SHIVAJI THE GREAT

SHIVAJI THE GREAT 

Shivaji has been the greatest king in the last 1000 years of Indian history. He combined Babur, Akbar and Aurangzeb's skills in his being and much more besides. Like Babur he founded an empire. Like Akbar he was an enlightened ruler of vision and liberal statesmanship. Like Aurangzeb he was shrewd, tactically brilliant, energetic and enterprising. But he was much more. He was of impeccable character attributes, a fact that has been even at a distant date attested by no less a sage than Swamiji.

Shivaji laid not just the foundation of an empire like Babur, and Akbar after him, but came as the fulfilment of the Hindu political and cultural renaissance, the movement that had been initiated by Adi Shankaracharya himself. Shankaracharya was the incarnation of Bhagavan Shiva and so was Swamiji. So, indeed, was Shivaji Raje as well, as countless saints of Maharashtra of that period had through prophesies testified. In this respect he was far superior to each of the three Mughal emperors mentioned.

The legacy of the Mughals has broken India; Shivaji's legacy has integrated the motherland and will continue to do so in the coming centuries till the Indian subcontinent has recovered in every part its lost Hindu glory. The Mughals are the perfidious past of our motherland; Shivaji embodies her sublime future. 🕉 Shivaji Raje!

Written by Sugata Bose

Oil Paintings:

Top: Defiant Shivaji in Aurangzeb's court.

Middle: Being coronated as Chhatrapati Shivaji on 6 June, 1674.

Bottom: Shaista Khan, maternal uncle to Aurangzeb Alamgir, being relieved of three fingers of his by Shivaji Raje.