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        The name Maharashtra first appeared in a 7th century inscription and in a Chinese traveler's account. Its name may have originated from rathi, meaning "chariot driver" referring to builders and drivers of chariots who formed maharathis, a "fighting force."
This region seems to have attained prominence as early as 90 A.D., when king Vedishri made Junnar the capital of his kingdom, thirty miles north of Pune.

Poet -Saints :
        Maharashtra was one of the main channels that helped the devotional bhakti school of Hinduism spread from southern to northern India.
       Thanks to the work of Saint Dyaneshwar (1271-1296) whose verdict on Bhagwad Gita, the Dhyanesvari, was significantly written in the day-to-day spoken language, Marathi, as opposed to classical Sanskrit.
       One of the most famous of these contemporary poet-saints was tailor Namdev (1270-1350), whose passionate devotional hymns caught the popular imagination.
       The tradition the poet-saints established continued to flourish, even when forced underground by Islam, reaching its zenith in the simple faith of the anguished Tukaram (1598-1650), whose wife and son died in a famine, and Ramdas, the "Servant of Rama" (1608-1681). Ramdas, both ascetic and political activist, provided the philosophical underpinning behind the campaigns of Maharashtra's greatest warrior, Shivaji.

The Reign of Shivaji (1627 - 1680) :
        Shivaji Bhonsale, founder of the Maratha empire, was born in 1627, in the fort of Shivneri, 40 miles north of Pune .Shahaji,Shivaji's father put Dadoji Kondadev in charge of Pune & also as a caretaker for Shivaji while he joined the Adilshahi in Bijapur.
       In Pune, Dadoji built a palace 'Lal Mahal', for Shivaji and his mother Jijabai.
       At the age of sixteen (1643 A.D.), Shivaji nursed the thought of becoming independent. He took the oath along with few of his friends to make the land free at the fort Torna.
       This was the start of his lifelong struggle against Mughals and other Muslim powers.
       By 1647, Shivaji had captured two forts and had the complete charge of Pune.
       In 1657, he committed his first act of hostility against the Adilshahi by plundering a large booty in Ahmednagar. Thus, began a sequence of attacks on the Adilshahi.
       He slowly started capturing forts in the region, Purandar, Rajgad, Torna being most notable of his first achievements.
Disturbed by his continuing success, Adilshahi sent a famous Sardar, 'Afzalkhan' to destroy Shivaji. Afzalkhan knew that Shivaji's army, which was much smaller than his huge force would be unable to fight him on open land. He tried all the tricks in the book to make him fight on plains, but Shivaji was no less clever. He convinced Khan that he was very much afraid of him and requested him for a meeting at a place near Vai ( 100 miles south of Pune) which was densely wooded, mountainous region, and ideal for his army to fight. Khan still had plans to kill him in the meeting and Shivaji knew it well. Ultimately it was Khan who was killed and his unsuspecting army was completed washed out by Shivaji.
After this, Shivaji went on a winning spree and spread his reach till Panhala near Kolhapur.
       Meanwhile, Aurangzeb got concerned by Shivaji's rise to power. It was now clear that local Muslim Powers were unable to stop him. So he sent a huge Army, led by Mirzaraje Jaisingh to defeat Shivaji(1666). Jaising's army was much stronger than Shivaji's army and soon he lost most of his important forts. Realising that he was fighting a losing battle, he signed a treaty with Mirza and agreed to serve Aurangzeb, his young son, Sambhaji being made a sardar. He went to Delhi with Mirza to meet Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb gave a humiliating treatment to Shivaji and soon put him under house imprisonment under some excuse. It looked certain that Shivaji will be killed sooner or later by Aurangzeb. But this was not to happen, fortunately, for Maratha kingdom. Shivaji made a clever plot to escape and escaped with Sambhaji to south.
       After this turning point, Shivaji never looked back and slowly regained his lost glory.
        By 1673, he had control over most of western Maharashtra and had made 'Raigad' ( Dist. Raigad , 150 miles southwest of Pune) his capital. He was ceremeniously enthroned as a sovereign king in 1673.
        By 1680, the year of Shivaji's death, nearly whole of the Deccan belonged to his kingdom. He had developed an efficient administration and a powerful army. He also encouraged a spirit of independence among the Marathas that enabled them to withstand for 150 years all attempts to conquer them.
        Shivaji's achievements amongst monumental difficulties were really spectacular and that is why he holds the highest place in Maratha history.

The Period of Unstability(1680 -1707) :
        Shivaji was succeeded by his son Sambhaji. He showed the same vigor as his father, but was taken prisoner and executed by the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, in 1689.
       Rajaram, Sambhaji's younger brother then took the throne, since Sambhaji's son, Shahu was still a minor.
        The death of Rajaram in 1700 seemed to end the power of the Marathas, but Tarabai, the elder widow of Rajaram, put her young son Shahu on the throne, at the tender age of ten, and continued the struggle against Aurangzeb who had come to south with the sole purpose of destroying Maratha kingdom.
        Between 1700 and 1703, Aurangzeb captured the fort of Sinhagad, near Pune.
        Shahu continued to fight against the Mughals and captured Rajgad, the former capital of the Maratha territory.
        The fight against the Mughals ended with the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 which was another turning point in Maratha history.
       After Aurangzeb, Mughal power never regained its status as main power in India and Balance of power shifted towards Marathas, which was soon to be controlled by Peshwas.

