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Balaji Vishwanath
Balaji Vishwanath Bhat (1662–1720) was the first of a series of hereditary Peshwas hailing from the Bhat family who gained effective control of the Maratha Empire during the 18th century. Balaji Vishwanath assisted a young Maratha Emperor Shahu to consolidate his grip on a kingdom that had been racked by civil war and persistently intruded on by the Mughals under Aurangzeb. He was called ''the Second Founder of the Maratha State''. Later, his son Bajirao I became the Peshwa. Early life and career Balaji Vishwanath Bhat was born into a Marathi Konkanastha Chitpavan Brahmin family. The family hailed from the coastal Konkan region of present-day Maharashtra and were the hereditary Deshmukh for Shrivardhan under the Siddi of Janjira. He went out in search of employment to the upper regions of western ghats and worked as a mercenary trooper under various Maratha generals. According to Kincaid & Parasnis, Balaji Vishwanath entered the Maratha administration during the reign of ...
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Parvati Hill
Parvati Hill is a hillock in Pune, India. The hillock rises to above sea level. Atop the hillock is the Parvati Temple, one of the most scenic locations in Pune. The temple is the oldest heritage structure in Pune and was built during the rule of the Peshwa dynasty. For visitors, Parvati hill is also an observation point that offers a panoramic view of Pune. It is the second highest point in Pune (after Vetal Hill). The hill has 108 steps (considered a holy number in Hinduism) leading to the top of the hill where the temple is situated. The hill was owned by the Patil (title), Patil named Taware. Peshwa purchased the hill to build a temple of Shiva. The Devi temple was believed to be of Taware's whose angara was able to cure a leg ailment of Kashibai, mother of Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao. Thereafter, the Peshwa built a temple complex there. The main temple, Devdeveshwara, is made of Deccan Traps, blackstone. It was completed under Balaji Baji Rao in 1749, and a gold pinnacle was ad ...
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Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the dynasty and the empire itself became indisputably Indian. The interests and futures of all concerned were in India, not in ancestral homelands in the Middle East or Central Asia. Furthermore, the Mughal empire emerged from the Indian historical experience. It was the end product of a millennium of Muslim conquest, colonization, and state-building in the Indian subcontinent." For some two hundred years, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus river basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan Plateau in South India. Quote: "The realm so defined and governed was a vast territory of some , rang ...
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Tarabai
Tarabai Bhosale (Pronunciation: ̪aːɾabaːi ''née'' Mohite) was the regent of the Maratha Empire of India from 1700 until 1708. She was the queen of Rajaram Bhonsale, and daughter-in-law of the empire's founder Shivaji. She is acclaimed for her role in keeping alive the resistance against Mughal occupation of Maratha territories after the death of her husband, and acting as the regent during the minority of her son, Shivaji II. Family and early life Tarabai came from Mohite clan. She was daughter of Commander-in-Chief Hambirrao Mohite of Shivaji, the founder-king of the Maratha empire. Hambirrao's sister Soyarabai was the queen of Shivaji and mother of his younger son Rajaram I. Tarabai married Rajaram at the age of 8 in 1682, becoming his second wife. After the death of his step-brother and predecessor Sambhaji, Rajaram ruled the Maratha Empire from 1689 to 1700, when his first wife Jankibai was the empress consort. On Rajaram's death in March 1700, Tarabai proclai ...
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Deccan Plateau
The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges. A rocky terrain marked by boulders, its elevation ranges between , with an average of about .Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2014), ''Deccan plateau India''Encyclopaedia Britannica/ref> It is sloping generally eastward. Thus, its principal rivers—the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri (Cauvery)—flow eastward from the Western Ghats to the Bay of Bengal. The plateau is drier than the coastal region of southern India and is arid in places. It produced some of the major dynasties in Indian history, including the Pallavas, Satavahana, Vakataka, Chalukya, and Rashtrakuta dynasties, also the Western Chalukya Empire, the Kadambas, the Yadava dynasty, the Kakatiya Empire, the Musunuri Nayakas regime, the ...
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Shivaji
Shivaji Bhonsale I (; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680), also referred to as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the declining Adilshahi sultanate of Bijapur which formed the genesis of the Maratha Empire. In 1674, he was formally crowned the ''Chhatrapati'' of his realm at Raigad Fort. Over the course of his life, Shivaji engaged in both alliances and hostilities with the Mughal Empire, the Sultanate of Golkonda, Sultanate of Bijapur and the European colonial powers. Shivaji's military forces expanded the Maratha sphere of influence, capturing and building forts, and forming a Maratha navy. Shivaji established a competent and progressive civil rule with well-structured administrative organisations. He revived ancient Hindu political traditions, court conventions and promoted the usage of the Marathi and Sanskrit languages, replacing Persian in court and admi ...
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Chattrapati Shahu
Chhatrapati Shahu Bhosale I (Pronunciation: �aːɦuː CE) was the fifth Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire founded by his grandfather, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Born into the Bhonsle family, he was the son of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, Shivaji Maharaj's eldest son and successor. He was captured at a very young age and held captive by the Mughals till the death of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. At that time, he was released from captivity in the hope of keeping the Marathas locked in an internecine struggle. Under Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj's reign, Maratha power and influence extended to all corners of the Indian subcontinent, which eventually turned into a strong Maratha Empire during his time. After his death, his ministers and generals such as the Peshwas, Bhonsle of Nagpur, Gaikwad, Shinde and Holkar carved out their own fiefdoms and turned the empire into a confederacy. Early life Shahu, as a seven year old child, was taken prisoner along with his mother in 168 ...
