The Bargi Raids: Maratha Horse Lords in Bengal 1741-1751

Between 1741 and 1751, Bengal was ravaged by a series of devastating raids led by Maratha light cavalry known as the Bargis. Under the command of Raghunath Bhonsle and later his son Bhaskar Pant, these horsemen swept across the region, extracting tribute, burning villages, and triggering mass migration. Nawab Alivardi Khan, who had recently seized power, faced his greatest challenge as his fragile Nasiri dynasty struggled to contain the Maratha threat. The raids culminated in the Treaty of Bhalka in 1751, which ceded the province of Orissa to the Marathas and established the Bargis as a permanent menace. This episode peels back a brutal decade that reshaped Bengal's revenue system, emptied treasuries, and left scars that would later contribute to the region's vulnerability to British conquest. We trace Alivardi Khan's campaigns, the role of the Jagat Seth banking family, the siege of Murshidabad, and the human cost of the Maratha incursions, drawing on Persian chronicles like the Siyar-ul-Mutakherin and Maratha records from the Bhonsle archives. #BargiRaids #MarathaInvasions #AlivardiKhan #BengalHistory #RaghunathBhonsle #BhaskarPant #Murshidabad #JagatSeth #TreatyOfBhalka #Orissa #MarathaEmpire #NasiriDynasty #SiyarUlMutakherin #BengalSubah #18thCentury #IndianHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo