Maratha Confederacy
Maratha Confederacy · Shivaji · Peshwa rule
Story hook
It is 6 June 1674, the day of the Jyeshtha Shukla Trayodashi. On the Raigad fort in the Sahyadri hills west of Pune, a 46-year-old man dressed in yellow silk is seated on a golden throne weighing 32 maunds (~1,200 kg). He is being anointed king. Pandit Gaga Bhatt of Varanasi, the most respected Brahmin scholar of the era, has personally come south to perform the rajyabhishek (coronation). After two centuries of Muslim sultanate rule in the Deccan, an indigenous Hindu sovereign is being formally crowned. He calls himself Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj — "lord of the parasol", the title of an independent king.
The coronation is more than ceremonial. It is a political revolution. Aurangzeb's Mughal Empire is at its peak. The Bijapur and Golconda sultanates dominate the central Deccan. The Portuguese control Goa; the English are trading at Surat; the Dutch at Pulicat. None recognise Hindu kingship as a legitimate political category in the Deccan. Shivaji's coronation explicitly revived the Hindu kingship tradition that had been dormant since the fall of Vijayanagara in 1565.
Over the next 130 years, the polity Shivaji founded — initially the Swarajya (his ancestral homeland around Pune), then the Maratha Confederacy (a loose alliance of regional sardars under Peshwa leadership), and finally the Maratha Empire — would become the largest indigenous power to rival the Mughals. At its height in 1758, Maratha territories extended from Attock in northwest Punjab to Cuttack in eastern Odisha and Tanjavur in the south. The Marathas defeated the Mughals at Bhopal (1737), sacked Delhi (1737, 1759), and brought Bengal under tribute (1751).
Then, on 14 January 1761, at Panipat for the third time in two and a half centuries, an Afghan invader named Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated a Maratha army of ~80,000 men. The defeat broke Maratha imperial ambition. The Mughals were too weak to reclaim authority; the British took the opportunity. By 1818, the Maratha Empire had been dismantled in three Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775-82, 1803-05, 1817-18) — and the British East India Company was the sole paramount power.
For UPSC, the Marathas are tested every year because they sit at the pivot between Mughal decline and British rise. This file covers Shivaji, the Peshwa-led Confederacy, the Maratha state structure, and the three Anglo-Maratha Wars.
Why this matters for UPSC
Three reasons the Marathas are heavily UPSC-tested:
The "alternative empire" question — Could the Marathas have unified India in place of the British? This counter-factual question is staple Mains material. The Third Battle of Panipat (1761) is debated as the pivot.
Administrative innovation — The Ashta Pradhan (eight ministers) system under Shivaji, the chauth and sardeshmukhi taxation model, and the saranjam jagir system are all UPSC favourites.
Political theory — Shivaji's Hindavi Swarajya is debated as proto-nationalism, regional patriotism, or just a successful political project. The interpretive question is asked.
This file walks through Shivaji's career, military and administrative innovations, the post-Shivaji Maratha state, the Peshwa-led Confederacy, expansion 1707-1761, the Third Battle of Panipat, and the Anglo-Maratha Wars.
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