History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c60.s17: § 24. Shivaji's escape from Agra.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c60.s17
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§ 24. Shivaji's escape from Agra.
v4.c60.s17.1
Shivaji turned to his own inner resources to effect his liberation. After a few days of captivity, he made a loud profession of submission and fear and entreated courtier after courtier to intercede with the Emperor for his pardon, but with no success. He, however, succeeded in getting permission for his Maratha escort to return to the Deccan. The Emperor felt that he would then have fewer enemies to watch and Shivaji would be utterly friendless at Agra.
v4.c60.s17.2
The Maratha civil officers, too, at a hint from their chief, returned home in small parties. Being thus freed from anxiety about his followers, Shivaji set about devising plans for his own escape. He feigned illness and began to send out of his house every evening sweetmeats for Brahmans, religious mendicants and courtiers. These were carried in huge baskets slung from a pole which was borne by two men on their shoulders. The guards searched the baskets for some days and then allowed them to pass out unchallenged. This was the opportunity for which Shivaji had been waiting. In the afternoon of 19th August, he sent word to his guards that he was very ill and had taken to his bed and that they should not disturb him. His half-brother Hiraji Farzand, who looked somewhat like him, lay down on his cot, with a quilt covering all his body except the outstretched right arm adorned with Shivaji's gold wristlet,—while Shivaji and his son crouched down in two baskets, which were safely sent out shortly after sunset through the line of unsuspecting guards, being preceded and followed by baskets of real sweets.
v4.c60.s17.3
The baskets were deposited at a lonely spot outside the city; the porters were dismissed; and then Shivaji and his son issued forth and made their way to a village six miles from Agra, where the trusty Niraji Ravji (his Chief Justice) was waiting for them with horses. After a hurried consultation in a jungle the party divided; Shivaji with his son and three officers, Niraji Ravji, Datta Trimbak and Raghu-mitra, a low caste Maratha, smeared themselves with ashes like Hindu ascetics, and hastened towards Mathura, while the others took their own way homewards.
v4.c60.s17.4
Meanwhile, at Agra, Hiraji lay in bed all that night and well into the afternoon of the next day. The guards who peeped in in the morning were satisfied when they saw Shivaji's gold bracelet on the sleeper's wrist, and a servant sitting on the floor massaging the patient's feet. About 3 P.M. Hiraji quietly walked out of the house with the servant, warning the sentries at the gate, "Make less noise; Shivaji is ill and under treatment." Gradually the guards' suspicion was aroused; the house seemed strangely deserted; no crowd of visitors came to see Shivaji as usual; and there was no sound, no stir in the house. They entered his room and found that the bird had flown! They at once ran with the astounding news to their chief Fulad Khan, who reported it to the Emperor, ascribing Shivaji's flight to witchcraft and saving himself from all blame.
v4.c60.s17.5
"The Rajah," so he said, "was in his own room. We visited it regularly. But he vanished all of a sudden from our sight. Whether he flew into the sky or disappeared into the earth, is not known, nor what magical trick he has played."
v4.c60.s17.6
Aurangzib was not the man to be taken in by such a tale. A hue and cry was immediately raised, and fast couriers and sergeants-at-arms were sent off to watch the road to the Deccan through Berar and Khandesh, and to warn the local officers to look out for the fugitives. The Maratha Brahmans and other followers of Shivaji were arrested wherever found, at Agra or near it. But by this time Shivaji had had twenty-four hours' clear start over his pursuers.
v4.c60.s17.7
The vigorous inquiry made at the capital gradually brought to light the details of the romantic story of the flight. Suspicion naturally fell on Ram Singh, as he had so often tried to avoid the responsibility for Shivaji's presence at Agra, and it was his interest to effect the Maratha chief's safe return home, for which he and his father had pledged their honour. Some of the Maratha Brahmans who were caught admitted, probably under torture, that their master had fled with the connivance of Ram Singh. The Rajput prince was punished, first by being forbidden the Court and then by being deprived of his rank and pay.