Classical dances- Many dance forms that are classified as folk also

share several of the characteristics considered typical of classical forms. Other

dance forms that are recognized as classical at present are:

Bharatanatyam (Tamil Nadu)

Kathakali (Kerala)
Odissi (Orissa)
Kuchipudi (Andhra Pradesh)
Manipuri (Manipur)

Painting for Patrons: The Tradition of Miniatures- Another tradition that

developed in different ways was that of miniature painting. Miniatures are smallsized paintings, generally done in water color on cloth or paper. The earliest
miniatures were on palm leaves or wood. Some of the most beautiful of these, found
in western India, were used to illustrate Jaina texts. The Mughal emperors Akbar,
Jahangir and Shah Jahan patronized highly skilled painters who primarily illustrated
manuscripts containing historical accounts and poetry. These were generally
painted in brilliant colors and portrayed court scenes, scenes of battle or hunting,
and other aspects of social life. They were often exchanged as gifts and were
viewed only by an exclusive few the emperor and his close associates.
With the decline of the Mughal
Empire, many painters moved out
to the courts of the emerging regional
states (see also Chapter 10). As a
result Mughal artistic tastes
influenced the regional courts of the
Deccan and the Rajput courts of
Rajasthan. At the same time, they
retained and developed their
distinctive characteristics. Portraits
of rulers and court scenes came to
be painted, following the Mughal
example. Besides, themes from
mythology and poetry were depicted

at centres such as Mewar, Jodhpur,

Bundi, Kota and Kishangarh.
Another region that attracted
miniature paintings was the
Himalayan foothills around the
modern-day state of Himachal
Fig. 7
Akbar resting
during a hunt,
Mughal miniature.
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129
Pradesh. By the late seventeenth century this region
had developed a bold and intense style of miniature
painting called Basohli. The most popular text to be
painted here was Bhanudattas Rasamanjari. Nadir
Shahs invasion and the conquest of Delhi in 1739
resulted in the migration of Mughal artists to the
hills to escape the uncertainties of the plains. Here
Fig. 8
Maharana Ram
Singh II playing holi.
Rajput miniature,
Kota.
Fig. 9

Krishna, Radha and

her companion,
Pahari miniature,
Kangra.
THE MAKING OF
REGIONAL CULTURES
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130 OUR PASTS II
they found ready patrons which led to the founding
of the Kangra school of painting. By the mideighteenth century the Kangra artists
developed a
style which breathed a new spirit into miniature
painting. The source of inspiration was the
Vaishnavite traditions. Soft colours including cool
blues and greens, and a lyrical treatment of themes
distinguished Kangra painting.
Remember that ordinary women and men painted
as well on pots, walls, floors, cloth works of art that
have occasionally survived, unlike the miniatures
that were carefully preserved in palaces for centuries.
A Closer Look: Bengal
The Growth of a Regional Language
As we saw at the outset, we often tend to identify
regions in terms of the language spoken by the
people. So, we assume that people in Bengal always
spoke Bengali. However, what is interesting is that

while Bengali is now recognised as a language

derived from Sanskrit, early Sanskrit texts (mid-first
millennium BCE) suggest that the people of Bengal
did not speak Sanskritic languages. How, then, did
the new language emerge?
From the fourth-third centuries BCE, commercial
ties began to develop between Bengal and Magadha
(south Bihar), which may have led to the growing
Fig. 10
A page from a
palm-leaf manuscript
of the earliest Bengali
Ramayana.
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131
influence of Sanskrit. During the fourth century the
Gupta rulers established political control over north
Bengal and began to settle Brahmanas in this area.
Thus, the linguistic and cultural influence from the
mid-Ganga valley became stronger. In the seventh
century the Chinese traveller Xuan Zang observed
that languages related to Sanskrit were in use all
over Bengal.
From the eighth century, Bengal became the
centre of a regional kingdom under the Palas

