Shivaji The Grand Rebel

by Dennis Kincaid

In spite of the character of a crusade which Ramdas’s blessings gave to Shivaji’s long struggle, it is remarkable how little religious animosity or intolerance Shivaji displayed. His kindness to Catholic priests is an agreeable contrast to the proscriptions of the Hindu priesthood in the (largely Marathi-speaking) Indian territories of the Portuguese. Even his enemies remarked on his extreme respect for Mussulman priests, for mosques and for the Koran. The Muslim historian Khafi Khan, who cannot mention Shivaji in his chronicle without adding epithets of vulgar abuse, neverthe-less acknowledges that Shivaji never entered a conquered town without taking measures to safeguard the mosques from damage; whenever a Koran came into his possession he treated it with the same respect as if it had been one of the sacred works of his own faith; and that whenever his men captured Mussulman ladies they were brought to Shivaji, who looked after them as if they were his wards till he could return them to their relations. It is perhaps worth remembering that this century in Europe was noteworthy for the activities of Tilly in Germany and of Cromwell in Ireland.