Shivaji and his descendants , in the
Rijksmuseum, Netherland.
Shivaji (1630–1680) was a Maratha aristocrat of the
Bhonsle clan and was the founder of the Maratha state. Shivaji led a resistance against the
Sultanate of Bijapur in 1645 by winning the fort Torna, followed by many more forts, placing the area under his control and establishing
Hindavi Swarajya (self-rule of Hindu people). He created an independent Maratha state with
Raigad as its capital and successfully fought against the Mughals to defend his kingdom. He was crowned as
Chhatrapati (sovereign) of the new Maratha Kingdom in 1674. The Maratha dominion under him comprised about 4.1% of the subcontinent, but it was spread over large tracts. At the time of his death, it was reinforced with about 300 forts, and defended by about 40,000 cavalries, and 50,000 soldiers, as well as naval establishments along the west coast. Over time, the kingdom would increase in size and heterogeneity; by the time of his grandson's rule, and later under the Peshwas in the early 18th century, it became a vast realm. Shivaji had two sons:
Sambhaji and
Rajaram, who had different mothers and were half-brothers. In 1681, Sambhaji succeeded to the crown after his father's death and resumed his expansionist policies. Sambhaji had earlier defeated the
Portuguese and
Chikka Deva Raya of
Mysore. To nullify the alliance between his rebel son, Akbar, and the Marathas, Mughal Emperor
Aurangzeb headed south in 1681. With his entire imperial court, administration and an army of about 500,000 troops, he proceeded to expand the Mughal empire, gaining territories such as the sultanates of Bijapur and
Golconda. During the eight years that followed, Sambhaji led the Marathas successfully against the Mughals. In early 1689, Sambhaji called his commanders for a strategic meeting at
Sangameshwar to consider an onslaught on the Mughal forces. In a meticulously planned operation, Ganoji and Aurangzeb's commander, Mukarrab Khan, attacked Sangameshwar when Sambhaji was accompanied by just a few men. Sambhaji was ambushed and captured by the Mughal troops on 1 February 1689. He and his advisor,
Kavi Kalash, were taken to Bahadurgad by the imperial army, where
they were executed by the Mughals on 21 March 1689. Aurangzeb had charged Sambhaji with attacks by Maratha forces on
Burhanpur. Upon Sambhaji's death, his half-brother Rajaram ascended the throne. The Mughal siege of Raigad continued, and he had to flee to
Vishalgad and then to
Gingee for safety. From there, the Marathas raided Mughal territory, and many forts were recaptured by Maratha commanders such as
Santaji Ghorpade,
Dhanaji Jadhav,
Parshuram Pant Pratinidhi, Shankaraji Narayan Sacheev and Melgiri Pandit. In 1697, Rajaram offered a truce, which was later rejected by Aurangzeb. Rajaram died in 1700 at
Sinhagad. His widow,
Tarabai, assumed control in the name of her son
Shivaji II. , son of
Shivaji, and the second Maratha ruler. After Aurangzeb died in 1707,
Shahu, the son of Sambhaji (and grandson of Shivaji), was released by
Bahadur Shah I, the new Mughal emperor. However, his mother was kept a hostage of the Mughals to ensure that Shahu adhered to the release conditions. Upon release, Shahu immediately claimed the Maratha throne and challenged his aunt Tarabai and her son. The spluttering Mughal-Maratha war became a three-cornered affair. This resulted in two rival seats of government being set up in 1707 at Satara and
Kolhapur by Shahu and Tarabai respectively. Shahu appointed
Balaji Vishwanath as his Peshwa. The Peshwa was instrumental in securing Mughal recognition of Shahu as the rightful heir of Shivaji and the
Chhatrapati of the Marathas. Balaji also gained the release of Shahu's mother,
Yesubai, from Mughal captivity in 1719. During Shahu's reign,
Raghoji Bhonsle expanded the kingdom eastwards.
Khanderao Dabhade and later his son, Triambakrao, expanded it Westwards into Gujarat. Peshwa Bajirao and his three chiefs, Udaji
Pawar,
Malharrao Holkar, and
Ranoji Scindia expanded it northwards.
