Editing Openai/691ef1a1-976c-800d-bd1d-06358880de2a (section)

=== Empire span & size: The Mughal Empire (1526–1857) was a vast Muslim dynasty ruling much of India for over 330 years, while the Maratha Empire (often called the Maratha Confederacy) rose later (c. 1674–1818) under Hindu-ruled chiefs.  By peak strength the Mughals controlled roughly 4,000,000 km² (mostly by the late 17th century)commons.wikimedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=commons.wikimedia.org|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mughal_Empire#:~:text=Area|publisher=commons.wikimedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>, whereas the Maratha domains reached about 2.8 million km² at their largest in the late 18th centurycommons.wikimedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=commons.wikimedia.org|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Maratha_Empire#:~:text=English%3A%20%20The%20Maratha%20Empire,8%20million%20km%C2%B2|publisher=commons.wikimedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  In summary: ===
* Duration: Mughal rule (1526–1857) ~ 331 yearscommons.wikimedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=commons.wikimedia.org|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mughal_Empire#:~:text=Area|publisher=commons.wikimedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>; Maratha rule (1674–1818) ~ 144 yearscommons.wikimedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=commons.wikimedia.org|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Maratha_Empire#:~:text=English%3A%20%20The%20Maratha%20Empire,8%20million%20km%C2%B2|publisher=commons.wikimedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.
* Peak area: Mughal ~4.0 M km²commons.wikimedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=commons.wikimedia.org|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mughal_Empire#:~:text=Area|publisher=commons.wikimedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>; Maratha ~2.8 M km²commons.wikimedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=commons.wikimedia.org|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Maratha_Empire#:~:text=English%3A%20%20The%20Maratha%20Empire,8%20million%20km%C2%B2|publisher=commons.wikimedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.

These raw figures show the Mughals ruled a longer period over a larger territory.  To compare “atrocities” fairly, one must normalize by time and area.

==== Several 18th-century Maratha military expeditions involved large-scale violence against civilians.  Most famously, the “Bargi” invasions of Bengal (1741–1751) saw Maratha cavalry raid villages in present-day West Bengal and Bihar.  Contemporary accounts describe them looting, burning villages, raping and mutilating villagers.  One estimate notes that these raids “perhaps 400,000” Bengali and Bihari civilians died overallen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_invasions_of_Bengal#:~:text=There%20were%20a%20total%20of,report%20mass%20%20128%20and|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  In numeric terms, Wikipedia’s war-death lists record ~0.4 million deaths in the Maratha–Bengal conflict (1741–1751)en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Maratha%20invasions%20of%20Bengal%20,458%20%20South%20America|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> – a vast toll over about a decade.  (This implies roughly 40,000 deaths per year during that period.)  Another source emphasizes that Bargi brigands “stripped bare” the land, committing “atrocities such as kidnapping, rape, and disembowelling”en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_invasions_of_Bengal#:~:text=There%20were%20a%20total%20of,report%20mass%20%20128%20and|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>. ====

Other Maratha campaigns also show brutality.  In Mysore and south India, Maratha armies (especially under Peshwa Madhavrao and Scindia) repeatedly ravaged towns and temples.  19th-century British records (e.g. Buchanan’s travels) detail entire villages burned and thousands starved in the wake of Maratha incursions.  For example, one Kannada village (“Chinya”) was described as a “poor ruinous place” after being “destroyed by the Marattah army” in the 1770shistoryofmysuru.blogspot.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historyofmysuru.blogspot.com|url=https://historyofmysuru.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-kannadiga-victims-of-maratha-empire.html#:~:text=Destruction%20by%20Peshwa%20Madhava%20Rao%27s,men%20in%201770s|publisher=historyofmysuru.blogspot.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  Temple-chariots and idols were hauled away for scrap metal, and Brahmins fled the sacred town of Melukote in terrorhistoryofmysuru.blogspot.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historyofmysuru.blogspot.com|url=https://historyofmysuru.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-kannadiga-victims-of-maratha-empire.html#:~:text=Destruction%20by%20Peshwa%20Madhava%20Rao%27s,men%20in%201770s|publisher=historyofmysuru.blogspot.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  In one case a famine killed hundreds of families after Maratha plunderhistoryofmysuru.blogspot.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historyofmysuru.blogspot.com|url=https://historyofmysuru.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-kannadiga-victims-of-maratha-empire.html#:~:text=Chamarajanagara%20District%3A%205,and%20Hanur%20towns%2C%20was%20%27destroyed|publisher=historyofmysuru.blogspot.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>. (These illustrations show Marathas’ high-intensity violence on local scales, though precise casualty counts beyond Bengal are harder to quantify.)

