Centuries ago, in an age when the kaffirs were quietly subordinate and the rulers from among them had even lost the awareness that they should strive for the good of their dharma, a whirlwind arose in an inconspicuous region in Western Bharatvarsha gathering its strength till it could crisscross the subcontinent, wrecking its way through the Mughal empire. The wind was Shivaji; and the assembled might of Sultans and Mughals were helpless before him, bewildering them on as to how they can contain the oncoming storm. But they could not. And like a streak of lightning he flashed over whole subsequent history of India, leaving an after-impression never to be forgotten. Now another anniversary of his coronation day is upon us: the memory of that singular historical moment named thereafter Hindu samrajya divas is celebrated throughout the length and breadth of India.
People unacquainted or nowadays thanks to our education system mis- acquainted with the life and times of Shivaji might wonder why the conquests of a Maratha king should become a pan-Indian celebration. But the implication of his deeds goes beyond merely building an empire since he was as Jadunath Sarkar puts it, “last constructive genius and nation-builder India had produced.” Shivaji had declared that he is raising the banner of a Hindu empire, as opposed to Mughal empire in particular and Islamic dominance in general. One can imagine the shock and horror among the intellectual chattering class. How can this be when before the coming of British there was only love and harmony among Hindus and Muslims? Why should any Hindu try to establish a Hindu rasthra instead of wholeheartedly accepting Islamic culture? His ambition was surely only materialistic, he only wanted wealth and power – right? It must be confessed that no, a deeper impulse was driving him and that is to restore what Hindus had lost and that is the idea that had held sway in Indian understanding of Shivaji. Desperate attempts are made by academicians to prove that in pre-colonial past no Hindu could have able to think beyond the modern Indian version of secularism. James Laine , an American academician argued that later commentators had spun Shivaji’s legacy into a Hindu one against a constructed Muslim enemy; he himself in his book Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India wishes to rescue Shivaji ‘s actual history from those who think in such terms. In other words Shivaji was not really fighting against Muslims as such nor was he interested in reviving Hindu power. Sadly, when we look at Shivaji’s proclamations and actions, it must be admitted that Shivaji was not as secular as Laine and others of his ilk want him to be. Ah then, he must be one of the bigots and communal people who were suffering from Islamophobia and so is a blot on the history of communal harmony. Unfortunately for them, this unsecular militant king is revered and adored not just in Maharashtra, but all over India. The reason is really simple — he embodies the revival of Indian traditions and consolidation of Indian nationalism. Even a sober academic analysis shows that his coronation marks the culmination of long centuries of struggle against religious oppression and the foundations of a new Hindu rasthra. By the time he had died, the dominance of Muslim power had been reversed and a strong new empire had arisen paying homage to ancient Hindu past. Before it fell to the British the Maratha empire, knowing it is Hindu to its very bones would rule the Mughals, the ultimate symbol of Islamic rule in India. This religious dimension of interplay between Hindu and Muslim powers is simply a fact and no amount of wishing can make it go away.
When Shivaji was born, there were strong Sultanates in many places and the Mughal empire was at its height. There were Hindu rajahs but they felt that they cannot stand up against the superior might of the Mughal army. Many chiefs were content to serve in the glittering courts instead. But Shivaji was brought up, not in the grand cities or luxurious Mughal courts, but in a distant fort on grim hills. The people round him were self-reliant, active, courageous and filled with self-respect. His first and greatest teacher was his mother Jijabai, a deeply devout Hindu who yearned to see her son established as a champion of her dharma. So she inculcated in his mind from childhood the principles of sanatan dharma. She taught him to love independence and scorn service under the Muslim kings who trample on the beliefs and symbols of her faith. He learned stories of the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata: the examples of suffering, nobility, prowess and virtue were present to him in the form of Rama and Pandavas. His devotion to his religion and its saints and way of living was well known to all who cared to inquire about him. It is little surprise that when he would begin to formulate his polity he would deliberately seek to discard any Islamic / Persian / Turkish influence and instead would seek to emulate the epic heroes. In that age, this political concept was something radically new.
