1. कारकिर्दिचा आढावा

The reign of Chhatrapati Sambhaji deserves study just as much as that of Shivaji — indeed, arguably more so. History, after all, is nothing but the record of human affairs, and success is not always within a man's grasp. Precisely because Sambhaji's rule did not end in success, it becomes all the more necessary for the historian to trace out the reasons why. Where Shivaji showed his genius in seizing opportunity the moment it presented itself, Sambhaji's reign shows again and again the opposite tendency — golden opportunities allowed to slip away unused. He was not wanting in valour, prowess, or love of country; these great qualities he possessed in full measure. And yet, because of an ungovernable temper, all his efforts across the brief span of nine years came to nothing, and the end was heart-rending. One cannot help but feel compassion for him. The people and episodes bound up with his career are gripping in themselves, and it is instructive to survey them with a wide view and grasp their inner meaning. Five figures dominate this history and must be kept steadily in view, each pursuing his own distinct purposes: Raje Sambhaji himself; Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor; his son, Shahzada Akbar; Akbar's devoted helper, Durgadas; and Sambhaji's own confidant, Kavi Kalash. When Shivaji died, an attempt was made to place the infant Rajaram on the throne in Sambhaji's stead. The extraordinary vigour and speed with which Sambhaji crushed this attempt is remarkable, and had matters been allowed to settle there, the machinery of government would in all likelihood have run smoothly thereafter. But almost at once the same ministers made a fresh attempt to remove him from power, and this bred in Sambhaji's heart a deep suspicion of his own people — a suspicion that spread until distrust reigned everywhere and left him unable to discharge his duties with any effect. It was at this very time that a vast and wholly unexpected development occurred in the wider world of politics. Aurangzeb, lord of Delhi, was then waging war to subdue the Rajput kings, and in the course of that war his own son Akbar went over to the Rajput side and marched against his father. Defeated, Akbar fled south and took refuge with Sambhaji in the Deccan. His companion and guide in this venture was Durgadas of Marwar, a brave and resourceful champion of his people, who had brought the shahzada south and set in motion a design of real consequence: that the Marathas and the Rajputs should join hands in defence of their faith and together bring down the bigoted Aurangzeb. To carry such a scheme to success would, in effect, have completed the very mission of Hindavi Swarajya and Hindu-pada-padshahi that Shivaji had begun. To avert this enormous danger threatening him, Aurangzeb himself was compelled to hasten south on his son's heels, and rather than complete the conquest of the northern Rajputs, he turned first to the task of subduing the Marathas in the Deccan. That his ambition, pursued without a break for twenty-five years, was never fully realised is the real measure of how fierce this struggle proved to be. In its course two Maratha Chhatrapatis perished, yet in the end it was Shivaji's own daughter-in-law who got the better of that mighty emperor.

1. कारकिर्दिचा आढावा

Clearly, then, it will not do for the historian to look at Sambhaji's reign in isolation. Unsuccessful as it appears, it was only the first act of a much larger drama. Sambhaji, Kavi Kalash, Akbar, and Durgadas each applied their own wits and, between them, kept up a fierce resistance to the emperor for six full years. During that time Aurangzeb stirred up the Siddi of Janjira, the Portuguese of Goa, and the Sawants of Wadi against Sambhaji, and threw into the field his own great commanders together with his three redoubtable sons — Shah Alam, Azam Shah, and Kam Baksh — and a whole crop of grandsons of like calibre, at the head of an immense army. From the moment of his arrival in the Deccan he assigned each of his officers a separate charge and pressed in upon Sambhaji's territory from every side at once. As a result, the whole of Sambhaji's nine-year reign was consumed in this struggle against the Badshah. Viewed purely in military terms, these nine years fall into two clearly marked phases: the first lasting until June 1685, during which the contest with the Mughals dominated everything; and a second phase thereafter. The first phase includes Sambhaji's suppression of revolts among his own people together with his unrelenting contest against Aurangzeb and the Portuguese — a contest in which the emperor was, in a manner of speaking, forced to concede defeat, so that he was obliged to turn his attention away from Sambhaji for a time and undertake instead the conquest of Bijapur and Golconda. Had Sambhaji, in that interval, properly followed up his advantage with Akbar and struck swiftly at the emperor, it is quite possible that Aurangzeb could not have held his ground in the Deccan at all. But Sambhaji did not take that course. As a result the shahzada found it impossible to remain any longer in Hindustan and was forced to depart for Persia, leaving Sambhaji entirely without that support; and once Bijapur and Golconda had fallen, Aurangzeb found himself master of an atmosphere everywhere drained of resistance and fear. In this second period one no longer finds the same intensity of action from Sambhaji as before. Had he again taken personal command of his forces and carried on the war as vigorously as earlier, it seems likely that the calamity which finally overtook him could have been avoided — for nowhere, north or south, did Aurangzeb's conduct find any real approval; discontent with him was universal. But by the closing years Sambhaji's earlier fire had wholly burned out, so that instead of meeting death in open battle he met instead the fate of being seized by a secret raid upon his person. Having grown somewhat careless, he gave the emperor the chance to fall upon him unawares. Even so, in that mortal extremity he never abandoned his heroic bearing, and he faced a horrifying death with courage, and by that harsh penance wiped away, in a single stroke, all the sins of his earlier years. Thus Sambhaji's nine years as ruler must be judged, on the one hand, as deeply tragic, and on the other, as in a real sense admirable and worthy of praise.

