Book: Shivaji and His Times
Publisher: Routledge; 1st edition (27 February 2018)
Publisher: Orient Blackswan Private Limited - New Delhi; 5th Revised edition (1 January 2010)
Language: English
Paperback: 352 pages
Item Weight: 384 g
Dimensions: 20.3 x 25.4 x 4.7 cm
Country of Origin: India
Price: 419/-
दावा द्रुमदंड पर, चीता मृग झुंड पर भूषण वीतुंड पर जैसे मृगराज है|
तेज तम अंस पर, कान्ह जिमि कंस पर, त्यो मलिच्छ बंस पर सेर सिवराज है||
(Like a fire which annihilates the forest, Like a leopard that stalks a deer herd and like a vitalized lion who attacks an elephant / Like the light of dawn that disperses darkness, and like Krishna who slays Kans, like all the above the lion hearted Shivaji, the religious protector of the earth is fighting the fraternity of Mlechhas.)
This book narrates to its readers the saga of an individual whole actual immensity lay in his character and practical talent, rather than in originality of conception or dimension of political vision. Consistent acumen into the character of others, proficiency of arrangements, and intuitive perception of what was practicable and most profitable under the circumstances -- these were the origins of his success in life.
To these must be added his personal morality and loftiness of aim, which drew to his side the best minds of his community, while his universal allowance and insistence on equal justice for all gave contentment to all classes subject to his rule.
He tirelessly maintained order and enforced moral laws all through his own dominions, and the people were better-off under his sway than anywhere else.
His impressive accomplishment fired the imagination of his contemporaries and his name became a spell calling the Maratha race to a new life.
Although his whole dominion was laid to waste only within nine years of his death, the eternal attainment of his life was the raising of the Marathas into a self-governing autonomous people, aware of their cohesion and high destiny, and his most valuable bequest was the spirit that he respired into his people.
The mutual conflict and internal weakness of the three Muslim Powers of the Deccan were, certainly, influential causes of the rise of Shivaji. But his accomplishment sprang from a higher source than the ineffectiveness of his enemies.
To quote Sarkar, ‘I regard him as the last great constructive genius and nation-builder that the Hindu race has produced. His system was his own creation and, unlike Ranjit Singh, he took no foreign aid in his administration. His army was drilled and commanded by his own people and not by Frenchmen. What he built lasted long: his institutions were looked up to with admiration and emulation even a century later in the palmy days of the Peshwas rule.’
And one must bear in mind that Shivaji was illiterate, unschooled; he learnt nothing by reading. He built up his kingdom and Government before visiting any royal Court, civilized city, or organized camp.
He received no assistance or guidance from any practiced minister or general. But his native intellect, alone and single-handed, permitted him to found a rock-solid kingdom, an invulnerable army and an applied and altruistic system of administration.
Before his rise, the Maratha race was disseminated like atoms through many Deccani kingdoms. He fused them into a monumental nation.
And he achieved this in the teeth of the opposition of four great Powers like the Mughals, Bijapur, Portuguese, and the Abyssinians.
No other mediaeval Hindu has shown such capability.
Before he came, the Marathas were mere servants of aliens.
They served the State, but had no share in its management; they shed their life-blood in the army, but were deprived of any role in the conduct of war or peace.
They were always underlings, never leaders. Shivaji was the first to challenge Bijapur and Delhi and thus teach his countrymen that it was possible for them to be sovereign leaders in war.
Then, he founded a State and taught his people that they were accomplished in administering a kingdom in all its departments. He proved by his example that the Hindu race can build a nation, found a State, defeat enemies; they can conduct their own defence; they can protect and promote literature and art, commerce and industry; they can keep navies and ocean-trading fleets of their own, and conduct naval battles on equivalent terms with outsiders.
He taught the modern Hindus to rise to the full physique of their growth.
Sarkar says, ‘He has proved that the Hindu race can still produce not only jamādārs (non-commissioned officers) and chitmises (clerks), but also rulers of men, and even a king of kings (Chhatrapati.) The Emperor Jahangir cut the Akshay But tree of Allahabad down to its roots and hammered a red-hot iron cauldron on to its stump. He flattered himself that he had killed it. But lo! Within a year the tree began to grow again and pushed the heavy obstruction to its growth aside!’
More than anything else, Shivaji proved with his life that the tree of Hinduism is not really dead, that it can rise from beneath the apparently overwhelming burden of centuries of political suppression, segregation from the administration, and administrative tyranny; it can put forth new leaves and branches; it can again buzz its head up to the skies.