Maharaja of Kolhapur
| Kolhapur State कोल्हापूर रियासत |
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| Princely State of British India | ||||||
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| History | ||||||
| • | Established | 1710 | ||||
| • | Independence of India | 1947 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| • | 1901 | 8,332 km2(3,217 sq mi) | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| • | 1901 | 910,011 | ||||
| Density | 109.2 /km2 (282.9 /sq mi) | |||||
| Today part of | Maharashtra, India | |||||
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. |
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Kolhapur State or Kolhapur Maratha Kingdom (1710–1949) was a Maratha princely State of British India, under the Deccan Division of the Bombay Presidency, and later the Deccan States Agency. It was considered the most important of the Maratha principalities among with the other being Baroda State, Gwalior State and Indore State. Its rulers, of the Bhonsle dynasty, were entitled to a 19-gun salute - thus Kolhapur was also known as a 19-gun State. The state flag was a swallow-tailed orange pennant.
Kolhapur State, together with its jagirs or feudatory vassal estates (including Ichalkaranji), covered an area of 3,165 square miles (8,200 km²). According to the 1901 census, the state population was 910,011, of which 54,373 resided in Kolhapur Town. In 1901, the state enjoyed an estimated revenue of £300,000.
The Maharajas of Kolhapur have a common ancestry with the Bhonsle dynasties of Tanjore and Satara, claiming descent from the Maratha royal clan Bhonslà. The states of Satara and Kolhapur came into being in 1707, because of the succession dispute over the Maratha kingship. Shahuji, the heir apparent to the Maratha kingdom, captured by the Mughals at the age of nine, remained their prisoner at the death of his father Sambhaji, the elder son of Shivaji Maharaj the founder of the Maratha Empire in 1689. The Dowager Maharani Tarabai (a widow of Rajaram Chhatrapati, younger son of Shivaji Maharaj) proclaimed her son Shivaji I, as Chhatrapati Maharaj under her regency. The Mughals released Shahu under certain conditions in 1707, and he returned to claim his inheritance. He defeated the regent at the Battle of Khed and established himself at Satara, forcing her to retire with her son to Kolhapur. By 1710 two separate principalities had become an established fact. Shivaji II and Tarabai were soon deposed by the other widow of Rajaram, Rajasbai. She installed her own son, Sambhaji II as the new ruler of Kolhapur. Sambhaji II signed the Treaty of Warana in 1731 with his cousin Shahu to formalize the two separate seats of Bhonsle family. The British sent expeditions against Kolhapur in 1765 and 1792; Kolhapur entered into treaty relations with the British, after the collapse of the Maratha confederacy in 1812. In the early years of the 19th century the British invaded again, and appointed a political officer to temporarily manage the state.
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