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‘INDIA‘ the motherland of mighty warriors. This land has given birth to many brave souls. The history of India has been full of blood and sacrifice. India has faced many invasions in its history & also seen many kingdoms & Empires. Out of these empires, the Maratha Empire spread all over India in the 18th century. The Maratha Empire symbolized the end of the brutality of the Mughal Empire. The founder of this empire was a great, brave, fearless, kind king & a warrior – ‘Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj‘. Shivaji Maharaj was a very powerful person & his personality was very impressive. But a single person cannot build such a big empire. For this he needs some brave and honest companions. Similarly, Shivaji Maharaj also had some very brave and honest companions with whom he built such a huge empire & defeat Mughals. ‘Baji Prabhu Deshpande‘ was one of those comrades on whose sacrifice such a huge empire was built. So let’s read today about that great warrior who saved Shivaji Maharaj’s life by sacrificing himself.
This is the story of the time when the Mughals had fully established their foothold in India. The Mughals were expanding their empire and no one had the courage to stop them. There were some provinces which were fighting against the Mughals but none of them were as powerful as the Mughals and the provinces that were powerful were under the Mughals and at the same time in the year 1630, a child full of courage, bravery, sacrifice, kindness and fearlessness was born in Shivneri fort. who later became the founder of Swaraj, ‘CHATTRAPATI SHIVAJI MAHARAJ‘. This is the story of that brave hero on whose sacrifice the foundation of Swaraj and the Maratha Empire was laid. This is the story of a man who sacrificed his life to save whose great person life, who raised a new hope in slave India. This is the story of a mighty warrior whom the enemies were afraid to even talk about. This is the story of ‘BAJIPRABHU DESHPANDE‘. Baji Prabhu was about 15 years older than Chhatrapati. Since childhood, he had a lot of anger towards the Mughals. Baji Prabhu’s father is employed in the army of Shahajiraje, the father of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. At that time, the Deccan province was divided into two parts, which was Konkan and Deccan. Both these provinces were ruled by Sultan Adilshah of Bijapur. Adil Shah made only his most trusted persons as vassals of the jagirs. Similarly, Krishnaji Deshmukh was made the Jagirdar of Hades Jagir and Baji Prabhu’s father became the Diwan of this Jagir, after his death Baji Prabhu and his brother Fulaji became the Diwan of this estate.
On the one hand, where Bajiprabhu became the dewan of Hades Jagir, on the other hand, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj started merging all the jagirs of Adilshahi into Swaraj. Krishnaji Deshmukh, the vassal of Hades Jagir, had enmity with Shivaji’s father Shahaji, which he continued with Shivaji Maharaj as well. At first, Shivaji Maharaj tried a lot to convince Krishna ji Deshmukh to merge his jagir to Swaraj to make India free from invaders , but when he did not agree, then Maharaj along with Tanaji, Awaji and Yesaji attacked the Rohida fort to teach a lesson to that traitor & they killed Krishna ji deshmukh. As soon as Krishna ji died, they all started feeling happy that now Hades Jagir is also a part of Swaraj, but then a voice came from behind, this could not have happened if the diwan of this manor had been there. This was the voice of Bajiprabhu Deshpande. Baji Prabhu stood ready to fight in front of Shivaji Maharaj with a sword in his hands. Baji Prabhu was about to cross. At the same time Maharaj put back his Tulja Bhavani sword and said, this sword was not given to me by Bhavani Maa to attack my brothers but to give freedom to Mother India. On the persuasion of Shivaji Maharaj, Baji Prabhu understood & He joined Swaraj.
When Shivaji Maharaj killed Afzal Khan, there was a stir in the whole of Bijapur & Sultan Aadilshah was stunned. Because killing a powerful person like Afzal Khan was not an easy thing. To take revenge, Adil Shah sent an army of about 4-5000 to Panhala fort to capture Shivaji Maharaj. In this army, Adil Shah sent his bravest soldiers together. In which rustam e hind, Sidhi johar & Fazal Khan was main. At that time there were only 600 soldiers with Maharaj in Panhala fort. Soon Siddhi Jauhar surrounded the entire fort with 4000 soldiers. It was not easy to leave the fort in front of such a large army. At that time Bajiprabhu and his younger brother Phulaji took the responsibility of getting Maharaj out of there. Because if anything had happened to Maharaj, the dream of Swaraj would have remained a dream. Keeping this in mind, a strategy was made under which Maharaj was removed from there with 300 soldiers and with the remaining 300 soldiers, Bajiprabhu agreed to fight.
Baji Prabhu told Maharaj that as soon as you reach Rajgarh, give us a signal by firing cannon 3 times. As soon as Shivaji Maharaj came out of the Panhala fort, the enemy’s army reached the narrow road named Ghodkhind in search of him. Maharaj had crossed Ghorkhind and went to its other side and Baji Prabhu was standing ready with his army. As soon as the army proceeded to cross the road, Baji Prabhu Deshpande attacked them with his army of 300. This attack of Baji Prabhu was so powerful that the army did not get a chance to recover. One by one the heads were being cut off. He was completely bled. Baji Prabhu had been fighting for 18 hours but it was impossible to stop him. When Baji Prabhu was not in anyone’s control, the enemy army fired at him with a gun. Due to which he fainted and fell down.
When Bajiprabhu regained consciousness, he asked, did the sound of cannons come, but his companion said that no, the sound of cannons has not yet come, so he again stood up with the sword and started fighting again. Baji Prabhu was completely covered in blood. He was also badly injured due to the bullet. Then suddenly the sound of cannons was heard in his ears. He understood that Maharaj had safely reached his fort. On hearing the sound of cannons, Bajiprabhu along with 300 Marathas Martyred. Baji Prabhu saved the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by sacrificing, due to which later India got freedom from Mughals.
The result of this war was that the feet of the Bijapur Sultanate were uprooted from India. And to compete with the Mughals, an empire like the Maratha Empire stood. It is our misfortune that we know all about those Mughals who destroyed our heritage but But we do not know those brave souls who saved India by sacrificing their lives. Because of whom we are able to celebrate our festivals & do worship freely today.
- By
- Vishal Thakur
- vishalthakur.art.blog
Vishal Thakur 