Marathas and Their Contribution to India – Part II: Chhatrapati Shivaji
- In History & Culture
- 10:36 PM, Jan 15, 2016
- Sagar Kinhekar
A Shahir (bard) goes into kind of a trance, in a village near Pune, while singing praises for Shivaji in one of the Powade and so does his audience. Powade are Marathi folk songs praising great wins of Shivaji and often exaggerate historical events. Historians often cite this as deification of Shivaji in local traditions and many a time the blame is put squarely on politicians. When we talk about greatest warriors of Indian history, Shivaji’s name comes among the first few. Is it because his achievements were exaggerated for any political gain by a group? Is Shivaji actually a hero created artificially so that achievements of other medieval kings, like those of Mughal kings could be somehow belittled? In this second part of our series on Marathas, we will try to analyse this as honestly as possible.
Maharashtra before Shivaji
Maharashtra, four centuries back was nothing similar to what it is today. The Marathi speaking people were largely confined to western part of Deccan plateau between Tapti in north and Krishna in south. It comprised of modern day Pune, Nasik, Satara districts and parts of Ahmed Nagar and Solapur. This region was generally called Maval (region of sunset) and people were called Mavale. Marathi speaking people also made substantial part of population in then thinly populated north Kokan including Thana, Kolaba, Ratnagiri, up to Savantwadi in south.
The Deccan part of Maharasthra was an arid land with uncertain monsoon. Good crop was never promised at the end of hard agricultural cycle in any given year. While rice was impossible to cultivate, crops of wheat, bajra and Jawar were just enough to take care of family’s food for the year. Rest of the year farmers used to give services as soldiers to any army which was ready to pay good money. The warring states of Bijapur and Nizam gave ample opportunities to these farmers to serve as paid mercenaries for one or other party. War was a rewarding activity as it not only provided good compensation, but also gave the soldiers a chance to lay hands on some serious money. The mercenaries used to serve in groups with usually village heads (Patil or Deshmukh) as their group leaders. The capable ones among these leaders rose to higher ranks and became vassals of Nizam or Bijapur Sultanate. Shivaji’s grandfather Maloji and his father Shahji were such vassals of Bijapur state. These designations often came at a price of self-respect as the Muslim rulers of Bijapur never missed a chance to embarrass their Hindu courtiers.
These vassals and village heads were always at loggerheads over territorial rights. Few years before Shivaji’s birth, the Nizam of Ahmed Nagar became powerless and was unable to protect his borders. Each of the village chiefs and vassals started grabbing territories and started acting like sovereign rulers. There was a complete chaos with almost no administrative control of any rulers in hinterlands of Deccan plateau. Thus Maharasthra was a land of infighting and chaos.
Shivaji consolidated Deccan plateau and gave stability to this region. As Jadunath Sarkar wrote, Shivaji came to supply a country-wide social need (for stability and protection by rule of law). As the stories of fairness of his justice, firmness, might to protect the weak spread from village to village, more and more people looked up to him as their protector. The foundation of “Swaraj” which Shivaji had laid down, supported a great Maratha empire later. Shivaji from the very beginning started organizing the Mavale and gave them a lot of importance in his administration. He ignited Mavales’ individual ambition to rise from status of paid mercenaries to soldiers fighting for a cause and gave them a platform to perform. Such a revolutionary change in the lives of people naturally made Shivaji a demigod in the eyes of his people.
The Emperor Chhatrapati Shivaji
Shivaji during his lifetime rose from being a local king to an Emperor with national vision. However it took some time for Shiva of Lal Mahal in Pune to become the Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Young Shiva was more like a 17th century Robin Hood. It was common for him to raid a neighboring village or stop a government revenue officer to loot his money. This money more often than not used to be distributed among the poor families of Pune. In the lawlessness of Deccan plateau this was not uncommon, however Dadaji Kondev (Shivaji’s guardian, appointed by Shahji) didn't approve of this behavior. This was because these activities were unbecoming of a son of nobility.
