topics: |  india | history | mughal

Excerpts

In January 1622, the wazir, Itimad-ud-daulah died suddenly to leave his grieving daughter, Nur Jahan, deprived of his advice and support. Nur Jahan began construction of her father's tomb in a garden along the bank of the Jumna at Agra. Completed six years later, the elegant mausoleum, built of white marble with rich inlaid colored traceries, became [?remains?] one of the architectural treasures of the Mughal period. 113

In mid-1621 word arrived at Burhanpur that Jahangir was seriously ill. Khurram had the unfortunate Khusrau secretly killed and then reported his brother's concocted illness and subsequent death to Jahangir. p.114 [Inconsistency?]

Akbar's spiritual quest and submission of the nobility

Akbar's own intense spiritual quest that found its fullest expression at Fatehpur Sikri. In the early 1580s the emperor began openly to worship the sun by a set of rituals of his own invention. Four times a day he faced the east and prostrated himself before a sacred fire. Simultaneously, Akbar engaged in abstinence from excessive meat-eating, sexual intercourse, and alcohol consumption. These were all rites and practices much in evidence in the daily world of Hinduism in north India. Worship of the sun and moon with its images of light was easily compatible with the myths of origin and descent central to the ethos of his Rajput nobles.

Shortly thereafter the emperor began to enlist selected members of the
nobility as his disciples in association with the worship of sun and light.
At noon on Sundays before the sacred fire the emperor presided over an
initiation ceremony.  Groups of twelve neophytes entered the body of
disciples on these occasions.  Each initiate swore to accept four degrees
of devotion to Akbar: the unhesitating willingness to sacrifice one's life
(jan), property (mal), religion (din), and honor (namus) in the
service of the Master, i.e. Akbar.



	The din-i-ilAhi, or faith in the divine, suggested a more
	syncretic alternative to Islam.  The din-i-ilAhi calendar
	started from the start of Akbar's rule and not from the
	traditional Hajira.  The most notable aspect about the coins
	struck in this period - starting from around RN 30 - was that
	the quranic / islamic verses were replaced by sentiments of
	faith in the king.  In the RN 50 (1604 A.D.), these Nur ala
	Nur ("Light unto Light") gold coins (10.9g) were struck.  the
	front says: "By the stamp of the emperor Akbar gold becomes
	bright" & 50 (Ilahi date) / "On this gold the emperor's name
	is Light (upon Light)" & mint location (Agra).  (source:cngcoins.com)

Muslim initiates signed a declaration agreeing to repudiate the bonds of
orthodox Islam and to worship Allah directly, without intermediaries.
Throughout the ceremony the neophyte placed his head on Akbar's feet in an
extreme form of prostration known as sijdah.  At the close of the ceremony
Akbar raised up each supplicant, placed a new turban upon his head, and
gave him a symbolic representation of the sun embossed on a medallion. Each
new disciple also received a tiny portrait of Akbar to wear upon his turban
as well as a set of pearl earrings crafted for the occaston.

	img/richards_sijdah.jpg
	The sijdah (or sajdah) posture, prostrating one's head - for
	din-i-ilAhi - this would be at the emperor's feet.  This type of
	obeisance was probably adapted from Sufi practice, where disciples
	who would adopt sijdah prostration to their masters.

The number of disciples grew rapidly - to perhaps a majority of the Mughal
amirs. Discipleship was an extremely effective means to assimilate a
heterogeneous body of nobles and bind them to the throne.  Akbar's own
charismatic personality and the solemnities of the oaths taken were
designed to create a new identity for Mughal amirs. The master-disciple
relationship thus established bridged kinship, ethnic, and religious
distinctions among the nobles. Oaths bound the disciples to their fellows
and committed them to cast aside their former enmities and factional
conflict. Even religious beliefs were to be directed to the service and
worship of the emperor.

[Sanderson Beck: "Akbar's new faith only gained about two dozen prominent
converts"] - http://www.san.beck.org/2-9-MughalEmpire1526-1707.html

Origins of Akbar's submission ideas : Sufi, slave soldiers

Akbar drew upon several widely accepted institutions for his notion of
discipleship and membership in an order. For centuries military slavery in
Islamic India, Central Asia, and the Middle East had developed its own
norms of behavior. The slave soldier owed obedient submission and profound
loyalty to his military commander as long as the latter met minimal
standards of good treatment and sympathy for his men. Military slaves in
direct service to a royal master felt these obligations even more keenly.

Another model for imperial discipleship was that of the Sufi master
(pir or Shaikh) with his devotees. The specific terms of this relationship
varied from order to order. In general, however, devotees placed the
responsibility for their physical and spiritual well-being completely in
the hands of their chosen Sufi Shaikh. The latter was to lead them along
the upward stages of the mystical path (tariqa) to true knowledge of
God.

