SHIVAJI: Not for myself I fought and ruled, but for God and the Maharashtra dharma, the religion of Hindu nationality which Ramdas enunciated. I offered my head to Bhavani and She bade me keep it to scheme and plot for the greatness of the nation. I gave my kingdom to Ramdas and he bade me take it back as a gift from God and the Mahrattas. I obeyed their commands. I slew when God commanded me, plundered because it was the means He pointed out to me. Treacherous I was not, but I helped my weakness in resource and numbers by ruse and stratagem, I conquered physical force by keenness of wit and brain-power. The world has accepted ruse in war and politics, and the chivalrous openness of the Rajput is not practiced either by the European or the Asiatic nations.
[An extract from 'Conversations of the Dead' by Sri Aurobindo - an imaginary dialogue between Shivaji and Jaysingh, about their different styles of leadership]
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An early-20th-century painting by Sawlaram Lakshman Haldankar (1882–1968)
'Shivaji fighting the Bijapuri general Afzal Khan'
