Kolhapur

Kolhapur lies on the Panchganga River in the southern Deccan, below the Western Ghats. Its temple of Mahalakshmi, known as Ambabai, has drawn pilgrims for centuries, and the town is sometimes called the Kashi of the south, a holy city like Varanasi. Twenty kilometres to the north-west the fort of Panhala guards a pass through the Ghats that carried the trade route from Bijapur to the coast.

Panhala was held by the Bahmanis and then the Adil Shahis of Bijapur, who added ramparts and gateways in the sixteenth century. In 1659, after the death of the Bijapur general Afzal Khan, Shivaji took the fort. A Bijapur army under Siddi Johar besieged it in 1660, and Shivaji escaped by night through the monsoon, while his captain Baji Prabhu held a narrow pass to the death to cover the flight. After Shivaji's son Rajaram died in 1700, his widow Tarabai ruled from Panhala for her young son and led the Maratha fight against the Mughals. Rival claims in the Bhonsle family then split the Maratha crown between Satara and Kolhapur.

A treaty of 1731 ended the war between the two branches, and in 1782 the Kolhapur line moved its seat from Panhala to the town below. The town grew around the palace and the Mahalakshmi temple as a lasting political centre of the southern Deccan.