आजाराचे सोंग

While all these currents ran beneath the surface, Shivaji began putting about the impression that his health had deteriorated and that he was undergoing treatment for it. He appeared restless and complained that sleep would not come to him. On Friday, 17 August 1666, he gave out that his condition had grown markedly worse, and took to his bed. His attendants sat close by him, massaging his feet.

पेटाऱ्यांतून पलायन

As evening fell and darkness gathered, father and son — squeezed, out of necessity, into baskets meant for carrying sweetmeats — were borne out of the lodging slung from two kavads, and, crossing the river Yamuna, made their way northward. Exactly where they went from there, by what route, in what disguise, and with whose assistance — none of this detail survives in writing; every reader must supply it from his own imagination. Hirojee Farzand, Madari Mehtar, Raghunath Pandit, and the poet Paramanand were among the many who laboured tirelessly in bringing off this enterprise. By midday the following day, it was discovered that, as the saying went, "the parrot had flown the cage." Poladkhan reported to the Emperor that Shivaji had vanished through sorcery and become invisible — and the Emperor was credulous enough to more or less accept even this account as true.

गोंडवनातून रायगडाकडे

Travelling in the guise of a wandering ascetic, a bairagi, on pilgrimage through Mathura, Ayodhya, Prayag, and other such sacred places, and thereafter making his way through the Gond forests to the east while carefully avoiding the main highways, Shivaji spent three months upon this journey, and, on Margashirsha Shukla Panchami — 20 November — suddenly appeared before his mother at Raigad.

औरंगजेबाची अस्वस्थता

Because the Emperor had issued the most stringent orders for Shivaji's recapture, throughout the entire three months of his stay at Agra the Emperor himself never once knew a day's peace, dreading always that this Shivaji, lying low and watching for his chance, might strike at his very life at any moment. It is recorded that the Emperor kept himself under close guard even through the nights. There was, besides, a rumour current about Shivaji that, like Maruti — Hanuman — he could clear great distances in a single leap; the Emperor must surely have been aware of this rumour as well. For this reason the Emperor never again, after that single darbar, brought Shivaji face to face with himself. The Emperor's deeply vindictive nature was, at that time, common knowledge throughout Agra — how he had dealt with his own brothers, and indeed with his own father and his own son, remained fresh in everyone's memory.

शिवाजीचे धैर्य आणि युक्ती

When the powerful oppress the weak by sheer force, the historian reflects, even the smallest of living creatures are stirred to a fierce vigour of self-preservation — such, precisely, was Shivaji's condition through those three months, and he survived them purely through the power of his own intellect. The basket-escape was not the only scheme that had occurred to him; he had turned over many other stratagems in his mind for days on end before finally settling upon this one. There is no telling how many physicians and how many skilled craftsmen Shivaji made contact with during that period in pursuit of a means of escape. Afterward, the Emperor had a considerable number of travellers who merely resembled Shivaji seized on bare suspicion and put to death. In the course of his flight, it appears that Shivaji made the acquaintance, most likely at Prayag, of a gentleman by the name of Kavikalash, who presented himself as a kshetropadhyaya, a local pilgrimage-guide and priest.

देशभर आनंद आणि कीर्ती

News of Shivaji's astonishing escape spread across the length of the country almost instantly, and an immense curiosity about him arose everywhere among the people. Ordinary folk began to say that God Himself must be aiding him. Everywhere there was rejoicing that Aurangzeb had received the just deserts of his own treachery. Maharashtra resounded with Shivaji's fame and with cries of triumph in his honour — but this escape from Agra did far more than swell his renown at home: it made Shivaji, in the eyes of all Hindus, the true refuge and support of their community. From every corner of the country, people now began travelling specially into Maharashtra merely to have his darshan. Chhatrasal Bundela, Kavibhushan, Paramanandbawa, Gagabhatt, and many other gentlemen of the north became devoted followers attached to Shivaji from this time onward. His mother's joy knew no bounds; she and Shivaji together gave alms and performed acts of charity in gratitude to God. The whole of Maharashtra swelled with waves of rejoicing, and every one of those who had helped him in his escape was duly and fittingly rewarded.

आग्र्याच्या अनुभवाचे फलित

Yet beyond all this rejoicing, what Shivaji himself gained from the episode — direct, first-hand experience of Mughal administration and of the currents of change in the north — must be reckoned beyond price. The pomp of the Badshahi, and the underlying misrule and disorder that lay beneath it, impressed themselves vividly upon his eyes, and Shivaji thereafter abandoned entirely his earlier manner of dealing with the Mughals. From this point forward he adopted a policy of avoiding open pitched warfare in favour of subtle diplomacy and conciliation. The idea was born in him of counterbalancing the Emperor by having himself formally crowned king, thereby raising up a new power equal and opposed to the Mughal throne — the vision of a Hindu-pad-padshahi, a sovereign Hindu realm, now came within sight on the horizon. From this time on, Shivaji avoided undertaking any further such reckless personal gambles; the Agra escape, as one single overwhelming episode, eclipsed all his other exploits of cunning and stratagem. At Salher he fought a long and open pitched battle and thoroughly wore the Emperor down by main force. He turned his full attention thereafter to the governance of his own realm, making the prosperity and well-being of his own land the true and lasting fruit of kingship — and this indeed was the result he brought about in his dominion.

नवा तह, संभाजीची रवानगी

Shivaji wrote conciliatory letters to the Emperor himself and adopted a mild, gentle bearing toward him, which went some way toward placating him. He concluded a fresh treaty with the Emperor, under which the Emperor conferred upon him the title of "Raje," and Shivaji, for his part, undertook that he would assist the Badshahi with his own army whenever called upon. Since it felt awkward to Shivaji personally to style himself a servant of the Emperor, he sent instead his son Sambhaji, together with Pratap Rao Gujar, to Aurangabad to attend upon the Mughal subedar there. The Emperor, in turn, appointed his own eldest son, Shah Alam, as subedar of the Deccan. For about two years, Sambhaji remained, largely unrestrained, within the Mughal camp between Aurangabad and Burhanpur. It appears likely that during this period, in the company of Mughal officers, Sambhaji acquired a taste for hunting and for similar pursuits.