the ghost wouldn't leave him. It stayed with him until the end, warning him that his line would end with his successor, his house would burn to ashes, and his clan would perish. Incidentally, after the flare-up of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Company troops, in July that year, after their successful re-capture of Kanpur under Major-General Henry Havelock initially and later under the then Brigadier James Hope Grant, sacked and burnt down Bithur, including the residence (wada) of Baji Rao II, where many members of his extended family except his adopted son, Nana Sahib, resided. In popular culture The Marathi historical novelist N. S. Inamdar has written two books on the career of Peshwa Baji Rao II. The last Peshwa has been much-maligned by historians. In these novels, Inamdar tries to show the Peshwa in a different light. A person who was imprisoned in his childhood for a crime which was supposedly committed by his mother Anandibai, a person who came to the Peshwai not knowing the ABCs of politics, and a person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The first of the books, "Jhep" (1963), is actually based on the life of Trimbakji Dengle, who was a guard of the Peshwa and rose to become his chief minister (Karbhari). He helped the Peshwa resurrect the Peshwai from the ruins after the Second Anglo-Maratha War. He also tried to form a sort of coalition with some kings to try to overthrow British rule. In this he failed and the British framed him in the murder of the eminent Gangadhar Shastri (chief minister of the Gaekwad), and he was arrested. The Peshwa wasn't willing to give up his much-valued prime minister and was prepared to start a war against the British, but Trimbakji asked him to lie low and wait until the right time has come. The second book, "Mantravegala" (1969), is a sort of continuation of "Jhep". The difference is that "Jhep" deals more with the personal life of Trimbakji whereas "Mantravegala" deals with the personal life of Baji Rao between the years 1817 and 1818, and the Third and last Anglo-Maratha war. In the initial part of the book, Baji Rao is very angry that the English are constantly interfering in the affairs of the Maratha kingdom to a great extent. He is secretly making plans to destroy the British once and for all.