1. Survey of the situation.
2. The family of the Bhosles.
3. Battle of Roshangaon.
4. Shahji's marriage, Shivaji born.
5. Battle of Bhatavadi.
6. Rebellion of Khan Jahan Lodi.
7. Shah Jahan's march against Nizam Shah.
8. Shahji's bold stand.
9. Moral of the two figures.

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1. Survey of the situation, 1605.—The political situation of Mahārāshtra towards the end of the sixteenth century must be borne in mind if we are to understand the rise of the Bhosles to royal power. The great Emperor Akbar after consolidating his Empire in North India decided to subjugate the regions south of the Narmada, but found that task not quite so easy as his earlier conquests. Three Emperors in succession had to expend their might before they could make a small headway in the Deccan.

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The death of Burhan Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar in 1594 gave rise to murders and intrigues in rapid succession and the confusion that ensued in the fortunes of that state was taken advantage of by Akbar, who at once sent an army for its conquest. At this critical hour the famous Chand Bibi stood forth boldly, organised a strong opposition, and heroically defended Ahmadnagar for some years. Eventually about the middle of 1599 Akbar himself marched southwards at the invitation of his trusted general Abul Fazl and occupied Burhanpur without opposition. His son Daniyal and the Khan Khanan were charged with the duty of taking Ahmadnagar at a time when internal dissensions precluded the effective defence of the place, and Chand Bibi the only capable leader was either murdered or constrained to take poison by her own servants. The town was stormed without much difficulty in August 1600 and formally surrendered on the 19th of that month. The young King Bahadur Shah and his family paid the penalty for their crime of independence by life-long imprisonment in the fortress of Gwalior. At this moment of success Akbar received the news of his son Salim being in open rebellion and was compelled to return hastily to the north.¹ Thereafter his fortunes rapidly declined and he died in 1605 without leaving a worthy successor.

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¹ Akbar by Vincent Smith, p. 277.

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The history of the Marathas would possibly have taken a different turn if Akbar had been succeeded by a more competent ruler than the slothful, easy-going, pleasure-seeking Jahangir. This trait of his character paved the way for the Maratha ambitions, which came to be fostered, although for his own ends, by the astute Malik Ambar, an Abyssinian Muslim in origin, who when young had been made a slave and brought to India by a merchant of Baghdad and sold to Chengiz Khan a minister of the Sultans of Ahmadnagar. The latter detected Ambar's capacity and trained him for the service of the Nizamshahi State. In a short time he became a power in the Deccan and set at defiance all Emperor Jahangir's efforts for over fifteen years. He practically re-made the history of the Deccan for that period with the help of many Maratha captains. The Abyssinian emigrants here gained opportunities unequalled elsewhere for displaying their rare capacity for sea-faring, land warfare, management of men and civil administration. They were no longer household slaves and palace eunuchs as in the north, but regents of kingdoms, generalissimos of armies, admirals of fleets, viceroys of provinces.

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Undaunted by the loss of Ahmadnagar, Malik Ambar selected Parenda, Junnar and Daulatabad in succession as temporary seats of safety for the new Sultan Murtaza Nizam Shah (1599-1631) and himself conducted the administration with consummate skill both in war and diplomacy, attending at the same time to the welfare of the subjects. He at last kept the Shah secure in the difficult fort of Daulatabad and established a separate city for administrative purposes at Khadki in the vicinity of that fort. This city was afterwards named Aurangabad when Aurangzeb became his father's viceroy in the Deccan in 1636.

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The various Maratha clans of the Deccan were dragging on their obscure existence in the service of one or other of the three Muslim potentates of the Deccan with hardly any idea at the time of asserting their independence. Among them the Jadhavs with their seat at Sindkhed in the vicinity of Daulatabad were then powerful in the service of the Nizam Shah. The Bhosles were at first comparatively insignificant. Maloji Bhosle the grandfather of Shivaji had to content himself by serving as a petty horseman in the employ of the Jadhavs. The cousins of the Bhosles, *viz.* the Ghorpades, served the Adil Shah of Bijapur, enjoying a small jagir at Mudhol. The clan of the Morés enjoyed almost royal power and influence in the hilly regions west of Satara, while rendering nominal service to Bijapur.

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Jahangir resumed his father's policy of subjugating the Deccan in 1608 and the war thus started continued practically till 1636 when Shah Jahan ultimately succeeded in putting an end to the existence of the Nizamshahi Kingdom. It was during the course of this long war that Maloji and Shahji Bhosle rose to prominence as helpmates of Malik Ambar. The period bristles with the names of captains on the two sides and with stirring incidents of a varying character. Fortunately two independent sources, Fuzuni Astarabadi's Persian account of Malik Ambar and the Sanskrit narrative of Parmanand named the *Shiva Bhārat*, help us to determine the main story of this struggle with tolerable accuracy.

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How Malik Ambar with his scanty resources resisted for fifteen years the power of the Mughal Emperor backed by his wealth and enormous resources and directed by the best generals and competent Shahazadas like Parwiz and Khurram, has become a problem in the history of the art of war. Ambar boldly opposed the Mughals by adapting his tactics to the geographical conditions of the southern regions and by developing a particular method of fighting the enemy, which is known as guerilla warfare and which Shivaji later used with such effect against his opponents.

