ABSTRACT
The last attempt by the Mahrattas to dispute the dominion of India with the British ended on 3 June 1818, when the Peshwa of Poona, the principal Mahratta chief, surrendered to Sir John Malcolm at Dhulkot in central India. The Peshwa was forbidden to return to the Deccan, hut was exiled to Bithur, near Cawnpore, where he was provided with an annual stipend of £100,000 as some solace for the death of all his hopes. 'With him,' wrote Fortescue, 'the great Mahratta confederacy, which, but for the British would have mastered all India, passed finally away.' It had indeed been a remarkable saga, beginning as far back as Sivaji (1627-80), who raised the standard of revolt against the Mughuls and made his people the ruling power in the Deccan; 1 and it is sad that it should have ended amid a welter of palace intrigue and in alliance with a worthless collection of banditti like the Pindaris.
