Chhatrapati Shivaji

Thirty years after the formation of the British East India Company and the setting-up of the initial trading outposts, a young warrior-king was born, in Shivneri Fort, in the Pune district of the western Indian state of Maharashtra. His name was Sivaji Bhosale and his birth heralded a new chapter in Indian history.  

Shivaji in the early years was active in the Deccan Plateau, which at that time was divided between three different Sultanates, and after his initial training, the young Shivaji was an astute learner, and even at an early age he had an uncanny ability to come to terms with the on-going three-way power struggle in the Deccan Plateau, he aligned himself with the Sultan of Bijapur under whose auspice he was formally trained and educated. He was first sent to Pune and from there he was transferred to Bangalore.

In 1645, at the tender age of 15, Shivaji gained control of Torna Fort after bribing its commander, and started launching raids into neighboring territories. He would spend the next 10 years doing so and laying the foundations of the Maratha Empire.

Shivaji not only acquired territories with the might of the sword but also through fortuitous marriages and by forming strategic alliances. The Bijapuris were wary of Shivaji but there was little they could do about it because while Shivaji was busy expanding his territories, they were involved in a protracted war with the Mughals.

In 1656 a peace treaty was signed between the Bijapuris and the Mughals, and they were able to turn their attentions to dealing with Shivaji, but the founder of the Maratha Empire had amassed a sizeable army by then and the Bijapuris were defeated.

Having dealt with the Bijapuris, Shivaji continued to amass territories and his exploits brought him in direct conflict with the Mughals.  The war with the Mughals would go back and forth but Shivaji would never concede and a brief truce was called between the opposing sides two years after the first siege of Surat on the 5th of January 1664 that lasted for four years.

In 1670 Shivaji would sack the city of Surat for a second time but by then the Maratha Empire was already a force to be reckoned with and Shivaji would spend the next 10 years expanding southwards. Shivaji would die of natural causes in 1680.   

Dyarne Ward and Kathiresan Ramachanderam 2020