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Vikrant Pande

The story of the Marathas starts with Shivaji for most of us. The action happened in what is called the Deccan and its geography and politics plays an important role. We must understand what the Deccan means, who ruled there and what was the condition of the Deccan part of India before, and when, Shivaji was born.

Sanket Mhatre

Storytel Original IN

History of Marathas

History of Marathas EP01 - Deccan before Shivaji

The founder of the Marathas, the most revered Chhatrapati Shivaji has fascinating anecdotes which are motivating, stirring and touch the listener.

History of Marathas EP02 - A true hero is born

Badi Saheba addressed the august gathering, ‘Usne asmzat-e-shahi ko lalkara hai. ‘The very might of Bijapur has been challenged.’ We need to take our revenge; put him in his place. It is for the sake of our religion. This kafir needs to be punished. Who is the brave man who can do this? Huh? Come on, I am waiting for one of you to pick up the paan.’

Little did Afzal Khan know that Shivaji was well prepared and was going to kill him.

History of Marathas EP03 - Killing of Afzal Khan

Shiva the barber was unperturbed. ‘There is no point in showing your anger. Raje is gone. Flown away! I got a chance to wear his clothes and pretend to be him for an hour. What else do I need. This is my reward.’
‘Haramzaade!’ Siddi shouted again and plunged his sword into Shiva’s chest. Shiva’s face contorted with pain and he stumbled back. He steadied himself for a bit, holding a pillar inside the tent. He could not afford to show his back to the enemy. Even when he was acting like Shivaji he had to be one!
He said, raising his hand to his forehead as he said, ‘Raje, ha maaza shevat cha muzra.’ It was his last salute to Raje. Shiva collapsed the next moment, dead.

When Shivaji has men like him, how could he not live up to their expectations

History of Marathas EP04 - Valourous acts at Panhala and Godkhind

It was late in the night when the group reached Pune. The soft diffused light of the ashtami moon spread over the ground. The guards at the gate came out adjusting their guns hearing the horses. One of the guards challenged,
‘Kaun hai?’
One of Ibrahim’s men stepped forward and slapped the guard hard shouting, ‘Badtameez! Khansahab ko pehchanta nahin?’
The other guards hastily bent in mujras and salaams. The route was now clear. Ibrahim moved forward in a casual yet dignified manner as if nothing had happened. It was silence all over sans the intermittent warning shouts of the guards parading the area. Most of the Mughal troops were tired of the day long Ramzan fast and were fast asleep after a heavy meal.

History of Marathas EP05 - Attack on Shaista Khan

‘I did not come here just to receive the royal honour. My son is a panch hazari Mansabdar under the Badshah. He can be made to stand wherever the Badshah wishes him to. But I am not a servant of the Badshah! I am a Raja in my own right!’
The three of them returned, unable to convince Shivaji. They explained the situation to the Badshah when Ram Singh said, ‘Alijah! It seems the hot Agra weather has not suited Raje. Please pardon him. He will present himself soon.’
‘I can understand his feelings,’ said Aurangzeb. 
‘Ram Singh, please sprinkle my special gulab jal on him to cool him down. Please request him to come back. We will then talk.’

History of Marathas EP06 - Visit to Agra

Aurangzeb behaved like a man possessed. He was unable to believe what he had just seen and heard. Had Shivaji really vanished as described by Fulaad Khan? He wondered whether Shivaji could walk through walls and materialize elsewhere. He was not willing to take chances with his own life and ordered strict security around himself. A maulvi accompanied him all the time. Ram Singh’s mansabdari was taken away.

History of Marathas EP07 - Escape from Agra

Suryaji was barely able to speak.

He began, ‘Maharaj, Tanaji realized we may not be able to climb the steep cliffs but he used his favourite ghorpad (Ghorpad is a monitor lizard in Marathi), Yashwanti.
He tied a rope around its waist and it climbed up, securing a foothold using its sharp talons. We all were able to climb up soon. As soon as we entered the fort, the guards woke up and a fight began. We were outnumbered by the enemy troops- there were Arabs, Afghans, Rajputs and Pathans and we fought like men possessed. Tanaji was a tiger, slaughtering anyone who came his way. When some of the Mawals wanted to run and Tanaji saw Shelar mama down on the ground, he cut off the ropes and shouted, ‘You fools! Here your mama lies on the ground and you can think of running away?’ That was enough to challenge us and we fought like devils possessed.’

