New History of the Marathas v1.c9.28

v1.c9.28

Shivaji henceforth undertook rapid expansion all round, steadily building up on the original foundation, but carefully avoiding conflict with powerful neighbours and removing internal opponents who showed jealousy for his rise. Most of the Deshmukhs of the Mavals gradually joined him and willingly accepted his lead. But there were some who had a long hereditary greatness to boast of, and whose devotion to Bijapur was too strong to make them respond to the national call. The Morays of Jāvli surnamed Chandrarāo at the western foot of the Mahābleshvar hill, were an ancient Deshmukh family of respectability and high Kshatriya pretensions, as a branch descended from the great Chandragupta Maurya, a claim which was denied to the Bhosles. The Morays were allied by family ties to most of the other Maval Deshmukhs and refused to join Shivaji's standard. It thus became the first necessity for Shivaji to disarm the hostility of the Morays, as obviously one sheath cannot hold two sharp swords. Shivaji for years meditated upon the least harmful way of dealing with this prickly thorn. For long he waited patiently and left no stone unturned to find a friendly solution for an increasingly irritating situation, which soon became aggravated by the appointment of Afzal Khan to the Governorship of Wai in the year 1649. The Khan was explicitly commissioned to put down Shivaji's growing power, and he lost no opportunity of encouraging the Morays to oppose Shivaji's moves.