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Murud-Janjira
Murud-Janjira () is the local name of a famous fort and tourist spot situated on an island just off the coastal town/city of Murud, in the Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. Origins of the name The word Janjira is a corruption of the arabic word "Jazira", which means island in the Arabic language. Murud was once known in Marathi as ''Habsan'' ("of Habshi" or Abyssinian). The name of the fort is a concatenation of the Konkani and Marathi words, "murud" and "Janjiri". The word "morod" is peculiar to Konkani and is absent in Marathi. Ramrao Patil of Janjira Raja Ram Rao Patil was Patil of Janjira Island and a chief of Kolis who established and/or built this island in the 15th century for Kolis to live peacefully away from pirates. After gaining permission from the Sultan of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, he built the island but later refused to obey the orders of the Sultan. So the Sultan sent his Admiral Piram Khan in 1489 to capture the janjira. Due to the castle's for ...
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Dhanaji Jadhav
Dhanaji Jadhav (1650–1708) was a warrior of the Maratha Empire. Along with Santaji Ghorpade he made terrifying campaigns against Mughal Army from 1689 to 1696. After Santaji, Dhanaji became the chief of the Maratha army in 1696 and remained on the post until his death in 1708. Background Dhanaji was born in or around 1650, to the warrior Maratha family from Sindkhed to Santaji Jadhav. Dhanaji was brought up by Shivaji's mother Jijabai after assassination of Dhanaji's grandfather Achloji, who was Jijabai's brother. Santaji's son Shambhu (Sambhaji) also was brought up by Jijabai, and her son Shivaji after Santaji's martyrdom at the Battle of Pavan Khind with Baji Prabhu Deshpande Early career At an early age, Dhanaji joined Maratha army under Shivaji's Military Chief Prataprao Gujar. In the battles at Umbrani and Nesari, Dhanaji's performance attracted attention of Shivaji for the first time. He was named by Shivaji on his death bed among six pillars of Maratha Empire who ...
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Rajaram Chhatrapati
Rajaram Bhosle I (Pronunciation: �aːd͡ʒaɾaːm – 3 March 1700) was the third ''Chhatrapati'' of Maratha Empire, who ruled from 1689 to his death in 1700. He was the second son of the Shivaji, the founder of the empire and younger half-brother of Sambhaji, who he succeeded. His eleven-year reign was marked with a constant struggle against the Mughals. He was succeeded by his infant son Shivaji II under the regentship of his widow Tarabai. Early life and family Rajaram was born in a family of Bhonsle clan, to Shivaji and his younger wife, Soyarabai on 24 February 1670. He was thirteen years younger than his brother, Sambhaji. Given the ambitious nature of Soyarabai, Rajaram was installed on the Maratha throne upon the death of his father in 1680. However, the Maratha generals wanted Sambhaji as the king and thus, he claimed the throne. Upon Sambhaji's death, Rajaram was crowned as Chhatrapati of the Maratha state. Rajaram married three times. His first marriage was at ...
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Sambhaji
Sambhaji Bhosale (14 May 1657 – 11 March 1689) was the second Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire, ruling from 1681 to 1689. He was the eldest son of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire. Sambhaji's rule was largely shaped by the ongoing wars between the Maratha Empire and the Mughal Empire, as well as other neighbouring powers such as the Siddis, Mysore and the Portuguese in Goa. After Sambhaji's death, his brother Rajaram I succeeded him as the next Chhatrapati. Early life Sambhaji was born into a Marathi Hindu family at Purandar fort to the Maratha ruler Shivaji, and his first wife Saibai, who died when he was two years old and he was raised by his paternal grandmother Jijabai. At the age of nine, Sambhaji was sent to live with Raja Jai Singh I of Amber as a political hostage to ensure compliance of the Treaty of Purandar that Shivaji had signed with the Mughals on 11 June 1665. As a result of the treaty, Sambhaji became a Mughal mansabdar. He and his father Shiv ...
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Deshmukh
Deshmukh (IAST:Dēśamukh), is a historical title conferred to the rulers of a . It is used as a surname in certain regions of India, specifically in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh whose family received it as a title. Etymology In Sanskrit, ''Deśa'' means land, country and ''mukha'' means head or chief; thus, ''deshmukh'' means "the head" of a district. Deshmukh as a title Local office Deshmukh was a historical title given to a person who was granted a territory of land, in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The granted territory was usually referred to as the Dēśamukhi. The Deshmukh was in effect the ruler of the territory, as he was entitled to a portion of the collected taxes. It was also his duty to maintain the basic services in the territory, such as police and judicial duties. It was typically a hereditary system. The title of Deshmukh provided the titled family with revenues from the area and the ...
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Konkan
The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland east of the coast has numerous river valleys and riverine islands among the hilly slopes leading up into the tablelands of the Deccan. The region has been recognised by name, since at least the time of Strabo in the third century C.E., and was a thriving mercantile port with Arab tradesmen from the 10th century. The best-known islands of Konkan are Ilhas de Goa, the site of the Goa state's capital at Panjim, and the seven islands of Bombay, on which lies the capital of the State of Maharashtra. Definition Historically, the limits of Konkan have been flexible, and it has been known by additional names like " Aparanta" and "Gomanchal", the latter being defined as the coastal area between the Daman Ganga River in the north and the ...
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