Satara State

Satara State was a Maratha rump state later Princely state in India created after the fall of the Maratha Confederacy in 1818 after the Third Anglo-Maratha War and annexed by the British in 1849 using the Doctrine of lapse. The state was ruled by the Bhonsle dynasty, descendants of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire. The first Raja of the state was Pratap Singh who was installed on the throne by the British after they defeated Peshwa Bajirao II in 1818. Pratap Singh was deposed in 1838. His brother, Shahaji succeeded him but died without a natural heir in 1848. At that time, the East India Company government refused to accept Shahaji's adopted son as his successor under the company's Doctrine of lapse, a policy introduced by the then Governor, Lord Dalhousie, and absorbed the territory into the growing British dominion.