The Rise of
the Marathas
— Complete Solutions

Who were the Marathas?

The Marathas are a group of people native to the Deccan plateau, specifically present-day Maharashtra. They are identified with the Marathi language, which has had a rich literary tradition since the 12th century. During the 13th century, Maharashtra was ruled by the Yadava dynasty (capital: Devagiri/Daulatabad), which was then conquered by the Khilji Sultanate in the 14th century. Despite political changes, a powerful cultural and spiritual tradition of Bhakti continued through saints like Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram and Ramdas, giving Maratha society a strong cultural foundation.

How they became the largest pan-Indian power

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The Maratha governance system, especially under Chhatrapati Shivaji, was innovative and in many ways ahead of its time:

Civilian Administration

• Abolished hereditary posts: Unlike the Sultans and Mughals, Shivaji did not allow government positions to pass automatically from father to son. This prevented the creation of powerful, entrenched noble families who could challenge royal authority.
• Salary-based bureaucracy: All officials were paid cash salaries from the state treasury, not rewarded with land assignments (jagirs). This kept officials dependent on the state and accountable to it.
• Periodic transfers: Officials were regularly rotated to prevent them from building a local power base.
• Ashtapradhana mandala: A council of eight ministers (Pradhan = Prime Minister, Amatya = Finance, Sachiv = Land Revenue, Mantri = Intelligence, Sumant = Foreign Affairs, Senapati = Commander-in-chief, Nyayadhish = Chief Justice, Panditrao = Religious Affairs) assisted the Chhatrapati.
• Social welfare: Shivaji gave pensions to widows of soldiers and offered military posts to their sons — a remarkable early welfare system.
• Chauth and sardeshmukhi: A taxation system levied on provinces not directly under Maratha control (25% chauth + 10% sardeshmukhi) in exchange for protection.

Military Administration

• Armed forces divided into infantry, cavalry and navy. Cavalry had two types: bargirs (state-funded) and shilledars (self-funded).
• Forts were "the core of the state" — the Marathas built and controlled hundreds of hill, coastal and land forts.
• A formidable navy challenged European naval dominance. Kanhoji Angre famously reversed the cartaz (naval pass) system, demanding passes from Europeans rather than the other way round.

Judicial System

• The panchayat (local gathering of officials) delivered justice. An appeal could be made to a Maratha chief for unsatisfactory verdicts.
• Remarkable for moderate use of capital punishment.
• Kotwals (police) maintained law and order in cities like Pune and Indore.

Cultural Policy

• Sanskrit seal inscription (departing from Persian tradition); commissioned the Rajya-Vyavahara-Kosha to replace Persian loanwords with Sanskrit equivalents.
• Promoted Marathi and Sanskrit literature, rebuilt desecrated temples, supported the arts and religious institutions while respecting other faiths.

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The Maratha Empire's impact on Indian history was profound across several dimensions:

Political impact

• Ended Mughal supremacy: The Marathas were the primary force that eroded Mughal power. Aurangzeb spent his last 25 years unsuccessfully trying to subdue them, exhausting the Mughal treasury.
• Largest pre-British Indian empire: By the mid-18th century, the Marathas controlled more of the subcontinent than any other power, from Peshawar in the northwest to parts of Odisha and Tamil Nadu in the south and east.
• The British inherited Maratha India: As the chapter states, "The British took India from the Marathas more than from the Mughals or any other power." This is historically significant — the political vacuum left by Maratha decline was what the British filled.

Governance legacy

• Shivaji's salary-based, non-hereditary, accountable administration was an early model of merit-based governance.
• The ideal of Swarajya (self-rule, freedom from foreign domination) planted the seeds of Indian nationalism. It directly inspired leaders of India's independence movement.

Cultural impact

• Revived Hindu cultural traditions suppressed during Mughal rule: temple rebuilding (Kashi Vishwanath by Ahilyabai Holkar, Somnath), patronage of Sanskrit and Marathi literature, revival of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam dance under Thanjavur Maratha patronage.
• The Thanjavur Marathas created a uniquely syncretic culture blending Tamil, Telugu and Marathi traditions. Serfoji II started the first printing press by a native ruler in India and established the Dhanwantari Mahal free medical centre combining Indian and Western medicine.
• Cultural self-confidence: Shivaji's coins bore Devanagari instead of Persian script; his seal used Sanskrit; his diplomacy used Marathi rather than Persian. This was a deliberate assertion of cultural identity.