When Shivaji began his expedition he was regarded as merely a nuisance, no more dangerous than a bandit. But he waxed stronger and stronger till both the Bijapur Sultanate and Aurangzeb took him seriously. He was ideologically more dangerous than other enemies because he wanted to establish Hindu sovereignty in the midst of Islamic sovereigns. Bijapur finally sent against him general Afzal Khan who was famous for his victories and skill at war. It is significant to note how Afzal Khan behaved while trying to lure Shivaji out of his fortress. At Tuljapur Afzal Khan ordered the image of Goddess Bhawani to be broken and pounded to dust. As he moved towards Shivaji’s position he committed further outrages against the image of gods and Brahmins. His aim was to provoke Shivaji into coming out by insulting his faith. This shows clearly the ‘respect’ the Islamic commander had for hindu sentiments in pre-British India and also that he understood clearly that Shivaji was not fighting as a rival king only, but as a Hindu for Hindu dharma. When Shivaji’s generals suggested a strategic reconcilement with Afzal Khan in the face of his much stronger army Shivaji pondered till he had a vision of Goddess Bhawani who promised him victory if only he would be a true warrior. So he went to war and how can he not win? He was fighting for the a greater cause; he was not fighting only to gain something for himself, but also for the Goddess herself , Shivaji’s victory over Afzal Khan made him the national hero and ballads of his deeds were sung and welcomed. For Marathas it marked their independence from foreign rule completely and the destruction of a desecrator of temples under the guidance of Goddess blessed Shivaji. For rest of India it was the spectacular beginning of the long march to freedom. His poet Bhushan likened the killing of Afzal Khan to the killing of Kichak by Bhim: a righteous deed for the adharmik insults the latter had inflicted. The gods were avenged through the champion chosen by the Goddess: this aspect emphasized by the contemporaries of Shivaji cannot be forgotten.
We know that Shivaji was once forced to travel to Aurangzeb’s court since the military strength of Mughals under Raja Jai Singh was too formidable for the fledgling Hindu kingdom. We also know that he successfully managed to escape. Avoiding pursuit, he travelled through most of eastern India complete with a bath at the confluence of Ganges and Yamuna at Prayagraj and worship of Jagganath at Puri. It is again interesting to note the difference between Shivaji and other Hindu kings of the time who faithfully served the Mughals. In a letter to Aurangzeb’s prime minister Jafar khan Jai Singh professed himself anxious to prove that he had no hand at Shivaji’s escape. He instead offered to lay a trap. He would offer a marriage alliance between his son and Shivaji’s daughter. Since he regarded Shivaji as being inferior to him by birth, he was certain that Shivaji would accept this offer. Then, during pretend negotiations of the marriage Shivaji could be killed since he would be unprepared. This way, felt Jai Singh he could win back the regard of his Imperial master. Much has been complained about Jai Chand. But what about this Rajah Jai Singh who was so proud of being high in favour at Mughal court that he was willing to cheat and even sully his family name to trap a fellow Hindu ruler just to please his emperor who had already established himself as a fanatic hater of Hindu religion?
Aurangzeb demonstrated this quality again with his notorious temple destruction decree in 1669, to his governors: “destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of the infidels, and that they were strictly enjoined to put an entire stop to the teaching and practice of idolatrous forms of worship“. This resulted in destruction of temples and their replacement by mosques, including the Kashi Vishwanath temple. Modern academicians had made desperate attempts to prove that such actions were not motivated by Islamic ideology but only politics: that it is only to punish enemies of the empire. For example, Catherine Asher in Architecture of Mughal India goes so far to argue that many of the temples had been maintained previously with Mughal support (presumably she means the Hindus were allowed to build them and some local Muslim landlord donated to them) and so in a sense he was only destroying State endowed property and not private ones. The twisted thinking is astonishing. But whatever academicians of a certain school might speculate, Shivaji was in no doubt what this meant. He also launched a counter war against the Mughal emperor. From then on there was no stopping him. He steadily kept on winning and after his death his inheritors kept up the pace. The success of his Hindu empire is evidenced by the fact that the great grandson of Aurangzeb , Alamgir II was no longer able to reestablish the practice of jiziya or destroy temples. Maratha strength, as a conscious Hindu nation would not permit it.
