शहाजींना कैद करण्याचा कट

However secretly Shivaji tried to carry on his activities at first, news of them reached Bijapur without much delay. The Badshah became convinced that Shahaji, Shivaji, and Dadaji were all three complicit together in this uprising, and concluded that the chief among them — Shahaji — was the one who must be punished. From this point, Adilshah pursued this aim with real determination. Randulakhan, who had long been Shahaji's principal patron and protector at court, died in 1643. Even so, Shahaji remained a formidable and valiant commander, not a man who could easily be seized outright; he would have to be dealt with by cunning rather than force. From 1645 onward, Adilshah renewed his effort to conquer the eastern parts of Karnataka, sending his minister Khan Muhammad and his newly appointed general — Mustafa Khan, who had succeeded Randulakhan as commander — to capture places such as Vellore and Jinji. Serving under Mustafa Khan's command were sardars including Shahaji Bhosale and Baji Ghorpade. While this force was thus engaged on campaign in Karnataka, the Badshah sent Mustafa Khan a secret order: Shahaji was to be seized by stratagem and sent under guard to Bijapur. Mustafa Khan and Shahaji had, in fact, long regarded each other warily as rivals, each watching for an opportunity against the other.

शहाजीराजांना कपटाने पकडले

While fighting was underway around Jinji, Mustafa Khan, keeping his intentions carefully concealed, moved to seize Shahaji. He did not carry out the capture himself but had Baji Ghorpade do it. One morning, in the early hours before dawn, finding Shahaji off his guard, Baji Ghorpade launched a sudden raid upon him, seized him as he lay asleep, and delivered him into Mustafa Khan's hands. Within a short time, Jinji fort itself also fell, yielding a great deal of plunder besides. Afzal Khan, another sardar then serving with the Bijapur army, took charge of the captive Shahaji and brought him to Bijapur under heavy guard. Together with loot worth some twenty crore rupees loaded upon eighty elephants, and the captive Shahaji in tow, this grand and triumphant procession travelled slowly for two months and reached Bijapur in March 1649. In due course, news that Shahaji Raje had been imprisoned reached Shivaji and Jijabai in Maharashtra.

संभाजीचा प्रतिकार व सुटकेची बोलणी

Even with Shahaji imprisoned, his son Sambhaji took charge of the family's contingent in Karnataka and prepared to fight fiercely there if the need arose. Bangalore remained under his control, and it was from there that he looked after his father's estate. With Shivaji thus holding Maharashtra and Sambhaji holding Karnataka — two formidably capable sons — Adilshah's pressure on the family became largely ineffective. Kanhoji Jedhe, a man of standing then serving in the Bijapur army, worked to mediate on Shahaji's behalf and pressed for his release. The Badshah, weakened besides by illness, began to sense that any further harsh measures against Shahaji would only rebound upon himself. Kanhoji proposed a solution: Shahaji's present trouble, he pointed out, had arisen because of his sons — one holding fast to Kondana fort, the other to Bangalore. Let the two sons give up these places, let Bijapur's forces take possession of them, and let the Badshah in turn release Shahaji from prison and restore him to his former position. This arrangement was agreed to. Shahaji accordingly wrote to both his sons; to Shivaji he wrote, "Our release lies entirely in your hands — give up Kondana and hand it back." For this purpose the Badshah sent none other than Kanhoji Jedhe himself to meet Shivaji, charged with the task of securing Sinhagad for the crown. But Shivaji would not surrender what he had once taken into his own hands. When forces duly arrived from Bijapur, Shivaji fought them off with grim determination; at the same time, a second Bijapur force marched against Sambhaji at Bangalore, but he too fought with great courage and defeated it.

जिजाबाईचा कोंडी व सोनोपंतांचा निवाडा

In this conflict between father and sons, it was Jijabai who found herself in the most agonising position of all. On the one hand, she feared the Badshah might do her husband real harm; on the other, her sons were unwilling to give up what they held. Deep within her heart lay the whole enterprise of building Swarajya, yet it was equally her duty to try to avert calamity for her husband. Mother and son discussed this grave dilemma at great length, and both eventually resolved to be decisive about it. Sonopant Dabir, a trusted servant and well-wisher of the family, was agreed upon as the one who should pronounce the final decision, which both would then accept without demur. Sonopant's judgment was that Sinhagad should, for the present, be handed over to Bijapur — for if a man truly possesses valour, what difficulty is there in winning it back again later? This poignant tussle between mother and son has been elaborately and movingly depicted by the poet Paramanand in his Shivabharata, where he styles Sonopant the "golden sage" and places in his mouth the fine Sanskrit counsel: "Suvikrantasya nrupateh sarvam eva mahitalam" — for a truly valorous king, the whole earth itself lies within reach. The entire sixteenth chapter of the Shivabharata is devoted to this episode. Shahaji's release finally came in 1649, and with it the Sinhagad affair was, for the time being, laid to rest. The founding of Swarajya had taken place in 1644, and it required a further ten years before it was firmly and securely established. Evidence of this comes from a letter Shivaji wrote to Siddheshwarbhat Brahme, dated 17 July 1653, in which Shivaji declares, "Through the power of your austerities, I have become the master of a kingdom." A related document, dated 1 August 1653, has also survived, bearing a seal inscribed with the words "Shivanarpati Harshanidhan, Shamraj Matimant Pradhan." From these it can be said with confidence that Shivaji's first jagir-kingdom had by then been firmly established. The years 1644 to 1654 thus form the first decade of Shivaji's enterprise.

संभाजी मोहित्यांचा बंदोबस्त

Near Pune, at Supe, there lived a powerful sardar named Sambhaji Mohite, who was unwilling to accept Shivaji's authority and, much like the Mores, began openly opposing him. He was a close friend of Shahaji Raje, and his sister Tukabai was Shahaji's second wife. Shivaji warned him repeatedly: "Join me amicably, in good faith, or else things will go hard for you." Relying on the backing of Shahaji's friendship, however, Mohite refused to recognise Shivaji's authority. Shivaji thereupon decided that Mohite must be seized, both to punish him and to teach everyone else the discipline that Swarajya demanded. Taking a handful of select companions with him, he launched a sudden night raid upon Mohite at Supe, captured Sambhaji Mohite, sent him off to Shahaji, and seized all his wealth, carrying it back to Rajgad. Shahaji himself was able to offer no resistance in the matter. At once, Shivaji's authority and the fear it commanded became firmly established on every side, and a tiny independent kingdom had now openly come into being in the Maval country. As the poet Paramanand puts it in his Sanskrit verse, Maharashtra — literally, "the land of the great and valorous" — had until then been little more than a hollow phrase; but once this land found in Shivaji its true patron and protector, that name finally acquired its real meaning. Shivaji had proven that the Maratha people were indeed capable of valour, and the whole population now began, under his rule, to prosper.