New History of the Marathas v1.c19: Chapter XV

New History of the Marathas v1.c19

Language: English

v1.c19.s1 2. Shahu in captivity — 37 parts

Chapter XV

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1696 | Balaji Vishwanath Sar-Subahdar of Poona. 1700 March 2 | Death of Rajaram ; Shivaji II crowned by Tarabai. ,, Apr. 21 | Aurangzeb captures Satara and Parli forts. ,, Aug. 17 | Shahu reported as ailing. 1701 May 28 | Aurangzeb captures Panhala. 1702 June 4 | Aurangzeb captures Vishalgad. ,, ending months | Balaji Vishwanath defends Sinhagad. 1703 April 8 | Aurangzeb captures Sinhagad. ,, | Aurangzeb encamps at Poona ; orders Shahu's conversion. ,, Novr. | Shahu married and entrusted to Kam Bakhsh for negotiating his release. ,, | Ray-Bhanji Bhosle accepts Emperor's service. 1704 | Fort Satara recaptured by the Marathas. 1705 April 17 | Yesubai's letter of distress in captivity. ,, | The Marathas ravage Mughal territory beyond the Narmada. 1706 Feb. 6 | Shahu temporarily released. 1707 Feb. 20 | Death of Aurangzeb.

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the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.

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But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.

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Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.

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It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.

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RETRIBUTION

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1. Tarabai opposes the Emperor.
2. Shahu in captivity.
3. Contact with Balaji Vishwanath.
4. Raybhanji Kaka.
5. Piteous appeal of Yesubai.
6. Tragedy of Aurangzeb’s life.
7. Aurangzeb’s death.
8. Tarabai triumphant.

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1. Tarabai opposes the Emperor.—Rājārām died at Sinhagad on 2 March 1700, a little over a month before his newly established capital Satara followed the fate of Raigad ten years before. Since the return of Rājārām from Jinji the aged Emperor, sorely disappointed in his hope of overcoming the Marathas and feeling that his commandants did not exert themselves earnestly enough in the tasks assigned to them, had taken upon himself the work of personally leading his forces in the difficult region of the western Ghats. His officers and soldiers became wearied of this continuous camp life and its interminable hardships. Yet the Emperor would not flinch. With the greatest effort in 6 years (1699-1704), he was able to capture only four major forts with a few minor ones of no importance to his strategy. These were Satara (21 April 1700), Panhala (28 May 1701), Vishalgad (4 June 1702) and Sinhagad (8 Apr. 1703). Even these were only nominally secured mainly by payment of money and were quickly recaptured by the Marathas after a year or so, as soon as the Emperor had turned his back upon Maharashtra and proceeded to the Berad country in the south. It is noteworthy that during the siege of Vishalgad Sawai Jaisinh, the young ruler of Jaipur, played a conspicuous part both in the arduous task of fighting and in the subsequent negotiations for its surrender, whereby he established relations of amity with some of the Maratha leaders and the young Shahu, who was then living as a captive in the imperial camp. This early contact proved a prominent factor in the Mughal-Maratha relations as they afterwards developed in the hands of the first two Peshwas.¹

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¹ For details of Aurangzeb’s last effort and struggles, the reader is referred to Sir Jadunath’s full account.

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The conquered forts were all given new names in the Muhammadan style by the Emperor, but those names have not survived in popular use. Satara was renamed Azam-tara, Parali Navrastara, Panhala Nabishahdurg and so on. But the conquest of Sinhagad in 1703 gave such supreme satisfaction to the Emperor’s heart that he gave it the significant name *Bakshinda Baksh*, “a reward given by the Almighty.”

