Maratha Peshwa and Generals from Bhat Family

During the days of Maratha Empire in the 17th and 18th century, the occupation of Marathi Brahmins ranged from being state administrators, being warriors to being de facto rulers as Peshwa.

Balaji Vishwanath Bhat (1662–1720) was the first of a series of hereditary Peshwas hailing from the Bhat family who gained effective control of the Maratha Empire during the 18th century.

Baji Rao was born into a Bhat Family in Sinnar, near Nashik.

After his death, his ministers and generals such as the Peshwas, Bhonsle of Nagpur, Gaikwad, Shinde and Holkar, carved out their own fieldoms and turned the empiure into a confedercacy.

Initially working as messengers and spies in the late seventeenth century, the community came into prominence during the 18th century when the heirs of Peshwa from the Bhat family of Balaji Vishwanath became the de facto rulers of the Maratha empire.

Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later, under the Bhat family, they became the de facto leaders of the Maratha Confederacy with the Chhatrapati becoming a nominal ruler.

Balaji Rao was born in the Bhat family, to Peshwa Baji Rao I, on 8 December 1720.

During this era, Peshwas belonging to the Bhat family controlled the Maratha Army and later became de facto rulers of the Maratha Empire till 1772.

Krishna Rao was the son of Peshwa Baji Rao I and his second wife Mastani, daughter of Chhatrasal and his Persian Muslim wife, Ruhani Bai.

During the rule of the Chitpavan Brahmin Peshwas in the 18th century, Saraswat Brahmins was one of the communities against whom the Chitpavans conducted a social war which led to Gramanya (inter-caste dispute).