Raja Shiv Chatrapati

Raja Shiv Chatrapati - Babasaheb Purandare
Language - Marathi
Genre - Classics

My brother once told me that history would be fun but for the dates. Although I do not completely agree with him, I don’t disagree either. I remember my school days where history was the most boring subject and I never ever touched a History book once I left school.

But soon I picked up many history books and have been savouring them till date. Tracing the lives of Hitler, Mussolini, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Churchill, and Thatcher has been one of my favourite pastimes. Near home I love reading about the Mughal dynasty, the Rajputs as along with Raja Ravi Verma.

Raja Shiv Chatrapati is a book written by Babasaheb Purandare; about the famous maratha warrior Shivaji Bhosale. A one man’s fight for independence! A one man’s trust in his culture and god! The story of a man who taught us the difference between slavery and loyalty!!!

The book traces the life of Shivaji and also Maharashtra (right from the time Ram stepped onto the land then known as Danadkaranya). Some of the most noticing and my favourite events in Chatrapati’s life include –

1) Battle of Pratapgad – Slaining of the great Bijapur warrior , Afzal khan.

2) Battle of Panhalgad/Pavankhind - Routing of Bijapur forces led by Siddhi Johar. Shivaji actually ran away from Panhalgad to Vishalgad right under his nose leaving the Johar red in face

3) Lal Mahal Attack – The daring attack on Lal mahal where Auranzeb’s uncle Shaistakhan had been living. Shivaji cut of his 3 fingers and he escaped death only because of the darkness.

4) Fleeing from Auranzeb’s captivity – He mocked the Mughals when he fled from Auranzeb’s captivity in a fruit basket. Daringly hilarious ;)

If you want to know more about this great warrior check out the wiki page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji

The book is a classic and will be on the shelves for a long time to come. Babasaheb Purandare has done a thorough research and leaves no doubt about the sincerity of his efforts. I hope someone translates the book into English so that it gets a wider audience.

Here’s a paragraph I got from some link –

Shivaji was religious, he wasn’t fanatic. He was strong, he wasn’t violent. He was adventurous, he wasn’t careless. He was a businessman, he wasn’t aimless. He was dreamer, but he also had strength to bring those dreams to reality. He was never a collector of paintings or art, he didn’t have any poets in his court. His contemporaries were ignoring draught, poverty, English invasion and were busy erecting monuments. Shivaji could not ignore these things, he neither had time nor money to build Temples or Ghats or hospitals. It was said at the time that since he did neither of the above, there wouldn’t have place in the heaven for him. But taking care of people as whole is any King’s first obligation. For that he has to fight, compete, rise to the occasion, make concessions at times, make some promises and break some promises. These are king’s duties. One that satisfies these duties gets well wishes from his people and that is what opens the doors of heaven for him. A King does not have personal love/hate, honor/dishonor.