Shivaji and His Times c8.s27.10

c8.s27.10

∗ Here I follow K. K. ii. 190 and Storia, ii. 138. But Sabhasad, 49, says that he begged for Ram Singh's dagger in order to kill Jaswant! The prolific imagination of the Hindi poet Bhushan has distorted the incident into the following absurd shape: "On the day of the Court festivity [birthday], Aurangzib sat on the throne like Indra, with his subjects around him. But the sight of all this splendour could not make Shiva tremble. He made no salam, he despised the pomp and force of the Padishah......They made him stand in the ranks of the 5-hazari mansabdars, as if he were not distinct from them. Bhushan says that Aurangzib's ministers had no sense of propriety. He (Shivaji) could not get the sword from the belt [of Ram Singh] and the Muslim (Aurangzib) saved himself [by running] into the ghushalkhana." (Bhushan, Granthavali, pp. 66, 70, also 68.)