Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj: A Glimpse into the Life of a Fearless Warrior King

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Introduction to a Great Warrior

Friends, according to Chanakya Niti, if a person has perseverance, intelligence, leadership and the art of politics. Along with this, he is brave, courageous, promising and a true patriot, then his victory in this world is certain. But it seems impossible to imagine so many qualities in a single person. But if we turn to the pages of Indian history, then the name of a brave man comes in it who had all these qualities. This brave man started his struggle at the age of 16. With his tireless efforts, he empowered India economically, socially and politically. He established the Maratha Empire and started the Indian Navy and guerrilla warfare style. Even the greatest warriors had surrendered before his passion and strategies. Friends, by now you must have guessed that we are talking about India’s brave son Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. So let’s start with the early life of Shivaji Maharaj.

Early life of Shivaji

Friends, Shivaji was born on 19 February 1630 in Shivneri Fort in Pune. At the time when Shivaji was born, North India was ruled by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and Ahmednagar in the Deccan was ruled by Nizamshahi, Bijapur by Adilshahi and Golconda by Qutubshahi. His father Shahaji Bhosale was posted as a commander in the Bijapur Sultanate and used to live there. Actually, under the Mughal Bijapur Peace Treaty, Shahaji Bhosale was sent to the South of Bijapur. Along with this, he was allowed to collect the estate of Pune, but not to live there. Therefore, he transferred the estate of Pune to his wife Jijabai and son Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Well, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was very young at that time.

He gave the message of uniting the Marathas and protecting their motherland. Inspired by the ideals of his mother, guardian and Guru Ramdas, Shivaji became a courageous and fearless warrior in his childhood. Let us now know how Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj started his struggle?

How Shivaji fought his struggle?

Friends, when Shivaji turned 16, Dadaji Konddev died. After which the actual control of the Pune estate came to him. But Shivaji did not accept the slavery of Adil Shah. Actually Pune still came under the jurisdiction of Sultan Adil Shah of Bijapur. Now Shivaji was looking for an opportunity so that he could get rid of the clutches of Adil Shah as soon as possible and establish his own Swarajya and he soon got this opportunity. When Sultan Mohammad Adil Shah’s health started deteriorating in Sixteen Forty Six, due to which political turmoil started in Bijapur. 

Shivaji took advantage of this and attacked the fort of Toran Garh and took it under his control. In this attack, he was supported by a small army, which was known as Maval. Shivaji had formed this Maval army by gathering the people of Maval region. Actually Shivaji knew that these people have patriotism and the passion to do something. All that was needed was to give them the right leadership and that is why Shivaji made them skilled in guerrilla warfare. With the victory over Songarh fort, Shivaji also got a big treasure, with the help of which he also conquered Purandar, Kundara, Supa, Baramati, Indapur and Chakan forts within two years. All these forts were present in Pune and surrounding areas. Meanwhile, Shivaji also established his capital in Raigad. 

Friends, Shivaji had only one basic principle in this entire incident and that was to expand the kingdom as much as possible with minimum loss. And that is why instead of fighting a traditional war, he made a strategy to defeat the enemy with treaties, friendship and guerrilla warfare. With Shivaji’s increasing territorial expansion day by day, Bijapur Sultan started fearing that if Shivaji is not controlled in time, the day is not far when the Sultan will also lose his throne and for this he took the help of Shivaji’s father and sent him to convince his son. But this attempt of the Sultan was unsuccessful and being angry with this, he imprisoned his own commander i.e. Shivaji’s father on 25 July 1648.

Meeting of Shivaji Maharaj and Afzal Khan

Due to his father being imprisoned, Shivaji halted his conquests for some time and stopped attacking the neighbouring kingdoms. Not only this, he also handed over the fort of Gondwana to Adil Shah, after which Shahaji Bhosale was released in Sixteen Forty Nine. As soon as his father was released, Shivaji again got busy with his territorial expansion. First of all, he defeated Chandra Rao More, the Jagirdar of Javli, and captured his kingdom. Along with this, Shivaji also won over Jagirdars like Sawant of Sawantwadi, Ghorpade of Mudhol, Nimbalkar of Paltan by showing them the dream of Hindu Swarajya. He fought with some and made friendship and treaty with others. By doing this, Shivaji gradually prepared a large army. 

