Commemorating the dead is a long tradition in India, whether in the form of Veergals, Stupas or caves dug in memory of someone. Sometime during the medieval era, this tradition took the form of Samadhis in Maharashtra.
A Samadhi is a memorial or a cenotaph built to commemorate a person on a location connected with their death, either the place of their death or cremation. The most common form of a Samadhi is a rectangular stone platform. However many a times, a mausoleum was built over these samadhis. Mausoleums built in the Late Sultanate and Early Maratha Period were heavily inspired by Deccani Mosques. During the reign of the Marathas, mausoleums called Chhatris were built in the memory of a dead person by a family member, with their ashes buried inside in certain cases. A large variety is seen among these mausoleums and the inspirations for these structures range from Bengal to Rajasthan. Many times, temples were also constructed in the memory of a dead person and the deity was named after that person.
Rajasthan has a long tradition of building complexes of cenotaphs dedicated to a single family such as those at Gaitore, Bada Bagh and Ahar. Some Maratha families seem to have adapted this concept too, evident by the cenotaph complexes of the Satara Chhatrapatis at Mahuli, the Kolhapur Chhatrapatis at Nurserybag, the Holkars at Maheshwar, the Shindes at Shivpuri and the Nimbalkars at Phaltan. However, these complexes seem to have come up in times of stability, when the rulers have settled at a single place. The cenotaphs of the founding members of these dynasties are never a part of these complexes such as the samadhis of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Sambhaji and Rajaram at Raigad, Tulapur & Sinhagad, the samadhis of Malharrao Holkar and Khanderao Holkar at Alampur and Deeg and the samadhi of Ranoji Shinde at Shujalpur and Mahadji Shinde at Pune. Oddly enough, the kind of grandeur seen in the cenotaphs of the Holkars, Shindes, and Nimbalkars is completely absent in the case of the Bhosales. The samadhis at Mahuli are plain stone platforms that are underwater for a part of the year and the samadhis at Kolhapur are platforms on which Chhatris were never built. In the case of the Peshwas, there is an absence of grandiosity and a cenotaph complex itself. These samadhis are not mentioned in documents, a large number of these samadhis are located outside Pune and it is questionable whether many, especially those of the wives, widows, and children who died in infancy were even built in the first place. The three Peshwa samadhis that stand in Pune today are located in the patch stretching from Omkareshwar to Lakdi Pool, parts of which were cremation grounds prior to 1961. This patch along the river was lined with samadhis and vrundavans, out of which very few stand today. They have been demolished in the past for building roads and bridges, were swept away during floods and have been victims of apathy.
This article is an attempt to list all the existing Samadhis and Chhatris of the Peshwas and organize and summarize the places where members of the Peshwa family died in order to encourage new discoveries in places like Surat, Bithoor, Varanasi, Kopargaon, Nashik, Haryana, and Nepal.
Following are the lists of the samadhis of members of the Peshwa family:
We can assume with certainty, that samadhis of the ancestors of Balaji Vishwanath were never built in the first place. In the case of female family members, there are only 3 known Samadhis, those of Mastani, Gopikabai, and Yashodabai. We can assume with certainty that the samadhis of children who died during infancy were never built. One also observes that the Samadhi of Sawai Madhavrao was never built. This might have been due to the nature of his death and the political chaos of those times.
The Mastaneshwar Temple near Saswad was built by Bajirao Peshwa along with the lake now called as Mastani Talav. However, in the absence of any proof as to whether the name Mastaneshwar is historical or a recent development, it has been omitted from the list.
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