Shivaji: The Grand Rebel

by Dennis Kincaid

“Their manners are simple and honest. They are proud and reserved. If any one is kind to them, he can be sure of their gratitude, but if any one injures them they will take their revenge. They will risk their lives to wipe out dishonour. If any one in distress appeals to them, they will lay aside all thought of self in their anxiety to help. Even if they have an insult to avenge, they never fail to warn their enemy. In battle, if they pursue the fugitives they always spare all who surrender. . . . These men love study and there are many heretics among them.”

A Maratha who has only one penny left will spend that on butter to smear on his fingers and then sit at the door of his house washing his hands to give his neighbours the impression that he has just dined sumptuously.2

On April 16th, 1627, Jijabai gave birth to a second son whom she called Shivaji.

Father Stevens,

For all his studies in European culture and his Latin training, he surrendered to the charm of the freshly-developing Marathi language. “Like a jewel among pebbles,” he wrote, “like a sapphire among jewels, is the excellence of the Marathi tongue. Like the jasmine among blossoms, the musk among perfumes, the peacock among birds, the Zodiac among the stars, is Marathi among languages.”

Aurangzeb himself rose and bathed before dawn, prayed and then took a light meal. He was a vegetarian, and never ate at any meal more than a few herbs and green vegetables.

The war thereafter languished. It was obvious that Bijapur would never be able to subdue Shivaji; nor could the Marathas at this stage hope to take Bijapur. But the power of Bijapur was broken and Shivaji was willing to make peace on condition of the recognition of his independence. Negotiations for permanent peace were opened in 1662. The envoy chosen by the Bijapur government was Shivaji’s own father, Shahaji.

In spite of periods of official coldness between Shivaji and the Company, the English were increasingly impressed by Shivaji’s qualities. When Aurangzeb turned his attention to crushing the Marathas, most observers predicted an early collapse of the new state; but the English governor of Bombay considered Mogul success improbable. “’Tis well known,” he wrote, “that Sevagy is a second Sertorious and comes not short of Hannibal for Stratagems.” And presently “that Grand Rebell” is referred to with half-amused admiration as “our old and dear friend Sevajy.”

In contrast to the splendour of Shivaji’s court on ceremonial occasions, the Maratha armies presented a disappointing spectacle. Fryer summed them up roundly as “Starved Rascals, accustomed to Fare Hard, Journey Fast and take little Pleasure.” In fact, “they looked like our old Britains, half naked, and as Fierce.” But the same critic admitted their superiority in some respects to the Mussulman armies in being “of a rougher Temper, more Hardy and less addicted to the soft vanities of Musick, Pomp or Stateliness.” Unlike the soldiers of the Mogul armies they were subject to severe discipline, disobedience often entailing death. No women were allowed into the camp, nor was the wife or mistress of any soldier permitted to follow the armies on campaign. This wholesome provision, unprecedented in that age in Asia or (save for the New Model) in Europe, gave to Shivaji’s forces a mobility hitherto unknown in Indian warfare.

Englishman3 writing in 1788, said that he had seen bodies of fifty to sixty thousand Maratha horse4 advance across country for many days in succession at the rate of fifty miles a day.

The same anonymous Englishman noted how fond the Marathas were of their horses and how cleverly they trained them. “By being constantly with their riders, who are fond of caressing and talking to them, they acquire the intelligence and docility of more domestic animals. They are taught to stop when in full gallop and to turn round instantly upon their hind legs as upon a pivot.”

The revenue system of Shivaji is the basis of the present agricultural administration in British India.

All his councilors were Brahmans, with the exception of the War Minister, who was a Maratha.

It was inevitable that for lack of other intellectuals Brahmans should predominate among Shivaji’s ministers; but it was unfortunate. One day the power of the Brahman officials would grow so great that a Brahman Mayor of the Palace would eclipse Shivaji’s descendants.

Muazzam, who trusted his father as little as his father trusted him, had spies among the Emperor’s servants and one of these reported to him that this order was on the way. The Prince, though lazy and incompetent, had some sense of honour and refused to be a party to deliberate treachery. Moreover, he had met Shivaji with Jaswant Sing and had been charmed. He sent a secret runner to warn Shivaji not to accept any Mogul invitations.

A second important source of revenue was the state monopoly of alcohol, especially the palm liquor, toddy. The brothels, more numerous than in any other Indian city, were the distributing centres of toddy, for the prostitutes could only retain their licences if they persuaded their clients to drink a certain amount of liquor and thus contribute to the State’s revenue.5 There were more than twenty thousand prostitutes in Golconda.

the Emperor, weighed down with age and disillusion, staggered back towards, the north, all about him the roar of rebellion and the crumbling of an empire. He turned his face to the wall and sighed out his life in bitter grief—and under his pillow was found a document concluding with the remark, “Never trust your sons and ever keep in mind the saying, ‘The word of a King is barren.’”

So then he was put to death by torture. Imperial revenge helped Sambhaji to expiate his many faults.

An interesting feature of this siege was the number of experiments in plastic surgery made by the Mogul surgeons. The citizens of Bijapur cut off the noses of all Moguls they caught and certain army doctors with the Imperial forces restored the missing noses with skin from the wounded men’s foreheads.

When the news reached Delhi, Aurangzeb, though his face lit up with joy, was yet stirred to a speech of unusual chivalry. “He was a great captain and the only one who has had the magnanimity to raise a new Kingdom. My armies have been employed against him for nineteen years, and, nevertheless, his state has been always increasing.” (Orme).