08-30-2006, 01:13 AM
Shivaji's letter to Ekoji (his half brother) and ruler of Tanjore and the subsequent treaty between them:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->When Shivaji reached Gadag in November, he learned of an action having taken place ; Ekoji had attacked Hambir-Rao Mohite, at Valigandapuram on 16th November and sustained a crushing defeat, his illegitimate brothers Pratapji and Bhivji Raje, and his officer Shivaji Dabir were taken captives. Shivaji learned the details when he arrived in Maharashtra, and with a view to effecting a reconciliation he wrote a long letter of warning to Ekoji, which ranks as a document of rare value. It puts forth Shivaji's aims and policy clearly. This letter is full and authentic and is printed in the facsimile of Balaji Avaji's handwriting being dated 1 March 1678. In this letter, while demanding from his brother a full share of his father's acquisitions, he holds out a threat of severe reprisals, adding he was perfectly ready to adjust matters to his brother's satisfaction, but that he would not allow him to shirk the main demand. What Shivaji resented most was that Ekoji should ally himself with the Turks and Pathans of Bijapur who had been open enemies of the Hindus and whom it was Shivaji's life-mission to humble. Says he :â
" Gods and Goddesses have favoured me ; through their favour I have been able to beat down the Turks. How could you hope to win against me with the help of these Turks ? You should not have gone to the length of standing in open opposition to my armies. You cherished the wicked intention like Duryodhan's and caused unnecessary blood-shed. But what has co,me to pass cannot be remedied. You have only to take a lesson from what has occurred and give up your obstinacy. For thirteen long years you have usurped all father's property and now I have wrested away my share by force of arms. Please deliver to my officers Arni, Bangalore, Kolar, Hoskote, Shiralkot (ShiraJ and other minor districts including Tanjore : give up also a half share of the cash, ornaments, horses, elephants and other property and make your peace with me. I shall bestow on you a Jagir yielding three lacs annually of districts between the Tungabhadria and Panhala. Or if you do not wish to accept this as 'a gift from me, I shall request the Kutb Shah to confer on you a similar jagir in his dominion.
Thus I offer you two alternatives, choose whichever you like. Give up your obduracy and stop this domestic dissension. It is no use sulking. As an elderly person I have al). along treated you affectionately and again repeat the sa,me sentiments of your welfare. If you have the good sense to accept my advice, I am sure you will be happy and at ease. If not, you will only add to your distress, which it will not then be in my power to relieve/'
It is evident from this that Shivaji, already ignoring the existence of the Bijapur State, required his brother to renounce it openly and disclaim all pretence of serving it. But this letter did not soothe Ekoji's heart. It grieved him all the more. His shrewd wife Dipa Bai came to his rescue and gave his disconsolate mind some sound advice and reconciled him to the inevitable. She managed to dismiss Ekoji's Muslim evil advisers and urged him to accept^Raghunath Pandit's counsel. Ekoji thereupon wrote a respectful letter to the Pandit and called him from Jinji for a personal visit. The Pant arrived in due course and had a cordial reception. Then the Pandit arranged the terms of an amicable settlement of the dispute between the two brothers. All necessary deeds and papers were prepared and despatched to Shivaji for approval and ratification.
Shivaji was highly gratified at this amicable settlement of a long-standing dispute and at once ratified the whole agreement. In soothing notes he replied to Ekoji and to his sister-in-law Dipa Bai, who had so cleverly managed to solve these delicate problems. He wrote to Raghuriath Pandit, *' I cannot too highly cqmmend the wisdom 'and foresight of my sister-in-law Dipa Bai, who with uncommon zeal and skill induced her husband to come to terms with me and thereby so satisfactorily solved a knotty question. I am supremely gratified at this happy result. In fact I was all along concerned to secure the best interest of my brother. In asking a half share I had his own lasting welfare at my heart. The paltry lucre was not my object. It was for the sake of higher aims, I had to make that stern depaand. We must treat our servants and subordinates respectfully and effect lasting good of the State, which it behoves us both to serve with all our powers/' These last lines clearly prove how anxious Shivaji was to raise the Maratha State to the height of glory and independence. Ekoji was solely guided by Muslim advisers who worked insidiously to undo Shivaji's life-work through Ekoji's instrumentality. These Muslim advisers were dismissed, and Raghunath Pant was restored to his former position of a guardian, so that all cause for friction was finally removed in the course of a year after Shivaji's return from the Karnatak.
