Administrative System of the Marathas c2.1

c2.1

Shivaji, born in 1627, captured Torna in 1646 and died in 1680 at the comparatively young age of fifty-three. Before his death he had founded a mighty Hindu kingdom in defiance of the Sultanates of Bijapur and Golkonda, then tottering to their fall, and the Chaghatai, miscalled Mughal Empire, then at the zenith of its power under Aurangzib Alamgir. Within a decade of its founder's death, the infant Maratha power was faced with a serious crisis. The son and successor of Shivaji was captured and decapitated and the infant heir to the throne became a Mughal prisoner. Further expansion was out of the question, the very existence of the kingdom was threatened. The Marathas undeterred by the power, wealth and prestige of the empire engaged in a life and death struggle which ended in their favour. With the return of Shahu to his paternal kingdom opened a new era of conquest and expansion. The Maratha horsemen reached the extreme North-Western frontier of India, their horses drank the water of the Indus and the empire extended from sea to sea. The Maratha empire was apparently still in its full vigour when a conflict with a Western power brought about its disruption and fall. The last Hindu empire of India passed away after a chequered existence of 170 years.