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Shivaji and His Times c17.s7: §7. Religious policy

Shivaji and His Times c17.s7

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§7. Religious policy

c17.s7.1

Shivaji's religious policy was very liberal. He respected the holy places of all creeds in his raids and made endowments for Hindu temples and Muslim saints' tombs and mosques alike. He not only granted pensions to Brahman scholars versed in the Vedas, astronomers and anchorites, but also built hermitages and provided subsistence at his own cost for the holy men of Islam, notably Baba Yaqut of Keloshi (4 m. s. of Bankot on the Ratnagiri coast.) (Sabh. 33.) "The lost Vedic studies were revived by him. One maund of rice was (annually) presented to a Brahman who had mastered one of the books of the Vedas, two maunds to a master of two books, and so on. Every year the Pandit Rao used to examine the scholars in the month of Shravan (August) and increase or decrease their stipends according to their progress in study. Foreign pandits received presents in goods, local scholars in food. Famous scholars were assembled, honoured and given money rewards. No Brahman had occasion to go to other kingdoms to beg." (Chit. 85, 43.)

c17.s7.2

Shivaji's spiritual guide (guru) was Ramdas Swami, one of the greatest saints of Maharashtra, (born 1608, died 1681.) An attempt has been made in the present generation to prove that the Maratha national hero's political ideal of an independent Hindu monarchy was inspired by Ramdas; but the evidence produced is neither adequate nor free from suspicion.* The holy man's influence on Shivaji was spiritual, and not political. After the capture of Satara, (1673) Shivaji installed his guru in the neighbouring hill-fort of Parli or Sajjangarh, and guides still point to the credulous tourist the seat on the top of Satara hill from which Shivaji used to hold converse with the saint, across four miles of space! A charming anecdote is told, that Shivaji could not understand why Ramdas used to go out daily on his begging tour, though his royal disciple had made him rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and that he next day placed at his feet a deed making a gift of all his kingdom to the saint. Ramdas accepted the gift, appointed Shivaji as his vicar, and bade him rule the realm thenceforth not as an autocratic owner, but as a servant responsible for all his acts to a higher authority. Shivaji then made the tawny robe of a Hindu sannyasi his flag, *bhagwe jhanda*, in order to signify that he fought and ruled in the livery of his ascetic lord paramount, and conducted himself "As ever in his great Taskmaster's eyes."

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