As a symbol of complete devotion to their master Sufi disciples
put their heads on his feet in exactly the same prostration (sijdah)
adopted by Akbar. This latter form of submission to a fellow human
being was seen as blasphemous by pious Muslims. Akbar, without
question, was deeply influenced by his earlier devotion to the
now-dead Shaikh Salim, the famed Chishti saint. The emperor had cast
himself in the role of an ardent disciple whenever he made the long
pilgrimage to the rocky hillock at Fatehpur Sikri where Salim lived.

Finally, ready at band was the Indo-Persian model of courtly behavior and
submission to the monarch by the nobility.  Court ritual with its rigid
protocol was designed to evoke feelings of awe, unworthiness, and to
emphasize the distance between ruler and even the grandest of his subjects.
The discipline of movement, speech, and etiquette demanded in public
audiences reinforced obedience to the royal will. Rigid assignment of place
-whether closer or further from the throne - graphically demonstrated royal
preferment.

Command appearances before the throne demanded presentation of a suitable
gift.  These ranged from 1OO gold coins to more valuable jeweled objects or
even elephants. Court ritual culminated in the symbolic incorporation of
the servant in the body of his royal master.  Thus the Mughals, following
long precedent, used the device of elaborately ornamented robes of honor,
brocaded in gold and silver, as a staple reward for valuable service.  The
ruler first placed the robes on his own body and then personally draped
them on the recipient.  The person so favored responded with a ritual gift
- usually of gold or silver coin.  By these devices the notion of one body
in service to the state - ruler and nobles - was promulgated.

ch 10 : Maratha insurgency in the Deccan

		this chapter has a compact history of the rise of the
		Marathas under Shivaji.   Mostly, it uses Jadunath Sarkar's
		Shivaji and His Times for its source.


Shortly after Aurangzeb's accession a surprising new source of resistance
to Mughal political domination appeared.  In the hilly areas of the
western Deccan, around Puna, the Maratha leader Shivaji Bhonsla
(1627-1680) was carving out a self-sufficient state within the enfeebled
shell of the Sultanate of Bijapur. The Bhonsla regime offered a new
option for ambitious and aggressive men from both the Maratha
warrior caste and literate Maratha Brahmin castes.  So successful was
Shivaji that by the 1660s he seriously threatened Mughal prestige and
domination in the south. p.205

Shivaji was the second son of Shahji Bhonsla, a Maratha general and
aristocrat, and Jija Bai, daughter of one of the great Maratha noblemen in
the Sultanate of Ahmadnagar. In the early 1630s Shahji had led an
ultimately futile attempt to set up a young Nizam Shah ruler as his
puppet. When Ahmadnagar was swallowed up by the Timurids, Shahji took
service in the Karnatak campaigns of the Sultan of Bijapur. Shahji retained
control of his large fief in the western Ghats near Puna. The Sultan of
Bijapur had de facto ceded political control of much of the western Ghats
to the powerful Maratha chiefs or deshmukhs in that remote area.

Shivaji was raised by Jija Bai, Shahji's estranged wife, at Puna as a
rustic Maratha aristocrat. Unlike Shahji's other sons, Shivaji was not
indoctrinated into the Persianate high culture of the Bijapur court.

At age eighteen Shivaji seized control over his absentee father's
estate. He attracted several able young Maratha hill chiefs and their
retainers to his service. Partly in response to Bijapur's weak hand and
partly in rebellion against his father, Shivaji began to expand his domain
in the western hills.

In 1646 the Sultan of Bijapur, Muhammad Adil Shah, fell ill and remained
incapacitated for a decade. Shivaji grasped this opportunity to enlarge his
power. By the late 1650s the young Maratha leader was independent of
Bijapur. He had repudiated the foreshortened political vision of a Maratha
deshmukh or rural aristocrat. He was no longer caught within the
Indo-Muslim political culture defined by Bijapur.  He had become a ruler
free to choose his own affiliations and course of actton.


	Shivaji's kingdom in the Western Deccan, 1680
	Source: Irfan Habib, An atlas of the Mughal Empire  (Delhi, 1982)
	

Shivaji : Early career

Shivaji's remarkable achievements in these early years are often
ignored. With incessant negotiation, threat, and, on occasion, ferociously
applied violence, the young Bhonsla chief established dominance
over other long-established Maratha deshmukhs in the region.
By the same means he took control of nearly forty hill-fortresses from
their Bijapur-appointed commanders. These he garrisoned with commanders
and troops loyal to him. An impressive cadre of young
Maratha warriors and Brahmin administrators organized and ran the
army and administration of his growing kingdom. Directly paid
infantry and cavalry totalled as many as 10,000 horsemen and 50,000
infantry by the 1660s.

