[note 1] The Marathas were a Marathi-speaking peasantry group from the western Deccan Plateau (present-day Maharashtra) who rose to prominence by establishing Hindavi Swarajya (meaning "self-rule of Hindus").

[23][24] The Marathas became prominent in the politics of the Indian subcontinent during the seventeenth century under the leadership of Shivaji, who revolted against the Adil Shahi dynasty and the Mughals to carve out a kingdom with Raigad as his capital.

The leading Maratha families – Scindia, Holkar, Bhonsle, and Gaekwad – extended their conquests in northern and central India and became more independent and difficult to control.

The Marathas' rapid expansion was halted with the great defeat of Panipat in 1761, at the hands of the Afghan Empire, following which the effective power of Peshwas over other chiefs came to an end.

After he was defeated by the Holkar dynasty in 1802, the Peshwa Baji Rao II sought protection from the British East India Company, whose intervention destroyed the confederacy by 1818 after the Second and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars.

Historian Barbara Ramusack notes, "neither term is fully accurate since one implies a substantial degree of centralisation and the other signifies some surrender of power to a central government and a longstanding core of political administrators".

With his entire imperial court, administration and an army of about 500,000 troops, he proceeded to expand the Mughal empire, gaining territories such as the sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda.

Balaji Vishwanath's first major achievement was the conclusion of the Treaty of Lonavala in 1714 with Kanhoji Angre, the most powerful naval chief on the Western Coast who later accepted Shahu as Chhatrapati.

[51] The new teenage emperor, Rafi ud-Darajat and a puppet of the Sayyid brothers, granted Shahu rights to collecting Chauth and Sardeshmukhi from the six Mogul provinces of Deccan, and full possession of the territories controlled by Shivaji in 1680.

[64] Raghuji was able to annex Odisha to his kingdom permanently as he successfully exploited the chaotic conditions prevailing in Bengal after the death of its governor Murshid Quli Khan in 1727.

Kaushik Roy says, "The treatment by the Marathas of their co-religionist fellows – Jats and Rajputs was definitely unfair and ultimately had to pay its price in Panipat where Muslim forces had united in the name of religion.

Hafiz Rehmat, abhorring unnecessary violence, unlike the outlook of his fellow Rohillas such as Ali Muhammad and Najib Khan, prided himself on his role as a political mediator and sought an alliance with Awadh to keep the Marathas out of Rohilkhand.

[76] Shah Alam II, the Mughal Emperor spent six years in the Allahabad fort and after the capture of Delhi in 1771 by the Marathas, left for his capital under their protection.

[citation needed] After the growth in power of feudal lords like the Malwa sardars, the landlords of Bundelkhand and the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan who refused to pay tribute to him, he sent his army to conquer states such as Bhopal, Datiya, Chanderi, Narwar, Salbai and Gohad.

[86] The Maratha-Sikh treaty in 1785 made the small Cis-Sutlej states an autonomous protectorate of the Scindia Dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy,[87] as Mahadaji Shinde was deputed the Vakil-i-Mutlaq (Regent of the empire) of Mughal affairs in 1784.

[88][89] Following the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1806, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington drafted a treaty granting independence to the Sikh clans east of the Sutlej River in exchange for their allegiance to the British General Gerard Lake acting on his dispatch.

[105] After the British conquest, however, the Marathas launched frequent raids in Mysore to plunder the region, which they justified as compensation for past losses to Tipu Sultan.

[106] In 1775, the British East India Company, from its base in Bombay, intervened in a succession struggle in Pune, on behalf of Raghunathrao (also called Raghobadada), who wanted to become Peshwa of the confederacy.

The real contest for India was never a single decisive battle for the subcontinent, rather, it turned on a complex social and political struggle for the control of the South Asian military economy.

[72][89] The involvement of the Bombay Government in advocating Raghoba's claim to the Peshwaship of the Maratha Confederacy resulted in the First Anglo-Maratha War, ultimately concluding with the signing of the Treaty of Salbai (1782).

[126] Ministerial designations were drawn from the Sanskrit language and comprised: With the notable exception of the priestly Panditrao and the judicial Nyayadisha, the other pradhans held full-time military commands and their deputies performed their civil duties in their stead.

[citation needed] Under the administration of the Peshwas and with the support of several key generals and diplomats (listed below), the Maratha Empire reached its zenith, ruling most of the Indian subcontinent.

Cosme da Guarda says of him that:[95] Such was the good treatment Shivaji accorded to people and such was the honesty with which he observed the capitulations that none looked upon him without a feeling of love and confidence.

He was naturally loved by all men of valor and good conduct.The Marathas carried out many sea raids, such as plundering Mughal Naval ships and European trading vessels.

European traders described these attacks as piracy, but the Marathas viewed them as legitimate targets because they were trading with, and thus financially supporting, their Mughal and Bijapur enemies.

[130] This new Maratha Army was not homogeneous, but employed soldiers of different backgrounds, both locals and foreign mercenaries, including large numbers of Arabs, Sikhs, Rajputs, Sindhis, Rohillas, Abyssinians, Pashtuns, and Europeans.

While they excelled as craftsmen and technicians, successfully replicating the latest foreign military technology, their ability to govern as nation-builders was hindered because they struggled to effectively manage the intricate workings of command and failed to address the shortcomings in their general staff system.

Such was the fierce assault of the Maratha infantry in hand-to-hand combat that Afghan armies started to flee and the wazir in desperation and rage shouted, "Comrades whither do you fly, our country is far off".

He cautioned one British general: "You must never allow Maratha infantry to attack head on or in close hand-to-hand combat as in that your army will cover itself with utter disgrace".

Those gentlemen commenced their operations in the provinces of Azerbaijan and Kermanshah, and it is said with considerable success.Satara: Kolhapur: From Balaji Vishwanath onwards, the actual power gradually shifted to the Bhat family of Peshwas based in Poona.