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As soon as Rāmchandra Pant Amātya learnt of Rājārām’s death, he repaired to Sinhagad and immediately issued letters conveying the news to the various captains encouraging and begging them all to continue to perform their duties as before, and to exert themselves even more vigorously, remembering that the destinies of their nation were in their keeping. He also invited some prominent persons to attend the funeral rites of the late king, and held deliberations with them on the future plans. In deference to Tarabai’s wishes her little son Shivaji, less than four years old at the time, was a few months later crowned Chhatrapati at Vishalgad,² although the rightful succession of Shahu was not excluded. Indeed, so far as the war was concerned, Tarabai for a time inspired greater vigour and enthusiasm among the whole Maratha nation than her husband had done. Unfortunately, her hopes and position came soon to be seriously weakened by the discovery that her little son was deficient in mental powers and not competent to manage the concerns of the State. For the present, however, Tarabai exhibited wonderful powers of organization and inspired one and all with a sense of devotion to the national service. Panhala and Vishalgad, both inaccessible strongholds, were selected as the Chhatrapati’s residence, and on this account the Emperor doubtless directed his next effort to their capture during the years 1701 and 1702.

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² They mostly resided at Panhala also, but the throne was never removed to Panhala.

2. Shahu in captivity

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to take particular note of the manner Shāhu led his life in the Emperor’s camp, as he was destined to be the future Chhatrapati of the Marathas. When Raigad was captured by Zulfiqar Khan on 3rd November 1689 Sambhājī’s Rani Yesubai, then about 30 years of age and her young son Shāhu of seven years, two illegitimate sons of Sambhājī named Madan Sinh and Madhav Sinh, Rani Sakwarbai, the sole surviving widow of the great Shivājī, with a following of about 200 men and women were captured and taken to the Emperor’s camp. Here they had to spend seventeen years in captivity which dimmed all their hopes in this world; and although ultimately Shāhu came out of the bitter trial safe, there was during the interval constantly hanging over his head the sword of an unknown fate, well acquainted as he was with the Emperor’s methods of dealing with an opponent, blinding an enemy, converting him to his faith or imprisoning him for life. Those who accuse Shāhu of pusillanimity, engendered by the luxuries of a soft palace life, forget that he never had been to Delhi and seen the palace life of that capital. He had constantly to undergo the same privations and hardships as the fighting members of the Emperor’s camp, in addition to being a closely watched prisoner, a pawn in the Emperor’s game to be utilized as occasion would require.

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During the eight months that had elapsed between the death of Sambhājī and the capture of Raigad, the Emperor had a sufficient foretaste of the audacity and toughness of the Maratha nation, which made him wiser in dealing with these fresh captives. He naturally became more cautious and politic than vengeful as in the case of Sambhājī. He abandoned all thought of making short work with these innocent and hapless captives, and ordered that Shāhu and his mother should be accommodated in enclosed quarters near his daughter’s, and adjoining his own residential tent; and that their servants and followers should have another detached spot assigned to them, certainly within the main enclosure, but at a long distance from each other, in order to prevent easy or frequent communication between the two parties. These servants’ quarters came to be known as the “Rani’s Bazaar”. Sufficient subsistence allowance within the limits of bare existence, was here assigned to each member of the party according to his rank to appease Maratha sentiment. Towards Shāhu himself Aurangzeb deliberately adopted an attitude quite the reverse of that towards his father. He styled Shāhu as the legitimate Maratha king and gave him the title of "Raja", with the nominal dignity of a seven-thousand commander.

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Throughout the Emperor's residence in the Deccan, his domestic affairs were looked after by his daughter Zinat-un-Nisa Begam, an intelligent, pains-taking and kind-hearted lady, unmarried, now 47 years old (born on 5 October 1643), to whose care the Emperor entrusted the prisoners Shāhu and Yesubai.³ The Begam was born of the same mother as the Emperor's rebel son Akbar, and like him entertained a tender feeling for the Marathas, being by nature of a pious philosophical outlook upon life. She, therefore, felt a deep interest and compassion for Yesubai and her son, who on this account developed a sense of filial reverence for her, which endured long after Aurangzeb's death. This Zinat-un-Nisa built a mosque at Delhi out of her own private money and died in 1721. When, therefore, Balaji Vishwanath led an expedition to Delhi in 1718, Zinat-un-Nisa must have, one may presume, helped Yesubai's release and return. She was certainly instrumental in letting Shāhu go back to the Deccan from the river Narmada in 1707.

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³ This is presumably the same lady who is known in popular anecdotes to have pleaded for Shivaji's life being saved during his visit to Agra in 1666 and whose hand Sambhaji is said to have asked for, just before he was put to death.

