Rise of the Marathas

The Marathas rose from the western Deccan in the seventeenth century under Shivaji, who built a kingdom from Mughal and Bijapur territories through guerrilla warfare, fort control and a distinctive revenue system. A concrete example is Shivaji's coronation at Raigad in 1674, which turned a successful warlord into a sovereign king with his own administration and titles. After Shivaji, the Maratha confederacy under the Peshwas expanded across India, becoming the dominant power of the eighteenth century.