The Marathas: Rise and Fall of the Maratha Power (1707-1818)

Foundation: Shivaji & the Maratha System

🎯 Exam priority: Foundational. Tier 3 — tested occasionally and/or sets up the storyline; master the key facts and move on.

Why this topic matters for UPSC. The Marathas are the last major Indian power before British consolidation — the Subsidiary Alliance that broke them is a key policy term that recurs in Articles 14 and 22.

• The Maratha Confederacy, the Peshwa, Shivaji's legacy, and the three Anglo-Maratha Wars are the storyline.

• The Subsidiary Alliance (Wellesley) is the policy hook that links the Marathas to the British Acts theme.

• Focus on the causes of the Maratha decline and the Bassein/Poona connection.

The Marathas were the most formidable of the powers that rose on the ruins of the Mughal Empire. To understand their 18th-century empire, we must begin with the state and the fiscal system Shivaji built.

Foundation: Shivaji & the Maratha System

• Shivaji (1630-1680) carved out an independent Maratha kingdom in the western Deccan, was crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad in 1674, and governed with the help of a council of eight ministers, the Ashtapradhan (headed by the Peshwa or chief minister). He was a master of guerrilla warfare (ganimi kava) against the far larger Mughal and Bijapur armies.

• The Marathas' two great fiscal claims — levied on territories outside their direct rule — were the Chauth (about one-fourth of the land revenue) and the Sardeshmukhi (an additional one-tenth). These became the engine and the rationale of Maratha expansion across India.

Shahu, Tarabai & the Rise of the Peshwas

After Aurangzeb's death the leadership of the Maratha state passed, over two generations, from the Chhatrapati to his Brahmin chief minister.

Shahu, Tarabai & the Rise of the Peshwas

• Shahu, grandson of Shivaji and an Aurangzeb prisoner since 1689, was released in 1707 after the emperor's death. A civil war at once broke out between Shahu at Satara and his aunt Tarabai at Kolhapur (fighting in the name of her son Shivaji II). The great Maratha sardars, each with his own loyal soldiery, bargained between the rivals to enlarge their own power.

• Out of this conflict a new system emerged under Balaji Vishwanath, beginning the period of Peshwa domination in which the Maratha state was transformed from a kingdom into an empire.

Balaji Vishwanath, Peshwa (1713-1720)

The first of the great Peshwas turned a contested throne into a launch-pad for northern expansion — but also sowed the seeds of later weakness.

Balaji Vishwanath, Peshwa (1713-1720)

• A Brahmin who rose from a petty revenue official, Balaji Vishwanath was made Peshwa in 1713. By diplomacy he won over the big sardars to Shahu and concentrated power in his own office, becoming the functional head of the state.

• He signed a pact with the Sayyid brothers (1719): Shivaji's old territories were restored to Shahu, who was granted the Chauth and Sardeshmukhi of the six Deccan provinces in return for 15,000 cavalry for the emperor and an annual tribute. Balaji then led a Maratha force to Delhi (1719) and helped the Sayyid brothers overthrow Farrukhsiyar — where the Marathas saw the Mughal Empire's weakness first-hand.

• The seed of decline: he assigned the collection of chauth/sardeshmukhi to individual sardars, and the system of watans and saranjams (jagirs) made them strong, autonomous and jealous of central power — so Maratha conquests were made not by a central army but by sardars with private armies, a fatal long-term weakness.

Baji Rao I, Peshwa (1720-1740)

His son took Maratha arms deep into Mughal India and raised up the great families of the future confederacy.

Baji Rao I, Peshwa (1720-1740)

• Baji Rao I, Peshwa at just 20, was "the greatest exponent of guerrilla tactics after Shivaji." By his death in 1740 the Marathas controlled Malwa, Gujarat and parts of Bundelkhand, and the families of Gaekwad, Holkar, Sindhia (Scindia) and Bhonsle rose to prominence under him.

• He repeatedly defeated Nizam-ul-Mulk, forcing him to grant the chauth and sardeshmukhi of the Deccan; expelled the Sidis of Janjira from the mainland (1733); and captured Salsette and Bassein from the Portuguese. Yet he conquered far more than he could administer — laying no firm foundations for empire.

Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb), Peshwa (1740-1761)

Under the third Peshwa the empire reached its zenith — and shifted its capital to Poona.

Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb), Peshwa (1740-1761)

• When King Shahu died in 1749 he left the management of the state to the Peshwa; the office had become hereditary, and Balaji Baji Rao shifted the seat of government to Poona, becoming the de facto ruler.

• Maratha armies now overran India: Orissa was ceded by Bengal (1751), the Nizam was crushed at Udgir (1760), Mysore was made tributary, and at Delhi the Marathas became "the power behind the Mughal throne." Pushing into the Punjab, they expelled the agent of Ahmad Shah Abdali — bringing on the great collision of 1761.

The Third Battle of Panipat (1761)

The struggle for mastery of North India was decided on the field of Panipat.

The Third Battle of Panipat (1761)

• Ahmad Shah Abdali allied with Najib-ud-daulah of Rohilkhand and Shuja-ud-daulah of Avadh. The Peshwa sent a great army north under his cousin Sadashiv Rao Bhau (with his son Vishwas Rao and the European-style artillery of Ibrahim Khan Gardi) — but Maratha arrogance had antagonised the Rajputs, Jats and Sikhs, so they fought almost alone.

