chhatrapati shivaji maharaj

    Hello everybody! The date is 1660, and we continue our documentary about the life of Chhatrapati sh Shivaji Bhonsle Maharaj , "the Great Maratha", for the last episode of this threefold series about him. In the north of his territory, Pune, the city he was born in, just got invaded by the powerful Mughal Empire which was the powerful Islamic empire that controlled the majority of the Indian subcontinent. Having sent an army of 150,000 to 300,000 soldiers against the Maratha people. It's easy to imagine that they did not come to joke around... On the other hand, the Marathas could only rely on a maximum of 20,000 soldiers. At the same time, the Bijapur Sultanate, kingdom out of which he carved his own territory, seeks revenge and attacks from the South and almost manages to get rid of Shivaji, who escaped a deadly trap thanks to one of his commanders' sacrifice. The year 1660 is a tough year for the Marathas as they are forced to withdraw and give in the territory on all fronts. Things start to change around 1661 and 1662, Shivaji is once more confronting the Bijapur army that is now led by Sultan Ali Adil Shah II, as you understood if you watched the previous documentary.

             The Maratha guerrilla once again turns the tide, and inflicts heavy losses to the Sultan's army, managing to eventually defeat the Sultanate unable to respond to the Maratha tactics. Consequently, the Sultan of Bijapur, Ali Adil Shah II, asks for a ceasefire, as he already did in the past. But this time stands by it, allowing the Marathas to focus all their efforts towards fighting the Mughal imperial troops. There was no time to celebrate this victory as the situation in the North was critical and the fall of Pune delivered a hard blow to the Marathas Yet they didn’t lose hope and Shivaji wins another battle, this time against the Mughals, by routing an army that had the Mughal heavy artillery and was made of 20,000 to 35,000 men with Kar Talab Khan as a leader who was sent from Pune. With about roughly 1,000 men, Shivaji sets a deadly trap for them in the narrow Bhor Ghat path and rises victorious while the Mughals scatter in chaos. Everywhere they can, the Marathas, who can act in a decentralized manner, apply their guerrilla tactic against the Mughal groups, hence hindering them from settling outside of cities and fortresses. From there, the war gets bogged down for many months. At the beginning of 1663, after months of this harassment based warfare, Shivaji sets up a plan to reconquer Pune, that is still occupied by a very important garrison under the orders of Shaista Khan. There are 2 versions of this plan's start, here is the one that I found the most likely: 

            Shivaji and around 200 of his men prepare the operation and start by capturing Mughal patrols around Pune to be able to dress as Mughal imperial soldiers, allowing them to infiltrate the camps at night. From then on, all versions of this story match more or less: the infiltration goes well, Shivaji and twenty of his companions get inside the Lal Mahal, which was Shivaji's palace before the city fell into the hands of the Mughals and in which Shaista Khan set his quarters and his harem. At the same time, the warriors who do not accompany him inside are positioned to cover the axis of their retreat After getting rid of those who hindered their way and were likely to report their presence, the Marathas spread death amongst the guards and followers of the Mughal general, killing at least one of his sons and missing him by only a bit as he escaped through the window, leaving at least one of his thumbs in his flight, if not all of his fingers according to other versions, sliced by one of Shivaji’s companions. The Maratha and his men then manage to escape the camp and the city, as planned. But the ruse does not stop there! To escape safely, Shivaji planned to light torches on one of the hills around Pune, giving the impression of a stationed army.

              The elite cavalry and personal guard of Shaista Khan made of several thousand heavily armed riders rush to the position thinking to find Shivaji and his men, before realizing once arriving there that they have been tricked. While the guard of Shaista Khan, fooled, seeks to return to Pune in the middle of the night, the Maratha horsemen emerge from the darkness and charge, spreading death in the ranks of this elite unit before disappearing back into the dark. Once again, this meticulously prepared plan is a real success and the effect on the Mughals' morale is devastating. The Muslim soldiers of the Emperor's army, due to the long months of guerrilla warfare and this operation, now see in Shivaji an incarnation of the devil, able to appear at any moment to take their life. Humiliated, mourning and frightened, Shaista Khan declares to the Mughal Emperor that he is unable to ensure his safety in Pune, unable to ensure his safety in Pune or even elsewhere on the territory claimed by Shivaji, and retreats with his army to Aurangabad. Shivaji, takes over Pune and several forts in the area, allowing the saffron flag of the Marathas to float again on his lands.

          It is now the Marathas that take the offensive: Shivaji successfully launches the following year a retaliatory raid on the rich Mughal city of Surat to increase the Marathas’ funds. Unfortunately for him, he faces an Empire that does not lack resources, and the humiliation of Pune does not calm the ardor of Emperor Aurangzeb, on the contrary. He who will be the last of the Great Mughals sends once again a gigantic army, around 150 000 men, but with a reworked command, putting an experienced Hindu Rajput soldier at its head, less brutal in his methods and much more efficient. This time and despite a harsh resistance that you are now able to picture without any problem, the Maratha forts and strongholds fall one after the other again and Shivaji is not able to defeat the Mughals that were now led methodically. As he could lose everything, the Maratha was forced to negotiate and signed the treaty of Purandar in 1665 in which he was recognized as the ruler of his domain but yielded many forts and had to give up his independence. From now on Shivaji has to respond to the call to arms from the Mughal Empire in wartime and has to travel to Agra, capital of the Mughal Empire at the time, accompanied by his son Sambhaji and part of his army to meet the Emperor and pay his respects. Received the following year with a cold welcoming and a voluntary lack of respect, he protests vigorously to the Emperor and ends up locked up with his son... situation out of which he gets himself again through a ruse! He manages to evacuate his troops thus preventing them from being endangered, and then flees with his son by disguising himself as a Hindu priest or pilgrim.

