Purandhar, Treaty of

▪ Great Britain-Marāthā [1776]

      (March 1, 1776), pact between the peshwa (chief minister) of the Marāthā (Marāṭhā) people and the supreme government of the British East India Company in Calcutta. It was an example of the tangled relations between the British and the Marāthās.

      After the death of the peshwa Narāyan Rāo in 1773, his uncle Raghunath Rāo tried to secure the succession. The company's Bombay government supported Raghunath's claim in the Treaty of Surat (March 7, 1775) in return for Salsette Island and Bassein (Vasai). But the supreme government disallowed this treaty and sent its own agent to renegotiate. The resulting Treaty of Purandhar annulled that of Surat. Raghunath was pensioned and his cause abandoned, but Salsette and the Broach revenues were retained by the British. The tangle was increased by the support of the London authorities for Bombay, which in 1778–79 again supported Raghunath. Peace was finally restored in 1782.

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