Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/79

these inland and seaward valleys of the Western Ghats, that Sivaji laid the foundation of the Maratha Confederacy, which at one time extended its sway over the whole Dakhan. The Maratha country indeed in its widest sense almost corresponds with the area of the Chalukyan style of temple architecture in India, as defined by Mr. Fergusson. It is the whole country between the Malabar and Coromandel coasts watered by the Nerbudda, Tapti, Godavari, Bhima, and Kistna. North of the Nerbudda lies Mr. Fergusson’s area of Indo-Aryan architecture, and south of the Kistna the Dravidian. There is really no authentic ancient history of Southern India, but to the Hindus Sivaji was not so much the destroyer of the hated Mahommedan supremacy in the Dakhan as the restorer of the half mythical Hindu state of Sali- vahana, and hence the great power of his name all over India, which can be understood only by those who have some knowledge of the notions universally received by Hindus of their traditional history. As the British power grew in India, it was at last brought face to face with the Maratha Confederacy, against which, between 1774 and 1818, we had to wage four harassing wars, signalised by the great victories of Assai and Kirki. In the latter battle the dominion of the Marathas was finally overthrown, although it was not until 1819 that their last fortress was taken. Their forts among the spurs of the Western Ghats were their strength, and every one of them has its legend, keeping alive the spirit of nationality and patriotism among these hardy and romantic mawu - lis. Sivaji [nicknamed by Aurungzebe “ a mountain rat ”], at the age of nineteen, seized Tornia, and with the spoils built Raighur, where he was subsequently enthroned, and where he died. After building Raighur, he took Singar and Purandar, and it was from the Konkan hill fort of Pertabghar, opposite Mahabaleshwur, that he issued, after receiving his mother’s blessing and offering his vows to Bhavani, to circumvent, by an act of the most detestable treachery, the assassination of the Bijapur General, Afzul Khan. He enticed his generous and too confiding enemy into a^ecret