Vijayanagara, the Bahmanis and the Rise of the Marathas
2. The Bahmanis and the Deccan Sultanates
The Bahmani Sultanate (founded 1347 by Alauddin Bahman Shah, a rebel against Tughlaq authority in the Deccan) rose, expanded and eventually fragmented — internal court factionalism between 'Deccani' (long-settled) and 'Afaqi' (newly arrived, foreign-born) nobles being a recurring destabiliser — into five successor Deccan Sultanates that the syllabus names by their capitals: Bijapur (Adil Shahi dynasty), Golkonda (Qutb Shahi, later famous for its diamond mines and Hyderabad's founding), Bidar (Barid Shahi), Berar (Imad Shahi) and Ahmadnagar (Nizam Shahi, home to the celebrated regent Chand Bibi's resistance to Mughal expansion).
| Dynasty | Note |
|---|---|
| Eastern Gangas (Odisha) | Narasimhadeva I builds the Konark Sun Temple; the dynasty rules a substantial eastern kingdom contemporary with the earlier Vijayanagara-Bahmani period. |
| Suryavamshi Gajapatis | Succeed the Eastern Gangas in Odisha; Kapilendra and Purushottama expand the kingdom, contesting territory with Vijayanagara to their south — precisely the 'Odisha's Gajapatis' rivalry Krishnadevaraya's own military record includes. |
3. Rise of the Marathas: Shivaji and the Peshwas
Shivaji (1630-1680), building on his father Shahaji's earlier service to the Bijapur and Ahmadnagar Sultanates and his own guerrilla-warfare mastery of the rugged Sahyadri terrain, carved out an independent Maratha kingdom (Swaraj) from Bijapur and Mughal territory alike — his 1659 killing of the Bijapuri general Afzal Khan at Pratapgad and his 1666 escape from Aurangzeb's custody at Agra are the best-known episodes — and formally crowned himself Chhatrapati at Raigad in 1674, with an administration built around the Asta Pradhan, a council of eight ministers.
- Expansion under the Peshwas — after Shivaji's successors, real executive power passes to the hereditary Peshwas (chief ministers, based at Poona) from the early 18th century, under whom the Maratha state transforms from a compact regional kingdom into a subcontinental confederacy of largely autonomous chiefs — the Gaikwads of Baroda, the Holkars of Indore, the Scindias of Gwalior and the Bhonsles of Nagpur.
- Chauth and Sardeshmukhi — the two Maratha revenue claims (chauth, a quarter of a territory's revenue exacted as tribute, and sardeshmukhi, an additional tenth claimed as the Maratha king's hereditary chieftainship-right) that the confederacy extracted from Mughal and other territory across much of India, funding its expansion without full territorial annexation.
4. Mughal-Maratha Relations, the Confederacy and Decline
Mughal-Maratha relations moved through open war (Aurangzeb's decades-long, ultimately fruitless Deccan campaigns against Shivaji's successors) into a more complex later relationship where a fragmenting Mughal centre and an expanding Maratha confederacy alternately fought and made accommodations — Maratha forces even briefly held effective influence over a nominal Mughal emperor in Delhi during the mid-18th century — before the confederacy's own structural weaknesses (the same centrifugal tendency of largely autonomous chiefs that had enabled its rapid expansion) produced fatal internal disunity at the decisive Third Battle of Panipat (1761) against Ahmad Shah Abdali, and later, cumulative British political and military pressure completed the Maratha Confederacy's decline across the Anglo-Maratha Wars.
Key takeaways
- Vijayanagara (founded 1336, four dynasties, Krishnadevaraya's Tuluva peak) fell decisively at Talikota (1565) to the united five Deccan Sultanates.
- The Bahmani Sultanate fragmented, via Deccani-Afaqi factionalism, into Bijapur (Adil Shahi), Golkonda (Qutb Shahi), Bidar (Barid Shahi), Berar (Imad Shahi) and Ahmadnagar (Nizam Shahi); the Eastern Gangas and Suryavamshi Gajapatis ruled contemporary Odisha.
- Shivaji built Swaraj through guerrilla warfare and the Asta Pradhan council, crowned Chhatrapati in 1674; power later passed to the hereditary Peshwas, who built the Maratha Confederacy (Gaikwad, Holkar, Scindia, Bhonsle) funded by chauth and sardeshmukhi.
- Mughal-Maratha relations moved from Aurangzeb's fruitless Deccan wars to a complex later relationship; by the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) the real contest was Maratha-Afghan, the Mughals reduced to figureheads.
- The Confederacy's own centrifugal structure (autonomous chiefs) both enabled its rapid rise and produced the disunity fatal at Panipat III; cumulative British pressure across the Anglo-Maratha Wars completed its decline.
Practice questions (9)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
The battle that decisively defeated the Vijayanagara empire, uniting the five Deccan Sultanates against it, was:
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Answer: A — Talikota (1565)
Talikota (1565) saw the united Deccan Sultanates decisively defeat Vijayanagara and sack Hampi, from which the empire never fully recovered.The Bahmani Sultanate's successor states, named by their capitals, include Golkonda, ruled by which dynasty?
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Answer: A — Qutb Shahi
Golkonda was ruled by the Qutb Shahi dynasty; Bijapur by Adil Shahi, Ahmadnagar by Nizam Shahi and Bidar by Barid Shahi.Shivaji's council of eight ministers, the core of his administration, is called:
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Answer: A — Asta Pradhan
Asta Pradhan is Shivaji's eight-minister council; Turkan-i-Chahalgani was Iltutmish's forty Turkish nobles, Mansabdari the Mughal rank system, and Ashtadiggajas were Krishnadevaraya's eight court poets.Chauth, a Maratha revenue claim, refers to:
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Answer: A — A quarter of a territory's revenue exacted as tribute
Chauth is a quarter of revenue exacted as tribute; sardeshmukhi is the separate additional tenth — the two are distinct Maratha fiscal claims tested together.By the time of the Third Battle of Panipat (1761), the real contest for north Indian supremacy was between:
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Answer: A — The Marathas and Ahmad Shah Abdali's Afghans
By 1761 the Mughals were reduced to nominal figureheads; the actual contest was between the Marathas and Ahmad Shah Abdali's invading Afghan forces.Krishnadevaraya, Vijayanagara's celebrated peak ruler, belonged to which dynasty?
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Answer: A — Tuluva
Krishnadevaraya belonged to the Tuluva dynasty, the third of Vijayanagara's four ruling houses (Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva, Aravidu).Which of the following are among the Peshwa-era Maratha confederacy's autonomous chief houses?
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Answer: A — The Scindias of Gwalior; B — The Holkars of Indore; C — The Gaikwads of Baroda
Scindia, Holkar and Gaikwad (with the Bhonsles of Nagpur) are the confederacy's autonomous Maratha chief houses; the Nizam Shahis were an earlier, separate Deccan Sultanate, not part of the Maratha confederacy.Chand Bibi, remembered for resisting Mughal expansion, was regent of:
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Answer: A — Ahmadnagar
Chand Bibi is celebrated as the regent of Ahmadnagar (Nizam Shahi) who resisted Mughal expansion into the Deccan in the late 16th century.Name the Bijapuri general Shivaji killed at Pratapgad in 1659, an early and famous episode of his rise.
Numerical answer — type the value.
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Answer: Afzal Khan
Afzal Khan, sent by Bijapur to subdue Shivaji, was killed at their meeting at Pratapgad in 1659, an early and celebrated episode establishing Shivaji's growing power.