This week, we’ll cover a couple of stories of Shivaji. We’ll learn how a very old farmer lady can provide great military advice to an extremely competent warrior-king. We’ll also see that if you’re trying to secretly escape from someplace you really can’t pick a better place to travel in than a giant-size box of sweets.
If you’ve seen most War movies in Hollywood they usually end with some hero General making a brilliant move outwitting the enemy and single-handedly leading his side to victory.
Now imagine the person who invented most of those moves. That person was Shivaji!
Shivaji was a real person. he was a warrior King from the Western state of Maharashtra. In the 17th century, he assembled bits and pieces together to create a grand empire called the Maratha empire.
At various points, he fought against the British, the Mughals, as well as other regional kingdoms.
Our first story begins before Shivaji became the great tactician that he was. It was a dark evening and on the lonely road, Shivaji walked alone. It had been a long day in the office for him. And by that I mean he’d just lost a battle. He had been defeated by the Mughal empire. Again. The king had barely managed to escape from the battlefield. He’d lost his sword, his horse and his army. He’d been defeated, physically. But his resolve was never stronger!
Shivaji walked on in the general direction of his own fort that was dozens of miles away. He would’ve ordered Uber, but it didn’t exist back then.
He had tried to hitch a ride from a few passing bullock carts. But they didn’t stop, they instead sped up when they saw his appearance and torn clothes.
Shivaji was now tired. And hungry. Not surprising because in the middle of a battle you dont usually get a lunch break. He spotted a farm and a tiny light in the distance and headed towards it.
He knocked on the door of the tiny hut. A very old lady opened up. She had poor eyesight, natural for her age. Eyeglasses had been invented, but weren’t widely available to the public back then, especially not in 17th Century India.
She mistook him for an ordinary soldier in Shivaji’s army. And Shivaji was too hungry to bother correcting her. He very politely requested some food.
She was more than willing to provide some light ….. conversation, as she made food. And as was to be expected in a lady who had been around through multiple administrations she began roundly criticizing the current one.
“I know he’s your king” she began, “but I have no hesitation in saying some of his policies just don’t work. Look how he’s been funding his failed wars against the Mughals”
Shivaji had to bite his tongue. Both metaphorically and literally because he extremely hungry by now.
The food was finally ready, and the old lady served Shivaji a nice plateful of rice and lentils, fresh off the stove. She was still babbling about elections and voting, whatever those were.
Shivaji wasn’t going to wait. He immediately began to use his hands to pick up the food and “OUCH!”. The food was incredibly hot! Shivaji was certain he’d burned his fingers.
His hostess, the old lady stopped talking about politics long enough to laugh at this soldier.
“You poor silly boy!” she said, “You’re making exactly the same mistake the King is!”
“Eh?” asked Shivaji “The King doesn’t burn his fingers on his food!”
“You don’t really get it, do you?” she asked. “I wasn’t referring to the food itself. I was speaking metaphorically. You burned your fingers because you placed them right into the middle of all that hot rice. It’s obvious that rice at the center will be the hottest. The bits at the edge are quicker to cool and should be more manageable”
“Hello?! I’m still waiting to hear what that has to do with the King?!” said Shivaji
“I’m getting there. Give an old lady a chance to finish!” she said
“The King has been attacking the Mughals at the center, at their headquarters where they are the strongest! Why doesn’t he pick their smaller outposts first? Capture them one by one, and he’ll have the center surrounded. And then he can attack them when they are weakest”
Shivaji had been ready to retort. But he paused. What this lady said was actually true.
The lady continued “I’m sure the foolish King attempted to attack the center today. I don’t need a news bulletin to tell me. The very fact that one of his soldiers is here in my hut looking defeated instead out drinking and celebrating tells me exactly what happened on the battlefield today”
Slowly Shivaji admitted it “You’re right Ma’m. I think the King will be more than willing to try to attack the Mughal outposts next time”
“As if!” she said. “When was the last time the King took advice from someone like me?”
But she was proved wrong. A few months later, as the next battle rolled around, the lady was surprised to hear that this time the outcome was different. Shivaji had defeated the Mughals and captured the fort! Just because he captured all the outposts first before attacking the center.
What was that the reporter added? Oh that he’d been inspired by some old lady who’d given him some food and advice. “That old lady must be a lucky one to have hosted the king,” thought the old lady as she turned off the news.
