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Maratha Empire: A Visual History

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Visual history of an empire

Hindu warriors from the Deccan hills who wore down the Mughals and dominated India until the British beat them in three wars.

Existed
1674 to 1818
Duration
144 years
Existed
1674 to 1818
Peak area
About 2.5 million km2 (1758)
Capitals
Raigad, Satara; Pune under the Peshwas
Founder
Shivaji Bhonsle
Worst defeat
Third Battle of Panipat, 1761

The Maratha Empire was founded by Shivaji, who was crowned Chhatrapati in 1674 after decades of guerrilla war against the Sultanate of Bijapur and the Mughals. His successors survived Aurangzeb's 25-year Deccan war and, under the Peshwas (hereditary prime ministers) of Pune, expanded across India from Tamil Nadu to Punjab by 1758. Defeat by the Afghans at Panipat in 1761 checked them, and the confederacy of Maratha chiefs (Sindhia, Holkar, Gaekwad, Bhonsle) was broken by the British in the Anglo-Maratha wars, ending in 1818.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Maratha Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

1400150016001700180019002000Maratha Empire (1674 to 1818)Open: First Portuguese EmpireFirst Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1663)Open: Mughal EmpireMughal Empire (1526 to 1857)Open: Danish colonial empireDanish colonial empire (1536 to 1953)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Second Portuguese EmpireSecond Portuguese Empire (1663 to 1822)Open: Deccan warsDeccan wars (1680 to 1707)Open: War of the Austrian SuccessionWar of the Austrian Succession (1740 to 1748)Open: Maratha invasions of BengalMaratha invasions of Bengal (1741 to 1751)Open: Seven Years' WarSeven Years' War (1756 to 1763)Open: Sikh EmpireSikh Empire (1799 to 1849)Open: Indian Rebellion of 1857Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857 to 1858)

Maratha territory and tributary lands

00.631.251.882.51674: 0.11707: 0.31740: 1.51758: 2.51761: 1.51790: 21805: 11818: 0.116801700172017401760178018001818million km2 (approximate)

Timeline of the Maratha Empire

  1. 1659
    Shivaji kills Afzal Khan
  2. 1674
    Shivaji crowned
  3. 1707
    Aurangzeb diesThe Deccan war ends.
  4. 1737
    Baji Rao raids Delhi
  5. 1758
    Marathas reach AttockPeak extent.
  6. 1761
    Third Battle of Panipat
  7. 1803
    Assaye
  8. 1818
    Peshwa surrenders

Shivaji

Shivaji, son of a Bijapur general, seized hill forts around Pune from the 1640s, killed the Bijapur general Afzal Khan in a famous encounter with concealed steel claws, raided the Mughal port of Surat, escaped house arrest at Aurangzeb's court hidden in a fruit basket, and was crowned king at Raigad in 1674. He built a navy, a light cavalry army and an administration that taxed a quarter of revenue (chauth) from lands he did not rule.

The Peshwas

After Aurangzeb's death, Shahu's Peshwa Baji Rao I (1720-1740) led Maratha armies to Delhi and Malwa. Balaji Baji Rao's generals reached Attock on the Indus in 1758. But Ahmad Shah Durrani's Afghans destroyed the main Maratha army at Panipat in January 1761, killing perhaps 40,000 soldiers and as many camp followers. Mahadji Sindhia restored Maratha power in the north in the 1770s and 1780s, holding the Mughal emperor as a protege.

The British

The First Anglo-Maratha War (1775-1782) ended in stalemate. In the Second (1803-1805) Wellesley beat Sindhia and Bhonsle at Assaye and Lake took Delhi. The Third (1817-1818) crushed the Peshwa, who was pensioned off, and the Maratha states became British subsidiaries. The last Peshwa's adopted son Nana Sahib became a leader of the 1857 rebellion.

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

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8 surprising things about the Maratha Empire

  1. Shivaji escaped from Aurangzeb's custody at Agra in 1666 by hiding in a basket of sweets sent out as alms.
  2. The Marathas collected chauth, a quarter of revenue, from territories they did not govern, as protection money.
  3. Baji Rao I never lost a battle in 20 years and is credited with the saying 'strike at the trunk and the branches will fall'.
  4. The Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 was one of the largest battles of the eighteenth century anywhere.
  5. The Peshwas were Chitpavan Brahmins who ruled as hereditary prime ministers while the descendants of Shivaji were figureheads.
  6. The Duke of Wellington later said Assaye was the best battle he ever fought, better than Waterloo.
  7. The Maratha navy under Kanhoji Angre defied the British, Portuguese and Dutch on the west coast for decades.
  8. Maratha rule reached as far as Tamil Nadu (the Thanjavur Marathas) and Cuttack in Odisha.

Sources

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