Judicious plunder of government treasure, extortion, and, increasingly,
levying of taxes on the populace of the region gave Shivaji
sufficient funds to recruit and pay his followers. With these growing
resources Shivaji developed a network of interlocking, well-sited and
easily defended fortresses in Maharashtra. Rajgarh, designed and built
by him, served as the Bhonsla capital. At Pratapgarh, another great
mountain keep, he installed a large shrine dedicated to his patron, the
goddess Bhawani.

Shivaji extended his domain into the fertile coastal districts of the
northern Konkan. His army seized Kalian, a rich trading town, and
drove off the officers of the Bijapuri nobleman who held jagirs there.
With access to the sea, Shivaji acquired several ships and began to trade
with the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Other armed coastal vessels in his
employ sailed on plundering expeditions into the Arabian Sea. He
garrisoned several coastal or island fortresses in the Konkan.
Throughout this period the youthful raja negotiated with the Portuguese
and British for guns, naval supplies, and technical assistance.

Bijapur Expedition and death of Afzal Khan, 1659

In this early phase, Shahji's prominence and influence at the Bijapur court
helped to deflect punitive actions against his son. Even in 1649, when the
Bijapur Sultan seized and imprisoned Shahji in an attempt to force the
general to control his son's activities, powerful friends induced Shahji's
release. For several years thereafter Shivaji was relatively
quiescent. During Aurangzeb's invasion of 1656, the Sultan was able to call
upon his rebel zamindar and send him to plunder Mughal lands as a
diversion. This accommodation ended with the death of Sultan Muhammad Adil
Shah.

In 1657, the new sultan, Ali Adil Shah, sent Afzal Khan, one of his most
capable commanders, with a 10,000 man army to subdue Shivaji.  Along the
route the Bijapur troops profaned the shrine of Bhawani at Tuljapur as well
as several other major Hindu shrines in Maharashtra.  After a series of
negotiations marked by suspicion on both sides, Afzal Khan persuaded Shivaji
to meet to negotiate a settlement with the Sultan. Shivaji and Afzal Khan
confronted each other in the Bijapur commander's audience tent on a site near
Pratapgarh fort.

[This is a bit ambiguous.  According to Sarkar, the tent was erected by
Shivaji in a remote place, with lavish furnishings suitable for an honoured
guest.  He notes how Afzal, upon entering the tent, did not approve of a
local chieftain living so lavishly.]

Within the tent an initial embrace of greeting between the two principals
abruptly became a mortal struggle in which Afzal Khan tried to strangle
[the much shorter] Shivaji.  The latter used his concealed iron "tiger
claws" to disembowel his larger enemy. At their commander's signal hidden
Maratha troops surrounding the site attacked and slaughtered the confused
Bijapur soldiery. p.208

["the much shorter" is added by me. Shivaji was about 5'6 and Afzal is
reputed to have been very tall - nearly 7')


	
	tiger claw, from the personal collection of Grant Duff, a Company soldier
	and administrator in Satara and Poona, 	who wrote an early history of the Marathas
	claiming that Shivaji had betrayed Afzal who was the honoured guest.

	Despite Jadunath Sarkar's meticulous work establishing that Afzal had
	actually planned to kill Shivaji at the meeting, this impression of base
	treachery persisted for a long time, even among Indians.
	image source: Victoria & Albert Museum

Ballads celebrating the event

Afzal Khan's death and the rout of the Bijapur army was widely
celebrated in the Maratha country.  This is a ballad translation by
Harry A. Acworth:


	The Moslem leap'd upon him,
	    His grasp was fierce and fell,
	And how he plied the dagger
	    The dinted mail might tell.
	But Shiwaji the raja
	    In answer made him feel
	The twin sting of the scorpion,^-
	    The deadly claws of steel.
	His entrails torn and bloody
	    Gap'd through the horrid wound ;
	But Abdul was a warrior bold,
	    And falter'd not nor swoon'd.
	He loos'd his girdle deftly,
	    Uncoil'd the sword below.
	And dealt upon the raja's head
	    A fierce and furious blow.
			[from Harry A. Acworth, Ballads of the Marathas,
			"The Death of Abdul Khan at the Hands of Shiwaji
			Maharaja" (London: Longmans Green&: Co., 1894)


The enraged Sultan of Bijapur personally led a new force into the west and
reoccupied the southern coastal districts before difficulties elsewhere
forced him to retire. The notorious incident ruptured Shivaji's already
dubious subordination to the Sultan of Bijapur. As an unattached Maratha
chief, he was then forced to come to terms with that Mughal advance that had
long enervated the Deccan Sultanates. p.208

1660-1674: Creation of an insurgent state

During the second phase of his career, between 1660 and 1674, Shivaji wavered
between acceptance and repudiation of imperial authority.  For the first time
the young ruler faced the full weight of Mughal power.

