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About Maharashtra |
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The region occupied by the present day Maharashtra state consists of areas that have their individual history of origin and inhabitation, as well as a collective history sharing the same legacy and cultural past under the indigenous Satavahana and Maratha rules, and later as a colony of the British imperialism. Though we do not know much about its early history, evidences prove its association with the the Magadha empire dominated by the Maurya rulers, prominently Ashoka the Great. When the power of the Maurya began to erode, a local dynasty by name of Satavahanas emerged, which first use the language that gradually gave origin to the present Marathi language used widely in the state today. The Marathi language and culture that formed the very basis of the creation of the state of Maharashtra post independence have found their origin in the period of various Satavahanas rulers, of which Gautamiputra Satkarni was the most powerful and dominant.
The Satavahanas ruled from 230 BC to 225 AD, and after their decline, the region slipped into an era of fragmented history, with no ruler having control over its entirety, until the emergence of the Marathas. This long era spanning almost the whole of the first millennium saw the rule over its one part or the other by dynasties like Vakatakas, Rashtrakutas, Chalukyas of Badami and Yadavas of Deogiri.
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The Yadavas were defeated by the Sultanate ruler of Delhi Ala-ud-Din Khilji in thirteenth century, and this paved the way for a series of Muslim dynasties to dominate parts of Maharashtra at different time periods till seventeenth century. These dynasties included the Bahmani Sultanate of Gulbarga, Nizamshah of Ahmednagar, Kutubshah of Gavalkonda, Adilshah of Bijapur, Bidarshah of Bidar and Imadshah of Berar.
The Marathas began to gain ground during the early part of the seventeenth century under the leadership of Shahji Bhosale, a local general employed by the Mughals. Until now the Mughal Empire exercised its authority over the Maharashtra region through the various local dynasties who remained loyal towards the sovereignty of the Delhi rule. Shahji Bhosale and later his son Shivaji Bhosale waged a series of wars against the Mughal army and its allied forces, and by the last decade of the seventeenth century, a Maratha kingdom as large as the whole of the present day Maharashtra came into existence.
After Shivaji, the great warrior who is known for his undying spirit of valor against the might of Aurangabad, the leadership of Maratha empire fell into the hands of the Peshwas who followed a robust attitude in expanding the boundaries of their empire. They took due advantage of the receding power of the Mughals, soon they became the absolute master of a vast area stretching as far as Punjab in the north and the modern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in the south. Later the Marathas disintegrated into several regional kingdoms, such as Scindia of Gwalior, Gaekwad of Baroda, Holkar of Indore, Bhonsles of Nagpur and Pawar of Dhar, though they remained loyal to the Peshwas of Pune.
The rising interest of the British in areas ruled by the Marathas, and the strong opposition of the latter to the activities of the former culminated in three large scale wars known in history as the Anglo-Maratha wars. After the third war, which occurred in 1818, the British gained what they were aiming at, and soon we see a large part of the country coming easily into their way, either by forceful annexation or by a peaceful treaty, much to the humiliation of its signatory. The Bombay Presidency was created, which covered modern day Maharashtra as well as other adjoining areas. The nineteenth century set the stage for the freedom movement, contributed particularly by the leaders of nationalist outlook, such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahadev Govind Ranade and Dadabhai Naoroji. The hard-fought battle against the colonial rule finally paved the way for the independence of the country and Maharashtra as part of the Bombay Presidency was merged with the Indian union. The state of Maharashtra took its birth when the Bombay Presidency was divided in 1960 to create two separate states, each for the Marathi and Gujarati speaking people.
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