The Marathas: Shivaji's Swarajya, the Ashtapradhan, Chauth and Sardeshmukhi, the Peshwas and the Confederacy
Start Here — Why the Marathas Matter
🎯 Exam priority: Steady (T2) with a strong Culture link (forts, Varkaris). The Prelims has not recently asked a pure Maratha-history question, but the 2025 UNESCO listing of the Maratha military landscapes, the Hoysala and Moidam listings of 2023–24, and the 2026 Prelims on place and period make the heritage side live. Mains and Prelims ask the 'Shivaji's administration' and 'Peshwa expansion' threads regularly.
The Marathas are important for three reasons: (1) they built a regional, ethnically rooted kingdom in the Deccan that challenged the Mughals, and became the main Indian successor power in the 18th century; (2) their administration (Ashtapradhan, chauth–sardeshmukhi) combines Deccan Sultanate, Mughal and indigenous traditions; (3) their confederacy was the last great Indian power to confront the British in the Anglo-Maratha Wars.
Why Did the Maratha Power Rise?
Geography. The rugged Western Ghats with hill forts supported guerrilla tactics (ganimi kava), and the Konkan coast supported a navy.
Political vacuum. The declining Deccan Sultanates (Bijapur, Ahmadnagar) and Mughal intrusion created room; many Marathas served as officers in these states (Shahji, Shivaji's father, held a jagir from Bijapur).
Social and religious unity. The Varkari bhakti movement (Jnaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram) built a Marathi cultural identity and social solidarity; the saint Ramdas (Dasbodh) is associated with the idea of Maharashtra dharma.
Leadership. Shivaji's military and diplomatic gifts, his mother Jijabai's moulding, Dadaji Kondadev's training and his talented lieutenants (Tanaji Malusare, Netaji Palkar, Baji Prabhu).
Experience. Marathas had served in the Deccan Sultanates' armies and administration, learning organisation from Malik Ambar of Ahmadnagar.
Shivaji (1630–80)
Year (c.) | Event |
1630 | Born at Shivneri; father Shahji Bhonsle, mother Jijabai; guided by Dadaji Kondadev |
1645–47 | Takes Torna, Rajgad, Kondana from Bijapur |
1656 | Takes Javli from the More chiefs; Raigad becomes his centre |
1659 | Kills Afzal Khan at Pratapgad |
1660 | Escape from Panhala; the rear-guard fight at Pavankhind |
1663 | Night attack on Shaista Khan at Pune |
1664 | First sack of Surat |
1665 | Treaty of Purandar with Jai Singh: 23 of his 35 forts given up; Shivaji attends the Mughal court |
1666 | At Agra: slighted and confined; escapes |
1670 | Second sack of Surat; recovers forts |
1674 | Coronation at Raigad as Chhatrapati (Gaga Bhatt) |
1676–77 | Karnataka expedition; Vellore and Gingee; alliance with Golconda |
1680 | Dies at Raigad |
Expansion pattern. He began by seizing hill-forts around Pune from Bijapur, built Raigad as his seat, killed Afzal Khan in a famous interview at Pratapgad (1659), survived the Bijapur siege of Panhala (Siddi Johar), raided Mughal territory (Shaista Khan's camp in 1663, Surat in 1664 and 1670), and came to terms with Jai Singh at Purandar (1665). After escaping from Agra he rebuilt his strength, recovered forts, and in 1674 had himself crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad, taking the title 'Haindava Dharmoddharak' — a state declared with royal sanction rather than as a Mughal or Bijapur vassal.
Karnataka expedition (1676–77): Shivaji took Gingee and Vellore, allied with the Qutb Shah of Golconda, and brought the south-eastern territories into Maratha hands; Gingee later became a capital of Rajaram's government.
Administration
Central: a council of eight ministers, the Ashtapradhan, each an adviser and department head, accountable to the king and not hereditary. (Titles and duties are in the table.)
Provincial and local: the Swaraj was divided into three regions (Upper Konkan, Southern Konkan and the Desh), each under a governor; below were districts (prants), tarafs and villages (mauja), with the patil, kulkarni and the chaudhari. Influences came from the Deccan Sultanates (taraf, mauza; the ministerial council of Malik Ambar) and from the Mughal revenue system.