Peshwa era and
Malhar Rao Holkar c.18th century Shahu appointed
Balaji Vishwanath as Peshwa in 1713. Balaji Vishwanath's first major achievement was the conclusion of the
Treaty of Lonavala in 1714 with
Kanhoji Angre, the most powerful naval chief on the Western Coast who later accepted Shahu as Chhatrapati. In 1719,
Marathas under Balaji marched to
Delhi with
Sayyid Hussain Ali, the Mughal governor of Deccan, and deposed the Mughal emperor,
Farrukhsiyar. The new teenage emperor,
Rafi ud-Darajat and a puppet of the Sayyid brothers, granted Shahu rights to collecting
Chauth and
Sardeshmukhi from the six Mogul provinces of Deccan, and full possession of the territories controlled by Shivaji in 1680. After Balaji Vishwanath's death in April 1720, his son,
Baji Rao I, was appointed Peshwa by Shahu. Bajirao is credited with expanding the Maratha Kingdom tenfold from 3% to 30% of the modern Indian landscape during 1720–1740. The
Battle of Palkhed was a land battle that took place on 28 February 1728 at the village of Palkhed, near the city of Nashik, Maharashtra, India between Baji Rao I and
Qamar-ud-din Khan, Asaf Jah I of Hyderabad. The Marathas defeated the
Nizam. The battle is considered an example of the brilliant execution of military strategy. In 1737, Marathas under
Bajirao I raided the suburbs of Delhi in a blitzkrieg in the Battle of Delhi (1737). The Nizam set out from the Deccan to rescue the Mughals from the invasion of the Marathas, but was defeated decisively in the
Battle of Bhopal. The Marathas extracted a large tribute from the Mughals and signed a treaty which ceded
Malwa to the Marathas. The
Battle of Vasai was fought between the Marathas and the
Portuguese rulers of
Vasai, a village lying on the northern shore of Vasai creek, 50 km north of
Mumbai. The Marathas were led by
Chimaji Appa, brother of Baji Rao. The Maratha victory in this war was a major achievement of Baji Rao's time in office. Baji Rao's son,
Balaji Bajirao (Nanasaheb), was appointed as the next Peshwa by Shahu despite the opposition of other chiefs. In 1740, the Maratha forces, under Raghoji Bhonsle, came down upon
Arcot and defeated the
Nawab of Arcot, Dost Ali, in the pass of Damalcherry. In the war that followed, Dost Ali, one of his sons Hasan Ali, and several other prominent people died. This initial success at once enhanced Maratha prestige in the south. From Damalcherry, the Marathas proceeded to Arcot, which surrendered to them without much resistance. Then, Raghuji invaded Trichinopoly in December 1740. Unable to resist,
Chanda Sahib surrendered the fort to Raghuji on 14 March 1741. Chanda Saheb and his son were arrested and sent to Nagpur.
Rajputana also came under Maratha attacks during this time. In June 1756 Luís Mascarenhas, Count of Alva (Conde de Alva), the Portuguese Viceroy was killed in action by the Maratha Army in Goa. After the successful campaign of Karnataka and the
Trichinopolly, Raghuji returned from Karnataka. He undertook
six expeditions into Bengal from 1741 to 1748. The resurgent Maratha Confederacy launched brutal raids against the prosperous Bengali state in the 18th century, which further added to the decline of the Nawabs of Bengal. During their invasions and occupation of
Bihar and
western Bengal up to the
Hooghly River and during their occupation of
western Bengal, the Marathas perpetrated atrocities against the local population. The Maratha atrocities were recorded by both Bengali and European sources, which reported that the Marathas demanded payments, and tortured or killed anyone who couldn't pay. Raghuji was able to annex
Odisha to his kingdom permanently as he successfully exploited the chaotic conditions prevailing in Bengal after the death of its governor
Murshid Quli Khan in 1727. Constantly harassed by the Bhonsles, Odisha, Bengal and parts of Bihar were economically ruined. Alivardi Khan, the
Nawab of Bengal made peace with Raghuji in 1751 ceding Cuttack (Odisha) up to the river Subarnarekha, and agreeing to pay Rs. 1.2 million annually as the
Chauth for Bengal and Bihar. The city of Delhi was sacked ten times by Marathas between 1737 and 1788. During this period, Maratha soldiers raped thousands of women including 350 Mughal queens and princesses. In May 1754,
Malhar Rao Holkar with his 20,000 Maratha soldiers raided the camp of
Emperor Ahmad Shah at Sikandarabad, they proceeded to loot the camp and raped women in gangs including queens and princesses after emperor had fled. Mahadaji Shinde captured the family of Zabita Khan, desecrated the grave of
Najib ad-Dawlah and looted his fort. With the fleeing of the Rohillas, the rest of the country was burnt, with the exception of the city of Amroha, which was defended by some thousands of
Amrohi Sayyid tribes. The Rohillas who could offer no resistance fled to the Terai whence the remaining Sardar
Hafiz Rahmat Khan Barech sought assistance in an agreement formed with the Nawab of
Oudh, Shuja-ud-Daula, by which the Rohillas agreed to pay four million rupees in return for military help against the Marathas. Hafiz Rehmat, abhorring unnecessary violence, unlike the outlook of his fellow Rohillas such as Ali Muhammad and Najib Khan, prided himself on his role as a political mediator and sought an alliance with Awadh to keep the Marathas out of Rohilkhand. He bound himself to pay on behalf of the Rohillas. However, after he refused to pay,
Oudh attacked the Rohillas.
