Shahu I

Shahu I (18 May 1682 – 15 December 1749) was the fifth Chhatrapati of Maratha Empire from 1708 to 1749, the longest reign among the Maratha rulers. He was also the last subahdar of the Bijapur Subah, before being annexed by the Maratha Empire. During Shahu's reign, driven largely by the strategic vision and military leadership of his Peshwas, the Maratha Empire expanded across much of the Indian subcontinent and emerged as the leading power in South Asia.

Shahu, his father Sambhaji I and his grandfather Shivaji Maharaj, all belonged to the Bhonsle dynasty. He, along with his mother Yesubai Bhonsle, was under the capture of Aurangzeb during the Deccan Wars. For nearly 18 years, Shahu was under captive but was treated with royal courtesy and he was often interfered in Mughal politics. By 1707, Shahu was released by Aurangzeb's son Bahadur Shah I, in order to strengthen Mughals' relations with Marathas. Shahu held military and administrative posts during his captive days in the Mughal Empire before being the governor of the Bijapur Subah. Shahu succeeded his cousin Shivaji II by 1708 at the age of 26, shortly after Aurangzeb's death and his release. Then, Shahu launched military compaigns on the regions of Khed, Adilabad, Konkan, Bengal, Bihar and western Indian subcontinent. He also have successfully ceded them to the Maratha territory, with an exception of Bengal whose half territory was only incorporated to the empire. One of his most successful and famous campaigns were during at the Afsharid invasion of India in which the Afsharid Empire, under the rule of Nader Shah, occupied Delhi and the remaining western territories of an insignificant Mughal Empire. Marathas, under the rule of Shahu, helped the Mughals against the PersianAfsharid dynasty. By 1740, the combined forces of the Marathas and Mughals and other smaller regional powers defeated the Persians in the subcontinent and thereby, forcing Nader Shah's huge army to retreat from Lahore and western Indian subcontinent (Afghanistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and Punjab) and ceded all their territories in India to the Marathas. Thus, Marathas eventually captured Delhi and became the sole dominant power in South Asia, replacing Mughals which have been the dominant power in the region for over three centuries, and made them his puppets.

Shahu also introduced Mughal and western-styled form of administration into the Maratha Empire. He divided his empire into subahs (provinces), a system which was introduced by Akbar in the Mughal Empire. During Shahu's reign, the central authority of the empire became much stronger and the empire was highly centralized, with the Chhatrapati being the head of the state. Shahu was a great patron of many Indian languages, such as Marathi, Hindustani, Persian, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Tamil. He also made Hindustani as the dominant language in the empire's court, alongside his dynastic language, Marathi. He also issued coins in Persian, Prakrit, Sanskrit and French languages. The empire, under Shahu, started making trade contacts and strong relations with powers outside South Asia such as Britain, France, Iran and others. Because of all these reforms, he is called as Maharaj e-Hind (مهاراجِ هند) or Padishah e-Hind (پادشاه هند) in Persian and Hindustani languages, making him the only Maratha emperor to carry these titles.

Shahu died in 1749 at the age of 67, due to sudden heart attack and was succeeded by his son, Rajaram II. Some historians often claims that the decline of the Maratha Empire took place after his death but these citations are often dismissed as the empire still continued to be an effective power in Asia during the reign of Rajaram II. However, Shahu's death was significant blow to the empire. After his death, the power was passed into the hands of the Peshwa and the Chhatrapati was reduced into a nominal power. The central authority grew weaker and the Maratha Empire was decentralized into several houses of powers such as Holkars in Indore and Delhi, Scindias in Gwalior and Sind and Gaekwads in Baroda and Bhopal, in which all of them was ruled by the Peshwa and the Ashta Pradhan.