He decline of the Bundela House of Orchha started with the coming of the Marathas to North India. The Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao on his Bengal campaign in December 1741 came to Orchha and desired a fort in Bundelkhand. The Marathas were far away from their base in Satara and Pune. They were looking for a fort and cantonment, from where in easy marches they could go to Agra, Delhi, Kalpi, Kanpur, Banda and Allahabad. The Fort of Jhansi built by Maharaja Bir Singh Deo fitted their requirement and they took it away from the Orchha state. The State of Jhansi was created between the States of Datia and Orchha by taking territories from both those States. The State of Orchha lost half its territories in the Northern part of the State to the Maratha state of Jhansi. The parganas of Karera, Dinara Jhansi, Bawra Sagar and Mau Ranipur were taken away from Orchha and included in the state of Jhansi. The State of Jhansi existed between 1750 and 1857. In the beginning Naro-Shankar was the Maratha Viceroy of Bundelkhand, later on Govindpant became the hereditary Kamavisdar of the state. Rani Laxmi Bai, who faught the British in 1857, was his great grand daughter-in-law.

As the Bundela Rajas of Orchha could not resist the vast forces of the Maratha Empire, they tactically made a move south to Tikamgarh. The first move away from Orchha to Ladhaura was made as early as 1780 and it was around 1820s that the final move to Tikamgarh took place.