As the adopted son of the exiled Maratha Peshwa, Baji Rao II, Nana Saheb believed he was entitled to a pension from the Company.

After the Marathas were defeated in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the East India Company exiled Peshwa Baji Rao II to Bithoor (near Kanpur), but allowed him to maintain a large establishment, partly funded by a British pension.

Nana Saheb's father, a well-educated Deccani Brahmin, had travelled with his family from the Western Ghats to serve as a court official for the exiled Peshwa.

Nana Saheb's childhood companions included Tatya Tope, Azimullah Khan, and Manikarnika Tambe, the future Rani of Jhansi.

According to this doctrine, any princely state or territory under the paramountcy of the Company would automatically be annexed if the ruler was either "manifestly incompetent" or died without a direct heir.

[1] The doctrine overturned the long-established right of an Indian sovereign without an heir to select a successor, with the British reserving the power to decide the competency of potential rulers.

So when reports, that the disbanded troops of the 19th Native Infantry were lavishly entertained by the Nana whilst they were passing through Bithur in late April 1857, reached the British, Gen. Massey took no notice.

Sixty years after the events, a large, fortified, Mughal era underground room was discovered at the barracks' site, the presence of which seems to have been unknown to both the British and Nana Saheb in 1857.

[15] On the 6 June 1857, the East India Company forces at Kanpur rebelled and the British contingent too refuge at the barracks in the northern part of the town.

He appointed Jwala Prasad as brigadier of the new army, his elder brother Baba Bhutt as the judge of Kanpur and Azimulla Khan as the collector.

A prophecy about the downfall of East India Company rule exactly 100 years after the Battle of Plassey motivated over 4,000 rebel soldiers to launch a major attack on 23 June, beginning with a cavalry charge.

On 25 June, a Eurasian prisoner named Mrs Jacobi, approached the entrenchment with an offer of honourable surrender and safe passage to Allahabad.

[27] Facing dwindling provisions and with no reinforcements, following discussions with his remaining officers, Wheeler accepted the offer on 26 June, leading to a truce and negotiations with Azimulla Khan and Jawala Prasad, commander of Nana’s cavalry.

An Indian ayurvedic doctor was allowed to attend to the captives and recorded thirty-six fatalities (18 British women, 17 children, and 1 Hindu nurse), possibly due to cholera, in the first week of their capture.

On 9 July, Nana received news that a company of 700 under the command of Major Sydenham Renaud was advancing along the Grand Trunk Road, indiscriminately punishing Indian villages en route.

Tatya Tope had an elephant shot under him by cannon roundshot, and General Havelock's forces emerged victorious, capturing the town with few casualties.

Nana Sahib and his associates, including Tatya Tope and Azimullah Khan, debated what to do with the four men and 206 women and children held at Bibighar.

[48][47] On the 15th, after Bala arrived and announced his defeat at the Pandu River, the four male captives—Mr Thornhill, a judge from Fatehgarh; Col. Smith; Col. Goldie; and the 14-year-old Greenway—were bound, brought out of Bibighar, and shot by the sepoys.

When the British soldiers, particularly Colonel Neill, learned of the Bibighar massacre, they engaged in retaliatory violence, including looting and burning houses.

[54] On 18 July, Havelock heard about Neill's punishments and put an end to the indiscriminate killing, even hanging one British soldier for his actions.

Major Stevenson led a group of Madras Fusiliers and Sikh soldiers to Bithur, occupying Nana Sahib's palace without resistance.

[59] Campbell left for Lucknow on 9 November, leaving behind a garrison of 500 British and Sikh soldiers under the command of the inexperienced Major General Windham.

On 24 November, Maj. Gen. Windham advanced to meet them, but the British lost the ensuing battle and retreated to the newly fortified barracks, leaving their wounded and dead on the field.

Wounded British officers left in the field, were hanged from the branches of the very banyan tree where Neill had previously hung suspected rebels.

At the start of April, the British learned that Nana had crossed the river near Bithur with an escort of 500 cavalry; however, he evaded the patrols sent by General Hope Grant to apprehend him.

On 29 April, he wrote a letter addressed to Queen Victoria, stating that he had committed no murders and that the killings were carried out by rebels or "budmashes" (hooligans).

[68] He had also previously pretended to commit suicide at the Ganges when Bithur was taken by Sir Campbell's army, suggesting he might simply have been trying to cover his tracks and throw off the pursuit.

Although many rebels surrendered, it was understood that Nana and his younger brother Bala forded the river into Nepal with eight elephants loaded with treasure before the fight began.

[citation needed] Two letters and a diary retrieved in the 1970s suggest that Nana Saheb might have spent the rest of his days as an ascetic, Yogindra Dayanand Maharaj, in Sihor in coastal Gujarat until his death in 1903.

Owing to the chivalrous treatment by a British officer, Maj. Forbes-Mitchell, during their incarceration and up to their execution, Muhammed Ali Khan provided more in-depth information about the events of 1857.