NCERT Solutions Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 the Rise of the Marathas

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 8 · SOCIAL SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 3: The Rise of the
Marathas

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

61 – 82 8 17 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 29 pages

Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 8 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 3: The Rise of the Marathas
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas, from the theme
Tapestry of the Past in Exploring Society: India and Beyond Grade 8 Part 1. Every question the chapter asks is
answered — the three Big Questions, all four LET'S EXPLORE boxes, both THINK ABOUT IT boxes, and all
eight Questions and activities — with the reasoning and the evidence from the chapter behind each answer.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 8) 61 – 82

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

8 17

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 61
Chapter opening — Tapestry of the Past

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 Who were the Marathas? How did they manage to become the largest pan-Indian
power before the British took over?

ANSWER

The Marathas were a people of the Deccan plateau, more specifically of present-day
Maharashtra, identified with the language they speak — Marathi, which has had a rich and
continuous literary history since the 12th century. They became the largest pan-Indian power
because three separate advantages came together: a cultural foundation laid before them, a
military method suited to their own land, and an administration that kept power with the
state rather than with individuals.

Cultural foundation (7th–17th c.) → Shivaji’s Swarājya (1646–1680)

→ survival through Aurangzeb’s war (1682–1707)

→ pan-Indian expansion (18th century)

→ the largest Indian empire before the British

1. The foundation was cultural before it was political. Between the 7th and the 17th
centuries, saints across India preferred the path of bhakti to merely external ritualism and
composed in the languages of the masses. In Maharashtra, Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

and Ramdas translated texts like the Upaniṣhads and the Bhagavad Gītā into Marathi; some also
worked on social organisation and political awareness, much as the Sikh gurus did. The chapter
is explicit about the result: society ‘acquired a solid cultural foundation, which later helped the
Marathas to organise themselves into a political power’. Earlier Maratha chiefs had tried for
sovereignty in the 17th century and failed — what they lacked was not courage but unity.
2. Chhatrapati Shivaji turned that foundation into a state. Born in 1630 in the Bhonsle clan
to Shahji and Jijabai, he began campaigning at just sixteen, first taking neglected and
unoccupied forts around Pune and strengthening them. Against the Bijapur Sultanate and then
the Mughals he used guerrilla warfare — small groups, speed, surprise and knowledge of the
terrain. He founded a navy in 1657, something neither Bijapur nor the Mughals maintained
properly, was crowned at Raigad in 1674, and in 1677 carried out the dakṣhiṇa-digvijaya into
present-day northern Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka.
3. The state survived the hardest test. Aurangzeb conquered Bijapur and Golconda, executed
Sambhaji and captured Raigad — and still could not finish the Marathas. Rajaram simply moved
the war south to Gingee; the Marathas held their forts, often had the upper hand in battles and
skirmishes, and Aurangzeb died in the Deccan without subduing them (1682–1707). Twenty-five
years of resistance is what turned a regional kingdom into a battle-hardened power.
4. Then it expanded across India. Tarabai, Rajaram’s queen, saw that with the Mughal army
pinned in the Deccan north India lay unprotected, and sent large armies northward — the
chapter calls her the architect of the northward Maratha expansion. Peshwa Bajirao I and his
son Nanasaheb drove the pan-Indian expansion; Maratha control over Delhi began in 1754;
Mahadji Shinde recaptured Delhi in 1771 and held it for three decades. At its widest the Maratha
reach touched Lahore, Attock and even Peshawar.

Why it happened: a big army alone does not build an empire — the Mughals had a
bigger one. The Marathas won because their method matched their geography
(forts and hill country), their money did not depend on conquered land alone (chauth
and sardeshmukhi from provinces they merely protected), and their officials were
salaried and transferable, so no commander could turn his post into a private
inheritance. That is what let the state keep working even after its founder died and
its capital fell.

Did you know? The chapter’s own opening source, Ramachandrapant Amatya’s
Ādnyāpatra of 1715, already warns that the European ‘hat-wearers’ are ‘not like other
merchants’ — they are ‘fully intent on entering this land, increasing their territory’. A
Maratha minister saw the danger a full century before 1818.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 What were some features of their governance?

ANSWER

Maratha governance had six clear features: a salaried and transferable civil service, a council of
eight ministers, a protection-for-revenue tax system outside the directly ruled area, a three-
armed military built around forts, a local and appealable justice system, and active state support
for trade and transport.
1. Civilian administration. Chhatrapati Shivaji set up a relatively centralised administration. He
abolished hereditary posts — normal practice under the Sultans and the Mughals — and
abolished land assignments, paying every government official a salary out of the state
treasury instead. Many officials were periodically transferred. He also gave pensions to widows
of soldiers killed in battle and offered military posts to their sons.

Why this mattered: if an official is paid in land, the land becomes his; if the post
passes to his son, the state loses control of it in one generation. Paying salaries and
moving officials around meant, in the chapter’s words, that they ‘would not have
enough power to dictate terms to the king’. Power stayed with the office, not the
person.

2. The aṣhṭa pradhāna manḍala — the council of eight ministers who assisted the Chhatrapatī,
the sovereign king (Fig. 3.13):

TITLE DEPARTMENT TITLE DEPARTMENT

Pradhān Prime Minister Senāpatī Commander-in-chief

Amātya Finance Minister Sumant Minister for Foreign Affairs

Sachiv Land Revenue Minister Nyāyādhīsh Chief Justice

Mantrī Intelligence Minister Panḍitrāo Head of Religious Affairs

3. Revenue beyond the borders. From provinces not directly under them — in the Deccan and
in north India — the Marathas levied chauth (25 per cent) and sardeshmukhi (a further 10 per
cent). In return they protected those provinces and did not interfere in their internal
administration. The Mughals approved the arrangement through various treaties, and over time
some of these provinces became part of the Maratha Empire.
4. Military administration. The armed forces had three parts — infantry, cavalry and navy. The
cavalry had two kinds of soldier: bārgīrs, whose horses and equipment the state paid for, and
shiledārs, who paid for their own. Swords and lances were preferred, but guns were used in
sizable numbers; rockets were used from Shivaji’s own days, and metal tube rockets by 1770. In
the 18th century the Marathas noticed the superiority of European-style disciplined troops and

