In the first part of this study (The Celestial Blueprint of a Warrior King) we examined Shivaji’s natal chart and the 6 June 1674 Coronation chart that marked the formal birth of the Maratha Empire. We saw how the same Virgo symbolism that pointed to the founder’s final illness reappeared, progressed, at later crises.
Here we continue the story through the empire’s rise, its greatest disaster, a remarkable recovery, and its final dissolution.
Early Triumph – The Battle of Palkhed (28 February 1728)
Baji Rao I’s classic victory over the Nizam remains one of the finest examples of Maratha mobile warfare.
In the Coronation chart the progressed solar-arc Saturn had just perfected a conjunction with the Sun at 15° Gemini (exact 6 April 1727). Saturn bringing disciplined results to the martial Sun is a fitting signature for a hard-won success.
That Sun stood between Bellatrix (the Conqueror) and Capella. As noted in an earlier study of Genghis Khan, this stellar combination emphasises bold warfare combined with exceptional speed and agility — precisely the light-cavalry tactics for which both Shivaji and Baji Rao were famous.
A Full Moon on 25 February 1728, cast for Raigad, placed its Ascendant at 16° Gemini, directly triggering the progressed Saturn–Sun conjunction. The Full Moon axis itself fell across Shivaji’s natal Ascendant–Descendant (Virgo–Pisces) and squared Neptune while contacting Aldebaran, a mixture of imperial success and the ever-present danger of over-extension.
Crisis – The Third Battle of Panipat (14 January 1761)
The progressed Sun of the Coronation chart had reached 8° Virgo — exactly on Shivaji’s own natal Ascendant. Once again the “river of life” symbolism returned. Ahmad Shah Abdali had cut the Maratha supply lines; the army was starved of food and fodder. The same Virgo degree that once spoke of the founder’s intestinal blockage now described the collective blockage of the army’s lifeline.
Hard aspects to Atropos, Bacchus and Orpheus underscored the theme of over-reach ending in tragic loss of life.
Recovery – Recapture of Delhi (10 February 1771)
Under Madhavrao I and the brilliant generalship of Mahadaji Shinde, the Marathas restored their position in the north.
The Coronation chart contains a natal Jupiter–Pluto trine. On 25 February 1771, only two weeks after Shinde entered Delhi, Jupiter and Pluto formed an exact conjunction at 18° Capricorn. A diurnal chart for the Coronation (10 February 1771, 4:30 a.m. LMT, Raigad) places this powerful conjunction on the Ascendant.
Ebertin’s keywords for Jupiter–Pluto — “the desire for power; the leading of or the participation in uprisings; the attainment of leadership” — describe the moment perfectly.
Dissolution – 1818
The final chapter is written in the same solar language. Directed solar-arc Saturn reached 15° Virgo, squaring the Coronation Sun at 15° Gemini (exact 22 May 1819). Throughout 1818 transit Saturn at 15° Pisces formed the opposing square. Transit Saturn was conjunct the bright star Achernar which marks the end of the River Eridanus - where the river meets the sea - symbolizing a final dissolution.
A New Moon [12ge] on June 4, 1818 formed a T-square with Saturn just a day or two after 2–3 June 1818 – Surrender of Peshwa Baji Rao II marking the formal end of the Maratha Empire as an independent power. This was also also conjunct Shivaji’s coronation Sun [15ge] of 6 June 1674.
These heavy Saturnine contacts to the founding Sun marked the structural end of the empire. The recently discovered TNO Alicanto, opposite the same Sun, adds a modern note of greed and short-term self-interest — the internecine rivalries and separate treaties with the British that fatally weakened Maratha unity.
From the swift cavalry victories of 1728, through the supply-starved disaster of 1761, the phoenix-like recovery of 1771, and the final Saturnine closure of 1818, the 1674 Coronation chart continues to speak with remarkable consistency. The “river of life” that sustained the founder and the state could be blocked — by illness, by strategy, or by internal division — and each time the chart registered the moment with precision.
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