Shivaji
Historical Personalities

Shivaji Net Worth

. Shivaji was a legendary Maratha king who was born in Shivneri, India on February 19, 1630. He was brought up under the guidance of his mother and his father's administrator, Dadoji Konddeo, and became a brave and powerful warrior. At the young age of 16, he began to conquer forts and territories, and his major victory was at the Battle of Pratapgarh against Bijapur Sultan's general, Afzal Khan. He then established the Maratha dominance in the western region by defeating the bigger forces of Bijapur at the Battle of Kolhapur. His conflicts with the Mughal Empire resulted in the seizure of Pune, but he was later suppressed and forced to sign the Treaty of Purandar and surrender a large number of his fortresses. He escaped and recaptured the capitulated forts, and also brought a number of provinces in South India under his reign. He crowned himself as the king of the Maratha kingdom and took upon the title Kshatriya Kulavantas Simhasanadheeshwar Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Shivaji is a member of Historical Personalities

Age, Biography and Wiki

Who is it? King
Birth Day February 19, 1630
Birth Place Shivneri, Indian
Age 389 YEARS OLD
Died On 3 April 1680 (aged 50–53)\nRaigad Fort, Raigad, Maratha Empire (presently in Maharashtra)
Birth Sign Pisces
Reign 1674–1680 CE
Coronation 6 June 1674
Successor Sambhaji
Spouse Saibai Nimbalkar Soyarabai Mohite Putalabai Palkar Sakvarbai Gaikwad Kashibai Jadhav
Issue Sakhubai Nimbalkar Ranubai Jadhav Ambikabai Mahadik Sambhaji Rajaram Rajkumaribai Shirke
Father Shahaji Bhonsle
Mother Jijabai
Religion Hinduism

💰 Net worth: $4 Million (2024)

Shivaji, also known as the King in Indian history, holds an estimated net worth of $4 million in the year 2024. His vast wealth can be attributed to his successful reign and strategic management of his kingdom. Shivaji's ability to expand his empire, establish a proficient administration, and engage in lucrative trade activities allowed him to amass considerable wealth during his rule. Renowned for his military prowess, Shivaji's leadership and vision propelled him to great heights, further augmenting his financial worth. Today, his net worth stands as a testament to his legacy as a formidable ruler in Indian history.

Famous Quotes:

Verily, Islam and Hinduism are terms of contrast. They are used by the true Divine Painter for blending the colours and filling in the outlines. If it is a mosque, the call to prayer is chanted in remembrance of God. If it is a temple, the bells are rung in yearning for God alone.

Biography/Timeline

1627

Shivaji was born in the hill-fort of Shivneri, near the city of Junnar in what is now Pune district on 6 April 1627 or 19 February 1630. Shivaji was named after a local deity, the goddess Shivai. Shivaji's father 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.

1638

In 1638, Shahaji took Bangalore from the Mughals, and was permantently posted there by Bijapur. Shivaji was taken to Bangalore where he, his elder brother Sambhaji and his half brother Ekoji I were further formally trained. He married Saibai from the prominent Nimbalkar family in 1640. Around 1645–46, the teenage Shivaji first expressed his concept for Hindavi Swarajya (Hindu self-rule), in a letter to Dadaji Naras Prabhu.

1648

In 1645, the 15-year-old Shivaji bribed or persuaded the Bijapuri commander of the Torna Fort, Inayat Khan, to hand over the possession of the fort to him. The Maratha Firangoji Narsala, who held the Chakan fort professed his loyalty to Shivaji, and the fort of Kondana was acquired by bribing the Bijapuri governor. On 25 July 1648, Shahaji was imprisoned by Baji Ghorpade under the orders of Bijapuri ruler Mohammed Adilshah, in a bid to contain Shivaji.

1649

Accounts vary, with some saying Shahaji was conditionally released in 1649 after the capture of Gingee secured the Bijapuri's position in Karnataka, others saying he was imprisoned until 1653 or 1655; during this period Shivaji maintained a low profile. Since his father's release was conditional, from 1649–1655 Shivaji paused in his conquests and quietly consolidated his gains. After his release, Shahaji retired from public life, and died around 1664–1665 in a hunting accident. Following his father's release, Shivaji resumed raiding, and in 1656, under controversial circumstances, killed Raja Chandrarao More, a fellow Maratha feudatory of Bijapur, and seized from him the valley of Javali.

1657

Aware of the need for naval power to maintain control along the Konkan coast, Shivaji began to build his navy in 1657 or 1659, with the purchase of twenty galivats from the Portuguese shipyards of Bassein. Marathi chronicles state that at its height his fleet counted some 400 military ships, though British chronicles counter that the number never exceeded 160 ships.

