Shivaji was the son of Sardar Shahji Bhonsle and Jijabai. He was born on 20th April 1627 in a hilly fort of Shivner near Puna (Maharashtra). Shivaji’s childhood passed in the lap of Jijabai and under the guardianship of Dada Kond Dev, away from his father.
As a child, Shivaji was provided military education alongwith the knowledge of Hindu religious scriptures by his mother and guardian. Right from childhood, Shivaji had acquired full knowledge of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and other Hindu scriptures. At the age of 12, he obtained his father’s Jagir Puna.
Military Campaigns of Shivaji Military Compaign against Bijapur-Shivaji performed the initial military compaigns of his lifetime against the state of Bijapur. At this time, Sultan Muhammad Adil Shah was lying on the death bed after remaining ill for a long time and the state was in a miserable condition. In 1646 CE, Shivaji occupied a hill fort named Toran in Bijapur.
Shivaji expanded his army with the obtained wealth and gave a new form to the ruined fort of Murumbgarh which was situated five miles east to Toran fort and renamed it as Rajgarh. As Shivaji had bribed the major ministers of Bijapur and gained their favour, the Sultan of Bijapur was unable to take any action against Shivaji at that time.
Murder of Afzal Khan-Sultan Adil Shah became nervous due to the increasing power of Shivaji. Even more, no other commander of Bijapur was ready to campaign against Shivaji. Finally, a commander Afzal Khan took this initiative saying that, “I will capture Shivaji even without stepping off from my horse.” In 1659 CE, Afzal Khan proceeded against Shivaji, taking a masive army along with him.
Afzal Khan resorted to deciet and sent his ambassador Krishanji Bhaskar to Shivaji offering him a proposal of talk of alliance. Shivaji realized the hidden objective of Afzal Khan but accepted the proposal of alliance talk in a cautious way. On the fixed day, Shivaji wore armour under his clothes alongwith an iron cap and went to meet Afzal Khan. He had hidden sharp daggers such as baghnakh in his left hand and bichwa in his right hand.
During the meeting, while embracing Shivaji, Afzal Khan tried to catch his neck and assassinate him with his sword, but he could not do so. At that very momend, Shivaji used his bagnakh and killed Afzal Khan. As soon as Afzal Khan died, the Maratha soldiers, who were hiding in several parts of the jungle, invaded and ousted the army of Bijapur.
This incident enhanced the prestige of Shivaji tremendously. After Afzal Khan moment Bijapur sent various campaign against Shivaji, but they were of no use. Shivaji and the Mughals Aurangzeb was extremely terrified due to the increasing power of Shivaji. To eliminate Shivaji, he appointed his maternal uncle Shaista Khan as the Subedar of the south.
Soon after Shaista Khan occupied Puna, he started to operate campaigns against Shivaji from the itself. Shaista Khan was staying in the same palace where Shivaji had spent his childhood.. In the evening of 15th April 1663, Shivaji reached Puna along with around 400 soldiers.
When he reached the place where Shaista Khan was staying, he was stopped by the Mughal security men. Shivaji made them inattentive by saying that they were the Maratha soldiers of Mughal army itself and were going to their respective camps. At midnight, alongwith his soldiers Shivaji started massacre at the encampment of Shaista Khan. One finger of Shaista Khan was cut off, but he became successful in running away taking advantage of night time.
One of his sons, his six wives and many Mughal soldiers were killed in this campaign. When Aurangzeb got the news of this campaign he, got extremely angered. In order to punish Shaista Khan for his failure, he sent him to Bengal.
Muazzam and Jaswant Singh – After Shaista Khan, Aurangzeb sent Prince Muazzam and Jaswant Singh of Marwar to eliminate Shivaji, but they failed in this objective. This encouraged Shivaji, and he started looting the Mughal regions without any fear. In January 1664 CE, he looted the prosperous city of Surat. Shivaji obtained ornaments worth one crore rupees, gems etc.
