[8] The dynasty was founded in 1577 by Maloji Bhosale, a predominant general or sardar of Malik Ambar of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.

According to Jadunath Sarkar and other scholars, Bhonsles were predominantly Deccani tiller-plainsmen from the Shudra caste; they were part of the Marathas/Kunbis, an amorphous class-group.

[18] Ananya Vajpeyi rejects the designation of Shudra, since the category has remained in a state of flux across centuries; she instead notes them to be a Marathi lineage, who enjoyed "reasonably high" social status as landholders and warlords, being in the service of Deccan Sultanate or Mughals.

[17][b] According to R. C. Dhere's interpretation of local oral history and ethnography, Bhonsles descend from the Hoysalas and Yadavas of Devagiri, who were cow-herding Gavli sovereigns.

[17][c][d] In early thirteenth century, "Baliyeppa Gopati Sirsat", a Hoysala cousin of Simhana migrated from Gadag to Satara along with his pastoral herd and kul-devta; the Sambhu Mahadev was thus installed at a hill-top in Singhnapur.

[17] M. K. Dhavalikar found the work to convincingly explain the foundation of the Bhosle clan (as well as Sambhu Mahadev cult).

[20] Vajpeyi too advocates that Dhere's theory be probed in greater detail — "[f]rom pastoralist big men to warlords on horseback, is not an impossible distance to cover in two to three centuries.

"[17] Vajpeyi notes the "veridical status" of Chitnis' finds to be not determinable to "historical certainty" — the links were tenuous at best and inventive at worst.

[17][h] Jadunath Sarkar deemed that the genealogy was cleverly fabricated by Balaji Awji and after some reluctance accepted by Gaga Bhatt, who in turn was "rewarded with a huge fee".

V. K. Rajwade, Dhere, Allison Busch, John Keay and Audrey Truschke also agree with Sarkar about the fabrication.

The dynasty was founded by Maloji Bhosale who initially served as a patil (chief) of the Hingni Berdi and Devalgaon villages around Pune.

[33] Maloji and his wife Uma Bai had 2 sons: Shahaji and Sharifji, named Sufi Pir Hazrat Shah Sharif.

[34] According to Shivabharata, composed by Shivaji's court poet Paramananda, Maloji's wife Umabai prayed to the Sufi Pir Shah Sharif of Ahmadnagar to bless her with a son.

[26][37] On proposing the Brahmins of his court to have him proclaimed as the rightful king, a controversy erupted: the regnal status was reserved for those belonging to the kshatriya varna.

[17][p] Gaga Bhatt, a famed Brahmin of Banaras,[q] was then hired to ratify Chitnis' find, and the Bhonsles were now permitted to stake a claim to Kshatriya caste.

[17][s] Led by Bhatt, who employed traditional Hindu imagery in an unprecedented scale, the first phase had Shivaji penance for having lived as a Maratha despite being a Kshatriya.

[17][t] Panegyrics composed by court-poets during these spans (and afterward) reinforced onto the public memory that Shivaji (and the Bhonsles) indeed belonged from the Sisodiyas.

During the Mughal started siege on Raigad on 25 March 1689, the widow of Sambhaji (Maharani Yesubai) and Peshwa Ramchandra Pant Amatya sent young Rajaram to the stronghold of Pratapgad through Kavlya ghat.

Then, Maratha commanders, Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav, defeated the Mughal forces, therefore cutting off their lines of communication in Jingi.

[citation needed] In 1707, Mughal Emperor Muhammad Azam Shah released Shahu Bhosale, the son of Sambhaji.

[47] Sambhaji II signed the Treaty of Warna in 1731 with his cousin Shahuji to formalize the two separate seats of Bhonsle family.

On 14 September 1752, Tarabai and Balaji Rao took an oath at Khandoba temple in Jejuri, promising mutual peace.

[57] During Shahu's reign, Raghoji Bhosale of Nagpur expanded the empire Eastwards, invading Bengal in 1740, which was a major confrontation with the Nawab of the Carnatic, Dost Ali Khan .

Raghoji was able to annex Orissa permanently as he successfully exploited the chaotic conditions prevailing in the region after the death of their Governor Murshid Quli Khan in 1727.

[67] On 17 December 1803, after the Second Anglo-Maratha War, Raghoji II signed the Treaty of Deogaon which resulted in Nagpur becoming a Protectorate of the East India Company.

[72] Shivaji Maharaj also invaded Gingee and Thanjavur in 1676–1677 and made his brother Santaji the ruler of all lands to the north of the Coleroon.