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2. The family of the Bhosles.—The family of Shivaji claimed descent from the Sisodia Ranas of Udepur, but its name *Bhosle* has not been satisfactorily accounted for. There is no doubt that the ancestors of several present day Maratha families, as has been shown in the first chapter, migrated from the north and settled in Mahārāshtra, representing to this day the Rajput or Kshatriya blood. One tradition says that after the capture of the fort of Chitod by Ala-ud-din Khilji early in the fourteenth century (1303), a member of the ruling family of the Ranas, named Sajjan Sinh or Sujan Sinh escaped from the miseries of foreign conquest and wandered into the southern regions in search of employment during the troubled reign of Muhammad Tughlak. Sajjan Sinh died about 1350 and his fifth descendant Ugrasen had two sons Karna Sinh and Shubha Krishna. Karna Sinh’s son Bhimsinh received from the Bahmani Sultan the title of “Raja Ghorpade Bahadur,” with a jagir of 84 villages at Mudhol where the family still rules. Bhim Sinh’s descendants thus came to be known as Ghorpades who have now extensive branches at different places in Mahārāshtra. Shubha Krishna’s descendants are known as Bhosles and form a younger branch of the original family.²

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² The descent of the Bhosle family from the Ranas of Udepur has not been authentically proved. It is supported by copies (not originals) of some Persian firmans in the possession of the Rāja of Mudhol. But some scholars consider them spurious. The question of the origin of the Bhosles came for investigation at the time of Shivaji’s coronation when the rites due to a Kshatriya were denied to him. In this connection the student can study with advantage Shivaji’s circular letter dated 28th January 1677, printed by Kulkarni in No. 3 of his “*Old Historical Documents*”, p. 41. Some consider the name Bhosle as a corruption of the word Hoysal, a family which ruled at Dwara Samudra. But these Hoysals are known to have been a branch of the Yadavas. As Jija Bai came from the Yadava family, she could not have contracted marital connection with another Yadava family.

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A grandson of this Shubha Krishna was one Bābāji Bhosle who died in 1597. Babaji had two sons, Māloji (born in 1552) and Vithoji. Maloji, his son Shahji and Shahji’s son Shivaji are the three persons most intimately concerned with the events which form the subject of our present study. These Bhosles purchased the headship or *patilki* of Verul near Daulatabad and some other villages in the region of the rivers Godavari and Bhima and maintained themselves by managing their landed property and by military service under the Nizamshahi rulers. On the whole the members of the Bhosle family appear enterprizing, resourceful and self-reliant, men of strong will and pride, never submitting to an insult. Their family was numerous and always mutually helpful.³

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³ In contemporary writing their names are mentioned not singly but with the honourable word "Rāje" added after them, as Maloji Raje, Kheloji Raje, Vithoji Raje, etc. But this word Raje does not necessarily signify kingship. It was a common practice with most Maratha clans to add the word Rāje after their individual names. The practice is still kept up.

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Māloji and Vithoji possessed huge and strong bodies, too heavy, it is said, for the Deccani pony to carry. They were the *patils* of Verul (Ellora) a village near Daulatabad, and enlisted as guards in the service of Lukhji Jādhavrao the baron of Sindkhed, in the vicinity of Daulatabad which became the capital of the Nizamshahi State after Ahmadnagar had been lost. Lukhji, a descendant of the dethroned royal family of Deogiri, was at this time a noble of the first rank in the service of the Nizam Shah, wielding influence in the politics of the Deccan. The Bhosle brothers found employment as troopers under Lukhji Jadhav and at the same time managed their old landed property at Verul and other villages.

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The river Narmada has formed the main boundary between the northern and southern halves of this Indian continent. The first important post which the conquering armies from the north after crossing this river must secure in order to confirm their footing in the south, is Burhanpur on the river Tapti and its covering fort Ashirgad. The next advance is to the region of Daulatabad, Ellora and Aurangabad, about a hundred miles south of Burhanpur. Some 75 miles further south stands Ahmadnagar the main key for any northern conqueror to possess for holding the south. Burhanpur, Aurangabad and Ahmadnagar thus form the principal chain of posts and the region of bitter contest round which converges the present story of the Mughal advance and the Maratha resistance.

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3. Battle of Roshangaon.—Malik Ambar possessed a keen perception and a rare capacity for organization. He made friends with the ruler of Bijapur, the wise Ibrahim Adil Shah, who celebrated in his capital, under his own personal direction and at his own expense, the marriage ceremony of Malik Ambar’s son Fath Khan in 1609, that is, just about the time that Jahangir’s forces marched from Agra against Ahmadnagar. Malik Ambar improved the Nizam-Shahi state in various ways. His genius perhaps appears pre-eminent in so administering the Nizamshahi territories as to make the peasantry his best support. Ambar’s land revenue assessment scheme earned for him a unique reputation and became a model for succeeding rulers to copy. Agriculture and industry were so fostered by him in the state that the country became prosperous and brought in a regular income. Although he was a Muslim, his rule came to be much appreciated and respected by the Hindus; it was so entirely free from any religious persecution, that the Hindus became his best friends.

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It is not necessary here to discuss in detail the various expeditions sent by Jahangir to the Deccan and the measures adopted by Malik Ambar to thwart them. In 1608 Jahangir appointed to the government of the Deccan Abdur Rahim Khan-Khanan, a great and valiant noble of his Court, son of the famous Bairam Khan of Akbar’s days. When this general who had long served in the Deccan before, arrived on the spot with large forces, Malik Ambar assumed a most submissive attitude and by agreeing to the terms imposed, avoided open war and gained time for preparation. The Emperor, however, became impatient and sent large reinforcements under his son Parwiz along with several veteran generals. He later recalled Khan-Khanan, and appointed in his place his son Shah-Nawaz Khan. These two—Parwiz and Shah-Nawaz—brought the vigour of their youth into action and started all-round operations which continued for three or four years before a decision was reached.

