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of Bundelkhand (northern Madhya Pradesh) under their direct control. They angered the
Jats, the Rohilla Afghans of Rohilkhand (east of the Jat kingdom) and the Nawab of Awadh
by raiding their territories and forcing them to pay tribute. In 1751, the Marathas forced
the Nawab of Bengal to cede Orissa and pay tribute.
The expansion of Maratha rule initially harmed some local crafts. For example, many
silk weavers of Gujarat fled to Varanasi. However, by the mid-eighteenth century, there
seem to have been some economic recovery under the Marathas. Trade was encouraged,
which helped banking, crafts and agriculture. Among the industries which flourished in the
western Deccan were brassworking in Kalyan, the paper industry and mixed silk and cotton
brocaded cloth industries of Aurangabad, the textile industries of Chanderi and Burhanpur,
and the coarse cotton cloth, basket-making and perfume industries of Pune.
Under the peshwas, who were high-ranking Brahmans called Chitpavan Brahmans, the
employment opportunities for Brahmans increased. They were employed as scribes,
administrators, bankers and even soldiers.
Third battle of Panipat : In 1757, the Marathas helped the
Mughal Emperor by removing the agent posted in Delhi
by Ahmad Shah Abdali. Thereafter, they took Sirhind and
Lahore from the Afghans. All this made a war between the
Marathas and the Afghans inevitable. The Maratha army
met Abdali’s forces in the third battle of Panipat in 1761.
Ahmad Shah Abdali had entered into alliance with the
enemies of the Marathas, mainly the rulers of Rohilkhand
and Awadh. The Marthas had angered all the local rulers, Shivaji Ahmad Shah Abdali
and did not receive any support. They were desperately short of supplies and starving on
the even of the war. They were also weakened by infighting among their chiefs. Their
military infighting among their chiefs. Their military techniques and weapons, too, were
outdated and unsuitable for the use on the plains. Hence, they were easily defeated by
the Afghans. This destroyed their hopes of replacing the Mughals as the supreme power in
India for the time being.
case sTudy

Their relations with the Mughals deteriorated when Jahangir executed Guru Arjan in 1606
for giving shelter to prince Khusrau who had rebelled against his own father. The ninth
Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred in 1675 during the reign of Aurangzeb for refusing
to convert to Islam. His two elder sons had also killed by the Mughals and two other sons
were also killed for refusing to convert to Islam. The Sikhs had thus been transformed
into a political community during the seventeenth century. The Khalsa
thus sought to defend the community from oppression by rulers like
the Later Mughals. The Sikhs were mainly based in and around Punjab.
From 1695 A.D., the Sikhs not only fought Mughal officials but also local
kingdoms of North Punjab. Under Guru Govind Singh they fought several
battles against the Mughal rule and instituted the order of Khalsa.
Guru Govind Singh was himself later killed in 1708 by a pathan and
was succeeded by Banda Bahadur. Under his leadership, they declared
Guru Tegh Bahadur their sovereign rule by minting coins in the name of Guru Nanak and

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