New History of the Marathas v1.c13.50

v1.c13.50

3. A year of unrest all round.—The last six years of Shivaji’s short life from coronation to death bear an essentially different character from the previous period. His own health, usually so robust, began to deteriorate with domestic troubles, particularly the evil character which his son Sambhāji began to disclose in an increasing degree, and his anxieties to ensure the permanency of the State he had created by life-long effort. It is a common experience that it is easier to build a fortune than to preserve it. The coronation ceremony put a final seal on all the nation-building efforts Shivaji had put forth in the past. But the Maratha State having thus come into being, had to be sustained and secured from internal conflicts as well as external attacks. Like his ill-behaved son Sambhāji, his step-brother Ekoji too was by no means a friend to his cause. He inherited a certain prejudice against Shivaji and could not divest himself of a feeling of subordination and dependence upon the Bijapur Sultan, which itself was then in its last throes of death. Both Bijapur and Golkonda were dragging on a precarious existence between Mughal aggression and Shivaji’s ambition.