The Maratha warrior Shivaji Maharaj is known for his bravery, diplomacy and warfare techniques but he also had great management skills and he was a great planner. Planning helps in identifying and implementing the goals. Scientific Planning is the base of effective strategies. When teams work together to set goals, it allows everyone to be on the same page, working toward a common, shared purpose.

The biggest stimulating fact of Shivaji Maharaj’s life is that he could transform common people into great warriors. Shivaji Mharaja’s mavlas (the soldiers in Shivaji’s army were called mavlas). Maharaj included mavlas who were expert mountain climbers. Mountain climbing was important because most wars fought by Maharaj were guerrilla wars; this type of warfare is fought by uneven armies and suddenly when the opponent army is not ready. It was a ritual for Maharaj’s army especially to catch the enemy unaware during guerrilla fights.

From management point of view Chatrapati Shivaji Bhosale was an able King, a great Statesman and a Visionary. He was ahead of his times, he saw beyond his time. Shivaji Maharaj had excellent leadership qualities, excellent administration abilities and impeccable and flawless planning skills and an extraordinary vision.

Childhood

Shivaji was born to Shahaji Raje and Jijabai, at the hill fort of Shivneri on 1^st March 1630. His mother named him after Shivai, a local goddess. His mother Jijabai groomed him extremely well inspiring him to be a great king, a great leader and a good human. From a very young age he was inspired by his mother to expand Maratha rule. Jijabai’s positive parenting improved Shivaji’s cognitive, social and problem-solving skills from a very young age. As a king his responses and actions portray how he was brought up to be a better human. I always feel the credit of Shivaji’s management skills goes to Jijabai’s interaction and stimulation to him from his early age…she used to inspire him by telling stories from the epics Ramayan and Mahabharat.

Most of Shivaji’s childhood was spent at Lal Mahal, situated in now bustling lanes of Pune close to Shaniwar Wada. Lal Mahal is one of the striking red historical landmarks of Pune. Dating back to the 16th century, this mahal (mansion) holds immense historic as well as cultural importance to every Maharashtrian. According to the legends, the palace was built by Shivaji Maharaj’s father, Shahaji Bhosale for his wife, Jijabai and his son in 1630 CE and Shivaji Maharaj spent his childhood years here with his mother until he first captured his fort, Torna Fort in 1645 CE. 

Torna Fort

Torna Fort, also known as Prachandagad, is a large fort located in Pune district, in the state of Maharashtra. It is historically significant because it was the first fort captured by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1646, when he was just 16!! Torna fort is considered the nucleus of the Maratha Empire.

Shivaji recognized Importance of Forts

it is important to note that Shivaji Maharaj gave immense importance to forts and literally built 111 forts within 35 years! He built forts for three prime reasons: i) firstly to establish the empire in the region, to sustain it and expand it. Ii) once a fort was built in a region, it influenced the lives of the locals residing up to a radius of 50 km from the fort; every fort filled the posts of Killedar (the one with the keys of the fort), Chowkidars (guards), Metkaris (for maintaining intelligence vigil), etc. The locals were benefited by employment generation, markets grew and a sense of security prevailed. Iii) third reasons is these helped in earning loyalty of that region towards Shivaji Maharaj, and the youth would join his army and help him conquer more and more states.

Shivaji Maharaj was a superb tax planner

After he established his empire, the revenue generation was important. Maintaining the forts was crucial; Maharaj and his army would raid on various cities like Surat and raise money. For example, in the raid on Surat, then it was a key Mughal power centre, and a wealthy port town which generated a million rupees in taxes. Shivaji Maharaj was successful in acquiring 100 crore Hun, where 1 Hun is equivalent to today’s Rs. 2,40,000! The geographical location of his forts had an additional advantage. They were built near the Ghat regions, next to routes of travelling importance, his administration used to collect Zakat (toll) for passing through the region. Can you imagine, those days revenue was also generated through import and export? Forts were built along the western and eastern coastlines, which helped to generate revenue from import and export of materials. Shivaji Maharaj was ahead of his times, he then knew the importance of securing the coastlines, even if the Europeans and their material try to enter from the Eastern coast or the Western coast, they would first have to go through the Maratha check posts.

Well-organized administrator

Shivaji’s disciplined administration, his personnel management, taxation policies; his navy, cavalry, his forts, and affluent treasury led his empire to be appreciated by all contemporary kings. Even Aurangzeb, who was biggest enemy of Shivaji, appreciated Shivaji’s qualities time and again. After coming back from Agra, Shivaji did a thorough SWOT analysis and started defeating all his enemies on all the fronts. To strengthen his empire financially, he revised taxation policies, promoted small scale businesses, supported farming, attacked major business centres of Mughals and started artillery works.

