Shamsher Bahadur I ( born Krishna Rao 1734 – 18 January 1761), was a ruler of the

Maratha The Marathi people (; Marathi: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...

dominion of

Banda Banda may refer to: People * Banda (surname) * Banda Prakash (born 1954), Indian politician * Banda Kanakalingeshwara Rao (1907–1968), Indian actor * Banda Karthika Reddy (born 1977), Indian politician *Banda Singh Bahadur (1670–1716), Sikh ...

in northern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He was the son of Peshwa

Bajirao I Bajirao I (né Visaji, ; 18 August 1700 – 28 April 1740) was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. He was appointed Peshwa at the age of nineteen by Shahu I, following the death of his father, Balaji Vishwanath. He is credited with establis ...

and

Mastani Mastani (29 August 1699 – 28 April 1740) was either the daughter of Nizam Asaf Jah I of Hyderabad or Chhatrasal Bundela of Bundelkhand. She was the second wife of the Maratha Peshwa (Prime Minister) Baji Rao I. The marriage was arranged to ...

Early life

Krishna Rao was the son of

Peshwa The Peshwa was the second highest office in the Maratha Empire, next in rank and prestige only to that of the Chhatrapati. Initially serving as the appointed prime minister in the Maratha Kingdom, the office became hereditary when Shahu gave t ...

Baji Rao I and his second wife Mastani, daughter of King

Chhatrasal Maharaja Chhatrasal Bundela (4 May 1649 – 20 December 1731) was the Bundela Raja of Panna State, Panna from 1675 to 1731. He is well known for his resistance against the Mughal Empire and leading the struggle of independence of Bundelkhand. ...

and his muslim concubine, Ruhani Bai. Bajirao wanted his son to be accepted as a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

, but because his mother was a Muslim, Brahmin priests refused to conduct the Hindu

upanayana ''Upanayana'' () is a Hindu educational sacrament, one of the traditional saṃskāras or rites of passage that marked the acceptance of a student by a preceptor, such as a ''guru'' or ''acharya'', and an individual's initiation into a school in ...

ceremony for him. Thus, Bajirao ordered that he be raised as a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. His education and military training was conducted in line with other sons of the Peshwa family, even though many Maratha nobles and chiefs did not recognize Mastani as a legitimate wife of the Peshwa. After the death of both Baji Rao and Mastani in 1740, Shamsher was taken into the household of

Kashibai Kashibai Bhat was the first wife of Bajirao I, the Peshwa (Prime Minister) to the fourth Maratha Chhatrapati (Emperor) Shahu. With Bajirao, she had four children, including Balaji Baji Rao and Ragunath Rao. Balaji succeeded Bajirao as Peshwa up ...

, Baji Rao's widow, and raised as one of her own. He married Laal Kunwar daughter of Abdul Momin (Lakshadhira Dalpatrao Pawar) on 14 January 1749, and soon after her death in 1753, Shamsher Bahadur was married to Mehrambai on 18 October 1753. Shamsher Bahadur had one son by Mehrambai named Krishna Sinh, later known as Ali Bahadur. He succeeded Shamsher Bahadur as the

Subahdar Subahdar, also known as Nazim, was one of the designations of a governor of a Subah (province) during the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, Mamluk dynasty, Khalji dynasty, Tughlaq dynasty, and the Mughal era who was alternately designated as Sahib- ...

of Banda.

Military career and reign

Shamsher Bahadur was bestowed upon a portion of his father's dominion of

and

Kalpi Kalpi is a historical city and municipal board in Jalaun district in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is on the right bank of the Yamuna. It is situated 78 kilometres south-west of Kanpur from which it is connected by both road and rail. History Th ...

in present day North Indian state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. He, alongside

Raghunathrao Raghunathrao, also known as Ragho Ballal or Raghoba Dada (18 August 1734 – 11 December 1783), was the younger son of Peshwa Bajirao I who served as the 11th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire for a brief period from 1773 to 1774. He defeated ...

, Malharrao Holkar, Dattaji Shinde, Jankoji Shinde and other Sardars, went to Punjab in 1757–1758 to fight the

Durrani Empire The Durrani Empire, colloquially known as the Afghan Empire, or the Saddozai Kingdom, was an Afghanistan, Afghan empire founded by the Durrani tribe of Pashtuns under Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747, which spanned parts of Central Asia, the Iranian ...

and conquered

Attock Attock ( Punjabi, ), formerly known as Campbellpur (Punjabi, ), is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, not far from the country's capital Islamabad. It is the headquarters of the Attock District and is 36th largest city in the Punjab and 61st largest c ...

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...

in 1758. He was part of Maratha Conquest of North India. In 1761, he and his army contingent fought alongside his cousins from the Peshwa family in the

Third Battle of Panipat The Third Battle of Panipat took place on 14 January 1761 between the Maratha Empire and the invading army of the Durrani Empire. The battle took place in and around the city of Panipat, approximately north of Delhi. The Afghan (ethnonym), Af ...

between the Marathas and Afghan forces of Ahmad Shah Abdali. He was wounded in that battle and died a few days later at Deeg.

Descendants

Upon the death of Shamsher, his son Krishna Sinh (Ali Bahadur) (1758-1802), became the Nawab of the dominion of

(present day

) in northern

, a vassal of Maratha polity. Under the auspices of the powerful Maratha nobles, Ali Bahadur established his authority over large parts of Bundelkhand and became the Nawab of Banda and placed his trusted aide Ramsingh Bhatt as kotwal of Kalinjar. His son and successor Shamsher Bahadur II held allegiance towards the Maratha polity and fought the English in the Anglo-Maratha War of 1803 His descendant Ali Bahadur fought alongside

Rani Lakshmibai The Rani of Jhansi (born Manikarnika Tambe; 1828 or 1835 – 18 June 1858), also known as Rani Lakshmibai, was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The queen consort of the princely state of Jhansi from 1843 to 1853, s ...

in the First War of Indian Independence of 1857. After his defeat, Banda state was abolished by the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

government. The present day descendants of Shamsher Bahadur live in Central India.

In popular culture

In the 2015 film ''

Bajirao Mastani ''Bajirao Mastani'' is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language Epic film, epic historical film, historical tragedy film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who co-produced it with Eros International and composed its Bajirao Mastani (soundtrack), soundtrack ...

'' he was referenced and his naming ceremony was shown. In the 2019 film ''

Panipat Panipat () is an industrial , located 95 km north of Delhi and 169 km south of Chandigarh on NH-44 in Panipat district, Haryana, India. It is famous for three major battles fought in 1526, 1556 and 1761. The city is also known as ...

'', Shamsher Bahadur I was played by Sahil Salathia.

Early life

Military career and reign

Descendants

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading