Rise of the Maratha Power

H E Publishers think it t heir duty to acknowledge t he ir gratitude to t he Justice hisMHonble. r M G RA NA D E , fo r . .. permitting them to publish the first edition of this volume. They are also indebted to Mr N M . .. . i h Co t l deB BS amarth, A LL H g,. . ur P ea r ,. . , w ho k indly undertook the revision of t he proof-sheets as they were passing through the Press.



CO N TE N TS . AP GE . PR EF ACE I R R. THE I MPO TAN C E O F MA A THA II. GHo w TH E R O UN D W A S PRE 111 RAP E D n. u. . .“ IV . How THE SE ED W A S V . RHo w THE SE E D TH I V ED THE TR E E BLo sso ms VI TTHE R EE BEAR S F R UI T . RS HI V A JI A S A CI V I L RULE V II . HTHE SAI NTS A N D PR O P ETS O F MAHARAS HTRA V III . IX GI N GI BRO UGHT . X Ho w ORD ER W A S . O UT O F CHA O S XI C HR O UT A N D SA R D E SHMUK HI . M AR AT H AS HI N SO UT E RN XII IN D I A . XIII A PPEN D IX . . R RGLEAN I N GS F O M M A ATHA CHR O N I C LE S



P REF A C E BY THE A UTHO R . T was in the first quarter o f the seventeenth century that t wo apparently insignificant events occurred on the Western Coast of India—the establishment o f an English Factory at Surat in 1 6 1 2 and the birth in t , 1 6 2 7 at Shivner near Ju r tonna , o f a son a petty M arét ha Jahégirdér o f the Ahmed nagar N izam Shéhi Kingdom Though neither . o f these events attracted much notice at the time, they heralded the birth o f t wo mighty powers, which were brought into strange contact with one another during the next t wo centuries, and now as allies, and again as foes, they competed for supremacy in India, til] at last the more organized foreign power prevailed in the struggle, and dis placed the disorganized native power from its position as supreme ruler The object . of the following narrative is to present to the English and Indian reader a bird s’ eye view of the history of the rise and progress

of t he latter power— the power o f t he Maratha Confederacy, which, for one hun dred years at least, occupied the foremost place among the native rulers of the country, and whose orders were obeyed at one and the same ti me far off in the west D ark the east J g tat at w a in a annah at , , Haridwar in the north, and Ramesh war i n the south of the Indian Continent. It is not intended to go over the beaten tracks the detailed story, which has been so elaborately treated in our native Bak hars, and authoritatively described by Mr tGran . D uff t he historian of the M arathas. , Materials for a fuller account of the detail ‘ ed narrative are being made available by the labours o f our tina ve scholars, and they will have in tithe to be worked up systemat i cally, but the limits assigned to these stray chapters on Maratha History would of themselves preclude any such amb i t i o n . My aim is rather to present a clear view of the salient features of the history from the Indian standpoint, to remove many misapprehensions which detract much from the moral interest and the political lessons of the story, and, above all, to enlist the sympathy o f the representatives of the con quering British power in the fortunes of its worsted rival. Now that all jealousies are

laid at rest, the tribute of justice may well be paid to the departed great, whose names are cherish ed by millions in India as the s t e ori swee m m e o f an irrevo cable f past . The writer of these chapters claims no other merit for his work. He would not have undert ka en the responsibility connect ed with it but for t he fact that it has been handed over to him as a legacy by a reve red friend, si cn e ce s dde a e , who had, j o i ntly with him u nde rtak e n the w ork from , a fe eling of true patriotism, and who would, i f he had been sp ra ed, have w orth ily completed, what he no doubt i tn ended to be, t he mag num po us o f his brilliant career. The twelve chapters which are now published relate to the rise o f the Maratha P ower. The second volume will treat about t he progress of the confederacy The manu . script notes are rnea ly ready ; but as, since these notes w e re first w ri tt e n the , Government of Bombay has dma e available to the public the records in the Poona D rafta , it has been deemed advisable to delay the publication o f these succeeding chapters for the present. When such fresh materials have been made available, it would not be proper to write on this part of the subject

without a careful study o f these hitherto neglected s o urce s of i nfo r mat i o n A t the destre . o f appreciative friends, a contribution from t he pen o f t he late Mr Justice Telang is . adde d at t he end as a fi tt ing conclusion to this volume. Mr p p r Gle i sTelang's . ae, “ an ng from the M ar at h ’ Ch roni cles , represents t he zn true spirit in which tna ive histori san should treat the past history o f their o t yc un r . As this work presupposes a general acquaintance with t he facts of M ar at h ’ History, and only zr seeks to suggest and enforce its lessons, it has not been deemed necessary to overload t he book by refere cn es to English and N ative haut orities Th e lessons it seeks to . ill str te th riu a are ( 1 ) Mat t he se o f t he ht’ ’ ar an zn power was no t a mere accident due to any ch can e co mb i nat i on g ibut was a enu ne , effort on t he part of a Hindu natio lna ity , not m re ely to assert its independe cn e, but to achieve what had not been attempted before the formation of a Confederacy o f States ani mated by a common patriotism, and (2 ) that the success it achieved was due to a general upheaval so cial, religi ous, and political of all classes of the p o p u l at i o n The attempt failed ; . but even the failure was itself an educa tion in the highest virtues, and possibly i tn end cd to be a preparatory discipline to cement the union of the Indian races under British guidance.

C HAPTE R I . I HTH E M P O R TA N C E O F MA R A T A HI S TO RY . I T may be well to state at the outset in a concise form what is t he moral import o f the story we h va e to narrate, and why such a prominent place is claimed for t he History of the Maratha Confederacy above all other similar narratives of many Native Dynasties and Powers with a longer pedi gree and a more chequered career. There are many who think that there can be no particular moral significance in the story of t he rise lland fa of a freebooting Power, which thrived by plunder and adventure, and succeded only because it was the most cunning and adventurous among all those who helped to dismember t he Great M oghul Empire after the death of Aurangzeb. This is a very common feeling with t he readers, who derive their knowledge of these events solely from the works o f English histori san . Even Mr Grant Duff has given his support .