Each fort was erected with a wide channel, it also included a fortifications or defensive barrier made of timber posts or stone. Those days’ forts were built extensively using stones, and gypsum was used for plastering construction. Lime plaster was reserved for places that need to be secured against water leakage in roofs, canals, and drains.

In that era people knew the importance of water and had devised a number of techniques to manage and conserve water resources. These efforts not only met the drinking water needs of the people, but also helped the survival of livestock and agriculture in areas where perennial rivers were absent and the population depended on rains and often faced water scarcity or droughts. If you observe the forts built or conquered by Shivaji Maharaj, each fort has many water tanks built within its structure.  The tanks are rock-cut cisterns that accumulate and store rainwater. These tanks were created when the rocks needed for the construction of the forts were extracted from the ground. At some locations, there are dressed stone walls around these tanks to increase the height and the storing capacity of the tanks.

Shivaji Maharaj was truly secular

Five centuries back, when most of the kingdoms were stringently sticking to their religious beliefs and nor accommodating other religions in their day to day commercial activities and trade, Shivaji was outstanding for accepting all religions. He respected all religions and had great respect for women. Though he never compromised on his own religious roots and tried reviving all the positive aspects of Hinduism. He helped people who wanted to convert to Hinduism. It’s worth noting that he gave hands of his own daughter to a converted Hindu!! He honoured women and made sure none were put in prisons. No one under his rule was allowed to dishonour women. Women of captured territories were left unharmed, he always respected their dignity. Therefore, incidents of rape or molestation were out of question; because rapists or molesters would be severely punished. Maharaj was known for justice. He turned cruel towards those who did cruel things. The punishments were relentless depending on the severity of crime.

Maharaj had many Muslims in his military ranks as well. As opposed to the common belief of him being a king of Hindu origin who fought Muslims. He fought the rulers who threatened his kingdom, not religions.

Shivaji Maharaj had an intelligence bureau

Maharaj was a firm believer in gathering candid information supported by an intelligence unit that helped him devise tactics like the guerrilla warfare. On the basis of information received Maratha Kingdome was those days ahead of its times, Maharaj was the first one to establish a navy to protect the coastline. He knew that to protect India from foreign invaders, a naval fleet was required. Not many other kings had thought of this. But he formed a resolute Maratha navy led by Kanhoji Angre. Maharaj knew that good planning depends on information, he therefore established one intelligence unit by investing heavily in setting it. Bahirji Naik was his military commander in the army. It seems Bahirji belonged to Ramoshi community, whose members were known for their brutality and as strength.

It is mentioned in the records of Marathas that when a knight from Afzalkhan started his journey towards the Maratha Empire in order to capture it, Bahirji poisoned the lead flag-bearing elephants. This led to the enemy forsaking the quest, because the death of a flag-bearing elephant was considered a bad omen. Bahirji further helped Shivaji by mounting many secret operations and acts of sabotage in enemy territory.

Because of seamless and authentic information from Bahirji Naik Shivaji Maharaj won many surprise victories, and escape many wars too. Despite having a smaller army, Shivaji twice successfully attacked Surat which was Aurangzeb’s financial capital. Maharaj’s army carried away much wealth from Surat to reparation of maintaining a strong coastline and to rejuvenate the army after the wars.

Because of the intelligence unit’s information, Shivaji could escape from Aurangzeb’s jail in Agra, even though the jail itself was surrounded by a 1,000-strong army under an able commander. It’s worth noting that Maharaj had to subsequently travel 700 miles through Aurangzeb’s kingdom to get out of his escape.

In another excursion to Surat, Colonel Ikhlas Khan chased Shivaji army to Kanchan Bari which is near Nasik, where they engaged in open battle. Khan was unable to maintain the advantage of a surprise war and lost badly to Shivaji Maharaj’s strong and treasured military equipment and the battle went on for six-hours in which Ikhlas Khan got exhausted.

On few occasions, the Marathas evaded rules of war; one such war is the Umberkhind war which is a great example of guerrilla warfare. On the orders of Aurangzeb, Shahista Khan sent Kartalab Khan and Rai Bagan to attack Rajgad Fort. Shivaji’s men encountered them in a forest in the mountain hills, which was called the Umberkhind which is a mountain pass near Lonavala, Maharashtra. Shivaji ambushed and defeated the 20,000-strong army of Colonel Kartalab Khan; a well-known military officer of Shahistekhan, the victory of this war is credited to Bahirji’s judicious information collection. Shivaji captured valuable military equipment and accepted the deserters from Khan’s army into his own.