==== The Mughal Empire also conducted many brutal military campaigns.  Two high-casualty episodes stand out: ====
* Aurangzeb’s Deccan Wars (1681–1707): Aurangzeb spent much of his reign fighting the Marathas and Deccan Sultanates.  Historian Stanley Wolpert estimates these final 26 years cost “an estimated 100,000 lives a year”historymarg.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historymarg.com|url=https://www.historymarg.com/2023/10/military-strategy-of-mughals-under.html#:~:text=The%20conquest%20of%20the%20Deccan%2C,any%20and%20all%20of%20its|publisher=historymarg.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> (mostly soldiers, camp followers and afflicted civilians).  Over a decade that is roughly 1 million deaths.  The Twentieth-Century Atlas war-list likewise attributes 4.6–5.0 million total deaths to the 1680–1707 Mughal–Maratha warsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Deccan%20wars%20%20%204,56%20%5D%201554%E2%80%931721|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> (including battle, famine and plague casualties).  Even Aurangzeb lamented late in life that the war was futile.  These conflicts devastated large swathes of peninsular India.
* Earlier conquests: In the mid-16th century, Mughal emperor Akbar fought costly wars in northern India.  Estimates put the Akbar’s Conquest of North India (1556–1605) at around 1–2 million deathsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Kingdom%20of%20France%20%20,Indian%20States%20%20Indian%20subcontinent|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  (These include warfare against Rajput states, rebels, etc.)  Other Mughal emperors also used force against revolts; for example, they executed Sikh Gurus and rebel nobles and sometimes destroyed temples if they were deemed politically seditious.  However, scholars note Mughal policy was not uniformly genocidal.  Audrey Truschke observes that Aurangzeb “protected Hindu temples more often than he demolished them,” actually razing “at most a few dozen” temples despite ruling over thousandsqz.com<ref>{{cite web|title=qz.com|url=https://qz.com/india/918425/mughal-emperor-aurangzeb-protected-hindu-temples-more-often-than-he-demolished-them#:~:text=Most%20glaringly%2C%20Aurangzeb%20counted%20thousands,often%20than%20he%20demolished%20them|publisher=qz.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  He often reimposed taxes (like the jizyah) on non-Muslims and did suppress rebellions harshly, but outright mass-slaughter campaigns (on the order of millions killed explicitly for religion) are not documented beyond war-famine deaths and rebel suppressions.

In summary, Mughal-era military activity did entail very large-scale death, often across entire regions (whole Mughal armies camped in the Deccan, for instance).  Both Muslim and Hindu populations suffered, but the Mughals ruled longer and engaged in sustained multi-front wars.  Their regime recorded multi-million-body wars (e.g. the Deccan campaignen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Deccan%20wars%20%20%204,56%20%5D%201554%E2%80%931721|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>, Akbar’s conquestsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Kingdom%20of%20France%20%20,Indian%20States%20%20Indian%20subcontinent|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>).  This contrasts with Maratha violence, which tended to be intense but more geographically limited raiding expeditions.

