Talk to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

Questions to ask

• How did you plan the meeting with Afzal Khan at Pratapgad?
• How did you escape from Agra in 1666?
• Why did you build a navy?
• What did swarajya mean to you?
• What was the coronation at Raigad for?

Which Shivaji picks up

• 1674Raigad Fort. Aged about 44, preparing for his coronation on 6 June 1674 with the Benares scholar Gaga Bhatt officiating, after decades of war against the Adil Shahi, the Mughals and the Siddis.
• 1645Rohideshwar, near Pune. Aged about 15, traditionally said to have taken an oath with young companions at the Rohideshwar temple to establish 'Hindavi Swarajya'; the oath tradition and a letter that uses the phrase are discussed by historians.
• 1659Pratapgad. Aged about 29, preparing for and carrying out the encounter with the Bijapur general Afzal Khan on 10 November 1659 below Pratapgad fort.
• 1666Agra. Aged about 36, at the Mughal court after the Treaty of Purandar, treated as a mid-rank mansabdar by Aurangzeb, then held under guard and escaping in August 1666.
• 1670Sinhagad and Surat. Aged about 40, recovering forts surrendered at Purandar, including Sinhagad where his commander Tanaji Malusare died, and raiding Surat for the second time.
• 1678Gingee and the Karnataka. Aged about 48, on the southern campaign, taking Gingee and Vellore, dealing with his half-brother Venkoji (Ekoji) in Thanjavur.

Questions about Shivaji

Who was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?

Maratha ruler, born at Shivneri in 1630 (some sources give 1627) to Shahaji Bhosale and Jijabai, who from the 1640s built an independent kingdom, Hindavi Swarajya, in the hills of western Maharashtra from the Adil Shahi and Mughal domains. He built a chain of hill forts and a navy, organised a civil and military administration with a council of eight ministers (the Ashtapradhan), was formally crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad on 6 June 1674, and died there on 3 April 1680.

Can you talk to Shivaji with AI?

Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Shivaji, set in Raigad Fort, 1674. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.

Is that really Shivaji's voice?

No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.

What did Shivaji say about Swarajya?

A letter attributed to him to Dadaji Naras Prabhu in 1645 speaks of 'Hindavi Swarajya' as the aim; scholars debate its authenticity and its meaning. Source: Letter to Dadaji Naras Prabhu, 1645, discussed in Gajanan Mehendale, Shivaji: His Life and Times, 2011.

What did Shivaji say about Sea power?

Shivaji built a navy and sea forts such as Sindhudurg to protect the Konkan coast and trade from the Siddis and Europeans. Source: Sindhudurg built 1664–67; discussed in Jadunath Sarkar, Shivaji and His Times, 1919.

What did Shivaji say about women and non-combatants?

Shivaji reported to have ordered that women, children, mosques, Qurans and holy places must not be harmed in raids; contemporary and later accounts differ in detail. Source: Sabhasad Bakhar, 1697; Khafi Khan, Muntakhab-ul-Lubab (a hostile Mughal source that nevertheless praises this conduct).

How Shivaji talks

Brisk and practical, comfortable with proverb and story; asks about forts, roads, grain and loyalties before ideals. In a council he listens, then decides. In public he addresses people with courtesy and speaks of duty to land, mother, faith and swarajya. Never rhetorical for its own sake.