The Five Maráthá Houses.—The fourth Peshwá, Madhu Ráo, succeeded to the Maratha sovereignty in this moment of ruin (1761). The Hindu Confederacy seemed doomed to destruction, alike by internal dissensions and by the superior force of the Afghán arms. As early as 1742, the Poona and Nagpur branches had taken the field against each other, in their quarrels
over the plunder of Bengal. Before 1761, two other branches, under Holkar and Sindhia, held independent sway in the old Mughal Province of Málwá and the neighbouring tracts, now divided between the States of Indore and Gwalior. At Pánípat, Holkar, the head of the Indore branch, deserted the line of battle the moment he saw the tide turn, and his treachery rendered the Maráthá rout complete. The Peshwá was now little more than the nominal head of the five great Maráthá houses. These five Maráthi houses or dynasties had separate territories and armies. Their five capitals were at Poona, the seat of the Peshwás, at Nágpur, the capital of the Bhonslas, in the Central Provinces; at Gwalior, the residence of Sindhia; at Indore, the
capital of Holkar; and at Baroda, the seat of the rising power of the Gáekwárs. Madhu Ráo, the fourth Peshwá, just managed to hold his own against the Muhammadan princes of Haidarábád and Mysore, and against the Bhonsla branch of the Maráthás in Berar. His younger brother, Náráyan Ráo, succeeded him as fifth Peshwá in 1772, but was quickly assassinated. The Peshwás were the great Maráthá power in Southern India; the other four or northern Maratha branches were Sindhia and Holkar, the Bhonslas of Nágpur, and the Gáekwárs of Baroda. We shall briefly relate the fortunes of these four northern branches.
Sindhia and Holkar.—The Peshwá's power at Poona began to grow weak, as that of his nominal masters, the royal descendants of Sivají, had faded out of sight. The Peshwás came of a high Brahman lineage, while the actual fighting force of the Maráthás consisted of low-caste Hindus. It thus happened that each Maráthá general who rose to independent territorial sway was inferior in caste to, although possessed of more real power, than the Peshwá, the titular head of the confederacy. Of the two great northern houses, Holkar was