6. Agreed division of patrimony.âThe agreement contained nineteen articles, the first ten of which unfold the plan for the moral and spiritual good of the Maratha State. The sixth article says, 4< No one who is wicked and an enemy of the Hindu religion should be harboured in the State. Such persons should be kept away from the power of doing harm/' The whole dispute between the brothers and its conclusion unmistakably disclose that Shivaji's highest aim in the Karnatak expedition was to resuscitate and expand the Maratha State and create a lasting shelter for the Hindus in general, who had grown altogether helpless through centuries of ill-treatment.
The 12th article is politically significant and pertinent to the main point of dispute between the brothers. It says, " When a treaty of peace wras effected between us (Shivaji and the Adil Shah) through our father's mediation (in 1662), the express stipulation laid down was that neither of us (Shivaji or Ekoji) should serve that State (Bijapur). We should help it whenever necessary not as servants but as well-wishers. We should hereafter strictly observe this understanding. Ekoji, therefore, should not hold himself a servant of that state. He may, when called up, help that State with a contingent of 5000 troops. He must exercise his supremacy over all the Poligars and potentates whom he has already subjugated/'
This article makes it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt why Shivaji attacked Ekoji. While Shivaji proclaimed himself an independent monarch, he did not relish the spectacle of his own brother coming to oppose him on behalf of Bijapur on being guided exclusively by Muslim flatterers and holding himself a bond servant of a Muslim State, which he himself had all but conquered. In order to emphasize this aspect of his state policy, Shivaji laid down in the 15th article, " that the districts of Bangalore, Hoskote and Shiralkot (Shira) yielding a revenue of 2 lacks of Hons have already been conquered by us : when well managed they will soon be worth 5 lacs; we assign these districts as a voluntary present to our sister-in-law Dipa Bai, wife of Ekoji. Ekoji may supervise their manage-Â ment but not lay claim to thejm. After Dipa Bai they will continue to her daughter or to any one else to whom she assigns them." Here Shivaji gives back practically all of Ekoji's possessions, redeeming them out of Muslim control. Nothing can be clearer than this final pronouncement of Shivaji's object in this last undertaking of his life.
Article 16 says, " We have conquered Tanjore and the adjoining districts of Ekoji worth about 7 lacs of Hons. These we hand over of our own free will to Ekoji as his own separate possession." Article 17 says, " We assign territory worth one lac to Raghunath Pant in complete hereditary succession." Article 19 says, " Ekoji should look after the upkeep of the tomb of our father Shahji Raje." Evidently this filial duty was now assigned to Ekoji.0
These articles clearly demonstrate the nature of the dispute between the two brothers and Shivaji's object in this southern expedition. Ekoji was to be weaned away from his sub ordination to the Muslim power of Bijapur. In forwarding the treaty Shivaji wrote another affectionate letter to his brother. But Ekoji did not respond in the spirit in which Shivaji's scheme of a Swarajya was planned ; and although the dispute was apparently settled, Ekoji took to heart his loss of independence. He felt sorely grieved to find that Shivaji's officials took charge of all his possessions and administered them without reference to himself. He gave up all personal pleasures and enjoyment. When in due course this was reported to Shivaji, he wrote another loving letter full of sympathy and pathos about January 1680. Within three months thereafter Shivaji expired.
new history of the marathas volume I shivaji and his line 1600 1707, govind sakharam sardesai, Pg 251-254.