Women's leadership

• Tarabai's military leadership after Rajaram's death preserved Maratha independence during its most critical moment. Without her, Aurangzeb might have succeeded.
• Ahilyabai Holkar's 30-year governance of the Holkar kingdom was a model of wise, people-centred administration — building temples, ghats, wells and roads across India from Kedarnath to Rameswaram.

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What is Bhakti?

Bhakti (from Sanskrit bhaj = to share/worship) means devotion to the divine — a personal, direct, heart-centred relationship with God or a particular deity, without the need for complex rituals, temple priests, or caste distinctions as intermediaries. Bhakti saints preached that God is accessible to all, regardless of birth, gender or social position.

Between the 7th and 17th centuries, bhakti movements spread across India, with saints composing devotional poetry and songs in the languages of common people (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, Punjabi), making spiritual wisdom universally accessible.

Maharashtra's bhakti tradition: Sant Tukaram

• Life (1598–1650): Tukaram was born into a family of traders in Dehu, near Pune. He faced personal tragedy (deaths of family members in famine) and turned to devotion to Vithoba (Vitthal) of Pandharpur. Despite opposition from Brahmin priests who tried to destroy his writings, his abhangas (devotional songs) survived and spread.
• Teachings: He preached that God resides in the hearts of all people, not just in temples. He strongly opposed caste discrimination and the idea that knowledge of God was the preserve of the upper castes. His abhangas encouraged common people to find God through sincerity, honesty and love rather than ritual.
• Key message: "The Name of God is my only capital. With this I earn my livelihood. God is the father and mother of all. There is no difference between a Brahmin and a cobbler in His eyes."
• Legacy: Tukaram's around 4,500 surviving abhangas are sung across Maharashtra to this day. They gave Maratha society a profound sense of spiritual equality that underpinned the social solidarity Chhatrapati Shivaji would later mobilise politically.

Other notable bhakti saints of Maharashtra

• Dnyaneshwar (13th c.): Composed Dnyaneshwari, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita in Marathi — one of the earliest and greatest works of Marathi literature.
• Namdev (14th c.): Composed abhangas in both Marathi and Punjabi; his hymns are included in the Guru Granth Sahib, showing the pan-Indian reach of the bhakti tradition.
• Sant Ramdas (17th c.): Spiritual mentor of Chhatrapati Shivaji; composed the Dasbodh, a comprehensive guide to spiritual and practical life that also emphasised social organisation and political awareness.

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Here are three historically grounded questions that would reveal the most about Shivaji's mind and legacy:

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Guerrilla warfare — from the Spanish guerrilla (little war) — uses small, mobile groups of fighters who use knowledge of terrain, speed and surprise to defeat larger, less mobile armies. It has been used throughout history across the world:

Common factors for guerrilla success

• Terrain knowledge advantage: Home fighters know their terrain far better than invading armies — this neutralises the numerical and technological advantage of larger forces.
• Mobility vs mass: Small, fast-moving groups can strike and retreat before a larger army can effectively respond. The key is never fighting on the enemy's terms.
• Popular support: Successful guerrilla campaigns almost always have the support of the local population, who provide information, food, shelter and recruits. Shivaji's forts and the hill communities of the Sahyadris provided this support base.
• Forts as base camps: The Maratha innovation was to combine guerrilla tactics with a strategic network of forts — fighters could strike, retreat to a fort, and resist siege while the enemy wore itself out trying to capture each fort.

This extraordinary letter reveals several layers of Shivaji's values as a ruler:

