besieged and Shivaji had to sign the Treaty of Puran-dar in 1665 after lengthy negotiations.. Jai Singh’s plan for subduing Bijapur failed, and he persuaded Shivaji to meet the emperor i
Trang 1besieged and Shivaji had to sign the Treaty of
Puran-dar in 1665 after lengthy negotiations Shivaji retained
12 forts out of his 35 and agreed to remain loyal to
Aurangzeb Jai Singh’s plan for subduing Bijapur failed,
and he persuaded Shivaji to meet the emperor in person
at Agra He was put under house arrest but managed to
escape Another treaty was signed, but it did not stop the
offensive of Shivaji against the Mughals, and in 1670 he
launched another attack against their territories
Puran-dar and some other forts were recaptured by him Surat
was once again attacked
SELF-DECLARED KING
On June 6, 1674, Shivaji declared himself as a sovereign
king in a ceremony at Raigarh, in which he gave himself
the title of Chhatrapati (sovereign king) He started the
Raj Shaka (royal era) and issued shivarai hun (gold coin)
on this occasion An independent Maratha state became
an accomplished fact in the face of the mighty Mughals
and ever opposing hegemony of Bijapur kingdom The
Marathas looked him as father of the nation and the
rise of Maratha nationalism owes a great deal to Shivaji,
who rose from a minor chieftain to king of an
indepen-dent kingdom At the time of the struggle for freedom
against British colonial rule, he was taken as a symbol of
nationalism in the nationalist historiography
Shivaji did not make an agenda of fighting for the
Hindu cause against forces of Islam He was a brave
soldier who prized his independence His waging of war
against external domination was a yearning for
free-dom against subjugation After 1674, Shivaji launched
a spate of offensives against Mughals in Berar and
Khandesh He besieged the forts at Vellore and Jinji
As a sovereign ruler, he signed a treaty with Golconda
Sultanate He also signed a friendship treaty with the
Kutubshah of Golconda Sultanate
ADMINISTRATION
Amid his conquests and relentless guerrilla warfare
against enemies, Shivaji laid the foundation of a sound
administrative system The ashtapradhans (eight
min-isters) were ministers holding different portfolios The
ieshwa was the most important one, having charge of
finance and general administration The sar-i-naubat
was the commander in chief, and the majumdar was
the accountant The dabir looked after foreign powers
and waqe navis managed the intelligence department
The departments of justice and charity were entrusted
with nyayadhish and panditrao He was one of the
few rulers who had a developed navy, and he enacted
improvements to the organization and functioning of
the army The soldiers were given strict instructions for not harassing women and noncombatants Salary was given in cash and the chiefs received land revenue grants His numerous forts were well managed A tax
called chauth (one-fourth of land revenue) was levied in
neighboring territories as a kind of protection money against Maratha raids Shivaji adopted a policy of reli-gious toleration and employed Muslims in the army His admirals in the navy were Muslims Shivaji was one
of the greatest statesmen and generals, symbolizing the Maratha will against the imperial rule of the Mughals
He died on April 3, 1680, from high fever and was suc-ceeded by his son, Raje Sambhaji (1657–89)
See also Mughal Empire
Further reading: Apte, B K., ed
Chhatrapati Shivaji: Coro-nation Tercentenary Commemoration Volume Bombay: Uni-versity of Bombay, 1974; Kasar, D B Rigveda to Raigarh: Making of Shivaji the Great Mumbai: Manudevi Prakashan, 2005; Kincaid, Dennis The Grand Rebel: An Impression of Shivaji, Founder of the Maratha Empire London: Collins, 1937; Sarkar, Jadunath Shivaji Calcutta: S C Sarkar and
Sons, 1961
Patit Paban Mishra
Sikhism and Guru Nanak
(1469–1539) founder of Sikhism
Sri Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism, was born in
1469 in Sheikhupura district of present-day Pakistan
to a Hindu family of Kshatriya caste He was educated
in Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic Although attracted
to spiritualism, he did not adhere to religious conven-tions and refused putting on sacred thread according to the traditional Hindu custom In spite of his marriage and his father’s insistence that he pursue a career, the young man pursued his spiritual quest, spending hours
in meditation and in religious discourse with Muslim and Hindu saints
Nanak donated all his belongings to the poor, renounced the world, and made an extensive tour of the Indian subcontinent and according to the tradition went even to Mecca, Medina, Tibet, and Sri Lanka During his travels to places of worship of both Hindus and Muslims, Nanak developed his religious thought and monotheism, belief in one god, who was timeless and everlasting Like the Bhakit saints of India, he visu-alized an egalitarian society without any discrimination between different classes and religion He was against