Hosta

| status = [[Confederation]]

| conventional_long_name = Maratha Confederacy

| image_map_caption = Peak extent of Maratha rule in 1760 (Yellow)

The '''Maratha Confederacy''',{{efn|({{IPAc-en|m|@|'|r|a:|t|@}} {{Respell|muh|RAH|ta}};<ref>{{Cite book |last=Upton |first=Clive |title=The Routledge dictionary of pronunciation for current English |last2=Kretzschmar |first2=William A. |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-12566-7 |edition=2nd |location=London ; New York |pages=803}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Pronouncing dictionary of proper names: pronunciations for more than 28,000 proper names, selected for currency, frequency, or difficulty of pronunciation |date=1998 |publisher=Omnigraphics |isbn=978-0-7808-0098-4 |editor-last=Bollard |editor-first=John K. |edition=2nd |location=Detroit, Mich |pages=633}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Upton |first=Clive |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm46433686 |title=The Oxford dictionary of pronunciation for current English |last2=Kretzschmar |first2=William A. |last3=Konopka |first3=Rafal |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-863156-9 |location=Oxford |pages=622 |oclc=ocm46433686}}</ref> {{IPA-mr|məˈɾaːʈʰaː}})}} also referred to as the '''Maratha Empire''', was an [[early modern India|early modern]] [[polity]] in the [[Indian subcontinent|Indian subcontinent]] comprising the realms of four independent [[List of Maratha dynasties and states|Maratha rajas]] and the [[Peshwa]]. It was formed in 1674 with the coronation of [[Shivaji]] of the [[House of Bhonsle (Royal House)|House of Bhonsle]] as the [[Chhatrapati of the Marathas]]. The Maratha realm was recognised by [[Bahadur Shah I]], the [[List of Mughal emperors|Shahenshah of Hindustan]] as a [[tributary state]] in 1707 after a [[Deccan wars|prolonged rebellion]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Haig L|first1=t-Colonel Sir Wolseley|title=The Cambridge History of India. Volume 3 (III). Turks and Afghans|date=1967|publisher=Cambridge University press|location=Cambridge UK|isbn=9781343884571|pages=395|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yoI8AAAAIAAJ&q=%22SAyYID+BROTHERS%22+balaji+vishwanath&pg=PA1|access-date=12 May 2017}}</ref> The Marathas continued to recognise the [[Shahenshah]] as their nominal [[suzerain]] similar to other contemporary Indian entities.

After Emperor Aurangzeb's death in 1707, Shivaji's grandson [[Shahu I|Shahu]] under the leadership of Peshwa Bajirao revived Maratha power and confided a great deal of authority to the Bhat family, who became hereditary [[peshwa]]s ([[prime minister]]s). After he died in 1749, they became the effective rulers. The leading Maratha families—Scindia, Holkar, Bhonsle, and Gaekwad—extended their conquests in northern and central India and became more independent and difficult to control. The Marathas' rapid expansion was halted with the great [[Third Battle of Panipat|defeat of Panipat]] in 1761, at the hands of the Afghans however within a decade they recovered most of their territories under their new Peshwa [[Madhavrao I]] but his death in 1772 ended the power of the Peshwas.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nandakumar |first=Sanish |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8AbPDwAAQBAJ&dq=maratha+resurrection&pg=PT41 |title=Rise and Fall of The Maratha Empire 1750-1818 |date=2020-02-07 |publisher=Notion Press |isbn=978-1-64783-961-1 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghosh |first=D. K. Ed |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.149767 |title=A Comprehensive History Of India Vol. 9 |pages=512–523}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=New Cambridge History of India |url=http://archive.org/details/the-marathas-1600-1818-cambridge-history-of-india-vol.-2-part-4 |title=The Marathas - Cambridge History of India (Vol. 2, Part 4)}}</ref>

The Maratha state was a confederacy of four Rajas under the leadership of the Peshwa at [[Poona]] (now Pune) in [[western India]] from 1721 till 1818. These were the [[Baroda State|Raja of Baroda]] of the [[Gaekwad dynasty|House of Gaekwad]], the [[Indore State|Raja of Indore]] of the [[Holkars|House of Holkar]], the [[House of Scindia]], and the [[Nagpur kingdom|Raja of Nagpur]] of the [[Bhonsles of Nagpur|House of Bhonsle]], while the Peshwa's dominions included the territories that later became the [[Bombay Province]]{{efn|(excluding Sind)}} and [[Central Provinces]]. After he was defeated by the Holkar dynasty in 1802, the Peshwa [[Baji Rao II]] sought protection from the Company, whose intervention destroyed the confederacy by 1818 after the [[Second Anglo-Maratha War|Second]] and [[Third Anglo-Maratha War]]s.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} The confederacy after 1737 extended from modern-day [[Maharashtra]]{{sfnp|Mehta|2005|p=204}} in the south to [[Gwalior]] in the north after the [[Battle of Bhopal]] (1737), to [[Orissa]] in the east{{sfnp|Sen|2010|p=16}} or about a third of the subcontinent. A large portion of the Maratha realm was coastline, which had been secured by the potent [[Maratha Navy]] under commanders such as [[Kanhoji Angre]]. He successfully kept foreign naval ships at bay, particularly those of the Portuguese and British.{{sfnp|Pagdi|1993|p=21}}

The Maratha Confederacy is also referred to as the Maratha Empire. The historian [[Barbara Ramusack]] says that the latter is a designation preferred by nationalists, while the latter was used by British historians. She notes, "neither term is fully accurate since one implies a substantial degree of centralisation and the other signifies some surrender of power to a central government and a longstanding core of political administrators".{{sfnp|Ramusack|2004|p=35}}