Page:A Brief History of the Indian Peoples.djvu/167

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MARATHA WARS.
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and to the restoration of the titular Delhi Emperor under the protection of the English.

Last Maratha War, 1817-1818.—In 1817-1818,the Peshwá, Holkar, and the Bhonsla at Nágpur, took up arms, each on his own account, against the British, and were defeated in detail. That war broke the Maratha power for ever. The Peshwá, Bájí Ráo, surrendered himself to the British, and his territories were annexed to our Bombay Presidency. The Peshwá remained a British pensioner at Bithur, nejir Cawnpur in Northern India, on a magnificent allowance, till his death. His adopted son grew up into the infamous Náná Sáhib of the Mutiny of 1857, when the last relic of the Peshwás disappeared from the eyes of men.

Materials for Reference.

Among the original authorities easily available to the English reader for Maratha history may be mentioned:—(1) James Grant Duff’s History of the Maráthás, 3 vols. (Bombay reprint, 1863); (2) Edward Scott Waring's History of the Maráthás (quarto, 1810); (3) Major William Thorn's Memoir of the War in India conducted by General Lord Lake (quarto, 1818); (4) Sidney J. Owen's Selections from the Despatches of the Marquess Wellesley (1877); (5) Selections from the Indian Despatches of the Duke of Wellington (1880); (6) Henry T. Prinsep's Narrative of Political and Military Transactions of British India under the Marquess of Hastings (quarto, 1820). The very brief notice of the Maráthás which the scope of the present work allows, precludes an exhaustive use of these storehouses. Keene's volume on Mádhava Ráo Sindhia in the Rulers of India Series gives an interesting account of the chief Maráthá leader in the second half of the eighteenth century. The leading incidents of Maráthá history are described under the heading of their respective localities in the Imperial Gazetteer of India.