(Chapter 2). Between the fourteenth and sixteenth

centuries, Bengal was ruled by Sultans who were
independent of the rulers in Delhi (Chapter 3). In
1586, when Akbar conquered Bengal, it formed the
nucleus of the Bengal suba. While Persian was the
language of administration, Bengali developed as a
regional language.
In fact by the fifteenth century the Bengali group
of dialects came to be united by a common literary
language based on the spoken language of the
western part of the region, now known as West
Bengal. Thus, although Bengali is derived from
Sanskrit, it passed through several stages of
evolution. Also, a wide range of non-Sanskrit words,
derived from a variety of sources including tribal
languages, Persian, and European languages, have
become part of modern Bengali.
Early Bengali literature may be divided into two
categories one indebted to Sanskrit and the other
independent of it. The first includes translations of
the Sanskrit epics, the Mangalakavyas (literally
auspicious poems, dealing with local deities) and
bhakti literature such as the biographies of
Chaitanyadeva, the leader of the Vaishnava bhakti
movement (Chapter 8).
The second includes Nath literature such as the

songs of Maynamati and Gopichandra, stories

concerning the worship of Dharma Thakur, and fairy
tales, folk tales and ballads.
THE MAKING OF
REGIONAL CULTURES
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Maynamati, Gopichandra and
Dharma Thakur
The Naths were ascetics who engaged in a variety of
yogic practices.
This particular song, which was often enacted,
described how Maynamati, a queen, encouraged her
son Gopichandra to adopt the path of asceticism in
the face of a variety of obstacles.
Dharma Thakur is a popular regional deity, often
worshipped in the form of a stone or a piece of wood.
The texts belonging to the first category are easier
to date, as several manuscripts have been found
indicating that they were composed between the late
fifteenth and mid-eighteenth centuries. Those
belonging to the second category circulated orally and
cannot be precisely dated. They were particularly
popular in eastern Bengal, where the influence of
Brahmanas was relatively weak.

Pirs and Temples

From the sixteenth century, people began to migrate
in large numbers from the less fertile western Bengal
to the forested and marshy areas of south-eastern
Bengal. As they moved eastwards, they cleared forests
and brought the land under rice cultivation.
Gradually, local communities of fisherfolk and shifting
cultivators, often tribals, merged with the new
communities of peasants.
This coincided with the establishment of Mughal
control over Bengal with their capital in the heart of
the eastern delta at Dhaka. Officials and functionaries
received land and often set up mosques that served as
centres for religious transformation in these areas.
The early settlers sought some order and assurance
in the unstable conditions of the new settlements.
Pir
A Persian word
meaning a
spiritual guide.
?
Why do you think
the second
category of texts
was not written
down?

NCERT
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133
These were provided by community leaders, who also
functioned as teachers and adjudicators and were
sometimes ascribed with supernatural powers. People
referred to them with affection and respect aspirs.
This term included saints or Sufis and other
religious personalities, daring colonisers and deified
soldiers, various Hindu and Buddhist deities and even
animisticspirits. The cult of pirsbecame very popular
and their shrines can be found everywhere in Bengal.
Bengal also witnessed a temple-building spree from
the late fifteenth century, which culminated in the
nineteenth century. We have seen (Chapters 2 and 5)
that temples and other religious structures were often
built by individuals or groups who were becoming
powerful to both demonstrate their power and
proclaim their piety. Many of the modest brick and
terracotta temples in Bengal were built with the
support of several low social groups, such as the
Kolu (oil pressers) and the Kansari (bell metal
workers). The coming of the European trading
companies created new economic opportunities; many
families belonging to these social groups availed of
these. As their social and economic position improved,

Compare the
temple shown
here with that in
Chapter 2.
?
Fig. 11 (left)
A double-roofed
thatched hut.
Fig. 12 (right)
A four-roofed temple
with a tower.
THE MAKING OF
REGIONAL CULTURES
Animism
Attribution of
living soul to
plants, inanimate
objects, and
natural
phenomena.
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134 OUR PASTS II
they proclaimed their status through the construction
of temples. When local deities, once worshipped in
thatched huts in villages, gained the recognition of

