Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj — The Mountain Hawk

Shivaji Bhonsle was born on 19 February 1630, in the hill fort of Shivneri, to Jijabai and Shahji Bhonsle. His mother raised him on stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata — stories of courage, righteousness, and the duty to protect the weak. While still in his teens, he gathered a group of Maval youths from the hills around Pune and began capturing forts in the Sahyadri mountains.

His first major capture was Fort Torna in 1646, when he was just sixteen. He did not plunder it — he restored it and used the treasure to fund more campaigns. He captured forts Raigad, Kondana, and others through a combination of night raids, guerrilla tactics, and diplomatic cunning. He studied the terrain of the Sahyadris until every pass, cliff, and canyon became an ally.

The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb sent his most feared general, Afzal Khan, with a massive army to crush the young rebel. Afzal Khan sent word for a personal meeting, intending to assassinate Shivaji at close quarters. Shivaji anticipated the treachery. At the famous meeting in 1659, when Afzal Khan moved to strangle him, Shivaji drove his tiger-claws (bagh nakha) into the general and cut him down. The Mughal army, leaderless, was routed at the Battle of Pratapgad.

In 1664, Shivaji executed an audacious raid on the wealthy Mughal port of Surat, humiliating Aurangzeb and filling his treasury. Aurangzeb summoned him to Agra in 1666 under a promise of safe conduct, then placed him under house arrest. But Shivaji escaped in laundry baskets, fled across half of India in disguise, and returned to the Deccan to rebuild.

In 1674, Shivaji was crowned Chhatrapati — Lord of the Umbrella, sovereign king — at Raigad fort, in a ceremony conducted with Vedic rites by the scholar Gaga Bhatt. This was not merely a political act. It was a declaration that a people long ruled by others could rule themselves with dharma and dignity.

He built the Maratha Navy — a radical innovation — to check the Portuguese, British, and Siddis at sea. He appointed governors who were accountable, banned the taking of women and children as war prisoners, and personally punished soldiers who violated civilian property. He died at Raigad on 3 April 1680, at around 50 years old, leaving behind a Swarajya that would grow under his successors into one of the most powerful empires of 18th-century India.