from "History of India"

[Guest guest]

 The Muslim invasions

 

While the previous contacts of India with foreign peoples "on the other side of

the Sindhu" did not harm the Vedic civilization but rather contributed to make

it famous and honored in all the ancient world, the Muslims were determined to

destroy it. They were "the only chosen people", destined to be the absolute

masters of all other peoples, and their duty was to convert everybody to Islam

or turn them into slaves.

Arabs were a very hardened people, living in deserts, from where they raided

neighboring people for slaves, cattle, food and wealth. They were divided in

tribes, fighting against each other constantly to establish supremacy. Even

within the tribe and the family, the only logic was violence and oppression.

Their society was strongly male dominated, so much that women were considered

simply slaves, segregated in harems, sold and purchased or killed at will: mere

property of men.

 

In 610 CE Mohammed started preaching Islam in Mecca, adapting for the Arab

people the teachings of the Bible he had studied from Jews and Christians.

However, a fierce opposition against his preaching of moderate reforms forced

him to flee to Medina in 622. There he gathered followers and went back to fight

the tribes who opposed him and conquered Mecca in 630.

His successors, the Caliphs, continued to fight against the tribes that did not

submit to Islam, and even the "rebel" Muslims who did not accept their

authority, like the Shiites. In fact the succession to Mohammed at the head of

Islam was difficult and characterized by quarrel, conspiracy and assassination.

Several groups claimed the right to succession, and they continued to fight each

other.

Simultaneously, they immediately started to look outside Arabia to conquer new

territories: the Byzantine Empire, Persia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt fell one

after the other under the Muslim assaults, within 642 CE. In spite of internal

fights and divisions, the Muslims continued to conquer north Africa, and in 711

they reached India on one side and Spain (Europe) on the opposite side of their

world. They conquered the Sindh in 712 but they were stopped there. Also after

conquering Spain the Muslims were stopped by the Franks in 732 at Poitiers,

France. For a period, they suspended their invasions to consolidate their power

in their new lands and make some money by selling the booty to those peoples

they had been unable to conquer. They also used their wealth to develop trade.

During this time, their frequent contacts with India in their trade business

enabled them to acquire a great knowledge of Indian sciences, which they spread

in their lands and in the lands of peoples they were trading with. They also

observed the Indian society and mentality, studying their weak points, and made

careful plans for the future.

 

The next Muslim wave of invasion was led in 1000 CE by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni,

famous as a ruthless destroyer and plunderer of temples. He raided India 17

times, destroying Nagorkot (Kangra), Thaneswar, Mathura, Somnath and innumerable

other holy places of Vedic civilization.

>From the accounts of Arikh-i-Yamini of Utbi, the secretary of Mahmud Gaznavi, we

read that at Somnath, "The Muslims paid no regard to the booty till they had

satiated themselves with the slaughter of the infidels and worshipers of sun and

fire.... The number of infidels killed exceeded 50,000". At Mathura, "The

infidels...deserted the fort and tried to cross the foaming river...but many of

them were slain, taken or drowned... Nearly fifty thousand men were killed." At

Thaneshwar, "The blood of the infidels flowed so copiously at Thanesar that the

stream was discolored, not withstanding its purity, and people were unable to

drink it. The Sultan returned with plunder which is impossible to count. Praise

be to Allah for the honor he bestows on Islam and Muslims."

 

The violence and ruthlessness of the invaders, and their knowledge of the

Indians' weak points, caught Indian kshatriyas unprepared and divided. Their

strength had already been weakened by the decline of Vedic knowledge due to the

Kali yuga: frustrated by the unqualified brahmanas who misinterpreted the

scriptures and monopolized religion for their materialistic profit, many princes

and kingdoms had turned to the extreme non-violence, tolerance and peacefulness

of Buddhism and Jainism.

The others were distracted by the materialistic interpretations of the

scriptures that weakened their people, had lost the original knowledge of

kshatriya principles and the science of warfare, and had fallen into endless

rivalry and political conspiracies aimed at getting more material power by

taking it from others.

 

The Muslim marauders attacked and plundered the Hindu temples, but they

completely destroyed all Buddhist monasteries and universities: for them, the

Hindus were simple "idolaters", but the Buddhists were declared "atheists" and

therefore "enemies of God".

While until around 1000 CE Buddhism had become the most important religious

movement in India, after the terrorist attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni and his

successors all the Buddhists of India were either slaughtered or fled outside

India, east and south. They settled in Indonesia, China, Japan, Tibet, Lanka,

and prospered there.