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On behalf of the Nizam Shah, Malik Ambar organized his armies to oppose the Mughals in the vicinity of Jalna. Along with his Muslim commanders he had under him “Jadu Rao, Babaji Kante, Bhosle, Udaram Brahman of Mahur and other nobles of the Maratha race”. Profuse seduction was practised on both sides. Prince Parwiz and Shah-Nawaz Khan offered inducements to some of Nizamshahi commanders so that “ Adam Khan Habshi, Yaqut Khan, Jadu Rao, Bābāji Kante and Udaram Brahman deserted their master and accepted the Mughal service.” At last the battle was joined on 4th February 1616 at Roshangaon in a bend of the river Dudhna about 10 miles west of Jalna, when a crushing defeat was inflicted upon the troops led by Ambar.⁴ Malik Ambar fled for life and saved himself by taking shelter in the impregnable fort of Daulatabad. Shah-Nawaz razed to the ground Malik Ambar’s new capital Khadki and carried away enormous plunder to Burhanpur.

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⁴ See Sir Jadunath’s Malik Ambar, Ind. Hist. Quar., 1933-4. It is clear that Lukhji Jadhavrao deserted to the Mughals for the first time before the battle of Roshangaon; although he came back to his allegiance now and again, he continued his vacillating conduct to the last and thus came to be murdered in 1629. The Bhosle who fought for Malik Ambar at Roshangaon must have been Maloji.

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Shahzada Parwiz had already been recalled and even the success achieved by Shah-Nawaz Khan did not avail the Mughals much. For, as soon as the Mughal troops retired, Malik Ambar resumed his former game and soon recaptured all the territory that had been recently wrested from him. When the intelligence of this fresh advance on the part of Malik Ambar reached Jahangir, he reappointed Khan-Khanan as Governor of the Deccan and himself marched at once from Agra to Ajmere and thence despatched his third son Khurram with a large force against Malik Ambar. Khurram left Ajmere on 16 October 1616, and was joined at the ford of the Narmada by Khan-Khanan, Mahabat Khan, Khan Jahan and other renowned Mughal generals who were already working in the Deccan. In order to support this grand effort, the Emperor himself left Ajmere on 10th November 1616 and took up his residence at Mandu to be nearer the field of activities.

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Khurram at once started vigorous action. He sent his envoys to Bijapur demanding help and co-operation from the Adil Shah. Malik Ambar and the Adil Shah had not now the heart to offer any opposition to this formidable advance of the Mughals. They both sent costly presents to the Prince and agreed without the least demur to deliver over Burhanpur, Aurangabad and Ahmadnagar. Malik Ambar personally waited upon the Shahzada and delivered the keys of the various forts and the territory of Balaghat, *i.e.* the region of Berar. Khurram felt highly gratified with this easy victory for which he had not been required to fire a single shot or unsheath a single sword. Convinced that his task had been fully accomplished, he consigned the protection of the newly conquered territories to his two trusted generals Khan-Khanan and his son Shah-Nawaz Khan and returned in triumph to his father's presence at Mandu, (12 October 1617). Jahangir was so highly pleased with Khurram's quick performance and with the numerous costly presents he had brought with him, that he bestowed on him special honours and the grand title Shah Jahan, by which he came to be known thereafter. Khan Jahan Lodi, Udaram, and possibly Lukhji Jadhav and other officials from the Deccan came and paid their homage to the Emperor at Mandu. Convinced that the Deccan had been finally subjugated, the Emperor proceeded to Ahmedabad.⁵

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⁵ The British Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe arrived at Agra in January 1616 and travelled with the Emperor to Ajmere, Mandu and Ahmedabad. He left for England in August 1618. He has recorded some graphic details of the Mughal Court pertaining to this period and the Emperor's efforts to conquer the Deccan.

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But all this apparent victory was a hollow show adroitly got up by Malik Ambar. He immediately started his former aggression, this time with greater vigour than ever before. He first enlisted the support of both the Adil Shah and the Kutb Shah, explaining to them how it was essential in their own interest to form a confederacy against the common danger. They made vast preparations for a concerted plan to drive the Mughal forces back beyond the Narmada. In a short time they harassed the Mughal Governor Khan-Khanan at Burhanpur so severely that he sent piteous appeals to the Emperor for further provisions and help. Malik Ambar's advanced parties even crossed the Narmada and entered Malwa. An interval of nearly three years since Shah Jahan's achievement had wrought important changes in Jahangir's fortunes. Excesses had shattered his health. Serious plots were started at his court for seizing the imperial power. There was open jealousy on this account between Nur Jahan and Shah Jahan. The Emperor lost all his former vigour and nerve and became unfit to control his affairs. His only answer to Khan-Khanan’s piteous appeals was to once more request Shah Jahan to go to the Deccan and put down Malik Ambar’s rebellion.⁶

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⁶ The student should note the intrigues at the Imperial court at this time and Shah Jahan’s fears about his brother Khusru.