==== Put on “equal footing,” the data suggest the Mughal wars caused equal or greater casualties per unit time or area than Maratha campaigns.  For example, the Bargi raids (~1742–1751) cost ~0.4 million lives in ~10 yearsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_invasions_of_Bengal#:~:text=There%20were%20a%20total%20of,report%20mass%20%20128%20and|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> (~40,000/year).  Aurangzeb’s Deccan war, by comparison, killed on the order of 1 million over 10 yearshistorymarg.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historymarg.com|url=https://www.historymarg.com/2023/10/military-strategy-of-mughals-under.html#:~:text=The%20conquest%20of%20the%20Deccan%2C,any%20and%20all%20of%20its|publisher=historymarg.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> (~100,000/year).  Thus even per-year, the Mughal campaign was deadlier.  Likewise, the Deccan war’s 4–5 million total deaths over 27 yearsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Deccan%20wars%20%20%204,56%20%5D%201554%E2%80%931721|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> exceed Bengal’s toll by an order of magnitude, despite the Deccan war covering a much larger area. ====

Adjusting for territory, the Mughal Empire’s larger size further amplifies this: Mughal armies operated across up to ~4.0 million km²commons.wikimedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=commons.wikimedia.org|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mughal_Empire#:~:text=Area|publisher=commons.wikimedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>, whereas Maratha forces often raided smaller regions (e.g. West Bengal’s ~300,000 km²).  Even if we spread the total casualties over empire area, the Mughal campaigns still emerge as extremely lethal per square kilometer.  For instance, Bengal’s ~400k deaths over ~10 years in ~250–300k km² is roughly 1.6 persons killed per km² per year, whereas Aurangzeb’s 1M/year in ~4M km² is about 0.25 per km² per year (still vast given sustained conflict).  Qualitatively, the Mughal Empire’s wars inflicted mass famine, disease and battle deaths over decades, whereas Maratha raids, while horrific, were briefer.

In conclusion, there is no clear evidence that Maratha “atrocities” outpaced Mughal violence when adjusted for scale.  The Mughals’ longer rule and larger army meant they inflicted at least comparable or higher rates of death in their wars.  Both sides committed atrocities in context of war, but data (e.g. ~100k deaths/year under Aurangzeb vs. ~40k under Bargi raidshistorymarg.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historymarg.com|url=https://www.historymarg.com/2023/10/military-strategy-of-mughals-under.html#:~:text=The%20conquest%20of%20the%20Deccan%2C,any%20and%20all%20of%20its|publisher=historymarg.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_invasions_of_Bengal#:~:text=There%20were%20a%20total%20of,report%20mass%20%20128%20and|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>) suggest Mughal campaigns killed more people per time and area.  Thus on equalized terms, Mughal-era campaigns appear at least as devastating as Maratha raids (if not more so), according to available historical estimateshistorymarg.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historymarg.com|url=https://www.historymarg.com/2023/10/military-strategy-of-mughals-under.html#:~:text=The%20conquest%20of%20the%20Deccan%2C,any%20and%20all%20of%20its|publisher=historymarg.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_invasions_of_Bengal#:~:text=There%20were%20a%20total%20of,report%20mass%20%20128%20and|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.

Sources: Contemporary chronicles and modern historians report these figures.  For example, Bengal records and Dalrymple report ~400,000 killed in the Maratha Bargi invasionsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_invasions_of_Bengal#:~:text=There%20were%20a%20total%20of,report%20mass%20%20128%20and|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Maratha%20invasions%20of%20Bengal%20,458%20%20South%20America|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>; and Stanley Wolpert (as quoted in secondary sources) estimates ~100,000 deaths per year in Aurangzeb’s final Deccan warshistorymarg.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historymarg.com|url=https://www.historymarg.com/2023/10/military-strategy-of-mughals-under.html#:~:text=The%20conquest%20of%20the%20Deccan%2C,any%20and%20all%20of%20its|publisher=historymarg.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  Authoritative compendia of war-deaths likewise tabulate 4–5 million killed in the Mughal–Maratha Deccan conflictsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Deccan%20wars%20%20%204,56%20%5D%201554%E2%80%931721|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> versus 0.4 million in the Bengal raidsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Maratha%20invasions%20of%20Bengal%20,458%20%20South%20America|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  These allow the above per-decade and per-area comparisons.