THE Indian States are, compared with British India, very slightly known, nor, so far as I am aware, has the adequate life of any Indian Prince been published in England - such a life as would convey to an English public the trials and difficulties, the hopes and aspirations, as well as the domestic life, sorrows and pleasures of the ruler who, if not independent in the sense which is understood of the great countries of Europe, is yet in a position to make or mar the happiness of millions.
The Maharaja of Baroda was and still is among the foremost of the Indian Princes who have laboured for the good of their people.
He is generally known as the 'Gaekwad', but this is a mistake which has been hallowed by usage. Gaekwad is the family name, and it is as reasonable to speak of the Gaekwad of Baroda as it would have been to talk of Bonaparte of France. In his own dominions he is always called the Maharaja, and the official designation of the Government of India is the Maharaja Gaekwad, which corresponds to the titles in the sister States of Indore and Gwalior of the Maharaja Holkar and the Maharaja Sindhia.
Nor it is true to say with Sir Sidney Lee that the Maharaja came from the humblest origin. He was a Gaekwad; he belonged to the ruling family though in a collateral line, and though his family was living in unconsidered obscurity it was of some local importance in the village.
A legend has grown out of this that the Maharaja was a beggar boy, a sort of counterpart to the girl who attracted King Cophetua.
The Maharaja is a great man, with a career behind him of which any one might be proud. Baroda covers an area of some 8,100 square mile and has a population of 2 1/2 millions. Compare with the whole of India Baroda is but a tiny fraction, and the peculiar situation of Indian States, almost if not quite unique in the world, takes away that fascinating interest which we find in the lives of great statesmen who have had to deal with foreign affairs in all parts of the globe. But it is no mean achievement to have raised Baroda from the position of a medieval state, full of corruption and oppression, and dependent for its life on the whims and caprices of the ruler, to a foremost place among the States of India, with a government framed on constitutional lines, with just and reasonable laws, and instinct with all the progress of modern science and modern wisdom.
In 1964 the great Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire, surprised and plundered the town of Surat. This was the first contact of the Marathas with Gujerat, and the object was definitely the acquisition of booty on which to a great extent depended the successful issue of his rebellion against the Moghul Empire. Aurangzib, though in some respect a great administrator and by no mean to be despised as a general, had alienated all his Hindu subjects by his intense bigotry and the Empire had grown so unmanageable that it was difficult to control the outlying districts, all the more when a formidable chieftain, gifted with determination and resource had stirred his countrymen into rebellion. The invasion was no more than a raid, repeated in 1670; but it served to bring the Marathas into the country.
It was not, however, till after the deaths both of Aurangzib and of Shivaji that the Marathas began to interfere directly in the affairs of Gujerat. About the year 1716 one Khanderao Dabhade, who was supporting one Musalman lieutenant against another, established himself between Nandod and Rajpipla. Such were his services to the Maratha cause that on his return to Satara he was created Senapati, Commander-in-Chief, by Ram Raj, who had succeeded to the Maratha throne; and two years later the Peshwa obtained from the feeble Moghul Government the authority to collect the well-known Maratha levies from the Province of Gujerat. In 1721 Khanderao was found with a Maratha army in support of Ajam Ali Khan against Asaf Jah the Nizamul Mulk, and though Alam Ali was killed, the Marathas behaved well under their leader Damajirao Gaekwad, who was promoted by Raja Shahu to be second in command with the title of 'Samsher Bahadur', the illustrious swordman, a title which Sayajirao Maharaja bears to this day. Damaji died soon after, and his post and title devolved on his nephew Pilaji.
Pilajirao Gaekwad is the founder of the dynasty which afterwards came to rule Baroda. He first established himself in Khandesh, but as the country was claimed by another Maratha chief Khandaji Kadam Bande he moved to Songadh a hill fort in the wild country in the east of the present Navsari District.
This fort still exists, though in a ruined state, and in it are kept a bed representing the Gadi and the portrait of the Maharaja, symbols that here was the cradle of the Gaekwar fortunes. The country is no longer wild nor difficult of access, though the fort itself can only be reached by a steep climb.
From here he proceeded to consolidate his position, making raids into the surrounding country for the purpose of collecting tribute. Songadh continued to be the headquarters, but by degrees he seems to have been drawn into the everlasting civil war. The annals of those times are very confusing. Musalman allied himself with Maratha and Maratha with Musalman with bewildering and kaleidoscopic changes. One moon would see the Maratha chieftains making common cause, the next might find them in opposite camps, while in the third they would perhaps have mutually exchanged allies; it is difficult even to follow the thread of any one man's fortunes through the tangle.
In 1725 after various vicissitudes Pilajirao was in alliance with a Mahomedan General Rustam Ali Khan but the strength of these alliances was severely tested when in a battle with the forces of the Nizam, to whom the Maratha Bande had attached himself, Pilajirao turned his guns upon his ally, thereby gaining for himself half the chauth¹, the whole of which had been promised to Bande Quarrels not unnaturally broke out. The Nizam's Deputy, Hamid Khan, endeavoured to compose them by assigning the district north of the Mahi river to Bande, and those to the south including Baroda to Pilajirao, but this seems to have been for the purpose of collecting the chauth and not in full sovereignty as the Nizam was the overlord, and neither Maratha chief was independent of the Maratha Government, whose principal agent in the country was the Senapati.
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