1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nana Sahib

NANA SAHIB, the common designation of Dandu Panth, an adopted son of, the ex-peshwa of the Mahrattas, Baji Rao, who took a leading part in the great Indian Mutiny, and was proclaimed peshwa by the mutineers. Nana Sahib had a grievance against the British government because they refused to continue to him the pension of eight lakhs of rupees (£80,000) which was promised to Baji Rao by Sir John Malcolm on his surrender in 1818. This pension, however, was only intended to be a life grant to Baji Rao himself. For this refusal the Nana bore the British a lifelong grudge, which he washed out in the blood of women and children in the massacres at Cawnpore. In 1859, when the remnants of the rebels disappeared into Nepal, the Nana was among the fugitives. His death was reported some time afterwards, but his real fate remains obscure.