Rise of the Marathas Class 8 SST PPT & Notes Free Download

1. Who the Marathas were and where they rose
2. How Chhatrapati Shivaji built the ideal of Swarajya
3. The Marathas after Shivaji, from the Peshwas to Panipat
4. How they governed: forts, navy, ministers and taxes
5. Their cultural legacy and their fall to the British

• Who were the Marathas, and how did they become India’s largest power before the British?
• What were the main features of their governance?
• What impact did the Maratha Empire leave on Indian history?

Foreign traders (the Portuguese, English, Dutch, French and Danes) came to India’s coast. Unlike ordinary merchants, they wanted to seize land and spread their religion, and their chief weapons were the navy and gunpowder. Ramachandrapant Amatya wrote in the Adnyapatra (1715) that their trade had to be controlled and that they must not be allowed to build strong forts.

• The Marathas are native to the Deccan plateau, which is present-day Maharashtra
• They are identified by their language, Marathi, which has a rich literary tradition since the 12th century
• In the 13th century the Yadava dynasty ruled from Devagiri (Daulatabad)
• In the early 14th century the Khilji Sultanate overcame the Yadavas

• Bhakti means devotion to the divine. The movement spread from the 7th to the 17th centuries
• Saints composed songs and poetry in the people’s own language
• Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram and Ramdas gained great popularity
• They translated the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita into Marathi
• Like the Sikh gurus, some also spread social and political awareness
• This cultural unity later helped the Marathas organise politically

The songs of the Bhakti saints are still sung in temples today, Tukaram’s verses are recited across Maharashtra, and a pilgrimage continues every single year. Devotional culture became a powerful unifying force.

• Born in 1630 in the Bhonsle clan to Shahji and Jijabai
• Grew up in his jagir at Pune under Jijabai’s care
• Received strong values and a good education
• The constant infighting of the Deccan sultanates caused public hardship
• At just 16 he began capturing neglected and unoccupied forts
• His vision of Swarajya, or self-rule, grew over the years

• His kingdom soon expanded to India’s west coast
• He built a navy to guard the coast, which was a revolutionary step
• Bijapur (Adil Shahi) had merchant ships but no full-time war navy, and even the Mughal navy was very limited
• The Maratha Navy’s exploits became legendary

Guerrilla warfare uses small, fast groups, surprise and knowledge of the terrain. Bijapur sent its veteran general Afzal Khan against Shivaji. The two met alone at the foot of Pratapgad fort, and Shivaji killed Afzal Khan using the wagh nakh (tiger’s claw). Marathas hidden in the hills then routed the Khan’s army.

The Mughal noble Shaista Khan invaded Shivaji’s lands for three years. With only a few soldiers, Shivaji night-raided his camp. Shaista Khan barely escaped, losing a few fingers, and he promptly left Maharashtra. This daring raid resembles a modern-day surgical strike.

• A retaliation for the three-year Mughal attacks
• Shivaji sacked Surat, a rich Mughal port in present-day Gujarat
• He spared religious places and the house of Mohandas Parekh
• He obtained treasure worth almost one crore rupees
• The event was even reported in the London Gazette

• Aurangzeb sent the Rajput general Jai Singh against Shivaji
• Shivaji conceded defeat at Purandar Fort near Pune
• He signed a treaty and gave up a large part of his kingdom
• His son Sambhaji had to enter Mughal service

• Jai Singh persuaded Shivaji to visit Aurangzeb’s court at Agra
• He was insulted there and placed under house arrest
• He began sending gift baskets of fruit and sweets to holy men
• Once the guards stopped checking the baskets, Shivaji and Sambhaji hid inside the baskets and escaped

• Shivaji was coronated with full Vedic rites at the Raigad fortress
• He took the formal title Shri Raja Shiva Chhatrapati
• Like some past rulers, he started his own era, the Rajyabhisheka shaka
• The coronation marked the formal beginning of the Maratha Empire

• After his coronation, in 1677, Shivaji marched south
• He won northern Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka
• This gave the Marathas strategic depth against the Mughals
• In the South he forbade the Dutch from trading slaves

• A fever claimed Shivaji’s life at the age of fifty
• Europeans compared him to Alexander the Great
• The Bundela prince Chhatrasal built Bundelkhand, inspired by him
• The poet Bhushan came to Maharashtra to compose praise-poems

Guerrilla warfare was later used by freedom fighters worldwide. Shivaji’s hill forts are now protected heritage sites, and Raigad, Sindhudurg and Pratapgad draw tourists today. The takeaway: geography can help a small force beat a bigger army.

• Sambhaji became the Chhatrapati after Shivaji
• Aurangzeb invaded the Deccan with his full might
• He conquered Bijapur (Adil Shahi) and Golconda (Qutb Shahi)
• He captured and executed Sambhaji
• He then seized the Maratha capital, Raigad

Aurangzeb died without ever subduing the Marathas. The conflict spread into south India, and the Marathas staunchly defended their fortresses. Tarabai, Rajaram’s queen, then led large inroads into Mughal lands.