Shah Alam II, the Mughal Emperor spent six years in the Allahabad fort and after the
capture of Delhi in 1771 by the Marathas, left for his capital under their protection. He was escorted to Delhi by Mahadaji Shinde and left Allahabad in May 1771. During their short stay, Marathas constructed two temples in Allahabad city, one of them being the famous
Alopi Devi Mandir. After reaching Delhi in January 1772 and realising the Maratha intent of territorial encroachment, however, Shah Alam ordered his general
Najaf Khan to drive them out. In retaliation,
Tukoji Rao Holkar and
Visaji Krushna Biniwale attacked Delhi and defeated Mughal forces in 1772. The Marathas were granted an imperial
sanad for Kora and Allahabad. They turned their attention to Oudh to gain these two territories. Shuja was, however, unwilling to give them up and made appeals to the English and the Marathas did not fare well at the Battle of Ramghat. The Maratha and British armies fought in Ram Ghat, but the sudden demise of the Peshwa and the civil war in
Pune to choose the next Peshwa forced the Marathas to retreat.
Madhavrao Peshwa's victory over the
Nizam of Hyderabad and
Hyder Ali of
Mysore in southern India established Maratha dominance in the Deccan. On the other hand, Mahadaji's victory over Jats of Mathura, Rajputs of Rajasthan and Pashtun-Rohillas of
Rohilkhand (
Bareilly division and
Moradabad division of present-day
Uttar Pradesh) re-established the Marathas in northern India. With the
Capture of Delhi in 1771 and the capture of Najibabad in 1772 and treaties with Mughal Emperor
Shah Alam II as a restricted monarch to the throne under Maratha suzerainty, the resurrection of Maratha power in the North was complete. Madhav Rao died in 1772, at the age of 27. His death is considered to be a fatal blow to the Maratha Confederacy and from that time Maratha power started to move on a downward trajectory, less an empire than a confederacy.