http://dli.iiit.ac.in/cgi-bin/Browse/scrip...e=2020050057066<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->When Shivaji reached Gadag in November, he learned of an action having taken place ; Ekoji had attacked Hambir-Rao Mohite, at Valigandapuram on 16th November and sustained a crushing defeat, his illegitimate brothers Pratapji and Bhivji Raje, and his officer Shivaji Dabir were taken captives. Shivaji learned the details when he arrived in Maharashtra, and with a view to effecting a reconciliation he wrote a long letter of warning to Ekoji, which ranks as a document of rare value. It puts forth Shivaji's aims and policy clearly. This letter is full and authentic and is printed in the facsimile of Balaji Avaji's handwriting being dated 1 March 1678. In this letter, while demanding from his brother a full share of his father's acquisitions, he holds out a threat of severe reprisals, adding he was perfectly ready to adjust matters to his brother's satisfaction, but that he would not allow him to shirk the main demand. What Shivaji resented most was that Ekoji should ally himself with the Turks and Pathans of Bijapur who had been open enemies of the Hindus and whom it was Shivaji's life-mission to humble. Says he :â
" Gods and Goddesses have favoured me ; through their favour I have been able to beat down the Turks. How could you hope to win against me with the help of these Turks ? You should not have gone to the length of standing in open opposition to my armies. You cherished the wicked intention like Duryodhan's and caused unnecessary blood-shed. But what has co,me to pass cannot be remedied. You have only to take a lesson from what has occurred and give up your obstinacy. For thirteen long years you have usurped all father's property and now I have wrested away my share by force of arms. Please deliver to my officers Arni, Bangalore, Kolar, Hoskote, Shiralkot (ShiraJ and other minor districts including Tanjore : give up also a half share of the cash, ornaments, horses, elephants and other property and make your peace with me. I shall bestow on you a Jagir yielding three lacs annually of districts between the Tungabhadria and Panhala. Or if you do not wish to accept this as 'a gift from me, I shall request the Kutb Shah to confer on you a similar jagir in his dominion.
Thus I offer you two alternatives, choose whichever you like. Give up your obduracy and stop this domestic dissension. It is no use sulking. As an elderly person I have al). along treated you affectionately and again repeat the sa,me sentiments of your welfare. If you have the good sense to accept my advice, I am sure you will be happy and at ease. If not, you will only add to your distress, which it will not then be in my power to relieve/'
It is evident from this that Shivaji, already ignoring the existence of the Bijapur State, required his brother to renounce it openly and disclaim all pretence of serving it. But this letter did not soothe Ekoji's heart. It grieved him all the more. His shrewd wife Dipa Bai came to his rescue and gave his disconsolate mind some sound advice and reconciled him to the inevitable. She managed to dismiss Ekoji's Muslim evil advisers and urged him to accept^Raghunath Pandit's counsel. Ekoji thereupon wrote a respectful letter to the Pandit and called him from Jinji for a personal visit. The Pant arrived in due course and had a cordial reception. Then the Pandit arranged the terms of an amicable settlement of the dispute between the two brothers. All necessary deeds and papers were prepared and despatched to Shivaji for approval and ratification.
Shivaji was highly gratified at this amicable settlement of a long-standing dispute and at once ratified the whole agreement. In soothing notes he replied to Ekoji and to his sister-in-law Dipa Bai, who had so cleverly managed to solve these delicate problems. He wrote to Raghuriath Pandit, *' I cannot too highly cqmmend the wisdom 'and foresight of my sister-in-law Dipa Bai, who with uncommon zeal and skill induced her husband to come to terms with me and thereby so satisfactorily solved a knotty question. I am supremely gratified at this happy result. In fact I was all along concerned to secure the best interest of my brother. In asking a half share I had his own lasting welfare at my heart. The paltry lucre was not my object. It was for the sake of higher aims, I had to make that stern depaand. We must treat our servants and subordinates respectfully and effect lasting good of the State, which it behoves us both to serve with all our powers/' These last lines clearly prove how anxious Shivaji was to raise the Maratha State to the height of glory and independence. Ekoji was solely guided by Muslim advisers who worked insidiously to undo Shivaji's life-work through Ekoji's instrumentality. These Muslim advisers were dismissed, and Raghunath Pant was restored to his former position of a guardian, so that all cause for friction was finally removed in the course of a year after Shivaji's return from the Karnatak.
