Shivaji and His Times c5.s4: §4. Shivaji's birth and infancy
Shivaji and His Times c5.s4
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§4. Shivaji's birth and infancy
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Shahji Bhonsle's first wife Jija Bai bore him two sons, Shambhuji and Shivaji. As the elder one died in early youth, history is not concerned with him. Shivaji, their second son, was born in the hill-fort of Shivner, which towers over the city of Junnar, in the extreme north of the Puna district. His mother had prayed to the local goddess, Shivā Bhavāni, for the good of her expected child, and she therefore named him after that deity.
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Of the exact date of his birth there is no reliable contemporary record. Even his courtier, Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad, writing in 1694, is silent on the point.
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Of the two different dates of his birth given by two different groups of writers, I am inclined to prefer Monday, 10th April 1627, which is recorded by the descendants of his secretaries.
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The stories told in the later Marathi bakhars about the history of his parents during the year preceding his birth and the events of his own life up to the age of twenty, are in many points contrary to authentic history.
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and in others improbable, or at all events unsupported by any evidence. We know from the contemporary Persian histories that during much of the period from 1630 to 1636 Shahji led a roving life, subject to frequent contests with diverse enemies and change of residence. Under these circumstances, he would naturally have left his wife and infant son for safety in a stronghold like Shivner. But in reality they seem to have both fallen under his neglect. It is a fair inference from the known facts that by the year 1630 or thereabout Jija Bai lost her husband's love, probably with the loss of her youth, and Shahji forsook her and her little son Shivaji and took a younger and more beautiful wife, Tukā Bai Mohité, on whom and whose son Vyankoji he henceforth lavished his society and all his gains.
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It is expressly stated in the contemporary Persian history *Padishahnamah* (i. B. 150) that in March 1636 Shahji's family was living at Shivner. As Shivner was one of the seven forts ceded by Shahji to the Mughals in the terms of the treaty of October 1636, Shivaji could not have continued to live in that fort much longer after the end of that year. Shahji himself immediately after his defeat went to Bijapur and entering the Adil Shahi service was sent on campaign further south. He secured from that Government a grant of the Puna district from Chakan to Indapur and Shirwal as his jagir, and appointed Dadaji Kond-dev to administer the tract, telling him, "My wife Jija Bai is living in the fort of Shivner and has brought forth a son named Shivaji. Bring her and her son away and keep them in your charge [at Puna] and supply them with money for their necessary expenses."
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Thus Shivaji took up his residence at Puna, probably early in 1637. He was, therefore, practically a stranger to his father for several years after his birth (if we leave out of our account Shahji's visits to Shivner in the intervals of his campaigns), and he became totally so after this removal to Puna.*
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Her husband's neglect drove the mind of Jija Bai inwards and deepened her natural religious spirit, which she imparted to her son. Shiva grew up in solitude, a mateless child, without brother sister or father. The isolation of their life drew mother and son very close together and intensified his love for her till it became almost an adoration for a deity. From a very early age, he was naturally thrown on his own resources, and learnt to carry out his own ideas unaided, and to take the initiative without any sense of subordination or responsibility to some higher authority. In the condition of the homes of their boyhood, their early life and training, and the development of their character,—even as in the steps by which they mounted to thrones,—the forsaken son of Shahji Bhonsle was the exact parallel of the forsaken son of Hasan Sur. Shivaji and Sher Shah were not only alike in character and genius, but also grew up amidst like circumstances.
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§5. Condition of the Puna jagir, 1637.
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Shahji's jagir of Puna and Supa, formerly held under Nizam Shah and henceforth under Adil Shah, included the Puna district from Chakan to Indapur, Supa, Shirwal, Wai (? Walti) and Jadgir, (T. S. 8a), or a tract bounded on the west by the Ghats, on the north by the Ghod river, on the east by the Bhima and on the south by the Nira river.
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∗ In 1639 Jija Bai and Shivaji in the company of Dadaji paid a visit to Shahji at Bangalore, but were sent back to Puna with him. (Sabh. 7.)
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The Puna district that Dadaji took over was in a sadly ruined condition. Six years of warfare had desolated the land, and the work of the invading soldiery had been completed after their departure by robber chiefs who tried to profit by the anarchy. Indeed, the province had so recently passed from the Nizam-Shahi ownership to that of Bijapur that the authority of the new Government had not yet taken root there. It was only the rule of a strong jagirdar that could have given peace and prosperity to the district; but during 1630-1636 Shahji had been forced to lead a life of constant movement, danger and warfare. The Puna and Thana districts at the extreme north-western corner of the kingdom of Bijapur, therefore, formed a No man's Land, with none to administer and defend them.
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In 1630 Shahji had plundered and seized the Nizam-Shahi country round Puna. Soon afterwards a Bijapuri army had looted and burnt Puna, Indapur and other villages of Shahji and "totally desolated them." (B. S. 287.) Next he had recovered possession of them by force. Then had followed the famine of 1630-1631, the most terrible in the sad history of the Deccan (Pad. i. A. 362.) The Junnar or North Puna tract was the scene of repeated Mughal invasions in 1634-'36. Khan-i-Zaman in the course of his campaign against Shahji (July—October 1636) penetrated to Puna, but there was probably nothing left for him to plunder or burn there. During the dissolution of the Ahmadnagar sultanate, a revenue accountant (deshpande) named Moro Tandev Honap, "a proud rebel, well acquainted with the country round the Bhima, had raised a tumult and seized the neighbourhood of Puna. All these disorders had devastated the whole kingdom from Ahmadnagar to the boundary of Wai and Shirwal." (T. S. 8a.)
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The desolation caused by man preying on his species favoured the growth of wild beasts. The Puna district, especially the Sahyadri hill-side forming its western border, was now infested by large numbers of wolves, which thinned the population and hindered cultivation. Dadaji Kond-dev offered rewards to the hillmen for killing the wolves and thus cleared the whole tract of these pests in a short time. He conciliated the hillmen and induced them to settle in the valleys and extend cultivation by offering very liberal terms. "Leases were granted to the effect that the new tenants should pay a rent of only Re. 1 per bigha* in the first year, Rs. 3 in the second, Rs. 6 in the third, Rs. 9 in the fourth, Rs. 10 in the fifth, Rs. 20 in the sixth and the same rate as the older tenants in the 7th year, and at the rate of Malik Ambar's land settlement from the 8th year onwards. Thus the whole country was brought under tillage." (T. S. 9a.) When Dadaji took charge of the Puna jagir, its revenue on paper was only 40,000 hun, or Rs. 1,60,000, according to the current rate of exchange. (Sabh. 102.) But only a fraction of this amount was actually collected.
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The memory of his able and beneficent administration was long preserved, and a later chronicle tells us, "He did such strict justice that the very name of robbers and usurpers disappeared from the district." (T. S. 9a.) An anecdote illustrates his punctilious sense of justice:
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∗ Does the Persian translator here use bigha in the sense of chawar (or 120 bighas)?
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“He planted a garden of fruit trees, named it after Shahji, and gave strict orders that if any one plucked even a leaf from the trees, he would be punished. One day Dadaji with his own hand plucked a mango from a tree. For this offence he was about to cut off the hand when the other people prevented him. To show his respect for the rules, however, he wore an iron chain round his neck” (T. S. 9b), or according to another account, “kept the offending arm confined in a long glove!” (Malkare, 20.)