Confederacy era restored the Maratha domination of northern India In a bid to effectively manage the large empire,
Madhavrao Peshwa gave semi-autonomy to the strongest of the aristocracy. After the death of Peshwa
Madhavrao I, various chiefs and
jagirdars became
de facto rulers and regents for the infant Peshwa
Madhavrao II. Under the leadership of Mahadaji Shinde, the ruler of the
state of Gwalior in central India, the Marathas defeated the Jats, the Rohilla Afghans and took Delhi which remained under Maratha control for the next three decades. His forces conquered modern day Haryana. Shinde was instrumental in resurrecting Maratha power after the débâcle of the Third Battle of Panipat, and in this, he was assisted by
Benoît de Boigne. After the growth in power of feudal lords like the Malwa sardars, the landlords of Bundelkhand and the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan who refused to pay tribute to him, he sent his army to conquer states such as
Bhopal,
Datiya, Chanderi, Narwar, Salbai and
Gohad. However, he launched an unsuccessful expedition against the Raja of Jaipur but withdrew after the inconclusive
Battle of Lalsot in 1787. The
Battle of Gajendragad was fought between the Marathas under the command of
Tukoji Rao Holkar (the adopted son of Malharrao Holkar) and
Tipu Sultan from March 1786 to March 1787 in which Tipu Sultan was defeated by the Marathas. By the victory in this battle, the border of the Maratha territory was extended to the
Tungabhadra river. The strong fort of
Gwalior was then in the hands of
Chhatar Singh, the Jat ruler of Gohad. In 1783, Mahadaji besieged the fort of Gwalior and conquered it. He delegated the administration of Gwalior to Khanderao Hari Bhalerao. After celebrating the conquest of Gwalior, Mahadaji Shinde turned his attention to Delhi again. The Maratha-Sikh treaty in 1785 made the small
Cis-Sutlej states an autonomous protectorate of the
Scindia Dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy, as Mahadaji Shinde was deputed the Naib Vakil-i-Mutlaq (Deputy Regent of the empire) of Mughal affairs in 1784. Following the
Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1806,
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington drafted a treaty granting independence to the Sikh clans east of the
Sutlej River in exchange for their allegiance to the British General
Gerard Lake acting on his dispatch. At the conclusion of the war, the frontier of
British India was extended to the Yamuna. Mahadaji Shinde had conquered
Rania,
Fatehabad and
Sirsa from the governor of Hissar.
Haryana then came under the Marathas. He divided Haryana into four territories: Delhi (Mughal emperor
Shah Alam II, his family and areas surrounding Delhi), Panipat (Karnal, Sonepat, Kurukshetra and Ambala), Hisar (Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, parts of Rohtak), Ahirwal (Gurugram, Rewari, Narnaul, Mahendragarh) and Mewat.
Daulat Rao Scindia ceded Haryana on 30 December 1803 under the
Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon to the
British East India Company leading to the
Company rule in India. In 1788, Mahadaji's armies defeated
Ismail Beg, a Mughal noble who resisted the Marathas. The Rohilla chief
Ghulam Kadir, Ismail Beg's ally, took over Delhi, capital of the Mughal dynasty and deposed and blinded the king Shah Alam II, placing a puppet on the Delhi throne. Mahadaji intervened and killed him, taking possession of Delhi on 2 October restoring Shah Alam II to the throne and acting as his protector.
Jaipur and
Jodhpur, the two most powerful Rajput states, were still out of direct Maratha domination, so Mahadaji sent his general
Benoît de Boigne to crush the forces of Jaipur and Jodhpur at the Battle of Patan. Another achievement of the Marathas was their victories over the
Nizam of Hyderabad's armies.The last of these took place at the
Battle of Kharda in 1795 with all the major Maratha powers jointly fighting Nizam's forces.
Maratha–Mysore Wars The Marathas came into conflict with
Tipu Sultan and his
Kingdom of Mysore, leading to the
Maratha–Mysore War in 1785. The war ended in 1787 with Tipu Sultan being defeated by the Marathas. The Maratha-Mysore war ended in April 1787 following the finalizing of the
treaty of Gajendragad, as per which the Tipu Sultan of Mysore was obligated to pay 4.8 million rupees as a war cost to the Marathas and an annual tribute of 1.2 million rupees, in addition to returning all the territory captured by
Hyder Ali. In 1791–92, large areas of the Maratha Confederacy suffered a massive population loss due to the
Doji bara famine. In 1791,
irregulars like
lamaans,
pindaris and purbias not Marathas raided and looted the temple of
Sringeri Shankaracharya, killing and wounding many people, including Brahmins, plundering the monastery of all its valuable possessions, and desecrating the temple by displacing the image of goddess
Sāradā. The Maratha Confederacy soon allied with the British
East India Company (based in the
Bengal Presidency) against Mysore in the
Anglo-Mysore Wars. After the British had suffered a defeat against Mysore in the first two Anglo-Mysore Wars, the Maratha cavalry assisted the British in the last two Anglo-Mysore Wars from 1790 onwards, eventually helping the British conquer Mysore in the
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799. After the British conquest, however, the Marathas launched frequent raids in Mysore to plunder the region, which they justified as compensation for past losses to Tipu Sultan.
