Khafi Khan’s Muntakhabu-l Lubab notes, “Shivaji had made a strict rule that wherever his soldiers went they were not to harm mosques, the Quran or women. If he found a volume of Quran, he would show respect to it and hand it over to his Muslim servant. If any helpless Hindu or Muslim were found, Shivaji would personally look after them until their relatives came to take them.” Shivaji’s chief justice, Raghunath Pandit Rao, in a letter of 2nd November 1669 writes, “Shrimant Mararaj has ordained that everybody is free to follow his religion and nobody is allowed to disturb it.” Those who try to
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