2 s e of tlze M ar d tlzd P ower . to the view that the turbulent predatory spirit of the Hindus of Maharashtra, though smothered for a time, had its latent embers stirred by the contentions of their M aho medan Conquerors, till, like the parched grass kindled amid the forests of the Sahyédri mountains, they burst forth in spreading flame, and men rafa off wondered at the confiagrati on I f this view of the historian be correct, it may fairly be urged that there is nothing in the narrative which can be described as havmg a moral signi ficance useful fo r tiall me . The sequel of this narrati ve will, however, it is hoped, furnish grounds which will lead the historical student of M odern India t o the conclusion that such a view is inconsis tent with facts, and that the mistake is of a sort which renders the whole story un intelligible. A ny one who sees no distinction between the great leaders who helped in the work of building up the Maratha Confederacy and the careers o f Hyder and Tipu in M ysore, of N izam-ul-M ulk at Hyderabad . u udh Be g lS ja-ud-oulé in O , A li vardi k hén in n a, Ranjitsingh i n the Punj ab and S urajmall in Bhartpur, will never be able t o occupy the correct st d pan - oint of vision from which this history must be studied, and he will fail t o understand its real import as signally as any native student, who tried to

I /ze I mpor tance of M a r d tlzd H i story. 3 account for the British ascendency in India by crediting the whole success to the adventurous spirit of Clive or the diploma cy of Hastings, forgetting all the while that this adventure and diplomacy only achieved success because they were backed up by the resolution and persistence and resources of the great British N at i o n Free . booters and adventurers never succeed in building up empires, which last for genera tions and permanently alter the political map of a great Continent. Unlike the great S ubhéd zi r s of Provinces, who became inde pendent after the death of Aurangzeb, the Founder of the Maratha Power and his successors for two generations bore the brunt of the attack of the M oghul Empire at the zenith of i ts splendour. The military adventurers named above were not backed up by any national force behind t h e m and their power perished with , the individuals who founded it In the . case of the M aratha Confederacy, however , it was far otherwise. F or t en generations a succession of great leaders sprang up t o fill up the place of those who died in t he struggle, and the Confederacy not o nly o utlived Opposition but derived greater strength from the reverses it sustained from time to time, rising Ph ioen x l- ike in greater

s e 0] Me M ardtlzd P ower . splendour from the very ashes of it s appa rent r u i n This tenacity shewed clearly . that the underlying principles had stronger vitality than can be explained by the standard theory of adventure and free b o o ti gn or t he illustration of a sudden , Wec i shall attempt in this o nflagr at o n . chapter to state briefly these distinguishing features, which lend to the story all the moral and permanent interest it possesses fo r the student f‘ History. o I I n t he first place it should be noted . that the immediate predecessors of the British Rulers of India were not the is too o e t kM ahomedans, as ft n a en for granted, but they were the Native Rulers of the country, who had success fully thrown o ff t he yokMaho medan e. Mr . Grant D uff i dn eed, claims for Maratha , History this particular feature o f interest, and describes the Marathas as our predecessors in conquest in India, whose power was gradual ly gaini ng strengt h, be fore it found a head —fame d adve nture r, i n t he far S hi v aji [Bhonslé. ” Except in Bengal and on t he “Coromandel Coast, the Powers displaced by the English conquest were not Mahomedan S ubk éddr s, but native Hindu Rulers who had successfully asserted their indepe dn ence .

fpl e I m or tance o M ani tlzd s t yor . 5 Among these Native Powers, the first place must be assigned to t he members of the M aratha Confederacy. The Maratha Power took its rise i n Western M aharashtra, and the sphere of its influence soon extended to the Central Deccan, Karnétik , and Southern India as far south as Tanj ore, including M ysore u O n the north it embraced Gujarat including ? Kathi éwéd Bérérs, Central P rovinces up to Katak, M alwé in Central India, Bundél N o r t hern khand, R aj p ut ana Indian including , Delhi, Agra, the D oéb and Ro hi lk hand. Bengal and Oudh were inv da ed, but rwe e protected from conquest solely by the inter position of the British armies. For fifty years the Emperors at Delhi were made or unmade by the agents of this Power. I n the whole of the territory included within these limits, the power was in t he hands o f Native Chiefs, who were either members o f the Confederacy or old rulers in subor dinat e alliances with the Confederacy. The t wo buffer Mahomedan States at Hyderabad and Mysore were completely under the esam influence. The secret of a combination which extended its sway over such a vast territory, and held it together for over a century, cannot but be a matter o f absorb i ng interest to the British Rulers of diIn a. The recognized head of the Confederacy was

f6 s e o tile M ai d tlzd P ower . t he P h’ mi , who w as not only the chiet as military leader in his o wn country, but was also the deputy t o the Delhi Emperors kept prisoners in the M oghul Palace. F or all practical purposes, therefore, it may be safely stated th ta , except in Bengal and on the Madrés Coast, the chief power in the country was in the hands of the Native Hindu Rulers controlled by the Confederacy. The spe t its lM ahomedan i nfluence had n e f and , t he Hindus had asserted their position and become Independent Rulers of the country, with whom alone the British Power had to contend for supremacy. I I. The secret of this combination cannot be properly understood without a full re cognition of the fact that it was not the work of one man, or o f a succession of \\gifted me n The foundation was laid broad . and deep in the hearts of the whole people. U nlike the S ubhéd dr sk gbs of Bengal, Kar né t i k O udh, and Hyderabad, the rise of the , Maratha Power was due to the first begin nings of what one may well call the process of nation-making. tI was not the outcome of the successful enterprise of any individual adventurer. It was the upheaval of the whole p o p u lat i on strongly bound together by , t he common affi nit ies of language, race,



