Page:Shivaji and His Times.djvu/99

1659] be described in Chapter X. But in the April following, Shivaji was recalled by a dangerous attack on his own dominions by a combination of enemies.

Was the slaying of Afzal Khan a treacherous murder or an act of self-defence on the part of Shivaji? No careful student of the sources can deny that Afzal Khan intended to arrest or kill Shivaji by treachery at the interview. The absolutely contemporary and impartial English factory record (Rajapur letter, 10 Oct. 1659) tells us that Afzal Khan was instructed by his Government to secure Shivaji by "pretending friendship with him" as he could not be resisted by armed strength, and that the latter, learning of the design, made the intended treachery recoil on the Khan's head. This exactly supports the Marathi chronicles on the point that Shivaji's spies learnt from Afzal' s officers of the Khan's plan to arrest him by treachery at the pretended interview, and that Afzal 's envoy Krishnaji Bhaskar was also induced to divulge this secret of his master. Who struck the first blow at the interview? The old Maratha chroniclers (as distinct from the English- educated 20th century apologists of the national hero)