The Peshwa Dynasty(1712-1818) :
        In 1712, Shahu died of smallpox and his minister or peshwa, Balaji Vishwanath took over the throne.
       From then onwards till almost for the next 100 odd years the Peshwas ruled over Maharashtra.
       Balaji Vishwanath was succeded by his elder son Bajirao Peshwa ( 1721-1740) . By this time, Pune had regained its status as capital of Maratha Kingdom from Rajgad .
       Pune remained the capital till the end of Maratha empire in 1818. It was Bajirao who built the 'Shanivarwada', the residence and ruling place for the Peshwas .
       Nanasaheb Peshwa(1740 -1761) succeeded Bajirao as Peshwa in 1740.
       In 1741, when his uncle Chimaji died, he returned from the northern districts and spent nearly a year improving the civil administration of Pune.
        Nanasaheb encouraged agriculture, protected the villagers and brought about a marked improvement in the state of the territory.
       In 1756, the fall of the formidable navy formed by Shivaji gave British their chance to regain importance in the region. The navy was headed by Kanhoji Angre and its destruction was a cruical blow to Maratha sea power. It was a sad outcome of neglect of navy by Marathas which turned out to be a horrible mistake. Marathas never regained control of the sea after that.
        In 1761, the Marathas were defeated at the third Battle of Panipat against Ahmadshah Abdali , a great warrior from Afganistan. Marathas were fighting to save Delhi Sultanat and consequently their power in the north.
       This was a cruical blow to the rising Maratha power from which they never recovered. They lost more than 100,000 men and dozens of important Sardars in the battle.The Maratha power never fully recovered from the crushing defeat at Panipat.
       'Thorale' Madhaorao Peshwa(1761-1772) then took over, but had to constantly face administrative disputes with his uncle, Raghunathrao. Despite of this, he achieved many remarkable victories and restored the shattred Maratha kingdom to a large extent. His outstanding achievements included defeat of Nizam (Hyderabad), Hyder (Karnataka) and Bhosle of Nagpur. He also had to fight wars with Raghunathrao whose greed for power never waned. Ultimately, Madhavrao took Raghunathrao prisoner in 1768; the same year when the Nizam attacked Pune. He was eventually defeated. Madhavrao, also called 'Thorale'or Greatest Madhavrao, is entitled to special praise for supporting the poor and for his sense of justice. Ramshastri Prabhune who was the chief justice at that time became a legend for his work. The people who rose to power in Madhavroa Peshwas rule were Mahadji Shinde, Nana Phadnis and Haribhau Phadke who became the key figures in the power structure after his death. The Peshwa took ill in 1771 and died in 1772 at an early age of 27, causing yet another blow to recovering Maratha power.
       Raghunathrao was proclaimed the next peshwa, although he was not heir to the title. Raghoba was displaced from power by a clever plot by the 12 maratha sardar's " Barabhainche karasthaan " ( Plot by 12 people )which included Nana, Holkar, Phadke Shinde.        'Sawai' Madhaorao Peshwa(1774-1795) was then declared the next Peshwa. As he was only one year old at that time, Nana Phadnis bacame the main administrator with Phadke,Shinde,Holkar taking care of Military duties. These people handled the Peshwai well and with great unity till the premature death of Sawai Madhaorao in 1795. They defeated the rising British Power in 1784, near Pune and halted their advancements, temporarily. Sawai Madhaorao's death was the last blow to the Maratha empire and all the unity among its leaders vanished after his death causing a downfall of Peshwai in a short time.
       Raghunathrao died in 1782, leaving behind him, two sons; 'Second' Bajirao Peshwa and the younger, Chimaji Appa.
       Bajirao became the next Peshwa after Madhaorao's death. Nana was still the administrator and the Peshwai remained in stable condition till his death owing to his superb administrative skills. Nana died in 1800 and Pune fell into the hands of the Scindia's ( Shinde) ; the former chiefs of Nana's army. They remained in power for a short while and in 1802, Bajirao reestablished himself in Pune, by signing the treaty of Bassein with the British. This essentially ended Peshwai , establishing British supremacy in the region. The capturing of the Ahmednagar fort in 1803, proved British supremacy in the Deccan.
        In 1804, General Wellesly proclaimed that Deccan region was in a state of chaos and established military rule there and the Peshwas remained rulers for name's sake.

The British Raj(1818-1947) :
        Bajirao was very disloyal to the British, and in November of 1817, he declared war against them. This battle was fought at Kirkee, that is the Cantonment area, in the east of Pune. The Peshwa fled and the power of the country passed from the Peshwas to the British by 1819.
        The rest of the nineteenth century witnessed a few minor uprisings in and around Pune, but the British established their supremacy. As the Maratha's were the key power in India at this time, their fall clearly marked the begining of British Rule in India. The first step towards establishing a municipal government in the city of Pune, was taken in 1856, when the Pune Municipality came into existence under the Act of 1850.
       On one hand, as the violence overrode the city, improvements were made in the education of women and the abolition of child labor. Independence was finally attained in 1947 when the British left India.

Modern Maharashtra :
        At Indian Independence in 1947, western Maharashtra and present-day Gujarat were joined as Bombay state. The eastern districts were then part of Hyderabad State, but were later added to Bombay in 1956. The present state was formed in 1960 when the Marathi and Gujarati linguistic areas of former Bombay state were separated. Bombay city became the capital of the new state.

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