The Rise of the Marathas

As Mughal power weakened, the Marathas built a formidable swarajya from the Deccan hills. This chapter of the NCERT Class 8 Social Science textbook follows Shivaji's guerrilla campaigns, forts and coronation in 1674, his administration of ashtapradhan council, revenue and navy, and the later Peshwa expansion across central and northern India. It explains Maratha warfare, sardars and confederacy, clashes with the Mughals, Afghans and the British, and why Maratha power shaped eighteenth-century politics before its decline.

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