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas
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artillery and tried to raise such units — Mahadji Shinde had a large European-style army.
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5. Judicial system. It was efficient and remarkable for its moderation in using capital
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punishment. The panchāyat — a local gathering of officials and prominent men, not today’s
governmental Panchayat — delivered justice, and an unsatisfactory verdict could be appealed to

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a Maratha chief. In prominent towns such as Pune and Indore, a kotwāl (police) maintained law
and order.
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6. Trade and public works. Shivaji encouraged trade and took part in maritime foreign trade
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himself: he and his officials owned ships that sailed to Mocha in Yemen, Muscat in Oman and
Malacca in Malaysia, carrying cargo such as gold and textiles. Roads were built and maintained,

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bridges were thrown across rivers and streams, and in places such as Odisha a network of

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

KIND OF WHAT THE EVIDENCE FROM THE CHAPTER
IMPACT MARATHAS DID

Political Broke Mughal dominance Aurangzeb died in the Deccan without subduing them; the
and built the largest Indian Marathas controlled much of central and northern India,
empire before the British and Delhi from 1754 / 1771

Administrative Set up ‘a new way of Salaried, transferable officials; the aṣhṭa pradhāna
governing with an efficient manḍala; chauth and sardeshmukhi; panchāyat justice with
administration’ sparing use of the death penalty

Maritime Resisted European naval Kanhoji Angre’s victories through geography and tactics;
supremacy for a long time the Marathas demanded sea passes from the Europeans, who
without the latest technology retaliated by calling him a ‘pirate’

Cultural Gave Indians in many Shivaji’s Sanskrit seal instead of a Persian one; the Rājya-
regions a new cultural Vyavahāra-Koṣha; the Moḍī script; Jagannath worship at
confidence Puri revived by the Bhonsles of Nagpur; Ahilyabai Holkar’s
temples, ghats, wells and roads from Kedarnath to
Rameswaram; the syncretic Thanjavur court of Serfoji II

Inspirational Showed that mighty empires Chhatrasal built an independent Bundelkhand after being
could be defeated and that inspired by Shivaji; later, Swarājya ‘inspired many Indians
Indians could run an empire to believe they could govern themselves, planting the early
of their own seeds for India’s freedom movement’

Why the last row is the strongest: empires end — the Marathas’ own ended in
1818. What outlived the empire was a demonstration. Before Shivaji, sovereignty in
the Deccan meant serving a sultan; after him, people had a working example of
Indians building, expanding and administering an empire themselves. That is why
the chapter says he contributed most ‘by giving people a demonstration that mighty
kingdoms and empires could be defeated’.

Tip: notice that the Maratha impact is also visible in what the British had to do. Three
Anglo-Maratha wars, fought over forty-three years (1775–1818), were needed to end
Maratha power — and Nana Phadnavis had already organised the first pan-Indian
anti-British alliance, uniting even old adversaries like Hyder Ali of Mysore and the
Nizam of Hyderabad.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 63

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Who are the Marathas? — the bhakti tradition

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Have you ever heard the term ‘bhakti’? What does it mean to you? Choose a bhakti
saint from any part of India and learn about their life, their teachings, and the
message they shared. You can also find one of their poems or bhajans and share it
with your classmates.

ANSWER

Bhakti, as the chapter defines it, is devotion to the divine or to a particular deity. Between the
7th and the 17th centuries, saints and seekers across India chose this path for spiritual
upliftment in preference to merely external ritualism — and, crucially, they composed in the
languages of the masses rather than only in Sanskrit, which is why their message travelled so
far.

Why bhakti spread so widely: it removed two barriers at once. It said that devotion,
not ritual correctness, was what counted; and it spoke in Marathi, Hindi, Kannada,
Tamil, Punjabi or Bengali, so an ordinary farmer or weaver could understand and
sing it. The saints came ‘from diverse sections of society’, so their audience did too.

How to do this activity

1. Pick one saint — from Maharashtra the chapter itself names Dnyaneshwar, Namdev,
Tukaram and Ramdas; from elsewhere you might take Kabir, Mirabai, Surdas, Guru Nanak,
Basavanna, Andal, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or Shankaradeva of Assam.
2. Find three things: where and when they lived, what they taught, and who they were
speaking to.
3. Choose one short poem or bhajan. Read it aloud in the original language first, then give the
meaning in your own words.
4. End with one sentence on what still speaks to you in it.

Sample answer: Sant Tukaram (17th century)

Life: Tukaram lived at Dehu, near Pune, in the 17th century — the same century in which
Chhatrapati Shivaji rose to power. He was a grain trader who lost his family and his trade in a
famine, and turned to the worship of Vitthal of Pandharpur. He belongs to the Varkari
tradition, whose pilgrims still walk to Pandharpur every year. The chapter shows a postal
stamp of him in Fig. 3.4.
Teaching: he composed abhangas — short devotional verses in everyday Marathi. He held
that God is reached through love and honest living, not through display, and he was sharply
critical of hypocrisy in religion.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Message: that the test of holiness is compassion. One of his best-known abhangas says: ‘जे
ं ले, त्यास
का रंजले गाज ं ी म्हणे जो आपुल,े तोिच साधु ओळखावा, देव तेथेिच जाणावा’ — ‘Whoever calls the worn-out
and the oppressed his own, know him alone to be a saint; know that God is there.’
Why it matters here: this is exactly the ‘solid cultural foundation’ the chapter describes. A
society that had been singing such verses in its own language for four centuries was already
used to thinking of itself as one people — which is what made political unity possible later.

Try this: if you choose a saint from your own region, ask an elder at home whether
they know a bhajan of that saint by heart. Songs that were never written down have
often survived only in memory — collecting one is real historical work.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 65
Foundation of Maratha Power and the Rise of Chhatrapati Shivaji

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 If you could time-travel and meet Chhatrapati Shivaji, what three questions would
you ask him and why?

ANSWER

A good answer here is not just three questions — it is three questions that only he could
answer, each with a reason drawn from the chapter. Avoid questions the textbook already
answers (‘when were you born?’); ask about decisions, doubts and choices, which no source
records.

What makes a historical question a good one: historians distinguish what
happened (which sources can tell us) from why someone chose to act (which they
usually cannot). Records tell us Shivaji built a navy in 1657; no record tells us what
convinced him it was worth the money. That gap is where your questions belong.

