Page:Shivaji and His Times.djvu/205

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1668]
MARATHAS AT PEACE.
185


of "Shivaji being very quiet, not offering to molest the king's country." (Ibid.)

In fact, during these three years (1667-69), he was busy framing a set of very wise regulations, which laid the foundations of his Government broad and deep, and have remained an object of admiration to after ages. (Sabh. 27-33, 58; Chit. 78-88.)

In terms of the agreement with the Mughals, Shambhuji was sent to the viceroy's Court at Aurangabad with a Maratha contingent of 1,000 horse, under Pratap Rao Gujar. He was created a Commander of Five Thousand again and presented with an elephant and a jewelled sword. Jagirs were assigned to him in Berar. Half his contingent attended him at Aurangabad, while the other half was sent to the new jagir to help in collecting the revenue. After some months Shambhu was permitted to go back to his father on account of his tender age. For two years the Maratha contingent lived in the jagir, "feeding themselves at the expense of the Mughal dominion," as Sabhasad frankly puts it. (Dil. 70.)

But the peace was essentially a hollow truce on both sides. Shivaji's sole aim in making it was to save himself from the possibility of a combined attack by three great Powers and to recover his strength during this respite from war. Aurangzib, ever suspicious of his sons, looked upon Muazzam's friendship with Shiva as a possible menace to his throne, and he secretly planned to entrap Shivaji a second time, or