Pandyan,
if you read the Jadunath Sarkar's account (link pasted above), it mentions in detail about shivaji's tactic of gaining strength in early days. In order to consolidate the military muscles of marAThA empire in its infancy, he bound himself in least scruples, and moved tactically taking every decision to consolidate his strength, faced with two major hostile forces - AdilshAhi ofbIjApur in south and mugals in North to the core domains of his control.
In doing so he enlisted to his early army, besides others, two major fighters - a) mAvale-s who were hill people with excellent fighting abilities, and b) the defeated pathan mercenaries who had fled deccan/bijApur armies during or after the AlamgIr's excursions in south. The latter were obviousely muslims, and the number given by different accounts hover at around 5000. These two were what gave an invincible edge to his attacking forces.
In this phase, he even wrote many 'friendly' and 'flattering' letters to the princes/governors of mugals, to awranzib himself, as well as to the courts of bIjApur - keeping all of them in generally good humour for about a decade and half. His weakness in the early days was (as it seems) the position/imprisonment of his father, and the overawing military presence of enemy forces in south at the time.
Subsequently, when his kingdom moves south-west and a long coast-line fell to his command - from vasaI, thaNe, kolAbA, to many ex-bIjapur coastal commands of konkaNa annexed into his domains, he did set up a naval wing. At one time, the naval commander in charge was also a muslim.
In being a visionary hindu revivalist, he was not an anti-muslim bigot, as is clear from his life and that of latter marAThA leaders in general. Jadunath compares his military tactic during the early period to that used by shershah suri-hemachandra in bihar, in erasing out the rule of humayun from India about one century before shivaji's birth.
if you read the Jadunath Sarkar's account (link pasted above), it mentions in detail about shivaji's tactic of gaining strength in early days. In order to consolidate the military muscles of marAThA empire in its infancy, he bound himself in least scruples, and moved tactically taking every decision to consolidate his strength, faced with two major hostile forces - AdilshAhi ofbIjApur in south and mugals in North to the core domains of his control.
In doing so he enlisted to his early army, besides others, two major fighters - a) mAvale-s who were hill people with excellent fighting abilities, and b) the defeated pathan mercenaries who had fled deccan/bijApur armies during or after the AlamgIr's excursions in south. The latter were obviousely muslims, and the number given by different accounts hover at around 5000. These two were what gave an invincible edge to his attacking forces.
In this phase, he even wrote many 'friendly' and 'flattering' letters to the princes/governors of mugals, to awranzib himself, as well as to the courts of bIjApur - keeping all of them in generally good humour for about a decade and half. His weakness in the early days was (as it seems) the position/imprisonment of his father, and the overawing military presence of enemy forces in south at the time.
Subsequently, when his kingdom moves south-west and a long coast-line fell to his command - from vasaI, thaNe, kolAbA, to many ex-bIjapur coastal commands of konkaNa annexed into his domains, he did set up a naval wing. At one time, the naval commander in charge was also a muslim.
In being a visionary hindu revivalist, he was not an anti-muslim bigot, as is clear from his life and that of latter marAThA leaders in general. Jadunath compares his military tactic during the early period to that used by shershah suri-hemachandra in bihar, in erasing out the rule of humayun from India about one century before shivaji's birth.