Sample answer:

1. ‘What made you decide to build a navy in 1657, when neither Bijapur nor the Mughals
thought a full-time fleet was worth keeping?’
Why I would ask: the chapter calls this ‘a truly revolutionary step at the time’. Bijapur had
merchant ships but no force to protect the coast, and even the Mughal use of a navy was
very limited. So he was spending scarce money on something every neighbouring power had
judged unnecessary. I want to know whether he foresaw the European sea threat that
Ramachandrapant Amatya would write about in 1715.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

2. ‘At Purandar you had to surrender a large part of your kingdom and send your son
Sambhaji into Mughal service. How did you decide that a bad treaty was better than a
lost war?’
Why I would ask: this is the hardest moment in the chapter — a defeat, not a victory. Knowing
how a leader judges when to stop fighting would tell us more about his strategy than any of
his successes. It is also the decision that kept him alive to be crowned nine years later.
3. ‘You told your officials not to take even a blade of grass by force, and not to cut a
villager’s mango or jackfruit tree. How did you make officials far away actually obey
that?’
Why I would ask: issuing a good order is easy; enforcing it across hundreds of forts is not. The
chapter gives clues — salaries from the treasury instead of land, periodic transfers — and I
would like to hear from him whether that was the mechanism, or whether it rested on
inspection and punishment.

Tip: when you share your three questions in class, notice how many classmates
asked about battles and how many asked about governing. The chapter spends about
as much space on administration as on warfare — and the administration is what let
the kingdom outlive him by 138 years.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 66
Guerrilla warfare

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Try to find out more about guerrilla warfare. Which other countries in the world
adopted this method? What geographical advantages did they utilise for this?
Discuss your findings in groups.

ANSWER

Guerrilla warfare, as the chapter defines it, ‘uses small groups of people in a focused way, with
speed, surprise, and knowledge of the terrain to defeat bigger armies’. The word itself is
Spanish — guerrilla means ‘little war’ — and it entered English from Spain’s resistance to
Napoleon.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas
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Why the method works: a large regular army is strong only when it can

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concentrate, supply itself and fight a set-piece battle. Guerrillas refuse all three. They
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Shaista Khan’s camp with only a few soldiers, after Shaista Khan had spent three
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years attacking with a big army, is exactly this logic.
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WHERE ROUGHLY a GEOGRAPHICAL ADVANTAGE USED

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India — the Marathas
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Spain 1808–1814, against Mountainous, dry country with poor roads — French supply
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1956–1959 The Sierra Maestra mountains, remote from the main roads
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South Africa — the 1900–1902 Vast open veld with few railways; small mounted groups

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1930s–1940s Enormous distances and a rural interior where an army
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The common pattern. Look down the last column and the same three geographical conditions
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Few good routes, so the bigger army becomes predictable and its supply lines can be cut.
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Local knowledge and local support: the defenders know every track, spring and cave; the

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invader does not. This is the ‘knowledge of the terrain’ in the chapter’s definition, and it is not

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For your group discussion: ask whether guerrilla warfare is ever enough by itself. In
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the Maratha case it was not — the chapter is clear that guerrilla attacks were paired
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with forts, which gave the small groups somewhere to shelter and something to
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defend. Test that idea against one other example from the table.
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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 69
The Marathas after Chhatrapati Shivaji

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Pick an event from Chhatrapati Shivaji’s life and, with your classmates, stage it as a
play.

ANSWER

Pick an event that has a decision in it, not just action — a scene works on stage when a
character has to choose. Four events in this chapter carry that: the meeting with Afzal Khan at
Pratapgad (1659), the night raid on Shaista Khan’s camp, the escape from Agra (1666), and the
coronation at Raigad (1674).
What a good staging needs

Accuracy on the facts the chapter gives — dates, names, places. Invent only the dialogue.
A clear turning point the audience can feel.
Few props. A basket, a shawl and two chairs are enough; the audience will supply the rest.
A closing line that says why the event mattered, so the class learns history and not only a
story.

Sample answer: ‘The Baskets of Agra’ — a four-scene play

SCENE WHERE WHAT HAPPENS THE LINE THAT CARRIES
IT

1 Mughal Shivaji, persuaded by Jai Singh to come, is Shivaji: ‘I was invited as a king.
court, Agra made to stand before Aurangzeb beside a I am being placed as a servant.’
Mughal general he had already defeated.

2 Outside the Incensed, he storms out. Aurangzeb orders Aurangzeb: ‘Let him keep his
court him kept under house arrest. pride. He will not keep his
freedom.’

3 The house Shivaji begins sending baskets of fruits and Guard: ‘Fruit again. Let it pass.’
of detention sweets as gifts to holy men and Mughal
generals. The guards open the first baskets,
then the tenth, then stop bothering.

4 The gate, at Two large baskets go out. Shivaji and his Narrator: ‘Aurangzeb never
dusk son Sambhaji are inside them. Narrator captured him again. Eight years
closes the play. later he was crowned
Chhatrapati at Raigad.’

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this event is worth staging: it shows a habit of mind rather than a feat of
strength. Shivaji did not break out — he studied the guards’ routine, made a search
feel pointless by repeating it harmlessly for days, and then used the routine he had
built. That is the same thinking as guerrilla warfare: work on the enemy’s
expectations, not on his walls.

Tip: give one classmate the job of ‘fact-checker’. Before the performance, they read
Pages 66–67 aloud and confirm every fact your script states — that Sambhaji
escaped with him, that Jai Singh had persuaded him to go, that the year was 1666.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 72
Maratha Administration — Civilian administration

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 Based on Chhatrapati Shivaji’s letter, what can you tell about his values as a ruler?

ANSWER

The letter shows a ruler who held that the needs of the state do not licence force against
ordinary people. Even for the navy — his own most prized project — timber was to be taken by
permission, and certain trees were not to be touched at all.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT HE WRITES THE VALUE BEHIND IT

‘If needed, secure permission for cutting the trees Rule by procedure, not by power. Even a legitimate state
from the forest and then proceed.’ need must go through consent — the officer’s authority does
not by itself make the taking right.

‘Other trees like the mango and jackfruit are also Restraint. Useful is not the same as available. He draws a
useful, but do not touch them.’ firm line the officials may not cross even when it would be
convenient.

‘Such trees take many years to mature, and the Empathy, and an understanding of what is irreplaceable. A
people look after them like their children. If you cut mango tree is not a plank of wood — it is decades of a
them, will their sorrow ever end?’ family’s care. Compensation cannot restore it.