1. कारकिर्दिचा आढावा

To make sense of the tangle of events, personalities, and simultaneous movements that fill these nine years, it is necessary to keep certain chronological landmarks firmly in mind, and these will be set out at the head of each chapter. Here, at the very outset, it is necessary first to describe how Sambhaji's accession took place after Shivaji's death, so that the reader may properly understand the situation in which Sambhaji found himself. For this opening portion, the following dates are the ones to remember: 4 April 1680 — death of Shivaji at Raigad. 21 April 1680 — installation of Rajaram upon the throne. 16 January 1681 — Sambhaji's march from Panhala to Raigad, the overthrow of his opponents, and his coronation.

2. राज्यारोहण (20.7.1680), राज्याभिषेक (16.1.1681)

Sambhaji was born at Purandar on 14 May 1657. Two years later, on 5 September 1659, his mother Saibai died, and thereafter he was raised by his grandmother Jijabai. Like Shivaji's own, his childhood passed amid adventure and turmoil; he was old enough to witness with his own eyes his father's confrontations with Shaista Khan and with Jai Singh. At the age of nine he accompanied his father to Agra, where both were placed under the emperor's confinement, and from which they made their famous escape — Sambhaji himself smuggled out hidden in a basket of fruit and sweets. This extraordinary adventure left a deep impression on the boy's mind and gave him an early acquaintance with the world beyond Maharashtra. It is clear that, from the very start, Shivaji wanted his son to learn through direct experience the difficulties and pitfalls of the great enterprise he himself had undertaken, and arrangements had been made for the boy's education from early childhood; his tutor was Umaji Pandit. Father and son returned safely home by the end of 1666. Then, in 1668, when Shivaji concluded his treaty with the Badshah, Sambhaji was granted a mansab of seven thousand (saptahazari) in Mughal service, and for the following two years he lived at the Mughal camp near Burhanpur. At that time the Shahzada Muazzam was subedar of Burhanpur and lived there in thorough imperial style and luxury; Aurangzeb's own habits were extremely simple, but his sons were given over to ease and indulgence. It was very probably in these two years that Sambhaji acquired his taste for northern pomp and luxurious living, and he most likely formed a personal friendship with the shahzada as well. At Burhanpur he developed a particular passion for hunting, and in the train of that one passion several other habits took root alongside it. Travelling with his father through northern Hindustan, Sambhaji had his first close look at imperial grandeur, at the style and self-indulgence of the Mughal nobility, and this began, little by little, to corrupt his own disposition. His time at Burhanpur only reinforced this tendency, and his character grew increasingly wilful and given to sensual indulgence. Shivaji appears to have recognised this trend in his son to some degree, for from about 1672–73 he began deliberately loading him with responsibility and drawing him into affairs of state. It was in that year that Shivaji opened his campaign against Bijapur, and he placed Sambhaji in principal charge of it, pairing him with Anaji Pant. From this time Sambhaji's residence was fixed at Panhala, where Shivaji himself very often stayed in person to conduct the business of government. In certain respects Panhala suited Shivaji better than Raigad for maintaining contact with the outer world; above all, it was conveniently placed for encroaching upon the Bijapur kingdom, so much so that the Adilshah himself greatly wished to have it in his own hands. In Shahaji's day, Sinhagad's importance had been confined to the Maval region; Raigad's chief virtue was security, but it was inconvenient for the ordinary conduct of business and for the movement of people. For this reason, from Shivaji's time down to Tarabai's, Panhala was, in one real sense, the capital of the Chhatrapatis, and it was here that Sambhaji spent much of his life.

2. राज्यारोहण (20.7.1680), राज्याभिषेक (16.1.1681)

