Maratha History - मराठा इतिहास

A (very) brief outline of Maratha History

The Maratha Empire came into being with the coronation of Shivaji Raje Bhonsle as Chhatrapati in 1674CE, in a small hilly tract of land in western India. After surviving near annihilation in the following decades, as the Mughals attempted to quell the ‘insurrection’, the Maratha power began to stabilize and consolidate from the 1710s, parallel to the crumbling of Mughal power. The Bhat family came to prominence with Balaji Vishwanath Bhat appointed as Peshwa (or Prime Minister) by the Chhatrapati Shahu I (Shivaji’s grandson) in 1713CE, and his son Bajirao and grandson Balaji (Nanasaheb) rapidly expanded the Maratha dominions, and by 1760CE Maratha control stretched from Lahore and Attock in the north-west and Odisha in the east, to Thanjavur in the south.

A disastrous defeat in the third battle of Panipat in 1761CE checked the expansion and led to internal turmoil (By then the British had already gotten a foothold in Bengal with the treacherous victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757CE). A resurrection and stabilization came in the 1770s, led by the great general Mahadji Shinde of Gwalior. The Maratha Empire also staved off the first serious confrontation with the British in the first Anglo-Maratha war which ended inconclusively in 1782CE. However, the death of Mahadji Shinde and Peshwa Madhavrao led to a series of intrigues and internal power-mongering. The Peshwa Bajirao II unfortunately chose to request British intervention again, triggering the second Anglo-Maratha war in 1802CE. Taking advantage of their internal disunity, the British were able to defeat the Maratha chiefs piece-meal, and by 1805CE the war ended with the British signing subsidiary alliances with the Peshwa and all four major Maratha chiefs separately, dismembering the Maratha empire.

An uneasy peace lasted for another decade, but smarting under increasing British intervention and control, an insurrection flared again in 1817CE, and the Peshwa Bajirao II attempted to again raise a united Maratha front against the British, starting the Third Anglo-Maratha war. The British however were able again to defeat the separate Maratha resistances, with victory over the Peshwe and the major Maratha houses (Holkar, Shinde, Bhonsle and Gaekwad) individually, leaving the British EIC in direct control of much of the Indian subcontinent.

The Maratha Empire thus came to an end in 1818CE, 144 years after the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj as Chhatrapati. The Peshwai was abolished, Bajirao II was exiled with a pension to Bithoor near Kanpur. The seat of the Chhatrapati was also converted into an independent subsidiary state with the title 'King of Satara'. Of the great Maratha houses, Shinde (Scindia) of Gwalior, Holkar of Indore, Gaekwad of Baroda and the Chhatrapati rival claim house of Bhonsle of Kolhapur survived as princely states in the British Raj until Indian independence in 1947CE.