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district of Haryana. They wore saffron clothes.          a band of men and trained them
            They revolted against the Mughals when one of            in guerilla tactics. He harassed
            their followers was killed by a Mughal soldier.          much larger enemy armies of
            They were determined fighters who fought almost          Bijapur and Mughals because of
            without any weaponry and caused a lot of damage          his tactics. He declared himself
            to the Mughals in 1672.                                  the emperor of the Maratha
                                                                     state in 1674 and assumed the
                Quiz Time                                            title of Chhatrapati.                  Shivaji

            Fill in the blanks :                                     Shivaji was succeeded by his son, Sambhaji who
            1. __________   made Bengal independent.                 too was an able ruler. However, the following rulers
                                                                     were not efficient, so the Peshwas concentrated all
            2. The Mughal rulers after Aurangzeb are called          powers in their hands.
               __________  .
                                                                     Peshwas :  The Peshwas were the Brahmin ministers
            3. The Afghan forces defeated the Marathas in the        of the Marathas. They ruled from 1713 to 1761
               __________   battle of Panipat in __________ .
                                                                     with their capital at Poona (now Pune). In 1713,
            4. __________     was energetic, intelligent and         Balaji Vishwanath  was appointed the Peshwa by
               determined.                                           the Maratha ruler. Soon, he concentrated all power
                                                                     in his hands. He was succeeded by Baji Rao I   and

            Case Study : Marathas                                    then Balaji Baji Rao .
            Of all the regional political formations, the            The Peshwas were very clever tacticians. They knew
            Marathas were the most influential. Their sustained      their strengths well, so they never attacked the
            opposition to the Mughals started with Chhatrapati       large armies directly. Rather, they raided other
            Shivaji  (1627-1680). He formed his small army with      cities and engaged the enemy in the areas where
                                                                             they could easily harass the supply lines of
                                                                             the enemy.
                      Kabul
                                                                             The Maratha empire expanded from 1720
                           Peshawar                                          to 1761. They brought under their control
             Khandhar   ent Pa h t an  m                                     a large part of India, including Bihar,
                     Ind pend  r  Lahore
              (Persia)  Ti bes  Jhelu Chenab  Ravi
                      e
                                  S l ut ej                                  Odisha, Delhi and parts of the Punjab.
                               Multan                         Brahmaputra    They also captured territories from Mysore
                                    Panipat
                           Indus      Delhi                                  and Hyderabad.
                                      JATS  G ana g  NEPAL
                                                 NEPAL
                                       Agra  Yamuna  Gum ti  Gagra
                               RAJPUTS                                       The increasing influence had its positive
                                      ambal            Patna
                                     Ch     Allahabad  Benaras               and negative impact. The Marathas had
            T ropic o f  Ca cer
                   n
                                   I I  N N  D D  I I  A A  Chandernagore    immense resources at their disposal, but
                                                          (Fr.)  Serompore
                                    Nerb dda            Calcutta  (Danish)
                                      u
                                                  h
                                           r T ibutory Chie fs Ma an a i d  (Br.)  at the same time, they created many
                                   T ap i t
                                              of
                           Diu Is.  Surat   G ondwana       BAY              enemies for themselves. This was the
                  ARABIAN   (Portuguese)  Daman(Portuguese)
                            Bombay  Bassein  Goda a
                                            v ri            OF               reason that no other state helped them
                   SEA       (Br.)  MARATHAS
                                                          BENGAL             when they fought with Ahmad Shah Abdali
                                                                             in the Third Battle of Panipat   in 1761.
                                       K ris na
                                         h
                                Goa
                                (Por.)                                       They were defeated in this battle. After
                                               Pulicat (Dutch)               this, the Maratha empire was broken into
                                               Madras (Br.)
                                       Ka ve i r  Sadras (Dutch)
                                              Pondicherry (Fr.)              small independent kingdoms.
                                  Calicut
                                              Tranquebar (Danish)   (INDIA)   ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS
                                              Nagapatnam (Dutch)
                                   Cochin  POLYGARS                          Administration
                                   (Dutch)
                           (INDIA)
                                               SRI                           The Marathas did not pay attention to only
                             LAKSHADEEP
                       MALDIVES               LANKA
                                  I N D I A N      O C E A N                 military campaigns, they were efficient
                                                                             administrators too. They developed an
                              Rule of Marathas under Peshwas
                                                                          Independent States in Eighteenth Century
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