When Shivaji's own coronation ceremony was held at Raigad, it was Sambhaji who was entrusted with the task of handling dealings with the English and similar matters — evidence that Shivaji took care to see that his son should be engaged in weighty business and thereby acquire the judgment needed to look after the interests of the state. Little by little, however, reports of Sambhaji's misbehaviour began reaching Shivaji's ears. The bakhar known as the "Prabhat," also called the "91-Kalami Bakhar," records the following: Sambhaji fell into disfavour and was kept at Shringarpur, with Umaji Pandit appointed to continue his education and a retinue of Maval sardars and cavalrymen assigned to him; there he intrigued with Dilerkhan and fled by night together with a woman; Umaji Pandit was afterwards sent away as an envoy to Bidnur. From November 1678, for a full year, Sambhaji actually went over and joined the Mughals; it was only through great cleverness on his father's part that he was brought back. Why Sambhaji should have committed so grave an act as openly joining the enemy remains unclear. In all likelihood he had grown unruly and ill-disciplined, reports of which reached Shivaji, who rebuked him for it — a rebuke that his proud and hot-tempered son could not bear. The son's misconduct clouded even Shivaji's own judgment in his final years, and he died in a troubled state of mind. At his death Shivaji had settled no formal arrangement for the succession, nor had he in any way annulled Sambhaji's claim to the throne. It is true that Sambhaji was, at that moment, held under a form of restraint at Panhala — but this restraint amounted to little more than house arrest. Shivaji's only instruction had been that Sambhaji should look after the administration of the southern territories, and that if he committed any misdeed, Janardanpant Hanmante was to restrain him. Sambhaji was by nature neither treacherous nor secretive; he was brave, generous, and large-hearted, but impulsive and choleric — once a mood took hold of him, there was no telling what he might do. He wholly lacked his father's particular skill of managing men of very different temperaments and turning each to good use in his proper place, and it was this deficiency, in the end, that undid all his other virtues. It is important to bear in mind that Sambhaji never for a moment doubted that, upon Shivaji's death, he himself was the rightful master of the kingdom; and it was precisely this settled conviction that made him erupt in fury on hearing of the untoward proceedings at Raigad. The moment Shivaji died at Raigad, Soyarabai and Anaji Pant, believing Sambhaji to be securely confined, hatched a plan to place Rajaram on the throne without letting Sambhaji know. Shivaji's last rites were performed in Rajaram's presence by the hand of Sabaji Bhosale of Shingnapur. News of the death was deliberately kept from Sambhaji; had he been sent for at once, he could have reached Raigad within three or four days. Moropant Pingle and Anaji Datto, who were away from the fort, hurried back to Raigad the moment they heard; Pralhad Niraji, Ramchandra Nilkanth, and the chief scribe Balaji Avji were already there. On their advice, Soyarabai placed Rajaram on the throne on 21 April 1680 and secured Raigad. Letters were drafted in the hand of Avji Ballal and dispatched to Panhala by the couriers Khandoji Naik Jasud and Ganoji Kavala, addressed to Hiroji Farzand and Sonaji Naik Banki, instructing them to tighten the guard over Sambhaji and to remain constantly on watch regarding him.

2. राज्यारोहण (20.7.1680), राज्याभिषेक (16.1.1681)

News of Shivaji's death, however, could not be kept secret for long, and it reached Sambhaji almost at once. When Sonaji Naik tightened Sambhaji's confinement in accordance with his instructions, Sambhaji had him put to death. Hiroji Farzand fled in haste to Chiplun and so escaped with his life for the time being. Vitthal Trimbak Mahadkar, the killedar of Panhala, was seized and imprisoned by Sambhaji, who took the fort's command directly into his own hands. None of this became known at Raigad in time. Hambirrao Mohite, who was stationed near Karhad, was won over by Sambhaji — and, indeed, once Shivaji's own son came forward in person to give orders, which officer of the kingdom would have had the nerve to defy him openly? On learning of the conspiracy hatched against him at Raigad, Sambhaji's fury knew no bounds. With soft words he won over officers stationed in various places; he wrote to the revenue-collectors of Rajapur and Kudal to bring their collections and present themselves at Panhala, and he had grain stored in the port of Karwar brought to him (15 April 1680). Ravji Somnath, who refused to obey his orders, was dismissed. Nowhere at Raigad was anything like this vigour on display. Sambhaji had Hiroji Farzand and Janardanpant Hanmante seized and thrown into confinement. In a letter dated 27 April, the English at Rajapur informed their superiors: "Sambha has taken all the reins of government into his own hands. He has summoned the subedars and havaldars of various places to his presence; some he has imprisoned, others he has dismissed." All this took place within twenty days of Shivaji's death. Meanwhile Anaji Datto and Moropant Pingle, having put Raigad in order, set out for Panhala; but on the way they learned of what Sambhaji had been doing and lost their nerve, unable to summon the courage to go further. Sambhaji, however, learned of their movements down to the last detail, and promptly sent Hambirrao, who seized both men and brought them to Panhala. Since Anaji Datto had been the ringleader of the scheme at Raigad, heavy irons were placed on his feet, and both he and Moropant were kept under close confinement. Through the month of May, Sambhaji consolidated his hold over Panhala, and at the start of June he marched on Raigad with twenty thousand troops, reaching it on the 18th. He met with no resistance whatever in entering the fort. English traders wrote on 12 July: "Sambha's name is now proclaimed throughout the kingdom. People say the king is energetic and vigilant, and that he treats Rajaram with affection. Anaji Datto, however, continues to suffer imprisonment as a partisan of Soyarabai." Within a short time Sambhaji had put Raigad's affairs in order and turned his mind to the question of formally ascending the throne. At this point his brothers-in-law Mahadji Nimbalkar, Ganoji Shirke, and Harji Mahadik, who were close to him, advised him: "You, my lord, are about to ascend the throne, and it is not fitting that ministers' houses should still be under guard." Moropant, too, pleaded that he had had no part in the conspiracy at Raigad, and on this plea he was released from his bonds and restored to office, though given only a nominal share in administration. Then, on Nagpanchami day — that is, 20 July 1680 — Sambhaji formally ascended the throne. The full coronation ceremony, conducted according to proper ritual, followed later at an auspicious moment on Magh Shuddha 7, corresponding to 16 January 1681. In this way the initial turmoil soon subsided. Hiroji Farzand and Anaji Datto were released from confinement and restored to their former posts. Moropant Pingle, however, died that same year, in October 1680, and Sambhaji appointed his son Nilopant to succeed him. With his first fury spent, Sambhaji's administration now began to take its regular course.

