A kingdom needs ground to stand on
Start before 1646.
A shared language, a memory of earlier rule and a common devotional culture were all in place in Maharashtra before anyone imagined a Maratha empire.
📚 Chapter Learning Kit
The Rise of the Marathas · Class 8 Social Science · Exploring Society
English 5 topics 175 leveled MCQs 85 flashcards 5 games Free
Shared by a Veda teacher · Generated with Veda AI · Oct 2026
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Marathi since the twelfth century
What identifies them.
The Marathas are a people of the Deccan plateau, and what identifies them is Marathi, which has an unbroken written record back to the twelfth century.
The Yadavas at Devagiri
Who ruled before.
Most of Maharashtra belonged to the Yadava dynasty through the thirteenth century. Early in the fourteenth the Khilji Sultanate of Delhi overcame them.
A navy nobody else kept
1657.
Bijapur had merchant ships but no full-time naval force, and Mughal naval use was very limited. Founding a navy was a step nobody nearby had taken.
What guerrilla warfare needs
Not disorder.
Small groups striking with speed and surprise, using exact knowledge of the ground, and forts to withdraw into. All three have to be organised.
Pratapgad
Afzal Khan.
Bijapur sent a veteran general. Shivaji's advisers arranged a meeting in thick forest at the fort's foot, where the Khan was killed and his army then broken from the hills.
📖 Smart notes
What you'll study, topic by topic
1
The Ground Before the Kingdom
Marathi's long literary record, Yadava rule from Devagiri, and centuries of bhakti writing in the spoken language gave Maharashtra a shared footing. Shivaji, born 1630, began at sixteen by taking neglected forts.
- The Marathas are a people of the Deccan plateau identified by Marathi, whose written record is unbroken from the twelfth century.
- The Yadava dynasty ruled most of Maharashtra from Devagiri until the Khilji Sultanate overcame it early in the fourteenth century.
- Bhakti means devotion to the divine or to one deity, preferred to outward ritual, from about the seventh century to the seventeenth.
~36 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
2
Forts, a Fleet and a Crown
Shivaji met four opponents with method rather than numbers. He founded a navy in 1657, escaped Agra in a basket, and was crowned at Raigad in 1674 before conquering in the south.
- Holding the west coast required a navy, which was founded in 1657 when Bijapur kept only merchant ships and Mughal naval use was very limite…
- Guerrilla warfare uses small groups with speed, surprise and knowledge of the ground, and forts to hold routes and shelter the army.
- Bijapur sent Afzal Khan, who was met in forest at Pratapgad's foot and killed, after which his army was broken from the hills.
~40 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
3
Survival, Then Expansion
Aurangzeb took Bijapur, Golconda and Raigad but died in the Deccan without subduing the Marathas. Tarabai then sent armies north, and a decentralised state under the Peshwas expanded across India.
- Sambhaji became Chhatrapati after Shivaji; Aurangzeb took Bijapur and Golconda, executed him and captured Raigad.
- Rajaram then held the office and withdrew to Gingee, spreading the Mughal-Maratha conflict into south India.
- Aurangzeb was unable to leave the Deccan and died there without having subdued the Marathas.
~40 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
4
How the Marathas Governed
Salaries replaced hereditary posts and land grants, eight ministers held separate portfolios, chauth and sardeshmukhi bought protection outside direct rule, and forts were argued to be the core of the state.
- Shivaji abolished hereditary posts and land assignments and paid every official a salary from the state treasury.
- Many officials were periodically transferred, so that none could gather enough local power to dictate terms to the king.
- Pensions went to the widows of soldiers killed in battle, and military posts were sometimes offered to their sons.
~42 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
5
The Revival and the Legacy
A seal in Sanskrit, a dictionary replacing Persian terms, temples rebuilt from Kedarnath to Rameswaram, a syncretic court at Thanjavur, and an idea that outlived the empire.
- Shivaji's seal was inscribed in Sanskrit where Persian was usual, and says his authority reigns for the welfare of the people.
- The Rajya-Vyavahara-Kosha supplied Sanskrit equivalents for Persian diplomatic terms, and foreign loanwords in Maratha diplomacy fell consid…
- He held to his own Hindu faith while giving other faiths their due, raised desecrated shrines again, and paid for writing in Sanskrit and in…
~40 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
❓ Leveled MCQ practice
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175 questions laddered from warm-up to topper-level, each with an explanation. A taste:
The Marathas are identified above all by
Beginner
A a single dynasty that ruled them for centuries
B the language they speak, which is Marathi
C the religion practised only in the Deccan plateau
D a kind of fort found nowhere else in India
Show answer & explanation
the language they speak, which is Marathi
Marathi has an unbroken written record back to the twelfth century.
Marathi's written record reaches back to about the
Beginner
A eighteenth century
B sixteenth century
C twelfth century
D ninth century
Show answer & explanation
twelfth century
That is a long time for a language to carry poetry and argument.
Before the Delhi Sultanate arrived, who held most of Maharashtra, and from where?
Beginner
A The Hoysalas, governing from Halebidu
B The Bhonsles, governing from Raigad
C The Holkars, governing from Indore
D The Yadavas, governing from Devagiri
Show answer & explanation
The Yadavas, governing from Devagiri
Devagiri is the place later called Daulatabad.
Devagiri is better known from the last chapter under which name?
Intermediate
A Hampi
B Daulatabad
C Warangal
D Golconda
Show answer & explanation
Daulatabad
Muhammad bin Tughlaq made and unmade it his capital.
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