History
The Lion and the Fox: Chhatrapati Shivaji
April 28, 2023
When we think of the history of India, most people think about various religious
figures, and a few large empires that spanned mostly the north of India. A brief
history that shows up in many textbooks might be that the Indus Valley
Civilization declined, the Mauryan Empire rose and fell 1500 years later, the
Mughals invaded another 1500 years later, and then the British Empire occupied
the country. Part of this is simply that large empires that battle with outside
forces generally have more written about them. For example, we know a great deal
about the Sakas even though they have produced little writing or history
themselves, due to their interactions with the Greeks, Persians, and Chinese.
So, to fill in some of these gaps in Indian history, in this article I will be
writing about Chhatrapati Shivaji Bhonsle (b. 1630; d. 1680), one of the most
energetic and successful leaders in recent memory. His actions and methods show
him to be a true princeps,
and after his death, his Maratha Empire would span all of India, acting as the
primary power on the subcontinent in between the dominance of the Mughals and
the British Raj.