 

The Turkish Muhammad Ghori invaded India in 1191 CE. This time he would not

content himself of plundering raids: he was determined to remain in India as the

ruler. At first he was defeated by Prithviraj Rajputan, but he managed to

procure local alliances against the Hindu king, and in the second battle of

Tarain (1192) Prithviraj was defeated, captured and killed. Thus Muhammad Ghori

captured Ajmer and Delhi, and the Turkish conquest expanded later in the same

way to Bengal and Bihar, Malwa and Gujarat. The great city of Nadia, the capital

city of Bengal under king Lakshmanasena, was captured and completely destroyed.

In fact, nothing today shows that it used to be the rich and powerful capital of

Bengal. The same fate had already happened to Mathura.

>From Hasan Nizami's Taj-ul-Maasir, we read this account of the activities of

Mahmud of Ghori. In Kol (Modern Aligarh), "Those of the horizon who were wise

and acute were converted to Islam, but those who stood by their ancestral faith

were slain with the sword... Three bastions were raised as high as heaven with

their heads, and their carcasses became food for the beasts of prey... 20,000

prisoners were taken and made slaves."

The Kamil-ut-Tawarikh of Ibn Asir records about the destruction of Kasi

(Benares): "The slaughter of Hindus (at Varanasi) was immense; none were spared

except women and children (who were taken into slavery) and the carnage of men

went on until the earth was weary."

 

By imposing terror with their unprecedented cruelty and ruthlessness, by treason

and conspiracy and especially by exploiting the divisions and weakness of the

small local kingdoms and the greed and foolishness of their unqualified rulers,

Muslims gradually defeated all the Hindu kings and created a powerful empire.

They destroyed everything on their way and carefully arranged the rules of their

government in such a way that Hindus could not re-organize and revolt. For

example, by exploiting the degraded caste system they forcibly "polluted"

important, intelligent or capable Hindus, who were then ousted by their own

community. How could they "pollute" a Hindu, causing him to irrevocably "lose

his caste" and "religion" in the eyes of his community? Simply by throwing some

water at him from their cup. Such an easy and childish trick guaranteed that all

the victim's family and descendents were also ousted by the Hindu community

forever.

 

Qutbuddin Aibek, a former slave (Mameluk) of Muhammad Ghori, was the first ruler

of the Sultanate of Delhi, the major power in India from 1192 to 1526, although

under different dynasties. In order to control the higher classes of Hindus and

prevent alliances among them, all marriages among the nobles had to be approved

by the Sultan himself. In 1324 the territories of the Delhi Sultanate reached up

to Madurai, but from 1334 to 1336 the Hindu Pandyan dynasties of Madurai and

Warangal took advantage of an epidemic of bubonic plague that had decimated the

Sultan's army, and created a space for themselves. Harihara Pandya founded the

empire of Vijayanagar, thus creating an oasis of Vedic civilization in south

India, where many Hindus, especially scholars, fled from the north. In

Vijayanagara's kingdom women were highly honored and had prominent positions

also in religious life. The administration and defense of the kingdom was

supported by many local military chiefs called Nayaks. The kingdom lasted until

1565, when it was crushed by the combined armies of the Deccan Sultanates.

 

During their domination, Muslims imposed their customs on the Hindus all over

India, especially the purdah system (the systematic segregation, dress code and

oppression of women) and the use of Arabic script in Indian languages (which led

to the creation of the new language, Urdu). The use of Devanagari script was

prohibited.

Dance, arts and literature were strongly modified, losing much of their freedom

of expression. Temple worship and rituals were greatly restricted or forbidden

altogether.

Muslims also systematically destroyed Hindu temples and built mosques on the

most important holy places of the Hindus, such as Ayodhya (the birthplace of

Rama), Mathura (the birthplace of Krishna) and many others.

They imposed a heavy tax on all those who did not accept to become Muslims, cut

them out from any government job and gave Muslim names to cities and people.

This practice is currently ongoing in Indonesia. All along, they built mosques

everywhere and their priests thundered against idolatry, polytheism, the

backward superstitions and indecent customs of the Hindus. At the same time,

they offered great benefits to all those who accepted to convert to Islam,

guaranteeing jobs, financial benefits, social respect and power. In this way

they multiplied their numbers creating enemies for Hindus from the same cultural

and ethnic groups. The greatest number of converts came from the lower castes of

Hinduism, who had a long standing social resentment against the higher castes.