It was only after Dadaji's death that Shivaji started thinking seriously about his own career. He, though unlettered, had grown up listening to stories of Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purana. Due to his upbringing away from court of any King, he always loved his independence. He could never imagine himself serving in the court of a Muslim ruler. A combination of these factors set him in the direction of carving out his own independent state. However, there is no evidence to suggest that his objective at that young age was to free up Hindus (or Hindu generals) from the humiliation* they often used to be subjected to by Bijapur rulers.
Later as Shivaji carved out a big area as an independent state, mostly out of Nizam and Bijapur territories, he became an eyesore for the State of Bijapur. Begam Bari Sahiba of Bijapur used to control the affairs of the court due to Muhammad Adil Shah’s illness. She chose Abdullah Batari (Afzal) Khan to stop Shivaji’s progress in 1657. Afzal Khan, as he is popularly known now, was offered 10,000 troupes to accomplish this task. Shivaji, hearing Afzal’s movement, withdrew to Pratapgarh. Afzal knew that Shivaji clearly had upper hand when it comes to fighting war in a forest and hilly area of Pratapgarh. Shivaji had huge number advantage in Maval. He had 60,000 soldiers, both permanent and seasonal Mavale soldiers put-together. To counter this Afzal had to raise his own strength. He started talking to the local village heads (Deshmukh) in and around Pune. Some of them agreed to side with Afzal and fight against Shivaji while some of them were undecided. To bribe them and also to feed his 10,000 strong army to survive a longer than planned campaign, Afzal needed money. Hindu temples became easy target for Afzal to overcome this difficulty. He looted Jejuri, Pandharpur and Tuljapur among other holy Hindu temples. He not only looted these temples but also desecrated and destroyed the statues. Some accounts also blame Afzal’s army of rape and murder of common villagers. Even after such loot, Afzal Khan was neither able to expand his army base nor was able to win anymore allies. Finally he decided to use treachery to trap Shivaji. He sent envoy to make peace with Shivaji. A direct conflict meant a heavy loss of lives on both sides, therefore Shivaji decided to give peace a chance and meet Afzal in his camp. He accepted the offer. It is well documented how Afzal Khan tried to kill Shivaji in the pretext of hugging him and how Shivaji used iron Bichva and Baghnakha to kill Afzal Khan during this meeting. This victory over a cruel man who desecrated Hindu temples established Shivaji as a protector of Hindu Dharma. “People instantly started looking up to Shivaji as a protector against big bad desecrators of temples like Afzal”, as written by Sarkar.
The following facts consolidated this position of Shivaji –
- That Shivaji used Vedic rituals for Coronation,
- His use of Sanskrit terms for administrative posts, and
- The fact that he helped a village chieftain (Balaji Nimbalkar) and his people to convert back to Hinduism after they were converted forcefully to Islam by Afzal Khan.
A sovereign Hindu emperor in medieval India was a unique phenomenon which made people beyond Maharashtra look up to Shivaji.
A King with strong morality
Shivaji, although not educated formally, had great qualities of character. His character was an important factor why people considered him their hero. Once his manager of Kalyan state (in today’s Thane district), Abaji Sondev brought a beautiful Muslim girl as a present for Shivaji. As documented in Qalmi Bakhar, Shivaji famously said to the girl – “If my mother was as beautiful as you I would have looked handsome too.” He sent the girl back to her people with presents. Similarly, after the defeat of Afzal Khan, Shivaji at once released all captured woman and children. Even the soldiers were sent back with enough money for travel after inspection. Even though some Brahmins opposed Shivaji’s coronation saying that he was not a Kshatriya, Shivaji appointed many Brahmins on high posts of his administration. He had been a keen observer of meritocracy without giving importance to caste. Throughout his life he remained abstemious and free of vices.
Shivaji was a fierce warrior, a devoted son, a religious man and above all a just king to his subjects. He will live in our collective memory for time immemorial as someone who provided a much needed relief from centuries of foreign rule and established “Swaraj”.
In third part of this series we will cover other great Maratha worriers who changed the course of history with their swords. In the fourth and final part we will delve into cultural contribution of Marathas.
*The oppressive policies toward Hindu generals of State of Bijapur under Muhammad Adil Shah are described in Basatin-us-Salatin
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