, the Gond ruler of the state of Devgad died and a succession dispute arose. Raghuji was called by the widowed queen and he helped establish her son as the ruler. In the process, a third of the kingdom was allotted to Raghuji. It was in this territory that he established his capital Nagpur. From this time, Raghuji was the de facto ruler of the Gond tribe and the former royals remained in namesake.
Since Raghuji Bhosale’s origin and career had been independent of any patronage by the Peshwa, he considered himself purely as a subordinate of the Chhatrapati. He had been at cross-purposes with Bajirao more than once, and on the eve of the Carnatic campaign there was no love lost between them. For Raghuji, therefore, the Carnatic campaign was a long-awaited opportunity to prove his mettle and emerge as an alternate to the Peshwa’s power.
At that time, Shahu had not had much discussion with Bajirao. When Chanda Saheb himself desired to acquire the position of the Nawab of Carnatic, he fell out with Dost Ali’s family. Taking this opportunity, Shahu immediately dispatched Raghuji Bhosale along with a huge army to the Carnatic. He ordered Raghuji to capture Tiruchirappalli and finish-off Chanda Saheb. Since Bajirao was busy with the battles of Bhopal, Vasai; and the invasion of Nadir Shah, Shahu had appointed Raghuji as chief of this campaign.
In tune with the slow march of events in those times, the large Maratha army finally gathered at Satara in late 1739 and set out towards the south. Raghuji marching from Nagpur joined it on the way. It was early 1740, and Raghuji, at the head of an army of forty thousand horsemen, was on his way to the Carnatic and the city of Arcot.
It was the first time since the year 1700 that the Marathas had ventured into the lower Carnatic. The mandate was clear – to restore the Hindu kingdoms of Tanjore and Tiruchirappalli. Yet, their second coming with a forty thousand strong army was looked upon with a sense of foreboding by all the powers in the area. As the Maratha army entered the Carnatic, on 30 April 1740, the President of the East India Company at Fort St George informed his Board of their progress, “The President acquaints the Board he has received advice that the design of the Marathas to enter this province is no longer to be doubted, and though the Nawab was setting out towards the borders, there is not a force sufficient in the province that can withstand them and they will certainly be soon at Arcot if some other means are not thought of to stop them.”
Besides Raghuji Bhosale, the Maratha army heading to the Carnatic in early 1740 had two other men leading it. The first was the nominal commander Fatehsingh Bhosale. As an infant, he had been adopted by Shahu after winning his first battle in 1707. Shahu had looked upon this first victory as a good omen and named the child ‘Fateh’ in memory of it. He brought him to Satara and cared for him as his own child. In time, he was given the small town of Akkalkot in present-day North Karnataka to govern and some Jagirs in the Berar region. Fatehsingh was, therefore, considered a part-royal in the Maratha pantheon of Sardars.
Babuji Naik Joshi of Baramati joined the campaign after June 1740. He belonged to a money-lending family that dealt with the king as well as the Peshwa. Balaji Vishwanath Peshwa’s daughter Bhirubai was married to Babuji’s brother Aabaji. Even then, Babuji had not always supported the Peshwa. He was introduced to Shahu a few years earlier when the king wanted to buy a good horse. However, for a few years after that he became one of the Peshwa’s detractors in the Satara court. Not really a warrior, he wished to be given important responsibilities for which he bid at every opportunity. Of late, Babuji had run huge debts and begun a protest fast at Satara to be granted a ‘Mamlat’ (affair) by which he could earn some money and retire his debts. The protest became a talking point in Satara for a few days. Eventually, Shahu conceded and asked Babuji to join the Carnatic campaign. It was Raghuji, however, who held the prime place in the army due to his known skills in battle. In January 1740, Raghuji began from Nagpur accompanied by Bhaskarram Kolhatkar. Passing through the town of Nanded on the river Godavari, he joined the Maratha forces heading south.
To be continued…
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