Thread by @sanjeevsanyal

Early 20th century Bengalis were strongly inspired by Shivaji's resistance to foreign rule. Aurobindo ends an imaginary conversation between Shivaji & Jai Singh thus:

"I undermined an empire and it has not been rebuilt. I created a nation and it has not yet perished."

1/n

Rabindranath Tagore too wrote a poem celebrating Chhatrapati #Shivaji 's resistance to the Mughals.

The first stanza of the poem reads thus:

Similarly Swami Vivekananda was a great admirer of Shivaji and considered him among greatest kings of India. 3/n

Also interesting is that Bengali thinkers and writers of the early 20th century would lament that Bengal had not risen in revolt in support of the Marathas against the Mughals.

This is what Tagore wrote:

4/n

Those interested in the full text of the imaginary Shivaji-Jai Singh conversation (part of Sri Aurobindo's Conversations of the Dead):
5/n
aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/03…