8 s e of t/ze M ani tlzd P ower . feelings, but these were kept under by the political sense of the population generally, who j oined the national armies for six months in the ye ra , and returned to their homes, and cultivated their family lands, and enj oyed their V atans during t he remain i ng period This regard for the Vatans in . the old country has been a marked e tf a ure of M aratha character, and even t he Com \\mmaonred er s o of t gr eat e arm ie s t pri ded themselves u p heir b ing n P é l’ and D e‘shmuk /zs zs in their old villages in M aharashtra than on t heir extensive distant l ands . ja lz ég ' s in zr This feeling of patriotism illustrates most forcibly the characteristic result of the formation of a N ation in the best sense of the word, and constitutes another reason why the History of the Marathas deserves special study. It is the history of the formation of a true Indian Nationality , raising its head high above the troubled waters of M ahomedan c onfu s i o n I t w as . this force behind, which supported the efforts of the leaders, and enabled them to dream as a possibility the establishment o f a central Hindu orP sh é lz Empire at dd ’ z Delhi, uniting and controlling all other Native Powers. The histories of Hyder and Tipu, and of the M aho medan Rulers of Hy d erab da Kamét ik , Bengal and Oudh, ,

The I mpor tance of M a r d tlzd s t yor . 9 present not hing parallel to it They are . personal histories, while the history of the Power associated with the name of Sbivéji is very properly called the History of the M arath as . III . O ne more feature of the history has entirely escaped the observation of European writers, though it constitutes perhaps t he strongest ground why the study possesses peculiar m o r l‘ interest to the a historical student t reI was not a me Political Revolution that stirred Maharashtra towards the close of t he sixteenth and t he commencement of the seventeenth century. The Political Revolution was preceded, and in fact to some extent caused, by a Religious and Social upheaval which moved the entire p o p u l at i on The popular idea that it w as . Religious Persecution which agitated Maharashtra and strengthened t he hands of Shiv éji and his comrades, is not wholly wrong, but it represents only a partial truth. The Mahomedan Rulers o f the Deccan in the fift eenth and sixteenth centuries were not bigoted tfana ics. Aur gz ban ‘ was, no e doubt, a tfana ic, but his fanaticism could not explain the rise of a Power which struggled with him on equal terms and secured victory in the den . The ctfa was

f1 0 s e o tlze M ar dtlzd P wer . th ta , like the Protestant Reformation in EurO pe in the sixteenth century, there was a Religious, o i lS c a , and Literary Revival and Reformation in India, but notably in the Deccan in the fift eenth and sixteenth centuries. This Religious Revival was not Brahmanical in its orthodoxy ; it was heterodox in its spirit of p rotest against forms and ceremonies and class distinctions based on birth, and ethical i n its preference he r a d\" ' of a pure at n ar h\" law of love, to , te all other acquired merits and good works. This Religious Revival was the work also of the people, of the masses, and not of the classes. A t its head were Saints and Prophets, Poets and Ph ilosop hers, who sprang rochiefly f m t he lower orders of society tailors, carpenters, potters gardeners, shop s, barbers, and even mahér s— more than Brahmans The names of . d s V ditTuk arém, of Ram a of aman Pan , and Ek nat h were sname to conjure with, and after a lapse of t wo hundred years , they still re ita n their ascendency over the minds of the peop le of M ah ar as h tr a The . Political Le da ers acted in concert with these R el igi ous Leaders o f the people. S hi v jéi ’ s chief adviser was Ramdas, who gave the colour to t he national flag and introduced a new form o f s al ut at i o n w h i ch displ ya ed ,

fpTk e I m or tance o M ar d tizd f f zstmy. 11 at once the religious character of the movement and the independence of the spirit which prompted it The first Béjiréo . Peshwa derived his inspiration from the theS m wd ’ of D hévadshi . V it hal Shivdév, z founder o f the V inchurk ar family, w as similarly inspired by his Preceptor. S h i v jéi ’ s character and his motive-springs o f action have been more correctly delineated by Colonel Medows Taylor in his novel than by the historian of the Marathas. Shivaji felt that he had a direct inspiration from l the goddess Bhawani, and in the great crises of his life, he always guided himself l by what this inspiration suggested to him i in moments of i nt e ns e p o s s e s s i o n These . influences deserve special study, because they have left their mark up to the present day on the aspirations and faith of the people. What Protestantism did for Western Europe in the matter of civil liberty was accomplished on a smaller scale in Western India The impulse was felt in . art , in re l i gi on in the growth of verna , culat literature, in communal freedom of life, in increase of self-reliance and toleration ; and the interest of t he study is on this account greatly heightened both t o t he native student and t he foreign inqui re r .

f1 2 s e o { be M a r d zlzd P ower . VI . O ne other feature may be noticed, which was at once the st rength and the weakness of the Mar ét ha P ower The . , history o f t he M arath as is a history of t t si confederat ed S a e The central power was . always kwea after t he death o f its great o d r ve hisjEf un e . n S hiv a i w as i nfluenced i n arrangements by his nat i onal tendency; He ‘had a Council o f Eight Ministers who were more than councillors being them selves both civil and military lead ers. vE en in hi s l i fe ti me , h hew en w as a captive at Delhi, and his country and its forts were in M aho dme an hands this distribution of power , enabled him to raise his head soon after escaping from captivity When his so n l ta er . , c ptured y e r lo u w as a bA urangz éb ’ G ne a , , s t he confederate leaders retired to t he south , and again on a suitable o ccasi on returned , , and wreaked their ve gn eance on Aurangzeb. Under the P és/zwds, this system was deve loped still further by the establishment of t he great Camps o f M arath a Captains at I ndore , G w ali or, D hér, D e w as , Bar o d a and , Nagpur ; and the Bundelkhand Chiefs in Central India, t he Patwardhan Chiefs i n the S o uth the t r jSa a a ak dg ’ d dr s, the Bh ave s , , zr st s A gr st he Ra e , t he D hulaps, t he n e , M an k rs ya , M ahé dik s, t he Ghorpadés and man others who might be enumerated, had their

