Shivaji

The Deccan Before Shivaji

In the early 17th century, the Deccan plateau was divided among the Mughal Empire, expanding southward under Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, and the surviving Deccan sultanates — Bijapur (Adil Shahi), Golconda (Qutb Shahi), and the fading remnant of Ahmadnagar. Marathi-speaking chieftains, including Shivaji's family, typically served as jagirdars, holders of revenue assignments and military command, under one or another of these powers rather than ruling in their own right. Shivaji's father, Shahaji Bhonsle, served first Ahmadnagar and, after its collapse in the 1630s, Bijapur, holding jagirs around Pune and Bangalore; his relative autonomy within these arrangements shaped his son's political education.

Early Life and First Conquests

Shivaji was born, by traditional reckoning, on 19 February 1630 at Shivneri Fort near Junnar, though some modern scholars place his birth in 1627. Raised largely by his mother, Jijabai, at Pune while his father served in the south, he was educated and trained under a regent, Dadaji Kondadev, who administered the Pune jagir. In 1646, at about sixteen, Shivaji seized Torna Fort from Bijapur, his first independent military action, and followed it with the capture of nearby forts including Kondana, later renamed Sinhagad, and Rajgad, reportedly funding his early campaigns in part with treasure recovered at Torna. Over the following decade he expanded steadily across the Maval region of the Western Ghats, building a base of hill forts and light, mobile forces suited to the terrain.

Conflict with Bijapur: Afzal Khan

Shivaji's growing power alarmed the Bijapur court, which in 1659 dispatched a senior general, Afzal Khan, to subdue him. The two met for a parley at the foot of Pratapgad Fort in November 1659; accounts describe Shivaji, wary of treachery, wearing armor beneath his clothing and concealing a wagh nakh, a set of curved metal blades worn over the fingers, along with a dagger. In the encounter Afzal Khan was killed, and Shivaji's forces, prepared in advance, routed the Bijapur army in the ensuing Battle of Pratapgad. The episode's particulars remain disputed — Maratha-sympathetic chronicles and Bijapur-aligned accounts differ on who struck first — but its outcome consolidated Shivaji's control of the Konkan and Western Ghats.

War with the Mughals

Shaista Khan and the Raid on Pune

As Shivaji's territory expanded, he came into direct conflict with the Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb, who in 1660 sent his maternal uncle, Shaista Khan, as governor of the Deccan to suppress him. Shaista Khan occupied Pune and quartered himself in the Bhonsle family residence, the Lal Mahal. In April 1663, Shivaji led a night raid on the Lal Mahal, killing several of Shaista Khan's household and reportedly wounding the governor, who lost fingers escaping through a window; the humiliation led to his recall by Aurangzeb.

Surat and the Treaty of Purandar

In January 1664, Shivaji raided and plundered Surat, one of the Mughal Empire's wealthiest port cities, seizing revenue to finance his growing state and army. Aurangzeb responded by dispatching the Rajput general Mirza Raja Jai Singh I with a large Mughal force. Facing a prolonged siege of his forts in 1665, Shivaji negotiated the Treaty of Purandar, ceding twenty-three forts to the Mughals and agreeing to serve as a Mughal tributary while retaining twelve forts and his core territory.

Agra and the Escape

As part of the Purandar settlement, Shivaji traveled to Aurangzeb's court at Agra in 1666, where he was received with what he considered an insultingly low rank and subsequently placed under house arrest. He escaped confinement later that year — according to tradition, having himself and his son smuggled out concealed in large baskets of sweets sent from his residence as gifts — and made his way back to Maharashtra, resuming open resistance to Mughal authority soon after. He sacked Surat a second time in 1670 and steadily reclaimed forts ceded under the Treaty of Purandar, including in the 1670 night assault on Sinhagad in which the Maratha commander Tanaji Malusare was killed retaking the fort.

The Battle of Pavan Khind

An earlier episode from the Bijapur conflict, the 1660 Battle of Pavan Khind, became emblematic of Maratha loyalty: besieged at Panhala Fort by the Bijapur general Siddi Jauhar, Shivaji escaped under cover of night toward Vishalgad, while a small detachment under Baji Prabhu Deshpande held a narrow mountain pass against a pursuing force long enough to allow his escape, at the cost of Deshpande's own life.

Coronation and the Maratha State

On 6 June 1674, Shivaji was formally crowned at Raigad Fort in a Vedic coronation ceremony conducted by the Brahmin scholar Gaga Bhatt, taking the title Chhatrapati, 'holder of the royal umbrella,' and establishing a sovereign Maratha kingdom independent of both Bijapur and the Mughals. His administration was organized around the Ashtapradhan, a council of eight ministers overseeing functions including finance, foreign affairs, military command (Senapati), and justice, with Moropant Trimbak Pingle serving as his first Peshwa. In the years following his coronation, Shivaji extended Maratha campaigns southward into Karnataka and toward the Tamil country, and began building up a naval force to contest Portuguese, English, and Siddi power along the Konkan coast, laying groundwork for the Maratha navy that later commanders would expand.

Death and Succession

Shivaji died at Raigad on 3 April 1680, reportedly after a prolonged illness. His death was followed by a brief succession dispute between his elder son, Sambhaji, and supporters of his younger son, Rajaram, before Sambhaji secured the throne. Despite sustained Mughal campaigns against his successors — including Aurangzeb's own prolonged Deccan campaign from 1681 until his death in 1707 — the Maratha state Shivaji founded survived and later expanded dramatically under the Peshwas of the 18th century into the dominant power of the Indian subcontinent before the rise of British paramountcy.

Historiography

Much of what is known about Shivaji's career comes from bakhars, vernacular Marathi chronicles compiled after his death, such as the Sabhasad Bakhar, commissioned by his son Rajaram, and the earlier Shivbharat by the court poet Paramananda, supplemented by Persian-language Mughal court histories such as the Alamgirnama and Maasir-i-Alamgiri, which describe him from an adversarial standpoint, and by the trading records of the English East India Company's Surat factory, which document events such as the 1664 sack of the city from a neutral commercial vantage point.