CHAPTER IX.
The Coronation of Shivaji and after. 1674—1676.
§ 1 . Why Shivaji wanted to be crowned.
Shivaji and his ministers had long felt the practical disadvantages of his not being a crowned king.*[1] True, he had conquered many lands and gathered much wealth: he had a strong army and navy and exercised powers of life and death over men, like an independent sovereign. But theoretically his position was that of a subject; to the Mughal I Emperor he was a mere zamindar; to Adil Shah he
- ↑ * This chapter is mainly based upon the detailed reports of the English ambassador Henry Oxinden, the English interpreter Narayan Shenvi, and the Dutch merchant Abraham Le Feber (of Vingurla), preserved in Factory Records, Surat, Vols. 88 and 3, and Dutch Records, Vol. xxxiv. No. 841, of the India Office, London. These have been supplemented by Sabhasad (81-84), Chitnis (157-170) and Shivadigvijay (406-440). — the last being extremely unreliable and imaginary. The Persian MS. Tarikh-i-Shivaji, 39a, confirms the contemporary European records in some particulars in a surprising manner. I find that the Bombay Gazetteer asserts, what I suspected when first reading Chitnis, that this bakhar imputes to Shivaji's coronation in 1674 the ceremonies which marked the Puna coronation of a century later ! Family history of Gaga Bhatta in Sardesai, i. 355.
