Shri Shiv Chatrapati Caritr 11.1

11.1

S. D. [66] Then Sahaji Raje returned from Karnatak and sent for (Saubhagyadisampanna) fortune-favoured Jija Bai Saheb, and Sriman Sivaji Maharaj, well skilled in war, endowed with valour and beauty, and a veritable incarnation to relieve mother earth of her unbearable burden, by the performance of notable human deeds, — from Sivneri, desirous of seeing them, — and called Dadaji Konddev. Thereupon the latter made proper arrangements for the fort of Sivneri and the Mahal attached to it and [67] proceeded to Bijapur. At Bijapur, Sultan Muhammad Shah Badshah was ill, and at that juncture arrived Sivaji Maharaj with his mother and officers. * * * [68] The city was under the Muhammadan Government and cow slaughter was therefore frequent. He felt disgusted ***** and used to say to the officers in his father's house, — "It is not good to live upon the bread of the Muhammadan and to witness cow slaughter. Death is far more desirable. I shall no longer tolerate any slight upon religion, or any act of Muhammadan injustice. If my father abandons me on that account, I shall not mind, but it is not good to stay at such a place." But who would create difference by reporting the speech to his father? The father and the son would ultimately be reconciled but the reporter's head would be lost. In this manner a few days passed. One day, when Sivaji Maharaj was going in the train of the Raja (his father), he heard the lowing of a cow that was being slaughtered in a butcher's house.