It was the noon of Sunday, 5th April, 1680, the full moon of the month of Chaitra.*[1]
He had not yet completed 53 years of age. The Muslim world ascribed his premature death to the curse of the saint Sayyid Jan Muhammad of Jalna. In Maharashtra there were some whispers of his wife Soyra Bai, the mother of Raja Ram, having administered poison to him to prevent his giving the throne to Shambhuji.
The oldest Marathi bakhar, that of Sabhasad, is silent on the point, and with good reason. A servant of Raja Ram, in a book written by order of that king and for his eyes, could not possibly have mentioned his mother's murder of her husband even if it had been true. Chitnis tells us that Shambhuji on his accession put Soyra Bai to death on the charge of having poisoned Shiva, but it was in all probability a false pretext for wreaking vengeance on his step-mother for her late attempt to crown her own son. Readers of Macaulay's account of the death of Charles II. will remember how at that very time in Europe hardly a sovereign died without the event being ascribed to poison.
- ↑ * Last illness and death of Shivaji: Sabh. 101-104; F.R. Surat 108, Bombay to Surat, 28 April, 1680 (followed by me); M. A. 194; Dil. 165 (one sentence only); K. K. ii. 271 (one sentence); Storia, ii. 231; Chit. 180-183. T. S. 40b. (one sentence) and Dig. 462-467 are "loose, traditional" works; both charge Soyra Bai with murder. Orme's Frag. 89.