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Any way this lady's kind offices doubtless softened the rigours of Shāhu's imprisonment and in a great measure ameliorated the prisoners' lot. For whatever the wishes or command of the Emperor might be, their immediate execution was in the hands of the Begam. A woman alone could sympathise with the lot of Sambhājī's widow. Jyotyaji Kesarkar, Bhaktaji Huzra and Banki Gaikwad are mentioned out of the many followers of Shāhu, as having kept up close touch between these Maratha inmates in the camp and the warring Marathas outside it.

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In her dealings with the Emperor, Yesubai feigned from the beginning an attitude of hostility towards Rājārām and his Government. She declared that Rājārām saved his own life by escaping, and purposely allowed her to be captured at the fall of Raigad; and that now they all looked to the Emperor's mercy for their safety and comfort. This attitude was long and successfully kept up in order to lull the Emperor's suspicion about her treachery. Shahu's real name was Shivāji, and on arrival at the camp, Aurangzeb called him Shivāji the *Sav* (honest) in contrast with his wily grand-father. This word *Sav* is said to have been corrupted into Shāhu (Sādhu, Sahu) by which name he thereafter continued to be known. Although to all appearance Aurangzeb treated him kindly, his object was to make use of him as circumstances would require in his project of subduing the Maratha country. Once or twice Rājārām tried to effect Shāhu's release by means of a sudden and secret attack upon the camp: but these attempts failed. Once, it is recorded, when Shāhu came to make his obedience to the Emperor, the latter asked him, "I am ready to send you back to your uncle, are willing to go?" "No", replied Shāhu, "My uncle is my enemy, as he was my father's too. If I go to him, he will keep me in rigorous confinement. I will go back only when Your Majesty puts me firmly on the throne as a legitimate sovereign of the Marathas." What to do with Shāhu was thus a source of perennial anxiety to the Emperor. He often thought of converting him to the Muslim faith and making him a vassal-prince ruling the Maratha land. He omitted no occasion for creating disunion in the Maratha nation by asserting Shāhu's claim against Tarabai's son. But these attempts did not prove successful in his life-time.

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Shāhu thus acquired no education to fit him for life. He practised some riding, hunting and swordsmanship within the limits of the camp. He learnt to write Modi characters, and letters are extant in which he has fully and freely expressed his sentiments in that script. He did not know Sanskrit, nor did he have occasion to learn his own religion or the traditional Hindu mythology. On the contrary, placed as he was, he developed respect for the Muslim faith through intimate contact with the orthodox life of the Mughal court pattern. It may truly be said that he knew more of the Muslim religion than of his own. But his mind grew alert, quick and watchful, and tossed as he was in the midst of the turmoils of a raging war, he had plenty of thrilling experiences and acquired a sturdy common sense, a discerning faculty to assess correctly the merits and weaknesses of human character, a mortal fear to do wrong and a genial philanthropic temperament. The life of the Mughal camp was sufficiently varied and not altogether monotonous, and Shāhu freely participated in it.

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With his advance to manhood Shāhu’s troubles increased beyond measure, particularly after 1699, when the Emperor himself set out on the work of capturing the difficult Maratha forts. While the news of Rājārām’s premature death gladdened the Emperor’s heart, it distressed Shāhu’s so acutely that he became ill and was for a time confined to bed. The malady affected his mind and body to some extent. It is recorded that on 26 August 1700, Shāhu who was ailing, paid a visit to the Emperor and made his bow when the latter said, “ Raje, you look very weak and pale.” Hafiz Ambar who was standing by, explained the reason by saying, “ The Raja does not touch dal and rice. He feeds only on sweets : his religion enjoins that in a state of imprisonment, a Hindu should not eat a full dinner but must live on light refreshments.” Thereupon the Emperor ordered, “ Take him to Hamid-ud-din Khan. He will cure the ailment.” This dyspepsia leading to fever and jaundice seems to have troubled Shāhu long. It is mentioned that he took the bath of recovery on the 4th June preceding.