fTlze I mpor tance o M ard tlzci H i st yor . 13 smaller camps all along the eastern and southern boundaries o f t he Empire. These w ere so many centres of power and vitality, and as long as they were animated by a common purpose and a central idea - and they conti un ed to be so animated for nearly a century—their power was irresistible and ve en the disciplined British army had to dismember the Confederacy before success could be achieved. For a hundred years th ree was not an expedition to the south or to the north, to the east or to the swe t , against the Rajputs or t he Delhi Emperors, in Ro hilk hand, or O udh or Bengal, against Hyder, or Tipu, or t he N izam, against the Port uguese, or the English, in which the confederate Chiefs did not act together . The ascendency of the P éslzwds was like the ascendency of t he Prussian M onarchy in the German Empire The Central Authority . represented more the idea than the force of the Confederacy. While the old tradi tions lasted, it enabled the ministers at Raigad , Sét éré, Vishalgad, Gingi, or Poona to carry o n the government and direct t he national force without the advantage always of having any strong personal ruler at the head The P éslzwa 3 Government under Néné . F adnavis was actually nicknamed i n t he courts at Hyderabad and Shrirangapat an as

fR i se o tlze M ar d tlzci P ower . the the GoveB md r - bha ' Gover n ent, or rn z ment of the Confederacy of Twelve Leaders . When the idea ceased to be respected , the Confederacy proved a source of weak ness rather than strength The English . rulers knew this weakness, and took advan tage of it by appealing to the selfish vanity of each member of the Confederacy separately, and thus loosened its j oint force. There was no su ch experiment of Federal Government on such a large scale under taken ln this country under either Hindu or Mahomedan sovereigns. The experiment was doomed to ultimate failure, f' or it pre supposed virtues which are not hereditary , but as long as these virtues th ehad asce n deney, it had redeeming features o f its own which enhance the value of the study to t he native and foreign historian. V The moral interest of the story is . further heightened by the fact that the Confederacy arrangements enabled the Maratha nation to outlive and grow stronger from the very reverses it sustained during the cri tical periods of its history. There were four such critical periods i when Shivzi ji became a prisoner at . Delhi ;



f1 6 s e o tba Al a r d tlzd P ower . Chiefs, and the Marathi population of about thirty millions included in the Bom bay Presidency and the Native S tates, as also in t he Central Provinces, Bérérs, and t he Niz sam’ country, represent a power which is second to none among the native communities and States, which jen oy the protection o f and o wn allegiance to, the , British Rule. This element of present ih fluence cannot also fail to have a deep interest to those who can see far into the future of the possibilities open to a Federa ted India, distributed according t o nat iona liti es, and subj ected to a common bond of connection with the Imperial Power of the ! ueen Empress of diIn a . These are the principal features in which centres the permanent moral interest of the story o f the rise and fall of the Maratha Confederacy, which we propose t o narrate in the sequel.

CHAPTER I I Ho w THE GR O UN D W A S PR EPA R E D . N E of the most ordi ynar misconceptions on t he part both of Native and Euro pean writers on M aratha Hi story is to attribute the rise of the Maratha Power solely to fortuitous circumstances. r tMr . G an Duff himself in his narrative has compared the rise of the Maréthé Power to a sudden conflagration like those which occur i n the forests in Sahyédri . This is, however, not his matured Op i ni on fo r he has devoted , the first three chapters of his history t o trace the foundation o f the Power in events which long preceded the birth of the great hijS v ’ i in t he early part of t he seve tn eenth sg century. The fact appears t o be that for tuitous circumstances had verv little part t o play in the early foundati on of the Maré thé Power. I f we would understand the matter correctly, we must trace these causes to a period long anterior to that o f the 2

f1 8 s e o llze M ar dtlzd P ower . Mahomedan conquest of the Deccan. The ancient history o f Maharashtra, as gathered from inscriptions on copper-plates and rock temples, has been laboriously compiled by Indian antiquarians, and these materials have been made available to‘ ordinary readers by D r. Bhé nd é rk ’ compilations on the sub ar s ject. The questions we have to consider are, ( 1 ) why the first successful attempt to throw off the Mahomedan yoke on a large scale was made in Western diIn a, and ( 2 ) hw at were t he circumstances i n the nature of the country, in the habits and the institutions of t he people i nh ab i ti ng it which , favoured such an tt ta emp , and rewarded it with success. In this c onnecti on the first point we , have to notice is the fact that the country o f Maharashtra enjoys natural advantages of positi on and climate which are denied to the people of the lo wlands and the valleys of t he G anges, the Indus and the other egr at rivers which flow into the Arabian Sea or ceOEt he u I ndian an. The characteristic features of the Maharashtra country are the great , mountain ranges which enclose it on t wo? sides— the Sahyé dri range mgrunnin fro north t o south, and t he Sét puré and t he Vindhya ranges running from east to west .

p pH ow tile g r ound was re ar ed . 19 The mmor ranges, which break o ut i n rugged outline ofr‘ m these mountain c iha ns and form the watersheds of many rivers which fall ultimately into the i tGodévari and on ; the K ri s h na give the whole country an , appearance of ruggedness and unevenness no t t o be met with in other parts of India on such a scale. Geographically, M héréshtra includes the Konkan— the strip between the Sahyédri and the sea, t he Ghdtmétlui being the country o n the top 1 !of the range s, and th e D éslz, which includes the valleys lower down t he river; The bill fort s on the top ' of these ranges typify and 1 pr otect the naturally defensible position of the country and they have played an im portant ‘ part in its political history. These charact eristic features of the country secure for it the advantages o f a good and bracing climate, which distinguishes i t from t he dry and moist e tx remes of heat and cold of t he temperature o f t he plains in North ~ India and t he lowl dan s. A t the same time , O wi ng to its hilly ch aracte r, t he soil is poor, and the country is sparsely inhabited by a hardy and abstemious people I t ‘ . is the old story of the Hi ghlands and l dsthe L ow an , t he gifts of nature being evenly . distributed t o all alike on the principle of c o m p e ns at i o n The country thus .

