Shivaji – A childhood hero

Have you ever felt the urge to turn back time and revisit your childhood? To not have a care in the world? No notion of salaries and taxes? To long for the next visit to the cinema? When your biggest investment was the candy worth a full 2 rupees. When Sachin was the one and only Master, no questions asked. Hell, the biggest worry in my life was getting scolded if I reached home late after playing in the evening and listening to the dreaded ‘Wait till your father gets home!’

I can go on and on about the things and the emotions attached, which I long for, now that I am well into my twenties. But right now, as I write this post, the one thing that is at the forefront of my mind is the time I spent with my maternal grandparents in Goa. Everyday, after the day’s quota of mischief was completed my grandfather regaled me with stories and anecdotes of the great kings of India in the past.

One among them was a man called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. I don’t even remember the first time I heard this name, but I must have been barely five or six years old. Over the course of my visits to Goa, there was always a new facet of Shivaji’s existence that enthralled me and filled me with awe.

Shivaji was born around 1630, to Shahji Bhosale and Jijabai Jadhav. Jijabai had a great influence on the young Shivaji and stories about the Ramayana and the Mahabharat had a major impact on Shivaji. I always thought of Shivaji as a maverick. Somebody you might call badass today. Let’s look at just some of the incidents from his life that has shaped this opinion of mine –

1. The concept of ‘Hindavi Swarajya’ first germinated in Shivaji’s mind. This was later adopted by the great Bal Gangadhar Tilak during the Indian Independence movement. This in no way talks of rule by Hindus. Rather, it talks of removing foreign military and political influences from India.
2. Many of the senior posts in his army and administration were occupied by Muslims. Shivaji was truly a secular king.
3. He was a master administrator and general who used guerrilla tactics to devastating effect.
4. He had a fort in his possession before he turned 17. His exploits led to his father being put in jail!
5. He killed the Adilshahi general Afzal Khan of Bijapur, a man almost twice his size, through sheer cunning and brilliance. It sent out ripples so strong and so wide, that far away in Delhi, the mighty Mughal emperor Aurangzeb identified Shivaji as a threat to the Mughal empire. Shivaji was barely 30 at the time!
6. Within a year, he completely routed the army sent to exact revenge for Afzal Khan’s death. The nascent Maratha army got almost 2000 horses and some elephants from this battle.
7. He escaped the siege of Panhala fort, and moved through the cover of night. His destination was Vishalgad, but the forces of Siddi Jauhar were hot on his heels. This escape was made possible through the heroic rearguard action of Baji Prabhu Deshpande. Along with 300 men, he volunteered to hold back the pursuers at a narrow pass called Ghod Khind, creating a window for Shivaji to successfully reach his destination. He suffered many wounds but continued to fight and breathed his last only when he heard the cannon fire from Vishalgad, which signalled that Shivaji had reached Vishalgad. Take that, Leonidas!
8. Another landmark victory was the one over Shaista Khan. Aurangzeb sent his maternal uncle Shaista Khan, along with almost 2,00,000 troops to put down this menace that he called a ‘Mountain Rat’. Shaista Khan succeeded so far as to occupy Shivaji’s residence in Pune after making life tough for everyone in the region, the Lal Mahal. What could Shivaji have possibly done? The man infiltrated Pune along with 200 of his men, using a wedding procession as a cover! That’s a Bollywood script right there. He entered the Lal Mahal, attacked Shaista Khan, who narrowly escaped with only a few of his fingers cut. This failure on Shaista Khan’s part was a big embarrassment for the Mughal emperor.
9. As a retaliatory move to Shaista Khan’s antics, and also to replenish the fledgling kingdom’s coffers, Shivaji sacked the city of Surat! Surat, at the time was a wealthy Mughal trading center.
10. The Treaty of Purandar would have completely broken any king and his kingdom. The treaty, which Shivaji had to accept, after a string of losses to Mirza Raja Jai Singh stipulated that Shivaji return 23 of his forts and pay 4,00,000 ruppes as compensation to Aurangzeb. TWENTY THREE FORTS! This was not all. Additionally, his son Sambhaji was to become a Mughal Sardar and he himself was to serve the Mughal court. This could have been the end for the Maratha Empire even before it started. Nobody would have blamed Shivaji. People would remember him today, and say, well, he tried. So what did our hero do?
11. Shivaji was invited to Aurangzeb’s court, but made to stand at the back of the court. This was very insulting. Shivaji took offence to this and stormed out of the court. he was put under house arrest in Agra. What he did next is the stuff of legend. He feigned illness and started sending out daily offerings of sweets to various holy men and places as offerings for his health. When this became a routine and the daily checks on this cargo became lax, he escaped the house arrest by placing himself and his son INSIDE the big boxes of sweets.
12. Soon after, he started reclaiming all the forts and treaties he had lost in the Treaty of Purandar.

Like many great luminaries of the Indian subcontinent, Shivaji died early, at the age of 52 in 1680. He laid the foundation of what would later become the great Maratha empire. His efforts have inspired generations after him. He was one of the major factors due to which the Mughal empire could not make inroads in the Deccan. Aurangzeb spent 27 years trying to beat the Marathas, but they did not give an inch, ultimately defeating the Mughals in 1707. The story of the Marathas after Shivaji is inspiring in itself. But it would not have been possible without the strong sense of Swarajya possessed by a young teenager in the 1640s.

All in all, Shivaji’s life was one filled with ups and downs, of success and failure. But inspite of all that, he strived till the very end to achieve his goals. He had strong moral values and was the very definition of secular. We, the people of today, can learn a lot from him and his life.

And that is what makes Shivaji the hero of my childhood.