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Rājārām’s death and the accession of Tarabai to power in the Maratha State considerably changed the state of affairs in the Deccan. Before this, the Emperor had succeeded in setting up an administration for the conquered territories, particularly the country between Satara and Aurangabad. Most of the leading families and the common populace of this region, chiefs and sardars, bankers and accountants had accepted the Emperor’s service. The papers of various families in this tract of the country, such as the Purandares, the Bokils, the Atres, the Joshis, the Gijres, the Devs of Chinchwad, the Brahmes of Chakan and so on have been printed. The members of these families were regularly employed by the Emperor in the various branches of the administration, but at the same time the Maratha Chhatrapati also claimed their services and allegiance, so that a kind of double government continued for some years, the Mughals ruling by right of conquest and the Marathas by right of possession. Friction and rivalry of a serious nature thus went on, dividing the loyalties of the common residents and of the average officials during the time of the war, and even later after hostilities had been formally closed by the Emperor's death. It was during this period of double government that Shāhu came to cultivate a more or less intimate contact with some of these local families and their prominent members, particularly money-lenders, who often satisfied his immediate needs of money and did other services to relieve his difficulties. This is quite plain from the various records of his reign, in which he acknowledges these obligations with gratefulness and rewards them by gifts of land and money. He always considered it his pious duty to remember and repay every act of kindness shown to him during this hard period of captivity extending over seventeen years.⁴

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3. Contact with Balaji Vishvanath.—One outstanding figure hitherto entirely unknown to the world outside, now appears on the stage of Maratha politics and works in favour of Shāhu, viz., Bālājī Vishvanāth Bhat, whom later on Shāhu appointed his Peshwa and who was instrumental in changing the entire character of the Marátha Government. When and how Shāhu came to know him and why he decided to raise him to the first position in the State, are questions which have not been convincingly solved. He was a hereditary Deshmukh of Shriwardhan on the west coast under the jurisdiction of the Siddis of Janjira, and appears to have migrated to the region of Poona possibly during the last days of Shivaji's reign. Definite evidence is available that he was the Sarsubahdar of the Poona division since 1696 and of the Daulatabad division from 1704 onwards, under orders of the Maratha Government. We possess letters issued by Ramchandra Nilkanth Amātya and other ministers to Balaji Vishvanath, calling upon him to ex-

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4. A modi bakhar containing 143 pages, the first 16 and the last few missing, exists at the Osmania University, Haiderabad (Dec.), which records some interesting details of Shāhu's life in captivity. A few stray leaves of this same book were discovered at Poona and printed in 1915 by the Bh. I. S. Mandal, Tritiya Sammelan Vritta, pages 85-90.

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plain certain matters, to execute certain measures and occasionally reprimanding him for dereliction of duty. In 1702 when the Emperor invested Sinhagad, Balaji Vishvanath, writing on behalf of the Senapati Dhanāji Jadhav, sent an insistent request to his co-worker Ambāji Trimbak Purandare for a supply of gun-powder which was urgently needed for the defence of that fort against Tarbiat Khan the Artillery officer of Aurangzeb. To rise to the position of a Sarsubahdar in 1696 Balaji must have served in the lower grades of the Rajah’s service for a long time before. But his antecedents are altogether unknown. We know that after capturing the fort of Sinhagad in April 1703, the Emperor cantoned at Poona during the monsoon months of that year, when it is presumed, the question of Shāhu’s conversion and release seriously agitated Aurangzeb’s mind. He issued orders that on a certain day Shāhu should be converted to the Muslim faith, a measure which dreadfully distressed Shāhu and his mother. They gave up eating food, began to starve themselves and begged the Begam Saheb to intervene in their favour and plead with the Emperor to cancel his order for his conversion.

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But the Emperor was obdurate, and only relented so far as to concede that Shāhu would be spared on condition that two prominent Maratha youths offered themselves for conversion in his place; his order once issued must have its course. Shāhu then begged Khandoji and Jagjivan, two sons of Shivaji’s Senapati Prataprao Gujar, who were his companions in captivity in the Emperor’s camp, to offer themselves for the sacrifice. They were accordingly converted and renamed Abdur-Rahim and Abdur-Rahman. Shāhu later gave these two men in Inam the village of Salgaum which is near Parli and is still enjoyed by their descendants,—both the Hindu and the Muslim branches living in amity and neighbourhood close to each other.

