The Maratha Empire was the last great Hindu superpower in the Indian subcontinent prior to the establishment of the predominantly Hindu state of India. Before the rise of the Marathas, India had been dominated by the Mughal Empire. The Mughals were Persianized Central Asian Turko-Mongols who had converted to Islam.
Claiming descent from the renowned conquerors Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, they shared their ancestors'acumen for conquest and occasional brutality. Although initially relatively tolerant of other faiths for the time, the empire became increasingly discriminatory of its majority Hindu population over time. By the later 17th century, higher positions in the empire increasingly excluded Hindus, and the Jizya infidel tax was imposed to pay for the Mughals'many wars. Since the 15th century, the Bhakti movement spread from southern India northwards, increasing the devotion of the Hindu population and the sense of need to create their own strong, independent nation. This movement influenced many of the Marathas.
The Marathas were a Hindu warrior class who had mainly worked for the Mughal vassal sultans of the Deccan Plateau. The Maratha general Shahaji, whose tiny border territory was precariously placed near several larger states, fought for all major powers in the region in order to ensure the autonomy of his territory. His son, Chhatrapati Sivaji Maharaj, established the Maratha Empire in 1674. He began his conquests with four captured forts and 2,000 warriors.
After a lifetime of guerrilla warfare, he ended his life with 300 hilltop forts and an army of over 100,000 men. Following his death, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb dedicated the next 26 years of his life waging an obsessive and brutal war against the Marathas. Aurangzeb's massive encampment was essentially a mobile capital city, with over half a million soldiers and camp followers. Chhatrapati Sivaji's sons who succeeded him many of his same tactics to ultimately prevail in a long war of attrition with the Mughals. The Marathas effectively used light cavalry and infantry to harass and ambush much larger Mughal armies, and chose to make a final last dance at the numerous fortresses of the Deccan Plateau.
Once the Mughals moved on to the next siege, the Marathas would recapture and rebuild the fortresses that were the furthest from the Mughals and the most lightly guarded. By the end of Orang Zeb's reign, 3 to 4 million people had perished, primarily resulting from drought, famine, and plague that had ravaged war-torn lands. Although bringing nearly all of India under Mughal influence, the cost of war was too great for the Mughal Empire to bear. After Aurangzeb's death, the Mughal Empire was plunged into internal rebellion and strife.
The Mughals then had a not-so-brilliant plan that backfired. They released Chhatrapati Savaji's grandson, Shahu, from prison in an attempt to destabilize the Marathas. This did lead to a short civil war that Shahu won, and the Mughals were unable to able to exploit because they were busy dealing with their own civil strife and rebellions. Shahoo was a charismatic leader who also had an eye for talent and promoted based on merit rather than birth or social status.
This aided the empire's growth during his long reign. Later in his reign, power within the empire gradually transferred to the Chhatrapati's generals and the Peshwa, or Prime Minister. Under the Peshwa Bajirao, the Mughals and a coalition of allies were decisively defeated at the Battles of Delhi and and Bhopal, and the Mughal capital city was sacked. The Mughals made peace, ceding large swaths of territory in central India to the Marathas and paying massive war reparations, greatly weakening the empire.
The Mughal capital of Delhi then suffered a greater calamity, when it was sacked and much of its population massacred by the Afsharid dynasty of Nader Shah. After Shahu's death, the Chhatrapati became a ceremonial role, while real executive power rested with the Peshwa. In 1757, the Marathas conquered Delhi, establishing the Mughal emperor as a puppet ruler, with the only Mughal territory being the city of Delhi itself. That same year, the British East India Company established direct rule in Bengal, defeating the Nawaba Bengal and their French allies.
As the Maratha Empire reached the height of its power, it became increasingly decentralized, the Peshwa ceding more and more power to the local Maratha rulers and generals. While his position became more ceremonial, as the Chhatrapatis had become a generation before, leading many historians to give the state the moniker Maratha Confederacy rather than empire, the Afghan Durrani Empire expanded their territory into the Indian subcontinent. subcontinent as far as the city of Delhi.
This led to the Third Battle of Panipat, where both empires lost tens of thousands of their best troops during the fighting which lasted for several days. The Afghans gained the upper hand, but they were so greatly weakened that they withdrew into the Punjab, where they were defeated by the Sikhs and driven out of the Indian subcontinent. Believing the Maratha Empire to be unstable, in 1775 the British East India Company fought to place their favored claimant on the Maratha throne. The Marathas were victorious and the British made peace. The East India Company set about conquering southern India before resuming war with the Marathas.
After a second war, A peace treaty was signed where the British Company made territorial gains, and in a third and final Anglo-Maratha war, the British disestablished the empire in 1818. The legacy of the Maratha Empire is quite exceptional in Indian history. Social mobility, religious tolerance were two pillars that gave the state exceptional internal unity. It largely did not adhere to the caste system, and merit was prized above all. People of all castes were found in the highest military and civilian positions throughout the empire. The sons of peasant herdsmen and farmers rose to rule large tracts of land and command vast armies.
Since Chhatrapati Sivaji Maharaj founded the empire, religious tolerance was an important social aspect, and religion was considered a largely personal affair, although the state was undeniably Hindu in character. This has been Epimetheus. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and hit the bell icon to get notifications every time I make a new video like this.
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