Spread along India’s western coast, Maharashtra had long been home for elite kshatriyas – the warriors of the Hindu caste system – whose clans assumed the responsibility of governing the local population, albeit in tenuous feudalism. These Marathas formed an enduring identity and culture and their homeland, with its hundreds of castles built on hilltops and ridges, had by the 16th century become overshadowed by Muslim sultanates in the south and east. To the north was an even greater power. For a single glorious century the better part of India had been ruled by a Central Asian dynasty. These Mughals or Mogul emperors, four of them having reigned in succession after the founder Babur took Delhi in 1526, recognised few equals in wealth and power. By the middle of the 17th century their last hurrah was imminent when Aurangzeb seized the throne from his own father, the world king or Shah Jahan, best known for immortalising his departed wife with a lavish tomb and garden – the Taj Mahal.
