The distorted legacy of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?
Dhaval Kulkarni
The cardinal problem with the study of history is that those who wrote or recorded history were different from those who shaped it. Unfortunately, most of those who wrote history did so dishonestly and that problem persists even today.
Hence, history writing is heavily coloured with prejudices, disjointed narratives and biases, making our past a convenient tool in the hands of those who wish to use it for their narrow social and political ends. The past transgresses into the realm of myth and becomes a potent weapon to influence the present and the future.
The life of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is no different. Despite being one of the most striking figures in the history of India, there are many Shivajis which one comes across in history, some of them at odds with each other, leaving a student of history confused: which one of them is true?:
The protector of the Bramhin and the cow?
The king who upheld the cause of the Hindu religion and saved it from the marauding Islamic invaders?
A king who kept Muslims in their place?
A man who took on the Bramhins and put them to the sword?
A true Kshatriya?
Or as a pretender of a historian called him in the title of his controversial book: A Hindu King in Islamic India?
Perhaps one should go back in time, around a century and half to be precise, to arrive at what may be part of the singular truth. In 1869, it was that doughty social reformer Mahatma Jotiba Phule who took pains to unearth the crumbling Samadhi of Chatrapati Shivaji on his erstwhile capital-- the Raigad fort and took efforts to restore it. Later, Phule composed the first powada (ballad) of the warrior king, describing him as a “kulwadi bhushan” (the jewel of the peasant Kunbi community), a radical departure from the depiction of the pro- Hindutva historians: “Kshatriya Kulawatans Go Bramhan Pratipalak” (The inheritor of the Kshatriya legacy, the protector of the cows and Bramhins).
Infact contrary to popular perception, a reading of Chatrapati Shivaji’s life shows how he took on the socially orthodox and feudal order of the day. Ironically, even though the Bramhins and the Marathas lay claim to the legacy of Chatrapati Shivaji today, he had been opposed by some elements from these upper castes at a time when he was shaping the history of the country and delivering people from their centuries old slavery.
When the Mughal General Mirza Raje Jaisingh invaded Maharashtra, some Bramhins performed a yagna (sacrifice) to secure divine intervention for his victory over Shivaji. Later, when he decided to get himself coronated as a “Chatrapati” in 1674-- the first Hindu king to do so after several years of Muslim rule-- the Bramhins refused to perform the necessary religious rites calling him a “Shudra.” Eventually, Pandit Gaga Bhat had to be brought in from Varanasi in return for a hefty “dakshina” (fee).
When Shivaji Maharaj began his military expeditions against the Adilshahi and Mughal regimes, he formed an army of peasants and the toilers of the land unlike the mercenary armies of other rulers. He was opposed by most feudal lords and blue blooded Marathas like Baji Ghorpade of Mudhol, Chandrarao More of Jawali, Jaswantrao Dalvi, Suryarao Surve and even by his own blood relations.
Afzal Khan’s Bramhin envoy Krishnaji Bhaskar tried to attack Chatrapati Shivaji compelling him to kill him contrary to the religious notion of not killing Bramhins. Shivaji also did away with the practice of giving away jagirs (fiefdoms) to warriors in a departure from tradition and in the true socialist consummation of the anti- caste revolution started by him. This led the feudals and the landed elite (both Marathas and Bramhins) turning against Chatrapati Shivaji.
However, the common men supported their king even at the cost of their lives. Barber Shiva Kashid posed as Shivaji to help him escape the siege of the Panhala fort by the Adilshahi forces and paid for it with his life. Baji Prabhu Deshpande and his warriors blocked the Pavan khind (pass) for him to escape from the Adilshah’s generals Siddhi Jauhar and Siddhi Masud and like the Spartans under their King Leonidas at Thermopylae held the enemy at bay. Jiva Mahale saved Shivaji’s life when he was about to struck by Afzal Khan’s bodyguard Sayyad Banda from the rear, a Muslim- Madari Mehtar played a steller role in helping Chatrapati Shivaji escape from Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s confinement at Agra and Bramhins Triambakpant Dabir, Raghunathpant Korde and others were tortured brutally by the Mughals after it. Prataprao Gujar and his band of six warriors, including a Muslim, took on the might of Bahlol Khan at Nesari near Kolhapur.
These were men of conviction who were ready to lay down their lives for the cause of their king as they were convinced of his larger purpose-- that of the emancipation of the downtrodden.
