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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s8.t6: Śivāji as Avatāra in the Śiva-Bhārata

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s8.t6

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Śivāji as Avatāra in the Śiva-Bhārata

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In the imagination of Maratha poet-patriots Śivāji was certainly a *yugāvatāra*. In the Sanskrit epic *Śiva-bhārata*,¹⁷ complete as it is in thirty-two *adhyāyas*, Kavīndra Paramānanda has left no room for doubt on this point.

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¹⁷ Edited by S. M. Divekar with a lengthy Marathi introduction, Poona (1927); P. K. Gode: "Harikavi *alias* Bhānubhatta, A Court Poet of King Sambhāji and His Works" (*Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute*, Poona, Vol. XVI., 1935).

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In the very first chapter this *Śivā-bhārata* is described as a *purāṇamiva nūtanam*, i.e., something like a new *Purāṇa*. It is said to be known in all the words. The messages of *dharmaśāstra* and *arthaśāstra* are likewise referred to as inspiring the contents of this epic (I. 18).

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In this work *Śivāji* has the reputation of being the protector of gods, Brāhmaṇas and cows (*devadvijagavām-goptā*) and *durdāntayavanāntaka* (destroyer of the vehement Yavana). He is, besides, known to be an *amśa* (part) of god Viṣṇu and descended from the parts of the eight *Lokapālas*, gods of the quarters (I. 12, 15).

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In chapter VI. we are presented with the miracle of Śivāji's birth. He is none other than a child of God Viṣṇu himself (2-7). In order to favour the *devas* (gods) and suppress the *daityas* (evil doers) the Lord of the worlds got himself born in the family of Bhonsles (VI. 38).

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It is with the application of the six military attitudes (*ṣāḍguṇyasya prabhāvena*), we are told, that Śivāji's father Śāhāji reduced the whole of Karṇāṭa to submission (XI, 3). The author has a command over racy and vigorous style adapted to ballads and chronicles and has his *forte* in descriptions of wars and war-preparations. One may believe that Paramānanda had always with him Kālīdāsa's *Raghuvamśa* as his literary model. And as for some textbook of *nītiśāstra*, the author was by all means familiar with its contents. At certain points the *Śiva-bhārata* reads almost like a *nīti*-treatise in motion or historic application. In the colophons it is called an *Anu-Purāṇa*. We may call it a text book of applied politics in verse.

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The story is given out in the form of questions from a number of Paṇḍits in Benares and the replies by Paramā- nanda. If one overlooks the interview character of this piece one will not fail to find in it the application of Kālidāsan "fine frenzy" to some of the objective facts of solid history. But most of this material is to be taken as pure poetry and enjoyed as such, without reference to history.

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The work is said to have been composed in the lifetime of Śivāji. Nay, it is alleged to have originated in his express order to describe all his *charitra* (exploits) commencing with his grand father Maloji (I. 36-37). But curiously enough the story comes down to Śivāji's conquest of Ratnāgiri (1661). Whatever be the historical basis, the work has grown into a treatise on *dharma*, *artha*, *kāma*, *mokṣa*, horses, elephants, forts, and what not. *Śiva-Bhārata* has turned out to be nothing short of a *rājanīti śāśvatī*, i.e., a text of eternal politics (I. 40).

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The *Śiva-Bhārata* appears to have been composed both in Tamil and Sanskrit. The Tamil text is said not to be very old.

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Incidentally, attention may be called to the Sanskrit *mahākāvya*, *Sambhājicharita* (1685) by Harikavi, a court-poet of Sambhāji. This is but another instance of the continuity and renaissance of the Sanskritic tradition as fostered by Śivāji the Great.

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