In 1660, Shaista Khan, new governor of the Mughal Deccan, swept aside Maratha
resistance, occupied Puna and garrisoned the northern portion of Shivaji's
territories. After a four month siege and heavy losses, the Mughals captured
Chakan, one of Shivaji's hill forts near Puna.

The costs of attacking even one of Shivaji's strongly defended bill forts
dissuaded Shaista Khan from further sieges. Instead, he deployed flying
columns of Mughal cavalry to ravage the countryside.  Aurangzeb sent
reinforcements including a 1o,000 man Rajput force under Jaswant Singh
Rathor. Shaista Khan took up residence in the town of Puna itself which
served as the central garrison and command post.

Night raid on Shaista Khan, 1663

On the night of April 5, 1663, Shivaji infiltrated Puna's defenses with
400 of his men. He and a raiding party entered Shaista Khan's mansion,
hacked their way to the nobleman's bedchamber and wounded but did
not succeed in killing him. Shaista Khan's son, several of his wives, and
dozens of his servants and soldiers died in the melee.

Shivaji and his troops escaped with only minimal casualties. This exploit
delighted the Marathas who celebrated the near-superhuman feats of their
hero.  Suspicion of pro-Maratha sympathies feU upon Jaswant Singh Rathor
whose Raj put troops guarded the outskirts of the city. Shaista Khan,
dishonored and humiliated, was recalled and replaced by Prince Muazzam as
governor of the Deccan.

Sack of Surat, 1664

A few months later, in January, r664, Shivaji led 4,000 cavalry on a
raid north to Surat, the busiest trading port in western India. The
Mughal governor left the unfortified city of 200,000 defenseless and
fled to the shelter of Surat fort. Shivaji ignored the fort but spent six
days in a leisurely plunder of the town.

Among his victims was Baharji Borah (Virji Vora), the Ismaili trader
reputed to be the richest merchant in the world, whose mansion was virtually
destroyed in the search for treasure.  [He survived, but probably died after
the seccond raid in 1670.]
[his property was estimated at 80 lakhs,
Gokhale, Surat In The Seventeenth Century: He was a leader of the Jains)

Details

from http://www.shivchhatrapati.com/biography/first_sack_of_surat.php?id=0

At 11 o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, 6th January, 1664, Shivaji arrived
at Surat and pitched his tent in a garden a quarter of a mile outside the
Burhanpur or eastern gate. The night before he had sent two messengers with a
letter requiring the governor and the three most eminent merchants and
richest men in the city, viz., Haji Said Beg, Baharji Borah, and Haji Qasim,
to come to him in person immediately and make terms, otherwise he threatened
the whole town with fire and sword. No answer had been given to the demand,
and the Maratha horsemen, immediately after their arrival on the 6th, entered
the defenceless and almost deserted city, and after sacking the houses began
to set fire to them. A body of Shivaji's musketeers was set, to play upon the
castle, to prevent the soldiers of the castle from sallying out upon them
whilst the others plundered. The garrison kept up a constant fire, but the
fort-guns inflicted more damage on the town than on the
assailants. Throughout Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, this work of
devastation was continued, every day new fires being raised, so that
thousands of houses were consumed to ashes and two-thirds of the town
destroyed.

Near the Dutch factory stood the grand mansion of Baharji Borah, then reputed
the richest merchant in the world, his property having been estimated at 80
lakhs of Rupees. The Marathas plundered it at leisure day and night till
Friday evening, when having ransacked it and dug up its floor, they set fire
to it. From this house they took away 28 seers of large pearls, with many
other jewels, rubies, emeralds and an incredible amount of money.

Close to the English factory were the lofty residence and extensive
warehouses of another very rich merchant, Haji Said Beg, who, too, had fled
away to the fort, leaving his property without a defender. All the afternoon
and night of Wednesday and till past the noon of Thursday, the Marathas
continued to break open his doors and chests and carry off as much money as
they could. Entering one of his warehouses they smashed some casks of
quicksilver and spilt a great quantity of it on the floor.

The plunder of Surat yielded to Shivaji, a crore of Rupees.
---

Only the Dutch and English merchants, who stubbornly defended their walled
compounds with musket fire, escaped the general looting. Finally, Shivaji's
troops rode off carrying with them cash and valuables valued at over 10
million rupees. In the aftermath of this raid Shivaji's armed fleet seized
Mecca-bound ships and exacted ransoms from the pilgrims on board. His
horsemen also raided the outskirts of Aurangabad, capital of the Mughal
Deccan while Prince Muazzam, notoriously indolent, did little to stop him. In
the same period Shivaji's forces beat back an assault by the Bijapur army and
continued to raid freely in that kingdom.