Office | Duty |
Peshwa (Mukhya Pradhan) | Prime minister; general administration |
Amatya (Mazumdar) | Finance and accounts |
Waqia-Navis (Mantri) | Intelligence, posts and the household |
Sumant (Dabir) | Foreign affairs |
Surunavis (Chitnis / Sachiv) | Royal correspondence |
Senapati (Sar-i-Naubat) | Commander-in-chief |
Pandit Rao | Religious matters and charity |
Nyayadhish | Chief justice |
Levy | Meaning |
Chauth | A quarter (25%) of the revenue of neighbouring non-Maratha territory, in return for immunity from Maratha raids |
Sardeshmukhi | An extra 10% claimed as the hereditary right of the Sardeshmukh of the Deccan (Shivaji as head) |
Land revenue | Initially about 33% of produce after the survey of Annaji Datto, rising to about 40% when the extra cesses (abwabs) were abolished; assessed on the kathi measure and the type of soil |
Customs | About 2.5% on goods; rahdari (transit duty) |
Mokasa | Revenue-farming rights on territories in return for military service (Peshwa period) |
Military: a standing army paid in cash or by grants — infantry (mavale), cavalry (paga — regular; silahdars — who supplied their own horses), strong artillery, over a hundred hill-forts, each under three officers of equal rank (a havaldar, sabnis and sarnobat) to check treachery; a navy with bases at Kalyan and Bhiwandi, and later Kanhoji Angre's fleet; discipline in plunder (women, mosques, and Brahmins were to be protected).
Justice: Nyayadhish; in villages, patil for criminal cases and panchayat for civil; the king as the final court; the Hazir Majlis for the highest appeals. Language and script: Marathi in the Modi script was the court language; he promoted Sanskrit (the Rajyavyavahar Kosha), respected all religions and opposed forced conversions.
After Shivaji — Sambhaji, Rajaram, Tarabai and Shahu
Sambhaji (1680–89): defended the kingdom, sheltered Prince Akbar (Aurangzeb's rebel son), was captured and executed by Aurangzeb in 1689; his son Shahu was held at the Mughal court. Rajaram (1689–1700): ruled from Gingee; the Maratha guerrilla response spread across the Deccan with the sardars' independence. Tarabai led resistance in the name of her infant son Shivaji II (1700–07).
Aurangzeb died in 1707; Shahu, released by Bahadur Shah I, claimed the throne, defeated Tarabai at Khed (1707), and ruled at Satara; Tarabai set up a rival court at Kolhapur (confirmed by the Treaty of Warna, 1731). The civil war left power in the hands of the Peshwa, the Brahmin prime minister.
The Peshwas and the Confederacy
Peshwa | Years | Achievements |
Balaji Vishwanath | 1713–20 | Made the post hereditary; the treaty with Sayyid Husain Ali (1719) won chauth and sardeshmukhi over six Mughal subas of the Deccan and the recognition of Shahu — a 'Magna Carta' of Maratha power; inaugurated the era of the Peshwa |
Baji Rao I | 1720–40 | Greatest Peshwa; forward policy to the north; defeated the Nizam at Palkhed (1728); Malwa and Gujarat; sacked Delhi (1737); Vasai (Bassein) taken from the Portuguese (1739) |
Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb) | 1740–61 | Treaty of Sangola (1750) made the Peshwa the real power at Pune; Maratha supremacy reached the Attock; defeated at Panipat III (1761) by Ahmad Shah Abdali |
Madhav Rao I | 1761–72 | Recovered Maratha power in the north; restored Delhi to Shah Alam II (1771 via Mahadji Scindia) |
Narayan Rao, Raghunath Rao, Madhav Rao II | 1772–95 | Murder of Narayan Rao (1773); struggle for the post; the Barbhai council under Nana Phadnavis |
Baji Rao II | 1796–1818 | Treaty of Bassein (1802); fought and lost the Third Anglo-Maratha War; the Peshwaship abolished in 1818 |
The Maratha confederacy
From Baji Rao I's time, large territories were assigned to chiefs, who ruled them practically independently while owing loyalty to the Peshwa at Pune. The five principal houses:
Chief | Seat | Notes |
Peshwa | Poona (Pune) | The head of the confederacy |
Gaekwad | Baroda | Gujarat |
Bhonsle | Nagpur | Berar and east |
Holkar | Indore | Malhar Rao; Ahilyabai Holkar's model rule |
Scindia | Gwalior | Ranoji; Mahadji Scindia dominated Delhi after Panipat |
Panipat III (14 January 1761): the Marathas under Sadashivrao Bhau and Vishwasrao were defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali (with Najib-ud-daula of the Rohillas and Shuja-ud-daula of Awadh); a huge loss of men, the check on Maratha northern ambitions, and — in the long view — an opening for the English.
