Why shivaji had to crown himself
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It was extremely important… a need of those times … that Shivaji crowned himself as the King. Shivaji was a great great visionary, apart from being a great warrior/general, and his act of self coronation would go down as one of the epitomes of foresight a ruler can show.
Shivaji coronated himself in 1674, a couple of years after Aurangzeb vandalized the Kashi Vishweshwar temple and imposed the notorious Jiziya tax on his Hindu (or non Muslim) subjects.
The Jiziya tax has to be paid by the non Islamic subjects of an Islamic King as a price of retaining their own faith! This tax dated back some 600 years prior to Aurangzeb, and all Islamic invaders imposed this tax on Indian people. Akbar was the first king to abolish this tax due to his liberal nature, Aurangzeb revived the tax exactly for the opposite reason.
This created once again the wave of panic and fear for the native Hindus. They have to pay tax for living in their own land.
The coronation of Shivaji is the act of utmost defiance shown in this context. The dying society needs inspiration to draw from… and Shivaji’s coronation did exactly that. On one side it erased the label of being just an ordinary rebel to a sovereign King! The coronation was presided by a renowned Pandit of Kashi called GagaBhatt, this indirectly gave his coronation pan Indian approval!!! Finally it gave a hope to people of India that they need not repent for being born as Hindus , for they have their own king.
There are three main course incidents that happened after Shivaji coronated here himself…
1. Shivaji pretty much united South India against possible Mughal invasion from north. As per his expectations, Aurangzeb came soon to conquer south India.
2. The Marathas and the other South Indian states drew inspiration from him and kept fighting for 27 years and in the end emerged powerful.
3. In north the rebellions started taking place. Ultimately the Mughal empire became pretty much insignificant entity post Aurangzeb era.
This fighting spirit that India shown against Aurangzeb was greatly rooted in the act of Shivaji ‘s coronation!!!
Shivaji coronated himself in 1674, a couple of years after Aurangzeb vandalized the Kashi Vishweshwar temple and imposed the notorious Jiziya tax on his Hindu (or non Muslim) subjects.
The Jiziya tax has to be paid by the non Islamic subjects of an Islamic King as a price of retaining their own faith! This tax dated back some 600 years prior to Aurangzeb, and all Islamic invaders imposed this tax on Indian people. Akbar was the first king to abolish this tax due to his liberal nature, Aurangzeb revived the tax exactly for the opposite reason.
This created once again the wave of panic and fear for the native Hindus. They have to pay tax for living in their own land.
The coronation of Shivaji is the act of utmost defiance shown in this context. The dying society needs inspiration to draw from… and Shivaji’s coronation did exactly that. On one side it erased the label of being just an ordinary rebel to a sovereign King! The coronation was presided by a renowned Pandit of Kashi called GagaBhatt, this indirectly gave his coronation pan Indian approval!!! Finally it gave a hope to people of India that they need not repent for being born as Hindus , for they have their own king.
There are three main course incidents that happened after Shivaji coronated here himself…
1. Shivaji pretty much united South India against possible Mughal invasion from north. As per his expectations, Aurangzeb came soon to conquer south India.
2. The Marathas and the other South Indian states drew inspiration from him and kept fighting for 27 years and in the end emerged powerful.
3. In north the rebellions started taking place. Ultimately the Mughal empire became pretty much insignificant entity post Aurangzeb era.
This fighting spirit that India shown against Aurangzeb was greatly rooted in the act of Shivaji ‘s coronation!!!
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