3. शहाजादा अकबराचे दक्षिणेत आगमन, दुर्गादास (1.6.1681)

Akbar was Aurangzeb's fourth son, born on 11 September 1657 — so that only four months separated his age from Sambhaji's. Both boys had lost their mothers in early childhood, and in each case this loss drew the father's affection to the son with special intensity: Akbar's mother, Dilrasbanu, died within a month of his birth, and thereafter he became his father's favourite. It was Aurangzeb's practice to send each of his sons out on campaign under some seasoned general, so that he might receive a proper training in both military and civil affairs, and Akbar, raised in this fashion, grew into a capable young man. By acting always in accordance with his father's wishes and by succeeding in whatever task was set him, he earned both a fine reputation abroad and his father's full confidence. In 1679, when Aurangzeb opened his campaign against the Rajputs, it was Akbar whom he appointed to direct it. The origin of that war deserves to be understood in some detail. Maharaja Jaswant Singh had fallen into Aurangzeb's disfavour, and while on duty in Afghanistan he died, on 10 December 1678. His eldest son, Jai Singh, had already been killed in battle and left no son of his own; the rightful heir to the throne was therefore Jaswant Singh's grand-nephew, Indra Singh. Rather than grant him the succession, Aurangzeb at once dispatched troops to annex the kingdom of Marwar outright, and afterwards went to Ajmer in person to direct the campaign. At the time of Jaswant Singh's death, his two queens were both pregnant, and in due course each bore a son. One infant died soon after; the other survived and grew to manhood — his name was Ajit Singh. It was Durgadas who took upon himself the task of securing the throne of Marwar for this child. Jaswant Singh's diwan had been Askaran, and it was Askaran's son, Durgadas — born in 1638 — who had accompanied his master on campaign. After Jaswant Singh's death, Durgadas took the dead king's family under his protection and brought them to Delhi. When word reached Aurangzeb that the queen had given birth to a son, he made every effort to seize the child for himself; but Durgadas frustrated every one of these attempts, rescued Ajit Singh, carried him to Marwar, and kept him hidden in a place of safety, while himself taking up a relentless armed struggle against the emperor's forces. Aurangzeb's son Akbar, being his father's dearest child, was given principal charge of this war, which raged fiercely for two years, drawing in an ever-larger number of Rajput kings who rose against the emperor — among them the Rana of Udaipur himself. Once open warfare began, the Rajputs avoided pitched battle, relying instead on the shelter of their hill country to strike at will, and they wore down the Mughal forces so thoroughly that Akbar himself became convinced it would be impossible to hold his ground there.

3. शहाजादा अकबराचे दक्षिणेत आगमन, दुर्गादास (1.6.1681)

The Rajputs then sent envoys to Akbar to open negotiations for peace, and through these envoys frequent meetings and discussions took place between Akbar and the principal Rajput chiefs. In the course of these talks, Aurangzeb's wicked and deceitful statecraft came under open discussion. The Rajputs made their position clear to Akbar: "We have not the least desire to do the empire any harm. On the contrary, if the Badshah will treat us as of old, with affection, and refrain from seizing our kingdoms, we stand ready to serve him with complete loyalty. The great Emperor Akbar established certain customs in his day, and it is only right that these should be properly observed." This argument found favour with the young Akbar, who was well acquainted with that earlier history. It was, after all, the elder Akbar's policy of liberality that had made Mughal rule permanent in Hindustan — he had treated the Rajput kings with genuine friendship and turned them into pillars of his empire; the rulers of Jaipur and Jodhpur became his loyal vassals and served the emperor faithfully in the most distant corners of the realm, and for a full century thereafter Rajput kings served the throne of Delhi with unwavering devotion. Indeed, it was very largely Jaswant Singh of Marwar and Jai Singh of Jaipur who had helped secure the throne for Aurangzeb himself. Yet Aurangzeb, nursing the perverse ambition of crushing the Hindu religion, had now begun the systematic destruction of the Rajput kings. Where the elder Akbar had left the Rajput states in the hands of their own rulers while employing them elsewhere in imperial service, Aurangzeb had reversed this policy altogether — annexing Rajput territories outright into the empire and pressing everywhere for the spread of Islam. To his own son this obstinate policy appeared thoroughly wrong, and Akbar wrote letter after letter to his father trying to persuade him to change course. His army, meanwhile, was suffering terribly, and not a man in it had any remaining appetite for the fight; so Akbar advised his father to make peace, end the war, and recall the troops. Aurangzeb would not hear of it. Instead he turned on his son with bitter contempt, denouncing him in the harshest terms as a coward and no true man — words that stung the proud Akbar to the quick and left his mind in turmoil. The moment the Rajput envoys learned of this, they pressed their advantage: "You, after all, are a descendant of that same great Akbar, and you even bear his name — here is an opportunity worth its weight in gold. We stand ready to give you our wholehearted support. Aurangzeb has abandoned every principle of just rule; overthrowing him is the only way left to save the kingdom and its people. Remove him, therefore, and take the throne yourself — Shah Jahan and others did exactly this before you." In this whole enterprise it was Durgadas who took the lead, winning Akbar over and securing him the full backing of the Rajputs. On 1 January 1681, Akbar issued a proclamation declaring his father deposed, formally ascended the throne, and marched on Ajmer with a great army to seize Aurangzeb's person. The news struck real terror into Aurangzeb, and it was only through sheer cunning that he managed to survive this desperate hour. With only a single night left before the two forces would meet, Aurangzeb wrote a letter addressed to his son and arranged for it to fall into the hands of Akbar's Rajput allies. Its contents ran: "Well done — how cleverly you have delivered all these Rajputs into my hands! You shall prove a worthy son of mine yet. Tomorrow, on the field of battle, we shall meet." The moment this letter reached them, the Rajputs took fright, convinced that Akbar had betrayed them utterly, and that very night they abandoned him and melted away. The next morning, 16 January, when battle was joined, only a handful of men remained on the field. Durgadas alone did not desert Akbar.

