Sambhaji Maharaj

Sambhaji Maharaj was Shivaji's eldest son, ruled the Maratha state for nine years, and was tortured to death by Aurangzeb after refusing to convert. He should not be confused with his uncle of the same name, Shivaji's elder half-brother, who was killed in Karnataka in 1654. He was sent as a child hostage to the Mughal court at Agra with his father in 1666 and escaped with him; he defected to the Mughals for a year in 1678, which his enemies never let go of, and returned. He succeeded in 1680 after a disputed accession against a faction backing his half-brother, and spent his entire reign under attack from the largest army the Mughal empire ever fielded - Aurangzeb came south in person in 1681 with the intention of ending the Marathas and stayed for twenty-six years. Sambhaji held. He fought the Mughals, the Portuguese at Goa, the English at Bombay and the sultanate of Mysore simultaneously, and he sheltered Aurangzeb's rebel son Akbar, which is why the emperor pursued him personally. He was betrayed and captured at Sangameshwar in February 1689 with his adviser Kavi Kalash, paraded in Bahadurgarh dressed as a clown, and offered his life for conversion to Islam; the sources agree he refused. He was blinded, his tongue was cut out, and he was dismembered over a fortnight. The killing hardened Maratha resistance rather than ending it, and the war ran another eighteen years. His son Shahu was taken as a Mughal prisoner at seven and released eighteen years later, and became the Maratha ruler under whom the Peshwas took over the state. His widow Yesubai remained a hostage for nearly thirty years. He was a Sanskrit poet and the Budhbhushanam is attributed to him.

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