Shivaji and His Times c5.s7.8

c5.s7.8

The only redeeming feature of this dark episode in his life is that the crime was not aggravated by hypocrisy. All his old Hindu biographers are agreed that it was an act of premeditated murder for personal gain and not a pardonable homicide done in self-defence or in the heated blood of an open fight. Even Shivaji never pretended that the murder of the three Mores was prompted by a desire to found a "Hindu swaraj," or to remove from his path a treacherous enemy who had repeatedly abused his generous leniency.∗