Maloji Bhosale

{{Short description|Maratha general (1552–c. 1605)}} {{use dmy dates|date=February 2016}} {{use Indian English|date=February 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Maloji Bhonsale | birth_name = Maloji Babaji Bhonsale | image = Samadhi of Maloji Raje Bhosale, the grandfather of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Verul village, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India 04.jpg | image_upright = | caption = Samadhi of Maloji Bhonsale | title = {{br entries|Sardar<ref name="archive.org">[https://archive.org/details/shivaji-the-great-1-dr.-balkrishna/page/52/mode/2up Shivaji The Great Vol. I by Dr. Balkrishna p.53]</ref>}} | birth_date = {{c.}}1552 | death_date = {{c.}} {{Death date and age|1605|1552}} | death_place = Indapur, Bijapur Sultanate | parents = Babaji Bhosale (father) | relatives = Vithoji (brother) Jijabai (daughter-in-law) Shivaji (grandson) Lakshoji Bhonsle (grandfather) Krishnaji Bhonsle (great-grandfather) | children = Shahaji Sharifji }}

'''Maloji Bhonsale''' ({{circa}} 1552 – 1605) was a Maratha chief (''Sardar'') who served the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.<ref name="archive.org">[https://archive.org/details/shivaji-the-great-1-dr.-balkrishna/page/52/mode/2up Shivaji The Great Vol. I by Dr. Balkrishna p.53]</ref> He was the father of Shahaji and the grandfather of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire.

== Early life ==

Maloji was born in 1552 to Babaji Bhosale (d. 1597), a Patil (chief) of the Hingani Berdi and Devalgaon villages around Pune.<ref name="Salma314">{{cite book |author=Salma Ahmed Farooqui |title=A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxhAtCflwOMC&pg=PA314 |year=2011 |publisher=Dorling Kindersley India |isbn=978-81-317-3202-1 |pages=314–}}</ref><ref name="Kulkarni1963">{{cite book |author=V. B. Kulkarni |title=Shivaji: The Portrait of a Patriot |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nU8_AAAAMAAJ |year=1963 |publisher=Orient Longman |page=27}}</ref> Maloji also had a younger brother, Vithoji.

== Military career under the Jadhavs of Sindkhed == Maloji and his brother Vithoji migrated away from Pune, and initially served as cavalrymen under the Jadhavs of Sindkhed.<ref name="Satishh2005">{{cite book | author=Satish Chandra | title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Rm9MC4DDrcC&pg=PA316 | access-date=8 October 2012 | year=2005 | publisher=Har-Anand | isbn=978-81-241-1066-9 | page=316}}</ref> The Jadhavs provided military service to the Ahmednagar Sultanate. Maloji married Uma Bai (also known as Dipa Bai), the sister of Jagpalrao Nimbalkar, who was the Deshmukh of Phaltan.

According to ''Shiva Digvijaya'',<ref>{{cite book |author=G. H. Khare |title=Studies in Indology and Medieval History |year=1974 |publisher=Joshi & Lokhande |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T8EtAQAAIAAJ |page=176 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=James W. Laine |chapter=A Question of Maharashtrian Identity: Hindu Self-definition in the Tales of Shivaji |editor=Meera Kosambi |title=Intersections: Socio-cultural Trends in Maharashtra |publisher=Orient Blackswan |year=2000 |isbn=9788125018780 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XU8dmAiaZSgC&q=maloji&pg=PA59 |access-date=2022-11-15 |page=62 }}</ref> a text regarded as a modern work by historians such as Jadunath Sarkar and Surendra Nath Sen,<ref>{{cite book |author=Jagadish Narayan Sarkar |title=History of History Writing in Medieval India |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.12225 |year=1977 |publisher=Ratna Prakashan |page=[https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.12225/page/n31 7] }}</ref> Maloji's wife Umabai allegedly prayed at the tomb of Ahmadnagar's Sufi Pir Shah Sharif, to be blessed with a son. Afterwards when Maloji and Umabai settled in Devagiri, Umabai went on to give birth to two sons, first of whom was Shahaji and second one was Sharifji, born two years later.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/shivaji-the-great-1-dr.-balkrishna/page/52/mode/2up Shivaji The Great Vol I, Dr. Bal Krishna, p.53]</ref>

According to one account, during a Holi function, the Jadhav chief Lakhuji remarked, in a lighter vein, that his daughter Jijabai and Shahaji would make a fine couple. Maloji took Lakhuji's remark seriously, and announced publicly that his son was engaged to Lakhuji's daughter. This irked Lakhuji, who considered Maloji to be a lower-ranking Shiledar.<ref name="Chintaman1931">{{cite book | author=Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya | title=Shivaji: the founder of Maratha Swaraj | url=https://archive.org/details/shivajithefounde035304mbp | access-date=8 October 2012 | year=1931 | publisher=C. V. Vaidya | pages = [https://archive.org/details/shivajithefounde035304mbp/page/n27 10]–15}}</ref> He dismissed Maloji from his services. Later, Nimbalkar's influence and the rising status of the Bhosale family helped Shahaji marry Jijabai.