3. शहाजादा अकबराचे दक्षिणेत आगमन, दुर्गादास (1.6.1681)

To escape falling into Aurangzeb's hands, the two fled together, and, resolving to make common cause with Sambhaji — Shivaji's son, then powerful in the Deccan — against Aurangzeb, they made their way to the Narmada, with the emperor's troops in pursuit close behind. On 9 May 1681, having crossed the Narmada, Akbar sent Sambhaji the following letter: "Ever since coming to power, Aurangzeb has resolved upon the destruction of the Hindus; this is the true reason for the war against the Rajputs. All men are the children of God, and a king is their protector; it is therefore wrong for the Badshah to destroy his own people. Aurangzeb's conduct has passed every proper limit, and I have become convinced that if he continues to destroy his people in this manner, he will in the end lose this country altogether. Seeing that your kingdom lies far from the emperor's camp, I have resolved to come to you. Durgadas Rathod is with me; let your mind be entirely free of doubt on my account. Should Providence grant me the throne, I shall be its master in name alone — consider the kingdom wholly yours. Together, the two of us shall bring the Badshah down. To the wise, there is no need to write at greater length." The letter is dated 11 May 1681. With the emperor's forces pressing on his heels, the shahzada did not wait for a reply but came straight on through Khandesh and Baglan into Maharashtra. Khan Jahan, the Mughal subedar, on learning of this set out from Aurangabad to intercept him, but the faujdar of Baglan informed him that Akbar had gone by the western road towards Nashik; Khan Jahan hurried to Nashik in turn, only to learn that Akbar had left the previous day by the Trimbak ghat down into the Konkan. The moment he entered Maratha territory, Sambhaji's officers came out to receive him. Twenty-five miles north of Raigad, near Nagothane on the bank of the Amba river, at the village of Pali, they lodged the shahzada in an empty thatched hut at the foot of the fort. One can only imagine what it must have meant to a prince accustomed to the vast, splendour-filled palaces of Delhi and Agra to find himself housed in so wretched a Konkani hovel. The mud walls were hung with white cloth, and the cow-dung-plastered floor was covered over with carpets to make it presentable. His retinue was modest indeed — four hundred horsemen, a small body of infantry, and fifty baggage camels — and with no more than this, Akbar arrived on 9 June 1681, just as the monsoon was breaking, and began receiving Sambhaji's hospitality. The place afterwards came to be known as Patshahpur. Sambhaji sent three hundred of his own foot-soldiers to attend upon him, and messengers began moving back and forth between Pali and Raigad, between the shahzada and Sambhaji. Fifteen days later, Sambhaji sent Netaji Palkar and Hiroji Farzand to call on Akbar, bearing as a gift a pearl necklace set with a diamond, a jewelled turban ornament, and a thousand hon in gold. Hiroji exchanged courtesies and returned at once; Netaji Palkar stayed on to make further inquiries, for having himself spent many years earlier as a convert among the Mughals in imperial service, he was particularly well suited, in language and manner, to deal with the shahzada. Sambhaji himself was eager to go and meet Akbar in person, but the imperial style Akbar chose to maintain at Pali despite his straitened circumstances — holding court, issuing farmans in the Mughal manner, appointing a diwan and conducting an administration of his own, and soon gathering around him a force of some two thousand horsemen — began to breed suspicion in Sambhaji's mind. Such conduct bred real distrust, and Sambhaji sent him word: "If you wish to remain in my kingdom, raise no further troops; otherwise, go elsewhere." It is clear that Sambhaji at first entertained real doubt as to whether this son of Aurangzeb had not come deliberately to entrap him. But this suspicion gradually wore off — indeed, it was Akbar himself who alerted Sambhaji to the treachery then brewing at Raigad. Sambhaji thereafter granted him an allowance of sixty hon (about Rs. 300) a day for his expenses. Even so, preoccupied as he was by the conspiracy at Raigad, Sambhaji could not bring himself to meet the shahzada at once. It was only after five months, on Sunday, Kartik Shuddha 11 — 13 November 1681 — that he finally went to Pali and met Akbar, "attended by a great body of troops and retinue. Durgadas was present with the shahzada. Great honour was shown on both sides."