‘If you accomplish something by oppressing others, A political principle, not only a moral one. He argues that
it perishes soon, along with the oppressor.’ gains built on oppression are unstable — so justice is also
good statecraft.

‘There is harm in the absence of such trees as well.’ Foresight about resources. Stripping the countryside of fruit
trees damages the country itself — an early recognition of
what we would now call environmental cost.

‘Therefore, do not use force in any circumstances.’ No exceptions. The order is absolute, which is what makes it
enforceable — an official cannot argue that his case was
special.

Why this is more than a kind sentiment: notice that Shivaji gives reasons, not just
commands. He tells his officers why the rule exists — the years a tree takes, the
family’s attachment, the instability of gains got by oppression. A ruler who explains
his orders is training judgement in his officials, so that they behave well in situations
his letter did not anticipate. That is the same instinct as paying salaries from the
treasury and transferring officials: build a system that behaves well even when the
king is not watching.

The same values appear elsewhere in the chapter, which is how we know the letter was not
an isolated fine phrase:

At Surat he took an enormous treasure but was careful not to attack religious places, and
spared the house of Mohandas Parekh, a charitable man.
He gave pensions to widows of soldiers killed in battle, and offered military posts to their
sons.
He forbade the Dutch from trading slaves in the South, when no other Indian power was
opposing the practice.
He abolished hereditary posts and land assignments so that officials could not build private
power over the people they governed.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Did you know? The instruction ‘not to forcefully grab even a blade of grass’ is not a
figure of speech invented by the textbook — grass was fodder, and an army’s horses
needed it daily. Forbidding officials to seize fodder was a real and expensive
restriction on a cavalry state.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 79
In focus: Thanjavur

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Have you heard of the dance form ‘Bharatnatyam’? Did you know that this dance
form has a deep connection with the Marathas? Can you find out what this
connection was?

ANSWER

The connection is Thanjavur. The chapter states it directly: under Serfoji II, the Maratha ruler
of Thanjavur, ‘modern Carnatic music took shape, as did the early stages of the famous classical
dance form of Bharatanatyam’. In other words, the dance we know today was shaped in a court
ruled by Marathas in the Tamil country.
How the connection came about

1. Ekoji, the half-brother of Chhatrapati Shivaji, conquered the Thanjavur region in the late
17th century, beginning Maratha rule there.
2. The Thanjavur Marathas were great patrons of the arts — many of the rulers were
themselves poets and dramatists, and Serfoji II wrote a Marathi play, Devendra Kuravanji.
3. Serfoji II patronised many talented musicians. Working under that patronage, court
musicians and dance-masters organised the temple dance tradition of the Tamil country into
an ordered sequence of items.
4. That ordered sequence — the way a recital is built up today — is the direct ancestor of the
modern Bharatanatyam concert.

What your research will turn up. The four brothers Chinnayya, Ponnayya, Sivanandam and
Vadivelu — known as the Thanjavur Quartet — served at Serfoji II’s court in the early 19th
century. They are credited with arranging the dance repertoire into the order still followed:
alarippu, jatiswaram, shabdam, varnam, padam and tillana. The dance was then known by other
names, such as sadir; the name ‘Bharatanatyam’ came into general use only in the 20th century,
when the form moved from temple and court to the public stage.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas
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co m
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Why a Marathi-speaking court shaped a Tamil art form: the chapter explains the

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mechanism in the paragraph just after this box — Thanjavur’s cultural environment
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was multilingual, the
a e Marathi culture of the current rulers ‘interacting with each other freely’. The
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and
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That is what the chapter means by a syncretic culture that was rich and full of
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innovation.
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Did you know? Serfoji II’s interests ran far beyond dance. He set up the
Dhanwantari Mahal, a medical centre giving free treatment using both Indian and
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Western medicine; he started the first printing press established in India by a
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native ruler; and he had the history of the Bhonsle family inscribed on the walls of
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Brihadishwara temple — one of the largest single inscriptions

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Questions and activities — Page 81
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End-of-chapter exercise

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Analyse how geography (particularly mountains and coastlines) guided Maratha
co
Q1
military strategy and state formation.
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ANSWER

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Geography did not merely help the Marathas — it chose their strategy for them. The Sahyadri

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hills made forts and guerrilla warfare the cheapest way to fight; the Konkan coastline made a

a se
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navy necessary; and the open Deccan plateau beyond made fast cavalry the way to project
. a g
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power across India.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Coastal forts — Sindhudurg, Vijaydurg — guard harbours and the fleet
Ports — Dabhol, Rajapur, Malwan, Vengurla — trade to Muscat, Mocha, Malacca

Hill forts on the Sahyadri — Raigad, Pratapgad — control the passes
Deccan plateau — open country where light cavalry can ride far and fast

Arabian Sea

Konkan coast Sahyadri Deccan plateau

West to east across the Maratha homeland. Each band of country produced a different arm of the
state — sea forts and ports on the coast, hill forts on the escarpment, cavalry on the plateau. The
place names are those shown on the map in Fig. 3.9.

1. Mountains made guerrilla warfare cheap and siege warfare expensive. The chapter says
Shivaji ‘had recourse to the tactic of guerrilla warfare, which uses small groups of people in a
focused way, with speed, surprise, and knowledge of the terrain’. That definition only works in
broken country. In the Sahyadri, an army must move along narrow passes; a small local force
can strike the head or the tail of the column and vanish uphill. Afzal Khan’s army was routed by
Marathas ‘hidden in the mountains’ at the foot of Pratapgad, in thick forest.
2. Mountains made forts the natural form of the state. A hilltop with one steep approach can
be held by a few hundred men against thousands. So Shivaji began, at sixteen, by ‘capturing
neglected and unoccupied forts and strengthening their defences’, and forts became ‘the
mainstay of Maratha power’. Ramachandrapant Amatya could therefore write that the kingdom
‘was created … from forts alone’.
3. The coastline forced a navy into existence. When the kingdom reached India’s west coast,
Shivaji needed access to coastal resources — and a coast that cannot be defended is a coast the
enemy can land on. So the Maratha navy was founded in 1657, with naval fortifications such as
Sindhudurg (Fig. 3.6). This was unusual: Bijapur had merchant ships but no full-time naval force,
and even Mughal use of a navy was very limited.
4. The coastline also decided who the enemy would be. Because the Marathas held ports —
the map shows Dabhol, Rajapur, Malwan and Vengurla, with routes out to Muscat, Mocha and
Malacca — they collided directly with European sea power, which rested on the cartaz pass
system. Kanhoji Angre won ‘thanks to a clever use of geography and battle tactics’ even though
Maratha ships were technologically behind European ones. Geography compensated for
technology.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