            He then returns to Maharashtra without any further trouble. To avoid a new conflict as the Emperor is now battling other internal and external enemies, having demobilized his armies of the Deccan, and keeping in mind the combat abilities of the Marathas, does not try to lay hand on Shivaji once again and renews the Purandar agreements, while carefully avoiding inviting Shivaji back to his capital (Agra). Between 1667 and 1670 Shivaji made use of this period of calm with the Mughals to strengthen his position, once again at the expense of his favorite target: the sultanate of Bijapur, which he manages this time to subdue as well as the Sultanate of Golkonda forcing them to pay the chauth, a form of feudal tax, with the endorsement and support of the Mughals allowing for this display of strength and success to happen. The situation changes at the end of the year 1670, several reasons lead Aurangzeb to think he identifies serious collusions between his governor of the Deccan and Shivaji, going as far as fearing being overthrown by his governor with the support of the Maratha. It is difficult to say whether these fears were legitimate, the only sure thing is that the relationship between Shivaji and Aurangzeb never normalized, each accommodating with the situation by pragmatism. As a result, he resumed hostilities against Shivaji. Things will not go as planned for the Mughals during this new campaign. Shivaji, although losing the benefits of his arrangement with the Mughals such as the right to the chauth on Bijapur and Golkonda, still benefits from staunch support among the major Maratha families and the population. Having reinforced his position, organized his army on a model combining professional army and feudal levies, I specify this as it once again was quite innovative for the time and the area, and also benefiting from the support of the demobilized Hindu soldiers of the Mughal army. In just a few months, he took over all the concessions he had been forced to make 5 years earlier in Purandar. This is the kind of thing that must have stung Emperor Aurangzeb! The Mughal Empire sends a swift and brutal answer through its new generals. Thus, in late 1671, a Mughal mobile column under the command of Dilir Khan surprised the Marathas and managed to capture Pune, of which he massacred the entire population that was above 9 years old, before retreating on the approach of the army freshly levied by a Shivaji personally affected by the event, as you can imagine. 

                  

                chhatrapati shivaji maharaj

          For four years, and despite some short-lived successes like the one I just mentioned, the imperials stumble against the Marathas and are defeated several times, especially during the decisive battle of Salher where the situation both numerical and technology-wise was once again particularly unfavorable to the Marathas. At the same time, the Mughal Empire is experiencing growing unrest and is struggling with other problems and uprisings across its territory. Forced by these defeats and unrest, the grip loosens on Shivaji’s territory. It was during this new period of calm that the Maratha decided to formalize what was now a reality: Shivaji decided to found the Maratha Kingdom and was crowned in 1674. From then on Shivaji Bhonsle became the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Or if you pronounce it the french way: le Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj He launches major administrative reforms of its territory and enforces Marathi as the administrative language, as opposed to the so-called Persian language used by Muslim rulers. As a result, the language flourishes producing literature and more, eventually spreading across the sub-continent far beyond the regions from which Marathi originated. In the years following his coronation, in addition to continuing the development of his territories and his fleet, he successfully impels the expansion of the Maratha Kingdom to strengthen its position against Muslim rulers. Although a fervent Hindu, you have understood it by now, he is a meritocrat and does for example not hesitate to integrate Muslims or even European Christians in his armies and administrations, provided that they have given an unambiguous allegiance to the Maratha Kingdom. Thus, many of his admirals, because of the importance he attributes to his fleet, keep in mind it was a priority that was not common at the time, and his best gunners were Muslims or even Portuguese and contributed to the development of the young Hindu Kingdom.

               I have little doubt that you identified it, the Marathas at this moment of their history were very comfortable on a horse’s back or by foot, firmly holding a spear or a sword in their fist, but much less on the seas or behind a cannon. And that is something Shivaji understood well. In 1680, after 6 years of a hyperactive reign, Chhatrapati Shivaji fell seriously ill, probably dysentery, and drew his last breath only a few days before his 53rd birthday. Thus, is the story of the “Great Maratha”. Starting from Pune, he built the independent Hindu Kingdom by confronting and triumphing of the great powers of the time even though it seemed impossible, the Marathas being systematically in a position of heavy to very heavy numerical, technological and economic inferiority compared to their enemies. Similarly to (Napoléon) Bonaparte in Europe, Shivaji was not only an outstanding tactician and military strategist, but he was also an excellent organizer and manager of his possessions and resources, whose reforms, including the enforcement of Marathi, and the political legacy, left a heritage that is still relevant today. Few people in history combine these qualities which, with the help of fate, often succeed in raising themselves and their people to success so brilliant that the history of men remembers them for long centuries.   

Thank you all for following us! I hope you enjoyed this trilogy, it was a very consequent project for us which allowed you to discover not only a brilliant figure of History but also a culture and its people that are decisive to Indian History. It is for example mainly the Marathas that the English faced and with which the French will set agreements, not the Mughals! If you are interested, I have enough material to provide a short prologue to this trilogy, briefly sketching the follow-up and consequences of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, which is only the beginning of the fascinating rise of the Marathas. I will be happy to work on it for all of you.