History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c59.s5.4

v4.c59.s5.4

The Mavals or western belt of the Puna district, stretching along the rugged forest-clad side and foot of the Sahyadri range, were the homes of a sturdy, healthy, and brave race of peasants called Mavlés. From them Shivaji drew his earliest comrades, his most devoted followers, and his best soldiers. In the company of Mavlé chieftains of his own age, young Shivaji wandered over the hills and forests of the Sahyadri range, and along the mazes of the river valleys, thus hardening himself to a life of privation and strenuous exertion, as well as getting a first-hand knowledge of the country and its people. During his residence at Puna his plastic mind was profoundly influenced by the readings from the Hindu epics and sacred books given by his guardian and other Brahmans, and still more by the teaching of his mother. The deeply religious, almost ascetic, life that Jija Bai led amidst neglect and solitude imparted by its example, even more than by her precepts, a stoical earnestness mingled with religious fervour to the character of Shivaji. He began to love independence and loathe a life of servile luxury in the pay of some Muslim king. It is, however, extremely doubtful if at this time he conceived any general design of freeing his brother Hindus from the insults and outrages to which they were often subjected by the dominant Muslim population. An independent sovereignty for himself he certainly coveted; but he never posed as the liberator of the Hindus in general, at all events not long afterwards.