Shivaji and His Times c13.s3: §3. Shivaji's claims in the Eastern Karnatak
Shivaji and His Times c13.s3
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§3. Shivaji's claims in the Eastern Karnatak
c13.s3.1
According to the usual good luck of Shivaji, a most valuable source of local knowledge in the scene of his projected invasion was secured by him before he started. Raghunath Narayan Hanumanté had been left by Shahji as the guardian and regent of his younger son Vyankoji and had ruled the province with absolute authority. When Vyankoji grew up, he naturally wished to be master in his own dominions and could not brook the supremacy of his minister any longer. During his long years of power, Raghunath had dishonestly enriched himself from the public revenue* and he was now called upon to render accounts.
c13.s3.2
∗ Kaeppelin, 155. Martin (tr. by me in Mod. Rev.); Bertrand's Mission du Madure, 1st ed., tome 3.
c13.s3.3
At this he resigned his post, took leave of his master on the pretext of making a pious pilgrimage to Benares, and left Tanjore with his younger brother Janardan and all their family and property. But power and wealth were still the gods adored by the aged ex-minister. His pilgrimage was made to the holy shrine of Adil Shah, where his reputation and personal cleverness so impressed the Government that he was pressed to enter its service as a high minister. But he could not have failed to see that the Adil-Shahi monarchy was tottering to its fall, and he was therefore glad to accept Shivaji’s invitation to come to his Court instead of joining a Muslim master. Raghunath went to the Maratha capital and was received with the highest honours.
c13.s3.4
But his revenge had yet to be gratified against his late master. In his private audiences with Shivaji, Raghunath constantly described the vast extent and riches of the Karnatak kingdom left by his father to Vyankoji, and the ease with which it could be conquered, and urged the king to claim his lawful share of this patrimony from his half-brother. The great local knowledge and influence of the Hanumante family he promised to place at Shivaji’s service in effecting its conquest. It is very doubtful whether Shivaji would, of himself, have cared to assert his right to his father’s Karnatak territory. He certainly did not need it. As he rightly said on his death-bed, “I received [from my father] the Puna territory worth only 40,000 *hun*, but I have won a kingdom yielding one *krore* of *hun*." (Sabh. 104.)*
c13.s3.5
∗ Martin says that on Shambhuji's accession the governor of the Karnatak was disgraced suddenly for his “malversations scandaleuses,” but was afterwards re-established in his service. [Kaep. 167.] The officer meant was evidently Raghunath, the diwan, as Shantaji was not reinstated.