SHIVAJI THE GREAT MARATHA- BIRTH AND BOYHOOD A.D. 1627 TO 1645

 

 

 

 

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D.

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

The marriage of Sahaji to Jijabai appears, in spite of the

differences between Maloji Bhosle and Lakhoji Jadhavrao, to

have been for the first few years happy enough. In 1623, Jijabai

bore her lord a son, three years after their marriage. He was

called Sambhaji and became a great favourite of his father,

just as Shahaji had been of Maloji. On April 10, 1627

, (Marathi Itihasanchi Sadhane, pp. 42-43.)

after an interval of four years, she bore Shahaji a second son. Several

stories are told in support of the general belief that the baby

boy was an incarnation of the god Shiva. A charming one is

to be found in the Shedgavkar Bakhar. During the stormy years

that followed the birth of Sambhaji, Shahaji, engaged in the

warlike enterprises entrusted to him by Malik Ambar, found

no time to pay his wife conjugal attentions. One night he

dreamt that he saw a Gosavi or Hindu anchorite, clad in rags

and smeared with yellow ashes, stand by his bedside and put a

mango in his hand. ” Share the fruit with your wife,” said

the anchorite, ” and you will become the father of a son who will

be an incarnation of the god Shiva. You must never force him

to salute a Musulman and after his twelfth year you must leave

him free to act as he pleases.” When Shahaji awoke from his

dream, he found a mango in his hand, visited his wife and shared

it with her. The offspring of this reunion was the boy Shivaji,

bom on April 10, 1627. Convinced that the anchorite whom he

had seen in his dream was the god Shiva, Shahaji gave the new born

child the name of Shivaji, just as Maloji had called Shahaji

after the Musulman saint Shah Sharif. According to another

story, Shahaji had a vision of Shiva after Shivaji’s birth and was

then told by the god that the new-born boy was his own reianrnation

.( Sabhasad Bakhar, p. 2.)

When Shivajiwas born,his mother Jijabaiwas living

in a house on the top of the Shivner fort close to Junnar. A

ruined wall still stands on the site where the house stood and a

marble tablet, inserted in it under the orders of the Bombay

Government by the late Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, keeps alive the

memory of the greatest of Indian kings and of one of the wisest

and best of modern Englishmen.

Even Shivaji’s early days were not free from peril and

adventure. Before his birth, his grandfather LakhojiJadhavrao

had joined the Moghuls, and Shahaji by refusing to follow his

example had incurred his bitter enmity. The quarrel was taken

up by the other nobles in the Moghul service. And although

Lakhoji Jadhavrao died in 1629, treacherously assassinated at

Daulatabad by Murtaza Nizam Shah II,the hatred borne by the

Moghuls to Shahaji survived Lakhoji Jadhavrao’s death. A

certain Mhaldar Khan, originally appointed by Murtaza Nizam

Shah II to be governor of Trimbak, deserted to Shah Jehan.

Wishing to secure the favour of the emperor, he arrested Shahaji’s

wife (A.D. 1633). Jijabai succeeded in hiding Shivaji but she

herself was confined in the fort of Kondana. During the three

years, 1633 to 1636, in which Shahaji defied the Moghuls, they

made every effort to find out Shivaji’s hiding place,that they

might hold him as a hostage for his father. But Jijabai’s wit

baffled them, and Shivaji remained safe until Shahaji’s final

surrender. Even then Shivaji could not enjoy his father’s

protection. In 1630 Shahaji had contracted a second marriage

with Tukabai, a girl of the Mohite family. This family, although

of ancient descent, was inferior in rank to that of Lakhoji

Jadhavrao, and after his second marriage, Jijabai seems to

have broken off all but formal relations with her husband.

When Shivaji was ten years old (1637),it became time according to

the custom of the day to arrange his marriage; for that

purpose Jijabai took her son to Bijapur. There he was wedded

to one Saibai, the daughter of Vithoji Mohite Newaskar,

(Another account makes Saibai daughterof Jagdevrao Nimbalkar.)

Even at this earlyage the boy is said to have shown symptoms

of what his future career was to be. He made a public protest

when he saw some Musulman butchers driving cattle to the

slaughterhouse and he refused to bow to the king of Bijapur

in the manner required by the etiquette of the court. Fearing

that the unruly boy might injure  his prospects

Shahaji was glad to send Shivaji with his mother out of

Bijapur (A.D. 1638). He ordered Jijabai to reside at his fief

of Poona and Supa. To assist her in its management he appoint a

trusted Brahman officer named Dadoji Kondadev.

