Page:Shivaji and His Times.djvu/160

140 slave, and he will be created a Commander of Five Thousand with a suitable jagir.... As for me sinner, exempt me from holding any mansab or serving in the Mughal army. But whenever in your wars in the Deccan, I am given any military duty, I shall promptly perform it."

In addition to the above terms, Shivaji made another and a conditional engagement with the Mughals: "If lands yielding 4 lakhs of hurt a year in the lowlands of Konkan and 5 lakhs of hun a year in the uplands (Balaghat Bijapuri), are granted to me by the Emperor and I am assured by an imperial jarman that the possession of these lands will be confirmed in me after the expected Mughal conquest of Bijapur, then I agree to pay to the Emperor 40 lakhs of hun in 13 yearly instalments." He was expected to wrest these lands from the Bijapuri officers by means of his own troops. (H. A. Ben. MS. 66b-67a.)

Here we detect the shrewdness of Jai Singh's policy in throwing a bone of perpetual contention between Shivaji and the Sultan of Bijapur. As he wrote to the Emperor, "This policy will result in a threefold gain: first, we get 40 lakhs of hun or 2 krores of Rupees; secondly, Shivaji will be alienated from Bijapur; thirdly, the imperial army will be relieved from the arduous task of campaigning in these two broken and jungly regions, as Shiva will himself undertake the task of expelling the Bijapuri garrisons from them." In return for it, Shiva also