3.4 Successors and the Mughal Challenge

When Shivaji died in 1680, his enemies expected the young Maratha kingdom to fall apart. The most powerful man in the world, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, marched south with an enormous army determined to crush it. What followed was one of the most remarkable survival stories in Indian history, a small state, led by a series of successors, holding off the might of the Mughal Empire for nearly 27 years.

Sambhaji: the second Chhatrapati

Shivaji’s elder son Sambhaji became the next Chhatrapati. A brave and capable leader, he kept up the fight against the Mughals on many fronts. But in 1689 he was captured and brutally executed on Aurangzeb’s orders. The Marathas had lost their king, and Aurangzeb believed the war was won.

The War That Would Not End Aurangzeb was wrong. Sambhaji’s death did not break the Marathas, it hardened their resistance. With no single capital to capture and a tradition of mobile, guerrilla warfare, the Maratha state proved almost impossible to destroy. The struggle simply spread out across the whole Deccan.

Rajaram and the resistance from the south

After Sambhaji, his brother Rajaram carried on the fight, shifting the centre of resistance south to the fort of Jinji (in modern Tamil Nadu), far from the Mughal heartland. The Marathas kept up relentless raids, denying Aurangzeb any final victory. When Rajaram died, the burden of leadership fell on a remarkable figure: his widow.

Tarabai: the warrior queen

In the Sources: Tarabai Tarabai, Rajaram’s wife, took charge of the Maratha resistance and proved a brilliant leader. Rather than merely defending, she led offensive campaigns deep into Mughal territory, keeping Aurangzeb’s vast army stretched, exhausted and bogged down in the Deccan year after year. She is remembered as one of the most able commanders of the age, a powerful example of women’s leadership in Indian history.

Aurangzeb’s costly failure

Aurangzeb spent the last 27 years of his life in the Deccan trying, and failing, to finish off the Marathas. His enormous army wore itself out chasing a mobile enemy across hills and forts. The campaign drained the Mughal treasury, exhausted the empire’s strength, and contributed directly to the decline we studied in the previous chapter. When Aurangzeb died in 1707, the Marathas were not destroyed, they were poised to expand.

Think About It The Marathas had no single great capital to defend and fought as a mobile, decentralised force. The Mughals had a huge, centralised army. In a long war, why might the mobile, decentralised side have the advantage? Connect this to how Shivaji had designed the state.

A Two-Sided Story This was a brutal war on both sides, with heavy losses among soldiers and ordinary people across the Deccan. The Marathas’ survival was heroic, but the long conflict also brought decades of hardship to the region. Both truths belong in the picture.

Let’s Explore Make a short “relay of leaders” chart for the Maratha resistance: Shivaji → Sambhaji → Rajaram → Tarabai. Beside each name, write one or two words for their main contribution. Then write one sentence on what kept the resistance alive through so many changes of leader.

Having survived Aurangzeb, the Marathas were ready not just to defend but to expand, this time under a new kind of leadership, the Peshwas, and through a clever new structure, the Maratha Confederacy.