• The state grew decentralised, with chiefs gaining more power
• The Peshwa, a Persian term for prime minister, became supreme
• Peshwa Bajirao I and his son Nanasaheb led the expansion
• Under them the Marathas became a pan-Indian power

The map shows the Maratha advance north through Lahore, Attock and Peshawar, and the battle of Panipat in 1761 against the Afghans. It was a disastrous defeat, but the Marathas recovered quickly under Peshwa Madhavrao I, and Mahadji Shinde (Scindia) was in Delhi in 1771.

• By the late 18th century the British were the Marathas’ chief rivals
• Three Anglo-Maratha wars were fought between 1775 and 1818
• The first war (1775 to 1782) ended in a Maratha victory
• Internal disunity and British organisation finally ended Maratha power
• The British took India from the Marathas more than from anyone else

Maratha chiefs shaped many modern Indian cities: the Scindias (Shinde) are the ruling family of Gwalior, the Holkars are linked to Indore, and there were also the Gaekwad of Baroda and the Bhonsle of Nagpur.

• Shivaji built a relatively centralised administration
• He abolished hereditary posts and land assignments
• Every official was paid a salary from the state treasury
• Officials were transferred often, so none grew too powerful
• He gave pensions to soldiers’ widows and posts to their sons

• Officials were forbidden to take even a blade of grass from people by force
• Teak could be cut for the navy, but only with proper permission
• Mango and jackfruit trees were never to be touched, because people loved those trees like their own children
• Power built on oppressing others soon perishes, along with the oppressor

Shivaji had a council of eight ministers to assist him.

• Chauth was a tax of 25% on provinces not directly ruled
• Sardeshmukhi was an extra 10% on top of the chauth
• In return the Marathas protected those provinces and did not interfere in their internal affairs
• Mughal treaties approved this, and many provinces later joined the empire

• The forces had three wings: infantry, cavalry and navy
• Bargirs: their horses and gear were paid for by the state
• Shiledars: their horses and gear were paid for by themselves
• They copied European-style disciplined troops and artillery
• Swords, lances and guns were used, and rockets from Shivaji’s time

• Forts were the mainstay of Maratha power
• Shivaji controlled and built a great number of forts
• They guarded key routes and sheltered the guerrilla army
• Amatya’s Adnyapatra called forts “the core of the state”
• Forts kept the state alive through decades of Mughal onslaught

• Kanhoji Angre led many 18th-century naval victories
• Europeans forced Indians to buy naval trade passes (cartaz)
• The Marathas turned it around, demanding passes from Europeans
• Frustrated Europeans branded Kanhoji Angre a “pirate”

• The panchayat, a local body of elders, delivered justice
• Capital punishment was used with great moderation
• The kotwal (police) kept order in towns like Pune and Indore
• Trade ships sailed to Mocha, Muscat and Malacca
• Roads, ferries in Odisha and bridges were built

Salaried, transferable officials are just like today’s civil service. A finance minister and a revenue minister exist in every government now, and local courts and town police still keep order. Shivaji’s ideas feel surprisingly modern.

• His royal seal carried a Sanskrit inscription, not Persian
• He commissioned the Rajya-Vyavahara-Kosha to promote Marathi
• A devout Hindu, he respected all other religions
• His saffron-coloured flag was adopted by all Marathas
• He rebuilt desecrated temples and promoted the arts

• A fearless warrior queen after her husband Rajaram’s death
• She saw north India lay unprotected while Aurangzeb was in the Deccan
• She organised and sent large armies to invade Mughal lands
• In that sense she was the architect of the northward expansion
• Her strategy and tenacity preserved Maratha independence

• She belonged to the Holkar dynasty, which ruled around present-day Indore
• She governed wisely for thirty years despite personal loss
• She built and restored hundreds of temples, ghats, wells and roads
• She rebuilt the Kashi Vishwanath and Somnath temples
• She promoted the Maheshwar weaving industry, still thriving today
• She rebuilt temples across the country, from Kedarnath in the north to Rameswaram in the south

• The Bhonsles of Nagpur championed local culture and tradition
• They revived the worship of Lord Jagannath at Puri in Odisha
• The Modi script, a cursive form of Devanagari, was their main script
• The Marathas used Modi for all their correspondence

• Ekoji, Shivaji’s half-brother, conquered Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu
• This marked the start of Maratha rule in the far south, in the late 17th century
• The Thanjavur Marathas built a rich, syncretic culture
• Many of the rulers were themselves poets and dramatists
• The gold-foil Thanjavur painting style flourished under them

• The most notable Thanjavur ruler; he knew many languages
• He wrote the Marathi play Devendra Kuravanji on world geography
• Under him modern Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam took shape
• He founded the Dhanwantari Mahal for free Indian and Western medicine
• He started a printing press, the first by a native Indian ruler

Bharatanatyam is performed on stages worldwide, Maheshwari saris come from Ahilyabai’s Maheshwar, and Thanjavur paintings still decorate homes and temples. Maratha patronage shaped living India.

• They built the largest Indian empire before the British
• They controlled much of central and northern India
• They set up a new, efficient system of governance
• They revived Hindu traditions without religious discrimination
• The ideal of Swarajya later inspired India’s freedom movement

• Shivaji founded the Maratha Empire in the 17th century
• The British took India from the Marathas more than from anyone else
• Forts were the core of the Maratha state
• Their navy long resisted the Europeans
• They sparked a cultural revival across India

Tap an option to check it at once. Open Check answer for the reason.