Dattaji Rao Shinde (1723-10 January 1760) was a sardar of the Maratha Confederacy.
Biography[]
Dattaji Rao Shinde was born in 1723, the elder half-brother of Mahadaji Shinde. He was given command of an 18,000-strong army by Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao in 1757 and was sent to fight off Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani's invasion of the Punjab, capturing Attock and Peshawar from 1757 to 1758. In 1759, Marathi finance minister Sadashivrao Bhau sent Shinde to forcibly collect the rebellious Mughal noble Najib ad-Dawlah's taxes after Najib refused to pay for several years, and Shinde found himself confronted both by Mughals and by Durrani's Afghan army, which had been invited to India by Najib. Shinde defeated the Afghans at the Battle of Lahore before the Mughals and Afghans wrought their revenge by capturing Attock, Peshawar, and Lahore, and Shinde was attacked by the Muslim alliance outside Delhi in 1760. At the Battle of Buradi Ghat, Shinde's outnumbered army was totally defeated, and Shinde was beheaded by Najib's general Mian Qutub Shah after swearing to Najib that he would continue fighting if Najib left him alive.