letter Shambhuji and other sons of Shahji are spoken of as sharing his captivity.
Shivaji then sent Raghunath Pant [Korde?] as his envoy to the Prince to ask for the deshmukhi of the Junnar and Ahmadnagar parganahs. Murad, on 30th November, 1649, promised to try to secure these rights for him on reaching the Emperors presence. Whether Shah Jahan really consented to put pressure on Adil Shah to release Shahji is very doubtful. No historian mentions it. Indeed, active Mughal inter vention on behalf of Shahji seems to me very improbable. For one thing, Shah Jahan always treate Muhammad Adil Shah with marked courtesy and kindness, while Shahji was bitterly hated at the Mughal Court for the trouble he had given them in 1633-1636. Then, again, the Mughal Emperor had definitely promised in his treaties with Bijapur not to take into his service or extend his protection to any officer of Adil Shah. I, therefore, hold that Malhar Ram Rao, the hereditary secretary (chitnis) and record-keeper of Shivaji s descendants, is right when he ascribes the release of Shahji to the friendly mediation of Sharza Khan and the bail of Randaula Khan, two leading nobles of Bijapur, and says not a word about any Mughal exertion for his liberation. (Chit. 39; Dig. 147.)
Shahji was probably kept in prison till the capture of Jinji (17th Dec. 1649) made the Adil-Shahi position in the Karnatak absolutely secure, so that in the event of his return there he could no longer work