5. The plateau shaped expansion. Beyond the Ghats the land opens out. Open country favours
mounted troops who move fast and live off the march — which is exactly how chauth and
sardeshmukhi could be collected from provinces the Marathas did not garrison. The same
mobility carried them to Delhi, Lahore, Attock and Peshawar in the 18th century.
6. Distance itself became a weapon. The dakṣhiṇa-digvijaya of 1677 added present-day
northern Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka, which the chapter says ‘later gave the Marathas
great strategic depth against the Mughal invasion’. When Aurangzeb took Raigad, Rajaram
simply continued the war from Gingee, far to the south. A state with depth cannot be finished
by capturing its capital.

Why geography mattered so much here: the Marathas were always the smaller
power in men and money. Terrain is the one advantage that cannot be bought — the
Mughals could hire more soldiers and better cannon, but they could not buy
familiarity with a Sahyadri ravine or a Konkan creek. Maratha strategy was, at
bottom, a decision to fight only where that advantage applied.

Q2 Imagine you are creating a short biography of a Maratha leader for younger
students. Choose one personality (Kanhoji Angre, Bajirao I, Mahadji Shinde,
Ahilyabai Holkar or Tarabai) and write 3–4 paragraphs highlighting what makes
them inspirational. Include at least one challenge they overcame.

ANSWER

What a good short biography needs: open with the person, not with the period; give the
challenge early, because that is what makes a life a story; use exact dates and place names from
the chapter; and finish with what survives of them today. Keep sentences short — you are
writing for younger students.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

IF YOU THE CHALLENGE TO BUILD THE BIOGRAPHY AROUND
CHOOSE…

Tarabai Her husband Rajaram is dead, Aurangzeb and the Mughal army are in the Deccan, and the
Maratha state is fighting for survival — and she goes on the offensive instead of defending

Kanhoji Angre Maratha ships are technologically behind European ones, yet he must break Europe’s
monopoly of the sea

Bajirao I Taking a Deccan kingdom, recently at war for its life, and turning it into an all-India power

Mahadji Rebuilding Maratha power in the north after the disaster at Panipat in 1761 — and doing it
Shinde against European-trained armies

Ahilyabai Losing her husband and her son, and still governing a state for thirty years
Holkar

Sample answer: Ahilyabai Holkar
Ahilyabai Holkar was a scion of the Holkar dynasty, one of the chief families behind the Maratha
expansion into north India. During the 18th century the Holkars ruled a kingdom of
considerable extent in central India, around present-day Indore. Ahilyabai was not born to rule
it. She came to power in the hardest way possible — she lost her husband, and then she lost her
son.
Many rulers would have handed the state to a soldier and withdrawn. Ahilyabai did not. She
governed for thirty years, and the chapter’s judgement of those years is precise: she
administered the state wisely while caring for the common people. That combination is rarer
than it sounds. A ruler can be efficient and harsh, or kind and weak; running a large state well
for three decades means being neither.
Her second achievement was to rebuild India’s sacred landscape with her own treasury. She
built and restored hundreds of temples, ghats, wells and roads across the whole country —
from Kedarnath in the north to Rameswaram in the south. Two of these were repairs to
famous losses: she rebuilt the Kashi Vishwanath temple at Varanasi, destroyed by Aurangzeb,
and the Somnath temple in Gujarat, destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni. Notice what a well or a
road on a pilgrim route actually is: a work of public use that serves the poorest traveller, not a
monument to the ruler.
Her third achievement is the one you can still touch. Ahilyabai is credited with promoting the
Maheshwar weaving industry in present-day Madhya Pradesh, reviving traditional handloom
crafts that continue to thrive today. Maheshwari sarees are still woven there. That is why she is
inspirational: after the worst private grief, she spent thirty years making things that were meant
to outlast her — and they have.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip for the writing: for younger readers, turn one fact into a picture. ‘From
Kedarnath to Rameswaram’ means little until you add: that is roughly the length of
India, and in the 18th century a pilgrim walked it.

Q3 If you could visit one Maratha fort today (such as Raigad, Sindhudurg, Gingee, or
Pratapgad), which would you choose and why? Research its history, architecture,
and strategic importance. Present your findings as a digital presentation or a
poster in class.

ANSWER

Method first. Whichever fort you choose, organise the research under the three headings the
question names, and add a fourth that makes the presentation yours:

1. History — who built or captured it, and which events in this chapter happened there.
2. Architecture — gateways, walls, water storage, and how the buildings answer the site.
3. Strategic importance — what the fort controls: a pass, a harbour, a road, a capital.
4. One question you still cannot answer — an honest open question is the best last slide.

FORT TYPE (FIG. WHY IT WOULD BE WORTH VISITING
3.9)

Raigad Hill fort The capital: Shivaji was crowned here in 1674 and died here in 1680;
Aurangzeb captured it after Sambhaji

Sindhudurg Coastal fort Built on a rock in the sea near the Maharashtra–Goa border — one of several
naval fortifications (Fig. 3.6)

Pratapgad Hill fort The meeting with Afzal Khan took place at its foot, amid thick forests

Gingee Hill fort, far Rajaram fled here after Raigad fell, carrying the Mughal–Maratha war into
south south India

Sample answer: I would choose Raigad.
History. Raigad is where the Maratha Empire formally began. The chapter’s opening
photograph (Fig. 3.1) shows the grand entrance to the palace where Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
was crowned in 1674 — a coronation performed with full Vedic rites, after which he took the title
Shri Raja Shiva Chhatrapati and began his own era, the Rājyābhiṣheka shaka. He died at Raigad in
1680, aged fifty. After Sambhaji was captured and executed, Aurangzeb captured Raigad itself.
Architecture. Raigad is a fortified hill plateau roughly 800 metres above sea level, reached by a
single steep climbing path — today there is also a ropeway. What survives shows how a fort was
designed as a working capital and not only as a wall: a massive main gateway (the Maha
Darwaja) set so that attackers approach it sideways rather than head-on; a straight market

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas
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street with rows of shop plinths; the Jagadishwar temple; rock-cut water cisterns, since a hill fort
co m
lives or dies by its stored water; and Takmak Tok, the cliff point from which the whole approach
e m.
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can be watched.

em a
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Strategic importance. Raigad sits in the Sahyadri behind the Konkan, so it commands the
a
a gl between the coast and the plateau while being extremely hard to attack. That is why it
routes
was chosen as a capital rather than a city in open country: the seat of government was itself a

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fortress. It is a physical statement of Ramachandrapant Amatya’s line that ‘forts are the core of
the state’.
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My open question: if Raigad was so strong, how did Aurangzeb take it? Working that out
a
means studying supply, treachery and the length of a siege — and it shows that no fort is
impregnable, only expensive.

