The Rise of the Marathas

Class 08 Social Science

The Marathas are a group of people native to the Deccan plateau, more specifically present-day Maharashtra. They are identified with the language they speak - Marathi - which has had a rich and continuous literary history since the 12th century.

During the 13th century, most of Maharashtra was ruled by the Yadava dynasty with Devagiri (present-day Daulatabad) as its capital. In the early 14th century, the Yadava dynasty was overcome by the Khilji Sultanate from Delhi.

In Maharashtra, many saints like Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram, Ramdas, gained popularity at this time. They helped translate important texts like the Upaniṣhads and the Bhagavad Gītā into Marathi, making their philosophy accessible to the people. Some also focused on social organisation and political awareness, similar to the Sikh gurus. As a result, the society acquired a solid cultural foundation, which later helped the Marathas to organise themselves into a political power.

By the 17th century, some Maratha chiefs made early attempts at establishing sovereignty, but they proved unsuccessful - until Shivaji rose to power and brought the Marathas together.

Shivaji

In 1630, Shivaji was born in the Bhonsle clan to Shahji and Jijabai. At the time, Shahji served the Deccan sultanates and was often away from his family. Meanwhile, in his jāgīr at Pune, Shivaji grew up under the watchful eyes of Jijabai and some trusted officials, receiving values and a good education. At this time, the Pune region was deeply affected by constant infighting between the Deccan sultans whom the Marathas served, which caused much hardship for the common people.

When he was just 16, Shivaji launched military campaigns, first consolidating his hold over the Pune region by capturing neglected and unoccupied forts and strengthening their defences. His vision of a sovereign kingdom or ‘Swarājya’ grew over the years, extending to political, economic and cultural aspects.

Shivaji’s kingdom soon expanded to India’s west coast, and to secure access to the resources of coastal regions, he felt the need to establish a navy. The Maratha Navy was born, whose exploits became legendary.

To protect his people from powerful enemies, Shivaji had recourse to the tactic of guerrilla warfare, which uses small groups of people in a focused way, with speed, surprise, and knowledge of the terrain to defeat bigger armies. His successes soon invited the wrath of the Bijapur Sultanate, which sent the veteran general Afzal Khan to confront him. Shivaji and his advisers managed to convince Afzal Khan to meet him for a one-on-one meeting at the foot of the Pratapgad fort amid thick forests. There, Shivaji killed Afzal Khan, and the Marathas, hidden in the mountains, routed the Khan’s army with guerrilla attacks.

Soon afterwards, the Mughal nobleman Shaista Khan invaded Shivaji’s territories with a big army for three years. Finally, with only a few soldiers, Shivaji raided Shaista Khan’s camp at night. The Khan barely escaped from the raid, losing a few fingers, and promptly left Maharashtra.

As a retaliatory action for the three-year-long wave of attacks, Shivaji sacked Surat, a wealthy port city of the Mughal Empire (in present-day Gujarat). There, he obtained enormous treasure. However, he was careful not to attack religious places and even spared the house of Mohandas Parekh, a charitable man. He sacked Surat again after a few years.

The sacking of Surat was a great insult to the might and prestige of the Mughal Empire. Therefore, Aurangzeb sent Jai Singh, a distinguished Rajput general, to defeat Shivaji. Against him, Shivaji had to concede defeat at Purandar Fort (near Pune) and enter into a treaty. He had to give up a sizeable part of his kingdom, and his son Sambhaji had to enter Mughal service.

Shivaji was persuaded by Jai Singh to visit the Mughal court at Agra, where he was made to stand before Aurangzeb, and a Mughal general whom he had defeated earlier. Incensed at this insult, Shivaji stormed out of the court, following which Aurangzeb put him under house arrest. To escape this, Shivaji devised a strategy - he started distributing gifts to holy men and Mughal generals. The gifts often contained fruits and sweets, packed in big baskets. The guards initially checked them, but soon stopped doing so. Expecting this, Shivaji and his son Sambhaji hid themselves in the baskets and made their escape. Aurangzeb could never capture Shivaji again.

A few years later, in 1674, Shivaji was coronated with full Vedic rites at the strong mountain fortress of Raigad. His formal title after the coronation was ‘Shri Raja Shiva Chhatrapati’.

After this, Shivaji embarked upon a conquest of the South, also referred to as the dakṣhiṇa-digvijaya, which included the important and then ill-defended region of present-day northern Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka. This southern extension later gave the Marathas great strategic depth against the Mughal invasion.

A fever claimed Shivaji’s life when he was fifty.

Marathas after Shivaji

Shivaji had two sons - Sambhaji and Rajaram. After Shivaji’s death, Sambhaji became the Chhatrapati. The Marathas were then the only obstacle to total Mughal control of the Deccan. Aurangzeb invaded the Deccan and conquered the Bijapur (or Adil Shahi) and Golconda (or Qutb Shahi) Sultanates. He then captured Sambhaji and, after torturing him brutally, executed him. After this, he captured Raigad, the Maratha capital.

After Sambhaji, Rajaram became the Chhatrapati and fled to Gingee (in present-day Tamil Nadu). The Mughal-Maratha conflict thus spread to south India. The Marathas staunchly defended their fortresses and often had the upper hand over the Mughals in battles and skirmishes. Aurangzeb was thus unable to leave the Deccan and died without having succeeded in subduing the Marathas, who emerged as a strong contender to the Mughals. No longer on the defensive, the Marathas led by Tarabai, Rajaram’s queen, made large-scale inroads into Mughal territories, eventually conquering large parts of India.

During this rapid expansion, the Marathas themselves underwent a structural transformation. The centralised state from Shivaji’s time gave way to a more decentralised structure, still nominally centred around the Chhatrapati, but with the chiefs wielding more power. In particular, the Peshwa (a Persian term for ‘prime minister’) wielded great influence, even over the Chhatrapati himself. Peshwa Bajirao I and his son Nanasaheb Peshwa were instrumental in the pan-Indian expansion of the Marathas.

The Marathas brought large parts of India under their control and generally ruled them well. But with the regional chiefs acquiring more power and autonomy, this also resulted in occasional indiscipline and abuse, in stark contrast with Shivaji’s values. For example, the Marathas’ ten-year campaign in Bengal inflicted much cruelty and devastation on the common people.

In their northward expansion, the Marathas briefly controlled the areas of Lahore, Attock and even Peshawar (in modern-day Pakistan). They fought with the Afghans, and despite suffering a disastrous defeat at Panipat in 1761, they quickly recovered during the time of Peshwa Madhavrao I. Under the leadership of Mahadji Shinde, they went on to recapture Delhi in 1771, which remained under their control till the British captured it three decades later.

In the latter half of the 18th century, the chief rivals of the British in India were the Marathas. Three Anglo-Maratha wars were fought between 1775 and 1818. Owing to the Marathas’ increased internal disunity and the superior organisational and technological abilities of the British, they succeeded in ending the Maratha power.