Jai Singh and the treaty of Purandar – Now Aurangzeb sent army commanders Diler Khan and Taj Khan along with Mirza Raja Jai Singh, who was an skilled diplomat from Amer. Mirza Raja Jai Singh had said “We will tie him enclosed in a circle.”
The diplomat Jai Singh obtained the favour of not only the opponents of Shivaji but he also gave bribe to various Marathas and obtained their favour also. While invading the Maratha state, he surrounded Shivaji in Purandar Fort. Shivaji was forced to sign the treaty of Purandar with Jai Singh in June 1665 CE.
According to the provisions of this treaty, he handed 23 forts to the Mughals and convinced them to provide support to him against Bijapur in time of need. Shivaji was not forced to appear in the court personally. During the time of this treaty, French traveller Bernir was also present.It was clearly mentioned in the provisions of the treaty that Shivaji would not be forced to apear in the Mughal court. Even after this, Jai Singh convinced Shivaji to travel to Agra.
Probably, Shivaji also considered it to be a good opportunity to come in contact with Mughal court and understand the situation of northern India. In May 1666 CE, Shivaji visited the Mughal court in Agra. Aurangzeb did not give proper respect to Shivaji, behaved with him in inappropriate manner and made him stand in the third line of mansabdars.
When Shivaji saw that Jaswant Singh was standing in front of him, he said unhappily “I have been forced to stand behind that Jaswant Singh who showed his back to my soldiers.” As he was not given due respect in the court, Shivaji became unhappy and he returned to the residence of Ram Singh (son of Mirza Raja Jai Singh). Aurangzeb imprisoned Shivaji in “Jaipur Bhavan” and decided to kill him.
Even in such serious sitution, Shivaji didn’t lose his calm and started looking for behind opportunity to save himself from the claws of the Mughals. Shivaji pretended to be ill, and according to Hindu tradition, he started to grant sweets, fruit etc. to the poor and helpless in the form of charity. Baskets of sweets and fruits began to arrive in the prison regularly.
In the beginning, the watchmen used to perfrom thorough checking of the baskets but later they became quite careless. Getting the opportunity, Shivaji sat along with his son Sambhaji in these baskets and became successful in getting out of the prison to reach Maharashtra. Because leading the life of a prisoner and the tiresome journey, Shivaji’s health deteriorated significantly.
On the other hand, new Mughal Subedar Muazzam was a luxurious man and his asistant Jaswant Singh was compassionate towards Shivaji. In such time, both the parties desired to stop war. In 1667 CE, under mediation of Jaswant Singh, Mughal Maratha treaty was signed, according to which Aurangzeb accepted Shivaji as an independent ruler and gave recognition to the title of ‘Raja’.
Even after the treaty, Aurangzeb did not refrain from playing cards against Shivaji. Due to this, Shivaji again looted Surat in 1670 CE and started to recoccupy the regions which he had lost earlier.
Coronation of Shivaji – Shivaji called a Brahmin named Gangabhatt from Benaras and performed his coronation in the capital Raigarh in June 1674 CE and gained the titles of ‘Chhatrapati’, ‘Hindu Dharmoddharak’, ‘Gau Brahman Pratipalak’etc. The last days of Shivaji were spent in distress.
On one hand, he was unhappy as his son Sambhaji had moved in the haven of the Mughals and on the other hand, his wife Soyarabai was planning a conspiracy to make her son Rajaram his successor. In such conditions, Shivaji died in April 1680 CE.
Evaluation of Shivaji Shivaji struggled throughout his life to instill a renewed spirit of renaissance in his people and for the objective of establishing an independent Hindu kingdom. He remained successful in fulfilling his objectives to a large extent. According to Sir Jadunath Sarkar, Shivaji was the last talented and nation building ruler of Hindu species.”
At the time he had emerged on the horizon of Maharashtra, the Marathas were scattered everywhere in the south under the sovereignty of the foreign ruler. By organizing them, Shivaji proved that he could establish not an a kingdom but also a nation. He established the Maratha kingdom by strongly opposing the Mughals.
