Nana Fadnavis (also Nana Phadanvis, May 4, 1741 - March 13, 1800) was the great Maratha minister at Pune, Maharashtra. India at the end of the 18th century.
His real name was Balaji Janardhan Bhanu; but, like many other Marathas, he was always known by a kind of nickname. Nana properly means a maternal grandfather; Phadnavis ("Ph" as in "Elephant") is the official title of the finance minister, derived from fard = an account and anvis = a writer. Incidentally, the name is often spelled "Phadnavis". He was born at Satara on the 4th of May 1741, and was the son of a Chitpavan Brahman, of the same caste as the Peshwa.
Nana escaped from the fatal Third Battle of Panipat (1761) and from about 1774 became the leading personage directing the affairs of the Maratha Confederacy, though never a soldier. This was the period when one Peshwa was rapidly succeeded by another, and there was more than one disputed succession. It was the endeavour of Nana Farnavis to hold together the confederacy in the teeth of both internal dissension and the growing power of the British.
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