The second story is a few years later. Shivaji and the Mughals had had a rocky relationship, much like siblings. They were suddenly allies and within a few minutes were at each other’s throats.
Shivaji had pitted his tiny army against that of the Mughal empire that ruled most of India.
While he won some battles against the Mughals, the numbers were heavily skewed against him. Ultimately he had to give up and ally with the Mughals.
So they stayed friends, and Shivaj retained his forts for now.
When you’re a King who’s an ally of the Empire and the Emperor summons you, you have no choice but to accept. You show up on time at the Emperor’s court and …. What was that? Take a token and stand in a line with ordinary citizens? This was too far. Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor at the time was just being unreasonable. Shivaji had agreed to be an ally to the Empire, but was he going to wait in a queue with ordinary civilians here to petition the Emperor? This was unacceptable, and this was disrespectful.
He was going to walk away. And so he did. Now, turning your back on the Emperor and walking away was considered a huge insult! And naturally, the Emperor took offense. Aurangzeb had Shivaji and his son Sambhaji placed under house arrest immediately.
And he also issued orders – they were to immediately go fight on behalf of the Mughals in Afghanistan! Clearly, this wasn’t one friend asking another for a favor. This was exile!
Shivaji spent the evening thinking of a way to escape. Then he had it!
Sambhaji would play a minor but important part of the plan.
The next day, when Aurangzeb’s soldiers arrived to take Shivaji and Sambhaji on a one-way trip to Afghanistan, Shivaji called in sick!
When the commander arrived to fetch Shivaji and Sambhaji, Sambhaji rushed to him and repeated some carefully chosen words – “Please mister, can you help my daddy? He’s been throwing up pretty much non-stop and he’s got all these red spots on his face”
The commander obviously stepped back in alarm. “Err yes, I’ll fetch a doctor”
“Don’t you even want to see him yourself?” asked Sambhaji. “Careful don’t push it,” thought Shivaji from the other room
“A doctor is a better idea. Umm…. err…. Not that I don’t want to see your dad, despite the risk of contagion. It’s just better to leave this in the hands of the professionals huh, sonny?”
So a doctor was summoned, but doctors are humans just like everyone else. And Humans are susceptible to bribes.
In the earliest recorded example of medical fraud, Shivaji bribed the doctor into giving him a false diagnosis.
The doctor recommended quarantine and sweets! Lots of sweets. If that couldn’t cure this disease, nothing else could!
So every day big boxes of sweets were brought in. And the big boxes were taken out.
Every day, Shivaji ordered a couple of crates of sweets, and every day he’d have the crates delivered. He’d eat a bunch but pass the rest of the sweets to the poor in the City.
Did he actually get better? Definitely there was some improvement once he started eating sweets, but Shivaji was far from capable of going into battle. The doctor attested that it might take a while to heal.
The first few days that Shivaji sent out sweets, the crates were thoroughly examined going in and out. But only for a few days. Beyond that, the guards didn’t really care. What was the point of disassembling those crates, seeing all those yummy sweets, and not being able to eat any of them? So they stopped checking. Now that might not seem logical, but we have a modern-day example of the same logic with some people in power preferring to stop testing to bring their COVID-19 numbers down.
This is exactly what Shivaji had been waiting for. He’d been waiting for the soldiers to go complacent. The next time the sweet crates arrived, Shivaji and Sambhaji would make their escape inside the crates, covered by sweets!
As they stayed hidden, they could hear the gruff voice of the soldiers. But no one bothered to check inside the crates. And that is exactly how Shivaji made it back to his fort. Technically he was given to a few poor people, but they were easy to bribe. Shivaji again got out of a pickle.
That’s all for now
Some Notes
Some of Shivaji’s clever tactics included creating and placing forts in very strategic locations. And he was one of the first to realize the importance of having a navy.
Clearly the first story is a work of fiction. It’s too disrespectful to Shivaji to think that he hadn’t actually considered capturing the smaller Mughal outposts first.
A similar story has been attributed to Chandragupta Maurya as well, who was a King in Ancient India.
That’s all for this week.
Next Time
In the next mini-episode, we’ll meet a character from the Mahabharat, who was Krishna’s uncle’s father-in-law. He has an interesting birth story. I like to think of him as the Lego King because when he was born, he came with a “some assembly required” label! Ultimately, he was killed by Bheem who basically just disassembled him.
I’ll see you next week!