the Brahmanas, their images began to be housed in

temples. The temples began to copy the double-roofed
(dochala) or four-roofed (chauchala) structure of the
thatched huts. (Remember the Bangla dome in
Chapter 5?) This led to the evolution of the typical
Bengali style in temple architecture.
In the comparatively more complex four-roofed
structure, four triangular roofs placed on the four walls
move up to converge on a curved line or a point.
Temples were usually built on a square platform. The
interior was relatively plain, but the outer walls of many
temples were decorated with paintings, ornamental
tiles or terracotta tablets. In some temples, particularly
in Vishnupur in the Bankura district of West Bengal,
such decorations reached a high degree of excellence.
Fig. 13
Krishna with gopis,
terracotta plaque
from the Shyamaraya
temple, Vishnupur.
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135
Fish as Food
Traditional food habits are generally based
on locally available items of food. Bengal is

a riverine plain which produces plenty of

rice and fish. Understandably, these two
items figure prominently in the menu of
even poor Bengalis. Fishing has always
been an important occupation and Bengali
literature contains several references to
fish. What is more, terracotta plaques on
the walls of temples and viharas(Buddhist
monasteries) depict scenes of fish being
dressed and taken to the market in baskets.
Brahmanas were not allowed to eat nonvegetarian food, but the popularity of fish
in the local diet made the Brahmanical
authorities relax this prohibition for the
Bengal Brahmanas. The Brihaddharma
Purana, a thirteenth-century Sanskrit text
from Bengal, permitted the local Brahmanas to eat
certain varieties of fish.
Fig. 14
Fish being
dressed for domestic
consumption,
terracotta plaque from
the Vishalakshi
temple, Arambagh.
THE MAKING OF
REGIONAL CULTURES

Emergence of nation-states in Europe

Till the eighteenth century, people in Europe saw themselves as
subjects of an empire, such as the Austro-Hungarian empire, or
members of a church, such as the Greek Orthodox church. But,
from the late eighteenth century, people also began to identify
themselves as members of a community that spoke a common
language, such as French or German. By the early nineteenth
century, in Rumania school textbooks began to be written in
Rumanian rather than in Greek, and in Hungary Hugarian was
adopted as the official language instead of Latin. These and other
similar developments created the consciousness among the people
that each linguistic community was a separate nation. This feeling
was strengthened by the movements for Italian and German
unification in the late nineteenth century.
ELSEWHERE
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136 OUR PASTS II
KEYWORDS

classical
miniature
pir
dialect

Lets recall

1. Match the following:

Anantavarman Kerala
Jagannatha Bengal
Mahodayapuram Orissa
Lilatilakam Kangra
Mangalakavya Puri
Miniature Kerala
2. What is Manipravalam? Name a book written in that
language.
3. Who were the major patrons of Kathak?
4. What are the important architectural features of the
temples of Bengal ?
Imagine
You are a Rajput prince. How
would you like your story to be
told?
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137
THE MAKING OF
REGIONAL CULTURES
Lets discuss
5. Why did minstrels proclaim the achievements of
heroes?
6. Why do we know much more about the cultural
practices of rulers than about those of ordinary

people?
7. Why did conquerors try to control the temple of
Jagannatha at Puri?
8. Why were temples built in Bengal?
Lets do
9. Describe the most important features of the culture
of your region, focusing on buildings, performing
arts and painting.
10. Do you use different languages for (a) speaking,
(b) reading, (c) writing? Find out about one major
composition in language that you use and discuss
why you find it interesting.
11. Choose one state each from north, west, south, east
and central India. For each of these, prepare a list of
foods that are commonly consumed, highlighting any
differences and similarities that you notice.
12. Choose another set of five states from each of these
regions and prepare a list of clothes that are generally
worn by women and men in each. Discuss your
findings.
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138 OUR PASTS II
10
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
POLITICAL FORMATIONS

I
f you look at Maps 1 and 2 closely, you will see
something significant happening in the subcontinent
during the first half of the eighteenth century. Notice
how the boundaries of the Mughal Empire were
reshaped by the emergence of a number of independent
Map 1
State formations in
the eighteenth
century.
NCERT
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139
kingdoms. By 1765,
notice how another
power, the British, had
successfully grabbed
major chunks of
territory in eastern
India. What these maps
tell us is that political
conditions in eighteenthcentury India changed
quite dramatically and
within a relatively short
span of time.
In this chapter we