After this, Shivaji’s spirits were high. He started expanding his kingdom in Bijapur. Seeing the growing influence of Shivaji Maharaj, Adil Shah had lost his sleep. In such a situation, he sent his commander Afzal Khan with 20,000 soldiers in 1657 to eliminate Shivaji Maharaj. Afzal Khan was much more powerful than Shivaji in terms of stature and military strength. Along with this, Afzal Khan was also considered extremely cruel and ruthless. When Afzal Khan started attacking Shivaji, Shivaji Maharaj behaved as if he was afraid of him and he went to the fort of Pratapgarh with his army. Actually, Shivaji had a huge shortage of soldiers compared to Afzal Khan. Along with this, he wanted to provide security to the Pratapgarh fort at all costs. On the other hand, Afzal Khan had a large number of soldiers but he was unable to penetrate the fort and for about two months, a stalemate situation prevailed between Afzal Khan and Shivaji. After this, Afzal Khan expressed his desire to meet Shivaji Maharaj by sending a message as per a plan. 

The date of November 10 was fixed for the meeting between the two. Since it was a courtesy visit, both of them had to go to this meeting without any weapons. The time of meeting came and Shivaji Maharaj reached Afzal Khan’s camp. During the conversation, Afzal Khan extended his hand of friendship and expressed his desire to hug Shivaji Maharaj. But as soon as Shivaji hugged him, Afzal Khan attacked him on the back with a sharp dagger and started laughing loudly. But soon his laughter turned into mourning when he saw that Shivaji was unaffected by the dagger attack. Actually, Shivaji was aware of Afzal Khan’s intentions and that is why he was wearing iron armor, due to which his life was saved. Immediately after this, Shivaji attacked Afzal Khan with his hand’s Bagh Naak i.e. Tiger’s Claw and killed him. After this, Shivaji’s soldiers attacked Bijapur and killed about 3000 soldiers and took the top officials of the Bijapur court captive. In this entire sequence of events, Shivaji Maharaj’s bravery and intelligence skills cannot be praised enough. After killing Afzal Khan, Shivaji Maharaj’s stature grew rapidly and he had now become a major power in the Deccan. 

On the other hand, Adil Shah once again decided to take revenge from Shivaji and this time he sent Rustam Jahan with a large army. But in Sixteen Fifty Nine, Shivaji defeated Rustam Jahan and conquered the Panhala fort. In this way, after repeated defeats from Shivaji Maharaj, when Adil Shah had no way left, he sought help from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and from here begins the story of the conflict between Shivaji Maharaj and Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

Rivalry between Shivaji and Aurangzeb

Friends. Aurangzeb was also very worried after seeing the growing power of Shivaji Maharaj in Deccan. Actually, he also wanted to expand his Mughal empire in this region. But Shivaji Maharaj had dominance here and that is why he sent about 1.5 lakh soldiers under the leadership of his uncle Shaista Khan to Deccan in 1966 to defeat Shivaji. Shaista Khan started attacking Pune and the surrounding areas. In a few days, he also captured Shivaji Maharaj’s Lal Mahal. Shivaji knew that he could not face such a large army of Shaista Khan in a direct battle. If he has to defeat Shaista Khan, he will have to use strategy and not war tactics and that is why he adopted the guerrilla warfare style and attacked Shaista Khan’s camp in disguise along with 400 soldiers. In this attack, Shivaji Maharaj cut off three fingers of Shaista Khan and also killed many of his soldiers and family members. After which Shaista Khan was defeated and he returned from Deccan.

But before this, Shaista Khan had caused a lot of destruction in Shivaji’s kingdom for three years. To take revenge and compensate for the loss in his kingdom, Shivaji Maharaj attacked Surat, one of the prosperous cities of the Mughals, in 1694. This case of Surat blunder was a big shock for the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Now he wanted to take revenge from Shivaji at any cost. That is why he prepared a huge army under the leadership of Mirza Raja Jai Singh and sent them to Deccan to fight Shivaji. In 1694, a fierce battle took place between Jai Singh and Shivaji. Jai Singh was victorious in this and he convinced Shivaji to sign a treaty. This is known as the Treaty of Purandar.

This was a formal treaty between Shivaji and Jai Singh, which was signed by Shivaji on 11th June 1694. Under this, he had to hand over his 23 forts and 4 lakh gold coins to the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. Along with this, Shivaji also promised to appoint his son Sambhaji as an officer in the Mughal army. After this, in 1966, Jai Singh organized a meeting between Aurangzeb and Shivaji Maharaj. For this, Shivaji Maharaj was invited to come to the Agra Fort. But after reaching Agra, Shivaji was made to sit with third-grade officials in the royal court, which was very insulting for him. Shivaji could not tolerate this and he opposed Aurangzeb right there. Aurangzeb could not tolerate this audacity of Shivaji and he got him and Sambhaji house arrested in the Agra Fort.

