History of Maharashtra

History of Maharashtra

  Apart from occupying a definite territory, Maharashtra has a glorious history that can be traced back to ancient times. In the medieval ages the entire India faced foreign invasion. Only two exceptions shine brightly in this dark and dismal scenario: the Vijayanagar empire and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. After the decline of Maratha power Maharashtra came under the British rule. People from all the strata of the society, revolutionaries and ordinary people participated In the freedom struggle against the British, and our country gained freedom. After independence was achieved in 1947, Maharashtra had a further struggle, for a separate linguistic State. Maharashtra became a separate linguistic State in 1960, but without the territory of Belgaum. Since 1960 to date, there have been persistent efforts to convert this Free State into a Great State. This article is a run through of Maharashtra’s ancient and glorious history, the inspirational struggle for United Maharashtra, and State-wide efforts from establishment of the State to date.

  Abhishek Thamke (Author)

 

  Maharashtra in Ancient times

  In ancient times, the region to the north of Narmada river was called UttaraPath or Aryavartaand the region to the south of Narmada was called DakshinaPath. The ArthaShastra written by Arya Chanakya alias Kautilya during the regime of Chandragupta Maurya refers to Ashmak orAparanta regions. Ashmak is the region surrounding today’s Ajanta.

   

  A rock edict from the fourth century has been found in village Eran in Madhya Pradesh near district Sagar. In this rock edict, General Satyanag refers to himself as Maharashtra. In the next century, Swami Chakradhar, founder of the Mahanubhav sect, prompts his followers to call oneself as Maharashtri.

   

  Carbon-14 dating of the objects found at the excavation sites near Nashik, Jorve, Nevasa, Chandoli, Sonegaon, Inamgaon, Dayamabad, Nandur, Madhyameshwar fixes the time of proto historic settlements in Maharashtra between 5 lakh to 30 lakh BC. From these and excavations near riverbeds, historians have concluded that stone-age man lived in Maharashtra nearly a hundred thousand years ago.

   

  Slowly, these settlements grew. Outsiders, especially from the north came to Maharashtra as generals, king’s ambassadors and soldiers. After initial conflict, the locals and the outsiders settled in peaceful coexistence.

   

  In the historical period the following were the major powers in Maharashtra:

    Shree Satkarni and Gautam’s son Satkarni from the Satvahan dynasty, Vindhyashakti and Pravarsen II of Wakataka dynasty, Satyashree Pulakeshi and Vikramaditya of Chalukya dynasty, Mananka, Dantidurga, Pratham Krishna, Dhruvaraj of Rashtrakut dynasty, Anantadev and Aparaditya of Kadamba dynasty of Gomantak, Dhrudhavrat, Bhillam and RamdevaRaya of Yadava dynasty.  

  These kings contributed greatly to the history of Maharashtra. This, in brief, is the ancient history of Maharashtra.

  Maharashtra in medieval times

  The medieval history of Maharashtra begins with King RamdevRaya Yadava of the Yadava dynasty. Allauddin Khilji, the Sultan of Delhi, had heard about the immense wealth of the Yadava. With the aim of capturing this wealth and extending his empire to the south Khilji attacked Devgiri (today’s Daulatabad), the Yadava centre of power. The king Ramachandra Yadava did not offer stiff resistance. Later, the resistance offered by the Yadava was quickly broken by Malik Kafur, Allauddin’s general. After RamadevRaya alias Raja Ramachandra, his son Shankardev and son-in-law Harpaldev Yadava came to power. But neither could overthrow the foreign rule in Maharashtra. The name of Allauddin went down in history as the first Sultan to conquer the south. This occurred in 1318, nearly six hundred and ninety years ago. With History writing not having matured enough to record the voice of people, the reaction of the common people in Maharashtra to this change in rule has been lost forever.

   

  After Khilji the Tughlaq dynasty came to power in Delhi. Their attitude towards Maharashtra was similar to that of Khilji. Muhammad Tughlaq of Tughlaq dynasty is famed throughout the history of Maharashtra because he shifted the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in order to have better control on the southern region and also to escape the constant threat of foreign invasions of Delhi. Several people died in the journey from Delhi to Daulatabad. Tughlaq also realized the difficulty of simultaneously controlling Delhi and Daulatabad due to lack of speedy communication. There were rebellions in Delhi. The capital was shifted back to Delhi. Even as Tughlaq was on the move back to Delhi, there was a revolt in Daulatabad. He sent some of his knights to crush the revolt but they failed to curb it. The rebels captured Nijamuddin, the representative of Delhi. The leader of rebels, Ismail Makh, called himself Nasiruddin Shah and established a separate State in Daulatabad. Any possibility of revival of local powers in Maharashtra were squashed. Upon hearing the news of this revolt, Tughlaq himself started towards Daulatabad with a huge army. Nasiruddin ran away upon hearing the news. But on the way to Daulatabad, Tughlaq had to divert his route and go to Gujarat to curb the rebellion. He passed on the campaign to his underling. But the rebels under Nasiruddin Shah’s leadership defeated Tughlaq’s army. Thus, Nasiruddin Shah came to power in Maharashtra.

   

  On 3rd August 1347 Nasiruddin Shah passed on the mantle to Allauddin Hasan or Allauddin Hasan Gangu Bahamani. He, and later his son, started calling themselves Bahaman Shah and inscribed the title on the coins issued by them. Thus the dynasty came to be called as Bahamani. It ruled for 190 years, from 1347 to 1538. There were 18 kings who ruled under this dynasty. Of these eighteen, eight were capable, three were murdered, two blinded, one died at a young age while four were just titular heads. In the first two decades of sixteenth century the Bahamani rule broke into five centres of powers: Baridshahi of Beedar, Nijamshahi of Ahmednagar, Adilshahi of Bijapur, Imadshahi of Elichpur in Varhad and Kutubshahi of Gowalkonda. Raja Alikhan Farruki, a contemporary of Allauddin Hasan, established a kingdom of Farrukis in Dhamner in Khandesh while Rathod established a kingdom in Baglan. Maharashtra got divided into these centres of power. Within twenty years the Mughal emperor Akbar demolished Imadshahi and also liquidated Farruki kingdom. Baridshahi came to an end little later. Nijamshahi, Adilshahi and Kutubshahi were destroyed by the Mughal. None of these kingdoms lasted more than two hundred years. In order to consolidate and establish their power these powers used the masses in Maharashtra. People from various castes progressed and established themselves. The Sultans had no option but to have them in their bureaucratic and military structure. This laid the foundation of Swarajya. During this period all the areas of social life were influenced by the religion and culture of the ruling class. The saint poets of Maharashtra played an important role in awakening people and creating awareness about Maharashtra Dharma (the ethos, culture, and religion of Maharashtra).