Balaji Vishwanath Bhat was the first of a series of hereditary Peshwas hailing from the Bhat family who gained effective control of the Maratha Empire and the Mughal vassals of the Marathas during the early 18th century. 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. He was called the Second Founder of the Maratha State. He secured a grant from the Mughal court that confirmed Shahu as the legitimate Mughal vassal, at the expense of his rival Sambhaji. Later, his son Bajirao I became the Peshwa.

Peshwa was second highest office in the Maratha Confederacy, next in rank and prestige only to that of the Chhatrapati. Initially serving as the appointed prime minister in the Maratha empire, the office became hereditary after the death of Shahu in 1749. During the reign of Shahu, the office of Peshwa grew in power and the Peshwas came to be the de facto rulers of the Maratha empire. However following the defeat of the Marathas in 1761, the office of the Peshwa became titular as well and from that point onwards served as the ceremonial head of the Confederacy underneath the Chhatrapati.