MAHRATVAS, a people of Hindu race, inhabiting central India, s. of the Ganges, from Gwalior to Goa, and supposed by many to be the descendants of a Persian or North Indian people, who .had been driven southwards by the :Mongols. They are first men tioned in history,about the middle of the 17th c., when they possessed a narrow strip or territory on the w. side of the peninsula, extendinn- from • 15° to 21° n. latitude. The fouuder of the Mahratta power was Sevaji, a freebooter or adventurer, whose father was an officer in the service of the last king of Bejapfir. By policy or by force he eventually succeeded in compelling the several independent chiefs to acknowledge him ftS their leader, and with the large army then at his command overran and subdued a. large portion of the emperor of Delhi's territory. His son and (1680) successor, Sambaji, after vigorously following out his father's policy, was taken prisoner by Aurtingzebe in. 1689, and put to chiath. The incapacity of the subsequent rulers who reigned under the title of ramrajah ("great king"), tempted the two chief' officers of state, the peishwa, or prime minister, and the paymaster-gen., to divide the empire between them. This was effected about 1749, the former fixing his residence at Poona, aud retaininn. a nominal supremacy over the whole nation of the Malirattas; while the latter madeNagpflr his. capital, and founded the empire of the Berar Mahrattas. This paction, of course, required the sanction of the more important amour, the minor chiefs and officers or state, who gave their consent on condition of receiving a share of the spoil. The ulti mate result was the partition of the Mahratta kingdom into a great number of qtates, more or less powerful and independent; chief among which were, besides the two above mentioned, Gwalior, ruled by the Rao Seindia; Indore, by the Rao Holkar; and Baroda, by the Guicowar. It was to be expected that the usual intestine wars would supervene, and ultimately the East India conipany wa,s compelled to interfere. The invasion of
the Delhi empire by Nadir Shah afforded these wild and warlike mountaineers an_ opportunity, of which they eagerly availed themselves, to wrest additional territory from the feeble grasp of the Mogul emperor. From this time they discharged the office of arbiters in the quarrels between the emperor, his vizier, and his rebellious subjects; but. the frightful defeat (Jan., 1761), they sustained at the hands of Ahmed Shah Abdalli, the ruler of Afghanistan, on the field of Paniput, where they lost 50,000 men, and all their chiefs except Holkar, weakened their power for a time. They still, however, con tinued to be the hired mercenaries of the Delhi emperor, till the growing influence of the British compelled them to look to their own safety. After many loug and bloody contests with the British End their allies, in which sometimes the whole, but more fre quently a portion of the 3Ialirattas joined, they were one by one, with the exception of , Seindiah, reduced to a state of dependence. This last-mentioned chief, having raised a. powerful army, officered by Frenchmen, and disciplined after the European method, continued the contest for a number of years, till his power was finally broken in 1843. The dignity of Peishwa was abolished in 1818, and his territories were occupied by the British, with the exception of a portion which was made over to another Mahratta chief, the Rajah of Sattara, their faithful ally; -1\lagpfir and Sattara subsequently reverted to. the British government, but the other chiefs still possess extensive dominions, under British protection.
The Malirattas are a vigorous and active race, and though diminutive and ill-formed1 are distinguished for their courage. They are of a cruel and perfidious disposition, and have exercised a most disastrous influence upon the inhabitants of the countries they have conquered. Though devout worshipers of Brahma, no distinctions of caste exist-. among them.