The Peshwas and Maratha expansion

When Shivaji Maharaj died in 1680, the Maratha kingdom was a regional power in the western Deccan. Eighty years later, Maratha armies were fighting at Panipat, north of Delhi. How did a kingdom under siege become the most powerful force in eighteenth-century India — and why did that power fragment? This is the story of the war against Aurangzeb, the Peshwas, and the Maratha confederacy.

The war of independence (1681–1707)

Sambhaji (1680–1689)

Shivaji Maharaj's elder son Sambhaji faced Aurangzeb himself, who came to the Deccan in 1681 with a vast army and remained there until his death. Sambhaji resisted for years, but in 1689 he was captured at Sangameshwar and executed.

Rajaram and Tarabai

His younger brother Rajaram continued the struggle. As the Mughals captured Raigad, Rajaram escaped to Jinji in the south — the fort Shivaji Maharaj had won in 1677 — which held out against a long Mughal siege. Maratha commanders such as Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav fought a highly mobile war against the Mughals in the Deccan.

After Rajaram's death in 1700, his widow Tarabai led the resistance on behalf of her young son. She is remembered as one of the most capable Maratha leaders of the period.

By 1707, when Aurangzeb died at Ahmednagar, the Mughals had exhausted themselves without destroying the Marathas.

Shahu and the rise of the Peshwa

After Aurangzeb's death, the Mughals released Sambhaji's son Shahu, who had been their captive. A civil war followed between Shahu and Tarabai. Shahu won at the Battle of Khed (1707) and was crowned at Satara. The Tarabai line eventually established a separate state at Kolhapur.

Balaji Vishwanath (Peshwa 1713–1720)

Shahu appointed Balaji Vishwanath as his Peshwa in 1713. Balaji Vishwanath's greatest achievement came in 1719, when he secured from the Mughals the sanads (grants) that recognised:

• Shahu's rule over Shivaji Maharaj's Swarajya;
• the Marathas' right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi from the six Mughal provinces of the Deccan.

In return, the Marathas agreed to supply troops and pay tribute. This was a turning point: Maratha expansion now had legal cover.

From this point, the post of Peshwa became hereditary in Balaji Vishwanath's family, and effective power shifted from Satara to Pune.

Bajirao I (1720–1740)

Bajirao I, son of Balaji Vishwanath, is regarded as one of the greatest cavalry generals in Indian history.

• Palkhed (1728): he defeated the Nizam of Hyderabad in a campaign of rapid movement.
• Malwa and Bundelkhand: he extended Maratha power north; his alliance with Chhatrasal of Bundelkhand is well known.
• Delhi (1737): he raided the outskirts of Delhi, showing the weakness of the Mughal centre.
• Bhopal (1738): he defeated the Nizam again, gaining Malwa.
• Vasai (1739): his brother Chimaji Appa captured Vasai (Bassein) from the Portuguese.

Bajirao I laid the foundations of the Maratha confederacy by entrusting new territories to chiefs such as Ranoji Shinde, Malharrao Holkar and the Pawars.

Balaji Bajirao (Nanasaheb, 1740–1761)

Under Balaji Bajirao, Maratha power reached its greatest extent.

• After Shahu's death (1749), the Sangola agreement (1750) formalised the Peshwa's control of administration.
• Maratha armies reached Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan and the Punjab.
• In 1758, Maratha forces under Raghunathrao reached Attock and Peshawar.

This northward expansion brought the Marathas into direct conflict with Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan.

The Third Battle of Panipat (14 January 1761)

The Maratha army led by Sadashivrao Bhau, with the Peshwa's son Vishwasrao, met Ahmad Shah Abdali at Panipat. The result was a catastrophic Maratha defeat. Sadashivrao Bhau and Vishwasrao were among the tens of thousands killed.

Reasons commonly cited for the defeat:

• supply problems — the Maratha camp was cut off and starving;
• lack of allies — the Rajputs, Jats and Sikhs did not support the Marathas; the Rohillas and Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh sided with Abdali;
• heavy camp followers — a large non-combatant population slowed movement;
• tactical differences within the Maratha command.

Revival: Madhavrao I (1761–1772)

The young Madhavrao I restored Maratha authority, defeating the Nizam and Hyder Ali of Mysore, and re-establishing influence in the north. His early death from tuberculosis is often considered a greater blow to the Marathas than Panipat.

Mahadji Shinde and Nana Phadnavis

In the late eighteenth century, two figures dominated:

• Mahadji Shinde built a powerful army trained on European lines (under the French officer de Boigne), and controlled the Mughal emperor in Delhi from the 1780s.
• Nana Phadnavis, the chief minister at Pune, held the Maratha state together through diplomacy. With a council of ministers known as the Barbhai ("twelve brothers"), he managed affairs during the minority of Sawai Madhavrao.

Both died around 1794–1800, and with them went the unity of the confederacy.

The Maratha confederacy

The confederacy was flexible and allowed rapid expansion, but it also allowed rivalries that the British would exploit.

Ahilyabai Holkar

Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, who ruled from Maheshwar, is remembered for just administration, support to trade and agriculture, and the restoration of temples and ghats across India, including the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi.

Questions to practise

Prelims-style:

1. Where did Rajaram take refuge during Aurangzeb's campaign?
2. What did the 1719 sanads grant the Marathas?
3. Who captured Vasai from the Portuguese?
4. Who led the Maratha army at the Third Battle of Panipat?
5. What was the Barbhai council?

Mains-style:

• Examine the causes and consequences of the Third Battle of Panipat.
• "The Maratha confederacy was both the source of Maratha strength and the cause of its decline." Discuss.

The next chapter — the Anglo-Maratha wars — shows how the British turned the confederacy's divisions into victory.