In Shivaji ‘youth the scene was very different. Poona was

then a cluster of tiny huts on the rightbank of the Muta.

.In Shivaji’schildhood it was a barren wilderness.DadojiKondadev met the

dangerby arming bands of hillmen from the Sahyadris,who,

with a little training,soon made a raid on Poona a perilous

undertaking. His success attracted Shahaji’s notice and he

added to Dadoji’s charge two new estates recently given him by

the Bijapur government.

Of the resources of his new trust Dadojimade the

fullest use. With the surplus revenue he planted mango and

other fruit trees. Between Shirwal and Poona, where the mango

orchards throve better than in other places,he founded a village

and named it after his master’s son. It is known as Shivapur

to this day. To great energy, thrift and experience, Dadoji

added what was rarer still in those times,namely ,perfect honesty.

A charming tale has been handed down which illustrates this.

One day as Dadoji strolled through one of the shady groves at

Shivapur,a large and luscious mango caught his eye. The day

was hot ; he was tired and thirsty with labour. Unconsciously he

stretched out his hand and plucked it. Then he realized too late

that he had stolen fruit which belonged to his master. In

an agony of remorse he begged his companions to cut off the

offending right-hand that had made him sin. They very properly

refused and bade him think no more of the matter. Nevertheless

it still so weighed on his mind that for many months he

wore coats without a sleeve for his right arm.

” For,” so he would say,

” if my right arm had had its deserts, it would have been cut off as a punishment.”

At last the

story reached Shahaji’sears. He, not without difficulty,

persuaded his retainer to forget and wear coats

like other people.

Shivaji was between ten and eleven years old ( ShivdigvijayaBakhar ) when he first went to Poona with his mother Jijabai .Unhappily no portrait

survives of the great king when he was still a boy. But he had

suffered troubles early. He had long been separated from his

father and to avoid captivity he had lived for years hidden

in woods and caves. It is possible,therefore,that, although

his cheeks were rounder and his skin smoother, he did not much

differ in boyhood from the pictures which still exist of Shivaji

in manhood. The brow is wrinkled as if with grave and constant

thought. The cheeks are burnt with long exposure to sun and

rain and deeply furrowed as if with anxiety and care. But

the nose is curved like a falcon’s beak. The eyes are large

and bold. The thin lips are compressed .

The whole face speaks eloquently of trouble bravely

borne and dangers triumphantly surmounted. Shivaji’ body was

short but broad and strongly built. And a legend survives that,

like those of Arjmia,the epicarcher,the fingers of his long sinewy

arms reached below his knees. Dadoji Kondadev had the good

sense to understand that he owed a duty to his master’s son as

well as to his master’s lands. He collected round Shivaji other

boys of his own age. The best known were Tanaji Malusare,

a petty baron of Umrathe village in the Konkan, BajiPhasalkar,

the deshmukh of the valley of Muse, and YesajiKank, a small

land-holder in the Sahyadris. Dadoji had Shivaji and his companions

instructed in all the warlike exercises of the time. He had

himself seen a good deal of fighting and no doubt supplemented

the teaching of the paid instructors by tales of his own experiences

in the field. He also realized that an exact knowledge of the

wild lands in the Mawal, of the passes to the Konkan and of the

folds in the Sahyadri hills was at least as valuable as skill in

martial exercises or an acquaintance with the tactics of the day.

Encouraged by Dadoji Kondadev, Shivajiand his companions

wandered for days together through the Krishna valley,through

the forests on the banks of the Koyna, along the winding course

of the Indrayani,or followed the Bhima River to its source upon

the shaggy sides of mighty Bhimashankar. But Dadoji Kdeonvdawas

not onlyan efficient land agent and a veteran of Shahaji’s

wars ; lie was also,as became a Brahman, a profomid scholar.

He had built a roomy house for Jijabaiand Shivaji, which he

named the Raj Mahal, close to the right bank of the Muta,

where stretches now the Municipal Garden to the east of the

Shan war Wada. There on winter evenings he would gather

round him Shivaji and his friends and expound to them the

teachingsof Dnyandev and of the other saints of Pandharpur.

When they grew weary of abstruse doctrines,he would take up

the Sanskrit scrolls and by the smoky hght of a wick soaked in

oil,he would firstread and then translate to them tales of Bhima

the strong,of the archeryof Arjuna,of the chivalrous courage

of Yudhishthira. Or he would repeat to them the wise sayings

of Bhishma, in which are contained the experienceand wisdom

of two thousand years of Indian war, statesmanship .

There were other influences too at work on Shivaji’s character.

