History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c58.s2.1

v4.c58.s2.1

These were the Marathas. A small body, no doubt; but they leavened the entire mass of the Deccani population. They dominated Deccan history for the century and a half that followed the accession of Aurangzib and North Indian history for the last fifty years of the 18th century. The Maratha people had been there from time out of mind, but since the 13th century they had lived dispersed through many States, as the subjects of aliens in the land of their birth, without any political organization or status of their own. A genius was needed to unite these scattered units into a *nation* and drive them like a solid wedge into the Mughal empire, shivering it to bits. That genius was Shivaji, the contemporary and antagonist of Aurangzib.