Archives of Asian Art 68:1 April 2018 DOI 10.1215/00666637-4342393 © 2018 Asia Society From the sixteenth through the mid-seventeenth cen- tury the early Marathas were, along with other eth- nic identity groups, an integral part of the Deccan sul- tanates, yet their presence is curiously missing from the material record of this period. I propose that the scanty architectural evidence from the early seven- teenth century demonstrates the architectural patron- age of early Maratha elites embedded within a greater Islamicate culture of the sultanate Deccan. Chhatra- pati Shivaji Bhonsale (1627–1680), who founded the independent sovereign kingdom of the Marathas, was descended from families in military service to various Deccan sultanates and also the Mughals. It is therefore not surprising that the architectural expression of the early Maratha state was similar to that of the sultan- ates. here are few traces of the architecture commis- sioned or patronized by Shivaji’s forefathers, but two sets of commemorative buildings survive; attributed as the memorials to his maternal and paternal grand- fathers, the architecture of both is stylistically identi- cal to the funerary architecture of the Deccan sultans. here are very few nonmilitary buildings that can be firmly attributed to Shivaji’s own patronage—one such is the Jagadīśvara temple at Raigad constructed in about 1674, which also bears striking similarities to the architecture of the Deccan sultanates. he seven- teenth century was the last lourish of sultanate iden- tity in the Deccan before the Mughals took over, and the early Marathas shared their visual culture and regional expression with the sultanates before capitu- lating to the Mughals in the early seventeenth century. After 1700 the Maratha state was the only sur- vivor of the old Deccan states, since Bijapur and Gol- conda had been annexed in 1686–87. But the Mara- tha state had radically changed its engagement with the sultanate past, being irmly implicated with the Mughal empire. Chhatrapati Shahu (1682–1749), the fourth king in the Bhonsale dynasty and the grandson Imbrication and Implication Early Maratha Architecture and the Deccan Sultanates PUSHKAR SOHONI abstract The independent Maratha kingdom of Chhatrapati Shivaji was founded in the mid- seventeenth century, when the sultanates of the Deccan were defending against the expansionist Mughal empire. The Mughals slowly anchored themselves in the Deccan, and the kingdom of the Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar was inally subdued in 1636, a decade af ter the death of Malik Ambar. Over the next half century, as the Adil Shahs of Bijapur and the Qutb Shahs of Golconda found themselves in a weakened position against the Mughals, the Marathas were consolidating their gains with building campaigns. It is not surprising that the architectural expression of the early Maratha kingdom had the same artisanal qualities and visual vocabulary as the sultanates of the Deccan, given that most of the Maratha elite families, including Shivaji’s grandparents, had served at sultanate courts. Examples of nonmilitary architecture in the form of memorials demonstrate the deep connections between the architecture of the Deccan sultanates and that of the early Marathas. keywOrDs Early modern, architecture, Deccan sultanates, Marathas Introduction Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/archives-of-asian-art/article-pdf/68/1/33/527864/33sohoni.pdf by UNIV OF ILLINOIS LIB-E user on 09 May 2018