Vaibhav Purandare talks about his book Shivaji: India’s Great Warrior King

Journalist and biographer Vaibhav Purandare is known for writing books about public figures who are loved and loathed. After digging into the lives of men such as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Bal Thackeray, and Adolf Hitler, he has come up with a new book titled Shivaji: India’s Great Warrior King. Published by Juggernaut Books, this biography presents Shivaji as “a master of guerrilla warfare who sowed the seeds of the Mughal empire’s fall” and as “an enlightened ruler” who “recruited Muslims in his army, just as he recruited Marathas and other Hindus”. We bring you an interview with Purandare.

Why did you choose to write a book on Shivaji Raje Bhosle? How does your approach differ from previous biographers such as Lala Lajpat Rai, Jadunath Sarkar, Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad, Dennis Kincaid, Medha Deshmukh-Bhaskaran, and others you read?

Chhatrapati Shivaji is a pivotal figure in the history of India and one of the most important figures in early modern India. He not only transformed the map of the Deccan in the 17th century but took on the Mughal Empire when it was at the height of its glory under Aurangzeb, shook it to its foundations, and sowed the seeds of its eventual destruction. He built an independent Maratha state from scratch and inspired generations after him, including leaders of the Indian freedom movement who fought the British.

My approach differs from that of the other writers because I went through a tremendous variety of sources in Marathi which have been ignored by previous biographers. If we were to just consider two of these biographers – the leading ones, Dennis Kincaid and Jadunath Sarkar, whose works on Shivaji had been the standard ones in English for decades – they have made very fundamental mistakes. Both Sarkar and Kincaid even get Shivaji’s birth year wrong, and because they have not gone through the Marathi sources – in most cases not at all and in several, not carefully enough – they have missed out on very key and fascinating details that are central to Shivaji’s story. I have sought to bring these out in my book.

Which places did you visit to get a deeper understanding of Shivaji’s life and times?

Since early childhood, I have been travelling to various places associated with Shivaji Raje’s life – Raigad, Rajgad, Shivneri, Sindhudurg, Purandar, Panhalgad, Pratapgad and so many other forts. I have seen all the important places not merely once but at least twice or thrice. While speaking of places, I must also mention the archives, where I accessed close to 35 volumes of Marathi documents which contain rich information on his life and times – letters, correspondence with aides as well as adversaries such as Aurangzeb and Afzal Khan, official state documents, treaties, revenue administration documents, just about all kinds of documents that are available and relevant on the subject.

How would you describe the influence of Warkari saint-poets on Shivaji’s worldview?

The Warkari saint-poets like Namdeo, Dynaneshwar and Tukaram created a spiritual awakening in western India before the birth of Shivaji. He imbibed their teachings from his mother Jijabai, and from the environment around him. His thinking represents the best of their profoundly humanistic outlook. And yet he is unique in his human philosophy because, while others of the era absorbed lessons from the Warkar is, Shivaji created a political state based on their teachings with his outlook towards state institutions, towards farmers, towards the ordinary people of the Deccan. He took those teachings to an altogether different level.

Having grown up in Maharashtra, I have read about Shivaji in my school textbooks. His mother is believed to have played a major role in moulding his character. During your research, did you come across any anecdotes that you were particularly struck by?

Shivaji was very deeply attached to his mother, and Jijabai gave him both spine and spirituality with her strong, resilient conduct and character and her powerful teachings. I was particularly touched by an incident where Jijabai wants to be a Sati after the death of Shivaji’s father, and Shivaji persuades her not to do any such thing. This reveals the depth of the bond they shared. I have recounted this incident in my book, among other incidents.

How Jyotirao Phule, Rabindranath Tagore, M. K. Gandhi, Aurobindo Ghose, and Jawaharlal Nehru mobilize Shivaji – the man and the myth – for their political ends?

When the Indian nationalist consciousness took concrete shape in the nineteenth century, prominent leaders and thinkers used the legend of Chhatrapati Shivaji to rouse the Indian people to action against the British Raj. Shivaji’s life, they knew, afforded a classic example of a David versus Goliath kind of fight where the rebel takes on a giant Empire and emerges successful. This example served these leaders well, and whether it was Phule or Tagore or Gandhi or Aurobindo or Nehru, they deployed the Shivaji legend and Shivaji as an iconic figure to develop the Indian political mind and sharpen the instinct and push for freedom.

You state that Shivaji’s “deep sense of his own religion and its spirituality made him regard Hindus and Muslims as equal” and that he viewed religious discrimination as “abhorrent, immoral and unacceptable”. What sources led you to this conclusion? 

Shivaji’s own letters, correspondence, and official directives! And also those of his adversaries like the official Mughal chronicler Khafi Khan, who admitted to Shivaji’s enormous respect for the Quran, the Holy Book of the Islamic faith. In one of his letters to Aurangzeb, Shivaji talks about how Islam itself does not teach discrimination on the basis of faith. Accounts left behind by his opponents show how he had given strict orders to his men to treat all people of faith and sacred books of all religions with the greatest respect. He continued grants to mosques in territories he won, and he recruited Muslims in his army and navy just as he recruited Marathas and other Hindus. In fact, two of Shivaji Raje’s navy admirals were Muslims. At the same time, Shivaji asserted his Hindu identity and pushed back against Islamic fanaticism where he saw it, as in the case of Aurangzeb. His Hindu values were undergirded by a keen sense of Hinduism’s embrace of diversity and pluralism.

You have written books on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Bal Thackeray, Sachin Tendulkar and Adolf Hitler. Which book did you have the most fun working on? Why?

All these personalities I’ve written about have been deeply interesting and absorbing subjects in their own right. Books are like children; it’s hard to say one has been more fun than others.

Tell us about your next biography. Do you plan to write about a woman for a change?

I am considering some ideas at the moment, and yes, there are women on my wish list.

Chintan Girish Modi is a writer, journalist and educator tweeting @chintanwriting

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