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In the month of November 1703 two suitable brides were selected for Shāhu, one from the Sinde family of Kanerkhed and the other a daughter of Manaji Rustumrao Jadhav of Sindkhed, and Shāhu was married to them with fitting ceremony under the Emperor’s direction. A third intelligent lady named Virubai was selected to supervise Shāhu’s harem and remained ever after with him as an illegitimate wife.

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We may presume that Balaji Vishvanath as the representative of the Maratha Government at Poona, must have had a private hand in these affairs of Shāhu and might even have been consulted. His services must have been laid under requisition by the Mughal officials for supplies of provisions and materials of war. Balaji certainly carried out his duties securely in Poona in the midst of Mughal hosts occupying the country, and formed intimate contacts with several local families and persons of influence. His diplomatic skill and circumspect conduct, on the one hand in guarding the interests of his own nation in the midst of war, and, on the other, in forming friendships with several Mughal officials of high rank, became quite obvious under the delicate circumstances of the double government then prevailing, and must have been closely noticed and appreciated by Shāhu who was on the spot. It is also said that Balaji had secret means of approach to Begam Zinat-un-Nisa’s counsels and through her, guarded Shāhu’s interests at great risk to his life. The words applied to him by Shāhu viz. “a servant of incomparable ability,”* convey indeed a testimony involving personal experience.

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4. Raybhanji Kaka.—Shivaji’s father Shahji had several illegitimate sons, one of whom by name Raybhanji managed to get into the Mughal employment about 1703 and helped Shāhu to the best of his power. He was then popularly known as Bhanji Kaka. The Emperor created him a commander of six thousand and often employed him as a medium of communication with the Maratha Government. After 1703 the Emperor began to entertain serious ideas of closing the war on honourable terms and returning tq Delhi. It was in this connection that he found Raybhanji serviceable, as his close personal association with men and affairs of the Deccan during the last several years gave him a unique position. Raybhanji lived to see Shāhu properly crowned at Satara at a later date. To all appearances the Emperor showed deep interest and great concern in the well-being of Shāhu, and thought it the best means of closing the war to release him and send him to claim from his aunt his paternal right to the Maratha throne.

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∗ अतुल पराक्रमी सेवक.

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The Emperor's anxiety at this time was two-fold, to ensure the peaceful succession to his throne after his own death, and to conciliate the Marathas by offering them such terms as they could accept but as would not damage his prestige. On these points he took serious counsel with his best advisers and entrusted the affairs of the Deccan to his beloved son Kam Baksh with Zulfiqar Khan as his guide, leaving northern India to be shared by the other two sons. Such a division of his Empire between his three sons was long contemplated by him. On 27 November 1703 the Emperor called up Shāhu and entrusted his person to Kam Baksh with instructions to open negotiations with Dhanāji Jadhav about the release of Shāhu. Thereupon Dhanāji was consulted and he offered to close the war on condition that the Maratha King should have the right to levy *Chauth* and *Sardeshmukhi* dues upon the six subhas of the Deccan, in lieu of which the Marathas would protect the country. Dhanāji also agreed to take charge of Shāhu and swear allegiance to the Emperor, provided the prominent leaders of Maratha bands were received by him in open Darbar and honoured with dresses, so that all might feel that the Maratha kingdom of Shivaji's days had been restored to Shāhu as a recognised feudatory of the supreme Mughal authority. These terms were agreed to and invitations were sent round to the chiefs of the Maratha army. Soon these leaders assembled in Dhanaji's camp close to the Emperor's, each with his full quota of troops. When the Emperor saw this huge Maratha assemblage, his suspicious nature became alarmed; he feared that this was a Maratha trick, an intentional ruse to capture his own person. He forthwith broke up the intended negotiations, to the great joy of the Marathas who were unwilling to accept Mughal suzerainty after all the sacrifices of years of war. It appears evident that Dhanāji and Shāhu had open conferences at this time, in the presence of Kam Baksh and Zulfiqar Khan, and possibly Balaji Vishvanath was then a confidential adviser of Dhanaji. This accounts for Dhanaji's respect for Shahu just before the battle of Khed in 1707 and his quick desertion of Tarabai's cause.