6. Agreed division of patrimony.âThe agreement contained nineteen articles, the first ten of which unfold the plan for the moral and spiritual good of the Maratha State. The sixth article says, 4< No one who is wicked and an enemy of the Hindu religion should be harboured in the State. Such persons should be kept away from the power of doing harm/' The whole dispute between the brothers and its conclusion unmistakably disclose that Shivaji's highest aim in the Karnatak expedition was to resuscitate and expand the Maratha State and create a lasting shelter for the Hindus in general, who had grown altogether helpless through centuries of ill-treatment.
The 12th article is politically significant and pertinent to the main point of dispute between the brothers. It says, " When a treaty of peace wras effected between us (Shivaji and the Adil Shah) through our father's mediation (in 1662), the express stipulation laid down was that neither of us (Shivaji or Ekoji) should serve that State (Bijapur). We should help it whenever necessary not as servants but as well-wishers. We should hereafter strictly observe this understanding. Ekoji, therefore, should not hold himself a servant of that state. He may, when called up, help that State with a contingent of 5000 troops. He must exercise his supremacy over all the Poligars and potentates whom he has already subjugated/'
This article makes it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt why Shivaji attacked Ekoji. While Shivaji proclaimed himself an independent monarch, he did not relish the spectacle of his own brother coming to oppose him on behalf of Bijapur on being guided exclusively by Muslim flatterers and holding himself a bond servant of a Muslim State, which he himself had all but conquered. In order to emphasize this aspect of his state policy, Shivaji laid down in the 15th article, " that the districts of Bangalore, Hoskote and Shiralkot (Shira) yielding a revenue of 2 lacks of Hons have already been conquered by us : when well managed they will soon be worth 5 lacs; we assign these districts as a voluntary present to our sister-in-law Dipa Bai, wife of Ekoji. Ekoji may supervise their manage-Â ment but not lay claim to thejm. After Dipa Bai they will continue to her daughter or to any one else to whom she assigns them." Here Shivaji gives back practically all of Ekoji's possessions, redeeming them out of Muslim control. Nothing can be clearer than this final pronouncement of Shivaji's object in this last undertaking of his life.
Article 16 says, " We have conquered Tanjore and the adjoining districts of Ekoji worth about 7 lacs of Hons. These we hand over of our own free will to Ekoji as his own separate possession." Article 17 says, " We assign territory worth one lac to Raghunath Pant in complete hereditary succession." Article 19 says, " Ekoji should look after the upkeep of the tomb of our father Shahji Raje." Evidently this filial duty was now assigned to Ekoji.0
These articles clearly demonstrate the nature of the dispute between the two brothers and Shivaji's object in this southern expedition. Ekoji was to be weaned away from his sub ordination to the Muslim power of Bijapur. In forwarding the treaty Shivaji wrote another affectionate letter to his brother. But Ekoji did not respond in the spirit in which Shivaji's scheme of a Swarajya was planned ; and although the dispute was apparently settled, Ekoji took to heart his loss of independence. He felt sorely grieved to find that Shivaji's officials took charge of all his possessions and administered them without reference to himself. He gave up all personal pleasures and enjoyment. When in due course this was reported to Shivaji, he wrote another loving letter full of sympathy and pathos about January 1680. Within three months thereafter Shivaji expired.
new history of the marathas volume I shivaji and his line 1600 1707, govind sakharam sardesai, Pg 251-254.
http://dli.iiit.ac.in/cgi-bin/Browse/scrip...e=2020050057066<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->