In order to convince their masters of the genuineness of their conversion, the

new Indian Muslims were often more fanatical and oppressive against Hindus than

the invaders themselves.

 

To try to soften the Muslims' attitude towards Hindus, Guru Nanak started his

movement, known as Sikhism. Sikhism is nothing but Hinduism presented in a

language and form that can be more easily acceptable by Muslims. This protected

the Sikhs from the persecution of the Muslims and gave them the possibility to

survive, become better organized and eventually fight for freedom.

The Sikhs were later organized in a military and political organization by Guru

Gobind Singh (born in 1666 in Patna, Bihar, and killed in 1708 at Nandar,

Deccan), who became Guru of the Sikhs at the age of nine, when the previous Guru

Tegh Bahadur was murdered in Delhi. He introduced the Sikh baptism for his

disciples and the symbols of their belonging to the faith as the 5 Ks, or Kesh,

Kanga, Kara, Kirpan, Kachcha: namely unshorn hair, a comb, a steel bangle, a

sword and short underwear. He declared that after him, the Grantha (book) of the

Sikhs would become their Guru. Two of his sons were killed in battle against the

Mogul, and the other two were buried alive by a Mogul governor.

 

The Muslim mystics called Sufis, too, absorbed many Hindu practices thus making

them more acceptable to the mainstream Muslims. Sufis insisted on love of God

(bhakti), gentleness towards all living entities, non-violence (and

vegetarianism), charity, renunciation of material power, acceptance of the

spiritual guidance of a self-realized saint (guru). They also started

monasteries to take care of the needs of pilgrims and travelers (the equivalent

of Hindu dharmasalas). Their preaching gave more importance to the merciful

aspect of God and the compassionate teachings of Mohammed, who had reformed Arab

society by abolishing many cruel customs.

By stressing the fact that God is one only, father of all human beings and

creator of all living entities, the Sufi saints convinced the Muslims that

Hindus, too, were worshiping the same God although in different ways.

Simultaneously, they offered an example of transcendent spirituality and

asceticism to the Hindu society, that was already being reformed by the

followers of Adi Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva. These great Hindu teachers did

not deny the value of traditional Vedic rituals and Deity worship, but they gave

great importance to philosophy, theology and mysticism already contained in the

Vedas, that enabled Hinduism to resist the cultural invasion. Previously the

cultivation of philosophy, theology and mysticism, called Bhakti, was practiced

by a small elite of renunciants or priests, while the majority of the population

relied on external rituals and social religiosity.

The Muslim oppression forced Hindus to change their attitude and rethink their

approach to religion. The Bhakti movement was strongly favored because it could

be compared, in the eyes of the Muslim rulers and population, to the Sufi

movement that had developed in Islam from the contact with Hinduism, and

therefore it was more acceptable than the traditional Vedic ritualistic

approach. Simultaneously, the worship of the Mother Goddess, with its

philosophical and social implications, became secret (the Tantric tradition),

leaving the front line to the worship of Vishnu, who was more easily

understandable and acceptable by the Muslims, equating him with their Allah.

For example saint Kabir, a Muslim born in 1440 CE and equally honored by Muslims

and Hindus, preached that Allah and Rama are both names of the same God, and all

human beings are equal to God because they have been created by him.

 

On the Hindu side, Bhakti flourished with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengal and

Orissa, Ramananda (disciple of Ramanuja) in north India, the Rajput queen

Mirabai in west India. Surdas, Tukaram, Namdeva, and Ekanam became famous in

Maharastra.

All these saints accepted both Hindus and Muslims as their disciples and favored

the personal relationship with God and the congregational glorification of God

against the social and ritualistic aspects of temple worship. In fact, such

practices as the chanting of God's names, cultivation of exclusive devotion for

the Supreme God (very similar to the Muslim theological concept) and

renunciation to worldly life in favor of asceticism and transcendence,

non-violence and tolerance, were more easily allowed by the Muslim rulers, who

did not consider them dangerous for their government.

 

In 1398 the Sultanate of Delhi was weakened by the invasion of the Mongol

Tamerlane (Talmur), a relative of Gengis Khan (who terrorized north Asia and

Europe by killing 4 million people there). The Sultanate finally ended in 1526

when the Mogul (Mongol) Babur, descendent of Tamerlane, killed Ibrahim Lodhi,

the last Sultan of Delhi, on the battlefield. Lodhi was the only Sultan who died

in battle in all India's history.

