संभाजीचें दुर्वर्तन प्रथम उघड

The precise date on which Shivaji first took formal action regarding his son's conduct is not recorded in the court chronicle (shakavali). What can be said is that sometime before he reached Panhala in April 1678, Shivaji had already dealt with the matter of Sambhaji, and only afterward did the full record of events fall into place. Even before this, rumours of the young prince's misbehaviour had been circulating, and some word of them had reached Shivaji's ears in the period following his coronation ceremony. The shakavali records that on 21 October, while Shivaji was away on the Karnatak campaign, his son's misconduct was formally brought to his notice. The chronicle's own words, dated to 1677, run essentially thus: 'Sambhajiraje turned to bad ways. His father's displeasure fell upon him. He was sent and kept at Shringarpur, with Umandit appointed nearby to keep watch over him.' Sambhaji had been born on 14 May 1657. He was barely two years old when his mother, Saibai, died. Even before her death Shivaji had contracted further marriages, and stepmothers now entered the household in which the boy was raised. His education was arranged in the customary manner of the time: he progressed in reading, writing, and accounts, and — most notably — acquired a genuine command of Sanskrit. At home, through the recitation of a family Puranik, he gained some acquaintance with the ancient texts. Sanskrit verses composed by his own hand survive, and letters in Sanskrit addressed to Ram Singh and others bear his personal signature, 'swahastoham' ('written in my own hand'). It is likely that Kavikalash, a learned pandit from the north, was retained specifically to instruct him in Sanskrit.

मोगल छावणीतील संस्कार व व्यसनाधीनता

Sambhaji performed important ceremonial roles at Shivaji's own coronation. Before that, however, he had spent close to two years as a young hostage-companion in the Mughal camp, and it is conjectured that it was during those years, amid the pastime of hunting, that certain vices first took hold of him — scattered references suggest he developed a taste for ganja and opium during this period. At the age of nine he had accompanied his father to Agra for the fateful audience with the Badshah, and on the return journey the two spent something like six months to a year in the region of Mathura and Prayag; it is quite possible that it was here too that he picked up habits typical of the north. The full flowering of these vices — wine, courtesans, and the rest — belongs to the years when he was eighteen or twenty years old. From 1677 onward, his father's anxiety over him hardened into something closer to revulsion, and from that time forward Shivaji's peace of mind was permanently lost. Sambhaji fell into open, standing conflict with ministers such as Moropant and with his stepmother Soyarabai, and Shivaji found himself unable to bring the quarrel to an end. Constant friction now disturbed the household. Shivaji's anger fell upon his son; nothing Soyarabai said to him found favour. Rumours even arose that the son had attempted to poison his father. Shivaji grew so disheartened by all this that, as recounted earlier, during an illness at Satara he turned for solace to devotion to the Swami (Samarth Ramdas).

परमानंदकवीचें शिवभारत — साधनचर्चा

The celebrated poet Paramananda's Shivbharat is well known, but only its first thirty-two chapters have survived; everything beyond that point is lost to us. This means that the crucial stretch of Shivaji's career — from Shaista Khan's flight down to the coronation — remains untreated in what survives of Paramananda's composition. Whether the poet simply never wrote that portion, or whether it was written and subsequently lost, cannot now be determined. A separate Sanskrit work by the same poet has, however, recently come to light, one that concerns itself with the closing period of Shivaji's life and in which the story of Sambhaji occupies the central place. This poem, in Sanskrit, was published at Baroda some three years ago. It has now also been established that this Paramananda the poet is the very same Paramanandbawa who served as Shivaji's guru and resided at Poladpur. Having lived within the family for many years, the events he describes may reasonably be taken as things he witnessed with his own eyes. He had accompanied Shivaji to Agra; he was present at Raigad at the time of the coronation; and he witnessed Shivaji's death as well. In the end, disillusioned, he took to a life of renunciation (sannyasa). The portion of the work composed after this point of disillusionment is not entirely from Paramananda's own hand; his two sons, Shridhar and Devadatta, and his grandson Govind, all had a hand in it as well. The author's sympathies throughout clearly lie with Sambhaji; in recounting the circumstances of Shivaji's final days, he speaks disparagingly of Moropant Pingle, Anaji Datto, Soyarabai, and others. All the same, this work remains our principal source for understanding the actual circumstances surrounding Shivaji's last days. The greater part of the poem is in fact taken up with descriptions of Sambhaji himself. Like other chroniclers, Paramananda too is doubtless partisan in places; but for all that, his work is of very great value to the historian.

कर्नाटकाचा कारभार संभाजीस देण्याचा प्रस्ताव

After his return from the Karnatak campaign in 1678, Shivaji began seriously turning his mind to the question of curbing Sambhaji. To keep him gainfully occupied, Shivaji put a proposal to him directly: 'You are not able to manage men. After I am gone, how will you carry this whole burden of the kingdom? Winning men over and holding onto them is a skill you have not shown yourself to possess. So for the present, here is what I suggest: Rajaram is still young; let him remain at Raigad and look after the administration of Maharashtra, while you take charge of the vast new territory we have just won in the Karnatak. This is no light assignment — indeed, it offers you ample scope to prove your own mettle.' This was no unreasonable suggestion; it served the true interest of the state. But Sambhaji would not accept it. Soyarabai and Rajaram were established at Raigad, and Sambhaji feared that, were he to become Chhatrapati one day, his own position would be undermined by their presence and influence there. His opponents at court, for their part, had every reason to dread what would follow should Sambhaji ever come into full power.