3. शहाजादा अकबराचे दक्षिणेत आगमन, दुर्गादास (1.6.1681)

That Sambhaji did not meet the shahzada at once and immediately set the next stage of the enterprise in motion allowed Aurangzeb precious time to prepare, and a truly golden opportunity to bring him down was squandered. Durgadas and Akbar together commanded substantial Rajput support; the fame of the Marathas resounded across all Hindustan; Akbar himself was brave and open-handed, and he had at his side, in Durgadas, a leader of rare resourcefulness and judgment. Had every soldier that could be mustered in the Deccan been thrown at once against Aurangzeb, there is no obvious reason why the venture should have failed. Such a display of outward valour would have stamped Sambhaji's authority upon Maharashtra far more powerfully than sitting at Raigad and meting out punishment to his domestic opponents ever could have done — for the surest way to steady minds unsettled by fear is to plunge them without delay into some great and shared undertaking. But Sambhaji did not possess anything like his father's foresight. While Akbar and Durgadas urged him on, he remained absorbed instead in the affairs of his own household, and this gave Aurangzeb the time he needed. From Ajmer, on 31 July 1681, the emperor dispatched Azam Shah in pursuit of Akbar; Azam Shah reached Burhanpur in September and Aurangabad on 11 November. Aurangzeb himself left Ajmer on 8 September and reached Burhanpur on 13 November, bringing with him his three formidable sons, his grandsons, all his principal commanders, and the entire weight of the empire's military strength, now gathered together in the Deccan. Having set matters in order at Burhanpur, the emperor came to take up residence at Aurangabad on 22 March 1682. When Hiroji Farzand returned to Raigad after his meeting with the shahzada, he was convinced that a truly rare opportunity had presented itself — "but Sambhaji lacks the ability to make use of it. Under a dissolute and capricious ruler, the defence of the nation cannot be assured." Such was the feeling of a good many knowledgeable men at Raigad at the time, and it is likely that after Hiroji's return he discussed the matter with Soyarabai, Anaji Pant, and others of their circle. In these first month or two, while both Sambhaji and Akbar found themselves each in his own difficult and constrained position, a secret conspiracy was set on foot at Raigad, its object being to remove Sambhaji and place Rajaram on the throne. It is possible that word of this plot reached the shahzada's own ears, and even that his consent was sought for it; but it was he, according to several accounts, who informed Sambhaji of it and put him on his guard. In August 1681 poison was administered to Sambhaji's food; but he had learned of the plot in advance and fed the poisoned food instead to a dog and to a servant, both of whom died soon afterwards. On discovering this, Sambhaji's rage became so uncontrollable that his temper was never again to find true calm for the rest of his life. He had the ringleaders seized and clapped in irons without delay: "Sachiv Anaji Datto, his brother Somaji, Hiroji Farzand, and Balaji Avji were imprisoned and put to death below Parali. In Karnataka, Shyamji Naik Punde was taken into custody. Mahadev Anant and three other men were tied to the feet of elephants and killed."

3. शहाजादा अकबराचे दक्षिणेत आगमन, दुर्गादास (1.6.1681)

In this whole affair Sambhaji's chief fury fell upon his stepmother, Soyarabai. He became convinced that it was she who had devised the entire scheme, and he further charged her with having poisoned Shivaji himself, condemning her to death on that accusation. Accounts differ as to how she met her end: some say she was poisoned, others that she was starved and tormented to death, and there was even a rumour that she had been walled up alive in brick. Sambhaji's displeasure fell equally upon the Shirke family, Soyarabai's own maternal kin: several of them he put to death, and their income and property he confiscated to the state. Some members of that family, to save their lives, went over to the Mughal side and remained there for many years afterward. This whole episode of reprisal continued at Raigad from August 1681 for the following three months, and English records suggest that, besides those already named, some twenty-one other persons lost their lives in this storm of Sambhaji's wrath. It was very probably these events that kept Sambhaji from meeting the shahzada any sooner than he did. Such cruelty bred, for a time, a certain terror among his people, but it never won their hearts; and by destroying men whom Shivaji had painstakingly trained up over many years, the state suffered a real loss — one that Sambhaji was never able to make good, for he could not train new men to take their place. Sambhaji's suspicion and his readiness to punish continued, in fact, right down to the end of his reign, though not every detail of this later record has come down to us. Documents of the period contain, here and there, numerous references to men who fell victim to his anger. The Jedhe Shakavali records that on Kartik Shuddha 2 (29 October 1684) Sambhaji imprisoned Manaji More, Gangadharpant, Vasudevpant, and Ravji Somnath; and towards the very end even Pralhad Niraji was placed under arrest. All these men were released only after Sambhaji's own death.

