A History of the Mahrattas v1.c11.41

v1.c11.41

A.D. 1650.—Sivajee, whose immediate object was effected by his father’s reprieve, artfully contrived to keep his proposal of entering the Moghul service in an unsettled state, by preferring a claim on the part of his father or himself to the Deshmookhs’ dues in the Joonere and Ahmednugur districts, to which he pretended they had an hereditary right. Sivajee’s agent, who went to Agra with this ostensible purpose, did not, as was probably foreseen, succeed in obtaining a promise of the Deshmookhee; but he brought back a letter from Shah Jehan, promising that the claim should be taken into consideration upon Sivajee’s arrival at court.⁴