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Shah Jahan reached Burhanpur on 4th April 1621, at once pursued Malik Ambar with vigour and expedition and drove him back beyond the Godavari. The campaign was fought throughout the year. Malik Ambar finding himself unable to cope with the situation, once more made submission to the Prince and agreed to give up the territory that he had seized. This time Shah Jahan’s attention was riveted more upon the political developments at his father’s court than upon the conquest of the Deccan. He gave easy terms to Malik Ambar, retraced his steps in haste to Burhanpur, encompassed the end of his rival and brother Khusru, and left that place for the north on 24th March 1622. The next five years of Jahangir’s life were full of convulsion, intrigue, and plots for power in which Nur Jahan and Shah Jahan were mainly involved. It is necessary for a student fully to grasp the intricacies of the situation of the Mughal Empire during these five years, at the end of which Jahangir died and Shah Jahan succeeded him. It is these intricacies that gave the Marathas their coveted chance.

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4. Shahji’s marriage, Shivaji born.—This period of five years (1622-27) is full of stirring incidents and extreme unrest throughout India in which two great figures, Shah Jahan in the north and Shahji in the south, gradually emerge on the stage of history. Shah Jahan was born in 1592 and Shahji two years later on 15th March 1594. Their deaths similarly took place within a short interval of each other, in 1666 and 1664 respectively; the former lived for 74 years and the latter 70. They opposed each other in the Deccan for some eight years (1628—1636), when Shah Jahan came down in pursuit of Khan Jahan Lodi and with the intention of finishing the Kingdom of Ahmadnagar, which Shahji did his best to save with all his skill. Shah Jahan’s career is well-known to history, but as Shahji’s is obscure, it is necessary to give first a few facts of his ancestry and domestic history, which are also connected with the life of Shivaji.

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It has already been mentioned that Lukhji Jadhavrao, a descendant of the Yadav kings of Deogiri, was a powerful noble, holding lands and high military commands under the Nizamshahi rulers. The Bhosles were also a large family, comparatively poorer, possessing only a few villages in Patilship between Daulatabad and Poona. Tradition says that Māloji Bhosle took service under Lukhji Jadhav and used to stand guard at the gate of his palace. Once during the spring festival (holi) Jadhavrao invited Māloji and other subordinates for the usual ceremony of playing with red powder and dye. Māloji took with him his little son Shahji to the assemblage. Lukhji Jadhav had a daughter named Jija Bai, of nearly the same age as Shahji and seated her by his side. When during the ceremony the guests began to work the dye-syringes, the two children also amused themselves in the pastime. The comic sight impelled Jadhavrao to utter a casual remark, “How now, would not these two form a handsome pair?” Māloji heard the words, and at once in a loud voice called upon the assembly to bear witness that Jadhavrao had publicly betrothed his daughter to Shahji. Jadhavrao vehemently repudiated the construction put upon the words uttered in jest, and considered Maloji’s position too far below his own to warrant a family connection between master and servant. Thus a quarrel began between these two families, and Māloji quitted Jadhavrao’s service to seek his fortune elsewhere, so as to rise to a position in which he could demand Jadhavrao’s daughter in marriage for his son. He soon managed to amass some wealth and enhance his reputation, so as to figure prominently in higher circles. He repaired the old dilapidated temple of Ghrishneshwar at Verul and built a large tank at the shrine of Shambhu Mahadev near Satara and thus removed the scarcity of water at the place from which the large crowds of pilgrims had so severely suffered. Māloji was doubtless a man of resourceful and independent spirit.⁷ He succeeded in winning over the Nizam Shah probably through Malik Ambar. to sanction the match which Jadhavrao had spurned at. The Sultan of Ahmadnagar recognized the worth of Maloji's services in the struggle against the Mughal Emperor and bestowed on him a small jagir consisting of the districts of Poona and Supa, so that he became more of a peer to Jadhavrao. He then openly demanded the latter's daughter in marriage for his son and the ceremony took place at Sindkhed on 5th November 1605 (Margashirsha 5 of the bright half). Of this marriage was born Shivaji many years later.

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⁷ Highly eulogistic accounts appear to have been recorded in Sanskrit about the exploits of Māloji and Shahji, after Shivaji’s reputation

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The time of Shahji's marriage with Jija Bai coincided with the death of Akbar and the accession of Jahangir to the Mughal throne. The subsequent events connected with Jahangir's efforts to subjugate the Deccan have already been narrated. When Lukhji Jadhavrao deserted his master Nizam Shah and joined the Emperor's side, the loss was more than made up by Maloji's loyalty and attachment to Malik Ambar, whose methods of war and diplomacy proved for the Bhosles a veritable school of which the rising Shahji did not fail to take full advantage. Māloji died in 1620 and his mantle fell upon his son now 26 years old and worthy in every way. He soon became the right hand man of Malik Ambar.

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Shahji's marriage with Jija Bai, however, did not prove a source of conjugal felicity. The desertion of Jija Bai's father to the Mughals only served to widen the gulf between the two families. Shahji later took a second wife from the Mohite family of Supa and Jija Bai came to be practically neglected by her husband. Parmananda, the author of *Shiva-Bharat*, says that Jija Bai bore six sons to Shahji of which only two Sambhaji and Shivāji grew up to manhood, the others dying in infancy.⁸ Sambhaji is said to have been born in 1619 when Shahji was 25 years old.

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⁸ तस्य तस्यामजायन्त पुत्राः षट् शुभदर्शनाः । तेषां मध्ये शंभुशिवौ द्वावेवान्वयवर्धनौ ॥

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had been fully established. *Vide Sanads and Letters*, pp. 211—215, and the unique Sanskrit composition known as *Sambhaji's dan-patra*. Paramananda follows in the same strain in his *Shiva-Bharat*.