The scenery round Poona is of the most inspiring kind. To

the west are the tremendous barrier ranges of the Sahyadris.

Only twelve miles to the south stands out the colossal fortress

of Sinhgad. To the south-west may be dimly seen the peaks

of Rajgad and Torna, which, when illumined against the setting

sun, arouse even to-day emotion in the phlegmatic Englishman.

But thirteen miles to the north of Poona lies Alandi,the spot

where Dnyandev entered his living tomb and to which, now,

as in Shivaji’s time, thousands of pilgrims bearing yellow flags

make their way from Pandharpur. But there was yet another

influence more powerful than either DadojiKondadev’s teachings

or the grandeur of the landscape. Jijabai ,fatherless,deserted

by her husband and by her eldest son founed a solace for her

grief in Shivaji,the one possession left her. She lavished on her

son and more than all a mother’s love. At the same time she

bade him never forget that he was descended both from the

Yadavas of Devagiri and the Ranas of Udaipur. She recited

to him the Puranas with their marvellous feats of war and daring.

But she wished to see him pious as well as brave. She made

him pray constantly at the little village shrine which still may

be seen in Poona not far from the site of Jijabai’ home. There

too she welcomed Kathekaris or religiou preachers to translate

and expound to him, better than even Dadoji could do, the

various virtues and merits of Krishna. ‘ Thus grew Etruria

strong’; and Shivaji at eighteenwas a man tireless,fearless

and deeplydevout.

It was now time for Shivajito choose a career. As the son

of the former regent of Ahmadnagar, as the grandson of Lakhoji

Jadhavrao, as a near kinsman of the ancient house of Phaltan,

Shivajiwas one of the natural leaders of the Maratha people.

There were several courses open to him. Like some of the

barons of the time he could live on Shahaji’s estate, amuse his

leisure with strongdrink,fillhis zanana with the rustic beauties

of the neighbourhoodand perform just as httle miUtary sveicr-e

as would enable him to retain such fiefsas he might inherit

from his father. But to the son of Shahajiand the grandson

of Malojisuch a life probably never ofEered much temptation.

The second course was that favoured by Dadoji Kondadev.

He could go to Bijapur,jointhe king’sservice as a subordinate

of Shahaji,as Sambhaji had done, and with him rise to a high

placeamong the factious nobles who surrounded Mahomed Adil

Shah. But Shivajiwas well aware of the weakness of the Bijapur

government. He knew that behind the glitterof the court

there were waste, mismanagement and incapacity. At Bijapur,

Justas there had been at Ahmadnagar, there was a constant

and furious rivalry between the Deccan and the foreign parties.

Either faction,in order to gratify privatespite,were prepared

to call in the Moghuls and ruin their country. Shivaji realized

that sooner or later a house so divided must fall a prey to the

disciplined Moghuls,whose forces were led by royalprinces who

were among the first captains of the time. A third course open

to Shivaji was to seek his fortune at Delhi. The son of Shahaji

Bhosle would no doubt have received a high post in the Moghul

army. There his natural gifts would certainly have won him

most honourable distinction. But to adopt this course would

have been to desert his country and to stand by while Aurangzib’s

armies enslaved the Indian peoples and insulted their religion

from the Bhima to Rameshwaram. There was yet another

course open to the young noble and that was to attempt the

liberation of the Maratha race. It was a well-nigh hopeless

task. After three centuries of slavery the wish for freedom

was all but dead and hved, if at all, in a few hill tracts in the

Mawal and the Konkan. He could expect no aid from other

Maratha nobles. All that the Ghorpades, the Mores, the Manes,

the Savants and others aspired to was their own advancement

at court or the enlargement of their fiefs at theexpense

of their neighbors. Without resources he must raise an army. He

must inspire it by his own words and acts with high ideals. He

must fight against his own relatives and countrymen. He must

incur charges of treason and charges of unfilially conduct. In

the end, he would most likely see his hopes shattered, his friends

butchered, and himself condemned to a cruel and a lingering

death. Yet this was the course which Shivaji resolved to adopt.

He did so, not with the rash presumption of youth, but after

deep dehberate thought, after long discussion with the friends

of his boyhood, with Dadoji Kondadev and with his mother

Jijabai. Having once adopted it he never swerved from it

until his work was done. More than 2500 years before, three

immortal goddesses had called on another eastern prince to

decide questions verysimilar to those which now confronted

Shivaji. But far other than that of Paris was the judgment

of Shahaji’s son. He turned aside from the rich promises of

Hera and the voluptuous smiles of Aphrodite and without

a single backward glance placed the golden fruit in the hands

of Pallas Athene.

 

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