History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c59.s6: § 7. Adil Shah imprisons Shahji, 1648.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c59.s6
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§ 7. Adil Shah imprisons Shahji, 1648.
v4.c59.s6.1
Shivaji’s annexations had reached this point by the middle of 1648, when his career of conquest was suddenly checked by alarming news from the Karnatak. There on 25th July his father was arrested and all his property and contingent attached by the Bijapuri commander-in-chief, Mustafa Khan, then investing Jinji in the South Arcot district.
v4.c59.s6.2
Shahji was brought in chains to Bijapur, and kept under guard until he submitted to his sovereign.
v4.c59.s6.3
Shivaji was in a terrible dilemma: he could not submit to Bijapur and thereby sacrifice all his gains and hopes of future greatness; nor, on the other hand, could he leave his father in danger of torture and starvation. By diplomacy alone could he rescue his father, and diplomacy pointed to only one path as open to a man in his position.
v4.c59.s6.4
Shivaji, therefore, appealed to Prince Murad Bakhsh,* the Mughal viceroy of the Deccan, entreating him to secure the Emperor's pardon for Shahji's past conduct and protection for him and his sons in future, and offering to come and join the Mughal service on receiving a written assurance of safety. To this Murad replied on 14th March 1649 telling him to send first a trusty agent to report his demands. This was evidently done, and Murad after reporting the case to the Emperor and learning his wishes, wrote to Shivaji on 14th August asking him to come to Court with his father and kinsmen, that he might be created a 5-hazari, while Shahji would get back the rank he had once held in the Mughal peerage. Still later, on 31st October, Murad wrote directly to Shahji to inform him that Shivaji's appeal for his release had been received, and that as the Prince was soon going back to the imperial Court, he would there report the prayers of Shahji to the Emperor and take his orders. Shah Jahan, however, did not put pressure on Adil Shah to release Shahji.
v4.c59.s6.5
∗ Shivaji neither wrote nor sent any envoy to the Emperor at Delhi All his negotiations about his father were conducted with Murad, as the four original Persian letters of Murad in Parasnis's possession show
v4.c59.s6.6
The official history of Muhammad Adil Shah tells us that Shahji was set at liberty, through the mediation of the Bijapuri noble Ahmad Khan and in return for the surrender of three forts (Bangalore, Kondana and Kandarpi) to the Sultan, (at the end of 1649).
v4.c59.s6.7
As the release of Shahji had been conditional, Shivaji kept comparatively quiet during the six years from 1649 to 1655, instead of giving the Bijapur Government new provocation by fresh annexations. His chief acquisition at this time was the hill-fort of Purandar, gained by treachery.