🚩 The Rise of the Marathas

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

Four Maratha saints: Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram and Ramdas. They helped translate important texts like the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita into Marathi, making philosophy accessible to the masses. Some also focused on social organisation and political awareness. As a result, society acquired a solid cultural foundation that later helped the Marathas organise themselves into a political power.

The bhakti movement created a sense of shared cultural identity among the people of Maharashtra. Saints like Tukaram and Ramdas composed devotional songs and poetry in Marathi, reaching the masses. They also focused on social organisation and political awareness. This gave Maratha society a solid cultural foundation — a shared language, values and identity — which became the base for political organisation. Without this cultural unity, the Marathas might not have been able to come together as a powerful political entity under Shivaji.

The fall of the Yadava dynasty brought Maharashtra under the control of the Delhi Sultanate, creating a power vacuum and political instability in the Deccan region. This disruption made the Maratha chiefs eventually seek to establish their own sovereignty. The political uncertainty also pushed the bhakti saints to focus more on social cohesion and cultural identity, which indirectly laid the foundation for the Maratha political movement that followed.

Chhatrapati Shivaji was born in 1630 in the Bhonsle clan. His father was Shahji and his mother was Jijabai. He grew up in his father’s jagir at Pune under the care of Jijabai and trusted officials.

Guerrilla warfare uses small groups of people in a focused way, with speed, surprise and knowledge of the terrain to defeat bigger armies. Chhatrapati Shivaji used the hilly terrain of the Deccan and his knowledge of local geography to his advantage. He launched surprise attacks, used forts as bases, and avoided direct confrontation with larger armies. His killing of Afzal Khan at Pratapgad and the night raid on Shaista Khan’s camp are examples of effective guerrilla tactics.

Shivaji’s establishment of a navy was revolutionary because no other Indian power of the time had a full-time naval force. The Bijapur Sultanate (Adil Shahi dynasty) only maintained merchant ships and had no force to protect the coast. Even the mighty Mughal Empire’s use of a navy was very limited. By building a dedicated navy, Shivaji could secure the western coast, protect trade, and challenge European naval dominance. This gave the Marathas a strategic advantage that no other Indian power had at the time.

Shivaji’s escape from Agra demonstrates his exceptional intelligence, patience and strategic thinking. Rather than attempting a violent escape, he devised a clever plan — distributing gifts in large baskets to holy men and Mughal generals until the guards stopped checking them. He then hid himself and his son Sambhaji inside the baskets to escape. This shows his ability to think creatively under pressure, exploit human psychology, and turn an extremely dangerous situation to his advantage. Aurangzeb, despite all his power, could never capture Shivaji again.

The Peshwa (a Persian term for ‘prime minister’) was a powerful official who wielded great influence in the Maratha state, even over the Chhatrapati himself. Peshwa Bajirao I and his son Nanasaheb Peshwa were instrumental in the pan-Indian expansion of the Marathas.

At the Battle of Panipat in 1761, the Marathas suffered a disastrous defeat against the Afghans. However, they quickly recovered during the time of Peshwa Madhavrao I. Under the leadership of Mahadji Shinde (Mahadji Scindia), they went on to recapture Delhi in 1771, which remained under their control till the British captured it three decades later.

By the latter half of the 18th century, the Marathas were the chief rivals of the British in India — not the Mughals. The Marathas controlled large parts of India including Delhi itself. Three Anglo-Maratha wars (1775–1818) were needed before the British could end Maratha power. The Mughals by this time were weak and largely powerless. It was the Maratha power that the British had to defeat militarily and politically to gain control of the subcontinent, making the statement historically accurate.

Aurangzeb became so absorbed in fighting the Marathas in the Deccan that he could not leave the region for decades. The Marathas staunchly defended their fortresses and often had the upper hand in battles and skirmishes. This prolonged and expensive military campaign drained the Mughal treasury and military resources enormously. Aurangzeb died without succeeding in subduing the Marathas. Meanwhile, the Mughal territories in the north were left unguarded, which the Marathas exploited under Tarabai’s leadership. The Deccan campaign is considered one of the major causes of the eventual decline of the Mughal Empire.