f20 s e o tire M ar dtlzd P ower . defined forms a sort o f a triangle of which r g rothe Sahyédri an e and t he sea, f m D or saman t o Kérwér, f m t he ba e ; t he Satpura range forms t he perpendicular side, reaching t o the east beyond Nagpur as far i as the t hwa ers ed of the Godavari and its t ri b utaries e xte dn and the hypotenuse , which j oins these two ranges has been determined not so much by t lna ura features as by the test of language. The area thus rk c ds sq rma ed out ex ee 1 o ne lac o f ua e 3 miles, and its population comes to about thirty mi l l i on The natural features men . ovet ioned ab , and its position on the high road ebetwe n Northern India and t he S outhern Peninsula, give it commanding advantages denied t o the other tablelands of Mysore and M élwé which al one can , be compared with it . Next to these natural features, the history of t he country has been dominated by the Character of the people. I n Northern India, the element of the Aryan race has predo minated t o an extent which dwarfed t he aboriginal races, and drove them into the hilly parts of the country. In the South Peninsula, the r cesD h va e ern r av i d ‘ a zan retained their predominant p o s it i on the A ryan , le ement being not powerful enough t o

pH ow lit e g r ound was p re dar e . 21 impress its stamp upon the population generally. By reason of its position between t he t wo divisions now mentioned, the table land of M aharash tra has been inhabited by a populati on in which the e ans and the D d' ’ h va e been mixed in due pro r avz zans p o r t i on so as t o retain the good points of , both without exaggerating their defects. This mixture of the t wo elements is illustrated by the peculiarities of the language, . whose base is butDr a v d’ i a n , z whose growth and structure have been entirely fashioned by A ryan i nfluences In . their physiognomy the people are not as fair, soft or well proportioned, as the people in Northern diIn a are ; neither are they as black and hard e-f atured as the I outher r ces TheS D dn ’' a. A ryan r av z zan element itself includes in Maharashtra a due mixture of the first settlers, as also of the s’ ubse q u es nimt i Scy t hian invaders . The arly incl e the no n- A ryans l u d Abori gi nal s , Bi z l' , K o l’ and R é moslz ’ and zs zs zs other low classes, as also the higher ele e tsD d’ ' r avz zan mn . Owing t o this due proportion of the different ethnic elements in the population , the institution and the religion o f the country have maintained an equilibrium

22 s e of tlze iWarci tfzd' P 0108? which is rarely found in other parts 01 I ndia Among these i nstitutions the . i e ystem o f village communities is most charac t erist ic, and has been developed to a point which has enabled ' i t to survive all foreign interference that has proved so fatal elsewhere. The village community with the P anchéyat system has been mam . upt ai ned to the present rday i n a manne t o subserve the highest aims of government, and has become an inte gral part o f t he present system of admi ni strat i o n which has , found it so useful as to introduce it in a mo di fied form both in Sind and Guj ar ta , in which provinces the ho edMa m an influence was ' predominant as to destroy village so autonomy. Along with the village and sys sP anchéyat tem , t he é m éRyot-w ' '’ rz zr sz tenure of land, held in full ownership by small peasant proprietors directly responsible to the State, has given a st ability and a sense of independence t o the ryots which is rarely met with in other provinces. While the vill ga e organization has thus been kept up i ntac t the system of higher revenue , gmana ement by means of hereditary D ésk muk hs and D éshpdndés has not outlived t he purpose for which it was originally insti “ Thet uted D e’slzmuk lzs and t he D éés ' in . zs other parts of the country have developed



2 1 s fe o tile M ar d zhd P ower . o f the country. The Brahmans and t he hno Bn~ ré man S k ud r ds are brought into contact on more equal terms than elsewhere. Th e either1 er are n Gos wé m ’ or M ak ants or zs hoseGur us w i nfluence runs side by side ithw Bréhmans eleswhere. The fact is that the so-called S hud ni s have, under the influence of the V l’ mav saint s , emancipated them azs selves from the low social position assigned to them in the old writings, and have rise be eithern to jK shatr z é' s o r V az’shyés, f according as they followed the pro fessions pe ce The vof war or o f a. S hud r ds and e en the Pariahs—M ahdr s—have produced saints and poets whose names are revered by the whole country, Brahmans included. Even the Mahomedans lose their bigoted charac t er under these same moderating influences. The Hindus make common cause with Mahomedans i n their great festivals, and this feeling is reciprocated by the Musalmans, except where influences fr om North India intervene. o e h veS m M ahomed an F ak ' a zr s been ranked with the Hindu saints in general venerati o n and there are some saints who are , venerated by both communities alike. These features of tolerance and moderation have been developed in the course of centuries and they constitute some of the most stable elements of the national character.

p pH ow 111 2 g r ound was r e dar e . 25 Owing to t he nature of the country, and the charact er of its people and their insti t utions as described ab ove, the sense of local autonomy and bei nd ependence has en developed to an extent which prevented the country from being retained under one political control for a long time, both under Hindu and Mahomedan rulers. We hear of great empires in Nort hem and Eastern India, as also in the S outhern Peninsula, but the essential feature of political arrange ments i n Maharashtra has been separatistic, and in conflict with the long continuation of centralized power. This separat ist ten dency has not prevented the people from j oining together t o repel attacks from the northern invaders. Ancient traditions credit S héli wéhan or Shatawahan with having re pelled one such attack o f Scythian invaders about the commencement of the Christian era. Another such attack was repelled six hundred years later by another native Maharashtra ruler, the great Pulk éshi of t~ he first Chalukya dynasty. The country was parcelled out into small principalities and kingdoms, and its early h i story, so far as it has been preserved in inscriptions and t ab lets and c oi sn sh ows a perpetual flux of , power from one centre to another Tagara, . Paithan, Badami, M alkhed, Go é, Kolhapur,