The weakening of the Delhi Sultanate allowed some space for other kingdoms to

rebuild their power: in western India Malwa and Gujarat, in eastern India

Jaunpur and Bengal, in northern India Kashmir, and in southern India Vijayanagar

and Bahamani. Some of these kingdoms were Hindu, some were Muslim. Subsequently,

they were absorbed by the Mogul empire.

The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, witnessed first hand the atrocities Babur

committed on Hindus: "Having attacked Khuraasaan, Babar terrified Hindustan...

There was so much slaughter that the people screamed." About the treatment of

Hindu women: "Those heads adorned with braided hair, with their parts painted

with vermillion - those heads were shaved with scissors... They lived in

palatial mansions, but now... ropes were put around their necks, and their

strings of pearls were broken. Their wealth and youthful beauty, which gave them

so much pleasure, have now become their enemies. The order was given to the

soldiers, who dishonored them and carried them away.'"

 

We also have descriptions written by the Muslims themselves, for example from

the Insha-i-Mahry by Amud Din Abdullah bin Mahru. In Delhi, regarding the Sultan

Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi: "A report was brought to the Sultan than there was in

Delhi an old Brahman who persisted in publicly performing the worship of idols

in his house and that people of the city, both Muslims and Hindus used to resort

to his house to worship the idol. The Brahman had constructed a wooden tablet

which was covered within and without with paintings of demons and other objects.

An order was accordingly given to the Brahman and was brought before Sultan.The

true faith was declared to the Brahman and the right course pointed out. but he

refused to accept it. A pile was risen on which the Kaffir with his hands and

legs tied was thrown into and the wooden tablet on the top. The pile was lit at

two places his head and his feet. The fire first reached him in the feet and

drew from him a cry and then fire completely enveloped him. Behold Sultan for

his strict adherence to law and rectitude."

After Hindus paid the "religious toleration tax" (zar-i zimmiya) and poll-tax

(jizya) they believed they had the permission to build their temples, but it was

not so. "Under divine guidance I (Sultan) destroyed these temples and I killed

the leaders of these infidelity and others I subjected to stripes (flogging) and

chastisement."

In Gohana (Haryana), "Some Hindus had erected a new idol-temple in the village

of Kohana and the idolaters used to assemble there and perform their idolatrous

rites. These people were seized and brought before me. I ordered that the

perverse conduct of these leaders of this wickedness be punished by publicly and

that they should be put to death before the gate of the palace."

The objectives of the expedition of the Sultan to Jajnagar, Orissa, as stated in

Ainn-ul-Mulk, were, in order: massacring the unbelievers, demolishing their

temples, hunting the elephants and getting a glimpse of their enchanting

country. The Sirat-i-Firoz Shahi records the expedition: "Nearly 100,000 men of

Jajnagar had taken refuge with their women, children, kinsmen and relations The

swordsmen of Islam turned the island into a basin of blood by the massacre of

the unbelievers. Women with babies and pregnant ladies were haltered, manacled,

fettered and enchained, and pressed as slaves into service in the house of every

soldier."

These are only a few of the numerous accounts of similar expeditions and jihad

("holy" war) campaigns of the Muslims against the Hindus.

>From 1338 to 1339 the Muslim rulers of Bengal, who had been subject to the Delhi

Sultanate, developed a strong desire to form their own Sultanate. In 1342

Mubarak Shah was deposed and murdered by one of his officers, Haji Iliyas, who

declared himself the independent master and Sultan of Bengal with the title of

Shamsuddhin Iliyas Shah.

Then he proceeded to completely subdue Bihar, invaded Assam and Nepal and

plundered Orissa. A Hindu kshatriya of Bengal, named Raja Ganesh, succeeded to

take the power away from the Muslims for about 32 years, and his government was

so much better than the previous Muslim governments that at his death both

Muslims and Hindus mourned him. Unfortunately, the power soon returned in the

hands of the Muslims, with the Habsi kings (Abyssinian slave rulers) whose

tyranny disgusted even their Muslim subjects. These revolted and chose Hussain

Shah for the throne (1493-1519), who invaded Assam and offered government jobs

to Hindus who were willing to merely change their names and dress. Several

Hindus accepted, such as Dabir Khas and Sakar Mallick.

