The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.52

v4.c21.52

THE aged emperor Aurangzīb died in February, 1707, worn out by his long guerrilla campaign in the Deccan. His successor, Bahādur Shāh, decided, on the advice of Zu-’l-Fiqār Khān, the viceroy of the Deccan, to put into effect Aurangzīb’s plan of restoring Shāhū, the grandson of Shivājī, who, after the capture and execution of his father Shambhūjī in 1689, had been brought up in the Mughul court. He was not twenty-six years old. Dāūd Khān, the deputy viceroy, who was stationed at Aurangābād, was directed to give him all possible assistance. After Shambhūjī’s death, the direction of Marāthā affairs had fallen into the hands of his half-brother Rājā Rām. Rājā Rām died in 1700, whereupon his widow Tārā Bāī, a strong and masterful woman, declared herself regent for her infant son Shivājī, and profiting by the disorders at Delhi, reconquered Poona and Chākan from the Mughuls. The return of Shāhū, as was intended, threw an apple of discord into the Marāthā camp. Tārā Bāī refused to give up her son’s claims. She declared that Shāhū was an impostor, assembled her ministers, and made them take an oath of fidelity to resist the pretender to the last gasp. Shāhū was granted the customary dues of *chauth* and *sardeshmukhī*¹ of the six Deccan provinces of Khāndesh, Berār, Aurangābād, Bīdar, Hyderābād and Bījāpur, and the governorship of Gondwāna, Gujarāt and Tanjore; all these, of course, he was to hold from the emperor. Starting from north of the Narbadā in May, 1707, he advanced slowly southwards during the rains, entered Sātārā, and was crowned in January, 1708. He made Gadādhar Prahlād his *Pratinidhi*,² Bahiro Pant Pingle his Peshwā, and Dhanājī Jādav his *Senāpati* or commander-in-chief. Tārā Bāī fell back upon Panhālā, the great stronghold twelve miles from Kolhāpur, which became the capital of the rival kingdom. As soon as the rains were over, Shāhū, after celebrating the Dasara, the festival which marks the opening of the campaigning season, marched against Tārā Bāī and took Panhālā. In 1712, Tārā Bāī was removed from the administration by a palace intrigue, and her place was taken by her co-wife Rājas Bāī, who claimed the throne for her son Shambhūjī;³ but this did not help Shāhū, whose hold on his new kingdom became every day more precarious. Very few of the great Marāthā leaders had espoused his cause, and his rule was practically confined to his capital, and a few hill-forts garrisoned by his commanders. The Deccan was in a state of open anarchy. The Deshmukhs and petty chiefs had fortified themselves in the villages in which they resided, and plundered caravans, held up travellers to ransom, and made war on one another with impunity. The new viceroy of the Deccan, Chīn Qilīch Khān, who succeeded Dāūd Khān at Aurangābād in 1712 with the title of Nizām-ul-Mulk, was inclined to favour the Kolhāpur party, and Chandra Sen Jādav, the Senāpati, who had assumed that office on the death of his father Dhanājī in 1708, had gone over to Kolhāpur, owing to a disagreement with Shāhū. This disagreement led to the rise of a very remarkable man, who was destined to become the saviour of his country.