Shivaji Bhonsle (1630–1680) founded the Maratha kingdom, carving out a state in the Western Ghats through skilled guerrilla warfare tactics against the Bijapur Sultanate and the Mughals. He was formally crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad in 1674, adopting the title with elaborate Vedic rituals conducted by the Brahmin scholar Gaga Bhatt.
Shivaji developed an effective administrative system, including the Ashtapradhan (a council of eight ministers: Peshwa, Amatya, Sachiv, Mantri, Senapati, Sumant/Dabir, Nyayadhish, Panditrao) and organised revenue collection through Chauth (one-fourth of revenue) and Sardeshmukhi (an additional levy), extracted from neighbouring territories as a form of tribute/protection arrangement.
After Shivaji, his successors (Sambhaji, Rajaram, and later titular Chhatrapatis) increasingly delegated real power to their chief ministers, the Peshwas, based at Pune, who effectively became the head of the Maratha Confederacy from the early 18th century.
Notable Peshwas: Balaji Vishwanath (founder of the Peshwa dynasty's dominance), Baji Rao I (a brilliant military commander who greatly expanded Maratha power across much of India), and later Peshwas presiding over an increasingly decentralised confederacy of major chieftains — the Gaekwads (Baroda), Holkars (Indore), Scindias/Shindes (Gwalior), and Bhonsles (Nagpur).
The Marathas' northward expansion was checked at the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) against Ahmad Shah Abdali, a devastating defeat from which the confederacy took years to recover, though Maratha power revived under Mahadji Scindia before ultimately succumbing to the British in the Anglo-Maratha Wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.