(Persian for "leader," "guide"), the title of the head of the Mahratta confederacy in India. Originally the peshwa was only prime minister, but afterwards he supplanted his master and became chief of the state, founding an hereditary dynasty, with the capital at Poona. The last peshwa, Baji Rao, came into collision with the British, and was dethroned in 1818. His adopted son, Nana Sahib, took a leading part in the Mutiny of 18J7, in revenge for being deprived of what he considered his rights.