 

The successors of the Delhi Sultanate were the Mughals or Moguls, also Muslims.

As already mentioned, in 1526 the Mongol Babur, a descendent of Tamerlane who

had conquered vast territories, including Kabul in Afghanistan, and defeated the

last Sultan of Delhi. The Mogul rule was constantly threatened by the Afghan

Sultans, who had become very powerful in the region of Bengal and Bihar and

wanted revenge.

Babur's son Humayun succeeded him. Humayun's son Akbar ascended the throne in

1556 and he immediately started to conquer new territories to expand his empire.

He defeated the Hindu queen Rani Durgabati of Gondwana who died on the

battlefield, then attacked the Rajput states, Gujarat and Bengal, then south

India.

At the time of Akbar's death the Mogul empire extended from the Himalayas to the

Godavari, from the Hindukush to the Brahmaputra. However, he was fiercely

opposed by the Rajputs, and especially the kingdom of Mewar, led by Rana Pratap

and his son Amar Singh.

Akbar observed that the wave of conversions of Hindus to Islam had stopped. He

tried to take advantage of the growing Bhakti movements by instituting a "Hall

of Prayer" open to all religions in 1578, but apparently the idea didn't work

according to his plans, because he decided to close it indefinitely in 1582.

Akbar's son, Salim called Jahangir, succeeded to conquer the kingdom of Mewar

and the Rajputs. He pushed back the Portuguese who had tried to take hold of

Bengal, by killing 4,000 of them. However, he maintained friendly relationships

with the English traders who seemed to be rivals to the Portuguese.

Jahangir's son Khurram or Shahjahan deposed his father and ascended the throne.

In 1632 Shahjahan ordered that all Hindu temples recently erected or in the

course of construction should be razed to the ground. In Benares alone

seventy-six temples were destroyed. He had ten thousand inhabitants at Agra and

Lahore executed by being "blown up with powder, drowned in water or burnt by

fire". Four thousand were taken captive to Agra where they were tortured to try

to convert them to Islam. Those who refused to do so were trampled to death by

elephants, except for the younger women who went to harems. Under Shahjahan

peasants were compelled to sell their women and children to meet their revenue

requirements. The peasants were carried off to various markets and fairs to be

sold with their poor unhappy wives carrying their small children crying and

lamenting. According to Qaznivi, Shahjagan had decreed they should be sold to

Muslims.

 

To increase his personal prestige, Shahjahan created the famous Peacock Throne

and the Red Fort in Delhi. He remodeled a famous Shiva temple in Agra, called

Tejo Mahila, turning it into the tomb of one of his wives, with the name Taj

Mahal. Soon after that, he became ill and his four sons started to fight among

them for the succession. He appointed Dara Sirok, but Shuja and Murad

independently crowned themselves. Aurangzeb, the fourth son, was more clever and

chose to build alliances first: he offered his support to Murad and together

they defeated the imperial army led by Dara Sirok. After the victory, Aurangzeb

imprisoned Murad in Gwalior, then entered Agra where the old emperor Shahjahan

was recovering from his illness, and imprisoned him too. In 1658 Aurangzeb

ascended the throne, captured Dara Sirok by treason and put him to death the

following year, then defeated Shuja, who was also killed while escaping. Then

Aurangzeb dedicated his full attention to suppress rebellions throughout his

reign and expanding its limits, destroying temples and persecuting Hindus until

his death in 1707. Aurangzeb considered himself "The Scourge Of The Kafirs"

(non-believers) and closed all Hindu schools and libraries. In his lifetime he

destroyed more than 10,000 Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples and often erected

mosques in their stead. In 1672 several thousand revolting Hindus were

slaughtered in Mewat.

>From Maasi-i-Alamgiri we read, "Issued general order to destroy all centers of

Hindu learnings including Varnasi and destroyed the temple at Mathura and

renamed it as Islamabad". In Khandela (Rajastan) he killed 300 Hindus in one day

because they resisted the destruction of their temple. In Udaipur all Hindus of

the town were killed as they vowed to defend the temple of Udaipur from

destruction, 172 temples were destroyed in Udaipur and 66 temples were pulled

down in Amber. In Pandhpur , Maharashtra, the Emperor destroyed the temple and

ordered the butchering of cows in it. In Punjab Muslim governors killed hundreds

of Sikh children and made Sikh men and women eat the flesh of their own killed

children. Any Muslim bringing the head of a dead Sikh was also awarded money.