History of Marathas EP08 - Capture of Sinhagad

Sambhaji and Kavi Kalash were stunned into silence. Was it really happening or was it a dream? Ikhlas Khan had tied the two. Out of sheer desperation and anger, he slapped Sambhaji. Kaviraj, seeing Ikhlas Khan touching Raje’s face, spat at him in disgust. Ikhlas Khan was enraged now and took out a whip tied around his waist. He whipped Sambhaji and Kavi in frustration before tying them on a horse back. Their clothes had been torn apart. They were made to wear a green dress, like the other soldiers.

History of Marathas EP09 - Sambhaji, the Lion’s cub

The Badshah growled once more. He dismissed the men holding the weapons and indicated to a group of men who wore iron claws. At his glance, two of them came near Sambhaji. One of them behind him and one facing him. From his neck to the spine and from his throat to his stomach, the men pulled his skin down as the trumpets and horns started blowing. The men shouted Deen Deen! Skin peeled off Sambhaji’s back, neck, chest and stomach. His whole body was a bloodied mess.
But Sambhaji did not allow his voice to be heard by anyone present. He did not scream or shout. Clenching his teeth he bore the intense and almost unbearable pain. His body, now red with blood, shivered from head to toe. Like the milk which gathers at the base of the Shivalinga, his blood gathered at his feet. Aurangzeb laughed hysterically, seeing Sambhaji’s body now peeled like the way a butcher skins a goat.

History of Marathas EP10 - Death of Sambhaji

Sambhaji’s death was a big blow to the Marathas. He was the rightful heir and a daredevil; someone who could have challenged Aurangzeb had he not been given up by his own family members.
The Marathas were not to give up so easily. The few years after Sambhaji’s death were ruinous and confusing. Sambhaji’s younger brother Rajaram, who was nineteen, and his mother Tarabai stayed at the Raigad fort. Yesaji Kank, a veteran since Shivaji’s time, did not waste time to declare Rajaram as the king within a week of Sambaji’s capture. This was a clear message to the Mughals that the Maratha monarchy was alive and kicking and that the Marathas were too. 
Aurangzeb was not going to sit quietly. He sent Itikad Khan (later called Zulfikar Khan) to Raigad to capture Rajaram and his mother.

History of Marathas EP11 - Chaos after Sambhaji

He stopped suddenly. His vision was getting muddled and he started mumbling the lines from the Quran.
Zeenat got up and looked out of the window. She could hear him utter,
‘La ilahi illillah.’
Dawn was breaking on the horizon. Aurangzeb’s soft uttering of the words from the Quran could be heard in the silence of the morning. The rays of the first light spread themselves in the room and reached the bedside. It was much later Zeenat realized the silence in the room. The words had stopped. She rushed to the bed and touched his forehead. A scream erupted from the tent,
‘Ya Allah! Ya Khuda!

A huge phase of the Mughal empire was over. It was the beginning of the end of the mighty Mughal empire. More of that later.

History of Marathas EP12 - Death of Aurangzeb

Folklore has it that Chhatrasal sent a wandering bard to Pune with a message for Bajirao. The story goes that the Peshwa heard the bard singing outside his palace- 
Jo gati grah gajendra ki
So gati bhai hai aaj
Baaji jaat Bundel ki
Baaji rakho laaj
Meaning,
‘Know you Baji rao; I am in that same sad plight in which a famous elephant was when caught by a crocodile. My valiant race is on the point of extinction. Come and rescue my honour.’

History of Marathas EP13 - The Peshwa era begins

Nanasaheb had taken the Marathas to the largest extent possible. In south, the Peshwa had won against the Nizam. So there was no challenge there. While Delhi was the capital of the Mughal empire, the power seat was Pune. In 1758 it felt as if the Marathas could hold their power over Punjab sitting in Pune, 1500 kms away. This was a mistake in hindsight. To hold power in the country one had to take charge of the throne at Delhi which the Marathas were unwilling to do allowing the Mughal emperor to rule. If only the Marathas had taken charge of Delhi, history would have been different.

