A History of the Mahrattas v1.c19.1

v1.c19.1

A.D. 1707.—It has been already mentioned, that upon the fall of Raigurh the widow and son of Sumbhajee were carried prisoners to the imperial camp. They were received within the enclosure of the royal tents, and at the request of Begum Sahib, the Emperor’s daughter, a place was assigned to them near herself, and she continued to show them unremitting kindness during many years of captivity. The boy was at first constantly with her, and Aurungzebe, during his visits to his daughter, took much notice of him. Shao’s original name was Sivajee, but that by which he afterwards became known was a familiar name given him by Aurungzebe, and his choosing to retain it in preference to that of his renowned grandfather, is as remarkable ¹ as that our English appellation of ‘the Sahoo Raja,’ meaning the sovereign of the Mahratta nation, applied from his long reign to Shao’s successors as well as to himself, should have had its origin in an unbecoming pun of the Emperor Aurungzebe. The attendants who followed the family into captivity were allowed to communicate with the Mahrattas in the Moghul army; an indulgence which did not extend to Shao, his mother, or to Muddun Sing, the illegitimate son of Sumbhajee, also made captive at Raigurh. Every kind of intercourse with the Mahrattas in rebellion was, to all the family and their followers, most strictly forbidden.