Shivaji: Tiger Claws, a Sweets Basket Escape and the Maratha Crown

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Shivaji grew up on the Deccan Plateau, contested by the sultanates of Bijapur, Ahmednagar and Golconda with the Mughal Empire pressing from the north. His father Shahaji, a mercenary general, switched sides to keep the family's jagir around Pune, while his mother Jijabai, who claimed royal descent, raised him with the idea of an independent Hindu kingdom. At 16 he captured Torna Fort, found hidden treasure there and used it to build Rajgad as his capital. In 1659 Bijapur sent Afzal Khan to crush him. At a meeting below Pratapgad, each side bringing one bodyguard and a sword, Afzal Khan struck first, but Shivaji wore hidden chainmail and killed him with metal tiger claws, then signaled his hidden troops by cannon.

Trapped at Panhala in 1660, he slipped out toward Vishalgad while Baji Prabhu Deshpande held a pass with 300 men until he heard the cannon announcing Shivaji's safety. His guerrilla doctrine, ganimi kava, made Aurangzeb call him a mountain rat. In 1663 he raided his own childhood palace in Pune and cut off three of Shaista Khan's fingers, then sacked Surat. Jai Singh forced the 1665 Treaty of Purandar, costing 23 forts. Humiliated and held under house arrest in Agra, he escaped hidden in sweets baskets. Crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad in 1674, he formed the Ashta Pradhan council, issued a Sanskrit seal and built a navy, and died there in 1680 at 50.

• Bijapur's forces at Panhala used grenades bought from the English East India Company.
• The pass where Baji Prabhu died was renamed Pavan Khind, the sacred pass.
• Brahmin priests refused to crown him as a Shudra until Gaga Bhatt of Varanasi produced a Kshatriya genealogy.
• Jijabai died 12 days after the coronation, and Shivaji held a second, tantric coronation weeks later.
• He employed Muslims in his administration and cavalry, and his legacy was later claimed by Jyotirao Phule, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Hindutva advocates.