The Marathas: Shivaji, Administration and the Peshwas

Background: why the Marathas rose

The Marathas emerged as the strongest challenge to the Mughals in the 17th century and became the dominant power in India by the mid-18th century. Their rise had deep roots:

• Geography: the hilly, rugged Sahyadri (Western Ghats) and the Deccan plateau, with many forts, suited guerrilla warfare and defence.
• Military experience: Maratha chiefs (deshmukhs) had served as soldiers and administrators in the Bijapur and Ahmadnagar Sultanates.
• Social unity: the Bhakti saints of Maharashtra – Jnaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram and Ramdas – spread a sense of shared religion and language (Marathi) across castes.
• Mughal pressure on the Deccan Sultanates created a power vacuum.

Shivaji (1630–1680)

Early life: Shivaji was born in 1630 at Shivneri fort near Pune, son of Shahji Bhonsle (a commander under Ahmadnagar and Bijapur) and Jijabai. He was guided by Dadaji Kondadev and, in tradition, by the saint Ramdas.

Key events:

He also built a navy and sea forts (Sindhudurg, Vijaydurg, Kolaba) to counter the Siddis of Janjira and the Portuguese. India's Navy honours him as a pioneer; the naval ensign adopted in 2022 carries an emblem inspired by his royal seal.

Shivaji's administration

Central: the king was helped by a council of eight ministers, the Ashtapradhan:

All except the Nyayadhish and Panditrao also held military commands. The posts were not hereditary under Shivaji.

Provincial: the kingdom (swarajya) was divided into prants (provinces) under subedars, then tarafs/parganas and villages under the patil and kulkarni.

Revenue:

• Shivaji abolished the jagirdari system in his core territory and paid officers in cash, to prevent them from becoming powerful.
• Land was measured using the kathi (a rod); revenue was fixed at about 30% of produce, later 40%. Farmers were given loans and seeds.
• Chauth – one-fourth of the revenue of neighbouring territories, collected as protection money (to spare them from raids).
• Sardeshmukhi – an additional one-tenth claimed as hereditary head-deshmukh of the region.

Army: a disciplined standing army of cavalry (bargirs – equipped by the state; shiledars – self-equipped) and infantry (mavalis, the hill soldiers). Forts were the key to defence, each under three officers of different castes (havaldar, sabnis, sarnobat) as a check. Strict rules forbade harming women or taking them along on campaigns.

After Shivaji: the Maratha war of independence

• Sambhaji (1680–1689) – sheltered Aurangzeb's rebel son Akbar; captured and executed by the Mughals in 1689.
• Rajaram (1689–1700) – escaped to Jinji in the south and continued resistance.
• Tarabai (Rajaram's widow) led the resistance for her young son Shivaji II, defending against Aurangzeb until his death in 1707.
• Shahu, Sambhaji's son, was released by the Mughals in 1707. The resulting civil war ended with Shahu at Satara and Tarabai's line at Kolhapur (Treaty of Warna, 1731).

The Peshwas (1713–1818)

Under Shahu, real power shifted to the Peshwa, whose post became hereditary. The Peshwas built a Maratha confederacy, with powerful families ruling their own territories:

• Gaekwads of Baroda,
• Holkars of Indore,
• Scindias (Shindes) of Gwalior,
• Bhonsles of Nagpur,
• the Peshwa at Pune.

Key Peshwas:

• Balaji Vishwanath (1713–1720) – obtained the royal grants (sanads) of 1719 from the Mughal emperor (through the Sayyid brothers), recognising Maratha rights to chauth and sardeshmukhi over the six Deccan provinces. Historian Richard Temple called it the Magna Carta of the Maratha empire.
• Baji Rao I (1720–1740) – the greatest general; advanced north with the idea of Hindu-pad-padshahi; defeated the Nizam at Palkhed (1728) and Bhopal (1738); raided Delhi (1737); took Malwa and Bundelkhand (helping Chhatrasal); his brother Chimaji Appa took Bassein (Vasai) from the Portuguese (1739).
• Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb) (1740–1761) – Maratha power reached Attock and Bengal; after Shahu's death (1749), the Peshwa became the real head (Sangola agreement, 1750). Defeated at the Third Battle of Panipat (14 January 1761) by Ahmad Shah Abdali, who was supported by Najib-ud-Daula of Rohilkhand and Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh. Commander Sadashivrao Bhau and the Peshwa's son Vishwasrao died.

Reasons for defeat at Panipat: lack of allies (Jats, Rajputs and Sikhs stayed away), food shortage after being cut off, Abdali's superior cavalry and mobile artillery (zamburaks), rigid tactics, and the burden of camp followers and pilgrims.

Recovery and decline: Madhav Rao I (1761–1772) revived Maratha power, and the Marathas restored Shah Alam II to Delhi (1771). Mahadji Scindia controlled Delhi in the 1780s. Nana Phadnavis held the confederacy together. But internal quarrels led to the Anglo-Maratha wars (1775–82, 1803–05, 1817–18). The Treaty of Bassein (1802), by which Baji Rao II accepted British subsidiary alliance, was the turning point; the Peshwaship was abolished in 1818.

Mains practice question

Q. "The Marathas failed to build a durable empire despite their military success." Examine. (150 words)

Framework: strengths (guerrilla warfare, forts, chauth system, confederacy); weaknesses (reliance on plunder and chauth rather than stable administration, internal rivalries among confederates, defeat at Panipat, lack of modern artillery and navy against the British, inability to win allies); conclusion.

Quick self-test

1. Where was Shivaji crowned? *(Raigad, 1674)*
2. What was sardeshmukhi? *(An additional one-tenth of revenue)*
3. Who signed the Treaty of Purandar with Shivaji? *(Raja Jai Singh)*
4. Who called the 1719 grants the Magna Carta of the Marathas? *(Richard Temple)*
5. Who led the Afghans at the Third Battle of Panipat? *(Ahmad Shah Abdali)*

Maratha administration under the Peshwas

The Peshwa's government at Pune developed an efficient revenue bureaucracy:

• The Huzur Daftar (central secretariat) at Pune kept detailed revenue records, which are among the richest archives of 18th-century India.
• Kamavisdars and mamlatdars collected revenue in districts; deshmukhs and deshpandes were hereditary local officers; the patil and kulkarni ran villages.
• Revenue was assessed by survey under Madhav Rao I and Nana Phadnavis.
• Justice was informal, with village panchayats settling most disputes; the Peshwa's court heard appeals.
• The Marathas encouraged trade and banking in Pune, and spread Marathi as an administrative language across a wide area.

Critics note that outside the heartland, Maratha rule often relied on collecting chauth without providing much administration, which made them unpopular with Rajput and Jat rulers – a factor in their isolation at Panipat.

Key terms glossary

• Swarajya: territory directly ruled by Shivaji.
• Mughlai: territory paying chauth.
• Bargir / shiledar: state-equipped / self-equipped cavalry.
• Mavali: hill infantry.
• Kathi: measuring rod.