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For the presentation: six slides are enough — (1) a photograph and one sentence,
g
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(2) history, with a small
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Q4
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The chapter states, “The British took India from the Marathas more than from the
Mughals or any other power.” What do you think this means? What evidence from

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ANSWER

em a
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agl in name, and real control over much of India had already passed to the Marathas. So when the
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British conquered India, the territory and the power they actually took were, in the main,

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Maratha — not Mughal.
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Mughal power collapses after 1707

→ Marathas take over much of central and northern India, and Delhi itself

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→ the British must defeat the Marathas to rule India
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→ three Anglo-Maratha wars, 1775 – 1818
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The Marathas, not the Mughals, were the British rival. ‘In the latter half of the 18th

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century, the chief rivals of the British in India were the Marathas.’
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They held the most territory. Maratha rule ‘established the largest Indian empire before
the British took over a g Subcontinent, controlling much of central and northern India’.
the

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Delhi itself was Maratha. Maratha control over Delhi began in 1754; Mahadji Shinde
recaptured it in 1771, and it ‘remained under their control till the British captured it three
decades later’. So the British took the Mughal capital from the Marathas.
It took three wars and forty-three years. The Anglo-Maratha wars ran from 1775 to 1818;
the Marathas won the first (1775–1782), and only the third ended Maratha power. No other
Indian power required this.
The Marathas organised the resistance. Nana Phadnavis is credited with the first pan-
Indian anti-British alliance, uniting even old adversaries like Hyder Ali of Mysore and the
Nizam of Hyderabad. The centre of anti-British politics was Maratha.
Why they finally lost is stated too — ‘the Marathas’ increased internal disunity and the
superior organisational and technological abilities of the British’. Note that neither reason is
Mughal strength.

Why the sentence is worth arguing about: historians agree that the Marathas
were the last great obstacle, but they weigh the beginning differently. One view
stresses that British power was founded earlier and elsewhere — in Bengal, whose
revenues after the 1760s paid for the armies that later fought the Marathas — and
that Mysore and the Sikh kingdom also had to be defeated. The strongest case for
the chapter’s claim is about extent and endpoint: whatever paid for the conquest,
most of the land the British ended up ruling in the north and centre was taken from
Maratha hands, and the conquest was not complete until the Marathas fell in 1818.
Both statements can be true at once, and a good answer says so.

Q5 Compare how Chhatrapati Shivaji and later Marathas treated religious places and
people of different faiths. What evidence from the chapter shows their approach to
religious diversity?

ANSWER

Both Chhatrapati Shivaji and the later Marathas followed the same rule: protect and revive one’s
own tradition, without making other faiths a target. The chapter’s summing-up is that the
Marathas ‘revived the local Hindu traditions without religious discrimination’.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

QUESTION CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI THE LATER MARATHAS

In war, were No. At Surat he took treasure worth The chapter records no policy of attacking places
religious places almost a crore of rupees but ‘was of worship; it does note that as chiefs became
attacked? careful not to attack religious places’, autonomous there was ‘occasional indiscipline
and even spared the house of Mohandas and abuse, in stark contrast with Chhatrapati
Parekh, a charitable man Shivaji’s values’

Own tradition ‘A devout Hindu who respected other Ahilyabai Holkar rebuilt the Kashi Vishwanath
religions while upholding his own’; temple and the Somnath temple and built
rebuilt desecrated temples; promoted hundreds of temples, ghats, wells and roads from
Sanskrit and Marathi literature, religious Kedarnath to Rameswaram; the Bhonsles of
institutions and traditional arts Nagpur helped revive the worship of Lord
Jagannath at Puri, often interrupted under
Mughal rule

Government Religious affairs were one department The Thanjavur Marathas patronised a ‘syncretic
and religion among eight — the Panḍitrāo in the culture that was rich and full of innovation’;
aṣhṭa pradhāna manḍala — not the Serfoji II’s Dhanwantari Mahal treated the sick
whole of government free of charge using both Indian and Western
medicine

Language and A Sanskrit seal replacing the prevalent The ‘Gaṇapatī-Pantapradhān rupee’ carries
symbols Persian ones, and coins in Devanagari inscriptions in two scripts, Devanagari and
— cultural assertion rather than Persian; 18th-century Marathas kept the popular
suppression of others Mughal coin style and added their own symbols
to it

Politics across His enemies were rulers, not Nana Phadnavis built an anti-British alliance
faiths communities — he fought Bijapur and with Hyder Ali of Mysore and the Nizam of
the Mughals, and separately protected Hyderabad, both Muslim rulers who had been
his own subjects from European slave adversaries
traders

Why the coin is the sharpest single piece of evidence: a coin is a state’s most
public document — everybody handles it. The Patwardhans, generals under the
Peshwa, put an invocation to Gaṇapati on one side and a declaration of loyalty to the
Peshwa on the other, and printed the whole thing in Devanagari and Persian. A
state that wanted to erase other traditions would not put their script on its money.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip for writing this answer in an exam: the question says ‘compare’, so your
answer must state both a similarity and a difference. Similarity: the same policy of
protection without persecution. Difference: Shivaji enforced it tightly through a
centralised, salaried administration, whereas later the chapter itself admits that
autonomous chiefs sometimes fell short of his standard.

Q6 The chapter describes how forts were ‘the core of the state’ for Marathas. Why were
they so important? How did they help the Marathas survive against larger enemies?

