The consolidation of a Maratha polity was symbolically marked by Shivaji’s coronation as Chatrapati in 1674. By then, the Deccan was char- acterized by a sedentarized populace, monetization of the economy, and a highly organized regime of revenue collection, though Maratha suzer- ainty was initially achieved through practices of social banditry and guerilla warfare. Significantly, Maratha dominance provoked challenges to Brahminical authority conducted within ritual idioms. The most fa- mous illustration of the pattern is Shivaji’s coronation as Chatrapati, or lord of the chhatra, a large parasol or canopy placed over Hindu gods and kings to signify grandeur and dignity. The controversy over Shiv- aji’s claims to Kshatriya lineage—he came from a family of patils (vil- lage headmen) near Pune who acquired power through military service to the Nizam Shah of Ahemdnagar—arose when a section of Deccan Brahmins rejected the possibility of allowing Shivaji to be coronated with Vedic rites reserved for twice-born Kshatriyas. A Brahmin from Benares, Gaga Bhatta, supported Shivaji’s claim to Kshatriya status after much persuasion and traced the Bhosle lineage to the Sisodia Rajputs of Udaipur. Though Brahmin authority sanctified temporal claims, ritual was powerful only when supported by idioms and practices of political sovereignty. The belatedness of Shivaji’s coronation and its ritual recog- nition of Shivaji’s consolidation of real power over the Deccan (and other Maratha families) are noteworthy. Even more important are the multi- ple significations of the term “Maratha” and growing conflict around ef- forts to align Maratha jati with Kshatriya varna . Brahmins continued to deny the Bhosle royal family’s claim to Vedic rites and thus rejected their identity as twice-born Kshatriyas. Instead, they argued that the Bhosles were Shudras entitled to rites performed ac- cording to the Puranas. Symbolic insults to Maratha identity gained trac- tion across the nineteenth century as the Chitpavan Brahmin community gained political visibility as a consequence of the Brahmin peshwa, or prime minister’s increased centrality in political affairs. By 1749, the trans- fer of real power from the Chatrapati to his Brahmin ministers was an established fact, and Shahu I had been banished to Satara from Poona and confined to his fort, almost a prisoner of the peshwa . The declin- ing political fortunes of the Bhosle family popularized the growing per- ception among upwardly mobile Maratha- kunbis, that a repetitive struc ucpress.edu/content/chapters/11115.ch01.pdf
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