• Restraint in the use of state power: Shivaji explicitly forbids his officials from taking even a blade of grass from subjects without permission. In an era when most rulers treated ordinary people as instruments to be exploited, this is a remarkable standard. He understood that the legitimacy of his state depended on the people's trust.
• Environmental consciousness: His concern for fruit trees — noting that "people look after them like their children" and that their loss causes lasting sorrow — shows a genuine understanding of the relationship between natural resources and people's livelihoods. He distinguishes between timber needed for the state (teak for ships, with permission) and trees that people depend on for food (mango, jackfruit, which must not be touched). This is an early articulation of what we today call sustainable resource use.
• Long-term thinking: He notes that trees "take many years to mature" — showing concern not just for today's needs but for future resource availability. This is a ruler thinking in terms of the long-term prosperity of his kingdom, not just short-term military advantage.
• Moral philosophy of governance: The line "If you accomplish something by oppressing others, it perishes soon, along with the oppressor" is a profound statement of political philosophy. He is telling his officials that governance built on oppression is inherently self-defeating — it destroys the very resources and loyalty that the state needs to survive.
• Empathy for subjects: Shivaji's phrasing — asking whether the people's sorrow from losing their trees "will ever end" — shows genuine empathy for his subjects' feelings, not just concern for economic productivity. This is the quality that distinguished him from most rulers of his era.

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Bharatanatyam's connection with the Marathas

Bharatanatyam, today recognised as one of India's most classical dance forms and now a UNESCO-recognised intangible heritage, traces its modern form directly to the court of the Thanjavur Marathas.

• Background: Ekoji, the half-brother of Chhatrapati Shivaji, conquered the Thanjavur region in Tamil Nadu in the late 17th century, establishing Maratha rule there. The Thanjavur Marathas became enthusiastic patrons of arts and music, creating a rich, syncretic cultural environment blending Tamil, Telugu and Marathi traditions.
• Serfoji II (reigned 1798–1832): Of all Thanjavur Maratha rulers, Serfoji II was the most remarkable. He was multilingual (Indian and European languages), was deeply interested in music and arts, and patronised many talented musicians and dancers.
• The Thanjavur Quartet: Under Serfoji II's patronage, four brothers — Chinnaiah, Ponnaiah, Sivanandam and Vadivelu (the "Tanjore Quartet") — systematised and codified what was then known as Sadir (a temple dance tradition). They standardised the repertoire, set the structure of Bharatanatyam performances (the margam), and composed the jatiswaram, tillana and varnam forms that are still performed today. This codification happened specifically under Maratha royal patronage.
• Carnatic music: The same period and court also saw the shaping of modern Carnatic classical music. The famous composers Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri (the "Trinity of Carnatic music") were contemporaries of Serfoji II, and the cultural environment of Thanjavur was central to their work.
• 20th century revival: Bharatanatyam's name itself was given in the 20th century (by E. Krishna Iyer) during its revival as a classical dance form after colonial-era suppression. But its structure, repertoire and aesthetic were essentially the product of the Thanjavur Maratha court's patronage.

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Geography was not just a backdrop to Maratha history — it was the primary shaper of Maratha military strategy, state structure and ultimate extent of power. Two geographical features in particular were decisive:

1. The Sahyadri (Western Ghats) mountains — the foundation of Maratha power

• Natural fortress: The Western Ghats form a near-continuous mountain wall running along Maharashtra's west, with steep escarpments, dense forests and narrow passes. This terrain rendered the Mughal and Deccan Sultanate's primary military asset — their large cavalry — almost useless. Heavy horses cannot charge up steep slopes or through dense forest.
• Guerrilla warfare advantage: The Marathas exploited this terrain brilliantly. Small groups of Maratha fighters, intimately familiar with every path, stream and hidden valley, could ambush much larger forces, then vanish into the forest. The Bijapur general Afzal Khan was lured into exactly this kind of terrain and killed.
• Fort network: The Marathas controlled hundreds of hill forts built on the commanding peaks of the Sahyadri range and the Deccan. Each fort was effectively impregnable to cavalry assault and could only be taken by long siege. Even when Aurangzeb captured Raigad (the Maratha capital) and executed Sambhaji, the remaining forts continued to hold out, denying him control of the region. As Ramachandrapant Amatya wrote: "It was due to forts that the [Maratha] state survived despite decades of onslaught."
• Strategic control of passes: The ghats were crossed by only a few negotiable passes (ghat margs). Whoever controlled these passes controlled movement between the coast and the Deccan interior — economically and militarily vital.

