Raganath Rao

Bahadur Raganath Rao was the premier of a Maratha state. His names are alternately spelled "Raghunath" and "Row," and "Bahadur" is an title meaning "brave" or "most honorable."

Raghunatha Rao was born to a prominent Deshastha Brahmin family on February 7, 1831. Even though his people were Marathi, from the west-central Indian state of Maharashtra, he was born in Kumbakonam, in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu.

Charles Johnston described him in this way:

Ragunath Rao, short and supple, was a man of power, and with power’s finest efflorescence, a warm and cordial sense of humor; his eyes were bright blue, a thing rare among natives of India, but now and then found among the best Brahmans of the Mahratta country or Kashmir.