Perhaps now, though, it is time to think of expansion. The empire exists solely because it has the military strength to withstand the Mughal threat. Their armies may look old fashioned, possibly quaint to foreign eyes, but that makes them no less effective. They know the value of the Indian way of doing things, of the age-old strength of their lands. Unlike the foreign (in origin) Mughals, the Maratha rulers are Indian princes and kings. As might be expected, the Mughals and the Marathas still nurse a dislike for each other. Raja (king) Shivaji managed to gain control of the Pune region, and from then Mughal power was no longer invincible. The Maratha Empire or Confederacy was born in violence, as the result of the successful overthrow of Mughal rule less than a generation ago.
