The Rise of the Marathas

About this chapter

The Rise of the Marathas is the third chapter of Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond, Part 1. The Marathas are a Marathi-speaking people of the Deccan plateau whose bhakti saints — Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram, Ramdas — laid a cultural foundation that later helped them organise into a political power. Chhatrapati Shivaji was born in 1630 in the Bhonsle clan to Shahji and Jijabai; he began his rule at sixteen by seizing neglected forts around Pune, built the Maratha navy in 1657, killed Afzal Khan at Pratapgad with the wagh nakh, raided Shaista Khan at night, sacked Surat, conceded Purandar to Jai Singh, escaped Agra in baskets in 1666, was crowned at Raigad in 1674 starting the Rajyabhisheka shaka, undertook the dakshina-digvijaya in 1677, and died in 1680. After him, Sambhaji, Rajaram, Tarabai, Ahilyabai Holkar and the Peshwas (Bajirao I, Nanasaheb, Madhavrao I, Mahadji Shinde) led pan-Indian expansion until the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1818. Maratha administration included the ashta pradhana mandala, chauth, sardeshmukhi, bargirs, shiledars and the Adnyapatra. CTET Paper 2 SST tests dates, persons, forts, treaties, cause-effect chains and pedagogy on this chapter. The four tests — Practice 15, Quiz 15, Hard 15, Mastery 30 — cover all six topics at CTET depth.