Shivaji also took on religious orthodoxy: he ensured that his brother in law Bajaji Naik Nimbalkar and general Netaji Palkar who had been converted to Islam were re- converted to Hinduism. He also appointed a Dalit as the in- charge of a fort in a break from the caste system (chaturvarna) and the chief of his secret service was Bahirji Naik, a Ramoshi.
However, while Bramhins try to exaggerate the role of their fellow kinsmen in the success of Shivaji by portraying Swami Ramdas as his spiritual guide, Maratha right wing organisations like the Sambhaji Brigade use Chatrapati Shivaji as a convenient tool to target the Bramhins by pointing to the Bramhinic opposition to them. These Maratha organisations are however mum on the role of their kinsmen, especially the blue blooded aristocrats, in opposing Shivaji for selfish ends. Despite claiming to be the ideological inheritors of Chatrapati Shivaji’s mantle, these organisations have no inhibitions in pushing a misogynist and casteist agenda.
In a state where honour killings still take place, will the feudal minded Marathas who are seeking to appropriate Chatrapati Shivaji accept that he married a Dalit woman in the 17th century? After his vedic coronation in 1674, Shivaji, who followed the Shakta tradition which worshipped the Mother Goddess, had a Shakta ceremony conducted by Nishchalpuri Gosavi. Subsequently, he married a woman from the Matang community.
When an American writer visited India to write on Shivaji, the upper caste reactionary forces ensured that “naughty jokes” about his parentage made his way into print, which was a cardinal sin in history writing. After all, history is to be written based on documentary and oral evidence and not on naughty jokes and the freedom of expression does not extend to insulting and hurting people deliberately and then objecting to their right to take offence.
An area in which Chatrapati Shivaji towers over his contemporaries was his respect for women, strength of character and personal morality. The legend of the beautiful daughter in law of the Mughal subhedar of Kalyan who was seized and presented before him as a spoil of war is well known. Shivaji treated her with respect and sent her back to her family. When Belwadi Malamma, the warrior queen of Belwadi in present day Karnataka, clashed with his forces and was manhandled by them, Shivaji punished the erring soldiers and treated her with respect like his own mother! In gratitude, Malamma built a shrine to the benevolent king.
Chatrapati Shivaji, who had great respect for his mother Jijabai, warned his generals and soldiers against mistreating or sexually assaulting women. Those who failed to comply were severely punished regardless of their rank.
During his formative years, when he was in charge of his father—Maharaj Shahaji’s jagir of Pune and Supe, he did something which was unheard of in times when the women of the poor and downtrodden sections of society were treated as fair game by the upper castes and the high and mighty.
The Patil (village head) of Ranjha raped a woman from his village. When summoned by Chatrapati Shivaji to his court, the Patil, drunk on his arrogance as an upper caste, refused. Undeterred, Shivaji waged war and arrested the Patil, who was later punished by having his hands and feet cut off as a punishment for his heinous crime.
Shivaji loved his subjects like his children. In a letter to his army, he warned them against troubling the citizenry and pointed out that if they did so, it would lead to them (citizens) believing that the oppressive Mughals were better. “Do not touch even a stalk of a vegetable in the farms of the ryots,” he warned.
Chatrapati Shivaji did away with the earlier system of collecting land revenue and introduced one which was just and equitable.
It was these righteous acts of benevolence which endeared him to his subjects. They saw in Chatrapati Shivaji a compassionate king who empathised with his subjects and thus, was far ahead of his times.
Later, after his son Chatrapati Sambhaji was captured and killed by the bigoted Mughal emperor Aurangazeb, the besieged people of Maharashtra fought for 16 years against the marauding Mughal army and resisted their invasion. Eventually, Aurangazeb, whose dominions extended across the Indian subcontinent, died near Aurangabad near Maharashtra as a broken and frustrated man, unable to break this resistance in Maharashtra. The people of Maharashtra caused the downfall of the mighty Mughal empire. Such was their love for their King!
On the contrary, when the regime of the Peshwas, who ruled from Pune and were known for their caste orthodoxy and debauchery in their later years came to an end in 1818, the people of Pune burst crackers to celebrate the fall of a despotic regime!
India has been ruled by kings since several millennia but there are only a few like Samrat Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya and Chatrapati Shivaji who have remained etched in the memory of people for centuries.
