Shivaji and His Times c5.s1.2

c5.s1.2

In the middle of the 16th century, a Bhonslé named Babaji was living peacefully on the humble gains of agriculture and the dues of his office as headman (patil) of the villages of Hingani Beradi and Diwalgaon in the Puna district (Patas sub-division.) His two sons, Maloji and Vitoji, quarrelled with the other people of the place and migrated with their wives to the village of Verul (Ellora) at the foot of the Daulatabad hills. The prospects of agriculture here were unpromising, and the two brothers went in search of employment to Jadav Rao of Sindhkher, a Nizam Shahi noble, and entered his service as common soldiers (bargirs.) The tradition runs that at a festive gathering in his house, Jadav Rao praised the beauty of Maloji's little boy Shahji and his own daughter Jija Bai, drew them together on his knees, and cried out that they would form an excellent match, and that Maloji immediately stood up and called upon the other guests to witness that his master had betrothed his daughter to his son,—for which presumptuous claim he was forthwith dismissed by Jadav Rao.