British intervention and
Nana Fadnavis following the
Battle of Wadgaon In 1775, the
British East India Company, from its base in
Bombay, intervened in a succession struggle in Pune, on behalf of
Raghunathrao (also called Raghobadada), who wanted to become Peshwa of the confederacy. The British also wanted to nip in the bud any potential anti-British, French-Maratha alliance. Maratha forces under Tukoji Rao Holkar and Mahadaji Shinde defeated a British expeditionary force at the
Battle of Wadgaon, but the heavy surrender terms, which included the return of annexed territory and a share of revenues, were disavowed by the British governor general in Bengal and fighting continued. What became known as the
First Anglo-Maratha War ended in 1782 with a restoration of the pre-war
status quo and the East India Company's abandonment of Raghunathrao's cause. in his court in 1790, concluding a treaty with the British In 1799,
Yashwantrao Holkar was crowned King of the Holkars and he captured Ujjain. He started campaigning towards the north to expand his dominion in that region. Yashwant Rao rebelled against the policies of Peshwa
Baji Rao II. In May 1802, he marched towards Pune, the seat of the Peshwa. This gave rise to the
Battle of Poona in which the Peshwa was defeated. After the Battle of Poona, the flight of the Peshwa left the government of the Maratha state in the hands of Yashwantrao Holkar. He appointed Amrutrao as the Peshwa and went to Indore on 13 March 1803. All except Gaekwad, ruler of
Baroda State, who had already accepted British protection by a separate treaty on 26 July 1802, supported the new regime. He made a treaty with the British. Also, Yashwant Rao successfully resolved the disputes with Scindia and the Peshwa. He tried to unite the Maratha Confederacy but to no avail. In 1802, the British intervened in Baroda to support the heir to the throne against rival claimants and they signed a treaty with the new Maharaja recognising his independence from the Maratha Confederacy in return for his acknowledgement of British paramountcy. Before the
Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805), the Peshwa Baji Rao II signed a similar treaty. The defeat in the
Battle of Delhi, 1803 during the Second Anglo-Maratha War resulted in the loss of influence over Delhi for the Marathas. The Second Anglo-Maratha War represents the military high-water mark of the Marathas who posed the last serious opposition to the formation of the
British Raj. The real contest for India was never a single decisive battle for the subcontinent, rather, it turned on a complex social and political struggle for the control of the South Asian military economy. The victory in 1803 hinged as much on finance, diplomacy, politics and intelligence as it did on battlefield manoeuvring and war itself. during the
Second Anglo-Maratha War Ultimately, the
Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1818) resulted in the loss of Maratha independence. It left the British in control of most of the Indian subcontinent. The Peshwa was exiled to
Bithoor (Marat, near Kanpur,
Uttar Pradesh) as a pensioner of the British. The Maratha heartland of Desh, including Pune, came under direct British rule, except the states of
Kolhapur and
Satara, which retained local Maratha rulers (descendants of Shivaji and Sambhaji II ruled over Kolhapur). The Maratha-ruled states of
Gwalior,
Indore, and
Nagpur all lost territory and came under subordinate alliances with the
British Raj as
princely states that retained internal sovereignty under British paramountcy. Other small princely states of Maratha knights were retained under the British Raj as well. with the British East India Company The Third Anglo-Maratha War was fought by Maratha warlords separately instead of forming a common front and they surrendered one by one. Shinde and the Pashtun Amir Khan were subdued by the use of diplomacy and pressure, which resulted in the Treaty of Gwalior on 5 November 1817. All other Maratha chiefs like Holkars, Bhonsles and the Peshwa gave up arms by 1818. British historian
Percival Spear describes 1818 as a watershed year in the
history of India, saying that by that year "the British dominion in India became the British dominion of India". The war left the British, under the auspices of the British East India Company, in control of virtually all of present-day India south of the
Sutlej River. The famed
Nassak Diamond was looted by the company as part of the spoils of the war. The British acquired large chunks of territory from the Maratha Empire and in effect put an end to their most dynamic opposition. The terms of surrender Major-general
John Malcolm offered to the Peshwa were controversial amongst the British for being too liberal: The Peshwa was offered a luxurious life near Kanpur and given a pension of about 80,000 pounds. == Geography ==