Bahirji was highly skilled at gathering detailed information about every aspect of enemy’s moves and missions. In fact, a lion’s share of credit goes to Bahirji Naik for many of Shivaji’s surprising coups. Maharaj did not feel discouraged paying high salaries and maintenance of his intelligence department because it was this information bureau that would furbish judicious and accurate information to him. On the basis of this information that he received, he could always prepare well for making various strategies be it safety and security, be it wars, be it finances…anything.

Respect for human resource and scientific planning

Good planning needs appropriate consideration of available and prospective human and physical resources and their co-ordination. It is through the function of planning those policies, programmes, procedures and other relevant elements get generated. Shivaji Maharaj respected his assistants and administrators. The best example is the time when he invaded Southern part of Today’s India which he called   Dakshin Digvijaya Swari in 1676. After victory in Agra, Shivaji started doing his own army and resource analysis which we call in modern management SWOT Analysis.

According to his own version of SWOT, Shivaji Maharaj shifted his capital to Raigadh, increased his cavalry to 1,25,000 and adopted offensive warfare techniques. After continuous battles from 1644 to 1670 he had only 18 forts with him. But after doing the SWOT Analysis he won Sinhgadh, which was the 19th fort. And soon he invaded Southern India and won 300 forts within mere 8 years of time. This quality of Shivaji’s bravery is backed by his flawless planning.

Even the Afzal Khan episode was the masterpiece of his planning abilities. Shivaji forced Afzal Khan to come out of his home ground. Shivaji separated the 36,000 soldiers of Afzal into 2 parts. The power of Afzal got divided. Shivaji started propagating negative information about him so that Afzal should feel over-confident. He even designed separate signals for Afzal’s army and his own army to deceive them. He blocked all the surrounding roadways so that Afzal and his army should not run away. Here, huge planning skills were involved.

Shivaji’s great escape from Agra where he used fruit baskets to sneak out of his house arrest can be cited as another example of his shrewd planning and execution. What lessons students of management can learn is knowing our own strengths and weaknesses gives us a better understanding of our self and functioning. Knowing weaknesses gives us a clearer understanding of our limits, those limits need not be permanent limits, and we can work around finding ways to get over our weaknesses.

If we study closely and carefully Shivaji Maharaj’s life and his achievements, his life offers numerous such lessons on good planning leading to excellent execution which eventually lead to the success of Swaraj (Swadesh), the dream he cherished and battled for. His astute planning skills and brilliant strategic and tactical manoeuvring on  battlefields helped him to lay the foundations of the future Maratha Empire in India. I end my article with one of most inspired quotes of Maharaj “We should neither mistake our opponent as weaker as nor stronger than ourselves. Instead, we should just focus on his actions towards us”.

Pratapgad Fort

Forts have been important in the history of mankind. Great warrior kings spent their riches, and energy in building forts, be it the Romans, be it the Pathans, be it the Marathas, the warriors built forts. Conventionally forts were built to ensure a safe and secure human settlement, to keep the enemy far away and to ensure having an upper hand during war. Do you know that the oldest fort in the world is in India? Its name is Kangra Fort and there is Goddess Vajreshwari temple in the fort; you will get to visit it during road journey from Dharamshala to Jammu. India has a wide and large history, it is said there might be some more forts which are not yet discovered by anyone. As of now, India has approximately more than 1000 forts.

It’s worth to note that Shivaji Maharaj gave immense importance to forts and literally built 111 forts within 35 years! He built forts for three prime reasons: first is to establish the empire in the region, to sustain it and expand it. Second reason is once a fort was built in a region, it influenced the lives of the locals residing up to a radius of 50 km from the fort; every fort filled the posts of Killedar (the one with the keys of the fort), Chowkidars (guards), Metkaris (for maintaining intelligence vigil), etc. The locals were benefited by employment generation, markets grew and a sense of security prevailed. The third reasons is these helped in earning loyalty of that region towards Shivaji Maharaj, and the youth would join his army and help him conquer more and more states.

