180 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
following details collected by Mr. Vaidya. : [1]
“These ministers were presented each with one lakh of hon, one elephant, one horse, garments and ornaments. Gagabhat was given one lakh of rupees for seeing the whole ceremony through. The Dakshinas granted by Shivaji on the several occasions of the coronation ceremony were very large, as was suited to the occasion. Sabhasad reports that the whole expenditure amounted to one crore and forty-two lakhs of hons or 426 lakhs of rupees.
Sabhasad relates that 50,000 Vaidika Brahmins had collected on the occasion of Shivaji’s coronation. [2] Besides these there were Jogis, Sanyasis, etc., by thousands. These were fed or given corn below the fort. It is related in contemporary papers that Shivaji, before coronation, was weighed against gold and almost every other metal as well as auspicious thing. Dutch record describing the ceremony in detail on 3rd October PS. 1684 states that Shivaji weighed 17,000 hons or 160 lbs. and he was also weighed against silver, copper, iron, etc., and against camphor, salt, sugar, butter, various kinds of fruit, betel-nuts, etc., and the value of the whole was distributed amongst Brahmins. On the 7th June, the day after the coronation, Dakshina was given in general and every Brahmin got three to five rupees and everyone else, whether woman or child two rupees and one rupee. In all, the Dakshina amounted to one and a half lakhs of hon [3] in value.
Oxenden also states in his diary from 18th May to 13th June that Shivaji was weighed against gold and the weight 16,000 hons, together with one lakh of hons in addition were distributed as Dakshinas among Brahmins.
The above noted Dutch record further states that for the Vratya ceremony
7,000 hons were given to Gagabhat and 17,000 to other Brahmins. On the
5th of June Shivaji bathed in holy Ganges water and every Brahmin present was given 100 hons.”
Can the amount paid to Gagabhat be taken as representing nothing more than a fee [4] properly payable to a priest? There is one circumstance which may be depended upon to show that Gagabhat was not even paid enough. It is that what Gagabhat got was comparatively much less than what the Ministers of Shivaji got. Two facts must however be noted as telling on the other side before any conclusion is drawn from this fact. They completely nullify the argument. The first is that the ministers themselves had made large presents [5] to Shivaji on his coronation. Moropant Pingle the Peshwa or Prime Minister of Shivaji, the Mujamdar had paid 7,000 hons and the other two ministers 5,000 hons each. Deducting these, the
1 Shivaji, the Founder of Maratha Swaraj, pp. 248 and 252.
2 Vaidya says this must be a mistake for 5,000. He gives no reason in support of his ‘must’.
3 A Hon was equal to 3 rupees.
4 It must not be supposed that Gagabhat got only Rs. 1 lakh. He got in addition
7,000 hons or 21,000 rupees for Vratya Stoma. Further he must have received some part of the gold and the value of other things against which Shivaji was weighed and which was distributed among the Brahmins.
5 Vaidya, ibid., p. 247.