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When Māloji Bhosle died, his son Shahji inherited both his father's position and jagir. He had a younger brother, Sharifji, who was deeply attached to his person and cause. Together the two brothers pulled through weal and woe for many a long year.⁹. Maloji's brother Vithoji had eight sons, all strong and capable, who mostly followed Shahji's fortunes. Thus the large Bhosle family of young and energetic enthusiasts, possessing a spirit of valour and adventure and bent upon improving their fortune, proved a great national asset in the endeavours of Shahji to defend the Nizamshahi cause against Mughal aggression, particularly after the death of Malik Ambar.

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⁹ Their enmity towards the Jadhavs grew bitterer every day and resulted in many untoward scuffles of the type which Shakespeare has represented as occurring between the Montagues and the Capulets.

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5. Battle of Bhatavadi.—Shah Jahan, as has been already mentioned, left Burhanpur for the north in March 1622 and soon came to be involved in the war of succession which raged throughout India during the next five years and which threw into utter confusion the affairs of the Empire, thus supplying the welcome opportunity for Malik Ambar and Shahji to strengthen their position in the south. Shah Jahan turned a rebel and was vigorously pursued by Parwiz and Mahabat Khan. Lest Shah Jahan should join Malik Ambar and offer a formidable opposition, Jahangir directed Shahzada Parwiz to put down the combination. Malik Ambar accepted the challenge and resorting to his tactics of guerilla warfare managed to inflict a crushing defeat upon the combined force of the imperialists and the Adil Shah at the famous field of Bhatavdi, about ten miles east of Ahmadnagar. Graphic descriptions of this battle (date November 1624) are given by Paramanand and the Persian writers. The success was mainly due to Malik Ambar's superior tactics of long and patient manoeuvering for contriving an inescapable trap in which the Mughal and Bijapuri forces were caught. Thus this battle of Bhatavadi forms a landmark in the history of the Maratha rise, as Shahji's genius shone brilliantly on the occasion in support of Malik Ambar. He received the best lesson of his life in the art of overcoming a superior enemy through tactical methods. The full and detailed description of this battle of Bhatavadi given by the author of the *Shiva-Bharat* deserves a careful study. Shahji was therein heartily supported by his brother Sharifji and by Vithoji's sons.¹⁰

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¹⁰ About 20 names of Muslim generals and of more than a dozen Maratha captains are given by Parmanand in *Sh. Bh.* chap. 4 and most of the former are also mentioned by Fazuni Astarabadi. These two independent Persian and Sanskrit authorities confirming each other, enhance the value of the *Shiva-Bharat* as a work based on authentic sources.

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This phenomenal success of Malik Ambar gave Shahji an importance and worth of which Malik Ambar soon became jealous. Relations between them became intolerable and Shahji to save his reputation quitted the service of the Nizam Shah and sought his fortune under the Adil Shah. This transfer appears to have taken place soon after the battle of Bhatavadi, some time in 1625. Shahji, however, retained his hold on his jagir of Poona, which was situated on the border-lands of the two kingdoms and proved a fruitful source of contention between them. Soon after Shahji's going into the service of Bijapur his second wife, Tukabai in 1630 gave birth to a son, named Ekoji, or Vyankoji in the popular language, who later founded the Maratha kingdom of Tanjore.

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While Shahji was away at Bijapur, Malik Ambar died on 14th May 1626, with the result that the fortunes of Ahmadnagar began thereafter rapidly to decline. Its end was hastened by two other events of political importance, the death of the Emperor Jahangir on 29th October 1627 and the accession to power of his ablest son Shah Jahan on 4th February 1628. Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur who had patronized Shahji at his court also died on 12th September 1627. Another event of equal importance to Maratha history was the birth of a son to Jija Bai and Shahji on 6th April 1627,¹¹ who was named Shivaji and who later founded the Maratha independence. The year 1627 is thus a turning point in the history of the Deccan. During that year Prince Shah Jahan, then a rebel against his father, lay in concealment in the vicinity of Junnar while his family was kept in hiding in the fort of Asheri near the port of Mahim on the west coast. It was only when he heard of his father's death in the Punjab that Shah Jahan left Junnar for the north, and secured the Mughal throne for himself, blinding his rival Shahryar.

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¹¹ Jedhe gives Shivaji's birth-date as 19th February 1630.

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6. The rebellion of Khan Jahan Lodi.— This Mughal grandee of first-rate eminence and power, became the immediate cause of a sudden turn in the politics of the Deccan. Khan Jahan was an able Afghan general and diplomat to whom Jahangir had entrusted the government of the Deccan. During Shah Jahan's rebellion, Lodi's position became delicate between the two powerful factions at the court. As governor of the Deccan he received conflicting orders and executed what he considered best. He was commanded to hunt out Shah Jahan from the Deccan; but he was not sure of getting from the Emperor the timely support he needed for that purpose. He thus came to incur the bitterest displeasure of Shah Jahan and prepared for the evil day by appeasing the authorities of the Nizamshahi government. Hence much of Shah Jahan's achievement in the conquest of the Deccan now came to be nullified by Khan Jahan. Shah Jahan did not forgive Khan Jahan for having failed to support his cause, and made it his first concern after securing the throne to punish him severely for his sins of commission and omission.

