[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [Shivaji and His Times](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sarkar-1919) › c19.s2.2 # Shivaji and His Times c19.s2.2 Shivaji and His Times c19.s2.2 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sarkar-1919.c19.s2.2) An obvious cause was, no doubt, the shortness of his reign, barely ten years after the final rupture with the Mughals in 1670. But this does not furnish the true explanation of his failure. It is doubtful if with a very much longer time at his disposal he could have averted the ruin which befell the Maratha State under the Peshwas, for the same moral canker was at work among his people in the 17th century as in the 18th. The first danger of the new Hindu kingdom established by him in the Deccan lay in the fact that the national glory and prosperity resulting from the victories of Shivaji and Baji Rao I. created a reaction in favour of Hindu orthodoxy; it accentuated caste distinction and ceremonial purity of daily rites which ran counter to the homogeneity and simplicity of the poor and politically depressed early Maratha society. Thus, his political success sapped the main foundation of that success. - [Previous: c19.s2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sarkar-1919.c19.s2.1) - [Next: c19.s2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sarkar-1919.c19.s2.3) - [Up: c19.s2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sarkar-1919.c19.s2) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sarkar-1919.c19.s2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sarkar-1919.c19.s2.2) · Pramāṇa