In his later years, Shahu suffered from a degree of loneliness. Gangadhar Swami Chafalkar died while staying at Satara on 26 November 1734. His son Lakshmanbaba became the chief of the monastery. Maharaj himself went to Chafal to attend the Ramnavami festival to resolve the disputes that arose at the time. He resolved the problems there, halted for a few days, partook in the Prasad (offering blessed by the deity distributed to devotees as a blessing) and returned.
The failure of Babuji Naik in the Carnatic rankled Maharaj. But in his old age, he was not able to resolve the growing dissensions within the Maratha fold. His own household was equally divided as his queens quarrelled with each other. Shahu’s elder queen was Sakwarbai and the younger was Sagunabai. They both contested for the attention of Maharaj, who, with advancing years was quite unable to resolve their mutual disputes. Shahu sorely missed Birubai, who although not his married wife, had looked after his household for long and kept the two queens in check. Birubai fell ill and died on 24 December 1740. Her death was a major loss to him. Since then, the ‘senior Wada (mansion)’ and the ‘junior Wada (mansion)’ of the two queens began to jockey for greater influence in the administrative and political fields.
Jiwaji Khanderao Chitnis had already died on 6 January 1743. This way, the whole previous generation had slowly vanished due to which Shahu grew more and more depressed.
Maharaj had a favourite elephant named Madari. Even while he remained in a rut all the time, he would never harm anybody. This way, he was a virtual precious stone for the kingdom. He escaped one night, went outside, fell into a well in the Shanwar area of the city and died. Maharaj became very sad on this account. He felt utterly despondent that his fortunes had turned, he was old, without a child, Sambhajiraje (Kolhapur) too had grown old, and he too did not have any child.
Shahu’s health had further deteriorated since 1743. At that time, he was 61 years old. In the summer of that year from 13 May 1743 up to 20 June 1743, his disease had especially worsened. Due to this reason, the Peshwa had to immediately return to Satara from his Prayag campaign. But this ailment was completely cured very soon. On 25 May 1743, “(Maharaj) attended court for the first time, when many people presented him with gifts.”
People were satisfied. Still, this illness was an initial indication of Shahu’s failing health. Even though Shahu got a fresh lease of life for six more years, he did not have an heir. Due to this, he himself and the overall Maratha leadership became extremely concerned hereafter about the future arrangement, and everybody’s attention was drawn towards deciding the future set up. Of course, to that extent, the external activities of the Peshwa and other Sardars outside Maharashtra saw a decline. This period was of a unified administration. The kingdom’s fortunes, good or bad, depended upon the capability of one chief executive. Therefore, since 1743-44 up to one or two years after Shahu’s death, the attention of his Sardars was drawn to the internal events taking place at the capital. This certainly caused the kingdom’s growth some harm in a small measure. Nanasaheb’s own heart fell into a dilemma due to Shahu’s failing health, and secret conspiracies at the capital, and the flights of fancy his courage had achieved in the Prayag campaign, became a lot softer in the following nine to ten years. His external activities again saw a high-tide from 1752-53. From this perspective of external affairs, the period from 1743 up to 1752 should be considered silent. Many huge events occurred during this period. Nadir Shah died, due to which Ahmedshah Abdali grew in stature. Delhi’s Badshah and Nizam-ul-Mulk died. But the Peshwa did not have the freedom to make correct use of these opportunities. Shinde and Holkar intervened in the Rajput disputes, due to which the friendly relations between the Marathas and the Rajputs were permanently broken. Overall, the set up that Bajirao had established in the northern administration, Nanasaheb could not take care of the same, the balance was disturbed, and it finally resulted in the battle of Panipat.
There was a huge difference between the situations that Bajirao and Nanasaheb faced. During Bajirao’s time, Shahu’s health was excellent, and most of the activities in the kingdom used to be done with his orders. But as mentioned above, since 1746, Nanasaheb was chased down by a huge concern about Shahu’s health and the future probable events, apart from the ones already on his plate about the external affairs. Due to reasons like Shahu’s failing health, the disputes amongst his queens, the conspiracies that Tarabai engaged in, and the secret schemes of other Sardars etc. Nanasaheb’s heart remained in such an agitated state, that if there was any common person in his place, he would not have survived these difficulties. But like Nanasaheb had such powerful competitors, he also had assistants who would lay down their lives for him like Purandare, Shinde, Holkar, Chitnis etc. Through their help and through his inherent astuteness, Nanasaheb resolved all these difficulties, and even in his situation, he displayed much success in the overall administrative affairs. For this, however, one needs to understand the complications that had occurred at court.
To be continued…
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