खानाच्या डावपेचाची ओळख

On hearing this news, Shivaji began preparing to meet Khan's threat with the utmost care and attention to every detail. He knew full well that Khan was a supremely deceitful man. He recalled how, during Shahaji's Karnataka campaign, when Kasturirang, the Naik of Shira, had been at war with Afzal Khan, the Khan had lured him under a solemn oath (rapath) to a meeting and then killed him in the very midst of it — an episode notorious throughout the region. Shivaji resolved that Khan deserved exactly the same treatment, and worked out his plan of action together with his close associates: rather than meet Khan in open battle, he would draw him into difficult terrain and there bring about his destruction.

राजगड सोडून प्रतापगडावर मुक्काम

For this purpose Shivaji left Pune province and his capital at Rajgad, and went with his mother to take up secure residence at the newly built fort of Pratapgad, near Jawali. In Bhadrapada of 1659, as soon as the rains eased, word reached Shivaji that Khan had set out from Bijapur with his army. Through the two following months, Ashwin and Kartik, this contest of moves and countermoves between the two men continued. On his march, Khan destroyed the temples of Tuljapur and Pandharpur for plunder and extorted money from village after village. Seeing that Shivaji was ensconced at Pratapgad, Khan abandoned any plan to march on Pune and instead came east and encamped with a large army at Wai, intimidating the local deshmukhs and preparing to bring Shivaji to heel.

भेटीची बोलणी - पंताजी गोपीनाथ बोकीलांची वकिलात

There is not space here to set down every detail of the maneuvering that followed; both sides carried on this cautious sparring for about a month and a half to two months. Krishnaji Bhaskar Kulkarni of Wai, who was Khan's right-hand man, was sent by Khan to Shivaji to urge his surrender. Shivaji sent back word: "I have no strength to fight the Khan. Let the two of us meet and talk face to face, and I am ready to do whatever the Khan then directs." Shivaji's envoy, Pantaji Gopinath Bokil, went to Wai and met Khan, telling him: "Shivaji is thoroughly frightened and does not have the courage to come to your camp at Wai. But if you yourself would come down below Pratapgad to meet him, he will make every arrangement for your comfort and is ready to obey whatever you command." After much coming and going and negotiation between the two envoys, Khan at last accepted Shivaji's proposal — in truth he had no other way of bringing his scheme to fruition, for it was not feasible to fight and capture Shivaji in that difficult country. He reasoned: "I will go there with my army, and once we meet face to face, how hard can it be to seize him?" Khan, being a huge man and a skilled swordsman, was confident he could easily overpower Shivaji.

भेटीची सिद्धता - मार्गशीर्ष शु. सप्तमी, १० नोव्हेंबर १६५९

The day fixed for the meeting was the day after Champashashthi — Margashirsha Shuddha Saptami, a Thursday, 10 November 1659. Beforehand, Khan arrived in his palanquin and set up his travelling pavilion at the foot of Pratapgad fort, stationing his troops all around for security. On the other side, in concealed positions throughout that hilly, forested country, Shivaji stationed his own supporting forces — Kanhoji Jedhe, Netaji Palkar, Moropant Pingle, Bahirji Naik and others — and had the jungle paths rendered impassable by felling trees across them, leaving open only the single palanquin-road meant for Khan's own approach. Every minute detail had been worked out by Shivaji well in advance, and each man was given a clear understanding of his own task. Yet the thought kept turning in everyone's mind: in the encounter with Khan, who would kill whom? This was, in truth, a leap into the very jaws of death; however much care was taken, no one could say for certain what the actual moment would bring. Some suggested sending some other stout-hearted man in Shivaji's place to meet the Khan, but Shivaji spurned this cowardly proposal of holding another man's life cheap, and with full courage — though the utmost caution — resolved to keep the meeting with Khan himself. That night, mother and son had no other thought in their minds. The next day, after the midday meal, Shivaji bowed before the goddess, took his mother's leave, and descended the fort to go to the meeting.

