1666]
SHIVA FEELS INSULTED.
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after rendering all these services and coming all the way to the Court, to get the same low rank?" Then he asked, who the noble standing in front of him was. Ram Singh replied that it was Rajah Rai
Singh*[1] Sisodia. At this Shivaji cried out, "Rai Singh ! a mere subordinate of Rajah Jai Singh ! Have I been considered only equal to him?"
Stung to fury by what he considered a public humiliation, Shivaji expostulated with Ram Singh in a high tone, and even wanted to commit suicide †[2]
- ↑ * Here I follow Dilkasha, 58. The Maratha writers (Sabhasad 49 and Chitnis 111) say that it was Jaswant Singh, on hearing whose name Shiva exclaimed, "Jaswant, whose back my soldiers have seen ! He to stand before me !" But Jaswant was a 7-hazari, and as such he would have stood two rows in front of Shiva. Rai Singh Sisodia (the son of Maharana Bhim Singh) was created a 5-hazari for his services at Purandar (M. U. ii. 300; A. N. 868, 989.) By a mistake he is called Rathor in A. N. 891 and once in H. A. Paris MS. 125a.
- ↑ † Here I follow K. K. ii. 190 and Storia, ii. 138. But Sabhasad, 49, says that he begged for Ram Singh's dagger in order to kill Jaswant ! The prolific imagination of the Hindi poet Bhushan has distorted the incident into the following shape: "On the day of the Court festivity [birthday]. Aurangzib sat on the throne like Indra, with his subjects around him. But the sight of all this splendour could not make Shiva tremble. He made no salam, he despised the pomp and force of the Padishah They made him stand in the ranks of the 5-hazari mansabdars, as if he were not distinct from them. Bhushan says that Aurangzib's ministers had no sense of propriety. He (Shivaji) could not get the sword from the belt [of Ram Singh ] and the Muslim (Aurangzib) saved
