Thanjavur Maratha kingdom
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Maratha Kingdom of Thanjavur Princely State of Thanjavur | |||||||||||
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1674–1855 | |||||||||||
Shivaji II of Thanjavur | |||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
• Conquest of the Venkoji | 1674 | ||||||||||
• Earliest records | 1674 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1855 | ||||||||||
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Today part of | India |
The Thanjavur Maratha kingdom ruled by the
Maratha conquest of Thanjavur
Following the demise of
Pandya nadu very quickly reasserted their independence and added Thanjavur to their domain. Soon afterwards, however, they were conquered by the
Chokkanatha placed his brother Alagiri on the throne of Thanjavur, but within a year the latter threw off his allegiance, and Chokkanatha was forced to recognise the independence of Thanjavur. A son of Vijaya Raghava induced the Bijapur Sultan to help him get back the Thanjavur throne. In 1675, the Sultan of Bijapur sent a force commanded by the
Maratha kings
Part of a series on |
History of Tamil Nadu |
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Venkoji
Shahuji I
Serfoji I
Serfoji I was a younger son of Venkoji and he ruled from 1712 to 1728. His rule was marked by regular warfare and disputes with the Madurai Nayaks.
Tukhoji
Tukkoji, a younger brother of Serfoji I, ruled Thanjavur from 1728 to 1736. His reign witnessed the invasion of Chanda Sahib and he is credited with having repulsed a Muslim invasion of Madurai.
Pratapsingh
A period of anarchy followed the death of Tukkoji and came to an end when
Thuljaji
Thuljaji was a very weak ruler and the last independent ruler of Thanjavur. In 1773, Thanjavur was annexed by the Nawab of the Carnatic who ruled till 1776. The throne was restored to him by the Directors of the British East India Company but that restoration came at a heavy price as it deprived him of his independence.
Serfoji II
Thuljaji was succeeded by his teenage son
Shivaji
Literature
The Thanjavur Maratha rulers patronized production of literature in four languages:[2][3]
- Telugu (the language of the preceding Nayaka rulers)
- Tamil (the popular language of the Thanjavur region)
- Marathi (the language of the court elite)
- Sanskrit (the liturgical language of the Vedic Scriptures)
Ekoji, the founder of the kingdom, continued the use of Telugu as a court language. However, compared to the Nayaka-era works, the Telugu language works composed under the Thanjavur Maratha patronage are of inferior quality. The Tamil language works produced during this period are not of the highest quality either. The most notable literary works composed under their patronage were written in Sanskrit and Marathi languages.[4]
The notable Marathi authors from the Thanjavur Maratha kingdom include Raghunatha Pandita, Ananda-tanaya, Gosavi-nandana and Subhan Rao. They mainly wrote short works on Puranic or other religious subjects, on the royal family members, or on the splendours of Thanjavur.[4]
In 1693, Shahaji renamed the village of Thiruvisanallur as Shahaji-raja-puram and established an assembly of 45 scholars and poets there. These scholars included Ramabhadra Dikshita, Bhaskara Dikshita, Veda-kavi, Mahadeva-kavi, and Shridhara Venkatesvara. Shahaji's minister Tryambaka-yajvan wrote the Sanskrit-language texts Dharmakuta (a commentary on Ramayana) and Strī-dharma-paddhati. Other members of his family also composed various works. His grandson Narayana-raya wrote Vikrama-sena-champu. His brother Bhagavanta-raya wrote Mukunda-vilasa, Uttara-champu, and Raghavabhyudaya. His nephew Ananda-raya wrote Ashvala-yana-grhya-sutra-vritti, Jivananda-nataka, and Vidya-parinaya-nataka (with a commentary). His grand-nephew Nrsimha-raya wrote Tripura-vijaya-champu. Dhundhiraja, another writer patronized by Shahaji, wrote the Sanskrit-language texts Shaha-vilasa-gita and Mudra-rakshasa-vyakhya.[4]
Serfoji built the Saraswathi Mahal Library within the precincts of the palace to house his enormous book and manuscript collection. Apart from Indian languages, Serfoji II was proficient in English, French, Dutch, Greek and Latin as well.[citation needed]
Administration
The king was assisted in the administration of his country by a council of ministers. The supreme head of this council of ministers was a Mantri or Dalavoy. The Dalavoy was also the Commander-in-chief of the Army. Next in importance at the court was a Pradhani or Dewan also called Dabir Pandit. The country was divided into subahs, seemais and maganams in the decreasing order of size and importance. The five subahs of the country were Pattukkottai, Mayavaram, Kumbakonam, Mannargudi and Tiruvadi.
