The Rise of the Maratha Empire

EXCHANGE in EAST ASIA and THE INDIAN OCEAN HIST 1301 | History The Rise of the Maratha Empire The last of the remarkable Mughal emperors to rule India was Aurangzeb I. He took the Mughal throne in 1658 and began to seek to subjugate the rulers of the southern Indian kingdom of the Deccan Plateau. He oversaw the resurgence of Islam in the Mughal lands as well. Aurangzeb was a devout man who often paused in the middle of combat to do the obligatory daily prayers. He aimed to eradicate all non-Islamic customs from his court. While some in his court still listened to music, he declined to hunt, which had been a customary activity for Mughal emperors. He did away with the interfaith discussions that his forebears had sponsored, along with other customs like measuring one's own weight in gold on the anniversaries of his coronation and birth, which he saw as an improper show of extravagance. Aurangzeb was a patron of Muslim intellectuals, and he had them gather a body of Islamic law in Persian. Aurangzeb extended the boundaries of the Mughal kingdom and was an expert military leader. He was unable to quickly assimilate non-Muslims into his dominion, though. While he occasionally sent money to Hindu temples, just like earlier Mughal emperors, he also occasionally gave the order to destroy Hindu temples that opposed his authority. In the end, he levied a tax on all non-Muslims in addition to a particular levy on Hindu pilgrims. Although they were exempt from this levy, Hindu administrators frequently got lower salary than their Muslim counterparts. Important posts in Aurangzeb's government were also given preference to Muslim immigrants to India rather than Hindus who were born in India. Sikhs and Aurangzeb battled in northern India. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that originated in the northwest Indian area of Punjab in the fourteenth century. It is a combination of elements from both Islam and Hinduism. Aurangzeb attempted to restrict the line of succession of Sikh gurus, the community's religious and political leaders, while the Mughals attacked the Sikhs. The guru Tegh Bahadur's killing by him sparked even more opposition to Mughal rule. The Marathas, a Hindu tribe from the western Deccan Plateau, were among the numerous Hindus that resisted Aurangzeb. Numerous Marathas have served in the armed forces of both Hindu and Muslim kings. It was how Shivaji, the most formidable of their chiefs, had gained his combat expertise. He often defeated Aurangzeb's commanders when leading his own soldiers into combat against Mughal forces, demonstrating his strength as an opponent. Shivaji gained a large following because to his military prowess and the valuable loot that fell to his warriors. He held out a siege for over two years before defeating a far bigger Mughal force in 1663. Shivaji's armies entered Gujarat and took possession of the port of Surat less than a year after this victory. Aurangzeb made an effort to gain Shivaji's support by calling him to the Mughal court in 1666 and bestowing a royal title on his still-young son. But Shivaji was regarded with disdain by his Mughal hosts, and after Aurangzeb tried to imprison him, he fled and continued his fight against the Mughals. After eight years, Shivaji himself was proclaimed an emperor on par with Aurangzeb, thereby claiming his own domain and elevating himself over other Maratha chiefs. By replacing Persian, the Mughals' official language, with Marathi, the indigenous tongue, Shivaji aimed to eradicate Mughal dominance. He conducted his court in accordance with Hindu customs, substituting phrases from Sanskrit, the holy language of Hinduism, for Persian political jargon. Unlike Marathi, which it could not be anticipated that Hindus in other regions of India would learn, Sanskrit was a language that all educated Hindus knew. In Shivaji's empire, Sanskrit fulfilled a comparable role to that of Chinese or Latin in mediaeval East Asia or Europe: it was the language of the learned classes. In addition to leading processions to nearby Hindu shrines, Shivaji supported Sanskrit scholars. But despite his commitment to Hinduism, he did not discriminate against Muslims and donated money to Islamic organisations. Shivaji wrote to Aurangzeb to tell him that he could not be a true Muslim if he did not comprehend that God had created all people, not only Muslims, in response to the Mughal Empire's levy on non-Muslims. Shivaji started a campaign in 1674 with the goal of uniting the southern and central regions of the Indian subcontinent under the Maratha Empire's rule. Despite his passing in 1680, the Mughals and Marathas were still at war. The Mughal treasury was depleted by years of warfare, and in 1705 Maratha forces took over the coast of Gujarat. Overextended, the Mughals started to withdraw from Maratha domain. The Marathas gained power as the Mughals lost power. Approximately one-third of India was taken over by Maratha soldiers throughout the following twenty years. But when Ahmad Shah Durrani, the ruler of Afghanistan, marched eastward against the Mughal and Maratha empires in an attempt to increase his realm, the Maratha attempt to rule all of India was put to an end. Indian colonists saw a steady increase in power as they waged war against Afghans.