Mahrattas

Mahrattas (Maráthás, or Marhatas), a people of mixed origin, Hindus in religion and caste ordinances, inhabiting Western and Central India, from the Satpura Mountains to Nagpur. The Mahratta Brahmins claim to be Rajputs; the bulk of the people are Sudras, and probably of aboriginal blood mainly. They are first mentioned in history about the middle of the 17th century, when they possessed a narrow strip of territory on the west side of the peninsula. The founder of the Mahratta power was Sivaji, a freebooter or adventurer, whose father, Shahji Bhonsla, was an officer in the service of the last king of Bijapur. By policy or by force, he eventually succeeded in compelling the several independent Hindu chiefs to acknowledge him as their leader, and with the large army then at his command overran and subdued a large portion of the emperor of Delhi's territory. His son and (1680) successor, Sambhaji, after vigorously following out his father's policy, was taken prisoner by Aurungzebe in 1689, and put to death. His son, a prisoner, resigned his rule to his minister, with the title of Peshwá; the descendants of Sivaji henceforward reigned over but did not govern Sattara (see INDIA, p. 118). Under the fourth hereditary Peshwá there were five Mahratta states, more or less powerful and independent: that of the Peshwá at Poona; that of the Bhonslas at Nagpur; Gwalior, ruled by Sindhia; Indore, by Holkar; and Baroda, by the Guicowar. The invasion of the Delhi empire by Nadir Shah afforded these wild and warlike mountaineers an opportunity, of which they eagerly availed themselves, to wrest additional territory from the feeble grasp of the Mogul emperor. From this time they discharged the office of arbiters in the quarrels between the emperor, his vizier, and his rebellious subjects; but the frightful defeat (January 1761) they sustained at the hands of Ahmed Shah Duráni, the ruler of Afghanistan, on the field of Panipat, where they lost 50,000 men, and all their chiefs except Holkar, weakened their power for a time. They still, however, continued to be the hired mercenaries of the Delhi emperor, till the growing influence of the British compelled them to look to their own safety. After many long and bloody contests with the British and their allies (1780, 1803, 1817-18), in which sometimes the whole, but more frequently a portion of the Mahrattas joined, they were one by one, with the exception of Sindhia, reduced to a state of dependence. This last-mentioned chief, having raised a powerful army, officered by Frenchmen, and disciplined after the European method, continued the contest for a number of years, till his power was finally broken in 1843. The dignity of Peshwá was abolished in 1818, and his territories were occupied by the British. The Mahrattas are almost all now in British or Mohammedan states; in the states called Mahratta states (Gwalior, Indore, Baroda; see INDIA, p. 110) only the prince and his relatives are Mahrattas, the people being of other stocks. See Grant-Duff's History of the Maráthás (1826).