1659

Having defeated the Bijapuri forces sent against him, Shivaji's army pressed into the Konkan and Kolhapur, seizing Panhala fort, and defeating Bijapuri forces sent against them under Rustam Zaman and Fazl Khan in 1659. In 1660, Adilshah sent his general Siddi Jauhar to attack Shivaji's southern border, in alliance with the Mughals who planned to attack from the north. At that time, Shivaji was encamped at Panhala fort with his forces. Siddi Jauhar's army besieged Panhala in mid-1660, cutting off supply routes to the fort. During the bombardment of Panhala, Siddi Jahuar purchased grenades from the British at Rajapur to increase his efficacy, and also hired some English artillerymen to bombard the fort, conspicuously flying a flag used by the English. This perceived betrayal angered Shivaji, who in December would exact revenge by plundering the English factory at Rajapur and capturing four of the factors, imprisoning them until mid-1663.

1660

Upon the request of Badi Begum of Bijapur, Aurangzeb, now the Mughal Emperor, sent his maternal uncle Shaista Khan, with an army numbering over 150,000 along with a powerful artillery division in January 1660 to attack Shivaji in conjunction with Bijapur's army led by Siddi Jauhar. Shaista Khan, with his better-equipped and -provisioned army of 80,000 seized Pune and the nearby fort of Chakan, besieging it for a month and a half until breaching the walls. Shaista Khan pressed his advantage of having a larger, better provisioned and heavily armed Mughal army and made inroads into some of the Maratha territory, seizing the city of Pune and establishing his residence at Shivaji's palace of Lal Mahal.

1663

In April 1663, Shivaji launched a surprise attack on Shaista Khan in Pune; accounts of the story differ in the popular imagination, but there is some agreement that Shivaji and band of some 200 followers infiltrated Pune, using a wedding procession as cover. They overcame the palace guards, breached the wall, and entered Shaista Khan's quarters, killing those they found there. Shaista Khan escaped, losing his thumb in the melee, but one of his sons and other members of his household were killed. The Khan took refuge with the Mughal forces outside of Pune, and Aurangzeb punished him for this embarrassment with a transfer to Bengal.

1664

In retaliation for Shaista Khan's attacks, and to replenish his now-depleted treasury, in 1664 Shivaji sacked the port city of Surat, a wealthy Mughal trading centre.

1665

In the Treaty of Purandar, signed between Shivaji and Jai Singh on 11 June 1665, Shivaji agreed to give up 23 of his forts, keeping 12 for himself, and pay compensation of 400,000 gold hun to the Mughals. Shivaji agreed to become a vassal of the Mughal empire, and to send his son Sambhaji, along with 5,000 horsemen, as a mansabdar to fight for the Mughals in the Deccan.

1666

After Shivaji's escape, hostilities with the Mughals ebbed, with Mughal sardar Jaswant Singh acting as intermediary between Shivaji and Aurangzeb for new peace proposals. During the period between 1666 and 1668, Aurangzeb conferred the title of raja on Shivaji. Sambhaji was also restored as a Mughal mansabdar with 5000 horses. Shivaji at that time sent Sambhaji with general Prataprao Gujar to serve with the Mughal viceroy in Aurangabad, Prince Mu'azzam. Sambhaji was also granted territory in Berar for revenue collection. Aurangzeb also permitted Shivaji to attack the decaying Adil Shahi; the weakened Sultan Ali Adil Shah II sued for peace and granted the rights of sardeshmukhi and chauthai to Shivaji.

1667

There is less evidence of Shivaji's attitude towards the Christians. To one side, in 1667 several Portuguese Catholic Priests were killed during Shivaji's raid on Bardes. However, during the sack of Surat in 1664, Shivaji was approached by Ambrose, a Capuchin monk who asked him to spare the city's Christians. Shivaji left the mission untouched, saying "the Frankish Padrys are good men."

1670

In October 1670, Shivaji sent his forces to harass the English at Bombay; as they had refused to sell him war materiel, his forces blocked Bombay's woodcutting parties. In September 1671, Shivaji sent an ambassador to Bombay, again seeking materiel, this time for the fight against Danda-Rajpuri. The English had misgivings of the advantages Shivaji would gain from this conquest, but also did not want to lose any chance of receiving compensation for his looting their factories at Rajapur. The English sent Lieutenant Stephen Ustick to treat with Shivaji, but negotiations failed over the issue of the Rajapur indemnity. Numerous exchanges of envoys followed over the coming years, with some agreement as to the arms issues in 1674, but Shivaji was never to pay the Rajapur indemnity before his death, and the factory there dissolved at the end of 1682.

