448 Political Events in the Carnatic t from 1564 to 1687. [No. 150. 



short space of three years had not only wrested the Concan and the 

 numerous hill forts of the Ghaats, from the government of Beejapoor, 

 but had even dared to intrude on the contributions and territories of 

 the settled Mogul provinces. (Mamalik Maroosa.) 



60. It is not necessary here to enter into the events that crowd upon 

 Where Seevajee the attention in this remarkable period ; nor the 



stirs up the Marhattas 



tor the first time cause of these successes, which encouraged an ob- 

 scure adventurer, a young man, assisted by none of the usual ad- 

 vantages of royal birth, or high pretensions from military experience, 

 to contend at first successfully with the armies of experienced warriors 

 formed by the wars of the Deckan, and ultimately with the more re- 

 doubted armies of Hindostan, flushed with their late conquests and 

 victories in the contentions for the crown. 



61. It should not however escape observation, that much of his suc- 

 Reflections on the cess was owing to the popularity of his cause, and we 



extraordLar e y Va suc- S ma y suppose that the Hindoos, in this enterprizing 

 ce ?, s - „ ., young chief believed thev saw one of those heaven- 



The rigor of the J & 



Emperor to the Hin- inspired heroes that they were told was to appear, 



doos ; their hopes of a 



national deliverer, to deliver them from foreign oppression and thral- 

 dom, the rigorous edicts of the Emperor also in regard to their religion, 

 whereby a poll tax, (the Jessyah,) was laid on every Hindoo, doubtless 

 encouraged these ideas of resistance ; ideas which Seevajee by every 

 And his enterpriz- pretension of the favor of heaven, communicated by 

 mg^haracter^ celestial visions,* sedulously endeavored to keep up. 



A. s. 1594. His negotiations with the Imperialists, his journey to 



* There seems no reason to doubt but that Sevajee himself and his adherents countenanced the 

 idea of his being under the immediate protection of a guardian deity, whose votary he professed 

 himself to be, and by whose inspiration he pretended to be directed ; and the Hindoos were willing 

 enough to believe it, as we see by the frequent annunciation of the appearance of Veera-Bhoga upon 

 earth, repeated from 1646 down to 1805. In the Marhatta Memoirs of Sevajee, it is stated, that when 

 in the Carnatic, "after the capture of Chendee Killa, he (Sevajee) had an interview with Ecko- 

 jee raja. He took the fort of Ottoor— Then in shuck 1595 (A. D. 1673,) in the year Pramadicha on 

 the 13th Cheytor-bahool, decreasing moon of April,) on Monday, Shree Bhuwanee (the divinity in 

 a female form) came and remained 5 ghutkas (or hours) in the person of the lord and master, (Seeva- 

 jee,) and spoke of things to come. She spoke to the following effect : " Then a prophetical promise of 

 universal conquest as far as Caasee is held out, to remain in the Bhonsla family for 27 generations 



in the presence of who took it down in writing." It is probable this prophecy was 



fabricated for a particular purpose long after, but we see the ambitious views that at one period 

 stimulated the ambition of the Marhatta nation, in this instance too plainly to be misunderstood. 