4. प्रधानांच्या नेमणुका, कविकलश उर्फ कबजी

Convinced that most of his father's old ministers and officers were secretly opposed to him, Sambhaji drew close to his side a man named Kavi Kalash, also called Kalusha, who thereafter occupied a place of real importance in the overall conduct of his government — though reliable information about the man's earlier life is scarce. He was a Kanoja Brahmin from the neighbourhood of Prayag, who had settled at Kashi as the Bhosale family's hereditary priest (kshetropadhyay) at that pilgrimage centre. Sambhaji first made his acquaintance in 1666, while returning from Agra, and the relationship deepened steadily thereafter. His title, "Kavi Kalash" — meaning the finest, the very "kalash," among poets — was very probably conferred on him at the time of Shivaji's coronation; it suggests he composed verse in Hindi and was a pandit well versed in Sanskrit. In common speech people called him Kaviji, Kabiji, or Kabji, and it is from "Kavikalash" that the corrupted form "Kalusha" arose, the name by which the bakhar-writers generally refer to him. Because Sambhaji increasingly acted on his advice, and because the ultimate outcome proved so disastrous, "Kalusha" came in time to carry, in Maratha memory, something of the sense of "the crafty one" or even "Kalipurush" — an embodiment of the degenerate Kali age itself. One bakhar records: "Keshavbhat Kabji, a Hindustani Brahmin sorcerer, won Sambhaji completely over, so that whatever he said, that Sambhaji would do." Being smooth of speech, impressive in manner, and reputedly versed in occult arts, he found ready acceptance with a ruler who had, by then, grown deeply suspicious of his own people. It is not out of the question that Kalusha shared the traditional vices often associated with kshetropadhyays — a taste for bhang and ganja — and that Sambhaji's earlier acquaintance with him owed something to this shared indulgence, though this must remain conjecture. A copy of Kalusha's own official seal has recently come to light, and it offers some clue as to Sambhaji's purpose in drawing him so close. The seal bears a Sanskrit verse whose sense runs: "This seal, resting in Kalash's hand, fulfils the desires of all who seek its favour, marks the very boundary of the path of justice, and is the treasury of every accomplishment." Certain documents carry, in their opening formula, a string of honorifics attached to his name — "an edict devoted to righteousness, absorbed in ritual observance, single-minded in devotion to the gods, true to his word, foremost in bearing the burdens of all affairs of state, a trusted repository" — followed by "Ra. Ra. Kavikalash." Such epithets are, for the most part, purely formal, yet they still convey the sense, shared by both Kalusha and his master, that all things lay within their command. For Kalusha, Sambhaji created an entirely new ministerial office, that of "Chhandogamatya" — literally, "a minister well versed in the Vedic scriptures." Taken in its narrower sense, this points to Kalusha's supposed command of the occult lore of the Atharva Veda, and it appears to have been for the sake of this occult knowledge — believed capable of achieving otherwise impossible ends through tantric ritual and observance — that Sambhaji brought him so near. Shivaji, by contrast, had never allowed such religious practices any real place in matters of state. Kalusha, in any case, steadily grew to become Sambhaji's principal counsellor.

4. प्रधानांच्या नेमणुका, कविकलश उर्फ कबजी

Sambhaji's own personal seal is, in its way, no less pointed, and it is worth setting beside Kalusha's, for together the two convey something of the governing temper of this whole administration. Sambhaji's seal reads, in translation: "The seal of Shambhu, son of Shiva, shines forth like the very sky itself. Upon whom will not fall the authority of those who take shelter under this Shambhu's protection?" In this fashion these two figures, master and servant, became, between them, the guardians of the new Maratha kingdom that Shivaji had founded. Later bakhars claim that Sambhaji set aside his father's old council of eight ministers, the Ashta Pradhan, and handed all authority over to Kalusha — but this is not literally true. Sambhaji never removed the Ashta Pradhan from their offices; he simply created the new post of Chhandogamatya expressly for Kalusha. Nilo Moreshwar Pingle was appointed to the Peshwa-ship, an office he continued to hold right down to Shahu's eventual return to the throne. "Raghunath Narayan Hanmante came from Karnataka and was received [by Sambhaji], and was given the office of Majumdar" — he died in May 1683, whereupon the office of Amatya passed to his son, Naropant. The office of Sachiv, vacated after Anaji Datto's death, was given to Ramchandra Nilkanth. The office of Panditrao, however, once Moreshwar Raghunath had given it up, does not appear to have been filled by anyone else — very probably because Kalusha himself had by then taken over duties of that same kind. Pralhad Niraji continued as Nyayadhish, or chief justice, while the office of Mantri remained, right down to Shahu's arrival, in the hands of Dattaji Trimal. The office of Senapati was held first by Hambirrao Mohite; after him it passed to Mahadji Gomaji Pansambal, who himself died within a short time, whereupon Sambhaji appointed Santaji Ghorpade in his place. In short, with the sole exception of those directly implicated in the Raigad conspiracy, Sambhaji left every other officer's earlier charge undisturbed. When Nilo Moreshwar was later transferred to Jinji, the Peshwa-ship passed for a time to his brother, Gangadhar Moreshwar — a document dated 23 March 1685 carries Gangadhar's seal as Peshwa — while the office of Chitnis was given to Khando Ballal. It is simply not the case, as is sometimes supposed, that Sambhaji's officials rose up in something like a body and refused to serve him out of anger at his cruel treatment and killing of capable men — nothing of the kind occurred. Raghunathpant Hanmante, whom Shivaji had appointed to the administration of Karnataka, had kept that province in good order and had, through careful diligence, drawn a substantial revenue from it. After Shivaji's death, when the attempt was made at Raigad to set Sambhaji aside, Sambhaji appears to have suspected that Raghunathpant had some hand in it — for the Shakavali records that in the month of Paush of 1680, "Raghunath Narayan was detained at Jinji, and the administration of Karnataka was entrusted to Harji Raje Mahadik and Shyamji Naik Punde." Later, however, Hanmante came to Raigad, and Sambhaji gave him the office of Amatya, from which it appears that Sambhaji's earlier suspicion of him had by then subsided.