Shivaji Maharaj was a strategist, a visionary: once he established his empire, the revenue generation was important. Maintaining the forts was crucial; Maharaj and his army would raid on various cities like Surat and raise money. For example, in the raid on Surat, then it was a key Mughal power centre, and a wealthy port town which generated a million rupees in taxes. Shivaji Maharaj was successful in acquiring 100 crore Hun, where 1 Hun is equivalent to today’s Rs. 2,40,000! The geographical location of his forts had an additional advantage. They were built near the Ghat regions, next to routes of travelling importance, his administration used to collect Zakat (toll) for passing through the region. Can you imagine, those days revenue was also generated through import and export? Forts were built along the western and eastern coastlines, which helped to generate revenue from import and export of materials. Shivaji Maharaj was ahead of his times, he then knew the importance of securing the coastlines, even if the Europeans and their material try to enter from the Eastern coast or the Western coast, they would first have to go through the Maratha check posts.

Each fort was erected with a wide channel, it also included a fortifications or defensive barrier made of timber posts or stone. Those days’ forts were built extensively using stones, and gypsum was used for plastering construction. Lime plaster was reserved for places that need to be secured against water leakage in roofs, canals, and drains.

It is interesting to note that in medieval India, the practice of burying humans either dead or alive in the foundations of fort walls was carried on; this was to ensure stability of the fort. It was believed that the ghosts of those sacrificed would keep evil spirits away. During the building of the Sri Fort, which was built in Delhi by Alauddin Khalji is reported to have buried 8,000 skulls of Mughals killed by him into the foundation. During the building of Purandar Fort one its citadel gave way several times. The king of Berar then ordered his minister an Esaji Naik Chive to bury a first-born son and his wife into the foundation of the bastion. This was promptly done and after a further offering of gold and bricks. When the bastion was finished Esaji Naik was given possession of the fort and the father of the sacrificed boy was rewarded with two villages. All of this sounds so cruel and ghastly.

In that era people knew the importance of water and had devised a number of techniques to manage and conserve water resources. These efforts not only met the drinking water needs of the people, but also helped the survival of livestock and agriculture in areas where perennial rivers were absent and the population depended on rains and often faced water scarcity or droughts. If you observe the forts built or conquered by Shivaji Maharaj, each fort has many water tanks built within its structure.  The tanks are rock-cut cisterns that accumulate and store rainwater. These tanks were created when the rocks needed for the construction of the forts were extracted from the ground. At some locations, there are dressed stone walls around these tanks to increase the height and the storing capacity of the tanks.

Sinhagad Fort

Two of the forts of Shivaji Maharaj which are breathtakingly amazing are Pratapgad fort which is located 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Poladpur and 23 kilometres (14 mi) west of Mahabaleshwar, a popular hill station in the area. The fort stands 1,080 meters (3,540 ft) above sea level.  And the other is Sinhagad previously known as Kondhana is a hill fortress (citadel) located at around 35 km southwest of the city of Pune, Maharashtra state, India. Some of the information available at this fort suggests that the fort could have been built 2000 years ago. There is a temple in the fort of Kaundinyeshwar, it stands as proofs for the same.

Pratapgad is a very strong hill fort built by Shivaji in 1656-58 AD. The construction of the fort was delegated to Moropant Pingale, who later became Shivaji’s Peshwa, and Hiroji Indulkar, the architect.  A special feature of the fort is its double line of fortification and walls on all sides, their heights varying according to the nature of the ground.   The upper fort is built across the northern and western crest of the hill measuring about 180sq.metres.  The lower fort is built on the southern and the eastern terrace with walls and stronghold at corners. The fort has temple of Goddess Bhavani, the family deity of the Shivaji Maharaj, built by him. Pratapgad fort is famous for the assassination of Afzalkhan. When Afzalkhan called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to meet him at the bottom of the fort, he tried to kill Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by way of treachery. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj assassinated him in seconds by removing his intestines after cutting open his stomach.

Sinhagad was previously known as Kondhana, the fort had been the site of many battles, most notably the 1670 battle. Sinhagad is built on the edge of an isolated cliff of the Bhuleswar range in the Sahyadri Mountains, the fort is situated on a hill about 760 meters above ground and 1,312 meters above mean sea level. The Sinhagad literally in English known as the Lion’s Fort was strategically built to provide natural protection due to its very steep slopes. The walls and bastions were constructed only at key places. There are two gates to enter the fort, the Kalyan Darwaza and Pune Darwaza which are positioned at the south east and north-east ends respectively. The fort was also strategically located at the centre of a string of other Maratha occupied forts such as Raigad Fort, Purandar Fort and Torna Fort.