Maratha Confederacy
Indian political entity (1674–1818) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Maratha Confederacy,[lower-alpha 1] also referred to as the Maratha Empire,[6][7][8] was an early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent Maratha states[9][10] often subordinate to the former. It was established in 1674 with the coronation of Shivaji as the Maratha Chhatrapati and recognised by Emperor Bahadur Shah I as a tributary state in 1707 following a prolonged rebellion.[11] Following this, the Marathas continued to recognise the Mughal emperor as their nominal suzerain, similar to other contemporary Indian entities, though in practice, imperial politics at Delhi were largely influenced by the Marathas between 1737 and 1803.[lower-alpha 2][12][13]
Maratha Confederacy Maratha Empire | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1674–1818 | |||||||||||
Royal Seal of Shivaji I
| |||||||||||
Motto: "हर हर महादेव" "Har Har Mahadev" (English: "Praises to Mahadev (Shiva)") | |||||||||||
Capital | Royal seat: Peshwa's seat: Poona (1728–1818) | ||||||||||
Official languages | |||||||||||
Religion | State religion: Hinduism Other: 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 | 6 June 1674 | ||||||||||
1680–1707 | |||||||||||
1707 | |||||||||||
1713 | |||||||||||
1737 | |||||||||||
1817–1819 | |||||||||||
• Dissolution of the Maratha Confederacy | 1818 | ||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||
1760[2] | 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
Currency | Rupee, Paisa, Mohur, Shivrai, Hon | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Today part of | India |
Although Shivaji came from the Maratha community, the Maratha government also included warriors, administrators, and other nobles from the Maratha and several other Marathi groups from what is known today as Maharashtra.[14] Shivaji's monarchy was initially referred to as the Maratha Kingdom,[15][6] which expanded into a large realm in the 18th century under the leadership of Peshwa Bajirao I.[note 1] The Marathas were a Marathi-speaking peasantry group from the western Deccan Plateau (present-day Maharashtra) who rose to prominence by establishing Hindavi Swarajya (meaning "self-rule of Hindus").[18][19]
The Marathas became prominent in the politics of the Indian subcontinent during 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.[20][21][22] The religious attitude of Emperor Aurangzeb estranged non-Muslims, and the Maratha insurgency 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.[23][24]
After 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 Afghan Empire, following which the effective power of Peshwas over other chiefs came to an end.[25][26][27]
The structure of the Maratha state was that of 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, Raja of Ujjain 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[lower-alpha 3] and Central Provinces.
After he was defeated by the Holkar dynasty in 1802, the Peshwa Baji Rao II sought protection from the British East India Company, whose intervention destroyed the confederacy by 1818 after the Second and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars. The stable borders of the confederacy after 1737 extended from modern-day Maharashtra[28] in the south to Gwalior in the north after the Battle of Bhopal (1737), to Orissa in the east[29] or about a third of the subcontinent.