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After 1703 a year or two passed in such wrangling without any definite move by the Emperor about Shāhu's future, when one more unsuccessful effort was made by the Emperor on his return journey from Surapur to Ahmadnagar in 1706. He made Shāhu write personal letters to some of the Maratha leaders inviting them to join him, gave Shāhu a *khilat* of farewell leave, actually released him from his own camp, and ordered him to go and rule his kingdom in obedience to Kam Baksh. Shahu’s residential tents were removed and pitched in Zulfiqar Khan’s quarters on February 6, 1706. But no Maratha Chief came to join Shāhu. It was evident to the Maratha leaders that this would prove a clear device for dividing Maratha ranks and starting a civil war among them. Though Shāhu was at large, he would not care to escape and incur the risk of either creating strife in the Maratha nation or being captured again by the Emperor, as Zulfiqar Khan was secretly instructed to watch his movements.

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5. Piteous appeal of Yesubai.—The last years of Aurangzeb’s life, as the student knows, were fearfully clouded with darkness about the future of the Deccan or of the vast Empire outside. Extreme misery and want prevailed in the Mughal camp, where not a single bright face could be seen. For years the Mughal soldiery had received no pay; and utter hopelessness overcame them all. We can thus imagine to what sorry straits Shāhu and his mother with their followers had been reduced in these last two years of the Emperor’s life. A Marathi letter addressed by Yesubai to the head of the shrine of Moraya Dev of Chinchwad, begging for a loan, eloquently explains the situation and deserves reproduction here. It is dated 19 April 1705 from Ahmadnagar, and runs thus: “After compliments, “My son Daji has accompanied the Emperor and we were sent here along with the Zanana some five months ago. We are here experiencing a dreadful predicament caused by want of provisions and cash. Our assigned allowances have not long been paid to us, all cash was either plundered by the Marathas or appropriated by the Muslim officials. For a long time past we have had to live on loans, but now no banker hazards a loan to us. My debt already amounts to seven thousand and we are heavily pressed for its repayment. It is indeed providential unkindness that such extreme misery should befall the great Shivaji’s daughter-in-law. Every passing moment adds to our trouble. In this extremity we approach your Holiness as our last resort, and beseech you to relieve our sufferings. If you can kindly send me a loan of seven thousand rupees with the bearer Rayaji Jadhav, we can pay back our debt to the bankers here and obtain further sums from them. The bearer will fully explain our situation. I will pay back this loan to your Holiness as soon as better days return. I am a poor, ignorant, illiterate woman of the Chhatrapati’s house and am reduced to such misery. Your Holiness must not reject my prayer out of memory of what my worthy father-in-law might have done for your Holiness’ shrine. Trusting you will not disappoint me &c.”

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6. Tragedy of Aurangzeb’s life.—The Emperor’s last three years in the Deccan were the darkest in his long reign. The Marathas constantly hovered round the Mughal camp and carried away everything they could lay their hands on. Even when they surrendered their forts to the Emperor, they hardly left anything valuable in them, so that these captured forts proved mere dry rocks and stones difficult to be protected and replenished. They could be held only by those who were used to the hard and rugged life of Maharashtra and not by the heavily-armoured Mughal soldiers. The keenly observant Manucci’s pen has given graphic accounts of these last years of Aurangzeb’s life. As Sir Jadunath Sarkar writes, “The wastage of the Deccan war, which raged intensely for over twenty years, was a hundred thousand lives of soldiers and followers and three times that number of animals, elephants, horses, camels and oxen, for each of those years. In the imperial camp pestilence was always present and the daily mortality was heavy from the immense number of men crowded together, the accumulation of filth and flies and the unbearable stench. His soldiers and camp followers suffered unspeakable hardships in marching over flooded rivers, muddy roads, and broken hilly tracks. Posters disappeared, transport beasts died of hunger and overwork, scarcity of grain was ever present in the camp. His officers were awfully wearied. Aurangzeb burst into wrath at any suggestion of return to north India and taunted the unlucky counsellor with cowardice and love of ease. One by one the old, able and independent officers of his earlier years passed away, and he was now surrounded only by timid cycophants and upstart nobles of his own creation, who would never venture to contradict him in his errors, nor give him honest counsel. The mutual jealousies of his generals ruined his affairs, so that the Emperor had to conduct every operation in person and nothing would be done. The Marathas find their raids of late immensely beneficial. As soon as they arrive into a district, the Mughal officer in charge of it sends his agents to the Maratha leaders and negotiates the amounts to be paid. If they don't get the stipulated sum, plunder and fire are the result. The Maratha king is now all powerful. He has a hundred thousand well trained fighting men in his charge : so he is not afraid of giving an open fight to the Emperor. It is now the Maratha Raja's turn to inspire the same terror among the Mughals which Aurangzeb in his earlier days used to do among the Marathas."⁴

