- Govind Pant Bundele
Govind Ballal Kher (
1710 ? -1761 ), historically known as ‘Govind Pant Bundele’, was aMilitary General ofPeshwas inNorthern India during1733 to1761 . PeshwaBajirao appointed him his trustee for the 1/3rd kingdom rewarded to him byMaharaja Chhatrasal inBundelkhand . He was the founder of the city ofSagar situated in theCentral India .Early Life
Govind Pant was born in a
Karhade Brahmin family in village ‘Nevare’ inRatnagiri district ofMaharashtra in or around1710 . His father wasKulkarni of the village and Govind Pant inherited this post on early death of his father. Being a vagabond, however, he was forced to leave the post and also his native place and was compelled to wander in the search of a job.Career
In the beginning, he worked under the then rising Maratha Generals
Malharrao Holkar andAntaji Mankeshwar and got good experience of guerilla war and administration. On recommendation by Antaji,Bajirao Peshwa assigned some jobs to Govind Pant and found him extremely useful. Soon he becameBajirao ’s one of the most favorite. WhenBajirao gotBundelkhand fromMaharaja Chhatrasal in1733 , he appointed Govindpant as hisAdministrator andPower of attorney for this newly annexed land. In1735 -1736 withPeshwa ’s permission, he built a new town called ‘Sagar ’ and made it hisCapital . He was always known to be the greatest ‘Fund raiser ’ of theMaratha Empire .Contribution to the Battle of Panipat
Govind Pant did his best to help the
Maratha army under the leadership ofSadashivrao Bhau duringBattle of Panipat in1761 . He himself had trappedAhmed Shah Abdali in the region betweenGanges andYamuna (termed as "Duab") and had made him totally helpless. Unfortunately however, a sheer misunderstanding led him to lose his life in an unexpected tussle with the troops under Abdali’s General Ataikhan. With a few soldiers with him, Govind Pant had entered Ataikhan’s camp with a presumption that it was none other than a Maratha camp.Controversy
Veteran historian
V K Rajwade holds Govind Pant responsible for the defeat ofMarathas in thebattle of Panipat (1761) . Also he does not consider him as a man of importance. Moreover, he accuses him to be always corrupt. These allegations have however been refuted stating that the first two statements by Rajwade are contradictory to each other. Govind Pant can be held responsible only if he was a man of importance. Secondly,Marathas were on the verge of victory even after substantial time had passed for Govind Pant’s death. There were so many other reasons for the defeat including wrong decisions bySadashivrao Bhau , untimely retreat byMalharrao Holkar and death of PeshwaVishwas Rao . Thirdly, accusing Govind Pant of corruption would mean underestimating the capabilities of PeshwaBajirao andNanasaheb as Govind Pant was their Power of Attorney continuously for more than 25 years.References
*‘Marathi Riyasat Volume I’ (
Marathi ) byGovind Sakharam Sardesai
*‘Peshwyanchi Bakhar’ (Marathi ) Editorial Notes by R.V.Herwadkar
*‘Bhausahebachi Bakhar’ (Marathi ) Editorial Notes by R.V.Herwadkar
*'Aitihasik Prastavana' (Marathi ) byV K Rajwade
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