will read about the

emergence of new
political groups in the
subcontinent during
the first half of the
eighteenth century
roughly from 1707,
when Aurangzeb died,
till the third battle of
Panipat in 1761.
The Crisis of the Empire and
the Later Mughals
In Chapter 4 you saw how the Mughal Empire reached
the height of its success and started facing a variety of
crises towards the closing years of the seventeenth
century. These were caused by a number of factors.
Emperor Aurangzeb had depleted the military and
financial resources of his empire by fighting a long
war in the Deccan.
Under his successors, the efficiency of the imperial
administration broke down. It became increasingly
difficult for the later Mughal emperors to keep a check
on their powerful mansabdars. Nobles appointed as
?
See Chapter 4,
Table 1. Which

group of people
challenged Mughal
authority for the
longest time in
Aurangzebs reign?
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
POLITICAL FORMATIONS
Map 2
British territories in
the mid-eighteenth
century.
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140 OUR PASTS II
governors (subadars) often controlled the offices of
revenue and military administration (diwaniand
faujdari) as well. This gave them extraordinary
political, economic and military powers over vast
regions of the Mughal Empire. As the governors
consolidated their control over the provinces, the
periodic remission of revenue to the capital declined.
Peasant and zamindari rebellions in many parts of
northern and western India added to these problems.
These revolts were sometimes caused by the pressures
of mounting taxes. At other times they were attempts
by powerful chieftains to consolidate their own

positions. Mughal authority had been challenged by

rebellious groups in the past as well. But these groups
were now able to seize the economic resources of the
region to consolidate their positions. The Mughal
emperors after Aurangzeb were unable to arrest the
gradual shifting of political and economic authority
into the hands of provincial governors, local chieftains
and other groups.
Rich harvests and empty coffers
The following is a contemporary writers account of
the financial bankruptcy of the empire:
The great lords are helpless and impoverished. Their peasants
raise two crops a year, but their lords see nothing of either,
and their agents on the spot are virtual prisoners in the
peasants hands, like a peasant kept in his creditors house
until he can pay his debt. So complete is the collapse of all
order and administration that though the peasant reaps a
harvest of gold, his lord does not see so much as a wisp of
straw. How then can the lord keep the armed force he should?
How can he pay the soldiers who should go before him when
he goes out, or the horsemen who should ride behind him?
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141
In the midst of this economic and political crisis,
the ruler of Iran, Nadir Shah, sacked and plundered

the city of Delhi in 1739 and took away immense

amounts of wealth. This invasion was followed by a
series of plundering raids by the Afghan ruler Ahmad
Shah Abdali, who invaded north India five times
between 1748 and 1761.
Nadir Shah attacks Delhi
The devastation of Delhi after Nadir Shahs invasion
was described by contemporary observers. One
described the wealth looted from the Mughal treasury
as follows:
sixty lakhs of rupees and some thousand gold coins, nearly
one crore worth of gold-ware, nearly fifty crores worth of
jewels, most of them unrivalled in the world, and the above
included the Peacock throne.
Another account described the invasions impact
upon Delhi:
(those) who had been masters were now in dire straits;
and those who had been revered couldnt even (get water to)
quench their thirst. The recluses were pulled out of their
corners. The wealthy were turned into beggars. Those who
once set the style in clothes now went naked; and those who
owned property were now homeless The New City
(Shahjahanabad) was turned into rubble. (Nadir Shah) then
attacked the Old quarters of the city and destroyed a whole
world that existed there
Already under severe pressure from all sides, the

empire was further weakened by competition amongst

different groups of nobles. They were divided into two
major groups or factions, the Iranis and Turanis (nobles
of Turkish descent). For a long time, the later Mughal
emperors were puppets in the hands of either one or
the other of these two powerful groups. The worst
Fig. 1
A 1779 portrait of Nadir
Shah.
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
POLITICAL FORMATIONS
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142 OUR PASTS II
possible humiliation came when two Mughal
emperors, Farrukh Siyar (1713-1719) and
Alamgir II (1754-1759) were assassinated,
and two others Ahmad Shah (1748-1754) and
Shah Alam II (1759-1816) were blinded by
their nobles.
Emergence of New States
With the decline in the authority of the Mughal
emperors, the governors of large provinces,
subadars, and the great zamindars
consolidated their authority in different parts
of the subcontinent. Through the eighteenth