ANSWER

Forts were the core of the state because they did four jobs at once — they controlled routes,
sheltered a guerrilla army, stored what a state needs to survive a siege, and made the
enemy’s superior numbers expensive instead of decisive.
Ramachandrapant Amatya, Shivaji’s finance minister, put the argument in the Ādnyāpatra:

‘Forts are the core of the state. In their absence, the land gets devastated in the face of an

invasion … This kingdom was created by the late great master from forts alone … A great

enemy like Aurangzeb invaded, conquered great empires like Bijapur and Bhaganagar … but

it was due to forts that the [Maratha] state survived despite decades of onslaught.’

Why forts mattered so much

1. They controlled movement. The chapter says forts ‘were essential to strategically control
important routes’. In hill country there are only a few usable passes; hold the fort above a
pass and you decide who uses it. That is how a small state taxes and polices a large area.
2. They made guerrilla warfare possible. Forts ‘shelter the army when engaging in guerrilla
warfare’. Small raiding groups must have somewhere to rest, re-arm and take their
wounded. Without a base, guerrillas are just fugitives.
3. They stored the state. Grain, water in rock-cut cisterns, weapons and treasure could sit
safely on a hilltop. A state that can keep its resources out of reach cannot be knocked out in
one campaign.
4. They reversed the arithmetic of numbers. A hill fort with one steep approach can be held
by a small garrison against a very large army, because the attacker can only bring a few men
to the wall at a time. Meanwhile the besieger must feed thousands of men and horses on the
spot. Time and hunger work for the defender.
5. They were political statements. Shivaji chose the ‘strong mountain fortress of Raigad’ for
his coronation in 1674. The capital of the kingdom was itself a fort.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

6. Coastal forts extended the same idea to the sea. Sindhudurg and Vijaydurg protected
harbours and gave the Maratha fleet safe bases (Fig. 3.6, Fig. 3.9).

How this let them survive larger enemies — the proof is 1682–1707. Aurangzeb brought the
whole Mughal army into the Deccan. He did conquer the two great sultanates, Bijapur and
Golconda. He captured Sambhaji and executed him, and he captured Raigad, the capital. By the
usual rules of that age, the Maratha state should have ended there. Instead:

Rajaram moved to Gingee, far south, and the war went with him — the state was not tied to
one place.
The Marathas ‘staunchly defended their fortresses and often had the upper hand over the
Mughals in battles and skirmishes’.
Because every fort had to be besieged separately, Aurangzeb ‘was unable to leave the
Deccan and died without having succeeded in subduing the Marathas’.

Why this is the deepest point in the chapter: a kingdom built on a capital city can
be conquered by taking that city. A kingdom built on hundreds of forts must be
conquered fort by fort — and the cost rises while the reward stays small. Aurangzeb
spent twenty-five years and his own life on the attempt. The Marathas did not out-
fight the Mughal Empire; they made conquering them cost more than it was worth.

Q7 You have been appointed as the chief designer for Maratha coins. Design a coin that
represents Maratha achievements and values. Explain the symbols you chose.

ANSWER

First, look at what real Maratha coins actually did, because the chapter gives you two
examples and both carry a clear idea:

Chhatrapati Shivaji’s coins (Fig. 3.12) were gold and copper, struck in his own name —
which signified sovereignty — and used the Devanagari script, which the chapter calls ‘an
assertion of his cultural identity’ at a time when Persian was the normal language of coinage.
The ‘Gaṇapatī-Pantapradhān rupee’ (Fig. 3.14), minted in the early 19th century by the
Patwardhans, kept the popular Mughal style but added Maratha symbols: an invocation to
Gaṇapati on one side, loyalty to the Peshwa on the other, in two scripts, Devanagari and
Persian.

Why a coin is a political document: it is the one object of the state that every
person handles. Whose name is on it says who is sovereign; which script it uses says
whose language is public; what is pictured says what the state wants remembered.
So a good design is not decoration — every element must make a claim you can
defend.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas
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a

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रायगढ़ · १६७४ आरमार · नौसेना
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Obverse — the fort and Swarājya
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Reverse — the navy and the

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A proposed design. Both faces use Devanagari, following Chhatrapati Shivaji’s own coinage.
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Sample answer: the symbols and why I chose each
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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

SYMBOL WHERE WHAT IT CLAIMS, AND THE EVIDENCE
IT IS

The word स्वराज्य Top of the The founding idea of the state. Shivaji’s ‘vision of a sovereign kingdom or
(Swarājya) obverse Swarājya grew over the years, extending to political, economic and
cultural aspects’, and the chapter says it later inspired Indians to believe
they could govern themselves

A hill fort Centre of ‘Forts are the core of the state’ — the Ādnyāpatra. Nothing else
the obverse represents Maratha power so exactly

रायगढ़ · १६७४ Below the The coronation at Raigad, which marked the formal beginning of the
fort Maratha Empire and the start of the Rājyābhiṣheka shaka

A ship under sail Centre of The navy founded in 1657 — a step no neighbouring power had taken —
the reverse and Kanhoji Angre’s later victories over European fleets

ी राजा िशव छत्र पित Top of the His exact formal title after the coronation. A ruler’s own name on a coin is
reverse the statement of sovereignty, which is why he minted in his own name

Devanagari Both faces Following his real coins, where the use of Devanagari was ‘an assertion of
script his cultural identity’. The Rājya-Vyavahāra-Koṣha shows the same
throughout language policy

A plain, Edge A design choice reflecting the letter about the trees: a state that told its
undecorated rim officials not to take a blade of grass by force should not boast on its money

Try this: design a second coin for a later Maratha ruler and see how it must change
— a Peshwa-era coin would need the Peshwa’s authority on it, as the real Gaṇapatī-
Pantapradhān rupee did, because by then power had shifted from the Chhatrapati to
his prime minister.

Q8 After this introduction to the Maratha period, what do you think was their most
important contribution to Indian history? Write a paragraph supporting your
opinion with examples from the chapter. Then share and discuss your ideas with
classmates.

ANSWER

Three answers can be defended from this chapter, and you should know all three before
choosing one.