== Ahmednagar Sultanate service ==

According to Shedgaonkar Bakhar, presumably composed after 1854 and rejected by historians like Jadunath Sarkar,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wKIfAAAAMAAJ&q=shedgaonkar+bakhar+unreliable Historical Biography in Indian Literature by SP Sen p.226]</ref> Maloji and Vithoji once found a treasure while tilling a field and became rich.<ref name="Charles1968">{{cite book|author1=Charles Augustus Kincaid|author2=Dattatraya Balavanta Pārasanisa|title=A History of the Maratha People: From the earliest times to the death of Shivaji|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrE5AQAAIAAJ|access-date=8 October 2012|year=1968|publisher=S. Chand | page = 114}}</ref>

In 1577, like the Nimbalkars, the two brothers joined the service of the Ahmednagar Sultanate, under Murtaza Nizam Shah I. Maloji became a trusted aide of Malik Amber, who rose to the Prime Ministership of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.<ref name="Farooqui">{{cite book | author1=Farooqui Salma Ahmed | author2=Salma Ahmed Farooqui | title=A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxhAtCflwOMC&pg=PA314 | access-date=8 October 2012 | publisher=Pearson Education India | isbn=978-81-317-3202-1 | page=314| year=2011 }}</ref> Maloji's cousins, the Ghorpades of Mudhol, also became successful noblemen, serving the rival Sultanate of Bijapur.<ref name="Stewart1993">{{cite book | author=Stewart Gordon | title=The Marathas 1600-1818 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHK-BhVXOU4C&pg=PA44 | access-date=8 October 2012 | date=16 September 1993 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-26883-7 | pages=41–44}}</ref>

Maloji rose rapidly in the service of Malik Ambar, fighting against the rival Deccan Sultanates and the Mughals. He and his brother were granted the control of three parganas (administrative units): Elur (Verul), Derhadi and Kannarad (including Jategau and Vakadi), beside several small towns and villages.<ref name="Chintaman1931"/> In 1595 or 1599, Maloji was given the title of raja by Bahadur Nizam Shah, the ruler of the Ahmednagar Sultanate.<ref name="Joseph1900">{{cite book |author=Joseph G. Da Cunha |title=Origin of Bombay |url=https://archive.org/details/originbombay00cunhgoog |year=1900|publisher=Bombay, Society's library; [etc., etc.] }}</ref> On the recommendation of Malik Ambar, he was given the jagir of Pune and Supe parganas, along with the control of the Shivneri and Chakan forts. Maloji carried out the restoration of the Grishneshwar temple near Verul, and also constructed a large tank at the Shambhu Mahadev temple in Shikhar Shingnapur.<ref name="Sardesai1957">{{cite book | author=Govind Sakharam Sardesai | title=New History of the Marathas: Shivaji and his line (1600-1707) | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zG1DAAAAYAAJ | access-date=8 October 2012 | year=1957 | publisher=Phoenix Publications | page = 58 | isbn=9788121500654 }}</ref> Maloji Bhonsale's memorial is just outside the Ghrishneshwar temple.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sohoni |first=Pushkar |date=2018-04-01 |title=Imbrication and Implication |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/archives-of-asian-art/article/68/1/33/133945/Imbrication-and-ImplicationEarly-Maratha |journal=Archives of Asian Art |language=en |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=33–46 |doi=10.1215/00666637-4342393 |issn=0066-6637|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Death ==

Maloji died during a battle against the Bijapur Sultanate, at Indapur. One account puts his year of death as 1605, and mentions that his son Shahaji, five-years old at the time, was raised by his brother Vithoji.<ref name="Chintaman1931"/> Other accounts put the year of his death as 1620<ref name="Eaton2005">{{cite book | author=Richard M. Eaton | title=A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761: Eight Indian Lives | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DNNgdBWoYKoC&pg=PA178 | access-date=8 October 2012 | date=17 November 2005 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-25484-7 | pages=178–}}</ref> or 1622.<ref name="Stewart1993"/> After his death, his jagir was transferred to his son Shahaji.

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhonsle, Maloji}} Category:1550s births Category:Indian generals Category:Indian Hindus Category:Year of death uncertain Category:17th-century deaths Category:Shivaji