Dear Sps we cannot study the history of india sidelining the achievements of the marattas.
if they had not lost in the 3rd battle of panipet to the afghans they would have even been a real challenge to british domination in india.india would have been a maratta country. if any body could have united india after rajendra cholan it was the marattas. so apt that they also ruled from tanjore. members like Uma from bombay should be able to tell us a lot about maratta culture.
Thats a good flow of information. Its news to me. But the irony again is, our own people dont talk the true history. Why the marattas were not given the due importance given to the mighty moghuls? Only a mention about Shivaji appears as a chapter in history books. And if someone talks about the true history, they are being brannded as saffron brigade or hindu fanatics.nalla ulagamada sami.
shivaji was of course the founder of the maratha empire. but there were kings 10 times more powerful than him later. there was an amiable break up between 2 sections of their society. i think the bramhin prime ministers - the peshwas became rulers b themselves. however shivajis descendantsd were referred to as the rajahs of satara and the peshwas used to refer to them as swami
one trivia shivaji himself was once the prisoner of the mughals. then the last few mughal kings were virtual prisoners under a maratha protectorate.
Dear Venkat I agree the marathas were great but what they again were divided as Holars Gaekwads Bhosles and Scindias and that again played into the hands of the Brits
Sometimes I think that is the very reason for the success, the federal nature of the maratha empire. Otherwise they would have fought among themselves and disintegrated.
One way Maratha Confedracy was important was in that the helped keep age old traditions alive by carrying the flame of Indian civilisation after the end of Vijaynagar. Otherwise the whole of the sub-continent would have been under Islamic rule, which would give us a different history indeed.
I think at least in academic circles we should stop crediting all our failures to lack of unity. Though that certainly was a factor, it certainly is not the only one.