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At the beginning of his reign Shah Jahan was full of vigour and activity, and not the luxury-loving pacific monarch he developed into in his later years. During his father's regime he had repeatedly distinguished himself in his expeditions to the Deccan, the circumstances and situation of which he had thoroughly grasped. He well knew the policy of Malik Ambar and the power and influence of Shahji and the other Bhosles. He was personally acquainted with the geographical formation of the districts of Nasik, Junnar and north Konkan and the declining condition of the Kingdom of Ahmadnagar. The first subject that attracted his attention after his coronation, was the subjugation of the Deccan, particularly the Nizamshahi state which had so long dragged on a precarious existence and which had successfully defied the might of both Akbar and Jahangir for a quarter of a century. Shah Jahan rightly judged that the troubles of the Deccan were the creation of Khan Jahan Lodi’s mischievous policy and set himself to right them. It is this Mughal expansion in the south which first Shahji and later his son Shivaji undertook to resist. Shah Jahan, however, took nine years to accomplish the conquest of Ahmadnagar, contrary to his expectation of a short campaign.

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When Shahzada Parviz who held the viceroyalty of Mughal Deccan, died in October 1626, Khan Jahan Lodi was appointed to that office, and he had under him an intrepid Afghan comrade, named Darya Khan. Khan Jahan had for some time felt it difficult to hold his position in the Deccan, as he was not supported from the headquarters during the last days of Jahangir, and found it expedient to appease the Nizamshahi authorities by ceding some of the conquered territories in order to avoid an open conflict for which he was not prepared. He restored the portion of Berar known as Balaghat to the Nizam Shah, receiving a cash payment of three lacs in return. This was the territory which Shah Jahan had himself conquered some years before from Malik Ambar.

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When Shah Jahan came to the throne he confirmed Khan Jahan Lodi in his post and commanded him to take back the territory of Balaghat. This the Khan did not do his best to effect, and Shah Jahan called him to his presence to explain his conduct. During the visit the Khan conducted himself rather insolently, and fearing some severe punishment fled away to save his life. He was hotly pursued and having lost two sons and a son-in-law in an action on the river Chambal, he broke out in open revolt and sought protection with Murtaza Nizam Shah in the Deccan. The latter welcomed this powerful Mughal noble as a providential contrivance to save himself from the Mughal conqueror, gave him all the help he could afford and assigned him the district of Bid for his expenses. About this time the Nizam Shah kept his minister Fathkhan in confinement, called back Shahji from Bijapur to his service, and prepared for a stiff contest with the Emperor. He did not realize that the time of confusion and vacillation in the imperial council had ended with the last days of Jahangir, and that a new, strong and inflexible opponent was now on the throne of Delhi.

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7. Shah Jahan’s march against Nizam Shah.—Shah Jahan immediately realized the danger and personally undertook a strong offensive against the ruler of Ahmadnagar. He left Agra on 3rd December 1629 and after crossing the Narmada on the 12th February following, arranged his forces in separate divisions under able commanders and started a vigorous offensive with the double purpose of putting down Khan Jahan Lodi and subjugating the Kingdom of Ahmadnagar. He similarly threatened Adil Shah and obtained powerful armed aid from his state to co-operate with him. These Bijapuri contingents were commanded by Ranadulla Khan and Kanhoji Jedhe, Maratha Deshmukh of Kari. Against these formidable opponents on all sides, Khan Jahan Lodi and Shahji Bhosle could not hold out long. We are not here concerned with the fate of Khan Jahan. In the closing months of 1630 defeats were inflicted upon him. His stronghold of Bid was captured and the rebel with his helpmate Darya Khan became fugitive. They turned again to the north. An action took place near Sironj on 11th January 1631 in which Darya Khan was killed. Five months later, on 10th June, Khan Jahan too was killed near Kalinjar after fighting valiantly to save himself.

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The history of the Jadhavs and the Bhosles is interrelated with the measures which Shah Jahan took in this southern invasion, which for various reasons did not promise him easy or early success. During the two years 1630-31 a terrible famine ravaged the southern lands. The monsoon failed for two successive years and no crop could be reared. The descriptions of this famine form a heart-rending story.¹² No road was safe and masses of hungry beggars fell upon the stocks of food-provisions meant for the Mughal army. So Shah Jahan found his task most difficult to accomplish. He, however, did his best to prosecute the war. He particularly started underhand intrigues in the councils of the Nizam Shah. Lukhji Jadhav had long ago deserted to the Mughals with all his family and troops. He was a powerful and trained captain, and now backed by the support of the Emperor, he proved to the Nizam Shah a perpetual thorn in his side acting from his seat at Sindkhed. Under the pretext of negotiating some important political move, the Nizam Shah called the whole brood of the Jadhav Captains for an interview in the fort of Daulatabad on 25th July 1629, and murdered most of them in cold blood. Shahji’s father-in-law Lukhji, his sons Achloji and Raghuji and grandson Yashwantrao lost their lives in this unexpected treachery. Lukhji’s brother Jagdevrao and son Bahadurji alone escaped to Sindkhed. These wanton murders created a feeling of revulsion and disgust against the Nizam Shah, particularly among his Maratha followers; and even Shahji found his life unsafe. He had already received tempting calls from the Emperor to desert the Nizam Shah and go over to the Mughals. He thought it prudent, therefore, under the pressure of circumstances, to give up the rapidly declining fortunes of the Nizam Shah, and accepted a *Mansab* under Shah Jahan. For about a year and a half, from November 1630 to March 1632, Shahji served the Mughal cause. For this desertion the Bijapuri general Murar Jagdev burnt his residence at Poona.

