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UPSC & State PSC

Maharashtra History for MPSC

From the Satavahanas, Vakatakas and Deccan dynasties through Shivaji Maharaj, the Peshwas and the social reformers to the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. Prelims tests names, places and events; the descriptive Mains asks you to explain movements and their legacy.

15 guides·Conducted by Maharashtra Public Service CommissionOfficial website

Study in this order

  1. 1The Satavahanas: Maharashtra's first great dynastyLong before the Marathas, a dynasty ruling from Paithan on the Godavari built an empire across the Deccan, traded with Rome, patronised Buddhist caves and wrote poetry in Prakrit. Who the Satavahanas were, what they left behind, and what MPSC asks about them. 6 min read
  2. 2The Vakatakas and the Ajanta cavesA Vidarbha dynasty allied by marriage to the Guptas presided over one of the great moments of Indian art — the later caves of Ajanta. Who the Vakatakas were, how Ajanta was made, and what makes its paintings unique. 4 min read
  3. 3Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and Yadavas of the DeccanBetween the Vakatakas and the Delhi Sultanate, three great Deccan powers ruled over much of Maharashtra — the Chalukyas who stopped Harsha, the Rashtrakutas who carved Ellora's Kailasa temple, and the Yadavas of Devagiri, in whose time the Dnyaneshwari was written. 5 min read
  4. 4The Bahmani kingdom and the Deccan SultanatesFor two and a half centuries before Shivaji, the Deccan was ruled by the Bahmani Sultanate and the five kingdoms that followed it. Their courts shaped the region's administration, architecture and politics — and trained the Maratha families who would later build Swarajya. 5 min read
  5. 5Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the making of SwarajyaFrom a jagir around Pune to a crowned kingdom with a navy, forts and a council of ministers — how Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj built Swarajya between Bijapur and the Mughals, and the key events MPSC expects you to know in sequence. 5 min read
  6. 6Maratha administration: Ashtapradhan, revenue and fortsShivaji Maharaj's state survived him because it was built on institutions — a council of eight ministers, a revenue system that reached the cultivator, a salaried army and a chain of well-run forts. How each worked, and how the system changed under the Peshwas. 5 min read
  7. 7The Peshwas and Maratha expansionWithin a century of Shivaji Maharaj's death, Maratha power reached from Tamil Nadu to the Punjab. How the war of independence against Aurangzeb, the rise of the Peshwas, the Maratha confederacy and the disaster at Panipat shaped eighteenth-century India. 5 min read
  8. 8The Anglo-Maratha wars and the end of Maratha powerThree wars over forty years ended the Maratha confederacy — the last great Indian power standing between the East India Company and the subcontinent. The treaties, battles and mistakes that MPSC expects you to know, in order. 5 min read
  9. 91857 in MaharashtraThe great revolt of 1857 is usually told as a north Indian story, but several of its leaders had Maharashtra roots, and the region saw its own risings, conspiracies and tribal uprisings — before, during and after 1857. What happened, and why the revolt did not spread more widely here. 5 min read
  10. 10Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and the Satyashodhak SamajA gardener's son from Pune who opened a school for girls in 1848, challenged caste in print and founded a movement for the "seekers of truth". Jyotirao Phule's life, writings and ideas — and why he remains at the centre of Maharashtra's social history. 5 min read
  11. 11Savitribai Phule and the education of girlsShe walked to school every day carrying a spare sari because people threw mud and stones at her. Savitribai Phule — teacher, poet, reformer and relief worker — and the story behind India's first schools for girls run by Indians. 4 min read
  12. 12Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj's reformsIn 1902, the ruler of a princely state reserved half the posts in his administration for the backward classes — decades before the Constitution. Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur and the reforms that made him a pioneer of social justice. 4 min read
  13. 13Dr Ambedkar's movements: Mahad to KalaramBefore he chaired the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, Dr B. R. Ambedkar led movements in Maharashtra that asserted the right of the untouched castes to water, to temples and to dignity. Mahad, Kalaram, Yeola and Nagpur — what happened and why it mattered. 5 min read
  14. 14Ranade, Agarkar, Karve and the reform movementNineteenth-century Maharashtra produced an extraordinary generation of reformers — judges, journalists, teachers and women writers who argued about caste, widowhood, education and reason. The key figures, their organisations and their ideas, with a table you can revise from. 5 min read
  15. 15Tilak and Maharashtra in the national movementFrom Tilak's Kesari and the Ganesh festival to the revolutionaries of Nashik and Pune, the Quit India call from Bombay and the parallel government of Satara — how Maharashtra shaped India's freedom struggle at every stage. 5 min read

New Maharashtra History guides are added regularly. Back to all MPSC guides