Aurangzeb's tyranny was successfully opposed for some time by the Hindu kingdom

of the Marathas from west India, led by Shivaji.

 

Shivaji and the Marathas

 

The Marathas are a proud warrior race that had resisted the conquest of emperor

Harsha in 7th century. The Maratha dynasties of the ancient (pre-Muslim) period

are the Chalukyas (500 CE to 750 CE), the Rastrakutas (750 to 978) and the

Yadavas or Jadhavs (1175 to 1318). They opposed the Muslim invasion in 1314

under the last Yadava king, but they were defeated and became vassals and

mercenaries (Sardars or generals) of the Muslim rulers, collecting revenue for

them.

Shivaji's mother, Jijabai, was a direct descendent of the Yadava royal family of

Devagiri, and deeply influenced her son, together with his teacher Dadaji Kondeo

and great saints like Jnanesvara and Tukaram.

In 1645, at the age of 17, at the cave temple of Shiva Rairesvar in the

Sayhadris, Shivaji and his friends took a blood oath to establish a free Hindu

state, called "Hindavi Svaraja".

In the course of time, it became the strongest power in India, its territories

stretching from Attock in present Pakistan to Cuttack in Orissa.

 

Shivaji started by capturing the fortress of Torana from the Muslim ruler at

Bijapur. The Sultan of Bijapur, Adil Shah, sent his most powerful general Afzal

Khan to punish Shivaji. His plan was to get Shivaji down from the Sahyadri hills

by destroying Hindu temples in the plains at Tuljapur, Pandharpur and Shikhar

Shenganapur. Shivaji sent Afzal Khan a letter inviting him to come up the hills

to meet him with a few select soldiers for a duel, and Afzal Khan accepted.

Arrived at Pratapgad on 10th November 1659, Afzal Khan tried to stab the

apparently unarmed Shivaji while embracing him, but Shivaji was wearing a coat

of armor under his heavy silk robes, and hiding two small weapons, too: a Wagh

Nakh, a sharp blade resembling tiger's claws, and a Bicchwa, a small curved

dagger. Afzal Khan was killed. The Khan's army waiting in the valley was

defeated by the Marathas who jumped out from the jungles around Pratapgad fort.

Later Adil Shah sent another general, Siddhi Jouhar, who besieged Shivaji's

fortress in Panhalgad for some months, but Shivaji managed to escape to

Vishalgad. Then the Bijapur ruler dropped the idea of fighting against the

Marathas and Shivaji turned his attention to the Mogul empire.

 

Aurangzeb was furious about Shivaji's attacks and sent his uncle Shaista Khan

with a big army who destroyed temples, forts, towns, villages and fields on its

path. Shaista established his camp in Shivaji's home, the Lal Mahal in Pune, and

put up his harem in Shivaji's Devghar (prayer room). Finally, in April 1663,

Shivaji sneaked into the Lal Mahal at night time and attacked the Khan cutting

his fingers while he was trying to escape from the window. He spared the Khan's

life on the request of the Khan's wife, and this gave the Khan the opportunity

to call his troops. Shivaj escaped. The Khan returned to Delhi and Aurangzeb

sent another general, Mirza Raja Jai Singh from the Suryavanshi Kachhawaha, an

Hindu general at the service of the Muslim. This Hindu dynasty had submitted to

the Muslims by giving their daughters in marriage to the Mogul Padishah. Mirza

and his general Diler Khan laid siege to Purandar and systematically destroyed

rural Maharastra.

The Maratha fort commander at Purandar, Murar Baji, stormed out of the fort and

pushed back the Moguls to Diler Khan's camp in the plains. Diler Khan tried to

bribe Murar Baji by offering him the post of general in his army, but Murar Baji

refused the proposal and was killed during his visit in the Mogul camp.

Shivaji signed a treaty with Mirza Raja Jai Singh, and as a part of the

conditions he went with him to Agra to meet Aurangzeb. There he was imprisoned

in Mirza's house. While he was waiting to be shifted to the Mogul dungeons, he

escaped with his son Sambaji hiding in two large baskets of fruits and

sweetmeats that were to be sent from the house as gifts to brahmanas. Shivaji's

general Netaji Palkar, also captured, was forced to convert to Islam and change

his name to Quli Mohammed Khan, serving as a Mogul soldier in Afghanistan, but

he managed to escape and return to Shivaji and to his Hindu faith. Some of his

other friends were tortured to death.

