Global InformationMaratha Empire information
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Maratha Empire Maratha Confederacy | |||||||||||||||
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| 1674–1818 | |||||||||||||||
 Flag
 Royal Seal of Shivaji I
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| Motto: "हर हर महादेव" "Har Har Mahadev" (English: "Praises to Mahadev (Shiva)") | |||||||||||||||
 The Maratha Confederacy in 1760, near its peak (Yellow) | |||||||||||||||
| Status | Empire (Early) Confederacy (Late) | ||||||||||||||
| Capital |
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| Official languages |
Spoken languages: Other South Asian languages | ||||||||||||||
| Religion | State religion: Hinduism Minority: Other religions in South Asia | ||||||||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy (1674–1731) Federal oligarchy with a restricted monarchial figurehead (1731–1818) | ||||||||||||||
| Chhatrapati | |||||||||||||||
• 1674–1680 (first) | Shivaji I | ||||||||||||||
• 1808–1818 (last) | Pratap Singh | ||||||||||||||
| Peshwa | |||||||||||||||
• 1674–1683 (first) | Moropant Pingle | ||||||||||||||
• 1803–1818 (last) | Baji Rao II | ||||||||||||||
• 1858–1859 | Nana Saheb (claimed titular) | ||||||||||||||
| Legislature | Ashta Pradhan | ||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||
• Coronation of Shivaji | 1674 | ||||||||||||||
• Deccan Wars | 1680–1707 | ||||||||||||||
• Battle of Delhi followed by Battle of Bhopal | 1737 | ||||||||||||||
• Northern Campaign of Raghunath Rao | 1751–1759 | ||||||||||||||
• Maratha-Mysore Wars | 1763–1799 | ||||||||||||||
• Anglo-Maratha Wars | 1775–1819 | ||||||||||||||
• Dissolution of the Maratha Confederacy | 1818 | ||||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||||
| 1760[2] | 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Currency | Rupee, Paisa, Mohur, Shivrai, Hon | ||||||||||||||
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| Today part of |
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The Maratha Empire (/məˈrɑːtə/ muh-RAH-ta;[3][4][5] Marathi pronunciation: [məˈɾaːʈʰaː]), also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian empire and later a confederation that controlled large portions of the Indian Subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674[note 1] with the coronation of Shivaji of the Bhonsle dynasty as the Chhatrapati. Although Shivaji came from the Maratha caste, the Maratha empire also included warriors, administrators, and other nobles from the Maratha and several other castes from what is known today as Maharashtra.[7] The Maratha Kingdom was expanded into a full-fledged Empire in the 18th Century under the leadership of Peshwa Bajirao I.[note 2]
The Marathas were a Marathi-speaking warrior group from the western Deccan Plateau (present-day Maharashtra) who rose to prominence by establishing Hindavi Swarajya (meaning "self-rule of Hindus").[10][11] The Marathas became prominent in the seventeenth century under the leadership of Shivaji, who revolted against the Adil Shahi dynasty and the Mughals to carve out a kingdom with Raigad as his capital. Marathas were one of the major causes of the decline of the Mughal Empire in the early eighteenth century.[12][13][14] The religious attitude of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb estranged non-Muslims, and his inability to suppress the resulting Maratha insurgency after a Deccan wars came at a great cost for his men and treasury and eventually ensured Maratha ascendency and their control over sizeable portions of former Mughal dominions in the north of the Indian subcontinent.[15][16]
After Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's death in 1707, Shivaji's grandson Shahu under the leadership of Peshwa Bajirao revived Maratha power and confided a great deal of authority to the Bhat family, who became hereditary peshwas (prime ministers). After he died in 1749, they became the effective rulers. The leading Maratha families—Scindia, Holkar, Bhonsle, and Gaekwad—extended their conquests in northern and central India and became more independent and difficult to control. The Marathas' rapid expansion was halted with the great defeat of Panipat in 1761, at the hands of the Afghans however within a decade they recovered most of their territories under their new Peshwa Madhavrao I but his death in 1772 ended the power of the Peshwas.[17][18][19]
The Maratha state was a confederacy of four Rajas under the leadership of the Peshwa at Poona (now Pune) in western India from 1721 till 1818. These were the Raja of Baroda of the House of Gaekwad, the Raja of Indore of the House of Holkar, the Raja of Gwalior of the House of Scindia, and the Raja of Nagpur of the House of Bhonsle, while the Peshwa's dominions included the territories that later became the Bombay Province[a] and Central Provinces. Though they united on occasion, as against the East India Company (1775–1782), more often they quarrelled. After he was defeated by the Holkar dynasty in 1802, the Peshwa Baji Rao II sought protection from the Company, whose intervention destroyed the confederacy by 1818 after the Second and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars.[citation needed]
The empire, at its peak in 1758, stretched for a brief time from modern-day Maharashtra[20] in the south to the Sutlej River in the north after their victory against the Afghans at the Battle of Delhi in 1757, to Orissa in the east[21] or about one-third of the subcontinent. However the Marathas lost Delhi in 1761 after their defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat but soon recovered it after achieving a decisive victory over the Pashtun-Rohillas of Rohilkhand in 1771.[22][23]
A large portion of the Maratha empire was coastline, which had been secured by the potent Maratha Navy under commanders such as Kanhoji Angre. He successfully kept foreign naval ships at bay, particularly those of the Portuguese and British.[24] Securing the coastal areas and building land-based fortifications were crucial aspects of the Maratha's defensive strategy and regional military history.[citation needed]
- ^ Hatalkar (1958).
