Later Mughals v2.c14.s18: Sec. 43.—Shivaji : His Career.
Later Mughals v2.c14.s18
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Sec. 43.—Shivaji : His Career.
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In 1604 Shahji had been married, by a lucky chance boldly seized on by his father, to the daughter of Lakhiji Jadon of Sindkher and deshmukh of sarkar Daulatabad, the most powerful Mahratta chief in the Ahmadnagar State. After playing an active part in all the fighting and intriguing from 1628 onwards, Shahji died [at Basavapattan on the Tungabhadra] in January 1664, leaving two legitimate sons, Shivaji and Venkaji, the first named being the son of his first wife, Jiji Bai. Shivaji was born in the fort of Siuneri on the 11th April, 1627. His early days were passed in the family house at Puna, but from his sixteenth year (c. 1643) he began to absent himself and talked of becoming an independent chief. To wean him from these excursions and the lawless associates who shared them, his guardian (his father being absent on service in the Bijapur State) entrusted some of the family estates to his management. But he still cherished his youthful project of independence, and in 1646 at the age of nineteen acquired peacefully the hill-fort of Torna, twenty-five miles south-west of Puna at the source of the Nira river. He now offered himself to the Bijapur State as its renter and feudatory. But for several years little notice was taken of him.
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∗ Mr. Irvine's account of early Maratha history, based upon Grant Duff, has been here corrected by references to G. S. Sardesai's Marathi Riyasat, vol. I. ed. of 1915. For fully detailed and up-to-date information on Shivaji and Shambhuji (with references to sources), see my Shivaji and His Times and History of Aurangzib, vol. iv. [J. Sarkar.]
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Discovering a treasure hoard in Torna, he used the money in building another fort on a hill five miles to the south-east, and this place he named Rajgarh. When his guardian died, he assumed possession of the family estates, ignoring all his father's demands for remittances. Not long after this time, he strengthened his position by bribing the Muhammadan commandant to cede to him the important fort of Kondana, the name of which he altered to Singh-garh. This was followed by the acquisition by treachery of Purandhar, another place of strength. The rulers of Bijapur paid no heed to him, and thus by stealth he acquired predominance in the tract between Chakan and the Nira.
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In 1648 Shivaji revolted openly from the Bijapur Government, seized a convoy of treasure on its way from Kaliyan; ten forts were surprised and seized, several rich towns of the Konkan plundered, and finally Kaliyan was suprised and the governor's family captured.
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[ After making many conquests he formally crowned himself and established a regular Court administration army and navy.]
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Shivaji died after a [life of incessant activity and fighting] on the 5th April 1680, in the fifty-third year of his age. As Grant Duff truly says, "he was certainly a most extraordinary person; and however justly many of his acts may be censured, his claim to rank high in the page of history must be admitted." At the time of his death he was possessed,* with a few exceptions, of the whole of the Konkan from Gandavi to Ponda ; and a line of forts from Tattora to Panala distinctly marked his boundary to the eastward. He had in addition a number of detached possessions, Singnapur, Parnaira fort near Daman, many forts in Baglana, also several strong places in Khandesh and Sangamner.
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∗ "At the time of his death Shivaji's kingdom included all the country (except the Portuguese possessions) stretching from Ramnagar (modern Dharampur State in the Surat Agency) in the north, to Karwar or the Gangavati river in the Bombay district of Kanara in the south. The eastern boundary embraced Baglana in the north, then ran southwards along an irregular shifting line through the middle of the Nasik and Puna districts, and encircled the whole of the Satara and much of the Kolhapur districts.