Jai Singh's campaign : 1665

Enraged and disturbed by these insults Aurangzeb sent his most capable
general with orders to first destroy Shivaji and thereafter invade and
annex Bijapur. Mirza Raja Jai Singh Kachhwaha, a sixtyyear- old veteran
commander, assembled a large army and relieved Jaswant Singh Rathor at Puna
in March, 1665. The dispatches of Jai Singh, preserved by his private
secretary, display in almost text-book fashion the skill and resources
brought to bear by a high-ranking Mughal field commander. 

In a preliminary diplomatic thrust, Jai Singh sent emissaries to Bijapur to
warn the Sultan against any effort to combine with Shivaji; agents to the
European coastal settlements to insist that they obstruct any sea-borne
activity by the Maratha fleet; and Brahmin emissaries to those numerous
Maratha deshmukhs who bore long-standing grudges against Shivaji. From the
latter he enlisted cadres of Maratha auxiliaries. Promises of high rank and
money were made to all of Shivaji's chief officers to undermine their
loyalty.  Military operations began immediately. J ai Singh marched due south
from Puna, established his base at the town of Saswad, set out outposts, and
fought his way to the great hill fortress of Purandhar. For two months the
besiegers remorselessly ran trenches, brought up their guns, and assaulted
one line of defense after another.

Jai Singh sent out cavalry to engage the Marathas and to forage and burn the
countryside.  Shivaji was unable to relieve the fort or to prevent the
devastation of his kingdom. The goddess Bhawani warned him in a dream that he
could not successfully oppose a Hindu prince.3 Demoralized, Shivaji opened
negotiations with Jai Singh. Assured of his safety by Jai Singh's sacred
oaths, Shivaji, attended only by six Brahmins, came to Jai Singh's audience
tent pitched just behind the siege lines.

Treaty and submission to empire

Convinced that he could not save Purandhar or drive the Mughals out,
Shivaji capitulated. Under the treaty of Purandhar Shivaji surrendered
twenty-three of his fortresses and the lands they commanded to the empire
but retained twelve fortresses and their lands as his estate.  He became a
vassal of the Mughal emperor, paying tribute, but exempted from personal
service as a mansabdar. Instead his young son, Shambhaji, granted the rank
of 5,000 zat, would be sent to the imperial court. Finally, Shivaji agreed
to lead his troops as part of the Mughal force expected to invade
Bijapur. In return he was promised additional lands to be seized from
Bijapur. Shivaji surrendered his independence and entered the imperial
system as a chief or, in the imperial parlance, a zamindar - the fate of
dozens of powerful regional chiefs and kings before him.

Between mid-November, 1665 and February, 1666, Shivaji, with 11,000 troops,
accompanied Jai Singh during the abortive Mughal campaign into
Bijapur. Before the war concluded in negotiations, Shivaji allowed himself to
be persuaded by Jai Singh to journey northward to the imperial court. Leaving
his mother as regent, Shivaji, his son Shambhaji, seven of his principal
officers, and 4,000 men left for the north. He was advanced 100,000 rupees
for the journey from the imperial Deccan treasury.

[This material is based on Jagadish N. Sarkar, The Military Despatches of a
Seventeenth Century Indian General, Calcutta 1969]

At Agra his host and patron was Kumar Ram Singh, Jai Singh's son and his
agent at court.

Meeting with Aurangzeb and escape from house arrest

On May 12, 1666, the date of Aurangzeb's fiftieth lunar
birthday, Shivaji offered gifts of submission and bowed at the foot of the
Timurid throne. Aurangzeb made a cursory acknowledgement of his presence but
delayed presenting return gifts or other response till later in the
ceremony. Shivaji suddenly found himself standing in line behind rows of
nobles as the elaborate court audience proceeded.

Outraged, Shivaji protested audibly then fell to the floor in a fainting
fit. He was hustled out of the audience hall to Kumar Singh's mansion. The
suspicious emperor placed Shivaji under house arrest despite his pleas to be
allowed to return home, but did permit Shivaji's troops to leave Agra for the
Deccan. Aurangzeb refused a private audience and withheld the elephant,
jewels, and robe of honor intended for Shivaji. ,

Feigning illness, Shivaji took to his bed and called for physicians.  Over
several weeks, he contrived to find a way to escape. This may well have been
with the connivance of Kumar Ram Singh or by bribing his guards. Shivaji
slipped out of the mansion and was gone far before his absence was discovered
and the word sent to Mughal road guards, city prefects, faujdars, and other
im.perial officers. Arriving safely at Mathura the next day, Shivaji took
refuge with a family of Maratha Brahmins who helped to disguise him as a
wandering Hindu monk to evade Mughal patrols. Travelling on foot over a long
circuitous route to the east he and Shambhaji arrived back at Raigarh in
December, 1666.