But while the sword can defend and protect dharma it alone cannot give legitimacy; for a sovereign his authority flows from being accepted as a true king by the masses following time honoured customs that conferred kingship. Shivaji once again made a conscious decision to be a Hindu king, not merely another powerful but ordinary king of the times. To establish a Hindu swaraj a Hindu Chatrapati was needed, a figure that had been missing from the political arena for centuries. So it was decided that his coronation would be specifically a Hindu coronation following all the rites described in the ancient texts. The ceremony had not been performed for centuries but now was carried out in the most lavish manner possible, leaving no one with any doubt that this is a Hindu king having his Hindu ‘abhishek ‘. Once again a true chatrapati ruled over Hindus: the entire ceremony was designed to establish it. To drive the point in further Persian titles of officers in court were abolished and Sanskrit titles were used in their place. Sanskrit now became the language of administration.
Rajyavyavaharakosa (an official dictionary) Shivaji commissioned declares, ‘overvalued Yavana words’ were replaced with ‘educated speech’. It was not for nothing that Garga Bhatta the most eminent pundit known as Vyasa of his age declared Shivaji to be of unbroken descent from Ramachandra. Ram is the maryada purushottma, the ideal king who sets the model for other kings to follow. More, he is the king of the Hindus. So thousands of years later the claim of another Hindu king to set up the ideal empire was through him. Indeed, the Hindus of the time saw in him another rasthra purusha like Rama, who would rescue them from miseries and wicked enemies. To them it was as if centuries of insults and oppression was ended at last and a new age has come heralding the glory of Hindu religion. Shivaji also commissioned a court poem chronicling his deeds and it is significantly called Shivabharata. The poem declares Shivaji to be another avatar of Vishnu who had come to rescue the Hindus from the growing power of Muslims. Since Shivaji commissioned the poem and it was completed during his lifetime, no genuine scholar can say that Shivaji did not think of himself as a Hindu sovereign resisting the expansion of Dar ul Islam. This point cannot be stressed enough – Shivaji’s coronation was a very conscious decision to be a Hindu king who protects and nourishes his Hindu dharma. This is why the day is considered Hindu samrajya divas.
It is very clear that Shivaji was the first ruler after Islamic conquest who succeeded in establishing an authentic Hindu samrajya, governed by Hindu ideology. He did not hate individual muslims and had many such in his service, But it did not mean that he accepted the Islamic-Parisian-Turkish culture that was dominant. Again, he did not destroy mosques and he forbade injuring holy Islamic men while all the women captured during war were released instead of being made slaves. But this tolerance makes him a Hindu following the highest principles of his dharma, not a secularist. The bhagwa jhanda proclaimed victory of sanatan dharma first and foremost, the end of oppression of kaffirs and the dawn of a new age of Hindu civilization. Continuity of Hindu culture was always there, yet it was fragmented. Hindus were divided among themselves, and many all too willing to serve under the rulers who despised their gods for the sake of power and profit instead of joining together. Shivaji after long centuries declared that he will bind this fragmented country into one nation with his dharma. Jadunath Sarkar gives his verdict , “Shivaji proved that the tree of Hinduism is not really dead and that it can rise and again lift its head up to the skies after crushing load of centuries of political bondage, exclusion from administration and legal repression.” The false narratives constructed by so called historians cannot stand against the eternal truth etched in the land and waters. And this is the call of the great king even now: to be one, to rise up flying the saffron banner of self-sacrifice till it covers the sky. Let that be the Mahamantra for Hindu Samrajya divas.
Papia Mitra