century, the Mughal Empire gradually

fragmented into a number of independent,
regional states. Broadly speaking the states
of the eighteenth century can be divided into three
overlapping groups: (1) States that were old Mughal
provinces like Awadh, Bengal and Hyderabad.
Although extremely powerful and quite independent,
the rulers of these states did not break their formal
ties with the Mughal emperor. (2) States that had
enjoyed considerable independence under the Mughals
as watan jagirs. These included several Rajput
principalities. (3) The last group included states under
the control of Marathas, Sikhs and others like the Jats.
These were of differing sizes and had seized their
independence from the Mughals after a long-drawn
armed struggle.
The Old Mughal Provinces
Amongst the states that were carved out of the old
Mughal provinces in the eighteenth century, three
stand out very prominently. These were Awadh, Bengal
and Hyderabad. All three states were founded by
members of the high Mughal nobility who had been
governors of large provinces Saadat Khan (Awadh),
Murshid Quli Khan (Bengal) and Asaf Jah (Hyderabad).
All three had occupied high mansabdaripositions and
enjoyed the trust and confidence of the emperors. Both

Fig. 2
Farrukh Siyar
receiving a noble
in court.
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143
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
POLITICAL FORMATIONS
Asaf Jah and Murshid Quli Khan held a zatrank of
7,000 each, while Saadat Khans zatwas 6,000.
Hyderabad
Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, the founder of Hyderabad
state, was one of the most powerful members at the
court of the Mughal Emperor Farrukh Siyar. He was
entrusted first with the governorship of Awadh, and
later given charge of the Deccan. As the Mughal
governor of the Deccan provinces, Asaf Jah already
had full control over its political and financial
administration. Taking advantage of the turmoil in the
Deccan and the competition amongst the court nobility,
he gathered power in his hands and became the actual
ruler of that region.
Asaf Jah brought skilled soldiers and administrators
from northern India who welcomed the new
opportunities in the south. He appointed mansabdars

and grantedjagirs. Although he was still a servant of

the Mughal emperor, he ruled quite independently
without seeking any direction from Delhi or facing any
interference. The Mughal emperor merely confirmed
the decisions already taken by the Nizam.
The state of Hyderabad was constantly engaged in a
struggle against the Marathas to the west and with
independent Telugu warrior chiefs (nayakas) of the
plateau. The ambitions of the Nizam to control the rich
textile-producing areas of the Coromandel coast in the
east were checked by the British who were becoming
increasingly powerful in that region (see Map 2).
The Nizams army
A description of the Nizam of Hyderabads personal
troopers in 1790:
The Nizam has a swaree (sawari) of 400 elephants, several
thousand of horsemen near his person who receive upwards
100 R(upees)s nominal pay (and) are extremely well mounted
and richly caparisoned
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144 OUR PASTS II
?
Awadh
Burhan-ul-Mulk Saadat Khan
was appointed subadar of

Awadh in 1722 and founded

a state which was one of the
most important to emerge
out of the break-up of the
Mughal Empire. Awadh was a
prosperous region, controlling
the rich alluvial Ganga plain
and the main trade route
between north India and
Bengal. Burhan-ul-Mulk also
held the combined offices of
subadari, diwaniand faujdari.
In other words, he was
responsible for managing the
political, financial and military
affairs of the province of Awadh.
Burhan-ul-Mulk tried to
decrease Mughal influence in the Awadh region by
reducing the number of office holders (jagirdars)
appointed by the Mughals. He also reduced the size
of jagirs, and appointed his own loyal servants to
vacant positions. The accounts of jagirdarswere
checked to prevent cheating and the revenues of all
districts were reassessed by officials appointed by the
Nawabs court. He seized a number of Rajput
zamindaris and the agriculturally fertile lands of the

Afghans of Rohilkhand.
The state depended on local bankers and mahajans
for loans. It sold the right to collect tax to the highest
bidders. These revenue farmers (ijaradars) agreed to
pay the state a fixed sum of money. Local bankers
guaranteed the payment of this contracted amount to
the state. In turn, the revenue-farmers were given
considerable freedom in the assessment and collection
of taxes. These developments allowed new social
groups, like moneylenders and bankers, to influence
In trying to
consolidate their
rule, why did
Mughal subadars
also want to
control the office
of diwan?
Fig. 3
Burhan-ul-Mulk
Saadat Khan.
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145
the management of the states revenue system,
something which had not occurred in the past.
Bengal

