Chhatrapati Shivaj Maharaj By Dr. Rajesh Garg , Associate Professor ,Dept. of History , D.A.V (PG) college ,Bulandshahr, U.P. , India

Content Upbringing and concept of Hindavi Swarajya Combat with Afzal Khan Treaty of Purandar Conquest in Southern India Death and succession The Marathas after Shivaji

Upbringing and concept of Hindavi Swarajya Shivaji was extremely devoted to his mother Jijabai, who was deeply religious. This religious environment had a great impact on Shivaji, and he carefully studied the two great Hindu epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata; these were to influence his lifelong defence of Hindu values. Throughout his life he was deeply interested in religious teachings, and regularly sought the company of Hindu and Sufi saints. At the age of 12, Shivaji was taken to Bangalore where he, his elder brother Sambhaji and his half brother Ekoji were further formally trained. He married Saibai from the prominent Nimbalkar family in 1640. Around 1645–46, the teenage Shivaji first expressed his concept for Hindavi Swarajya, in a letter to Dadaji Naras Prabhu. Source-Wikipedia

Combat with Afzal Khan In 1659, Adilshah sent Afzal Khan, an experienced and veteran general to destroy Shivaji in an effort to put down what he saw as a regional revolt. The two met in a hut at the foothills of Pratapgad fort on 10 November 1659. The arrangements had dictated that each come armed only with a sword, and attended by a follower. Shivaji, either suspecting Afzal Khan would attack him or secretly planning to attack,wore armour beneath his clothes, concealed a bagh nakh (metal "tiger claw") on his left arm, and had a dagger in his right hand.Accounts vary on whether Shivaji or Afzal Khan struck the first blow the Maratha chronicles accuse Afzal Khan of treachery, while the Persian-language chronicles attribute the treachery to Shivaji.In the fight, Afzal Khan's dagger was stopped by Shivaji's armour, and Shivaji's weapons inflicted mortal wounds on the general Source-Wikipedia

Treaty of Purandar In the Treaty of Purandar, signed between Shivaji and Jai Singh on 11 June 1665, Shivaji agreed to give up 23 of his forts and pay compensation of 400,000 rupees to the Mughals. He also agreed to let his son Sambhaji become a Mughal sardar, serve the Mughal court of Aurangzeb and fight alongside the Mughals against Bijapur. Source-Wikipedia

Conquest in Southern India Beginning in 1674, the Marathas undertook an aggressive campaign, raiding Khandesh (October), capturing Bijapuri Ponda(April 1675), Karwar (mid-year), and Kolhapur (July). In November the Maratha navy skirmished with the Siddis of Janjira, and in early 1676 Peshwa Pingale, en route to Surat, engaged the Raja of Ramnagar in battle.Shivaji raided Athani in March 1676, and by year's end besieged Belgaum and Vayem Rayim in modern-day northern Karnataka. At the end of 1676, Shivaji launched a wave of conquests in southern India, with a massive force of 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry. He captured the Adilshahi forts at Vellore and Gingee, in modern-day Tamil Nadu. In the run-up to this expedition Shivaji appealed to a sense of Deccani patriotism, that the "Deccan" or Southern India was a homeland that should be protected from outsiders., His appeal was somewhat successful and he entered into a treaty with the Qutubshah of the Golconda sultanate that covered the eastern Deccan. Source-Wikipedia

Death and Succession In late March 1680, Shivaji fell ill with fever and dysentery, dying around 3–5 April 1680 at the age of 52, on the eve of Hanuman Jayanti. Putalabai, the childless eldest of the surviving wives of Shivaji committed sati by jumping in his funeral pyre. The other surviving spouse, Sakwarbai, was not allowed to follow suit because she had a young daughter. Rumours followed Shivaji's death, with Muslims opining he had died of a curse from Jan Muhammad of Jalna, and some Marathas whispering that Soyarabai, the youngest of the three wives who survived him, had poisoned him so that his crown might pass to her 10-year-old son Rajaram. Source-Wikipedia

Marathas after Shivaji Shivaji died in 1680, leaving behind a state always at odds with the Mughals. Soon after his death, in 1681, the Mughals under Aurangzeb launched an offensive in the South to capture territories held by the Marathas, the Adil Shahi and Golkonda. He was successful in obliterating the Sultanates but could not subdue the Marathas after spending 27 years in the Deccan. The period saw brutal execution of Sambhaji in 1689, and the Marathas offering strong resistance under the leadership of Sambhaji's successor, Rajaram and then Rajaram's widow Tarabai. Territories changed hands repeated between the Mughals and the Marathas. The conflicted ended in the defeat for the Mughals in 1707. Source-Wikipedia

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