1674

Beginning in 1674, the Marathas undertook an aggressive campaign, raiding Khandesh (October), capturing Bijapuri Ponda (April 1675), Karwar (mid-year), and Kolhapur (July). In November the Maratha navy skirmished with the Siddis of Janjira, but failed to dislodge them. Having recovered from an illness, and taking advantage of a conflict between the Afghans and Bijapur, Shivaji raided Athani in April 1676.

1677

Shivaji intended to reconcile with his half-brother Venkoji (Ekoji I), Shahaji's son by his second wife, Tukabai (née Mohite), who ruled Thanjavur (Tanjore) after Shahaji. The initially promising negotiations were unsuccessful, so whilst returning to Raigad Shivaji defeated his half-brother's army on 26 November 1677 and seized most of his possessions in the Mysore plateau. Venkoji's wife Dipa Bai, whom Shivaji deeply respected, took up new negotiations with Shivaji, and also convinced her husband to distance himself from Muslim advisors. In the end Shivaji consented to turn over to her and her female descendants many of the properties he had seized, with Venkoji consenting to a number of conditions for the proper administration of the territories and maintenance of Shivaji's Future memorial (samadhi).

1678

The question of Shivaji's heir-apparent was complicated by the misbehaviour of his eldest son, Sambhaji, who was irresponsible and "addicted to sensual pleasures." Unable to curb this, Shivaji confined his son to Panhala in 1678, only to have the Prince escape with his wife and defect to the Mughals for a year. Sambhaji then returned home, unrepentant, and was again confined to Panhala.

1680

Shivaji died in 1680, leaving behind a state always at odds with the Mughals. Soon after his death, in 1681, the Mughals under Aurangzeb launched an offensive in the South to capture territories held by the Marathas, Bijapur and Golkonda. He was successful in obliterating the Sultanates but could not subdue the Marathas after spending 27 years in the Deccan. The period saw the capture, torture, and execution of Sambhaji in 1689, and the Marathas offering strong resistance under the leadership of Sambhaji's successor, Rajaram and then Rajaram's widow Tarabai. Territories changed hands repeated between the Mughals and the Marathas; the conflict ended in defeat for the Mughals in 1707.

1700

Mughal depictions of Shivaji were largely negative, referring to him simply as "Shiva" without the honorific "-ji". One Mughal Writer in the early 1700s described Shivaji's death as kafir bi jahannum raft ("the infidel went to Hell"). Muslim Writers of the day generally described him as a plunderer and marauder. English and Portuguese contemporary Writers likewise described him as a brigand and robber.

1707

Shahu, a grandson of Shivaji and son of Sambhaji, was kept prisoner by Aurangzeb during a 27-year period. After the latter's death, his successor released Shahu. After a brief power struggle over succession with his aunt Tarabai, Shahu ruled the Maratha Empire from 1707 to 1749. Early in his reign, he appointed Balaji Vishwanath Bhat and later his descendants, as the Peshwas (prime ministers) of the Maratha Empire. The empire expanded greatly under the rule of the Peshwas. The empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu in the south, to Peshawar (modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) in the north, and Bengal. In 1761, the Maratha army lost the Third Battle of Panipat to Ahmed Shah Abdali of the Afghan Durrani Empire, which halted their imperial expansion in northwestern India. Ten years after Panipat, young Madhavrao Peshwa reinstated Maratha authority over North India.

1775

In a bid to effectively manage the large empire, Shahu and the Peshwas gave semi-autonomy to the strongest of the knights, creating the Maratha Confederacy. They became known as Gaekwads of Baroda, the Holkars of Indore and Malwa, the Scindias of Gwalior and Bhonsales of Nagpur. In 1775, the British East India Company intervened in a succession struggle in Pune, which became the First Anglo-Maratha War. The Marathas remained the preeminent power in India until their defeat by the British East India Company in the Second and Third Anglo-Maratha wars (1805–1818), which left the Company in control of most of India.

1869

In the mid-19th century, Maharashtrian social reformer Jyotirao Phule wrote his own interpretation of the Shivaji legend, portraying Shivaji as a hero of the shudras and Dalits. Phule sought to use the Shivaji mythos to undermine the Brahmins he accused of hijacking the narrative, and uplift the lower classes; his 1869 ballad-form story of Shivaji was met with great hostility by the Brahim-dominated media. At the end of the 19th century, Shivaji's memory was leveraged by the non-Brahmin intellectuals of Bombay, who identified as his descendants and through him claimed the kshatriya varna. While some Brahmins rebutted this identity, defining them as of the lower shudra varna, other Brahmins recognised the Maratha's utility to the Indian independence movement, and endorsed this kshatriya legacy and the significance of Shivaji.

