Marāṭhā-Mogul Wars
The Marāṭhā-Mogul Wars were a series of military conflicts that took place in India during the 17th and early 18th centuries, primarily between the Marāṭhā Confederacy and the Mughal Empire. Originating as skilled soldiers within the Deccani sultanates, the Marāṭhās adeptly employed guerrilla warfare tactics to navigate the arid Deccan plateau. The decline of the sultanates came with the rise of the Mughals, who began to conquer these territories, ultimately leading to a struggle for power and land among the various factions.
Key figures in this conflict included Shivājī, the founder of the Marāṭhā Empire, who successfully engaged in various military campaigns against Mughal forces, notably ambushing commanders and sacking strategic locations such as Surat. The wars were characterized by shifting allegiances and fierce resistance from Marāṭhā leaders, even after Shivājī's death in 1680. His successors, including Shambhaji and Rajaram, continued to resist Mughal advances, but the eventual rise of Shahu marked a turning point, leading to a semblance of peace.
Despite their partial successes, the Marāṭhās ultimately could not prevent the Mughals from annexing significant territories like Bijapur and Golconda. However, the Marāṭhā leadership, particularly under Shahu and his peshwa descendants, saw the emergence of a considerable empire that significantly influenced the political landscape of India during the 18th century. The Marāṭhā-Mogul Wars thus represent a complex chapter in Indian history, reflecting the interplay of power, culture, and military strategy.
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Marāṭhā-Mogul Wars
At issue: Possession of the Deccan
Date: c. 1646–1707
Location: Deccan, India
Combatants: Marāṭhās vs. Moguls
Principal commanders:Marazha, Shahji, Shivājī (1627/1630–1680), Shambhaji; Mogul, Aurangzeb (1618–1707), Shayista Khan (d. 1694), Jai Singh
Principal battles: Parenda, Surat, Bijāpur, Golconda
Result: Marāṭhā kingdom established
Background
The Marāṭhās, Hindu agriculturalists in the northwestern Deccan, served in the armies of the Muslim sultans of Ahmadnagar and Bijāpur. Hardy soldiers, they were masters of the sudden ambush and of harrying the enemy on the line of march. The arid Deccan plateau was ideal for guerrilla warfare, and the mobility and agility of the Marāṭhās gave them the advantage over less mobile forces, overburdened with baggage and camp followers. So long as the Deccani sultanates survived, the Marāṭhās had an assured place within a social structure that divided resources between the city-based Muslim elites and Marāṭhā leadership in the countryside, but this modus operandi could not survive the coming of the Moguls.
Action
Under Jahāngīr, the Moguls began, and under Shāh Jahān, they completed the conquest of the sultanate of Ahmadnagar. This presented the Marāṭhās with a dilemma: The Moguls were bound to confiscate conquered territory from its previous owners and redistribute it among their own followers, although Ahmadnagar nobles willing to change sides might retain their former lands and perhaps receive some in addition. By comparison, Marāṭhā landholders were at the bottom of the pecking order. For them, far more than for the Deccani Muslims, the Mogul conquest, destructive enough in itself, spelt ruin.
Some tried to survive by opportunism and effrontery in playing one side against the other. Such a one was Shahji Bhonsle, who, beginning as a trooper (bargir) in the army of the sultan of Ahmadnagar, rose to become a kingmaker in the last days of the sultanate. Following the Moguls’ victory at Parenda (1634), he entered the service of Bijāpur, dying in 1664, a respected fighter, but also the embodiment of the mercenary without fixed loyalties.
From 1646, his son Shivājī was acquiring forts in Bijāpur, and in response to this aggression, the sultan sent a large army against him in 1659. During negotiations, Shivājī assassinated the Bijāpuri commander and then defeated the latter’s demoralized forces. Meanwhile, the Moguls were advancing deeper into the Deccan. In 1663, Shivājī ambushed their commander, Shayista Khan, uncle of Aurangzeb, and in 1664 sacked Surat, the principal port on the west coast of India. A new Mogul commander, Jai Singh, now took the initiative and forced Shivājī to come to terms (1665). Shivājī even attended the imperial court in āgra (1666), but his reception was cool and, suspecting treachery, he fled back to the Deccan. In 1670, he again sacked Surat, and following a series of military successes, he had himself crowned as ruler of Maharahtra (1674). Shivājī was a superb leader of irregular troops, and because of the rivalry between Moguls and Bijāpuris, he was able to lay the foundations of future Marāṭhā ascendancy throughout central and south India.
Shivājī died in 1680 and his son, Shambhaji, was captured and executed by the Moguls in 1688; another son, Shahu, was taken to Delhi and raised as a Mogul protegé. Meanwhile, the struggle continued under Shambhaji’s brother, Rajaram, from his base at Jinji in the Carnatic. Rajaram died in 1700 but his indomitable widow, Tarabai, continued fighting. The situation changed completely when, following Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, his son Bahādur Shāh I sent Shahu south to claim his heritage. Of an unwarlike disposition but enjoying widespread support, Shahu brought the ruinous conflict to a close.
Aftermath
In the struggle with the Moguls, the Marāṭhās enjoyed only partial success, for they could not prevent the Moguls annexing Bijapur (1686) and Golconda (1687). During Shahu’s long reign (he died in 1749), power shifted from the king to his Brahmin minister (or peshwa), Balaji Vishvanath, and during the eighteenth century, the latter’s descendants, the Peshwas of Poona, presided over the rise (and fall) of a Marāṭhā empire extending over much of the subcontinent.
Bibliography
Gordon, S. The Marazhas, 1600–1818. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Sen, S. N. The Military System of the Marazhas. Bombay, India: Orient Longmans, 1958.