Trained to lead armies, this nation-founding ruler proved to be one of the finest generals of his time
Spread along India’s western coast, Maharashtra had long been home for elite kshatriyas – the warriors of the Hindu caste system – whose clans assumed the responsibility of governing the local population, albeit in tenuous feudalism. These Marathas formed an enduring identity and culture and their homeland, with its hundreds of castles built on hilltops and ridges, had by the 16th century become overshadowed by Muslim sultanates in the south and east. To the north was an even greater power. For a single glorious century the better part of India had been ruled by a Central Asian dynasty. These Mughals or Mogul emperors, four of them having reigned in succession after the founder Babur took Delhi in 1526, recognised few equals in wealth and power. By the middle of the 17th century their last hurrah was imminent when Aurangzeb seized the throne from his own father, the world king or Shah Jahan, best known for immortalising his departed wife with a lavish tomb and garden – the Taj Mahal.
By then the Mughals kept the Rajput clans in the Rajasthan desert under their thumbs for generations. The same imposition was forced on the Marathas whose ambitious members could achieve rank and fortune by serving the emperors in Delhi. After all, the Marathas were foremost men of arms, and complacency and a languid acceptance of fate were not in their character.
Shahaji Bhonsle, the father of the celebrated Shivaji, served the emperor Shah Jahan with distinction and won a small territory for himself in southern India. But the geographic limits of the Mughal empire was the source of endless feuding. The balance of power that tore apart southern India at the time, being the latter half of the 17th century, pitted several kingdoms against each other. The Mughal empire struggled to impose its will on the smaller sultanates in the Deccan plateau. Two rival territories, Bijapur and Golconda, were blocking the Mughal’s expansion southward and between them were the Marathas.
Castle born
