Balaji Vishwanath assisted a young Maratha king Shahu to consolidate his grip on a kingdom that had been racked by civil war and persistently intruded on by the Mughals under Aurangzeb.

[3][4][5] The family hailed from the coastal Konkan region of present-day Maharashtra and were the hereditary Deshmukh for Shrivardhan under the Siddi of Janjira.

[6] He went out in search of employment to the upper regions of western ghats and worked as a mercenary trooper under various Maratha generals.

According to Kincaid & Parasnis, Balaji Vishwanath entered the Maratha administration during the reign of Sambhaji or the regency of his brother, Rajaram.

Balaji Vishwanath was despatched by Dhanaji Jadhav to meet secretly with Shahu and verify his bona fides.

Dhanaji's confidence in Balaji Vishwanath, however, aroused the jealousy of his son and successor, Chandrasen Jadhav.

Their combined forces captured most of the Konkan coast, including Balaji's birthplace of Shrivardhan, which became part of the Angre fiefdom.

Claiming descent from the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, the Sayyid Brothers had turned king-makers in the Mughal court.

And while the Mughals were intriguing in the civil war between the factions of Shahu and Tarabai, the Marathas themselves became a major factor in the quarrels between the Emperor and the Sayyids.

To this Balaji Vishwanath added the demand of Chauth and Sardeshmukhi over the rich provinces of Gujarat and Malwa, and the restoration of Chattrapati Shivaji's conquests in Karnataka, in return for which Balaji promised that Shahu would acknowledge the nominal overlordship of the Mughal Emperor, and the Marathas would provide a force of 15,000 armed horsemen to the Mughal Empire.To these demands, Sayyid Hussain Ali Khan readily agreed, with a view to utilize the Maratha soldiers to their advantage in their struggle with the Emperor.

In September 1718, accompanied by Balaji Vishwanath, and supported by (now) sixteen thousand strong Maratha horsemen commanded by Parsoji Bhosale, Hussain Ali Khan arrived in Delhi.

Most of Farrukhsiyar's supporters fled but the Emperor's partisans resisted but were overcome at the cost of two thousand Maratha soldiers.

Farrukhsiyar was dethroned, blinded and imprisoned by the Sayyid's, who substituted in his place a more pliable puppet, Rafi-ul-darjat in February 1719.

This hapless prince was dying of tuberculosis and was in turn replaced after a reign of only three months by his older brother Rafi Ud-Daulah.)

He got the news that Balaji Vishwanath captured his jagir in Warana valley and went to attack on Panhala fort.

The older, Bhiubai married Abaji Joshi of Baramati, brother of the banker Balaji Naik famed as Bajirao I's most tormenting creditor.

Balaji returned in triumph from Delhi to Satara, having also secured the release after decades of Mughal captivity, the mother (Yesubai), wife (Savitribai) and half-brother (Madan Singh) of Shahu.

Weary from his labors and the tiresome journey back from the imperial capital, Balaji Vishwanath's health began to fail.

[19] Balaji Vishwanath also laid the foundation for the complex administrative system of the Marathas that held sway for a century after his death.

The Maratha tax collection system from a wide swathe of nominally Mughal provinces was based on a widespread network of agents and collectors.