Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Maratha Implosion: The Long Road to Panipat
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's wars in the Deccan, and I think it's easy to walk away thinking: okay, the Mughals fought the Marathas, the Marathas outlasted them, end of story. But what happened after Aurangzeb died in 1707 is really where the Marathas transformed from a guerrilla resistance into something that nearly controlled all of India. Luna: I know they eventually marched on Delhi, but how did a light cavalry force become an imperial contender? Lucas: That's exactly the question. The key moment came right after Aurangzeb's death. His son Bahadur Shah I, in a bid to pacify the Marathas, released Shahu—the grandson of Shivaji—who had been held captive at the Mughal court for years. Shahu was about eighteen, and he returned to the Deccan to claim the Maratha throne, but there was a problem: Shivaji's other grandson, Sambhaji II, also had a claim, backed by the powerful Tarabai. Lucas: So you had a Maratha civil war, essentially. Shahu won out, but he needed administrators and generals. That's when he turned to the Chitpavan Brahmin family that would become the Peshwas. The first Peshwa, Balaji Vishwanath, was a brilliant diplomat. He negotiated with the Mughals to secure chauth and sardeshmukhi—basically, the right to collect taxes in Maratha-controlled areas. Luna: So the Marathas became tax collectors for the Mughals in their own territory? Lucas: In a way, yes. But those taxes funded an army. And the next Peshwa, Baji Rao I, was a military genius. Between 1720 and 1740, he led campaigns that stretched Maratha influence all the way to Gujarat, Malwa, and Bundelkhand. The Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah was essentially helpless. Baji Rao defeated a Mughal-Nizam coalition at the Battle of Palkhed in 1728, and again at Bhopal in 1738. Lucas: Those victories weren't just tactical—they were strategic. Baji Rao used mobility and intelligence to outmaneuver heavier Mughal armies. He'd raid supply lines, avoid pitched battles until he had the advantage. The Nizam of Hyderabad, who had been Aurangzeb's most capable general, was outclassed. Luna: So by the 1740s, the Marathas were effectively the strongest power in India, but they weren't the official emperors. Lucas: Right. They were a confederacy under the nominal leadership of the Peshwa, who by then was based in Pune. But the Mughal emperor was still in Delhi, a figurehead. The Marathas would swoop in to 'protect' the Mughals from invaders—like when Nadir Shah sacked Delhi in 1739, the Marathas didn't intervene, but later they became the kingmakers. Lucas: And that's where things get complicated. The Maratha empire reached its zenith under Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao. By the 1750s, they controlled a huge swath of territory from the Kaveri to the Indus. They had a formidable artillery corps trained by European mercenaries. They even had a navy. Luna: But then came Panipat. Lucas: Yes. The Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 was a catastrophe. The Marathas marched north to confront the Afghan emperor Ahmad Shah Durrani, who had invaded Punjab and allied with the Rohilla Afghans and the Nawab of Awadh. The Maratha army, led by Sadashivrao Bhau, was enormous—maybe 100,000 men including camp followers—but they were far from home, supply lines were stretched, and they couldn't feed everyone. Lucas: Durrani's army cut off their supplies, and after a two-month siege, the Marathas were starving. On January 14, 1761, they fought a desperate battle. The Afghan cavalry and mounted archers devastated the Maratha ranks. Estimates of Maratha dead range from 60,000 to 100,000—including almost the entire high command. It was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the 18th century. Luna: That's staggering. Did the Maratha empire collapse after that? Lucas: It didn't collapse immediately, but it never recovered its momentum. The Peshwa's authority was shattered, and the confederacy fractured into independent states—the Scindias in Gwalior, the Holkars in Indore, the Gaekwads in Baroda, the Bhonsles in Nagpur. They survived as regional powers, but the dream of a Maratha empire ruling from Delhi was over. And within a decade, the British East India Company began to pick them off one by one. Lucas: So in a sense, Aurangzeb's Deccan wars didn't just exhaust the Mughal Empire—they also set in motion the rise of a Maratha state that would become the Mughals' successor for a few decades, but then be shattered by its own overreach. It's a cycle that repeats in Indian history: empires expand, overextend, and then fracture from within or get destroyed by a new outside force. Luna: And Panipat is the classic example of that overreach. Lucas: Exactly. The Marathas were brilliant at guerrilla warfare and local dominance. But when they tried to fight a conventional war far from home against a determined enemy, they were destroyed. It's a lesson that echoes through military history—from Napoleon to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Lucas: You know, it strikes me that we're able to have this conversation because listeners support the show. If you found today's episode useful, the way we keep it ad-free is through listener support at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that keeps these deep dives coming. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. And we appreciate every bit of it. Lucas: So back to the Marathas. There is one more thread I want to pull—what about the Maratha navy? It's often overlooked, but they actually had a significant coastal presence under the Angre family, especially Kanhoji Angre, who harassed European trading companies along the Konkan coast. Luna: I didn't know that. How did the British and Portuguese react? Lucas: They tried to destroy him, multiple times. Kanhoji Angre's fleet of ghurabs and gallivats—small, fast vessels—raided their shipping, and he even captured several British and Portuguese ships. The British East India Company launched four major expeditions against him between 1717 and 1729, and failed every time. It wasn't until after his death, in 1756, that the British finally subdued the Angre navy. Lucas: So the Marathas weren't just a land power. They had a naval dimension that could challenge European hegemony on the west coast. But like the rest of the confederacy, it fragmented after Panipat and couldn't keep up with the British naval buildup. Luna: That's fascinating. It really shows how multi-faceted the Maratha state was. Lucas: It does. And I think it's important to remember that the Maratha story isn't just about military conquest—it's about a political entity that emerged from the chaos of Aurangzeb's wars, tried to fill the vacuum, and ultimately fell to the same forces of fragmentation that had undone the Mughals. It's a reminder that empires are fragile, and that the 'golden age' is often just a brief moment before decline.