This day in 1674, Shivaji was crowned king of the Marathas

6th june

This day in 1674, Shivaji was crowned king of the Marathas in a lavish ceremony at Raigad

( In the Hindu calendar it was on the 13th day (trayodashi) of the first fortnight of the month of Jyeshtha in the year 1596)

Pandit Gaga Bhatt  from varanasi officiated, holding a gold vessel filled with the seven sacred waters of the rivers Yamuna, Indus, Ganges, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri over Shivaji's head, and chanted the coronation mantras.

After the ablution, Shivaji bowed before Jijabai and touched her feet.

Nearly fifty thousand people gathered at Raigad for the ceremonies.

Shivaji was bestowed with the sacred thread brahmin thread-the " jaanva", with the Vedas and was bathed in an abhisheka.

Shivaji was entitled Shakakarta ("founder of an era")
Kshatriya Kulavantas ("head of Kshatriyas"),
Chhatrapati ("paramount sovereign").
He also took the title of "Haindava Dharmodhhaarak".
(the keeper of the hindu dharma )

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The state as Shivaji founded it was a Maratha kingdom comprising about a mere  4.1% of the subcontinent at the time he died,but less than a  150 years later after his coronation   it was to increase in size and heterogeneity,

By the time of the Peshwas in the early 18th century the Marathas were dominant across the northern and central regions of the Indian Subcontinent their empire/confederacy spanned across 2,800,000 km2(1,100,000 sq mi)
from Attock in northwest present day Pakistan to Thanjavur in present  day tamil nadu,from Vasai  -present  day Mumbai to Odisha and parts of West Bengal

The back of the mughal empire was broken, the smaller muslim principalities neutralised or made vassals and the proud hindu saffron , the dual triangular battle standard of the Marathas was flying from north to south , from east to west all over our glorious fatherland !

Jai bhawani, Jai Shivaji !!!

(via Shonan Talpade)

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