2. The Maharashtra and Konkan coastline — naval power and trade

• The navy was born of coastal geography: When Shivaji's kingdom expanded to India's west coast (the Konkan), he immediately recognised that controlling the coast required a navy, not just a land army. The Konkan coast — dotted with natural harbours, islands (like Sindhudurg) and estuaries — was ideal for naval bases.
• Coastal forts: The Marathas built a chain of coastal forts (Sindhudurg, Vijaydurg, Janjira — though Janjira was never fully captured — and others). These controlled sea lanes, protected fishing communities and provided naval bases from which to challenge European and rival Indian naval power.
• Trade and revenue: Control of coastal ports (Rajapur, Dabhol, Malwan, Vengurla) gave the Marathas customs revenue from the lucrative west-coast trade in horses, textiles, spices and gold. Shivaji himself sent ships to Mocha (Yemen), Muscat (Oman) and Malacca (Malaysia).
• Strategic depth against the Mughals: Shivaji's southern campaign (dakshina-digvijaya, 1677) extended Maratha territory to northern Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This gave the Marathas strategic depth — when the Mughals captured the Deccan heartland, the Marathas could retreat southward (as Rajaram did, fleeing to Gingee in Tamil Nadu) and continue the fight from there.

Summary: Geography as strategy

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I would choose to visit Raigad Fort — the capital of the Maratha Empire and perhaps the most historically significant fort of the entire Maratha period.

Why Raigad?

• Historical significance: Raigad is where Chhatrapati Shivaji was coronated on 6 June 1674 — an event of immense political and cultural importance. It was the moment the Marathas formally declared themselves an independent sovereign power. The coronation was performed with full Vedic rites, asserting both political and cultural legitimacy.
• Architecture: Raigad sits atop a flat-topped hill rising about 820 metres from sea level, with sheer cliffs on most sides. Its defensive position is naturally commanding. The fort contains the ruins of Shivaji's palace, the great Jagdishwar temple, a market (bazaar) that once housed 300 shops (showing it was more than a military installation — it was a functioning city), and Shivaji's samadhi (memorial).
• Strategic importance: Located in the heart of the Sahyadri range, Raigad commanded the key routes between the Konkan coast and the Deccan plateau. It was accessible by a single narrow path (now replaced by a ropeway), making it virtually impregnable to direct assault. Only through treachery could it be taken — and even when Aurangzeb's forces finally captured it after Sambhaji's execution, it was only a temporary setback.
• Personal significance: Shivaji spent many of his most active years here, governing, planning campaigns and receiving ambassadors. He died here in 1680. Visiting Raigad is as close as one can come to standing where the Maratha Empire was born and where its founder lived and died.

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What this statement means

This statement means that when the British East India Company expanded to control most of the Indian subcontinent, it was primarily the Marathas, not the Mughals, who were the last significant Indian power standing in their way. The Mughal Empire had already effectively collapsed after Aurangzeb's death in 1707. The British conquest of India in the 18th and early 19th centuries was fundamentally a contest against the Maratha confederacy.

Evidence from the chapter

Why the Marathas ultimately lost

• Internal disunity: The Maratha confederacy was divided among five major chiefs (the Holkars, Scindias, Bhonsles of Nagpur, Gaekwads of Baroda, and the Peshwas), who frequently competed with each other. The British exploited these divisions through diplomacy and subsidiary alliances.
• Superior British organisation: The British East India Company combined military professionalism with financial and administrative resources no single Indian power could match. Their ability to sustain long wars without exhausting their treasury was a decisive advantage.
• Technology gap: By the early 19th century, British artillery and military technology had advanced significantly. Even Mahadji Shinde's European-style army could not fully close this gap.

Key evidence from the chapter

• Shivaji was described as "a devout Hindu who respected other religions while upholding his own."
• When sacking Surat, he "was careful not to attack religious places and even spared the house of Mohandas Parekh, a charitable man."
• In the South, he forbade the Dutch from trading slaves — protecting his subjects regardless of their faith.
• His seal carried a Sanskrit inscription expressing that his rule existed for "the welfare of the people" — all people, not just Hindus.
• The Thanjavur Marathas "helped create a syncretic culture" combining Tamil, Telugu and Marathi traditions.

The contrast with later Marathas

The chapter honestly acknowledges that as the Maratha confederacy decentralised after Shivaji's era, individual chiefs sometimes departed from his standards. The ten-year campaign in Bengal "inflicted much cruelty and devastation on the common people" — behaviour that would have been forbidden under Shivaji's own instructions (such as not taking even a blade of grass from subjects).

