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1659] of the Deccan before this time, as I showed in detail in the Modern Review, (vol. I. 1907.) Shivaji was fully convinced — and with good reason, as we know, — that Afzal meant treachery. He would have been wanting in common prudence if he had not taken these precautions to save himself.

A friend (Prof. A. Rahman) has asked me, "If Afzal meant treachery why did he not keep his troops in readiness for delivering an assault or at least for defending themselves?" My answer is that Afzal believed that the death of Shivaji would lead to the immediate collapse of his upstart power and no attack on his leaderless troops would be necessary. He was, moreover, ignorant of the position and strength of the enemy's forces and did not know that two large Maratha armies had arrived by rapid marches in his neighbourhood.

The weight of recorded evidence as well as the probabilities of the case supports he view that Afzal Khan struck the first blow and that Shivaji only committed what Burke calls, a preventive murder.