Shivaji I was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle dynasty. Shivaji inherited a fiefdom from his father who served as a retainer for the Sultanate of Bijapur, which later formed the genesis of
Portrait of Shivaji (c. 1680s)
Young Shivaji (right) meets his father Shahaji. (left)
An early-20th-century painting by Sawlaram Haldankar of Shivaji fighting the Bijapuri general Afzal Khan
The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. For most of its existence, it comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major
The Maratha Empire (yellow) in 1760
Early Maratha conquests, in Shivaji's and Shahji's time
Portrait of Shivaji, in the Rijksmuseum, Netherland.
Peshwa Bajirao I and Malhar Rao Holkar c.18th century