Raghuji Bhonsale II (died 22 March 1816) or Raghuji II Bhonsale was the

Maratha The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as ...

ruler of the

Kingdom of Nagpur The Kingdom of Nagpur was an Indian kingdom in the 18th and 19th centuries. It came under the rule of the Marathas of the Bhonsle dynasty in the mid-18th century and became part of the Maratha Empire. The city of Nagpur was the capital of the st ...

in Central India from 1788 to 1816.

Reign

Raghuji was adopted as an infant by his uncle

Janoji Bhonsle The Kingdom of Nagpur was an Indian kingdom in the 18th and 19th centuries. It came under the rule of the Marathas of the Bhonsle dynasty in the mid-18th century and became part of the Maratha Empire. The city of Nagpur was the capital of the st ...

to be his chosen heir. Janoji died in 1772, and his brothers fought for succession, until Madhoji shot the other in the

Battle of Panchgaon The Battle of Pachgaon was fought on 26 January 1775 for accession to the throne of the Nagpur Kingdom in central India. Mudhoji Bhonsle killed his brother and rival Sabaji, securing the undisputed regency for Mudhoji's infant son Raghoji II. ...

, six miles south of Nagpur, and succeeded to the regency on behalf of Raghuji. The Nagpur Kingdom reached its greatest extent in the first half of Raghuji's reign. Raghoji II acquired

Hoshangabad Hoshangabad, officially known as Narmadapuram is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Hoshangabad district and Narmadapuram division. It is located in central India, on the south ...

and the lower Narmada valley between 1796 and 1798. Mudhoji had courted the favor of the British, and this policy was continued for some time by Raghuji II. However, In 1803 Ragoji united with

Daulat Rao Sindhia Shrimant Daulat Rao Shinde (also Sindhia; 1779 – 21 March 1827) was the Maharaja (ruler) of Gwalior state in central India from 1794 until his death in 1827. His reign coincided with struggles for supremacy within the Maratha Empire, and war ...

of Gwalior against the

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

in the

Second Anglo-Maratha War } The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) was the second conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. Background The British had supported the "fugitive" Peshwa Raghunathrao in the First Anglo-Maratha War ...

. The two Maratha rulers were decisively defeated at Assaye and

Argaon Argaon, or Argaum is a village in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra state in (India). Ratnagiri is a coastal district on the Arabian Seafront. The landmass on the western part of Maharashtra along the Arabian Sea, sandwiched between the ...

, and by the Treaty of Deogaon of that year Raghuji ceded

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka ) in Odia is the former capital and the second largest city in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised form of ''Kataka'' which literally ...

, southern

Berar Berar may refer to: *Vidarbha, the eastern region of Maharashtra Province, India, historically known as Berar *Berar Sultanate (1490–1596), one of the Deccan sultanates *Berar Subah (1596–1724), a Subah of the Mughal Empire *Berar Province (1724 ...

, and

Sambalpur Sambalpur () is the fifth largest city in the Indian State of Odisha. It is located on the banks of river Mahanadi, with a population of 335,761 (as per 2011 census). Prehistoric settlements have been recorded there. It is the home of the Sam ...

to the British, although

and Patna was not relinquished until 1806. To the close of the 18th century the Maratha administration had been on the whole good, and the country had prospered. The first four of the

Bhonsale The Bhonsle (or Bhonsale, Bhosale, Bhosle) are a prominent group within the Maratha clan system of kunbi origin. They claimed descent from the Sisodia Rajputs but were likely Kunbi tiller-plainsmen. History Earliest members The earliest ac ...

s were military chiefs with the habits of rough soldiers, connected by blood and by constant familiar interaction with all their principal officers. Descended from a class of cultivators, they favored and fostered that order. Up to 1792 their territories were seldom the theater of hostilities, and the area of cultivation and revenue continued to increase under a fairly equitable and extremely simple system of government. After the Treaty of Deogaon, however, all this had changed. Raghuji II was deprived of a third of his territories, and he attempted to make up the loss of revenue from the remainder. The villages were mercilessly rack-rented, and many new taxes imposed. During the Bhonsle-English wars the Navab of Bhopal had taken Husangabad and Sivani from the Bhonsles. In 1807 Raghuji sent his army and captured Cainpurvadi and Cankigad of the Bhopal territory. Later he entered into an agreement with the Sindes for a concerted attack on Bhopal. The two armies besieged Bhopal fort in 1814. But Raghuji withdrew his forces when the Nawab of Bhopal asked for British help. The pay of the troops was in arrears, and they maintained themselves by plundering the cultivators, while at the same time commenced the raids of the

Pindari The Pindaris were irregular military plunderers and foragers in 17th- through early 19th-century Indian subcontinent who accompanied initially the Mughal army, later the Maratha army, and finally on their own before being eliminated in the 1817� ...

s, who became so bold that in 1811 they advanced to Nagpur and burnt the suburbs. It was at this time that most of the numerous village forts were built, to which on the approach of these marauders the peasant retired and fought for bare life, all he possessed outside the walls being already lost to him. Raghuji died on 22 March 1816 and succeeded by his son Parsoji.

Personal life

Raghoji II's favourite queen was Bakabai. He was "pious and devoted to his mother".

References

* Hunter, William Wilson, Sir, et al. (1908). ''Imperial Gazetteer of India'', Volume 17. 1908-1931; Clarendon Press, Oxford. {{DEFAULTSORT:Raghoji 02 Bhonsle 1816 deaths People of the Maratha Empire History of Nagpur Maharajas of Nagpur People of the Second Anglo-Maratha War Year of birth missing