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¹² Elliot & Dowson, Vol. 7, p. 24 ; *Shiva Bharat* 8.53-55 ; Moreland, “*From Akbar to Aurangzeb*”, p. 212 ; Thompson and Garratt, *Rise and Fulfilment*, p. 18.

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In the meantime the murder of the Jadhavs proved disastrous to the Nizam Shah’s cause. He restored to power his former minister Fath Khan; but the latter finding no escape out of the hopeless situation and hard-pressed by the imperialists, determined to seek his own selfish ends by sacrificing his master. He first put Murtaza Shah under confinement, placed his infant son Husain Shah on the throne, and conducted negotiations for his own submission to the Emperor. Soon after in March 1631, Murtaza Nizam Shah, who had so long suffered the agonies of varying fortune, came to be murdered. Fath Khan unable to hold out against the Emperor any longer, made his submission to him.

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At this time Shah Jahan from his headquarters at Burhanpur while directing the various operations for prosecuting the war, had to suffer a domestic bereavement. His favourite queen Mumtaz Mahal who was with him, died at Burhanpur during child-birth on 7 June 1631 and her dead body was taken to Agra a few months later to be finally deposited in the famous Taj Mahal. This personal loss and the prevailing famine caused to the Emperor a severe depression of spirits, and leaving the conduct of the campaign to his able general Mahabat Khan he returned to Agra in November 1632.

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8. Shahji’s bold stand.—As soon as Shah Jahan left for the north, Shahji found his position with the Mughals untenable. He deserted the Mughal cause and returned to the side of the Nizam Shah, determined to make one more heroic effort to resuscitate the falling fortune of that state under which he and his family had so long thrived. Mahabat Khan, however, won over Fath Khan and captured the fort of Daulatabad on 7 June 1633. Fath Khan and his master Husain Nizam Shah were secured and despatched to a Mughal prison.

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But the fall of Daulatabad did not prove the end of the Nizamshahi State. At this critical moment Shahji stepped in boldly to maintain its existence. For him indeed it was a dangerous enterprise, to reconstruct an all but extinguished state and carry on a war unaided against the Emperor’s might. Within only three months of the fall of Daulatabad Shahji selected Pemgiri or Bhimgad, a strong inaccessible fort of Ahmadnagar as the capital of the Nizamshahi State, placed there a young Nizamshahi prince on the throne (September 1633) and in his name carried on the administration as before. In this adventure Shahji managed to enlist the sympathies of the Adil Shah and his minister Murar Jagdev, who personally came to his help with fresh and well equipped armies. That a small Jagirdar like Shahji should dare to throw down an open challenge to Shah Jahan and invite his wrath upon his head, shows how self-confident and resourceful Shahji must have been. He quickly collected men and money and made preparations for a stubborn fight. Murar Jagdev joined him from Bijapur as is evidenced by the incident of Shahji contriving to weigh an elephant for a propitiatory rite which Murar Jagdev performed at the junction of the Bhima and the Indrayani on the occasion of a solar eclipse on 23 September 1633, when this Brahmin Vazir of Bijapur distributed in charity articles equal in weight to that of the elephant. In memory of this occurrence the village Nagargaon was renamed Tulapur (the town of weighing), a name which it still bears.

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In the hazardous step which Shahji had now taken, the training he had received under Malik Ambar in guerilla warfare, proved of immense advantage.

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Mahabat Khan was extremely disturbed by this fresh move of Shahji. He had fondly believed that his task was over and that the credit of subjugating the Deccan was finally his. Shahji's bold stand embarrassed him so severely that he sent repeated requests to the Emperor for fresh troops and funds, and at the same time sent agents to Bijapur calling upon the Adil Shah to withdraw his help from Shahji. But Mahabat Khan did not succeed and was so cruelly rebuked by the Emperor that the veteran general, unable to bear the situation put an end to his life on 26 October 1634. Says Ranade :—

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“The conditions of Ala-u-Din's invasion of 1316 were repeating themselves after three hundred years with a momentum which made resistance hopeless. The Hindus had then yielded to the avalanche which swept over the land. They had, however, learned wisdom under the hard discipline of subjection to foreign masters. They had been able to turn the edge of foreign conquest and even succeeded in taming the violence of the foreigners.”¹⁸

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¹⁸ 13. *Rise of the Maratha Power*, pp. 43-44.

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But the task of Shahji was by no means easy. He soon found himself very hard-pressed in all directions. Some time before this, the Mughals, according to one tradition, succeeded in capturing Shahji's wife Jija Bai, but she cleverly managed to save the young Shivaji from capture by concealing him in an out of the way place when she received a secret warning that Mahaldar Khan the Mughal guardian of fort Trimbak, was on her track. This Khan was formerly an intimate friend of Shahji and his family, but now a servant of the Mughals. Jija Bai is said to have fallen into Mahaldar Khan's hands and remained confined for a time at the fort of Kondhana (Sinhgad) and was later released on payment of a ransom by her uncle. The details of this incident are nowhere fully recorded, but have been referred to by Grant Duff on the authority of an authentic paper which he had secured but which is now missing. This must have taken place before 1636.

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It has also been recorded that Shahji, when hard-pressed applied to the Portuguese Governor of Chaul (Revdanda) seeking shelter for his womenfolk and children there, in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Mughals. The Portuguese, however, had been recently so severely handled by Shah Jahan that they pleaded their inability to comply with Shahji's request, but suggested they could obtain for his family a safe retreat under the jurisdiction of the Siddis of Janjira. Any way these stray notices disclose how Shahji was situated in his life and death struggle.

