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History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c60.s14: § 19. Shivaji’s fears and hopes from a journey to the Mughal Court.

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c60.s14

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§ 19. Shivaji’s fears and hopes from a journey to the Mughal Court.

v4.c60.s14.1

Jai Singh had undertaken to send Shivaji to the imperial Court. But it was no easy task. In the Treaty of Purandar, Shivaji had expressly stipulated that he was not to be called upon to enter the Mughal military service (mansab), nor to attend the imperial Court. There were strong reasons for it. For one thing, he and his countrymen had no faith in Aurangzib’s word and believed the Emperor to be capable of any act of treachery and cruelty. Then, again, the Maratha chief had an inborn repugnance to bending his head before a Muslim; he had been brought up in the freedom and solitude of hill and woodland, away from cities and Courts; he had imbibed the orthodox Hindu spirit from his mother and his tutor, from the comrades of his boyhood and the saints whom he adored; and he had risen to independent sovereignty without ever filling any subordinate post as the servant of a higher authority. He was therefore at first averse to visiting the imperial Court.

v4.c60.s14.2

But Jai Singh plied him with hopes of high reward and "used a thousand devices" (as he repeatedly wrote in his letters), to induce him to go to Agra. The Maratha chronicles assert that Jai Singh gave Shivaji hopes that after his visit to the Emperor he was likely to be sent back as Viceroy of Mughal Deccan, with sufficient men and money for the conquest of Bijapur and Golkonda. The Emperor never committed himself to any such promise, and the Persian histories and Jai Singh's correspondence are silent about it.

v4.c60.s14.3

Besides the problematical viceroyalty of the Deccan, Shivaji had some humbler but more necessary objects which could be gained only by a personal interview with the Emperor. He had requested that the Emperor should order the Siddi, now an imperial servant, to cede Janjira island to him. According to a modern and unreliable chronicle, (Chit. 107), he had also hopes of gaining the imperial sanction to his plan of exacting chauth from Bijapur territory. On these points the replies from Delhi had been evasive; but much better result could be expected from an interview and personal representation.

v4.c60.s14.4

In spite of these temptations, Shivaji hesitated long. Both he and his friends were as much alarmed at the idea of his going to the Mughal Court as at the prospect of his interview with Afzal Khan. They feared that a visit to Aurangzib would be only rushing into the jaws of an ogre (Ravan). But the soothsayers whom he consulted assured him of a safe return home.

v4.c60.s14.5

Jai Singh took the most solemn oaths possible for a Hindu that Shivaji would not be harmed during his visit, while the Rajput Rajah’s son and agent at Court, Kumar Ram Singh, similarly pledged his word for the safety of Shivaji during his stay at the capital. In the Maratha council of ministers the majority favoured the journey.

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