बंगलोरच्या भेटी

Even as a new spirit of energy was kindling in Maval under Dadaji Kondadev and the young Shivaji, an altogether contrary and troubling state of affairs was building up around Shahaji Raje far away in Karnataka. Dadaji's quiet work of garrisoning and securing the hill forts of Maval could not remain hidden for long: word of it travelled to Bijapur, and once the Badshah became convinced that this activity amounted to rebellion against the state, he demanded an explanation from Shahaji himself. Shahaji, in turn, summoned the whole family to Karnataka to answer for it in person, and these meetings took place at Bangalore around 1640-41. It is likely that Dadaji Kondadev himself accompanied Jijabai on this journey south. There was a second reason for the visit as well. Sometime around 1640, Jijabai had arranged Shivaji's marriage, bringing into the household as his bride Saibai, daughter of the Nimbalkar family of Phaltan. Shahaji wished to see this new household for himself, to have all the jagir accounts scrutinised in his presence and the expenses settled, and to resolve, face to face, the charges of rebellion that Bijapur had levelled against him — matters that could not be settled except by direct conversation. At Bangalore, Shahaji had by now established an entirely new domestic establishment of his own; Jijabai too wished to take stock of this new life, and it is likely that she hoped, under the changed circumstances, to win back her husband's favour and affection. Altogether the years 1641 and 1642 were spent in this way at these meetings, and only in 1643 did the whole party return to Maharashtra. On the way back, Shahaji himself, together with his entire family, also went briefly to Bijapur to pay his respects to the Badshah.

भेटीचा निष्फळ परिणाम

What exactly passed at these Bangalore meetings can only be surmised, since no direct record survives. Their principal purpose was to bring about a genuine reconciliation between the two sides, but in this they failed utterly. How could Shahaji's continuing loyalty and service to a Muslim state ever be reconciled with the new Maharashtrian awakening that Shivaji and Jijabai were fostering back home? If anything, the meetings only sharpened this underlying contradiction. Shahaji had, in the course of his Karnataka campaigns, been party to the destruction of Hindu temples and religious institutions there, and this was a wound that refused to heal in Jijabai's mind, however much she continued, in principle, to honour her husband's position and loyalties. On reaching Bangalore and witnessing the household that her husband now shared with a co-wife, Jijabai felt a deep revulsion. Using the pretext that she wished to go on pilgrimage to Kanchi and Rameshwaram, she took her leave of Bangalore altogether, staying away for something between six months and a year before rejoining the rest of the party on their way to Bijapur. Dadaji, for his part, carefully explained the accounts and the administrative arrangements to Shahaji, and managed to smooth over the affair so that no open rupture within the family became public knowledge. But Jijabai's own private hope — of recovering real intimacy and understanding with her husband — was never fulfilled.

विजापुरातील कसाई-प्रसंग

Here Sardesai pauses to note a point of method: Shivaji's entire life story is so extraordinary that not every part of it can be established on solid documentary proof. A great deal of legend, balladry, verse, and later charter-literature has accumulated around it, and only when all of this is weighed together does a coherent picture of his life emerge — and it is only that overall picture, in summary, that the historian can responsibly set down here. Around 1642, Shahaji Raje came with his whole family from Bangalore to Bijapur. His purpose was to meet the Badshah in person, remove the royal displeasure that had built up over the Maval disturbances, and — by having Shivaji bow at the Badshah's feet — settle the whole affair amicably. Shivaji, however, had no wish whatsoever, in his heart, to serve the Badshah. A great deal of discussion took place at Bijapur, but the two conflicting aims — Shivaji's desire for an independent kingdom of his own, and Shahaji's need to preserve his own standing within the Bijapur state — could never be reconciled. When Shahaji took Shivaji before the Badshah's court, the boy did not touch his forehead to the ground in obeisance as custom required; Shahaji excused this to the Badshah by saying that the boy was young and did not yet understand the etiquette of the court. During this same stay at Bijapur, an incident occurred that revealed Shivaji's temper unmistakably. Riding one day through the city streets, he came upon a Muslim butcher in the act of slaughtering a cow. Overcome with fury at the sight, Shivaji drew the sword at his waist and beheaded the man on the spot. When an inquiry into the killing began and it appeared that Shivaji himself might be seized, he slipped away from Bijapur that very night and made his way back to his homeland. Taken together, these episodes of the Bijapur visit tell essentially the same story: father and son were now pulling in irreconcilably different directions.