R i se of the M a r athci P ower . Kalyéni , D évgi ri or Daulatab ad and other places were successively seats of the earlier l t r/g and Chfiluk y’ and Résht rak ut as and ae srs the Ynd av kings ; and the Chéluk yas, t he theN alawad és, K adambs, the Mores, Shil h ars, t he Ahirs, the Yé davs, and other lc ans fought for supremacy with one another: This state o f things continued till the advent of the M ahomedan power, which was established for t wo hundred years i n Northern I ndia before it invaded the Deccan about the commencement of the fourteenth century. It took the Mahomedans nearly thirty years before the Hindu powers in the Open plains were subdued. The subju g ati on was never completed so far as Western Maharashtra and Ko kn an are con ce ern d. Konkan was not conquered t ill the middle of the fifteenth century and the Ghétmathé, or the Mévals were never con quered in the sense in which the Desh country was brought . under Mahomedan yoke. The e sureMahomedan i nfluence, as m a d by the change in the habits and the language of the people, was scarcely per { ceptible in these hilly parts of the western country, which were ruled by Hindu com manders of hill-forts. Measured by numbers,

ppH wot thé g r ound wa s n a r ea'. 27 the same influence appears to have been least perceptible in these parts, for the Mahomedan population even now shows the smallest percentages in Western M ahérash tra. The Mahomedan domination never acquired any strong or permanent hold over the country in these parts. I n N orthern and Eastern India, white mosques and man so leums towered high, the Hindu temples were scarcely tolerated in the largest cena tres of the p op u lati on and were huddled , into street corners, and the worship had t o be performed in stealth and secrecy. I n North India the Mahomedan language and letters impressed themselves upon the country till they penetrated into every home b z rand a aa , and gave rise to the modern Urdu ; no such changes took place in Ma hérésht ra, and the language and religion of t he people continued to thrive and develop e ev n under Moslem rule. It would be interesting in this place to note the successive steps by which the Mahomedan power i n the Deccan was gra dually subverted by, and subordinated to , i duH n i nfluences. D ccfiI n the pr st lace, t he e an M ahome dans, being separated by g trea distances

w28 s e of the M aratha er . fr om their base beyond the North W- est frontier, were not recruited by fresh inva ders, as was the case at D elhi, where Afghans, ”Gilchis, Turks, Usbegs, and Moghuls suc otherceeded one an , keeping up the Maho medan tradition intact with every fresh i nv ias on I n the Deccan this i nfluence was . wanting; and the Turks and the Persians and the Abyssi in an adventurers were not regularly recruited from time to time. The—Second ly. founder o f the Bahamani Kingdom was a slave“ or mra B ah an naméd Gangu at Delhi, w ho foretold t he good fortune that was i n store for him ssHa an, . wh e nmthe slave , grate f u l ly er cognised his oblig ation empire h e rose to po wer, and he called his the ngdom, and ; ” Bah émani Ki hi self sH a san Gangu Bah amani This in . itself was an homage paid to Hi ndu influen ces, which distinguished the Deccan Maho medans from those of the north, and which practically bore fruit , when guGan was brought over from Delhi, and placed in charge of the Finance Department. Th ‘ d bn— In conseque cn e of this arrange zr ment the Revenue management and the , charge o f the Treasury remained all along in Hindu hands,—Brahmans and Kh ta t is from

ppH ow the g round was r e ar ed . 29 Delhi, and these, in due course of time, de D ccma way for t he e an Brahmans and Prabhus. F our thly.— Not only was the Revenue management in native hands, but later o n , when the Bahémani made yawa for t he five separated kingdoms of Bij apur, Bérérs, Ahmed g rna a , Bedar, r ve ueand Golcondé, the e n accounts of villages and maha’ls were kept in the vernacular in place of the foreign Persian or Urdu language. s thly.— There was another way in which the Hindu influence operated upon the Mahomedan kingdom in the D e cc an The . revolt in 1 347 against the Delhi Emperor, Mahomed Taghlak , though a conspiracy o f Mahomedan nobles, became successful chief ly by reason of the alliance of the Hindu ' kings of Télangan and V ijaynagar with the rebels. The Hindu kingdom in Télangan was subsequently subverted by the Bahé mani kings, but the kingdom of V ljaynagar continued to be a strong power for nearly two centuries, till i t was finally conquered by the alliance of the five Mahomedan rulers in the battle of Télik ot in 1 564. This Hindu power thus exerted, both in peace co sid r bl71nd in war, n e a e influence o n t he

3 0 s fe o the M ar a' thd P ower . fortunes of the ki gMahomedan and at ns , times it proved itself t oo strong even for the united armies o f Golcondé and A hmed g rna a . The third Bahémani king was forced into to enter an agreement with t he J V ijaynagar king, by which the indiscriminate slaughter of unarmed people, after a pitched battle, was prohibited on both sides, and t he prohibition was enforced for a hundred years without any violation of the compact. —bS zlxth r In conse q uence of this balance . o f power between Hindus and Musalmans, the latter seldom indulged in those excesses which dist ingushed their rule i n Northern I ndi a ,, and the former never suffered t he depressions t hey felt elsewhere as an inci dence o f foreign conquest. Mahomedan troops entered the V ijaynagar service when dissatisfied with their o wn masters, and the M arét hé S z'led d r s and Bé ' freely rg zr s enrolled themselves first as auxiliaries, and latterly as the most powerful contingent in t he contending r ima e s The second Bahé . mani king had a bodyguard of t wo hundred S z'ledhr s. This training in arms brought education, power, and weal th with it and , in the sixteenth century we meet with JGhédgés and Ghorpadés, édhavs and N i m or sbélk ars, M e and Sindés, D aflés and