Demands for returning a mughal advance

Aurangzeb, somewhat unexpectedly, failed to send an invading army against
Shivaji. Apparently the Yusufzai rising in the northwestern mountains
distracted his attention. Two years later, in 1668, Shivaji's frequent
petitions to Aurangzeb for pardon were answered.  The emperor recognized ~s
title as Raja and restored Chakan fort, but not any of the other twenty-two
occupied by the Mughals to Shivaji.  Shambbaji, his rank of 5,000 zat
restored, went to Prince Muazzam's court at Aurangabad, the Deccan capital,
at the head of a thousand Maratha horsemen. The latter were supported by
jagirs assigned in Berar province. Shambhaji and Prince Muazzam formed a
congenial bond during the two years in which the young Maratha heir served
the Mughals.

Soon however, a rupture occurred. Mughal treasury officers tried to recover
from Shambhaji's jagirs the 100,000 rupees Shivaji had drawn for expenses on
his trip to Agra. Incensed, Shivaji recalled his son and seized a number of
his former strongholds. Mughal retribution was hindered by internecine
conflicts between Prince Muazzam and his most powerful subordinate, the
Afghan nobleman Dilir Khan. The latter accused the prince of collusion with
Shivaji in a plot to seize the throne. The crisis was eventually resolved and
Muazzam exonerated, but the immediate pressure on Shivaji lifted.

Second Sack of Surat, 1970

In October, 1670, Shivaji assembled a 15,000 man army and marched north
toward Surat. The Mughal governor offered only nominal resistance at the city
walls (recendy erected by Aurangzeb's order) and the Marathas plundered the
city again. After several days of looting the raiders carried off cash and
goods worth over six and a half million rupees - less than before. Trade at
Surat went into decline for the next several years as it became clear that
the empire was no longer able to defend its most lucrative ocean port.
[ M. N. Pearson, "Shivaji and the Decline of the Mughal Empire", J. Asian
 Studies, 1976, 35:221-235]

After further raiding in Mughal Khandesh, Shivaji fought a pitched battle
with a 5,000 man Mughal army before returning to Raigarh.

For the next four years Shivaji's Marathas raided and plundered to the
northeast in Khandesh in Mughal territory and southeast into Kanara in
Bijapur lands. Both Bijapur and imperial armies pursued the raiders and often
engaged them, but with mixed success. Shivaji's commanders discovered that
they could meet Mughal armies in the field on equal terms. The weight of
Mughal heavy cavalry and field artillery were canceled out by greater
mobility and higher morale on the part of the Maratha troops.

Buoyed by these victories and by the ever-increasing flow of plunder
and taxation coming into his coffers, Shivaji took a momentous step. In
June, 1674, he had himself crowned as an independent Hindu
monarch. Many months of preparation preceded the ceremony.
[The coronation ceremony is described in detail in Jadunath Sarkar, 
Shivaji and His Times (Calcutta: M. C. Sarkar & Sons, Sixth edition,
revised and enlarged, 1961), pp. 101-115. ]

Shivaji immersed himself in a period of intense prayer and worship at a
number of temples and shrines. In the meantime his Brahmin advisers
persuaded Gagga Bhatta [Viśveśvara Bhaṭṭa, gAgAbhaTTa) of Varanasi, the
foremost Hindu theologian of his day, to declare that Shivaji was not a
mere Shudra of the Maratha caste, but a lapsed Kshatriya, a Rajput, whose
ancestors could be traced back to the solar line of the Ranas of
Mewar. Gagga Bhatta travelled to the Maratha capital where he first
purified Shivaji and then invested him with the sacred threat and Vedic
verses of the twice-born castes. p.213

The crowning of Shivaji (rAjAbhisheka_), 1674

On June 6, 1674, after a night of fasting, Shivaji underwent the Sanskritic
royal consecration (rAjAbisheka) ceremony. Seated on a gold stool
with his wife, Sorya Bai, beside him,  he was bathed with Ganges water
poured from gold jugs. After changing to a royal scarlet robe, he then
sat upon a newly built, gold-covered throne.

To the accompaniment of Brahminical chants and artillery salvos, Gagga
Bhatta raised the royal umbrella over his head and hailed him as Siva
Chhatrapati. Thereafter followed lavish gifts to thousands of Brahmins,
officials and other dignitaries and a royal procession through the streets of
the city. 

The entire ceremony was estimated to have cost five million rupees.

Shivaji's coronation, widely reported throughout the subcontinent, was one
of the most important political acts of the seventeenth century.  Within
his kingdom's border~ the coronation ceremony impressed his legitimate
authority over even the oldest of Maratha aristocratic houses. Beyond his
borders it established the Bhonsla ruler and his descendants as a ruling
house the equal of any other.