Economy
The ruler collected his taxes from the people through his mirasdars or puttackdars. They were collected right from the village level onwards and were based on the agricultural produce of the village. Rice was one of the primary crops in the region and the land used for cultivation was owned by big landlords. It was Anatharama Sashtry who proposed collecting taxes to improve conditions for the poor. No foreign trade was carried out. The only foreign trade in the country was carried out by European traders who paid a particular amount of money as rent to the Raja. The currency system used was that of a chakram or pon (1 chakram = one and three-fourths of a British East India Company rupee). Other systems of coinage used were that of pagoda (1 pagoda = three and a half Company rupees), a big panam (one-sixth of a Company rupee) and a small panam (one-thirteenth of a Company rupee).
List of rulers
S. no | Ruler | Reign (CE) |
---|---|---|
1 | Venkoji Bhonsle
|
1674–1684 |
2 | Shahuji Bhonsle
|
1684–1712 |
3 | Serfoji Bhonsle I | 1712–1728 |
4 | Tukkoji Bhonsle | 1728–1736 |
5 | Ekoji II | 1736–1737 |
6 | Sujana Bai | 1737–1738 |
7 | Shahuji II | 1738–1739 |
8 | Pratapsingh Bhonsle
|
1739–1763 |
9 | Thuljaji Bhonsle | 1763–1773 and 1776–1787 |
10 | Serfoji Bhonsle II | 1787–1793 and 1798–1832 |
11 | Amar Singh | 1793–1798 |
12 | Shivaji Bhonsle
|
1832–1855 |
Family tree
Family tree of Maratha Rajas of Thanjavur | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Biological Child Adopted Child
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See also
References
- ^
- G. S. Ghurye, ed. (1969). Caste and Race in India. Popular Prakashan. p. 106.
The Nayak kings of Madura and Tanjore were Balijas , traders by caste
- Eugene F. Irschick, ed. (1969). Politics and Social Conflict in South India. University of California Press. p. 8.
The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus
- Sheldon Pollock, ed. (2003). Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. p. 413.
.... in the seventeenth century, when warriors/traders from the Balija caste acquired kingship of the southern kingdoms of Madurai and Tanjavur.
- David Shulman, ed. (2020). Classical Telugu Poetry. University of California Press. p. 57.
..... in the Tamil country, where Telugu Balija families had established local Nāyaka states (in Senji, Tanjavur, Madurai, and elsewhere) in the course of the sixteenth century.
- Andhra Pradesh Archives, Andhra Pradesh State Archives & Research Institute, ed. (2007). Itihas. Vol. 33. Director of State Archives, Government of Andhra Pradesh. p. 145.
....It is told that the Nayak Kings of Madurai and Tanjore were Balijas , who had marital relations among themselves and with the Vijaya Nagara rulers
- Muzaffar Alam, ed. (1998). The Mug̲h̲al State, 1526-1750. Oxford University Press. p. 35.
As an arrangement, the Golconda practice in the first half of the seventeenth century was quite similar in crucial respects to what obtained further south, in the territories of the Chandragiri ruler, and the Nayaks of Senji, Tanjavur and Madurai. Here too revenue-farming was common, and the ruling families were closely allied to an important semi-commercial, semi-warrior caste group, the Balija Naidus.
- A. Satyanarayana, Mukkamala Radhakrishna Sarma, ed. (1996). Castes, Communities, and Culture in Andhra Desa, 17th & 18th Centuries, A.D. Osmania University. p. 145.
After the fall of the dynasty several Balija Nayudu chieftains rose into prominence. Tanjore and Madura kingdoms were the most important of such new kingdoms
- G. S. Ghurye, ed. (1969). Caste and Race in India. Popular Prakashan. p. 106.
- ISBN 9780333523971.
- ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
- ^ a b c Isobel Julia Leslie (1989). The Perfect Wife: The Orthodox Hindu Woman according to the Strīdharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan. Oxford University South Asian Studies Series. Oxford University Press. pp. 10–19.