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46 The acquisition of Javli was the result of deliberate murder and organised treachery on the part of Shivaji. His power was then in its infancy, and he could not afford to be scrupulous in the choice of the means of strengthening himself. In exactly similar circumstances, Sher Shah, his historic parallel, used similar treachery in gaming torts in South Bihar as the first step to a throne. The only redeeming feature of this dark episode in his life is that the crime was not aggravated by hypocrisy. All his old Hindu biographers are agreed that it was an act of pre-meditated murder for personal gain and not a pardonable homicide done in self-defence or during the confusion of an unexpected brawl. Even Shivaji never pretended that the murder of the three Mores was prompted by a desire to found a "Hindu swaraj," or to remove from his path a treacherous enemy beyond the chance of reform.

This last touch of infamy it has been left to the present generation to add. Some Maratha writers have recently "discovered" what they vaguely call "an old chronicle," — written nobody knows when or by whom, based nobody knows on what authorities, and transmitted nobody knows how, — which asserts that Chandra Rao had tried to seize Shiva by treachery and hand him over to the vengeance of Bijapur, and that he had at first been pardoned by the latter and had then ungratefully conspired with