1895

In 1895, Indian nationalist leader, Lokmanya Tilak organised an annual festival to mark the birthday celebrations of Shivaji. Tilak portrayed Shivaji as the opponent of the oppressor, opening loaded implications for the British Raj. Tilak denied any suggestion that his festival was anti-Muslim or disloyal to the government, but simply a celebration of a hero. These celebrations prompted a British commentator in 1906 to note: "Cannot the annals of the Hindu race point to a single hero whom even the tongue of slander will not dare call a chief of dacoits ...?"

1900

One of the early commentators who challenged the negative British view was M. G. Ranade, whose Rise of the Maratha Power (1900) declared Shivaji's achievements as the beginning of modern nation-building. Ranade criticised earlier British portrayals of Shivaji's state as "a freebooting Power, which thrived by plunder and adventure, and succeeded only because it was the most cunning and adventurous ... This is a very Common feeling with the readers, who derive their knowledge of these events solely from the works of English historians."

1919

In 1919, Sir Jadunath Sarkar published the seminal Shivaji and His Times, hailed as the most authoritative biography of the king since James Grant Duff's 1826 A History of the Mahrattas. A respected scholar, Sarkar was able to read primary sources in Persian, Marathi, and Arabic, but was challenged for his criticism of the "chauvinism" of Marathi historians' views of Shivaji. Likewise, though supporters cheered his depiction of the killing of Afzal Khan as justified, they decried Sarkar's terming as "murder" the killing of the Hindu raja Chandrao More and his clan.

1934

As political tensions rose in India in the early 20th century, some Indian Leaders came to re-work their earlier stances on Shivaji's role. Jawaharlal Nehru had in 1934 noted "Some of the Shivaji's deeds, like the treacherous killing of the Bijapur general, lower him greatly in our estimation." Following public outcry from Pune intellectuals, Congress leader T. R. Deogirikar noted that Nehru had admitted he was wrong regarding Shivaji, and now endorsed Shivaji as great nationalist.

1964

In the late 20th century, Babasaheb Purandare became one of the most significant artists in portraying Shivaji in his writings, leading him to be declared in 1964 as the Shiv-Shahir ("Bard of Shivaji"). However, Purandare, a Brahmin, was also accused of over-emphasizing the influence of Brahmin gurus on Shivaji, and his Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony in 2015 was protested by those claiming he had defamed Shivaji. Purandare has, on the other end, been accused of a communalist and anti-Muslim portrayal of Shivaji at odds with the king's own actions.

1966

In 1966, the Shiv Sena (Army of Shivaji) party formed to promote the interests of Maharashtrians in the face of migration to the region from other parts of India, and the accompanying loss of power for locals. His image adorns literature, propaganda and icons of the Maratha-centric party.

1993

In 1993, the Illustrated Weekly published an article by a young scholar suggesting that Shivaji was not opposed to Muslims per so, and was influenced by their form of governance. Congress Party members called for legal actions against the publisher and Writer, Maharathi newspapers accused them of "imperial prejudice" and Shiv Sena called for the writer's public flogging. Maharashtra brought legal action against the publisher under regulations prohibiting enmity between religious and cultural groups, but a High Court found the Illustrated Weekly had operated within the bounds of freedom of expression.

2003

In 2003, American academic James W. Laine published his book Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India, which was followed by heavy criticism including threats of arrest. As a result of this publication, the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune where Laine had researched was attacked by a group of Maratha Activists calling itself the Sambhaji Brigade. The book was banned in Maharashtra in January 2004, but the ban was lifted by the Bombay High Court in 2007, and in July 2010 the Supreme Court of India upheld the lifting of ban. This lifting was followed by public demonstrations against the author and the decision of the Supreme Court.

2013

Forts played a key role in Shivaji's strategy, and he captured strategically important forts at Murambdev (Rajgad), Torna, Kondhana (Sinhagad) and Purandar. He also rebuilt or repaired many forts in advantageous locations. In addition, Shivaji built a number of forts; the number "111" is reported in some accounts, but it is likely the actual number "did not exceed 18". Sarkar assessed that Shivaji owned some 240–280 forts at the time of his death. Each was placed under three officers of equal status lest a single traitor be bribed or tempted to deliver it to the enemy. The officers (sabnis, havaldar, sarnobat) acted jointly and provided mutual checks and balance.

Some Shivaji images

About the author

Lisa Scholfield

As a Senior Writer at Famous Net Worth, I spearhead an exceptional team dedicated to uncovering and sharing the stories of pioneering individuals. My passion for unearthing untold narratives drives me to delve deep into the essence of each subject, bringing forth a unique blend of factual accuracy and narrative allure. In orchestrating the editorial workflow, I am deeply involved in every step—from initial research to the final touches of publishing, ensuring each biography not only informs but also engages and inspires our readership.