History of Marathas EP14 - Nanasaheb Peshwa

The flat plains of Panipat had seen the battle in 1526 and 1555 where Babar defeated Ibrahim Lodi and Akbar defeated the Afghan army led by Hemchandra, aka Hemu, who was captured and beheaded by Behram Khan.
Now two and half centuries later, two mega armies stood waiting for a battle.
What kind of enemy’s strength are we talking of? There are many records, one of them is written by Kasiraj, a sixty year old man, who was part of Bhau’s huge army. He wrote his Kasiraj bakhar, nearly nineteen years after the war. He estimates Abdali’s men to be around eighty thousand while the Marathas had seventy thousand. There are many historians who have given different figures but what we are looking is the fact that they two armies were well matched.

History of Marathas EP15 - 1761, Third battle of Panipat

It was the arrival of Robert Clive, as the governor of Bengal which was to change the scene in India permanently. It is interesting to note that Robert Clive started his career as a mere clerk in East India Company. Clive met the emperor at Allahabad and got the permission for himself and the East India Company, the Diwani of the three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Diwani gave them the right to collect revenue and dispose of them without the responsibility for the provincial administration and without the appearance of complete annexation. The emperor, the suzerain authority, Shuja of Awadh and the Nawab of Bengal were links of an indivisible chain. The emperor was the central master while the provincial servants in the traditional Mughal hierarchy were Shuja and the Nawab. Now, Clive ensured that he could operate without the interference of any. It was a masterstroke!

History of Marathas EP16 - Rising from the Ashes

Ram Shastri Prabhune conducted an enquiry and found Raghunathrao the culprit in addition to another fifty persons of which there was one female servant. ‘The law,’ he thundered ‘was above the individual.’ 
The intrepid judge fearlessly argued the point and told Raghunathrao on his face that he was himself found to be the chief culprit and as such deserved the capital punishment. Raghoba asked indirectly whether a person who had committed a crime under unavoidable circumstances and now wanted to repent could seek penance. 
When his point was put forth, Ram Shastri boldly declared, ‘Dehant prayaschitta shivay doosra kahi prayaschitta nahin,’ meaning ‘the only penance was capital punishment or a death sentence.’ Never before in the history of India or for that matter in any country a sitting judge had passed a death sentence on the ruling monarch. It was a rare show of judicial independence which we possibly do not see even in today’s times. Those present in the court could not believe what they had just heard. There was a hushed silence...

History of Marathas EP17 - Narayanrao Peshwa

Tipu formed a large corps of young Muslim lads whom he called his sons and now provided them with handsome young wives from the Hindu fold. These atrocities were perpetrated during the wet months of 1785. In Malabar he had converted, in one stroke, a hundred thousand Hindus to his faith. Portuguese missionaries wrote that ‘he tied naked Christians and Hindus to the legs of elephants and made the elephants move around till the bodies of the helpless victims were torn to pieces.’ In 1786 he declared himself emperor and had the khutba read in his name in all the mosques throughout his kingdom. His contention was that ‘those idiots who introduce the name of Shah Alam in the khutba act through ignorance since the real condition of the so called emperor is this: that he is actually enslaved and a servant of the Scindia. So to pronounce the name of someone dependent on the infidels while reciting the sacred khutba was blasphemy.

History of Marathas EP18 - Mahadji Scindia

A group of Brahmins from Telangana had come to Pune and indulged in several incidents of irregular behaviour that disturbed the peace. They disobeyed the regulations and indulged in theft and rioting. On 29 August that year, thirty-five Telanga Brahmins were apprehended by a police officer on duty and shut up in a room in the chowky at Bhavani peth. Ghashiram personally did not visit the prison cell, which was in the form of a tunnel with poor ventilation. The prisoners remained in the cell for an entire day and a night and on the third morning, Manaji Phakde (a cousin of Mahadji Scindia) was passing that way, when he heard noises. He personally went to the cell
and broke open the locks to find that twenty-one of the Telanga Brahmins had died. He promptly informed Nana and the Peshwa of the tragedy.

History of Marathas EP19 - Ghasiram Kotwal

This episode will cover the sad end of the Marathas as a power, a period of nearly 60 years. It was the beginning of the end of the Maratha power, which began with Mahadji’s death and
ended with the 1857 First War of Independence.

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