Originally, this was the title given to brahmin ministers who acted as counsellors to the Maratha kings.
These ministers were traditionally Chitpavan brahmins, which
gave this tiny group much more power than it deserved.
The Peshwas became de facto rulers with the revival of the
Maratha confederacy in the early eighteenth century, while they continued to
administer in the name of the Maratha kings.
The office of Peshwa became hereditary at this period.
The Peshwas maintained power over the ancient Maratha
territory in the western section of Maharashtra until it was invaded by the
British in 1818, when the Maratha confederation broke into many sovereign
republics about 1770.