4. प्रधानांच्या नेमणुका, कविकलश उर्फ कबजी

Raghunath Narayan Hanmante came up from Karnataka to meet Sambhaji with great ambitions of his own, hoping to resist the Mughals and see the Maratha kingdom expand still further. On his journey he brought with him five thousand horsemen, ten thousand infantry, and thirty to forty lakh hon in treasure for Sambhaji's use — a gift that gave Sambhaji great pleasure. In a manner befitting Raghunathpant's standing, Sambhaji held a grand court in a splendid pavilion on the riverbank at Birwadi and received him there with full honour; Pant, for his part, gave Sambhaji a lavish feast and paid due honour to him and to the assembled company, and Sambhaji reciprocated in kind. Had Pant chosen instead to counsel Sambhaji privately about his misconduct, Sambhaji might well have rejected the advice outright. Instead, by holding open court and gathering together experienced men and old statesmen in full view, Pant conveyed to Sambhaji, without saying so directly, that if he would only conduct his office properly, they all stood ready to serve loyally under him. It was a shrewd device — to bring home to Sambhaji, by indirection, the sheer weight of risk and responsibility that came with leading such distinguished and valorous men, and the wisdom with which that responsibility had to be discharged, in the hope that he would thereby be persuaded to mend his ways. With the whole assembly seated before him, Pant put a pointed question to Sambhaji: "What is your plan for the future?" And he continued, bluntly: "Why is it that the kingdom, instead of growing greater day by day, is instead shrinking? It is because the people are disaffected. A number of Brahmin and other sardars, even granting they had done wrong, ought to have been shackled and confined to some fort — instead, some were beheaded, and capable men put to death; well, let that pass. But now that a formidable enemy, Aurangzeb, has come and engaged us directly, what plan has been made to meet him? This is exactly what has happened ever since Maharaj went to his heavenly abode! Maharaj, after all, took nothing with him when he died." This blunt, proud speech did not please Sambhaji in the least; he made little reply, let the moment pass, and conferred upon Raghunathpant the office of Amatya. But before long Kalusha's influence grew still stronger, and Raghunathpant, concluding that it was no longer fitting for him to remain, took his leave of Sambhaji and set out to return home. He did not get far: he died on the way, at Valan. A month later his brother, Janardanpant, also died, at Devrukh, on 28 June 1683. Sambhaji at once sent Harji Raje Mahadik to take charge of the administration at Jinji, assisted by Nilo Moreshwar Pingle and Nilo Ballal, the Chitnis. The case of the statesman Ravji Somnath is worth recalling as an example of how Sambhaji alienated even the most capable men who had served his father — men who represented, collectively, the kingdom's real strength, a strength that steadily dwindled during Sambhaji's reign. In Shivaji's time, Ravji Somnath had worked with great skill for many years in the Rajapur–Sawantwadi region, advancing the interests of the Maratha kingdom there. When Shivaji raided Rajapur in 1661 and seized seven English traders — an affair that dragged on for a year or two and left the English deeply resentful of Shivaji — it was Ravji Somnath Pandit who carried out Shivaji's orders in the matter; it was he who brought the English captives, then held at Sonagad, to Rajapur and released them, and his name appears repeatedly in the English correspondence of the period. After settling the affairs of the Rajapur district, Shivaji took Kudal as well and placed Ravji there. Ravji was also involved in the episodes concerning the incursions of Bajji Ghorpade and Khawaskhan, and he was present at Raigad for Shivaji's coronation, where, among the officers to whom the English presented ceremonial robes, Ravji Somnath received one worth seventy rupees.

4. प्रधानांच्या नेमणुका, कविकलश उर्फ कबजी

The moment news of Shivaji's death reached Sambhaji at Panhala, he sent orders to Ravji Pandit demanding that the revenue collections from various places in South Konkan be forwarded to him directly — clear evidence that, under Sambhaji's reign too, Ravji remained in charge of the South Konkan administration. Yet in Shake 1606, "in the month of Kartik, Ravji Somnath, Manaji More, Gangadharpant, and Vasudevpant were taken into custody" — proof enough that Sambhaji's anger eventually fell on Ravji Somnath as well. He was "seized, his house plundered, and he himself kept under confinement; later [Sambhaji] again showed him favour and entrusted him once more with duties. Still later, when the great upheaval overtook Sambhaji Maharaj at Sangameshwar, thereafter Raoji Pant went to his heavenly rest — an old servant of the state who had laboured hard through many long years!" The common belief that Sambhaji, by falling under Kalusha's spell, ruined his kingdom is not entirely without foundation, yet it needs qualification. The major business of state Sambhaji continued to transact through his Ashta Pradhan as before; it was only in certain especially delicate matters that he relied on Kalusha's counsel. Given how thoroughly the atmosphere around him had grown poisoned with suspicion, Sambhaji had little choice but to place his trust in some outsider if he was to function at all. The notion that this man was simply an agent of Aurangzeb, deliberately planted at Sambhaji's side in bad faith, does not appear to be true either. It is possible that, in the very last days, Aurangzeb made some attempt to win Kalusha over and use him to deliver Sambhaji into his hands; but Kalusha remained faithful to his master to the very end and suffered the same terrible punishment alongside him — proof enough, in itself, of the sincerity of his service. That he was unable, in the final crisis, to avert disaster only makes this one great failing of his stand out the more sharply. In this fashion Sambhaji's position upon the Chhatrapati's throne was firmly secured, and the revolution his ministers had attempted to engineer came to nothing. From this point forward Sambhaji's government properly began, and the wars he undertook will form the subject of the chapter that follows.