Banglore, the modern IT hub and the city of Kempegowda, had once inspired Chhatrapati Shivaji—the great ruler who defeated the Mughals on several occasions and slayed Afzal Khan, the commander of Aurangazeb, to escape a death trap laid by the Mughals.
Shivaji had come to Bangalore when he was 12 years old. His father, Shahaji, was a Jagirdar of Bijapur rulers sometime during 1642-43 after Kempegowda fell to Bijapur Sultans.
“The Vijayanagar empire left an indelible cultural effect on a large geographical area, which included Bangalore and Mysore. They continued the socio-cultural ethos and economic programmes of Vijayanagar empire despite the best efforts of the Bijapur
Sultans to change it. Mysore, Tanjavur, Hampi, and Bangalore did stick to the social pattern of Vijayanagar empire. Shivaji was impressed by this and had decided to establish the same ethos in his kingdom,” Suryanath Kamath, a historian and an authority on Shivaji’s era, told DNA.
He said the Maratha king’s second wedding also took place in Bangalore. While the spirit of Vijayanagar empire prevailed in the south, Shivaji’s version of the spirit continued in the Maratha stronghold, which was nothing but the result of the early impressions of right governance he got at an impressionable age of 12 in Bangalore, Kamath claims.
Founder and ruler of Bangalore, Kempegowda, and Kantirava Narasaraja of Mysore had also inspired Shivaji in his youth. Narasaraja had issued a special coin, Kantirayi, to assert his authority over Mysore. Similarly, after his coronation in 1664, Shivaji also issued a coin and called it Shivarayi.
“He again came to the south in 1677 and visited Bangalore, Hampi, Srishaila and Tanjavur. At Srishaila, he built a gopuram for a temple. His statue is still there,” Kamath said.
There is also a family of Vijayanagar kings that received 40 villages as a gift from Shivaji in a place called Aanegundi in Gangavati taluk in Koppal district. Prof Shejwalkar, a well-known historian of Maratha kingdom, mentions about a silver plaque that is lying with the present descendents of the family—proof of the gift.
The holder of the relic is also known as Srikrishnadevaraya, named after the illustrious ruler of Vijayanagar.
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