The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.235

v4.c19.235

On Shivājī’s death his widow, taking advantage of her husband’s mistrust of his elder son, who was still imprisoned at Panhālā, exerted herself to secure the succession for her son Rājā Rām, Shambhūjī’s half-brother, and enthroned him, but a strong party in the state favoured the claims of the legitimate heir and Shambhūjī, who inherited a portion of his father’s energy, succeeded, after some vicissitudes, in securing the throne and put his stepmother and her leading partisans to death in circumstances of great cruelty. In 1680 he received the fugitive prince Muhammad Akbar, who was in rebellion against his father, the emperor, and Aurangzīb, after concluding an undignified peace with the Rānā of Udaipur, with whom he was then engaged in hostilities, marched southwards for the accomplishment of a task which he had set himself before his accession—the subjugation of the Deccan.