Anglo-Maratha wars. First (1775–82) ending in the Treaty of Salbai (1782); Second (1803–05) after Baji Rao II signed the Subsidiary Alliance at Bassein (1802); Third (1817–18) ending the Peshwaship — Baji Rao II pensioned at Bithur, the Maratha kingdom reduced to Satara.
Why they failed to build a stable empire: a loose confederacy of jealous chiefs; reliance on chauth and plunder rather than settled administration; the narrowness of a Brahmin-dominated ministry; failure to modernise the army and artillery as the English did; and poor intelligence and diplomacy.
Anglo-Maratha Wars and Peshwa Administration
War | Years | Trigger and outcome |
First Anglo-Maratha War | 1775–82 | Raghunath Rao's Treaty of Surat (1775) with the English; Maratha victory at Wadgaon (1779); ended by the Treaty of Salbai (1782) — status quo, 20 years of peace |
Second Anglo-Maratha War | 1803–05 | Baji Rao II accepted the Subsidiary Alliance by the Treaty of Bassein (1802); Holkar, Scindia and Bhonsle fought and lost to Wellesley and Lake |
Third Anglo-Maratha War | 1817–18 | Governor-General Hastings' campaign against the Pindaris; Baji Rao II defeated at Khadki and Koregaon; Peshwaship abolished; pension at Bithur |
Peshwa administration. The Peshwa at Pune controlled the civil service (the huzur daftar), appointed kamavisdars (revenue officers) and mamlatdars to the districts, and increasingly used revenue farming (ijara) and mokasa grants; the village patil and kulkarni remained the key links. Nana Phadnavis (1773–1800) ran the council known as the Barbhai. The army shifted from light cavalry to hired mercenaries and artillery, which cost more than it earned.
Society and economy. Brahmins dominated the Peshwa bureaucracy; Pune was a centre of learning and banking, and Maratha chiefs supported pilgrimage sites such as Pandharpur and Nasik. Banking houses (the Peshwa's sahukars) financed wars; trade passed through Surat and Bombay under growing English pressure.
Shivaji — a balanced assessment for Mains
Achievements: built a state in two decades from a jagir; a disciplined citizen army; regard for all faiths; an administrative design with ministers, salaries rather than assignments, and accountable commanders of forts; maritime vision; and a regional, popular legitimacy through the Varkari culture.
Limits: revenue depended on chauth and plunder beyond the core; the Ashtapradhan was an advisory body without a settled bureaucracy; the Swarajya's small core could not be sustained without conquest, a weakness his successors inherited.
Culture, Forts and Heritage
Literature and arts. The Varkari abhangs of Tukaram and Eknath, Ramdas's Dasbodh, Mukteshwar's Marathi Mahabharata, and the powadas and lavanis of the shahirs (Ram Joshi, Anant Phandi, Honaji Bala) in the Peshwa years; tamasha; the Modi script; Sanskrit and Marathi learning at Pune; the Peshwa-period temples and wadas such as the Shaniwar Wada, and the ghats of Varanasi and Maheshwar by Ahilyabai Holkar.
Forts as heritage. On 11 July 2025 UNESCO inscribed the Maratha Military Landscapes of India — India's 44th World Heritage Site — covering 12 forts: Salher, Shivneri, Lohgad, Khanderi, Raigad, Rajgad, Pratapgad, Suvarnadurg, Panhala, Vijaydurg and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, and Gingee in Tamil Nadu. They represent hill forts, a hill-forest fort, a hill-plateau fort, coastal and island forts, and the Maratha system of military architecture (criteria iv and vi). Other recent medieval additions: Hoysala temples (2023), the Moidams of the Tai-Ahom (2024).
How UPSC Has Asked It — And What Could Come Next
Seen: no recent Prelims question on Maratha administration, but regular Mains and CAPF/CDS-level asks on Shivaji's administration, chauth and sardeshmukhi, and the Peshwas; heritage questions on the UNESCO list.