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

POSSIBLE ANSWER BEST EVIDENCE FOR IT ITS WEAKNESS

The empire itself The largest Indian empire before the British; It did end, in 1818 — an empire
Delhi held from 1754/1771; three wars needed to that falls leaves less behind than
end it an idea that does not

The system of Salaried, transferable officials instead of The Marathas themselves
government hereditary posts and land grants; the aṣhṭa loosened it — autonomous
pradhāna manḍala; panchāyat justice with sparing chiefs brought ‘occasional
use of the death penalty; pensions for soldiers’ indiscipline and abuse’
widows

The demonstration The chapter’s own verdict, and the freedom- Hardest to measure — you
that Indians could rule movement link on Page 80 cannot weigh an inspiration the
themselves way you can weigh territory

Sample answer (model paragraph):
The most important Maratha contribution to Indian history was not the size of their empire but
the proof they supplied that a mighty empire could be defeated and that Indians could
build, expand and administer an empire of their own. The chapter says exactly this, and the
evidence for it runs right through the chapter. Chhatrapati Shivaji began as a sixteen-year-old
taking neglected forts and ended crowned at Raigad in 1674 with his own era; Aurangzeb
brought the full Mughal army into the Deccan for twenty-five years, conquered Bijapur and
Golconda, executed Sambhaji and captured Raigad, and still died without subduing the
Marathas. The proof spread beyond Maharashtra almost immediately: the Bundela prince
Chhatrasal, inspired by Shivaji’s struggle, created an independent kingdom of Bundelkhand, and
the Hindi poet Bhushan travelled to Maharashtra to write in his praise. It also survived the
empire’s fall. The chapter’s closing judgement is that the fiery ideal of Swarājya ‘inspired many
Indians to believe they could govern themselves, planting the early seeds for India’s freedom
movement’. Territory can be lost in a single war — Maratha territory was, in 1818. A
demonstration cannot be taken back.

For the class discussion: the honest test of an opinion is whether you can state the
strongest case against it. If you argue for Swarājya as the main contribution, the case
against you is that ideas are cheap and administration is hard — and that the
salaried, transferable civil service was a far more unusual achievement for the 17th
century than any slogan. Answer that objection and your argument is worth
something.

Page 26 of 29

Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Chapter at a glance
The Marathas are a people of the Deccan plateau, in present-day Maharashtra, identified
with Marathi, a language with a continuous literary history since the 12th century. Their
political rise was prepared by the bhakti saints — Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram, Ramdas
— who put the Upaniṣhads and the Bhagavad Gītā into Marathi and gave society a common
cultural foundation.
Chhatrapati Shivaji (born 1630, Bhonsle clan, son of Shahji and Jijabai) began capturing
forts at sixteen, ruled from 1646, founded the Maratha navy in 1657, was crowned at
Raigad in 1674 with the title Shri Raja Shiva Chhatrapati, and carried out the dakṣhiṇa-
digvijaya in 1677. He died in 1680, aged fifty.
His method was forts plus guerrilla warfare — small groups using speed, surprise and
knowledge of the terrain. Ramachandrapant Amatya wrote in the Ādnyāpatra that ‘forts are
the core of the state’, and it was the forts that kept the state alive through Aurangzeb’s
onslaught of 1682–1707.
Governance rested on a salaried, transferable administration with no hereditary posts or
land assignments, an aṣhṭa pradhāna manḍala of eight ministers, the chauth (25%) and
sardeshmukhi (a further 10%) levied on provinces outside direct rule, panchāyat justice
with sparing use of the death penalty, and a navy that made Europeans buy Maratha sea
passes instead of selling their own.
After Shivaji the state grew but decentralised: the Peshwa came to overshadow the
Chhatrapati, Tarabai launched the northward expansion, and Bajirao I, Nanasaheb and
Mahadji Shinde carried Maratha power to Delhi (1754, again 1771), Lahore, Attock and
Peshawar — the largest Indian empire before the British.
The legacy is threefold: an empire that challenged Mughal dominance; an efficient way of
governing; and a cultural revival — the Sanskrit seal, the Rājya-Vyavahāra-Koṣha, the Moḍī
script, Ahilyabai Holkar’s temples and ghats, and the syncretic Thanjavur court of Serfoji II.
The ideal of Swarājya later helped plant the seeds of India’s freedom movement.

Page 27 of 29

Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Quick revision

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WHY IT MATTERS
APPEARS

Swarājya Self-rule — a sovereign kingdom Pages 64, 80 The idea that drove Shivaji from age
of one’s own, not a governorship sixteen, and later ‘planted the early
held under a sultan seeds for India’s freedom movement’

Jāgīr Land given by a ruler to a noble or Page 64 Shahji held a jāgīr at Pune — Shivaji
soldier as a reward for service; the grew up there; Shivaji later abolished
holder could collect its taxes such land assignments in his own
state

Guerrilla Small groups using speed, surprise Page 65 How a Deccan chief beat the armies of
warfare and knowledge of the terrain to Bijapur and the Mughals; it works only
defeat far bigger armies because the Sahyadri terrain is known
to the defender

Aṣhṭa pradhāna The council of eight ministers — Page 72, Fig. Shows government split into named
manḍala Pradhān, Amātya, Sachiv, Mantrī, 3.13 departments under the Chhatrapatī,
Sumant, Senāpatī, Nyāyādhīsh, not run through personal favourites
Panḍitrāo

Chauth and Taxes of 25 per cent, and a further Page 73 Protection in return for revenue,
sardeshmukhi 10 per cent, levied on provinces not without interfering in internal
directly ruled by the Marathas administration — over time such
provinces joined the empire

Bārgīr and Cavalrymen whose horse and Page 73 Two ways of raising cavalry: state-
shiledār equipment were paid for by the funded loyalty and self-funded
state (bārgīr) or by themselves numbers
(shiledār)

Cartaz A naval trade pass the Portuguese Page 74 The Marathas reversed it — they
forced Indian ships to buy; a ship demanded passes from the
without one was confiscated Europeans, who then called Kanhoji
Angre a ‘pirate’

Ādnyāpatra ‘The Royal Edict’, written in 1715 Pages 61, 74 The chapter’s main written source: it
by Ramachandrapant Amatya, warns about the European ‘hat-
Shivaji’s finance minister wearers’ and explains why forts are
the core of the state

Peshwa Persian for ‘prime minister’; from Page 70 Bajirao I and Nanasaheb drove the
the 18th century the real centre of pan-Indian expansion — but the
Maratha power Chhatrapati became nominal, and
chiefs grew autonomous

Page 28 of 29

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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 3 The Rise of the Marathas
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a g l Page 29 of 29