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About Shivaji Maharaj 

Shivaji Bhosale was born on 19th February 1630  was an Indian warrior-king and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha kingdom. In 1674, he was officially crowned as the Chhatrapati of his realm at Raigad. 

Shivaji's want that his military forces expanded the Maratha range of influence, capturing and building forts, and forming a Maratha navy. The main aim of Shivaji was to set up an accomplished and progressive civil rule with well-setup authoritative organisations.

He safeguards the ancient Hindu political traditions and court convention and empowers the use of Sanskrit and Marathi, rather than the Persian language, in court and administration. Shivaji's inheritance was to change by observer and time but he started to take on increased importance with the emergence of the Indian independence movement, as many elevated him as a proto-nationalist and hero of the Hindus. 

Early Life

Shivaji was born in the hill-fort of Shivneri near the city of junner which is now Pune district. Shivaji was named after a god, the goddess Shivai. Shivaji's father name was Shahaji Bhonsle was a Maratha general who served the Deccan Sultanates. 

His mother was Jijabai, the daughter of Lakhuji Jadhavrao of Sindhkhed, a Mughal-aligned Sardar claiming descent from a Yadav royal family of Devagiri. He has influenced his lifelong defence of Hindu values by his studies of the Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. 

Meanwhile, Shivaji father Shahaji married a second wife, Tuka Bai from the Mohite family. After the second marriage of Shahaji. Dadoji Konddeo, the administrator of Jagir who has been taken care of the education and training of young Shivaji when Shahji moved Shivaji and Jijabai from Shivneri to Pune.

In 1639, Shahaji was stationed at Bangalore, which was vanquished from the Nayaks who had taken control after the end of the Vijayanagara Empire. He was approached to hold and settle the territory. Shivaji was taken to Bangalore where he, his senior brother Sambhaji, and his half brother Ekoji I were further formally trained. 

He married Saibai from the well known Nimbalkar family in 1640. Adilshah was disappointed at his losses to Shivaji's forces, which his vassal Shahaji disown. In 1657 Adilshah sent Afzal Khan, a veteran general, to arrest Shivaji when Shivaji ended his conflict with the Mughals and having a greater ability to respond.

Before engaging him, the Bijapuri forces desecrated the Tulja Bhavani Temple, holy to Shivaji's family, and the Vithoba temple at Pandharpur, a major pilgrimage site for the Hindus. Pursued by Bijapuri forces, Shivaji retreated to Pratapgad fort, where many of his colleagues force him to surrender. 

The two forces found themselves at a stalemate, with Shivaji unable to break the attack, while Afzal Khan, having powerful troops but lacking siege equipment, was not able to take the fort. After two months, Afzal Khan sent an agent to Shivaji suggesting the two leaders meet in private outside the fort to parley.

Both of them met in a hut at the foothills of Pratapgad fort on 10 November 1659. The arrangements had oppressed that each come armed only with a sword, and attended by one follower. Shivaji, either suspecting Afzal Khan would arrest or attack him, or secretly planning to attack himself, wore armour beneath his clothes, hide a bagh nakh on his left arm, and had a dagger in his right hand. 

stories vary on whether Shivaji or Afzal Khan struck the first blow: Maratha chronicles accuse Afzal Khan of betrayal, while Persian-language records attribute the betrayal of Shivaji. In the fight, Afzal Khan's dagger was stopped by Shivaji's armour, and Shivaji's weapons strike mortal wounds on the general; Shivaji then fired a cannon to signal his hidden troops to attack the Bijapuri army. 

In the resulting Battle of Pratapgarh fought on 10 November 1659, Shivaji's forces exactly defeated the Bijapur Sultanate's forces. More than 3,000 soldiers of the Bijapur army were killed and a high-rank Sardar, two sons of Afzal Khan and two Maratha chiefs were taken, prisoner.

After the victory, of Shivaji. The captured enemy, officers and men, were set free and sent back to their homes with money, food and other gifts. Marathas were rewarded accordingly

Conflicts with Mughals

Shivaji maintained peaceful relations with the Mughal Empire till 1657. Shivaji offered aid to Aurangzeb, the Mughal governor of the Deccan and son of the Mughal emperor, in conquering Bijapur in return for formal recognition of his right to the Bijapuri forts and villages under his possession.

Not satisfied with the Mughal response, and receiving a better offer from Bijapur, he began a raid into the Mughal Deccan.  Shivaji's confrontations with the Mughals started in March 1657, when two of Shivaji's officers attack the Mughal territory near Ahmednagar. 

This was followed by assaults in Junnar, with Shivaji carrying off 300,000 hun in cash and 200 horses. Aurangzeb reacted to the attacks by sending Nasiri Khan, who once defeated the forces of Shivaji at Ahmednagar. However, Aurangzeb's Aid against Shivaji was not possible due to the rainy season and his battle of continuation with his brothers for the Mughal throne following the illness of the emperor Shah Jahan.

Death

In late March 1680, Shivaji fell sick with a fever. Shivaji was died around 3 to 5 April in the year 1680 at the age of 52, one day before the Hanuman Jayanti. The childless eldest of the surviving wives of Shivaji  Putalabai, committed sati by jumping into his funeral pyre.