Bengal gradually broke away from Mughal control

under Murshid Quli Khan who was appointed as the
naib, deputy to the governor of the province. Although
never a formal subadar, Murshid Quli Khan very
quickly seized all the power that went with that office.
Like the rulers of Hyderabad and Awadh he also
commanded the revenue administration of the state.
In an effort to reduce Mughal influence in Bengal he
transferred all Mughal jagirdars to Orissa and ordered
a major reassessment of the revenues of Bengal.
Revenue was collected in cash with great strictness
from all zamindars. As a result, many zamindars had
to borrow money from bankers and moneylenders.
Those unable to pay were forced to sell their lands to
larger zamindars.
The formation of a regional state in eighteenthcentury Bengal therefore led to
considerable change
amongst the zamindars. The close connection
between the state and bankers noticeable in
Fig. 4
Alivardi Khan holding
court.
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
POLITICAL FORMATIONS
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146 OUR PASTS II

Hyderabad and Awadh as well was evident in

Bengal under the rule of Alivardi Khan (r. 1740-1756). During his reign the banking
house of Jagat
Seth became extremely prosperous.
If we take a birds eye view, we can detect three
common features amongst these states. First, though
many of the larger states were established by erstwhile
Mughal nobles they were highly suspicious of some of
the administrative systems that they had inherited, in
particular the jagirdari system. Second, their method
of tax collection differed. Rather than relying upon the
officers of the state, all three regimes contracted with
revenue-farmers for the collection of revenue. The
practice of ijaradari,thoroughly disapproved of by
the Mughals, spread all over India in the eighteenth
century. Their impact on the countryside differed
considerably. The third common feature in all these
regional states was their emerging relationship with
rich bankers and merchants. These people lent money
to revenue farmers, received land as security and
collected taxes from these lands through their own
agents. Throughout India the richest merchants and
bankers were gaining a stake in the new political order.
TheWatan Jagirs of the Rajputs
Many Rajput kings, particularly those belonging to
Amber and Jodhpur, had served under the Mughals
with distinction. In exchange, they were permitted to

enjoy considerable autonomy in their watan jagirs. In

the eighteenth century, these rulers now attempted to
extend their control over adjacent regions. Ajit Singh,
the ruler of Jodhpur, was also involved in the factional
politics at the Mughal court.
These influential Rajput families claimed the
subadariof the rich provinces of Gujarat and Malwa.
Raja Ajit Singh of Jodhpur held the governorship of
Gujarat and Sawai Raja Jai Singh of Amber was
governor of Malwa. These offices were renewed by
Emperor Jahandar Shah in 1713. They also tried to
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extend their territories by seizing portions of imperial
territories neighbouring their watans. Nagaur was
conquered and annexed to the house of Jodhpur,
while Amber seized large portions of Bundi. Sawai
Raja Jai Singh founded his new capital at Jaipur and
was given the subadariof Agra in 1722. Maratha
campaigns into Rajasthan from the 1740s put severe
pressure on these principalities and checked their
further expansion.
Raja Jai Singh of Jaipur
A description of Raja Jai Singh in a Persian account of
1732:

Raja Jai Singh was at the height of his power. He was the
governor of Agra for 12 years and of Malwa for 5 or 6 years.
He possessed a large army, artillery and great wealth. His
sway extended from Delhi to the banks of the Narmada.
Fig. 5
Mehrangarh Fort,
Jodhpur.
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
POLITICAL FORMATIONS
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148 OUR PASTS II
Seizing Independence
The Sikhs
The organisation of the Sikhs into a political community
during the seventeenth century (see Chapter 8) helped
in regional state-building in the Punjab. Several battles
were fought by Guru Gobind Singh against the Rajput
and Mughal rulers, both before and after the institution
of the Khalsain 1699. After his death in 1708, the
Khalsarose in revolt against the Mughal authority
under Banda Bahadurs leadership, declared their
sovereign rule by striking coins in the name of Guru
Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, and established their
own administration between the Sutlej and the
Jamuna. Banda Bahadur was captured in 1715 and

