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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
out of the gate, out their way through the alarmed and confused guards, beat back the small and hurriedly organised band of pursuers and gained a chosen place of hiding in the forest.
"Shivaji had kept himself ready to follow up his agent's crime; according to later accounts he had arrived at Mahableshwar with an army on the plea of a pilgrimage. Immediately on hearing of the murder of the Mores, he arrived and assaulted Javli. The leaderless garrison defended themselves for six hours and were then overcome. Chandra Rao's two sons and entire family were made prisoners. But his kinsman and manager Hanumant Rao More, rallied the partisans of the house and held a neighbouring village in force, menacing Shivaji's new conquest. Shiva found that unless he murdered Hanumant, the thorn would not be removed from Javli.' So, he sent a Maratha officer of his household named Shambhuji Kavji with a pretended message to Hanu. mant Rao, who was then stabbed to death at a private interview (about October 1655). The whole kingdom of Javli now passed into Shivaji's possession and he was free to invade South Konkan with ease or extend his dominion southwards into the Kolhapur district.
"The acquisition of Javli was the result of deliberate murder and organised treachery on the part of Shivaji. His power was then in its infancy and he could not afford to be sorupulous in the choice of the means of strengthening himself...
"The only redeeming feature of this dark episode in his life is that the crime was not aggravated by hypocrisy. All his old Hindu biographers are agreed that it was an act of murder for personal gain and not a human sacrifice needed in the cause of religion. Even Shivaji never pretended that the murder of the three Mores was prompted by a desire to found a Hindu swaraj.""
To this remark I would like to add, as an onlooker, that the story shows Shivaji in 1655 in the light of a man cunning, intriguing, tricky, without scruple, and capable of going to any length to gain his ends, and it prepares us for the story four years later of Afzal Khan.
Mr. Sarkar goes on to say (pp. 54-55): "Some Maratha writers have recently 'discovered' what they vaguely call 'an old 'chronicle,'-written nobody knows when or by whom, preserved nobody knows where, and transmitted nobody knows how,-which asserts that Chandra Rao had tried to seize Shiva by treachery and hand him over to the vengeance of Bijapur, and that he had at first been pardoned by the latter and had then conspired with Baji Ghorpade to imprison Shivaji. Unfortunately for the credibility of such convenient discoveries,' none of the genuine old histories of Shiva could anticipate that this line of defence would be adopted by the twentieth century admirers of the national hero; they have called the murder a murder."
[ AUGUST, 1920
Now let us see what are the authorities on which Mr. Sarkar relies for his version. They are given on pp. 500-502.
(1) Shiva-chhatrapati-chen Charitra by Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad (Sabhasad Bakhar): 1694. Shiva-chhatrapati-chen Sapta-prakaran-atmak Charitra by Malhar Ram Rao, Chitnis: 2nd ed., 1894.
(2)
(3) Shiva-digvijay. Ed. or published by P. R. Nandurbarkar and L. K. Dandekari
1895.
(4) Shrimant Maharaj Bhonsle-yanchi Bakhar of Shedgaon, published by V. L. Bhabe:
1917.
The second and fourth Mr. Sarkar describes as valueless (pp. 501, 502). He has not a much higher opinion of the third: "but the kernel of the book is some lost Marathi work composed about 1760-1775, and containing, among many loose traditions, a few facts the truth of which we know from contemporary Factory Records." Of the first he has not a high opinion, "but [it is] the most valuable Marathi account of Shivaji and our only source of information from the Maratha side. All later biographies in the same language may be dismissed, as they have copied this Sabhasad Bakhar at places word for word." Evidently Mr. Sarkar has gone as far back as he could for the facts of the story of Shivaji's relations with the More family and has given us the best source available, unsatisfactory though that is. When Mr. Kincaid, replying to criticism on his and Rao Bahadur Parasnis' History of the Marathas in the Times Literary Supplement, August 14, 1919, states
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'we acquitted Shivaji of guilt in connection with Chandra Rao's death," he has no such authority to support him, and the probabilities are against him in view of Shivaji's general character and story.
In 1656, when Shivaji was still under 30, there came the great crisis in his and indeed in Maratha history. He had much enlarged his kingdom and commanded a considerable army, said by Sabhasad, writing from memory, to be some 10,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry, while he held about 40 forts. In that year Muhammad Adil Shah of Bijapur died, and Shivaji began to prepare for the invasion of Bijapur" (p. 58). He entered into negotiations with Multafat Khan, the Mughal Governor of Ahmadnagar, and also with Aurangzeb himself at Aurungabad all against the Bijapur kingdom (p. 59). But in the end he sided for the time being with Bijapur, his officers raiding Mughal territory right up to Aurangabad (p. 60), while he himself captured Junnar. This roused the wrath of Aurangzeb, then besieging Bidar. Shivaji's escapades resulted in his own discomfiture for a time, for Aurangzeb was no fool when it came to organising a campaign or protecting his frontiers. In the end Shivaji had to make his peace by 1658. Then commenced "the War of Succession which kept Aurangzeb busy for the next two years, 1658-1659," and freed Shivaji from all fear of the Mughals (pp. 58-67).
By 1659 Khawas Khan was administering the Bijapur Kingdom with ability and vigour for the
