Raghoji II Bhonsle

Raghuji Bhonsle II
Maharaja of Nagpur
Raghuji Bhonsle II
Reign	19 May 1788 – 22 March 1816
Died	22 March 1816 Nagpur
Spouse	Baka Bai
Issue	Parasoiji Bhonsle Dharmaji Bhonsle Raghuji Bohonsle III (adoptive son)
House	Bhonsle of Nagpur
Father	Madhoji Bhonsle
Religion	Hinduism

Raghuji Bhonsale II (died 22 March 1816) or Raghuji II Bhonsale was the Maratha ruler of the Kingdom of Nagpur in Central India from 1788 to 1816.

Raghuji was adopted as an infant by his uncle Janoji Bhonsle to be his chosen heir. Janoji died in 1772, and his brothers fought for succession, until Madhoji until shot the other on the battlefield of Panchgaon, six miles south of Nagpur, and succeeded to the regency on behalf of Raghuji.

The Nagpur Kingdom reached its greatest extent in the first half of Raghuji's reign.

In 1785 Mudhoji added Mandla and the upper Narmada valley to the Nagpur Kingdom through a deal with the Peshwa, chief ruler of the Maratha Confederacy. Raghoji II also acquired Hoshangabad and the lower Narmada valley between 1796 and 1798.

Mudhoji had courted the favor of the British, and this policy was continued for some time by Raghuji II

In 1803 Ragoji united with Daulat Rao Sindhia of Gwalior against the British East India Company in the Second Anglo-Maratha War. The two Maratha rulers were decisively defeated at Assaye and Battle of Argaon, and by the Treaty of Deogaon of that year Raghuji ceded Cuttack, southern Berar, and Sambalpur to the British, although Sambalpur and Patna was not relinquished until 1806.

To the close of the 18th century the Maratha administration had been on the whole good, and the country had prospered. The first four of the Bhonsales were military chiefs with the habits of rough soldiers, connected by blood and by constant familiar interaction with all their principal officers. Descended from a class of cultivators, they favored and fostered that order. They were rapacious, but seldom cruel to the lower castes.