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SHIVAJI.
[CH. II.

his own resources, and learnt to carry out his own ideas unaided, and to take the initiative without any sense of subordination or responsibility to some higher authority. In the condition of the homes of their boyhood, their early life and training, and the development of their character,—even as in the steps by which they mounted to thrones,—the forsaken son of Shahji Bhonsla was the exact parallel of the forsaken son of Hassan Sur. Shivaji and Sher Shah were not only alike in character and genius but also grew up amidst like circumstances.

§2. Condition of the Puna jagir, 1637.

When, at the end of October 1636, Shahji made peace with the Mughals, he had to cede to them Shivner, Trimbak and four other forts. He retained in Balaghat or the tableland only his ancestral jagir of Puna and Supa, formerly held under Nizam Shah and henceforth under Adil Shah. The estate included the Puna district from Chakan to Indapur, Supa, Shirwal, Wai (? Walti) and Jadgir, (T. S. 8a), or a tract bounded on the west by the Ghats, on the north by the Ghod river, on the east by the Bhima and on the south by the Nira river. Shahji, when retiring to Bijapur in 1636, placed this jagir in charge of a Brahman named Dadaji Kond-dev, who had gained administrative skill and experience as the land-steward (kulkarni) of Malthan.[1] Jija Bai and Shiva


  1. Chit. 19 and Dig. 47 call him kulkarni of Malthan in Patas subdivision. But T. S. 8a says that he was formerly