More startling, however, was the fact that for the first time in generations
a regional monarch claimed royal authority without reference to the Timurid
emperor. With this dramatic act Shivaji, unlike his father, asserted his
independence from Indo-Muslim authority and political culture. In an avowedly
revivalist ceremony he created a militantly Hindu monarchy. The new ruler was
a Chhatrapati; not a Padshah. Insurgency against Mughal rule had acquired a
new rallying point.  Within two years the new monarch revealed a bold new
strategy.

Expansion into the Karnatak

Shivaji first negotiated a truce with the badly harassed Mughal
governor of the Deccan provinces. Then he agreed to a defensive alliance
against the Mughals with Madanna Pandit, the Telugu Brahmin who
was chief minister of the kingdom of Golconda. Under the terms of
this agreement Golconda, the wealthiest and most stable of the Deccan
states, agreed to an annual subsidy to support Shivaji's campaigns
against the Timurids. Thus encouraged,

in January, 1677, Shivaji led a 60,000 man army eastward to Hyderabad, the
capital of Golconda.  Here he held a series of meetings with Abul Hasan,
the Qutb Shah Sultan and Madanna Pandit, along with his brother Akkanna,
the commander in chief of the Qutb Shah army. In these meetings the two
rulers negotiated a military alliance aimed at conquest and joint
annexation of the lands of the Bijapur Karnatak.

This wealthy, prosperous area along the southeastern Coromandel coast was
currently ruled by nearly independent Bijapur governors or by tributary
rulers. The latter included Shivaji's half brother, Vyankoji Bhonsla, who had
carved out a kingdom around Tanjore on the Kaveri river.  The Qutb Shah
Sultan, heavily influenced by his two Brahmin officers, agreed to supply a
large monthly cash subsidy and an auxiliary five thousand man force with
artillery to accompany the Marathas.

En route to the Karnatak, Shivaji left his army at Anantapur, and made a
pilgrimage to the famous Siva temple of Shri Shaila on the Krishna river. At
this sacred site the royal worshiper spent ten days in devotion before the
image of Siva's consort. At one point Shivaji tried to commit suicide in
front of the goddess, but was restrained by his attendants. On departing, he
gave funds sufficient to build a bathing ghat on the river, a monastery, and
a guesthouse for pilgrims. 

A year-long campaign sufficed for the Maratha ruler to take possession of
Jinji and Vellore, the two commanding bastions of the Bijapur
Karoatak. Vellore surrendered only after a fourteen month siege.  Victory
permitted Shivaji's officers to occupy and annex territory yielding revenues
of two million gold hun per year. In Tanjore, however, his half-brother
Vyankoji rejected Shivaji's claim for half their patrimony, defended that
position with his army and eventually paid Shivaji 60o,000 ,rupees to be left
undisturbed. Shivaji proved unwilling to give up any portion of his new
possessions to Golconda.  But this sticking point did not terminate the
defensive alliance between him and the Qutb Shah.

Conquests in the Deccan : Shambhaji's revolt

Upon his return to Raigarh in early 1678, Shivaji faced the problem of
contriving an orderly succession to the Bhonsla throne. The Maratha ruler and
his council of ministers formally proposed a division of the kingdom between
his two sons to take place after Shivaji's death.  Rajaram, the youngest,
would receive the home territories to rule; and Shambhaji, then a turbulent
youth of nineteen, would be given the newly acquired lands in Mysore and
Jinji.

Shambhaji's publicly expressed dissatisfaction with this arrangement became
widely known. Dilir Khan, the Mughal governor of the Deccan, wrote secret
letters to the young prince offering Mughal aid to win his patrimony if he
agreed to an alliance. In December 1678, Shambhaji, in disgrace for the rape
of a respectable Brahmin woman, escaped his father's surveillance and
fled. Accompanied by his presumably forgiving wife Y esu Bai he rode to the
camp of Dilir Khan on the border of Bijapur. When notified, the delighted
Aurangzeb made the young fugitive priace a Mughal noble with the title of
Raja and seven thousand zat - an extremely high rank.

For nearly a year Shambhaji served with Dilir Khan in a series of campaigns
against the combined forces of Bijapur and Shivaji. The gradual dissolution
of central political authority in the Sultanate encouraged intervention by
both the Mughals and Shivaji. Shambhaji, however, became increasingly
disillusioned and unhappy with his Mughal associates. In November, 1679,
Shambhaji and Yesu Bai, responding to frequent overtures, returned to the
Bhonsla court.

Letter to Aurangzeb on Jaziya

During this interval Shivaji issued a long public letter to the Emperor
Aurangzeb which eloquently rebuked him for reversing the wise policy of Akbar
and Jahangir by imposing the jiziya on Hindus. Shivaji chided Aurangzeb for
adding the hardship of this tax to his already over-burdened subjects. And,
he pointed out that in the Koran God is styled Lord of all men, not simply of
Muslims and that both Muslim and Hindu worshipped God in their own way.

