The Rise of the Marathas

1. Chapter at a Glance

The Marathas are people of the Deccan plateau, mainly present-day Maharashtra, identified with the Marathi language, which has a literary history going back to the 12th century. In the 17th century Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj united them into an independent kingdom, or Swarājya. It survived decades of Mughal attack and in the 18th century became the largest Indian power before the British — so much so that the British took India from the Marathas more than from any other power. This chapter covers their rise, administration, navy, culture and legacy.

2. Cultural Roots

In the 13th century the Yadavas of Devagiri ruled Maharashtra until the Khalji Sultanate conquered them early in the 14th century. Yet culture continued through the Bhakti saints — Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram, Ramdas — who sang in Marathi, brought the Gītā and Upaniṣhads to ordinary people, and built social unity and confidence that later helped the Marathas organise politically.

3. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (1630–1680)

• Born in the Bhonsle clan to Shahji (who served the Deccan sultanates) and Jijabai, who raised him in Shahji's jāgīr at Pune, a region suffering from the sultanates' constant fighting.
• At 16 he began capturing and strengthening neglected forts; his idea of Swarājya grew to cover political, economic and cultural freedom.
• Built a full-time navy (from 1657) and sea forts such as Sindhudurg and Vijaydurg — revolutionary, since Bijapur and the Mughals had little real naval force.
• Used guerrilla warfare — small, fast units using surprise and knowledge of hills and forests.
• Afzal Khan (Bijapur general) was killed at a meeting at the foot of Pratapgad (1659); Shivaji used the wāgh nakh (“tiger claw”), and his hidden troops routed the Bijapur army.
• A daring night raid on the Mughal noble Shaista Khan's camp at Pune forced him to flee, minus some fingers — likened to a modern surgical strike.
• He sacked Surat, the rich Mughal port, twice, but spared religious places and the house of the charitable merchant Mohandas Parekh; the London Gazette reported it.
• Defeated by Jai Singh, he signed the Treaty of Purandar (1665) and gave up many forts. At Aurangzeb's court in Agra he was insulted and placed under house arrest; he escaped hidden in sweet-baskets (1666) and soon recovered his territory.
• Coronation at Raigad (1674) with Vedic rites as “Shri Raja Shiva Chhatrapati”; began a new era, the Rājyābhiṣheka śhaka.
• The southern campaign (1677) took Gingee and Vellore regions, giving the Marathas strategic depth. In the South he forbade the Dutch from trading in Indian slaves.
• He inspired the Bundela prince Chhatrasal to found an independent Bundelkhand; the Hindi poet Bhushan wrote verses in his praise.

4. The Marathas After Shivaji

• Sambhaji faced Aurangzeb, who had conquered Bijapur and Golconda; he was captured, tortured and executed (1689), and Raigad fell.
• Rajaram moved to Gingee (Tamil Nadu), spreading the war south. Maratha forts held out; Aurangzeb died in 1707 in the Deccan without subduing them.
• Queen Tarabai, seeing north India left unguarded, sent armies into Mughal lands — the start of northward expansion.
• The state became more decentralised: powerful chiefs and especially the Peshwa (prime minister) gained influence. Bajirao I and Nanasaheb Peshwa led pan-Indian expansion. Greater autonomy also brought occasional indiscipline and abuses.
• Marathas briefly reached Lahore, Attock and even Peshawar. They lost the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) to the Afghan Ahmad Shah Abdali, but recovered under Peshwa Madhavrao I; Mahadji Shinde retook Delhi in 1771.
• Nana Phadnavis organised an early anti-British alliance, even with Hyder Ali and the Nizam. The Marathas won the First Anglo–Maratha War (1775–82), but internal disunity and British organisation and technology ended their power by 1818.

5. Administration

Civil

• Shivaji abolished hereditary posts and land assignments for officials, paid them cash salaries from the treasury and transferred them regularly so none grew too powerful.
• Pensions for soldiers' widows; jobs for their sons.
• Strict orders against harming subjects — in one letter he told officials not to cut people's mango or jackfruit trees for navy timber, because villagers raised them like children and oppression destroys the oppressor.
• Aṣhṭa Pradhān — council of eight ministers:

• Chauth (25% of revenue) and sardeshmukhi (an extra 10%) were collected from areas outside direct rule in return for protection; the Mughals accepted this through treaties.
• Justice through local panchāyats (with appeal to chiefs), sparing use of the death penalty, and a kotwāl (police) in towns such as Pune and Indore.
• Coins in Shivaji's name with Devanagari script; later coins combined Devanagari and Persian.

Military and navy

• Infantry, cavalry and navy. Cavalry: bārgīrs (horse and arms supplied by the state) and shiledārs (own horse and arms). Mahadji Shinde later raised European-style disciplined troops.
• Swords and lances, guns, and rockets (metal-tube rockets by about 1770).
• Forts were “the core of the state”, wrote finance minister Ramachandrapant Amatya in Ādnyāpatra (1715); they guarded routes and sheltered guerrilla armies.
• Kanhoji Angre won many sea battles in the 18th century. Europeans forced Indian ships to buy passes (cartaz); the Marathas demanded passes from Europeans instead — so the British called Angre a “pirate”.
• Shivaji's ships traded to Mocha (Yemen), Muscat (Oman) and Malacca; roads, ferries and bridges were maintained.

6. Culture and Remarkable Women

• Shivaji's Sanskrit seal (instead of Persian) promised rule for the people's welfare; the Rājya-Vyavahāra-Koṣha replaced Persian administrative words with Sanskrit/Marathi terms. He rebuilt desecrated temples and respected other faiths. Letters were written in the Moḍī script.
• Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore ruled wisely for nearly three decades after losing her husband and son; she built and restored temples, ghats, wells and roads from Kedarnath to Rameswaram — including rebuilding the Kashi Vishwanath temple (1780) and a Somnath temple — and promoted Maheshwar handlooms.
• Tarabai led resistance after Rajaram's death and was the architect of northward expansion.
• The Bhonsles of Nagpur supported the revival of Jagannath worship at Puri.
• Thanjavur Marathas (from Shivaji's half-brother Ekoji): Serfoji II wrote the Marathi play Devendra Kuravanji on world geography, supported musicians as modern Carnatic music and early Bharatanatyam took shape, set up the Dhanvantari Mahal for free Indian and Western medicine, started a printing press, and had the Bhonsle family history inscribed on the Bṛihadīśhvara temple walls. Tamil, Telugu and Marathi cultures mixed; Thanjavur gold-foil painting flourished.

7. Master Table: Key Terms

8. Master Summary Table

Chart — the revenue claims on non-Maratha territories:

9. Mind Map

10. Tips and Tricks

11. Important One-liners

• Shivaji's parents were Shahji and Jijabai.
• Afzal Khan was killed near Pratapgad.
• Shivaji sacked Surat twice.
• The Treaty of Purandar was signed with Jai Singh.
• Shivaji was crowned at Raigad in 1674.
• Rajaram shifted to Gingee.
• Chauth was a quarter of the revenue.
• Kanhoji Angre was a great Maratha admiral.
• Mahadji Shinde recaptured Delhi in 1771.
• Ahilyabai Holkar rebuilt the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
• Serfoji II founded the Dhanvantari Mahal at Thanjavur.

12. Exam-pattern Questions with Detailed Answers

13. Quick Revision Summary