section_path: Coronation
section_name: Coronation
paragraph_text: Coronation
  
  Shivaji had acquired extensive lands and wealth through his campaigns, but lacking a formal title, he was still technically a Mughal zamindar or the son of a Bijapuri jagirdar, with no legal basis to rule his de facto domain. A kingly title could address this and also prevent any challenges by other Maratha leaders, who were his equals. Such a title would also provide the Hindu Marathis with a fellow Hindu sovereign in a region otherwise ruled by Muslims.
  
  The preparation for a proposed coronation began in 1673. However, some controversies delayed the coronation by almost a year. One controversy erupted amongst the Brahmins of Shivaji's court: they refused to crown Shivaji as a king because that status was reserved for those of the kshatriya varna (warrior class) in Hindu society. Shivaji was descended from a line of headmen of farming villages, and the Brahmins accordingly categorized him as a Maratha, not a Kshatriya. They noted that Shivaji had never had a sacred thread ceremony, and did not wear the thread, such as a kshatriya would. When Shivaji came to know about this conspiracy, he later bribed and summoned Gaga Bhatt, a pandit of Varanasi, who stated that he had found a genealogy proving that Shivaji was descended from the Sisodias, and thus indeed a kshatriya, albeit one in need of the ceremonies befitting his rank. To enforce this status, Shivaji was given a sacred thread ceremony, and remarried his spouses under the Vedic rites expected of a kshatriya. However, according to historical evidence, Shivaji's claim to Rajput, and specifically of Sisodia ancestry, may be seen as being anything from tenuous, at best, to purely inventive.
  
  On 28 May, Shivaji did penance for his and his ancestors' not observing Kshatriya rites for so long. Then he was invested by Gaga Bhatt with the sacred thread. On the insistence of other Brahmins, Gaga Bhatt omitted the Vedic chant and initiated Shivaji into a modified form of the life of the twice-born, instead of putting him on a par with the Brahmins. Next day, Shivaji made atonement for the sins, deliberate or accidental, committed in his own lifetime. He was weighed separately against seven metals including gold, silver, and several other articles, such fine linen, camphor, salt, sugar etc. All these articles, along with a lakh (one hundred thousand) of hun, were distributed among the Brahmins. According to Sarkar, even this failed to satisfy the greed of the Brahmins. Two of the learned Brahmins pointed out that Shivaji, while conducting his raids, had killed Brahmins, cows, women, and children. He could be cleansed of these sins for a price of Rs. 8,000, which Shivaji paid. The total expenditure for feeding the assemblage, general almsgiving, throne, and ornaments approached 1.5 million rupees.
  
  On 6 June 1674, Shivaji was crowned king of the Maratha Empire (Hindavi Swaraj) in a lavish ceremony at Raigad fort. In the Hindu calendar it was the 13th day (trayodashi) of the first fortnight of the month of Jyeshtha in the year 1596. Gaga Bhatt officiated, pouring water from a gold vessel filled with the waters of the seven sacred rivers— Yamuna, Indus, Ganges, Godavari, Narmada, Krishna, and Kaveri —over Shivaji's head, and chanted the Vedic coronation mantras. After the ablution, Shivaji bowed before his mother, Jijabai, and touched her feet. Nearly fifty thousand people gathered at Raigad for the ceremonies. Shivaji was entitled Shakakarta ("founder of an era") and Chhatrapati (" Lord of the Umbrella "). He also took the title of Haindava Dharmodhhaarak (protector of the Hindu faith) and Kshatriya Kulavantas: Kshatriya being the varna of Hinduism and kulavantas meaning the 'head of the kula, or clan'.
  
  Shivaji's mother died on 18 June 1674. The Marathas summoned Nischal Puri Goswami, a tantric priest, who declared that the original coronation had been held under inauspicious stars, and a second coronation was needed. This second coronation, on 24 September 1674, mollified those who still believed that Shivaji was not qualified for the Vedic rites of his first coronation, by being a less controversial ceremony.
  
