Truths And Lies About 500 Mahar Soldiers Defeating 28000 Strong Army Of Peshwas

Vijay Sthamb (victory pillar) - The pillar was erected by the East India Company in memory of those who fought the battle and includes the names of the Mahar soldiers who unknowingly brought an end to the Peshwa rule in 1818.

The battle on January 1, 1818, where the British, with just 834 infantrymen — about 500 of them from the Mahar community — and 12 officers defeated the 28,000-strong army of Peshwa Bajirao II — was one of the last battles of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, which ended the Peshwa domination.

While this would tempt many to suggest Mahars/Dalits always sided with the British — absolutely nothing wrong if they did give the conditions they were forced to live in — in truth, they were before this battle part of the Maratha army. During Shivaji’s reign, especially before Peshwas, many didn’t realise that Peshwas were not a continuation of Marathas under Shivaji but a deviation from it. One would do well here to remember how Brahmins of his dominion refused to conduct the coronation ceremony of Shivaji.

The Brahmins of Shivaji’s court refused to crown Shivaji as a king because that status was reserved for those of the Kshatriya varna (warrior class) in Hindu society. Shivaji was descended from a line of headmen of farming villages, and the Brahmins accordingly categorised him as a Maratha, not a Kshatriya. They noted that Shivaji had never had a sacred thread ceremony, and did not wear the thread, such as a kshatriya would. Shivaji summoned Gaga Bhatt, a pandit of Varanasi, who stated that he…