Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti 2025: Wed, 19 Feb, 2025
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti is celebrated every year on 19 February.
- Chhatrapati Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire, was born on 19 February 1630 in Shivneri Fort in the Junnar district of present-day Maharashtra.
- He was born to Shahaji Bhosale and Jijabai .
- He started a collection of two taxes named Chauth and Sardeshmukhi. He divided his kingdom into four provinces, each of which was headed by a Mamlatdar.
- He abolished the Jagirdari system and replaced it with the Ryotwari system.
- He assumed the titles of Chhatrapati, Shakkarta, Kshatriya Kulvant, and Haindava Dharmamoddharka.
What is the Maratha Military Scenario(Landscape)
India is set to nominate the “Maratha Military Landscape” for World Heritage recognition of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) during the year 2024-25.
- This nomination consists of 12 components, which demonstrate the strategic military power of Maratha rule in various areas.
What are the Maratha military scenarios?
- The ‘Maratha Military Landscape’ is a network of 12 forts and forts that represent the extraordinary military system and strategy of the Maratha rulers in the 17th and 19th centuries.
- This nomination has twelve constituent parts – Salher Fort, Shivneri Fort, Lohagarh, Khanderi Fort, Raigarh, Rajgarh, Pratapgarh, Suvarnadurg, Panhala Fort, Vijay Durg, Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and Gingee Fort in Tamil Nadu.
- Maratha Military Landscapes of India have been included in the tentative list of World Heritage Sites in the year 2021.
- Maratha Military Landscape is the sixth cultural heritage site from Maharashtra nominated for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
- This extraordinary system/network of forts, varying in characteristics of hierarchy, scale, and symbolic classification, represents the landscape, region, and geographical features specific to the Western Ghats (Sahyadri mountain ranges), the Konkan coast, the Deccan plateau and the Eastern Ghats in the Indian peninsula. Result of integration.
- There are more than 390 forts in Maharashtra out of which only 12 forts have been selected under the Maratha Military Landscape of India, out of which 8 forts are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.
- These are Shivneri Fort, Lohagarh, Raigad, Suvarnadurg, Panhala Fort, Vijaydurg, Sindhudurg, and Gingee Fort.
- Salher Fort, Rajgarh, Khanderi Fort, and Pratapgarh are protected by the Directorate of Archeology and Museums, Government of Maharashtra.
- In the Maratha military landscape of India, Salher Fort, Shivneri Fort, Lohagarh, Raigad, Rajgarh, and Gingee Fort are hill forts, Pratapgarh is a hill forest fort, Panhala is a hill-plateau fort, Vijaydurg is a coastal fort while Khanderi Fort, Suvarnadurg and Sindhudurg is an island fort.
- The Maratha military ideology originated in the 17th century under the rule of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1670 AD and continued under later rules until the Peshwa rule that lasted until 1818 AD.
What is the process for the UNESCO World Heritage List nomination?
- The World Heritage List is a list of sites that have outstanding universal value for humanity and nature, as determined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
- Before 2004, World Heritage Sites were selected on the basis of six cultural and four natural criteria.
- In the year 2005, UNESCO revised these criteria and now there is a set of ten criteria. Sites nominated on this basis must be of “outstanding universal value” and meet at least one of ten criteria.
- Cultural and Natural Criteria are the two categories of this nomination. Maratha Military Landscape has been nominated in the category of Cultural Criteria.
- There are six criteria (i to vi) for cultural sites and four criteria (vii to x) for natural sites for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
- The Maratha military landscape of India has been nominated under Criterion (iii), criterion (iv) and criterion (vi ).
- A country cannot nominate a property to the World Heritage List unless the property in question has been included on its provisional list for at least one year.
- A tentative list is a list of potential World Heritage sites that a country submits to UNESCO for nomination. Only after a property is included in the provisional list can the concerned country nominate it for the World Heritage List. Thereafter the nomination given by the World Heritage Committee is reviewed.
- The list of World Heritage Sites is prepared by the International ‘World Heritage Programme’ directed by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
Source Of Information: pib.gov.in