• The two armies met at Panipat on 14 January 1761. The Marathas were completely routed: Vishwas Rao, Sadashiv Rao Bhau and nearly 28,000 soldiers perished, and the grief-stricken Peshwa died in June 1761. Yet, as one historian notes, Panipat "did not decide who was to rule India, but rather who was not" — neither Marathas nor Afghans could hold the prize, and the way was cleared for the rise of British power.

Madhav Rao & the Maratha Confederacy

A brilliant young Peshwa briefly revived the empire, but after his death it dissolved into a loose confederacy of great chiefs.

Madhav Rao & the Maratha Confederacy

• Madhav Rao (Peshwa 1761-1772) restored the empire's fortunes in just eleven years — defeating the Nizam, making Haidar Ali pay tribute, and bringing Emperor Shah Alam back to Delhi as a Maratha pensioner (1771). But he died of consumption in 1772, plunging Poona into a succession struggle: Narayan Rao was murdered (1773), and Raghunath Rao went over to the British, triggering the First Anglo-Maratha War. Nana Phadnis led the regency for the infant Sawai Madhav Rao.

• By now real power lay with the great houses of the Maratha Confederacy: the Peshwa at Poona, the Gaekwad at Baroda, the Bhonsle at Nagpur, Holkar at Indore and Sindhia at Gwalior — each with its own army and only nominal loyalty to Poona. Mahadji Sindhia (d. 1794), who built a French-trained army and controlled Shah Alam from 1784, and Nana Phadnis (d. 1800) were the last great Maratha statesmen.

Why the Marathas Fell

The Marathas' very structure doomed them once a disciplined rival appeared.

Why the Marathas Fell

• The empire had no strong central army — conquest rested on sardars with private armies bound to the centre only by the watan/saranjam system; if pressed, they would side with the Nizam, the Mughals or the English. New lands were plundered for revenue but never properly administered.

• Maratha ambition antagonised every potential ally — Rajputs, Jats, Sikhs and Avadh — leaving them isolated at Panipat. After 1761 the chiefs could seldom cooperate, intriguing against one another at Poona. This disunity made them easy prey for the British, who finished the confederacy in the three Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775-1818) — the subject of the next article.

Why This Matters for UPSC

Why This Matters for UPSC

• Prelims: Shivaji's Ashtapradhan; Chauth & Sardeshmukhi; the line of Peshwas (Balaji Vishwanath → Baji Rao I → Balaji Baji Rao → Madhav Rao); capital shifted to Poona (1749); the Third Battle of Panipat (14 Jan 1761); the Confederacy houses (Gaekwad-Baroda, Bhonsle-Nagpur, Holkar-Indore, Sindhia-Gwalior); Mahadji Sindhia; Nana Phadnis.

• Mains: why the Marathas failed to replace the Mughals as the all-India power; the significance of the Third Battle of Panipat; the structural weaknesses (watan/saranjam, private armies, decentralisation) of the Maratha state.

Test Yourself: Practice Questions

The rise and fall of the Marathas is a high-frequency Prelims theme — the Peshwa line, Chauth/Sardeshmukhi, Panipat (1761) and the Confederacy houses recur often. (The questions below are practice MCQs, not labelled PYQs.)

Practice Questions

Q1. The 'Chauth' levied by the Marathas was approximately:

• (a) one-fourth of the land revenue

• (b) one-third of the land revenue

• (c) one-tenth of the land revenue

• (d) one-half of the land revenue

Q2. Who was made the Peshwa in 1713, beginning the period of Peshwa domination?

• (a) Balaji Vishwanath

• (b) Madhav Rao

• (c) Baji Rao I

• (d) Balaji Baji Rao

Q3. The Maratha capital was shifted to Poona by which Peshwa, following King Shahu's death in 1749?

• (a) Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb)

• (b) Narayan Rao

• (c) Balaji Vishwanath

• (d) Baji Rao I

Q4. At the Third Battle of Panipat (1761), the Maratha army was commanded (in effect) by:

• (a) Madhav Rao

• (b) Nana Phadnis

• (c) Mahadji Sindhia

• (d) Sadashiv Rao Bhau

Q5. In the Maratha Confederacy, the Bhonsle ruled from ___ and the Holkar from ___:

• (a) Indore; Nagpur

• (b) Nagpur; Indore

• (c) Gwalior; Baroda

• (d) Baroda; Gwalior

UPSC Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

These are practice questions on a frequently-tested theme; the Third Battle of Panipat, the Peshwas and the Confederacy houses have all appeared in UPSC Prelims over the years.

Mains Practice Questions

Use these to frame full-length answers. You don't have to answer one exactly — they show the angles UPSC tests, so let them guide which points you cover.

• How did the office of the Peshwa transform the Maratha state from a kingdom into an empire?

• Explain the Chauth and Sardeshmukhi and their role in Maratha expansion.

• Why was the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) a turning point in 18th-century Indian history?

• What structural weaknesses (watan/saranjam, private armies, the confederacy) led to the Marathas' fall?