Shivaji returned from a great plundering raid into Mughal territories
in Khandesh and Aurangabad to meet his repentant son.

In late March, 1680, the Bhonsla ruler, whose health had been declining for
some time, developed fever and dysentery which ended a few days later in
his death at age fifty-three.

Shambhaji's accession

Three days after Shivaji's death, his eldest wife Sorya Bai proclaimed
her son, Rajaram, king at Raigarh fort. Shambhaji rejected this and
openly assumed regal powers. Quickly gaining overwhelming support
among the Maratha officers, he occupied the capital at Raigarh without
resistance.

The deposed Rajaram was unharmed, but his mother and about two hundred of her
followers were executed. Shambhaji carried out a full-blown coronation in
February of 1681 to fully legitimize his role as Shivaji's successor. The
Bhonsla dynasty had survived its first test: one of Shivaji's sons became
undisputed ruler of the Maratha kingdom.

Shivaji's Legacy

Shivaji's legacy included a compact unitary state. Within the western Ghats
and the littoral districts of the Konkan, Shivaji constructed an effective
civil administration supported by a firmly controlled network of scores of
massive hill-fortresses and strongly sited island coastal strongholds. His
insistence on strict discipline and accountability, on cash payments rather
than fiefs, and efficient, uncluttered organization greatly impressed
contemporary observers.

He also made surprisingly effective use of access to the sea for trading and
plundering from his coastal ports. Shivaji's unexcelled strategic and
diplomatic skills - based firmly upon timely access to information - were
also widely admired and feared. In this respect he was a worthy match for
Aurangzeb, his greatest enemy.

Shivaji's successes shaped a new mode of aggressive political and
military action against the Indo-Muslim powers. Reassertion of
imperial Mughal power against the Deccan Sultanates in the 165os
created circumstances favorable to Shivaji's rise in the western Deccan.
His insurgent state gained resources and confidence as it challenged
imperial might.

Maratha predatory raids

By the early 1660s the Maratha had adopted a new style of wide-ranging
predatory raiding into Mughal and Bijapur lands. By the 1670s Maratha forces
in Baglana seriously constricted, if they did not cut off altogether, the
important overland caravan routes running from Surat to Burhanpur in
Khandesh. The raids produced a steady flow of plunder or, in later years,
extorted payments in return for immunity. The latter was often expressed as
chauth, the 25 percent of the revenue traditionally left to zamindars by
Indo-Muslim states in Gujarat and Khandesh. It was the annual profits from
raiding beyond his borders that sustained the home territories. Shivaji could
pay and pay well because he tapped the productive resources of a much larger,
and more productive catchment area surrounding the western Ghats.

The unitary state died quickly. But the tradition of aggressive Maratha
predation against the empire continued unabated. Once released, the
organizational and martial energies of the hill Marathas surged outward into
the wider world of the Mughal Deccan. No longer merely zamindars engaged in
petty local skirmishes or hired captains employed by Muslim Sultans, Maratha
commanders raided and conquered in the name of the Bhonsla dynasty. Timurid
officers in the Deccan encountered a new, unsettling type of resistance - a
resistance that could not be swept aside by the usual repertoire of Mughal
diplomatic and military tactics. Mughal administrators found themselves
ruling lands devastated and disrupted by incessant Maratha raiding and
plundering. Maratha deshmukhs could look to a powerfully appealing
alternative to submission to the empire.

[Eventually the maratha kingdom came under the control of the Brahmin
ministers, the Peshwas, who made the position hereditary.]


Maratha affiliated kingdoms, c. 1798.

A century after Shivaji, Maratha affiliated Kingdoms, substantially or
nominally with the Peshwa, had sprung up in patches across much of India.
From bases in Orissa and Bundelkhand, they were harrassing the lands of
Bengal and Awadh.   By 1758 they were in control of Delhi and Lahore and
were threatening regions further north.

In 1761, a combined Afghan-Pashtun force under Ahmad Shah Abdali of Kabul,
with Awadh support, inflicted a heavy defeat on the Marathas at Panipat.
They faced heavy losses, but a new Peshwa, Madhavrao, managed to recoup
much of the lost territories, but different Maratha factions were
increasingly independent such as Holkars at Indore and the Scindias at
Gwalior.

Meanwhile, they were facing a new contender for control in the European
powers, but the empire continued till 1818, when the last Peshwa, Balaji
Rao II, was dethroned and exiled Bithoor, near Kanpur, with a pension of
eight lakh rupees a year.

It is from there that his adopted son, Nana Rao, was sucked into the vortex
of 1857.