01The coronation of 1674
Shivaji took the hill of Rairi from the Mores of Javli in 1656 and had Hiroji Indulkar turn it into a capital: palace, offices, a stone-paved market street, tanks cut in the rock, and the temple of Jagadishwar. Here, on 6 June 1674, Jyeshtha Shuddha Trayodashi of Shaka 1596, Gaga Bhatt of Kashi performed the Vedic abhisheka and Shivaji sat on the throne as Chhatrapati, the first crowned Hindu king of the Deccan in generations. He began a new era, the Rajyabhisheka Shaka, and had a Rajavyavahara Kosha compiled to replace Persian terms in his government with Sanskrit ones.
02After Shivaji
Shivaji died on Raigad on 3 April 1680, and Sambhaji was crowned here the next year. After Sambhaji’s capture in 1689 the Mughal general Zulfiqar Khan besieged the fort and took it that autumn, carrying off Sambhaji’s queen Yesubai and the boy Shahu, who spent eighteen years as captives. The fort came back to Maratha hands in the 18th century. In 1818 a British force shelled it into surrender and much of the palace burned. In the 1890s Lokmanya Tilak called Maharashtra to Raigad to honour Shivaji, and the neglected samadhi became a place of pilgrimage again.
The life of this place
- 1656Shivaji takes Rairi from the Mores of Javli.
- 6 June 1674Shivaji is crowned Chhatrapati by Gaga Bhatt.
- 3 April 1680Chhatrapati Shivaji dies on Raigad.
- 1689Zulfiqar Khan takes the fort; Yesubai and Shahu are taken captive.
- 1818British guns force the fort’s surrender; the palace burns.
About 25 km from Mahad. A ropeway climbs to the top; the old path has some 1,400 steps. Shiv Rajyabhishek Din is celebrated on the summit every June.