3 2 s e of the M ant thd P ower . Ah d r ki gfirst me naga n was t he son o f a converted Brahman é triK ulhar m’ o f P in Bérér, whose family had entered the service n s. The Bréhman the ki gof V ijaynagar surname Bhairav became Béhri the distin guishing title of these kings, and they so faithfully remembered their origin that they conquered Patri and gave it in d' m to zn e o g strugt he Bré hman K ulk ar m’ aft r a ln s gle with the Bé ’ rul e rs . The first founder r zrr of t he I médshé hi dynasty in Bérér was also the son of a Brahman in the service of jV i aynagar, who was taken captive and became a convert. I n a similar way the first Bédar k ing of the Barid dynasty was so loved by his Maréthé soldiery that four hundred M aré t hés became M ahomedans, and were his most trusted soldiers. Theset —N z’nth y. i nfl ue nce s exerted a power which made it impossible for the Maho dme an powers to retain their bigotry and tfana ic ’ cruelty i n the Deccan, and although there were irruptions of violence now and t h en on the whole great toleration w as , shown towards their Hindu subjects by these Mahomedan kings, and gradually both civil and military power came into Hindu hands. As a consequence, the Mahomedan kings gave ma‘ l and to Hindu temple zh

How the g rown! p fmwas a r ea'. 33 do i p y ci een wments, and H ndu h si ans wer em l d h pit e cp oye in os als, and in so m ase s, even grants ewer gi ven and continued to B h o u iti sra man c mm n e . O ne M urarrao was chief minister at Golco ndé about the middle of the sixteenth tu ycen r , and o ne dMa an Pandit was similarly a mini ts er i n the reign o f t he last Golcondé ruler, and he effected an alliance between S hivaji and t he Golconda ki g i s oghulsngs a a n t t he M jTh R d d ’ . . e -r z family was also of considerable importance Gol o d r hin ac n . B a man pD esh dndc’s a nd r th er pl dMa a a D éshmuhhs or D és d ’ w e ace zs in charge of district collections, and t he of D édopant , Na s rso K lname ae, and Ye’su Pandit are disti ung i shed for the great reforms they introduced in Bijapur revenue g e tmana Brahman ambassadors were em n . employed by Ahmednagar kings as envoys in the Courts of Gujarat land Mawa and , a Brahman minister of P esh wa dname , Kamalsé n had chief power at Ahmednagar in , the i thet mes of first Buranshé h . Yesu Pandit also b eecam M ustdphd in the Bijépur kingdom about the same time. Two Brahman brothers, A k anna and Mak anna, were similarly raised to power i n Golcondé , and their services were deemed to be so valuable that the Bijapur kings sought their help when pressed by the og l i dM hu nv a ers . 3

3 4 ys e ( the M ar d tha P ower Teathly.—ln the Military Department this predo minance of t he Hindus more and more manifested itself as years rolled o n The names of . are noted Kamrzijé, Ghadgé , and Ham aik y i gb bFer ' t d t he first as en zs r hM a at a M ansubdar s employed by t he Bahamani kings. The second Bahamani king had a bodyguard of two hundr ed ous JS z’ledd r s. The fam W éghoji agd ' r ao ev N aik played in the first quarter of the six t eenth century a most prominent part in the o s Golco dC urt of Bérar, jn a , and V i aynagar . de u d kiHe ma and nma e ngs, was in c harge of all the N athwd d ' Hindu forces z the i gin Karnét ik , and was a k n all but in mn a e The famous Murzi rréo Jagdév served . the Biiapur k ings w ith great distinction in the early part of the seventeenth century. He resisted the Moghul invasions, and he and Shahaii Bhonslé w ere the chief sup ports o f the power of Bijapur and A hmed nagar respectively. I n the intri gues which brought about M ur arr é o ' downfall, three s o ther Marathas— Raghopant , B h —a ra man o ne , Bhonslé S ar d d r , and one Ghzi dgé figured p rominently. derUn Murarrao , Chandrarao M oré and Réiaréo rose t o distinction in t he wars of the o kK n an. The families o f t he Manes th e v sof Mhasw ad, diW ei , and Sa ant o f the D aflés, and finally the

p pH ow the g r ound was dre a r e . 35 Ghorpadés, similarly rose to great power in t hese times. Mr Grant Duff me nti ons the names of . eight Maratha families who rose to power ! and i nfluence long before Shivaji was born , or before Shahaji 's father Méloll rose to any d i st i nc t i o n The most powerful among . t he families was that o f the Jad hav ’ of s Sindkhed in the Bérars, who were supposed t o be connected wit h the D évgiri Jédhavs whom A lh-ud-din had conquered. Lakhou Jédhav was a person of such importance that his support was sought by the M oghul Emperors when they first invaded Decc ltthe an. The N imbélk ars of F a an were similarly distinguished. The Ghadgé Zunjarrao of M alawdi belo nged t o a family o f great note in the Byepur service. The M ores, t he Shirk és the M ahadik s in t he K onkan and Ghat mat ha and the Gujars, and the M ohités in the lower Mavals were great commanders, some of them being in charge of t en t o twenty thousand horse. The family o f Bhonslés was one of those M arét ha families who came t o prominence in t he beginning of the seventeenth century, being connected with t he Jadhavs and N imbal kars. S h ah agi ’ mother was a daughter of 3 i e g terthe ’ Jadhavs, and S haha i wf a d au h s

