Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

History Of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

Full Name: Shivaji Bhosale I

Date and Place of Birth: 19 February 1630, Shivneri

Death: 3 April 1680,Raigad Fort

Father: Shahaji Bhosale 

Mother: Jijabai

Children: Sambhaji, Rajaram I, Ambikabai Mahadik

Shivaji Maharaj was the warrior king and famous for his bravery, tactics and administrative skills. He always focussed on Swarajya and Maratha heritage. He was the descendant of the 96 Maratha Clans well known as 'Kshatriyas' or brave fighters.

He was the son of Shahji Bhosle and Jija Bai. He was brought up at Poona under the supervision of his mother and Brahmin Dadaji Konda-dev who made an expert soldier and an efficient administrator. His administration was largely influenced by Deccan administrative practices. He appointed eight ministers who were called ‘Astapradhan’ who assists him in the administrative helm of affairs.

The beginning of the 17^th century witnessed the rise of new Warrior class Marathas when the Bhonsle family of the Poona district got military as well as a political advantage by the Ahmadnagar kingdom that gets the advantage of being local. Therefore, they took privileges and recruited a large number of Maratha sardas and soldiers in their armies. Shivaji was the son of Shahji Bhosle and Jija Bai. Shivaji was brought up at Poona under the supervision of his mother and an able Brahmin Dadaji Konda-dev. Dadaji Konda-dev made Shivaji an expert soldier and an efficient administrator. He also came under the religious influ­ence of Guru Ramdas, which made him proud of his motherland.

Shivaji was descended from a line of prominent nobles. India at that time was under Muslim rule: the Mughals in the north and the Muslim sultans of  Bijapur and Golconda in the south. All three ruled by right of conquest, with no pretense that they had any obligations toward those who they ruled. Shivaji, whose ancestral estates were situated in the Deccan, in the realm of the Bijapur sultans, found the Muslim oppression and religious persecution of the Hindus so intolerable that, by the time he was 16, he convinced himself that he was the divinely appointed instrument of the cause of Hindu freedom—a conviction that was to sustain him throughout his life.

Collecting a band of followers, he began about 1655 to seize the weaker Bijapur outposts. In the process, he destroyed a few of his influential coreligionists, who had aligned themselves with the sultans. All the same, his daring and military skill, combined with his sternness toward the oppressors of the Hindus, won him much admiration. His depredations grew increasingly audacious, and several minor expeditions sent to chastise him proved ineffective.