Mughal-Maratha wars

Background

The conflict grew out of the fragmentation of the Deccan sultanates of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, and Golconda, which the Mughals under Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan progressively absorbed through the 17th century. Shahaji Bhosale, father of Shivaji, served as a jagirdar and general first under Ahmadnagar and then Bijapur, building the military and administrative base his son would later use to carve out an independent Maratha state. Shivaji was born in 1630 at Shivneri fort and raised largely under the guardianship of his mother, Jijabai, and regent Dadoji Konddeo, while his father campaigned in Bijapur's Karnataka territories.

Shivaji and the Founding of Maratha Power (1645–1680)

Shivaji's campaign to establish Swarajya, self-rule, is traditionally dated from 1645, when at about fifteen he seized the fort of Torna from Bijapur; he went on to capture Kondana (Sinhagad) and Purandar, and in 1656 annexed Javli from a rival Maratha chieftain. In 1659 Bijapur dispatched the general Afzal Khan to subdue him; Shivaji killed Afzal Khan at a fortified meeting at Pratapgad, a episode that remains central to Maratha memory. Conflict then shifted toward the Mughals: in 1663 Shivaji raided the camp of the Mughal governor Shaista Khan at Pune, wounding him and killing his son, and in 1664 sacked the major Mughal port of Surat. In 1665 the Mughal general Raja Jai Singh I besieged Purandar and forced Shivaji to sign the Treaty of Purandar, surrendering twenty-three forts and agreeing to Mughal service. A visit to Aurangzeb's court at Agra in 1666 ended in house arrest, from which Shivaji famously escaped, reportedly concealed among baskets of sweets sent out of the palace. Over the following years he recovered his lost territory, sacked Surat a second time in 1670, and in 1674 was formally crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad, establishing an administrative council (the Ashta Pradhan) for his kingdom. He died at Raigad in 1680.

Sambhaji's War and Aurangzeb's Deccan Campaign (1681–1707)

Shivaji's son Sambhaji succeeded him. In 1681 Aurangzeb moved his entire court and army to the Deccan in person, determined to crush Maratha power, and did not return north for the rest of his reign. Sambhaji was captured in 1689 at Sangameshwar, tortured, and executed on Aurangzeb's orders; rather than ending Maratha resistance, his death intensified it. Sambhaji's half-brother Rajaram fled south to the fort of Jinji (Gingee), directing resistance from there until his death in 1700, after which his widow Tarabai, acting as regent, led the Maratha war effort with vigor. Maratha commanders adopted decentralized, mobile guerrilla warfare that made the mountainous Deccan effectively ungovernable for the Mughals, even as Aurangzeb's armies captured fort after fort. The emperor died in 1707 at Ahmednagar after a twenty-six-year Deccan campaign that historians widely regard as having fatally overextended and financially exhausted the Mughal Empire.

Maratha Resurgence and Northern Expansion (1707–1761)

Aurangzeb's death triggered a Mughal succession crisis that further weakened central authority. Sambhaji's son Shahu, held captive by the Mughals since childhood, was released in 1707 and, after prevailing in a contest with Tarabai's faction, established his capital at Satara. In 1713 Shahu appointed Balaji Vishwanath as Peshwa (chief minister); Balaji Vishwanath negotiated an agreement in 1719 with the Sayyid brothers, then the effective power-brokers at the Mughal court, securing Maratha rights to chauth and sardeshmukhi (a quarter and a tenth of revenue, respectively) across the Mughal Deccan provinces. Under Peshwa Baji Rao I (1720–1740), the Marathas expanded aggressively northward, defeating the Nizam of Hyderabad at Palkhed in 1728 and, in 1737, raiding to the outskirts of Delhi itself and defeating a Mughal relief force, a demonstration that Mughal authority no longer extended reliably over its own capital region. Under Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao (1740–1761), Maratha power reached its widest extent, with a 1758 campaign led by Raghunath Rao pushing Maratha garrisons as far as Attock and Peshawar in the northwest.

Panipat and Its Aftermath (1761–1771)

Maratha advances into Punjab alarmed the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali, who had already sacked Delhi once in 1757. On 14 January 1761, Abdali's forces, allied with Rohilla Afghans and the Nawab of Awadh, met a large Maratha army under Sadashivrao Bhau at the Third Battle of Panipat. The Marathas suffered a catastrophic defeat; casualty figures reported in later tradition are considerable but disputed, and Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao died shortly after news of the disaster reached him. Despite the scale of the loss, Maratha power recovered within roughly a decade under the young Peshwa Madhavrao I, who reasserted control over Rajputana, Malwa, and much of the north.

Maratha Ascendancy over the Mughal Court (1771–1803)

The Maratha chieftain Mahadji Scindia, based at Gwalior, restored the fugitive Mughal emperor Shah Alam II to the Delhi throne in 1771 and became the effective power behind it, formally holding the title of deputy regent (Vakil-ul-Mutlaq) from 1784 onward. For roughly three decades the Mughal emperor functioned largely as a pensioner under Maratha protection, a state of affairs that ended only when British forces under Lord Lake defeated Scindia and occupied Delhi in 1803 during the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

Decline: The Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775–1818)

By the later 18th century the Maratha polity had become a confederacy of largely autonomous chiefs — the Peshwa at Pune, Scindia at Gwalior, Holkar at Indore, the Gaekwad at Baroda, and the Bhonsle at Nagpur — whose rivalries the expanding British East India Company exploited. Three Anglo-Maratha Wars followed: the First (1775–1782), ended inconclusively by the Treaty of Salbai; the Second (1803–1805); and the Third (1817–1818), which ended with the defeat and exile of Peshwa Baji Rao II to Bithoor, the annexation of Peshwa territory, and the collapse of the Maratha state as an independent power, clearing the way for British paramountcy across the subcontinent.

Historiography

Contemporary Mughal court chronicles, such as the Maasir-i-Alamgiri for Aurangzeb's reign, and Maratha bakhars — vernacular Marathi chronicle-narratives, including the Sabhasad Bakhar on Shivaji's life — form the core primary sources for the conflict. European travelers' accounts add further contemporary detail, while the colonial-era historian James Grant Duff, drawing on Maratha court records, produced the influential History of the Mahrattas (1826), still consulted as a foundational secondary source despite its colonial-era framing.