After escaping from Agra, Shivaji regrouped his army and recaptured all the

forts that he had been forced to surrender to the Moguls with the treaty of

Purandar, including the fort of Kondana, a strategic position near Pune, in the

center of a line including Rajgad, Purandar and Torna. The conquest of Kondana

was made possible by the bravery of Tanaji who died in the fight, so the fort

was renamed as "Singhagad" in honor of their "lion" warrior.

Then Shivaji was crowned as the king of the Marathas by Ganga Bhatt, a brahmana

from Benares. The coronation took place at Raigad on 6th June 1674.

In the days after the coronation, a Maratha Sardar (general) abducted the

daughter in law of the Muslim Subahadar of Kalyan near Mumbai, to offer her as a

Nazarana (tribute) to the new king. To his surprise, Shivaji returned the girl

to her family with all respect, and rebuked the general warning that any Maratha

general who committed a similar offense to women would be punished with the

amputation of his hands. It is said that the girl then called him "an angel" and

prayed the Lord to bless him with all success. Later Shivaji launched his

campaign in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu up to Thanjavur. From 1674 to Shivaji's

death in 1680, his kingdom was relatively peaceful because the Moguls had given

up trying to molest the Marathas. The kingdom of Shivaji, like the kingdom of

Mewad, was bold enough to issue his own coinage with Sanskrit inscriptions, in

gold and copper. After Shivaji's death, Aurangzeb ordered all these coins to be

collected and melted.

Shivaji's son Sambaji became the next king, but he was not as qualified with his

father. He was finally captured by the Moguls and tortured to death. His step

brother Rajaram was then crowned king, but he was also weak and fled Raigad when

the fort was about to be besieged by Aurangzeb, leaving behind his wife and son

who were taken captive by the Moguls. He spent the rest of his life fleeing

around, while his generals like Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav fought a

guerrilla war against the Muslims. In 1700 Rajram fell ill and died, and his

wife Tarabai reigned from 1700 to 1707, with the support of the two generals.

In 1707 Aurangzeb died and his son Azamshah proclaimed himself emperor. In order

to win the Marathas to his side, Azamshah freed Rajram's son Shahu, who had been

a prisoner from 1689 to 1707, and Shahu claimed the throne against Tarabai. He

fought the Maratha army and he installed himself as the Chatrapati (king of the

Marathas). However, he had to rely heavily on his assistant, who became Prime

Minister (Peshwa) and the actual ruler. From that time, the Prime Ministers

became more powerful than the king.

The Maratha forces led by the first Peshwa, Balaji Vishvanath, defeated the

Mogul army in Delhi, in an alliance with the Syed brothers against the Mogul

emperor Farrukhsiyyar. This was the beginning of the Marathas' influence on

Delhi, that lasted until 1803, when they were supplanted by the British. In

1740, about 80 years after Shivaji, the Marathas fought against the invasion of

the Afghan Nadir Shah and his general Ahmed Shah Durrani (Abdali) who had

attacked north India taking advantage of the decline of the Mogul empire.

Another ambitious general, Najib Khan, wanted to crown himself emperor and ruler

of India by capturing Delhi; he allied with Ahmed Shah but they were both

defeated by the Marathas lead by Srimant Raghunatha Rao and Malhar Rao Holkar.

The Marathas pursued the Afghans into Punjab up to Khyber Pass on Afghan border.

Najib Khan convinced Malhar Rao Holkar to release him, but as soon as he was

released he organized the killing of Dattaji Shinde, the eldest brother of

Mahadji Shinde, and again encouraged Ahmed Shah to invade India.

The continuous court intrigues at Pune gradually weakened the Marathas and

divided them. The ensuing war against the Afghans had a long stand off of one

year from January 1760 to January 1761, in spite of the Marathas' conquest of

Delhi and Kunjapura (the treasury and armory of the Afghans). In the final

battle at Panipat 100,000 Maratha troops were killed in 8 hours but the Afghans,

who had also suffered heavy losses, decided to retreat back to Afghanistan,

never to return to India again. Later, the Sikhs united under Maharaja Ranjit

Singh and completed the task of the Marathas, invading Abdali's kingdom and

capturing his capital city Kabul. Between 1761 and 1790 Mahadji Shinde, Nana

Phadnavis and Shrimant Madhav Rao Peshwa fought against the growing power of the

British in the three Anglo-Maratha wars. Finally they succumbed in the third war

of 1817.