Battles of the Maratha Empire

by Aneesh Gokhale

From the days of Chhatrapati Shivaji, to the fall of the Maratha Empire nearly two centuries later, the Marathas fought many important and pivotal battles. These battles and campaigns heralded important and game changing political and social change. This book attempts to throw a light on some of these significant military encounters, which greatly affected Indian history.

Genres: History, India

385 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[The Conch · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a myth-buster. It destroys claim like Mughal ruled entire India from north to south and east to west, british took India from Mughal, Marathas ruled only on in and around region of Maharashtra, Maratha soldiers were just looters (bargi) etc.

It uncovers hidden history which no one tells to their future generation. British actually took Bharat from Maratha who built a pan-India empire. Zari Patka (saffron flag of Hindu) was flown for years at the Red Fort of Delhi. Marathas kept Mughal empires as paper-tiger with ultimate control of Bundelkhand, Ganga-Zamuna Doab in their hand.

The book also teaches how lack of unity, internal power struggle and collaboration with enemy for own advantage destroyed 'Swarajya' which was built by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

[Prashanth Mysore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most Indians think that British conquered India from the Mughals, unless they have read Indian history outside the school textbooks prescribed by Indian central or state governments. This book shows the real history - that it was from Marathas that British conquered India. Whole 150+ years of Marathas history from mid 17th century to early 19th century is completely missing in our history textbooks. This book fills that gap. Personally, I recommend a prequel to this book - 'Shivaji: the great Maratha' by Ranjit Desai and a sequel to this book - 'Tatya Tope's Operation Red Lotus' by Parag Tope.

[Indra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in an easy to follow way as it's a compilation of previous articles. Nonetheless it's a joy to read about this content all in one place. This time when the Marathas were pushing the Mughals back should be better understood by students especially.

[Suda Raj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collection of articles regarding Maratha wars and conquest. It provides a decent read.

[Paras Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 ⭐⭐⭐

Great book. Learned a lot from it. Although, could have used sources.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect Book for an Overview of Marathas.

Being a compilation of several columns and articles,the book offers a quick and crisp reading of Maratha Wars and history around them.

[Akash Jha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Shivaji proved, by his example that the Hindu race could build a nation, found a state, defeat it's enemies, they could conduct their own defense, they could protect and promote literature and art, commerce and industry, they could maintain navies and ocean going fleets of their own, and conduct naval battles on equal terms with foreigners. He taught the Hindus to rise to the full stature of their growth. He demonstrated that the tree of Hindustan was not dead, and that it could put forth new leaves and branches and once again rise up its head to the skies"

- Shivaji and His Times, Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1919).

I had this book with me for months, yet I hadn't read it. However, that changed one noon while a friend and I were enjoying our Chicken Kobiraji at the Iconic Indian Coffee House where I pointed out to him during our discourse on history that maybe we are not in awe of Marathas as North Indians & only of Mughals because we actually have never been taught about the Marathas in details. While I said this, almost lecturing, I also realised as to how little of Maratha history I myself myself. Thus, started the desire to read this one.

The Marathas and their history definitely largely starts with Chhatrapati Shivaji Raje but it does outgrows him by centuries with many glorious pages added to it's annal post the death of Shivaji Raje and the establishment of Swaraj. The book introduces us in detail to many brave heroes and heroines of Maratha history, names of which we might never have heard of.

Not only were the Maratha millitary geniuses but also innovators in many ways. For instances, it was them and not Tipu Sultan, as is claimed, who pioneered rocket artillery in India. Similarly, the formations used by Sadashiv Bhau at Panipat were later used by Napoleon to great effect in Europe. But apart from wars , Marathas did a lot for their people and Hindus in general.

The Swarajya was formed on the point of a sword through battles ,it grew great through it and also met it's demise through one, thus it's story has to be told through battles.

A myth buster & overall a great read though written in simple language but in a gripping way.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between the years 1659 and 1818, the Marathas rose to distinction, grew to control the country and were eclipsed by the British Empire.

Along the way, crucial confrontations and battles were fought across the country by them. These battles had significant and long term outcomes, now and then utterly changing the political direction of the country, for instance the Maratha-Mughal War or the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

The book spotlights on these battles or sequence of battles, throwing a focus on the chess-like moves and ploys that led to triumph (or rout) on the battlefield.

After every chapter, the author analyses the consequences of the victory or defeat, with the great advantage of retrospection.

The battles include Chhatrapati Shivaji and his slaying of Afzal Khan at Pratapgad, continue on to the Maratha-Mughal War of 27 years, immerse into the exploits of the Peshwas, Bajirao and Madhavrao, and finally the reasons this empire fell in the face of British opposition.

A neat and precise book. Most recommended for competitive exams.

[Prashant Dalvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s pity that this is not covered in academic text books. Only small paragraphs on many great contributors of Hindavi Swarajya. Many have not even got place in the text books. What kind of legacy we are providing to next generations. I myself was not aware of many battles and stories/ strategies behind them. This book has helped me to clear cobwebs I carried for so many years. Thanks to Author for presenting this in a nice manner.

[Ganesh Nabar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice compilation of battles of Maratha Empire. But more information on strategy and what happened during the battles is required.

[Upendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book

Nichley researched book
The book has been refreshing
I wish we get more books like it on all Indian empires

[Abhishek Gadgil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captures important and remarkable battles that the Maratha empire fought from 1659 to 1818.

[Sujit Choudhury · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written to highlight mainly the main wars of the Maratha armies, but it was most of the time full of praise of what the Marathas did, rather than the inherent problems they had, leading to the loss to the British. Looking at the personalities, Chhatrapati Shivaji was well ahead of his time and no doubt whole of India should take pride in his deeds. However, soon after his death, most of the unity was in tatters and the great division showed that the Marathas were not yet ready to rule the whole of India. Their armies were not professional armies, and the fact that they relied on looting showed there was very little discipline in the armies they had. The author glossed over the Bargi atrocities in West Bengal, and the Hindus suffered the most. The author tried to show that Bengalis have forgiven the incidents of what happened 150 years ago and tried to imply that it was not as much an atrocity as it was made out to be. In fact, it was much worse than anything the British did to the Indians. Also, the Maratha armies relied heavily on the Pindaris, who were happy to loot after the winning (or losing) wars. It seems, apart from Mahadji Shinde and Ahilyabai Holkar, none of the others who came after Shivaji were good enough to be compared with the great man.
Modern Indian history does not give enough credit to Shivaji, or for that matter the Bengali, Marathi, and Punjabi revolutionaries or people like Shri Aurobindo, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, etc. . It tries to imply that the independence came as a result of the effort of the Congress Party and the non-violence movement.