Rajmata Jijabai
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj gave us Swarajya. But who gave him the idea and prepared him to achieve that dream?
It was Rajmata Jijabai, so here’s her story.
Jijabai Jadhav was born in 1598 in a country that was being torn apart by multiple forces, with fights within her Maratha community, too. She was married to Shahaji from the Bhosale line in an attempt to bring peace to both families.
Her father and brothers were killed in 1629 by the very Sultanate they served. That betrayal turned her into steel - she knew Marathas needed their own rule.
When Shahaji was away in the south, Jijabai practically raised Shivaji alone, with support from Dadoji Konddev. She trained him in riding, swordsmanship, and administration. She made sure he mastered Persian, the court language, and Sanskrit, the scriptural one.
Every night, she filled him with stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata, the Bhakti saints, and warriors like Maharana Pratap. Her teachings and ethics heavily influenced Shivaji’s code of conduct, a huge example being his respect for all women and strict laws preventing their harassment.
But se wasn’t just a mother, she was an excellent administrator. In Pune, left desolate by war, she revived farms, called families back, rebuilt temples like Kasba Ganapati, and restored civic life.
Surviving letters show her punishing corrupt officers, settling disputes, and even arranging provisions for poor families’ marriages. She ruled in practice whenever Shivaji was away.
When Shivaji began seizing forts in the 1640s, she was his constant counsel. Through Shivaji’s highs and lows, from the Afzal Khan revenge for killing his elder brother, to the humiliating Treaty of Purandar, to the escape from Agra, she advised him in key political decisions, also acting as the reagent Queen of the land in his absence.
Finally in 1674, Jijabai saw her son crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad, a Hindu king in his own right - Having lived just long enough to see Swarajya born, just eleven or twelve days later, she passed away, almost as if her life’s mission was fulfilled.
Without her discipline, vision and statecraft, Shivraya wouldn’t have become the Maharaj we worship him as today.
She was the architect and mother of Swarajya.