Shivaji

Shivaji Bhonsale inherited a jagir from his father, a retainer in the Sultanate of Bijapur, and began consolidating territory in the 1650s. He offered his service to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to help dismantle Bijapur, then seized the ceded lands for himself after Aurangzeb left for a succession war in the north. Defeated at Purandar by Jai Singh I, Shivaji entered Mughal vassalage, wrote letters of apology to Aurangzeb, and briefly served as a Mughal chief with the title of Raja. In 1674 he broke away and crowned himself Chhatrapati at Raigad Fort over Brahmin objections, building a multiconfessional administration and a navy while warring and bargaining with Mughals, sultanates, and Europeans. He died in 1680; Jyotirao Phule revived his memory in the 19th century, and later nationalists and Hindutva movements claimed him as icon.