In Maharashtra, even illiterate people know the exploits of their warrior king, which are enshrined in ballads, poetry and popular art. Chatrapati Shivaji was different from the feudal kings of yore and today’s rapacious modern rulers. Though parties fighting for the cause of the Maharashtrians use him as an icon, Chatrapati Shivaji has continued to inspire people from across India and even the globe. It was his revolt against Mughal and Adilshahi misrule that spurred Chatrasal to organise the Bundelas against the Mughal empire. His tactics in guerrilla warfare inspired to Ho Chi Minh and the people of Vietnam who brought the imperial US to its knees.
It was Kaviraj Bhushan Tripathi from Varanasi who wrote one of the most stirring poems eulogising his acts and bravery in the Braja dialect:
इन्द्र जिमि जंभपर , वाडव सुअंभपर |
रावन सदंभपर , रघुकुल राज है ||
पौन बरिबाहपर , संभु रतिनाहपर |
ज्यो सहसबाहपर , राम द्विजराज है ||
दावा द्रुमदंडपर , चीता मृगझुंडपर |
भूषण वितुण्डपर , जैसे मृगराज है ||
तेजतम अंसपर , कन्हजिमि कंसपर |
तो म्लेंच्छ बंसपर , शेर सिवराज है ||
(Like Indra against the demon Vritta,
Like water against underground fire,
Like Rama against Ravana,
Like wind dispelling clouds,
Like Shiva against (the God of Love) Kamadeva,
Like Parshurama against (the Haihaya king) Kartiveerya,
Like fire burning wood,
Like a cheetah on a herd of deer,
Like a Lion against hogs,
Like light dispelling darkness,
Like Krishna against Kamsa,
Shivaji is against the Mlechas (Mughals/ Muslims).
Another poem on him was written by Ravindranath Tagore:
In what far-off country, upon what obscure day
I know not now,
Seated in the gloom of some Mahratta mountain-wood
O King Shivaji,
Lighting thy brow, like a lightning flash,
This thought descended,
"Into one virtuous rule, this divided broken distracted India, I shall bind."
Infact, this virtuous king was admired by history writers in the Mughal court like Khafi Khan and Bhimsen Saxena who marvelled at his valour— Chatrapati Shivaji had attacked the camp of Emperor Aurangzeb’s uncle Mirza Abu Talib Shaista Khan at Pune in 1663 and cut off his fingers.
Despite “Jai Bhawani, Jai Shivaji” becoming a war cry for the Hindu right when it came to confrontations with the Muslims and even the Dalits, a third of Shivaji Maharaj’s army comprised of Muslims. His Navy chief was Daulat Khan and so was his personal servant Madari Mehtar. Siddhi Hilal was one of his generals. On the other hand, the Mughal and Adil shahi armies comprised of a generous sprinkling of Hindus who preferred to look the other way as Hindu temples were desecrated.
Though there are no historic records to indicate that the Bramhin saint- Samarth Ramdas was Chatrapati Shivaji’s spiritual guru, he is said to have sought spiritual guidance from a Muslim saint Baba Yaqut from the Konkan. In a letter to the fundamentalist Aurangzeb, he warned him to mend his ways. He pointed out that nowhere in the Kuran had God been described as belonging to only Muslims and noted that God belonged to entire mankind.
Contemporary observers note the immense respect that he had for Muslim places of worship and the Holy Kuran. Though the Adilshahi general Afzal Khan attacked the temples of Lord Vitthala at Pandharpur and Tuljabhawani at Tuljapur, Shivaji, a devout Hindu who began his letters with the words “Shree Shankar,” never destroyed dargahs or mosques in retaliation.
Later, the Khan, who was known for his immense physical strength and cruelty, was disembowelled by Chatrapati Shivaji, who was a wrestler himself in 1659 when he tried to kill him through deceit.
Despite the fact that Khan had killed his elder brother Sambhaji and imprisoned his father Maharaj Shahaji by deceit, Shivaji built a mausoleum for him and his bodyguard Sayyad Banda at the foothills of Pratapgad. Ironically, the tomb has become a pilgrimage centre for some hardliners from the minority community who identify themselves more with the bigoted Afzal Khan than the secular- liberal Shivaji!
The real threat to the legacy of Mahatmas and icons are those who claim to be their followers but act contrary to the values they stood for. Be it Shivaji, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar or Mahatma Phule, these pretenders and charlatans have let them down by misusing their ideas for narrow ends. There is a need to put the record straight and rescue the legacy of these icons from these phony followers.
This will be a true tribute to them!
posted by dhaval at 5:04 AM
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