executed in 1716.
Fig. 6
Guru Gobind Singh,
the tenth guru.
?
What is the Khalsa?
Do you recall
reading about
it in Chapter 8?
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149
Under a number of able leaders in the eighteenth
century, the Sikhs organized themselves into a number
of bands called jathas, and later on misls. Their
combined forces were known as the grand army (dal
khalsa). The entire body used to meet at Amritsar at
the time of Baisakhi and Diwali to take collective
decisions known as resolutions of the Guru
(gurmatas). A system called rakhiwas introduced,
offering protection to cultivators on the payment of a
tax of 20 per cent of the produce.
Guru Gobind Singh had inspired the Khalsawith
the belief that their destiny was to rule (raj karega
khalsa). Their well-knit organization enabled them to
put up a successful resistance to the Mughal governors

first and then to Ahmad Shah Abdali who had seized

the rich province of the Punjab and the Sarkar of
Sirhind from the Mughals. The Khalsadeclared their
sovereign rule by striking their own coin again in 1765.
Significantly, this coin bore the same inscription as
the one on the orders issued by the Khalsain the time
of Banda Bahadur.
The Sikh territories in the late eighteenth century
extended from the Indus to the Jamuna but they were
divided under different rulers. One of them, Maharaja
Ranjit Singh, reunited these groups and established
his capital at Lahore in 1799.
The Marathas
The Maratha kingdom was another powerful regional
kingdom to arise out of a sustained opposition to
Mughal rule. Shivaji (1627-1680) carved out a stable
kingdom with the support of powerful warrior families
(deshmukhs). Groups of highly mobile, peasantpastoralists (kunbis) provided the
backbone of the
Maratha army. Shivaji used these forces to challenge
the Mughals in the peninsula. After Shivajis death,
effective power in the Maratha state was wielded by a
family of Chitpavan Brahmanas who served Shivajis
successors as Peshwa (or principal minister). Poona
became the capital of the Maratha kingdom.
Fig. 7
Sword of Maharaja

Ranjit Singh.
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150 OUR PASTS II
Under the Peshwas, the Marathas developed a very
successful military organisation. Their success lay
in bypassing the fortified areas of the Mughals, by
raiding cities and by engaging Mughal armies in areas
where their supply lines and reinforcements could
be easily disturbed.
Between 1720 and 1761, the Maratha empire
expanded. It gradually chipped away at the authority
of the Mughal Empire. Malwa and Gujarat were seized
from the Mughals by the 1720s. By the 1730s, the
Maratha king was recognised as the overlord of the
entire Deccan peninsula. He possessed the right to
levy chauthand sardeshmukhiin the entire region.
After raiding Delhi in 1737 the frontiers of Maratha
domination expanded rapidly: into Rajasthan and the
Punjab in the north; into Bengal and Orissa in the
east; and into Karnataka and the Tamil and Telugu
countries in the south (see Map 1). These were not
formally included in the Maratha empire, but were
made to pay tribute as a way of accepting Maratha

sovereignty. Expansion brought enormous resources,

but it came at a price. These military campaigns also
made other rulers hostile towards the Marathas. As a
result, they were not inclined to support the Marathas
during the third battle of Panipat in 1761.
Alongside endless military campaigns, the Marathas
developed an effective administrative system as well.
Once conquest had been completed and Maratha rule
was secure, revenue demands were gradually
introduced taking local conditions into account.
Agriculture was encouraged and trade revived. This
allowed Maratha chiefs (sardars) like Sindhia of
Gwalior, Gaekwad of Baroda and Bhonsle of Nagpur
the resources to raise powerful armies. Maratha
campaigns into Malwa in the 1720s did not challenge
the growth and prosperity of the cities in the region.
Ujjain expanded under Sindhias patronage and Indore
under Holkars. By all accounts these cities were large
and prosperous and functioned as important
Chauth
25 per cent of the
land revenue
claimed by
zamindars. In the
Deccan this was
collected by the

Marathas.
Sardeshmukhi
9-10 per cent of
the land revenue
paid to the head
revenue collector
in the Deccan.
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151
commercial and cultural centres. New trade routes
emerged within the areas controlled by the Marathas.
The silk produced in the Chanderi region now found a
new outlet in Poona, the Maratha capital. Burhanpur
which had earlier participated in the trade between
Agra and Surat now expanded its hinterland to include
Poona and Nagpur in the south and Lucknow and
Allahabad in the east.
The Jats
Like the other states the Jats consolidated their power
during the late seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries.
Under their leader, Churaman, they acquired control
over territories situated to the west of the city of Delhi,
and by the 1680s they had begun dominating the
region between the two imperial cities of Delhi and
Agra. For a while they became the virtual custodians

of the city of Agra.