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⁴ Sarkar, Aurangzeb, V. p. 14 &c.

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The last words of the above description doubtless refer to Tarabai and her son. The Emperor's return from Devapur to Ahmadnagar appeared like a mourning procession. The Marathas hovered round his army like vultures and created a havoc. During these last years the Marathas started distant expeditions into Malwa and Gujarat. They ravaged Burhanpur, Surat, Broach and other wealthy towns. Hindurao Ghorpade and his sons and relatives extended their sway southward over the Karnatak.

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Things were equally bad in north India, where the people were up in arms. The Bundelas under Chhatrasal asserted their independence. The Rajputs were all combined in revolt. The Jats and the Sikhs rose in rebellion. The disruption of the Empire had already begun. These were the results of Aurangzeb's war in the Deccan. The Marathas had their revival in these chaotic conditions and practically swept all India during the next century.

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7. Aurangzeb's death.—The last few months of Aurangzeb's life witnessed the final break-down. He had no money : no funds reached him from outside. The Marathas became aggressive. The Emperor's own wives and daughters came to the point of starving. With a united voice they all pitieously pleaded for a return to Agra. They said, "It is now thirty years since we have been wandering in foreign land, suffering the hardships of camp life all the while. We were then young and full of youth. Now we have grown old and decrepit. Let us go back to Agra and die peacefully in our homes, without the fear of these vultures tearing us. Let us have peace at least in death." The Emperor replied, "Don't fear, I have made every provision for your future." His sole companions were now, his daughter Zinat-un-Nisa, already an old maid and his last wife Udepuri Begam, a low animal type of a partner, whose son Kam Baksh broke his father's heart by freaks of insane folly and passion. These last years of the Emperor's life were darkened by domestic bereavements. His best loved daughter-in-law Jahanzeb-Begam died in Gujarat in March 1705. His rebel son Akbar had died in Iran in 1704 but the authentic news of his death reached the Emperor in 1705. His gifted daughter Zeb-un-Nisa ended her days in prison at Delhi. His eldest surviving and capable son was a closely watched prisoner for over ten years and now his youngest sister Gauhar-Ara Begam died in 1706. In May of the same year his daughter Mihar-un-Nisa and her husband both died together in Delhi and the next month died Buland Akhtar, the son of Akbar. Azam Shah, the Emperor's second son tried to murder Kam Baksh. So Aurangzeb sent both these sons away from his death-bed. Four days after sending away Azam Shah from his side, the aged and worn out figure now left in utter loneliness was seized with a severe fever: for three days he insisted on coming to the court-room and saying the five daily prayers in full congregation. On Thursday 19th February Hamid-un-din by the advice of astrologers, submitted a petition for giving away an elephant worth Rs, 4000 in charity for averting evil stars. The dying man wrote across the petition, "the giving away of an elephant in charity is a custom of the Hindus and star-worshippers. Give instead Rs. 4000 to the Chief Kazi for distribution among the poor. Convey quickly to the first station and consign to dust this heap of dust (his own body)." During these last days he dictated two pathetic letters to his sons Azam Shah and Kam Baksh entreating them to be friendly and loving. He also prepared a will and placed it under his pillow, proposing a peaceful partition of his Empire among his three surviving sons. On the morning of Friday 20 February Aurangzeb came out of his bed-room, went through his morning prayer. Gradually unconsciousness crept on, his fingers continuing to move over the beads of his rosary and his lips to gasp out the Kalimah till about 8 o’clock, when all was over. Thus perished one of the mightiest and most remarkable figures in the world’s history. His son Azam Shah arrived two days after and performed the burial of his father’s body at Khuldabad, now called Roza, in a low simple tomb without any marble platform.⁵

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⁵ Sarkar’s *Aurangzib*, Volume V.

