The Great Sultanate of Maharashtra
Half way between Pune and the Ajanta caves lies one of the most neglected centres of Marathi culture.
The Ahmadnagar Sultanate was founded in 1490 by Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah, a Brahmin-convert general of the Bahmani dynasty.
Unlike the other Deccan sultanates, Ahmadnagar embraced Marathi cultural and administrative traditions, integrating local Maratha chieftains into governance and military structures.
Indeed its rulers patronized Marathi language and literature alongside Persian, fostering a unique syncretic identity that influenced later Maratha statecraft.
This fusion of Persianate and indigenous Marathi traditions laid the groundwork for the emergence of the Maratha Empire under Chattrapati Shivaji in the 17th century.
Indeed Maloji Bhonsle - Shivaji's grandfather - was one of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate's leading generals. His samadhi can be found in Ellora near a municipal rubbish dump.
Twenty minutes walk away, above Ellora's Kailashanatha temple, is the Ahmadnagar Necropolis. The biggest tomb belongs to Maloji Bhonsle's close companion, the Ethiopian-origin general Malik Ambar
Together, Malik Ambar and Maloji Bhonsle attempted to preserve Ahmadnagar's independence from the ever growing Mughal Empire. It was Maloji's grandson Shivaji, however, who would finally break apart the Mughal Empire.
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