The House of Bhonsle (or Bhonsale, Bhosale, Bhosle) are a prominent Indian royal house. They claimed descent from the Sisodia Dynasty, but were likely Kunbi Maratha. They served as the Chhatrapati or Emperor of the Maratha Confederacy from 1674 to 1818, where they gained imperial dominance of the Indian Subcontinent. They also ruled several states such as Satara, Kolhapur, Thanjavur, Nagpur, Akkalkot, Sawantwadi and Barshi. The House of Bhonsle was founded in 1577 by Maloji Bhosale, a predominant general or sardar of Malik Ambar of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. In 1595 or 1599, Maloji was given the title of raja by Bahadur Nizam Shah, the ruler of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. He was later granted was given the jagir of Pune, Elur (Verul), Derhadi, Kannarad and Supe. He was also given control over the first of the Shivneri and Chakan. These positions were inherited by his sons Shahaji and Sharifji, who were named after a Muslim Sufi Shah Sharif Origins The origins of the Bhonsles in unclear. According to Jadunath Sarkar and other scholars, Bhonsles were predominantly Deccani tiller-plainsmen from the Shudra caste; they were part of the Marathas/Kunbis, an amorphous class-group. Scholars have however disagreed about the agricultural status of Bhosles. Rosalind O'Hanlon notes that the historical evolution of castes grouped under the Maratha-Kunbis is sketchy. Ananya Vajpeyi rejects the designation of Shudra, since the category has remained in a state of flux across centuries; she instead notes them to be a Marathi lineage, who enjoyed "reasonably high" social status as landholders and warlords, being in the service of Deccan Sultanate or Mughals. According to R. C. Dhere's interpretation of local oral history and ethnography, Bhonsles descend from the Hoysalas and Yadavas of Devagiri, who were cow-herding Gavli sovereigns. In early thirteenth century, "Baliyeppa Gopati Sirsat", a Hoysala cousin of Simhana migrated from Gadag to Satara along with his pastoral herd and kul-devta; the Sambhu Mahadev was thus installed at a hill-top in Singhnapur. Historical records indicate that this shrine received extensive patronage from Maloji onwards. Further, there exists a branch of the Bhosles named "Sirsat Bhosles" and Bhosle (or "Bhosale") is linguistically similar to "Hoysala". M. K. Dhavalikar found the work to convincingly explain the foundation of the Bhosle clan (as well as Sambhu Mahadev cult). Vajpeyi too advocates that Dhere's theory be probed in greater detail — "[f]rom pastoralist big men to warlords on horseback, is not an impossible