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As Ramachandrapant Amatya wrote in the Adnyapatra: "Forts are the core of the state. In their absence, the land gets devastated in the face of an invasion... it was due to forts that the [Maratha] state survived despite decades of onslaught."

Why forts were so central to the Maratha state

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Design Description: The Swarajya Coin

Shape and material: Octagonal gold coin (echoing the ashtapradhana — eight-minister council — structure) with a copper ring border.

Front face (Obverse)

• Central image: A stylised hill fort silhouetted against a rising sun — representing the forts as "the core of the state" and the new dawn of Indian self-rule (Swarajya).
• Script: "श्री राजा शिव छत्रपती" (Shri Raja Shiva Chhatrapati) in Devanagari — deliberately following Shivaji's own coins, departing from Persian/Arabic coinage to assert cultural identity.
• Border: A continuous band of lotus flowers — symbolising purity, prosperity and Indian cultural tradition; the lotus grows in murky water but remains clean, much as the Marathas maintained their values amid surrounding conflict.

Back face (Reverse)

• Central symbol: A ship with sails (representing the Maratha Navy — the revolutionary military innovation; also symbolising trade, exploration and the outward-looking maritime vision of the Marathas).
• Flanking symbols: On the left, a sword (military power); on the right, a veena or book (cultural patronage — referencing Krishnadevaraya's literary tradition and the Maratha bhakti heritage).
• Inscription: "स्वराज्य" (Swarajya) at the top; "जनकल्याणाय" (Janakalyanaya = for the welfare of the people) at the bottom — drawing directly from Shivaji's seal inscription.
• Denomination mark: In the Devanagari numeral tradition (not Arabic/Persian), asserting the same cultural independence Shivaji expressed in his own coinage.

Why these symbols?

• The fort and rising sun represent the defining military and political achievement: Swarajya — self-rule won through the fort network.
• The ship represents the revolutionary naval innovation that challenged European maritime dominance — often overlooked but historically decisive.
• The Devanagari script follows Shivaji's own practice of using Indian cultural symbols rather than imported Persian ones — a statement of civilisational self-respect.
• The welfare inscription honours the most profound aspect of Shivaji's legacy: that power existed for the people's welfare, not for the ruler's glory.

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The Maratha period offers several strong candidates for "most important contribution," and different historians — and different students — will reasonably disagree. Here is a case for three possible answers, with supporting evidence:

Answer 1: The concept of Swarajya and its legacy for Indian independence

I believe the Marathas' most important contribution was demonstrating through action that Indians could organise, fight and govern themselves against the most powerful empire of the day. Chhatrapati Shivaji's vision of Swarajya (self-rule, not just from Mughal authority but as a positive ideal of just, accountable governance) planted the seeds of what would become India's freedom movement. When Bal Gangadhar Tilak, in the late 19th century, began using Shivaji Jayanti as a platform for national awakening, he was drawing directly on this legacy. The Maratha demonstration that "mighty kingdoms and empires could be defeated, and the Marathas could maintain, expand and administer an empire of their own" gave future generations the confidence to believe they too could govern themselves. Without this demonstration, the idea of Indian self-rule might have seemed impossibly distant.

Answer 2: The Maratha administration and governance model

The Maratha administrative reforms — salary-based governance, abolition of hereditary posts, periodic transfers, welfare for soldiers' families, the ashtapradhana council — represented a genuinely new model of governance in the Indian context. At a time when most rulers relied on jagir-based systems that created powerful, often unaccountable local nobles, Shivaji's centralised, salary-based, accountable system was a significant administrative innovation.

Answer 3: Cultural revival and confidence

The Maratha period revived Indian cultural confidence after centuries of rule during which Persian had dominated official culture and many Hindu traditions had been suppressed or interrupted. Shivaji's use of Sanskrit in his seal, Devanagari on his coins and Marathi in his diplomacy (through the Rajya-Vyavahara-Kosha) were deliberate assertions that Indian languages and traditions were as worthy of respect as Persian ones. The rebuilding of temples (Kashi Vishwanath, Somnath), the revival of Jagannath worship at Puri, the flowering of Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music at Thanjavur under Maratha patronage — all created a cultural confidence that outlasted the Maratha Empire itself.