१८५७ का स्वातन्त्र्य समर (वीर विनायक दामोदर सावरकर - अंग्रेजों द्वारा छपने से पूर्व प्रतिबन्धित महाग्रन्थ)

Peshwa Nana Saheb of Bithoor was the eldest
adopted son of Baji Rao II the last ruling Peshwa of
Poona. Having failed in all his constitutional at-
tempts to establish his claim to the gadi and the
pension of the Peshwa, he organised a country-wide
plot to overthrow the British domination in India
by actually waging an armed revolutionary war.
With the full co-operation and assistance of his
younger brother Bala Rao, his nephew Rao Saheb,
his Commander-in-Chief Tatia Tope, Rani Lakshmi-
bai of Jhansi and several other Rajahs he took a
prominent part in the Revolutionary War of 1857.
After the capture of Cawnpore by the Revolutionary
forces he was proclaimed Peshwa.
In the end when he realised that the tide had
turned against the Revolutionaries and that the war
was lost, he decided to stage a retreat and did so,
keeping the enemy engaged all the time. With a large
army, and a retinue of captives and adherents he
forced an entry into the State of Nepal and there
disappeared. His disappearance and end are, even to
this day, one of the unsolved mysteries of history.
Ruins of the residence of Nana Saheb at Bithoor — once a grand palace
where Indians and Europeans alike were lavishly entertained.
NANA SAHEB PESHWA OF BITHOOR
From an old portrait
“Nothing could exceed the cordiality which he constantly displayed in
his intercourse with our countrymen. The persons in authority
placed an implicit confidence in his friendliness and good faith, and
the ensigns emphatically pronounced him a capital fellow.”
Trevelyan in — Cawnpore