Likely next: the 2025 UNESCO forts (list, locations, the state of Tamil Nadu's Gingee); Shivaji's Ashtapradhan and revenue terms; the sequence of treaties (Purandar 1665, Salbai 1782, Bassein 1802); battles in order (Pratapgad 1659, Pavankhind 1660, Panipat III 1761); the Peshwas' acts; confederacy members and seats; Varkari saints.
Traps: Chauth was a quarter and sardeshmukhi a tenth; the Ashtapradhan posts were not hereditary under Shivaji but became so under the Peshwas; Shahu and Sambhaji II (Kolhapur) were different lines; Treaty of Purandar (1665) is with Jai Singh; Gingee is in Tamil Nadu but is a Maratha fort in the UNESCO list.
Further Reading
Standard NCERT-level texts and reference books on ancient, medieval and cultural Indian history (any UPSC reading list).
Test Yourself: Practice Questions
No recent Prelims question on this chapter — which makes it a good place for a careful sequence table: Shivaji, Sambhaji, Rajaram, Shahu, Peshwas.
Practice Questions
Q1. In which year was Shivaji crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad?
(a) 1680
(b) 1674
(c) 1670
(d) 1664
Show answer
Answer: (b) — The coronation, performed by Gaga Bhatt, took place in 1674.
Q2. The Treaty of Purandar (1665) was signed between Shivaji and:
(a) Siddi Johar
(b) Jai Singh of Amber
(c) Shaista Khan
(d) Afzal Khan
Show answer
Answer: (b) — Mirza Raja Jai Singh forced Shivaji to surrender 23 of his 35 forts.
Q3. 'Chauth' in the Maratha system was:
(a) A customs duty of 2.5%
(b) 10% of revenue
(c) 25% of revenue of neighbouring non-Maratha territory
(d) A tax on forts
Show answer
Answer: (c) — It was a quarter of the revenue demanded for sparing a territory from raids; sardeshmukhi was an additional 10%.
Q4. Who headed the Ashtapradhan as prime minister?
(a) Senapati
(b) Nyayadhish
(c) Peshwa
(d) Amatya
Show answer
Answer: (c) — The Peshwa (Mukhya Pradhan) was the chief minister; the office became hereditary and then supreme.
Q5. Which Peshwa won the Battle of Palkhed against the Nizam in 1728?
(a) Madhav Rao I
(b) Baji Rao I
(c) Balaji Vishwanath
(d) Balaji Baji Rao
Show answer
Answer: (b) — Baji Rao I's victory at Palkhed brought the Marathas chauth in the Deccan.
Q6. The Treaty of Salbai (1782) ended which war?
(a) The First Anglo-Maratha War
(b) The Third Battle of Panipat
(c) The Second Anglo-Maratha War
(d) The Third Anglo-Maratha War
Show answer
Answer: (a) — It ended the first war, with the status quo and a Maratha recognition of the English in Salsette.
Q7. The Third Battle of Panipat (1761) was fought between the Marathas and:
(a) The Nizam
(b) Nadir Shah
(c) Ahmad Shah Abdali
(d) Hyder Ali
Show answer
Answer: (c) — Abdali's coalition defeated Sadashivrao Bhau.
Q8. Which of the following is in the UNESCO-listed 'Maratha Military Landscapes of India' but is NOT in Maharashtra?
(a) Gingee
(b) Pratapgad
(c) Sindhudurg
(d) Raigad
Show answer
Answer: (a) — Gingee is in Tamil Nadu; the other eleven are in Maharashtra.
Q9. The Marathi saint-poet contemporary of Shivaji known for his abhangs was:
(a) Namdev
(b) Jnaneshwar
(c) Tukaram
(d) Eknath
Show answer
Answer: (c) — Tukaram (1608–50) was Shivaji's contemporary; Jnaneshwar and Namdev were 13th-century saints and Eknath was 16th-century.
Q10. The Maratha chief whose capital was Indore, famous for the model governance of Ahilyabai, was:
(a) Bhonsle
(b) Holkar
(c) Gaekwad
(d) Scindia
Show answer
Answer: (b) — Holkars of Indore; Ahilyabai Holkar rebuilt temples and ghats from Kashi to Somnath.
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.
Account for the rise of the Marathas in the 17th century.
Discuss Shivaji's administrative system and its relevance.
Why did the Maratha confederacy fail to build a pan-Indian empire?
Evaluate the role of the Peshwas in Maratha expansion.
How did the Third Battle of Panipat change the political balance in India?