Maratha Empire

The Maratha Empire was a major Indian power that rose from the western Deccan to challenge and ultimately help dismantle Mughal supremacy, dominating much of the subcontinent in the eighteenth century.

It was founded by Shivaji, a charismatic Maratha warrior-king who carved out an independent kingdom from the territories of the Bijapur Sultanate and the Mughals through guerrilla warfare, hill forts, and a powerful navy. In 1674 Shivaji formalised his sovereignty by having himself crowned Chhatrapati, establishing a Hindu kingdom (Hindavi Swarajya) with an efficient revenue system and a disciplined administration. After Shivaji's death the Marathas survived a prolonged and brutal war against the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, emerging stronger and more expansionist. In the early eighteenth century real power shifted to the office of the Peshwa (prime minister), and under the brilliant general Baji Rao I the Marathas launched sweeping campaigns northward, transforming the kingdom into a sprawling confederacy of allied chieftain dynasties such as the Scindias, Holkars, Gaekwads, and Bhonsles. At its height around 1758 Maratha influence extended across much of the subcontinent, and the confederacy effectively eclipsed the declining Mughals. This expansion was checked dramatically at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, where an Afghan-led coalition inflicted a catastrophic defeat that killed tens of thousands of Marathas. Though the confederacy recovered much of its power in the following decades, its decentralised structure left it vulnerable. A series of wars with the rising British East India Company culminated in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, and in 1818 the British defeated the last Maratha resistance, abolished the Peshwa's office, and annexed the empire's territories, completing British dominance over India.

Key figures