- ^ Turchin, Adams & Hall (2006), p. 223.
- ^ Upton, Clive; Kretzschmar, William A. (2017). The Routledge dictionary of pronunciation for current English (2nd ed.). London ; New York: Routledge. p. 803. ISBN 978-1-138-12566-7.
- ^ Bollard, John K., ed. (1998). Pronouncing dictionary of proper names: pronunciations for more than 28,000 proper names, selected for currency, frequency, or difficulty of pronunciation (2nd ed.). Detroit, Mich: Omnigraphics. p. 633. ISBN 978-0-7808-0098-4.
- ^ Upton, Clive; Kretzschmar, William A.; Konopka, Rafal (2001). The Oxford dictionary of pronunciation for current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 622. ISBN 978-0-19-863156-9. OCLC 46433686.
- ^ Schmidt (2015), pp. 54–.
- ^ Kantak, M. R. (1978). "The Political Role of Different Hindu Castes and Communities in Maharashtra in the Foundation of the Shivaji's Swarajya". Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute. 38 (1): 44. JSTOR 42931051.
- ^ Gokhale, Sandhya (2008). The Chitpavans: Social Ascendancy of a Creative Minority in Maharashtra, 1818–1918. Shubhi Publications. p. 82. ISBN 978-81-8290-132-2.
- ^ Gordon, Stewart (1 February 2007). The Marathas 1600–1818. Cambridge University Press. pp. 120–131. ISBN 978-0-521-03316-9.
- ^ Pagdi (1993), p. 98: Shivaji's coronation and setting himself up as a sovereign prince symbolises the rise of the Indian people in all parts of the country. It was a bid for Hindavi Swarajya (Indian rule), a term in use in Marathi sources of history.
- ^ Jackson (2005), p. 38.
- ^ Pearson (1976), pp. 221–235.
- ^ Capper (1997): This source establishes the Maratha control of Delhi before the British
- ^ Sen (2010), pp. 1941–: The victory at Bhopal in 1738 established Maratha dominance at the Mughal court
- ^ Osborne, Eric W. (3 July 2020). "The Ulcer of the Mughal Empire: Mughals and Marathas, 1680–1707". Small Wars & Insurgencies. 31 (5): 988–1009. doi:10.1080/09592318.2020.1764711. ISSN 0959-2318. S2CID 221060782.
- ^ Clingingsmith, David; Williamson, Jeffrey G. (1 July 2008). "Deindustrialization in 18th and 19th century India: Mughal decline, climate shocks and British industrial ascent". Explorations in Economic History. 45 (3): 209–234. doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2007.11.002. ISSN 0014-4983.
- ^ Nandakumar, Sanish (7 February 2020). Rise and Fall of The Maratha Empire 1750-1818. Notion Press. ISBN 978-1-64783-961-1.
- ^ Ghosh, D. K. Ed. A Comprehensive History Of India Vol. 9. pp. 512–523.
- ^ New Cambridge History of India. The Marathas - Cambridge History of India (Vol. 2, Part 4).
- ^ Mehta (2005), p. 204.
- ^ Sen (2010), p. 16.
- ^ Nandakumar, Sanish (7 February 2020). Rise and Fall of The Maratha Empire 1750-1818. Notion Press. ISBN 978-1-64783-961-1.
- ^ Ghosh, D. K. Ed. A Comprehensive History Of India Vol. 9. pp. 518–520.
- ^ Pagdi (1993), p. 21.
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