ABSTRACT
Aurangzeb’s goal in peninsular India was to replace the Shia Muslim domination of the Deccan with the Mughal Sunni rule. Two major challenges to Aurangzeb’s ambition to extend the Mughal domination all over the subcontinent came from the Marathas in peninsular India, specifically western Maharashtra, and the Sikhs in the Punjab and the Northwest. Shivaji was the second son of Shahaji Bhonsle, who had held important positions successively at several Muslim courts in the Deccan. Shivaji’s spectacular successes were owed to two principal elements in his military strategy: guerrilla warfare and a wide array of about one hundred forts to which his forces could withdraw for security. The founder of the line of the Peshwas was Balaji Vishwanath, a Brahman who came from the Bhat family of Shrivardhan in Konkan. The Sikh religion was originally founded by Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century, partly in response to the then Muslim oppression of the Hindus.