The Ashtapradhan was a council of eight ministers established by Chhatrapati Shivaji, each in charge of a department such as finance, foreign affairs, defence, religious matters and justice — an early model of cabinet government.

Kanhoji Angre was the legendary admiral of the Maratha navy in the early 18th century. Under him, the navy dominated the western coastline so completely that even the English, Dutch and Portuguese could not defeat him — their ships had to buy passes (dastaks) from the Marathas to sail safely along the coast.

The letter shows that Shivaji saw the state as the protector — not exploiter — of the people. Even for military needs like ship timber, officials could take only old, non-fruit-bearing trees, and had to pay for anything taken from farmers. He recognised that mango and jackfruit trees represent years of a family’s love and labour. This combination of compassion, environmental sense and strict official discipline explains why his Swarajya won people’s loyalty.

By respecting and protecting merchants — local and foreign — the Marathas ensured flourishing trade, which brought scarce goods into the kingdom, enriched markets and ports, and provided steady customs revenue to fund the army and administration. Protecting traders also built the state’s reputation, attracting more commerce. It shows the Marathas understood that military power ultimately rests on economic prosperity.

Tarabai — queen of Rajaram, who led the Maratha struggle against Aurangzeb after Rajaram’s death and began the Maratha expansion into Mughal territories. Ahilyabai Holkar — ruler of Indore (1767–1795), who rebuilt temples, ghats and dharamshalas across India and made Maheshwar a centre of weaving and arts.

Serfoji II, the Maratha ruler of Thanjavur (1798–1832), was a scholar-king who enriched the Saraswati Mahal Library — one of the oldest libraries in Asia — with tens of thousands of manuscripts in many languages. His court also nurtured Carnatic music, dance, medicine and the Thanjavur style of painting.

Her patronage across the whole subcontinent shows she saw India as one sacred cultural space, not just a collection of kingdoms. By restoring pilgrimage sites in every direction, she strengthened the threads that tied Indians together — shared holy places, shared journeys, shared traditions. It reflects a vision of cultural unity that transcended political boundaries — with a ruler’s duty extending to civilisational care.

In Thanjavur, deep in Tamil country, the Maratha Bhonsles ruled for nearly two centuries not by force but by patronage — funding a great library, Carnatic music, dance, medicine, painting, and maintaining the Brihadīshwara temple. They adopted and enriched local Tamil culture rather than imposing their own. This shows the Maratha state could be a builder of civilisation, blending Marathi and Tamil traditions into a lasting cultural legacy.

The Rājmudrā proclaimed that the kingdom of Shivaji, son of Shahji, would grow ever like the crescent moon and would always seek the welfare of the people — placing people’s welfare at the heart of the state’s mission.

Shivaji’s ideal of Swarājya — self-rule — became a powerful symbol for India’s freedom fighters. Leaders like Lokmanya Tilak invoked Shivaji’s memory to awaken national pride, and ‘Swaraj’ itself became the rallying cry of the independence movement. The Maratha example proved Indians had successfully built and defended their own sovereign state against the greatest empires.

True. Beyond military glory, the Marathas left enduring models of administration (Ashtapradhan, cash-paid disciplined army, documented justice, protection of merchants), a naval tradition the Indian Navy still honours, ethical codes of warfare, cultural patronage from Kashi’s ghats to Thanjavur’s library, and the political ideal of Swarājya that fuelled the freedom movement. Their wars ended in 1818, but these institutions and ideals continue to shape India.

Despite superior numbers and vast territory, Maratha chiefs — Peshwas, Scindias, Holkars, Gaekwads, Bhonsles — often acted separately and even against each other, letting the British defeat them one by one across three wars (1775–1818). Nana Phadnavis understood this and built the first pan-Indian anti-British alliance, but it did not last. The lesson: unity is the foundation of strength — division within is more dangerous than any enemy outside.