Rani Tarabai Bhonsle

Tarabai Bhonsle was the wife of Rajaram Bhonsale, the third Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire. Following the death of Rajaram, she became the regent of the empire from 1700 to 1708.

She is widely known for role in keeping alive the flame of Maratha resistance against the invading Mughal Empire. Her actions ensured that the Marathas would not only survive but endure, going on to become a predominant force in the Indian subcontinent.

This article about Tarabai would be useful in the Indian History segment of the IAS Exam.

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Early Life of Tarabai

Tarabai was born in 1675 to Hambir Rao Mohite, who was the commander-in-chief of Chhatrapati Shivaji’s army.

Born in 1675, Tarabai was the daughter of Hambir Rao Mohite, the famed Sar Senapati (commander-in-chief) of Shivaji’s Maratha army. As a child she was well-trained in the art of sword fighting, archery, horsemanship, diplomacy and other subjects of statecraft.

Growing up during a time of constant warfare between the Mughal and Maratha Empires, these skills would serve her well in the coming years.

At the age of 8 Tarabai was married to Rajaram I, the second son of Shivaji. Rajaram I was also the step-brother of Sambhaji, the elder son of Shivaji. Sambhaji succeeded Shivaji as the Chhatrapati  following the latter’s death in 1680.

Sambhaji himself would later be captured and executed by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb on 11 March 1689. His death would lead to a crisis in the Maratha Kingdom which would be duly taken advantage of by the Mughals. Although Rajaram I succeeded his brother and tried to mitigate the situation, it would be for naught as he would pass away in 1700, leaving behind an infant son – Shivaji II – and his widow Tarabai. Shivaji II would be declared as the ruler of the Maratha Kingdom and his mother as the regent.

The Mughals were glad that all that stood in their way of a complete destruction of the Marathas was an infant and his mother. In short, they thought that Tarabai would be a pushover and yield ground easily. However, they would find out the hard way that their notions would be proven false.

Tarabai in Command

In her capacity as regent, Tarabai took command of the Maratha forces at a time when Aurangzeb’s Mughal army was pressing hard towards the Maratha heartland. She personally led the war against the Mughals in many pitched battles against them. Not one to play the role of a grieving widow for long, she quickly organised a rigorous resistance that threw Aurangzeb off guard.

She traveled from one Maratha to another forging crucial alliances and mobilising resources and men. Tarabai personally led her armies from the front, inspiring her commanders to emulate her.

By 1705, Marathas had crossed the Narmada River and made small incursions in Malwa, retreating immediately. In 1706, Tarabai was captured by Mughal forces for a brief period of 4 days but she escaped after the Mughal camp – in which she was being held – was ambushed by the Marathas.

Tarabai’s greatest strength was that she never stopped learning, even from her enemies. Aurangzeb had a particular strategy in bribing the commanders of the enemy army. Tarabai did the same against the Mughals and as a result her army penetrated into Mughal territory as far as Malwa and Gujarat.

Although the Mughals captured certain vital forts, including her own, she still had control of resources from other territories in the Mughal domain.

In her seven year role as the regent, Tarabai single-handedly ensured that the Maratha resistance not only endured against the Mughals but would also rise to become a dominant force in the Indian subcontinent long after her death.

Eventually it would not be the war with the Mughals that would be her undoing but the political machinations of those who she considered allies.

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War with Shahu

Auragzeb would die in 1707, but his death would not be the end of the Mughal Maratha wars. Instead it would be the beginning of its next stage. Knowing well that the Marathas would be difficult to defeat in war, the Mughals resorted to intrigue. They released Shahu I from captivity. He was the son of the late Sambhaji. The Mughals knew that this would cause a succession crisis as Shahu I had a far more legitimate claim on the Maratha throne than Tarabai had.

This distraction would severely weaken the Maratha onslaught against the Mughals. In fact, the Mughals released Shahu with certain conditions in place, one of them being that he would challenge Tarabai for the Maratha throne. And challenge he did.

Tarabai refused to acknowledge Shahu as the sovereign. Her reason being that a long period of captivity under the Mughals had made him unfit to sit on the throne. Soon the dispute gave way to full-scale war.

The war quickly went downhill for her because Shahu had a legal claim on the throne and this caused most of Tarabi’s chieftains to defect to his side. What’s More, skillful diplomatic manoeuvring by Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath further made her situation precarious.

In the end Shahu I was crowned the Maratha sovereign at Satara, completely sidelining Tarabai. She instead established a rival court at Kolhapur, but she was deposed soon by Shahu and Rajasabai (Rajaram’s second wife). Rajasabai had collaborated with Shahu to put her son Sambhaji II on the Kolhapur throne.

Tarabai was imprisoned as a result and she was imprisoned with her son Shivaji. Her son would die in the 16 years they spent in prison. But her role in Maratha polity would be far from over.

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Later Years of Tarabai

Sambhaji II would turn hostile towards Shahu, forcing him to release her but under house arrest at Satara. In the 1740s, when Shahu felt seriously ill, she introduced a young man who she claimed to be her grandson Ramraja. His existence was kept a secret as she feared assainiston either by Rajasabai and Sambhaji II. Since Shahu did not have children of his own, he designated Ramraja as his successor.

With Tarabai’s help, the young prince ascended the Maratha throne. However, later when he became close to the powerful Peshwa, Nana Sahib, and refused to accede to her wishes, Tarabai denounced him as her grandson.

Nonetheless, in 1752, Tarabai had to settle for a pact that acknowledged Nana Sahib’s authority in return for the freedom to settle “into her life’s final role – that of a powerful quasi-sovereign dowager”.

She agreed to dismiss her lieutenant Baburao Jadhav, whom Balaji Baji Rao disliked. In return, Balaji Baji Rao forgave her. On 14 September 1752, the two took oaths at Khandoba temple in Jejuri, promising mutual peace. At this oath ceremony, Tarabai also swore that Rajaram II was not her grandson. Nevertheless, Balaji Baji Rao retained Rajaram II as the titular Chhatrapati and a powerless figurehead.

Tarabai breathed her last at the age of 86 in 1761. Her demise happened a few months following the disastrous third battle of Panipat, where the Maratha army was annihilated  by Ahmad Shah Abdali. Historians agree that the same disaster at Panipat would have been visited upon the Marathas had Tarabai not taken charge in 1701. The survival of the nascent Maratha kingdom was her enduring legacy.

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