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8. Tarabai triumphant.—After the death of Rajaram Tara Bai’s voice became supreme in Maharashtra, as she managed affairs in the name of her son. Unfortunately she had serious differences of policy with the veteran Rāmchandra Pant, who with Dhanāji Jadhav kept up his contact with Shāhu and tried to bring him back as their next Chhatrapati. As this move was violently opposed by Tara Bai, Rāmchandra Pant remained a mere apathetic onlooker and ceased to take the same active part in her government that he had done during Rājārām’s life. The published papers make hardly any mention of Rāmchandra Pant hereafter. Tara Bai, mainly with the support of Parashuram Trimbak, Dhanāji and Shankaraji Narayan, prosecuted the war with singular zeal and success, inflicting terrible hardships upon the Mughals as described above. She deserves all the credit for the Maratha nation’s emerging successfully out of the dreadful war with power to control the destinies of India during the eighteenth century. The great ability of Tara Bai is attested to even by Muslim writers. She constantly moved from fort to fort directing operations and inspiring her followers. Girjoji Yadav, the guardian of the fort of Panhala, was her personal and confidential agent through whom her commands were communicated outside. This Girjoji belonged to the large Yadav family of Karhad. Although Satara was recaptured by the Marathas, in 1704, Tara Bai made Panhala her central station from which she issued her commands in the name of her young son.

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A contemporary Maratha poet thus sings the achievements of Tara Bai :—

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“Our goddess Tulja is blessing us,
The Emperor’s power has come into our hands ;
Victory is garlanding young Shivaji’s neck.
Delhi is humbled ;
The Lord of Delhi has lost his lustre,
Tara Bai the Rani of Rama is terribly angered.
Remember, you folks, God Shankar commands all this.
He has delivered into the hands of the great Destroyer
All the armies of the Lord of Delhi.
Indra’s court is now laughing
At the misery of Delhi’s Lord.
The Queen of Rama ranges in frown on the battlefield ;
Take care oh Mughals,
The final end is near,
The jewelled crest of the Bhoslas,
The giver of good fortune, Raja Shiva,
Now shines on the throne.⁶

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⁶ Rise of the Maratha Power, pp. 192-196.

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The rise of Shāhu synchronizes with that of the Peshwās and involves the eclipse of Rāmchandra Pant Amātya, the great regenerator of the Maratha nation. That this connecting link between the old order and the new, became extinct was indeed a national loss. This chapter can be fittingly concluded by quoting the eloquent passage in which Ranade has stressed the importance of this Maratha war of independence.⁷

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“If all these dangers were averted and a new force communicated to the people, the credit of it must be ascribed to Aurangzeb’s ambition. The twenty years war was brought to a happy termination. Aurangzeb stirred the people of Maharashtra to their inmost depths and it was the hard discipline of this war which cemented the national and patriotic instincts of their leaders, and during the next three generations carried them as conquerors to the farthest part of India. Without

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revenues, without armies and without resources of any kind, they managed to raise armies, retake forts and develop a system of conquest by which they regained not only the Swaraj but also the right to levy Chauthai and Sardeshmukhi all over the Deccan and the Karnatak. Mere free-booters and plunderers never could have obtained success in such a war. It was a higher moral force which brought out all the virtues of the best men of the nation, daring heroism, noble endurance, administrative skill, hope which rose higher with every disappointment, an unshakable faith, devotion to high ideals, a sense of brotherhood, a spirit of self-sacrifice, and a trust in the final success of their cause. It is as a school for such discipline that this War of Independence will always remain the most glorious period of Maratha history.”

New History of the Marathas v1.c19: Chapter XV

Contents

Chapter XV

2. Shahu in captivity

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