The Marathas after Shivaji

Shivaji had two sons, Sambhaji and Rajaram. After his death Sambhaji became the Chhatrapati, and the Marathas were now the only obstacle to total Mughal control of the Deccan.

Aurangzeb invaded, conquering the Bijapur and Golconda Sultanates. He then captured Sambhaji, tortured him brutally and executed him, and took Raigad, the Maratha capital.

At that point the Maratha state had lost its founder, his successor and its capital. You might have expected it to end.

Instead Rajaram became Chhatrapati and fled to Gingee, in present-day Tamil Nadu: the region Shivaji had taken in the dakṣhiṇa-digvijaya. That earlier conquest now gave the Marathas somewhere to survive.

The war spread to south India. The Marathas defended their forts strongly and often had the upper hand in battles and smaller fights.

So Aurangzeb could not leave the Deccan. He died without defeating the Marathas, who rose as a strong rival to the Mughals.

Then the position turned right round, under Tarabai, Rajaram's queen. She was a fearless warrior queen who ruled in the early 18th century after her husband's death.

Her insight was strategic: with Aurangzeb and the Mughal army tied down in the Deccan, north India was unprotected. She organised large Maratha armies and sent them north. The chapter calls her the architect of the northward Maratha expansion: her strategy and determination outsmarted the Mughal Empire and saved Maratha independence at a critical moment.