  Shivaji had acquired extensive lands and wealth through his campaigns, but lacking a formal title, he was still technically a Mughal zamindar or the son of a Bijapuri jagirdar, with no legal basis to rule his de facto domain. A kingly title could address this and also prevent any challenges by other Maratha leaders, who were his equals. Such a title would also provide the Hindu Marathis with a fellow Hindu sovereign in a region otherwise ruled by Muslims.
  
  The preparation for a proposed coronation began in 1673. However, some controversies delayed the coronation by almost a year. One controversy erupted amongst the Brahmins of Shivaji's court: they refused to crown Shivaji as a king because that status was reserved for those of the kshatriya varna (warrior class) in Hindu society. Shivaji was descended from a line of headmen of farming villages, and the Brahmins accordingly categorized him as a Maratha, not a Kshatriya. They noted that Shivaji had never had a sacred thread ceremony, and did not wear the thread, such as a kshatriya would. When Shivaji came to know about this conspiracy, he later bribed and summoned Gaga Bhatt, a pandit of Varanasi, who stated that he had found a genealogy proving that Shivaji was descended from the Sisodias, and thus indeed a kshatriya, albeit one in need of the ceremonies befitting his rank. To enforce this status, Shivaji was given a sacred thread ceremony, and remarried his spouses under the Vedic rites expected of a kshatriya. However, according to historical evidence, Shivaji's claim to Rajput, and specifically of Sisodia ancestry, may be seen as being anything from tenuous, at best, to purely inventive.
  
  On 28 May, Shivaji did penance for his and his ancestors' not observing Kshatriya rites for so long. Then he was invested by Gaga Bhatt with the sacred thread. On the insistence of other Brahmins, Gaga Bhatt omitted the Vedic chant and initiated Shivaji into a modified form of the life of the twice-born, instead of putting him on a par with the Brahmins. Next day, Shivaji made atonement for the sins, deliberate or accidental, committed in his own lifetime. He was weighed separately against seven metals including gold, silver, and several other articles, such fine linen, camphor, salt, sugar etc. All these articles, along with a lakh (one hundred thousand) of hun, were distributed among the Brahmins. According to Sarkar, even this failed to satisfy the greed of the Brahmins. Two of the learned Brahmins pointed out that Shivaji, while conducting his raids, had killed Brahmins, cows, women, and children. He could be cleansed of these sins for a price of Rs. 8,000, which Shivaji paid. The total expenditure for feeding the assemblage, general almsgiving, throne, and ornaments approached 1.5 million rupees.
  
  On 6 June 1674, Shivaji was crowned king of the Maratha Empire (Hindavi Swaraj) in a lavish ceremony at Raigad fort. In the Hindu calendar it was the 13th day (trayodashi) of the first fortnight of the month of Jyeshtha in the year 1596. Gaga Bhatt officiated, pouring water from a gold vessel filled with the waters of the seven sacred rivers— Yamuna, Indus, Ganges, Godavari, Narmada, Krishna, and Kaveri —over Shivaji's head, and chanted the Vedic coronation mantras. After the ablution, Shivaji bowed before his mother, Jijabai, and touched her feet. Nearly fifty thousand people gathered at Raigad for the ceremonies. Shivaji was entitled Shakakarta ("founder of an era") and Chhatrapati (" Lord of the Umbrella "). He also took the title of Haindava Dharmodhhaarak (protector of the Hindu faith) and Kshatriya Kulavantas: Kshatriya being the varna of Hinduism and kulavantas meaning the 'head of the kula, or clan'.
  
  Shivaji's mother died on 18 June 1674. The Marathas summoned Nischal Puri Goswami, a tantric priest, who declared that the original coronation had been held under inauspicious stars, and a second coronation was needed. This second coronation, on 24 September 1674, mollified those who still believed that Shivaji was not qualified for the Vedic rites of his first coronation, by being a less controversial ceremony.