New History of the Marathas v1.c6.38

v1.c6.38

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