The Jats were prosperous agriculturists, and towns
like Panipat and Ballabhgarh became important
trading centres in the areas dominated by them. Under
Suraj Mal the kingdom of Bharatpur emerged as a
strong state. When Nadir Shah sacked Delhi in 1739,
many of the citys notables took refuge there. His son
Jawahir Shah had 30,000 troops of his own and hired
Fig. 8
Eighteenth-century
palace complex at
Dig.
Note the Bangla
dome on the
assembly hall on the
roof of the building.
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152 OUR PASTS II
another 20,000 Maratha and 15,000 Sikh troops to
fight the Mughals.
While the Bharatpur fort was built in a fairly
traditional style, at Dig the Jats built an elaborate garden
palace combining styles seen at Amber and Agra. Its

buildings were modelled on architectural forms first

associated with royalty under Shah Jahan (see Figure
12 in Chapter 5 and Figure 12 in Chapter 9).
The French Revolution (1789-1794)
In the various state systems of eighteenth-century India, the common
people did not enjoy the right to participate in the affairs of their
governments. In the Western world, this was the situation until the
late eighteenth century. The American (1776-1781) and French
Revolutions challenged the social and political privileges enjoyed
by the aristocrats.
During the French Revolution, the middle classes, peasants and
artisans fought against the special rights enjoyed by the clergy and
the nobility. They believed that no group in society should have
privileges based on birth. Rather, peoples social position must
depend on merit. The philosophers of the French Revolution
suggested that there be equal laws and opportunities for all. They
also held that the authority of the government should come from
the people who must possess the right to participate in its affairs.
Movements such as the French and American Revolutions gradually
transformed subjects into citizens.
The ideas of citizenship, nation-state and democratic rights took
root in India from the late nineteenth century.
Imagine
You are a ruler of an eighteenthcentury kingdom. Tell us about the
steps you would take to make your
position strong in your province, and

what opposition or problems you might

face while doing so.
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153
KEYWORDS

subadari
dal khalsa
misl
faujdari
ijaradari
chauth
sardeshmukhi

Lets recall
1. Match the following:
subadar a revenue farmer
faujdar a high noble
ijaradar provincial governor
misl Maratha peasant warriors
chauth a Mughal military commander
kunbis a band of Sikh warriors
umara tax levied by the Marathas
2. Fill in the blanks:

(a) Aurangzeb fought a protracted war in the

____________________.
(b) Umaraand jagirdarsconstituted powerful
sections of the Mughal __________________.
(c) Asaf Jah was given charge of the Deccan
subadariin _____________________.
(d) The founder of the Awadh nawabi was
______________________.
3. State whether true or false:
(a) Nadir Shah invaded Bengal.
(b) Sawai Raja Jai Singh was the ruler of Indore.
(c) Guru Gobind Singh was the tenth Guru of
the Sikhs.
(d) Poona became the capital of the Marathas in
the eighteenth century.
4. What were the offices held by Saadat Khan?
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Lets discuss
5. Why did the Nawabs of Awadh and Bengal try to do
away with the jagirdarisystem?
6. How were the Sikhs organised in the eighteenth
century?

7. Why did the Marathas want to expand beyond the

Deccan?
8. What were the policies adopted by Asaf Jah to
strengthen his position?
9. Do you think merchants and bankers today have the
kind of influence they had in the eighteenth century?
10. Did any of the kingdoms mentioned in this chapter
develop in your state? If so, in what ways do you
think life in the state would have been different in
the eighteenth century from what it is in the twentyfirst century?
Lets do
11. Find out more about the architecture and culture
associated with the new courts of any of the following
Awadh, Bengal or Hyderabad.
12. Collect popular tales about-rulers from any one of the
following groups of people: the Rajputs, Jats, Sikhs
or Marathas.
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