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Shah Jahan was fully roused to this new danger, and once more exhibited phenomenal activity by himself marching rapidly to the Deccan in 1635. He left Agra on 29th September, crossed the Narmada on 4th January 1636 and quickly reached Daulatabad. At this time he had with him his son Aurangzeb, now seventeen years old, Mirza Raja Jayasinh, Shaista Khan and other young and active generals, who later on figured so prominently during Shivaji's days. Immediately on his arrival Shah Jahan devised a consummate plan of operation for closing upon Shahji simultaneously from all directions, for which he assigned definite tasks to his various commanders. Aurangzeb at the centre was personally entrusted with the general execution of the measures determined upon. The Sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda were forced into cooperation with the Mughals under a threat of complete extinction.

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Shahji had collected under him about 12,000 troops, mostly men disbanded after the fall of Daulatabad, and he now started raiding the Mughal territory as far south as Bedar and concentrated his main activity in the difficult regions of the north Konkan, himself moving between Junnar and Sangamner, with fort Mahuli as the headquarters of the puppet Nizam Shah. Shaista Khan captured fort Trimbak from Shahji and hunted him through Junnar and Sangamner as well. In his extremity Shahji placed the Nizam Shah in fort Mahuli, a few miles north of Kalyan, and began his last effort. The Bijapuris finding further resistance hopeless, accepted the terms that were offered to them by the Mughals and deserted Shahji. The Kutb Shahi court of Golkonda also was similarly coerced into submission, so that within a few months Shahji alone had to bear the whole brunt of this relentless war. Shah Jahan had won the greatest triumph of his life. After forty years of strife, the affairs of the Deccan came at last to be settled. The position of the Emperor was asserted throughout the land beyond challenge. On 6 May 1636 Shah Jahan sent to Adil Shah a solemn letter impressed with the vermillion impression of his palm, promising observance of the terms agreed upon, with an appeal to God and to the Prophet to be witnesses. An abstract of the treaty was engraved on a gold plate and delivered to Adil Shah.

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This treaty sealed Shahji’s fate. He came to be severely excluded, cut off from the outer world and hemmed in at fort Mahuli. He could not now hold out against the full might of the Emperor. Muhammad Adil Shah well knew the worth of Shahji and tried his best to save him from utter ruin. He sent a gentle hint to the Emperor that the latter’s presence was no longer necessary in the Deccan, that the peaceful avocations of the people suffered from the constant movements of large armies; that Shahji alone was no longer of sufficient consequence to detain the Emperor for the supervision of further operations and that Adil Shah undertook the responsibility of taking away from Shahji the five forts which he still held. Shah Jahan in his wisdom accepted this sound advice and after entrusting the remaining campaign to his general Khan Zaman, his son Aurangzeb and the Adil Shah, himself left Daulatabad on 11 July 1636 for Agra, after finishing the conquest of the Ahmadnagar kingdom. There now remained the two vassal kingdoms of Bijapur and Golkonda which dragged on their precarious existence for some fifty years more.

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Within three months of the departure of Shah Jahan Shahji came to his last gasp. Ausa and Udgir which he had held were soon reduced. Khan Zaman joined by the Bijapuri troops under Ranadulla Khan and his lieutenant Kanhoji Jedhe, marched upon Junnar and a detachment arrived before Poona to seize Shahji’s home. Shahji fled to the mountains of Kondhana and Torna, which the Mughals found it impossible to approach owing to the heavy rains that had started. As soon as the rains ceased, he was hunted out and finally resorted to fort Mahuli, which was difficult of access from outside. The Mughals soon arrived and sat down before the gates of that fort in August 1636, stopping all ingress and egress. Says the Jedhe Karina, “ The fort of Pemgiri was too small, so Shahji removed the Sultan to Mahuli which was quickly invested by Khan Zaman and Ranadulla Khan. At this time Kanhoji Jedhe Ranadulla Khan’s adviser kept secret communication with Shahji. When the provisions on the fort were exhausted, Shahji’s men began to starve and he was compelled to seek terms. In October he offered through Ranadulla Khan to hand over the fort and the puppet Nizam Shahi prince on a promise that Shahji should agree to serve Bijapur and that in the Nizam-Shahi territory south of the river Godavari, which had fallen to the sphere of Bijapur, a jagir should be given to Shahji in payment of his services. This was reported to Bijapur and a written promise to that effect was received. The terms having been agreed to on both sides, Shahji handed over the fort of Mahuli to the Mughals and was honourably received by Ranadulla Khan in a personal meeting. Thereupon Shahji had a long cordial talk with Kanhoji Jedhe and his principal agent Dadaji Krishna Lohkare. Shahji said to Kanhoji, “ You are a powerful Deshmukh of Maval ; and I have secured this territory as my jagir. So you must help me in establishing my control thereon.” Kanhoji replied, “ I will serve you with all my heart if you obtain Ranadulla Khan’s permission to this transfer of service.” This was agreed to and Shahji left for Bijapur and entered the service of that state. Kanhoji Jedhe thereafter remained Shahji’s helpmate. Shahji himself writes, “ When I quitted Mahuli and hurried to Bijapur within the space of 20 days along with Ranadulla Khan, the Shah of Bijapur conferred on me a jagir of four lacs and commissioned me for the conquest of the Karnatak.”¹⁴

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Śivabhārata — Paramānanda, Sanskrit