f3 6 R i se o the M ardthd P ower . th eo f Ni mb élk ar s The founder of t he . ilyfam was Maloji Bhonslé and his son Shahéii secured a position of the first r kan . Shahéji indeed was a king-maker, and on behalf of the Niz amshahi kings o f Ahmed nagar kept up the fight with the Moghuls after the second conquest of Ahmednagar. I n consequence of th e influences and changes noted above about the commencement of the seventeenth century, the nominal Maho medan Rulers o f Golconda, Bijépur, g rNa a and Bédar ew re virtually controlled both in the civil and military d pe artments by Maratha statesmen and Maratha warri ors, and the hill o-f rts near the Ghd ts and the country thereabout were in the hands of Marzi t hé jahdg ir dd r s, who were only nomi nally dependent upon these Mahomedan sovereigns. It was when this slow process of national emancipation was being peace fully worked out that a new danger threatened the country in the attempts made by the Delhi Emperors, from Akbar to Aurangzeb, t o extend the M ahomedan power again t o t he south of th e N armadzi and the Tépti rivers. I f success lfu , it would have thrown back the country for another period of three hundred years, which had been the time that the Hindus had taken

pH ow the g r ound was ret ar ed . 37 t o re s-a sert their indepe ndence after t he first qu tcon es . This new danger was much more formidable as it was backed up by all t he res ources of the Delhi Empire. This rdange was felt t o be formidable alike by the Maho medan rulers of the Deccan and their Marathi nobles. The separatist tendencies among the Marathas disabled them from facing the M oghuls in the open field, and the hide-and-seek guerilla system of warfare adopted by the Maréthé armies as their characteristic tactics was under t he circumstances unavoidable The first shock of the i v ioMahomedan n as n had been borne and surmounted, and the country had during the last three hundred years shown a considerable rallying power. The old system of playing t he waiting game and allowing the M aho medan rulers t o dissolve themselves in lux ury would not have served the purpose . The new danger required new tactics, but above all tactics, what was wanted was a new spirit, a common feeling of interest, a common patriotism born of a liberal religious fervour. The scattered power of the Marathzt chiefs had to be united in a confederacy, animated by a common purpose, and sancti hed by a common devotion to the country. r tjS merit was that realiz ed hi vai ’ g ea he s t his danger, kept the separatist t e dn e ncy under control, brought the common rfo ces

R i se the M P ower f3 8 o a rd t h’ . a together in the name of a common religion , and he thus represented i n h i m s e l f no t only' , the power of the age, but the soul s- tirring idea, the highest need and the highest purpose, that could animate the Marathas in a common c sau e. He did not create the Marétha power that power had been already cre ta ed, though scattered in small centres all over the country. He sought t o unite it for a higher purpose by directing i t ga ainst the common danger.’ This was his chief merit and his chie f service to t he country, and in this consists his chief claim upon the grateful remembrance of his people. tI was not for nothing that t he people looked up to him as their inspired leader. He felt t he inspiration h i ms el f and , communicated it to those o tab u him not , only in o ne ge ne rati o n but fo r generations , more to come after him till the idea of , re e- stab lishing Hindu power throughout t he country was realized at once in the great cent res or camps which the Marat hés estaa b li shed in all tpar s of the Indian Continent . Thus was the ground prepared partly by nature, partly by the ancient history o f the country, partly by the religi ous revival, but chiefly by the long discipline in arms which the country had undergone under Mahomedan lru e for three hundred years.



40 fR i se o the M ar ci t/z i , P ower . to l ter Ju rParandé, and a on to nna , and a new ruler, descended from the old N iz ém shéhi stock, was placed on the throne, and in h is enam , Malik ambar governed the kingdom a nd led the Deccan iarm es and retook Ahmednagar, and k ept at bay the M oghuls and their allies, the Bij apur A dilshahi ki gn s for twenty years and more. I n the long and arduous struggle, w hich M alik ambar waged with the M ogh sul , S hahaji, the therfa o f Shiv éji, the N imbélk ar F ltN éik s o f a an, and the great Lak hoji J édhavréo, fought on the side o f the Ahmednagar kings, and though defeated the de e ti n 1 62 0, f a was due t o t he misconduct o f the M ahomedan nobles while the Maréthé soldiers and leaders ifo ugh t with d isti nc t i on jLak ho i Ja’dhavréo, . i dn eed, w ent over t o the M oghuls, who i n 1 6 2 1 conferred upon him command o f horse and otfo , and M alik ambar him self was compelled soon after to give up A hmed rnaga , and surrender the new ruler he had set up twenty years before. He rallied his forces even after this great blow, but his premature death in 1 6 2 6 removed the only man who could gathe r round him the resisting power of the country, and lead it to success. Even

How the s eed was sown. 41 h j i tSha a Bhonslé, at one i me , brok e ofi his pe ess N lz émshé th ho l mconne cti on wi t he ruler, and he received a command of horse from the M oghul erEmp or. The r byN minister, the i z m’ was mu dered his zt Ju t heme of Malik ambar, in 1 63 1 . s wn loo d stt he cond iti oh of aflairs k e mo des g i e theperat e, Shahéjl Bhonslé a a n cam t o mresu e of his old masters, and proclaime d another successor t o the throne of the [N iz émshéhis. He established his authority vo er the Konkan and over the D ésh from the /N ira river t o the Chéndore hills, and t he iMoghul Emperor had to send an army ot men t o dislodge S hahaj i from place plto ace. The struggle was t imai n a ned for r e rs thefou y a , 1 632 - 1 6 36, but odds were rt oo g eat , and Shahaj i had to yield at last before the supe rior forces of S hahaja-i ban, and with the Emperor’s c onse tn , e dent re the service of the B1]apur Kings in 1 637. The Ahmednagar territories thus c qon uer ed were formed into the new S ubhe o f Aurangabad, and embraced parts of and Khéndésh, t he whole of the p N Ko kand a art of o rt h ern n an. The mai ning po rti ons of the k i ngdo m e sp e ci , the country between the Bhimé and