New History of the Marathas v1.c13.48

v1.c13.48

Although this coronation ceremony established Shivaji as full fledged Kshatriya, there was certainly a small section which found fault with the ceremonial on the ground that the 6 June of 1674 was under unfavourable stars. One Nischalpuri Gosāvi, a learned monk versed in the Tantric lore of incantation, boldly came forth to denounce what Shivaji had performed and foreboded evil consequences if a rectification was not immediately effected, citing the deaths of Jija Bai and one of Shivaji’s wife soon after the coronation as proof of the allegation. Shivaji was not the man to give cause for any unnecessary irritation in harmless matters like this. He silenced the clamour by acceding to Nischalpuri’s demand of having a fresh coronation ceremony held on a smaller scale. For this he invited Nischalpuri to Raigad and performed a supplementary ceremony three months later on the *Lalita Panchami* day (24 September 1674) the details of which have been published.¹¹