Page:Shivaji and His Times.djvu/441

Rh force was sent with the collectors of blackmail. (Sabh. 32.) The subahdars were all Brahmans, under the Peshwa's supervision (Sabh. 77.)

Shivaji's religious policy was very liberal. He respected the holy places of all creeds in his raids and made endowments for Hindu temples and Muslim saints' tombs and mosques alike. He not only granted pensions to Brahman scholars versed in the Vedas, astronomers and anchorites, but also built hermitages and provided subsistence at his own cost for the holy men of Islam, notably Baba Yaqut of Kelshi (4 m. s. of Bankot on the Ratnagiri coast.) (Sabh. 33.) "The lost Vedic studies were revived by him. One maund of rice was (annually) presented to a Brahman who had mastered one of the books of the Vedas, two maunds to a master of two books, and so on. Every year the Pandit Rao used to examine the scholars in the month of Shravan (August) and increase or decrease their stipends according to their progress in study. Foreign pandits received presents in goods, local scholars in food. Famous scholars were assembled, honoured and given money rewards. No Brahman had occasion to go to other kingdoms to beg." (Chit. 85, 43.)

Shivaji's spiritual guide (guru) was Ramdas Swami, one of the greatest saints of Maharashtra, (born 1608, died 1681.) An attempt has been made