प्रतापगडावरील खानवध

Word reached Shivaji that Khan had already arrived and taken his seat. Shivaji walked down, one measured step at a time, toward the meeting pavilion, with his envoy Pantaji Gopinath at his side; beside Khan stood Krishnaji Bhaskar Kulkarni. Before entering himself, Shivaji sent Pantaji in ahead and had the two armed guards standing near Khan sent outside. Shivaji's own two guards, Jiva Mahala and Sambhaji Kavji, remained concealed just outside. The moment Maharaj entered alone, Khan rose as if to embrace him, but in that very act gripped Shivaji's neck tightly under his own arm and struck at his head with the sword at his waist. Because Shivaji wore a steel cap hidden beneath his turban, the blow left him unwounded. In that same instant, Shivaji, with the bichwa in one hand and the wagh-nakh fitted to the other, tore open Khan's belly and pulled out his entrails. Khan cried out loudly, "Daga! Daga!" — treachery, treachery. Shivaji's neck came free. Khan's bodyguards rushed in to cut Shivaji down, but Jiva Mahala and Sambhaji Kavji killed them first. Just then the palanquin-bearers burst in; these too were struck down, and Sambhaji Kavji severed Khan's head and had it hoisted high upon the fort's very peak. As dusk approached, at the sound of prearranged signal-calls, Shivaji's men, who lay concealed at every point throughout the forest, sprang out and fell furiously upon Khan's army, routing it utterly. That night of Shuddha Saptami, the forests of Jawali rang with cries and the clash of arms.

वाईच्या छावणीचा धुव्वा व बंदिवानांचा सन्मान

At daybreak, Netaji and Moropant fell upon the Bijapuri camp at Wai and, in short order, threw that camp into complete disorder, seizing all its equipment and wealth. Khan's eldest son, Fazal Khan, fled and saved his own life; his other two sons and the women of his household fell into Shivaji's hands, and Shivaji had them escorted home with all courtesy. Wounded men who were taken were given medical treatment and then sent home safely by Shivaji's leave, and he rewarded and honoured, great and small, all who had aided him in the enterprise. Shivaji had won this life-and-death struggle, and through it his fame resounded on every side, leaving a lasting impression on friend and foe alike. The belief grew that this extraordinary man had been created by divine ordinance, and the whole episode of Khan's death took on an aura of the miraculous.

सोन्याचा तोडा बक्षीस - पोवाड्याची निर्मिती

One can only imagine what was in Jijabai's heart. She lost no time in summoning the ballad-poet Ajnandas from Pune to Pratapgad and had him compose a powada, a heroic ballad, on the event — a ballad that people still sing with devotion to this day, still regarded as one of the finest ornaments of the Marathi language; it was, as Sardesai remarks, the "radio" of that era. Jijabai placed a fine gold bracelet in the ballad-singer's hands as his reward — the origin of this chapter's title, "The Gold Bracelet Reward." The spirits of the Marathas rose high, and correspondingly the prestige of the Bijapur kingdom suffered a heavy blow.

परमानंदांचे मार्मिक विवेचन

Understanding this tale of the slaying of Afzal Khan is, in itself, one of the chief purposes of the history of our nation, even though not every detail of it has survived on paper. The eagerness of people to know the full story was as strong in earlier times as it remains today. Even when the affair was fresh, how keenly people's curiosity was roused is captured in a perceptive Sanskrit verse composed by the chronicler Paramanand: "Shivasyafjalo veda hridayam sa cha tasya tat, tam vidyarthe tu vidhir veda sandhi-vidhim janah" — meaning, when someone asked another, "Tell us, how did this slaying of Afzal Khan come about?", the reply was: "How did it happen, you ask! Afzal Khan fully knew what lay in Shivaji's heart, and Shivaji fully knew what lay in Khan's. What passed between the two of them at their meeting, only Brahma the Creator can say. All that the world outside knew was that this meeting between the two had come about through mutual counsel and friendly talk."