Imprisonment of Shambhaji (Shivaji's son)

Shivaji had to free his son from this imprisonment at any cost and he made a strategy for this. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he disguised himself as a sweets seller and hid his son Sambhaji in a basket of sweets and very cleverly came out of the Agra Fort. After this, Shivaji left for Mathura. There, leaving Sambhaji under the care of a Brahmin, he himself returned to his kingdom. The matter remained calm for a few years. In 1696, once again the Mughal Sultanate expressed its desire to enter into a treaty with Shivaji and a treaty was signed between Shivaji and Aurangzeb under the leadership of Jaswant Singh.

According to the treaty, Aurangzeb gave the title of king to Shivaji and gave the status of Mughal official to his son Sambhaji and handed over the kingdom of Berar to him. Along with this, Aurangzeb also gave Shivaji Maharaj the right to attack the kingdom of Adilshahi. The kingdom of Adilshahi had become very weak and without fighting the Sultan gave Shivaji the rights of Sardeshmukhi and Chauthaai. But the Mughals were not going to stop their antics. Aurangzeb broke the terms of the treaty in 1699 within just two years. He snatched the Berar kingdom from Sambhaji. Shivaji Maharaj was very angry with this act of Aurangzeb and he decided to answer this brick with a stone. That is why in 1697 he attacked Surat again. Surat. After the looting, the prosperity of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj reached the seventh sky and he expanded his kingdom a lot. With this, Shivaji Maharaj got himself coronated and declared himself Chhatrapati. But there is an interesting story behind this too. 

Let’s know the story behind Shivaji to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj…

Story from Shivaji to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

Friends, After establishing an independent Hindu nation in Western Maharashtra, Shivaji wanted to be crowned but the Brahmins there opposed Shivaji because according to them Shivaji was not from the Kshatriya caste. However, after some time, under the leadership of Balaji Aabaji, who was posted as Secretary in the cabinet, i.e. Chitnis, proof of Shivaji being a Kshatriya was given to the Brahmins. According to the proof, Balaji related Shivaji to the Sisodia dynasty of Mewar, due to which the Brahmins agreed to crown Shivaji. After this, Shivaji was crowned on 6 June 16974 by making officials, people and Brahmins from the country and abroad as witnesses. Along with this, Shivaji was given the title of Chhatrapati by his people. After which he became famous as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his childhood dream of Hindu Swarajya came true. After the coronation, Shivaji established Ashta Pradhan to make the administration smooth. All these ministers were in charge of the administration of the state, along with which they also assisted Shivaji. Talking about the composition of Ashta Pradhan, the Peshwa handled the revenue department. All the Naubat or Senapatis were military commanders.

Amatya used to look after the work of Accountant General. Whereas Waki Navis was responsible for Intelligence, Post and Household Affairs. The job of the Secretary was to look after correspondence and Sumant was called Master of Ceremony. Apart from this, the Judge used to play the role of Chief Justice of the state and Pandit Rao was in charge of Charity and Religious Administration. 

Along with administration, Shivaji emphasized on women empowerment. Apart from this, he also revived many old traditions of Hindu court and promoted the use of Marathi and Sanskrit language in his state. Along with this, he respected all religions in his state. In his state, Muslim Maulvi also had equal respect like Hindu Pandit. Many Muslim officers were also posted in his army and cabinet. If we talk about the military force of Shivaji Maharaj, then he was the first among the Indian kings who prepared the Naval Force. With the help of his disciplined army and administrative officers, he established a civilized rule in the Maratha region. Having ruled efficiently for six years, he died due to a prolonged illness on the 3rd April 1680 at the age of 52.

Conclusion:

So friends, this was the story of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Many great rulers have been born on this land of India who have recorded their names in golden letters in history on the basis of their ability and skill. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is also one of those brave warriors. No amount of praise is enough for his bravery, passion and strategy because he gave birth to the spark due to which a new Hindu nation was established in India even during the Mughal period and this is the reason that this saga of bravery of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is still sung in every corner of the country and people worship him not like a king but like a god. Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra.

9 thoughts on “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj: A Glimpse into the Life of a Fearless Warrior King”

  1. Manav

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