BAHIRJI NAIK

 BAHIRJI NAIK


Since Bahirji Naik was himself the  spy  not many things are known about him .His movements and assignments used to be secret missions . 

Bahirji Naik was name given to him by Shivaji himself . His original name was Daulat and he was associated with Shivaji right from the beginning when Shivaji used to live in Lal Mahal of Pune.In those days, around Pune there was dense forest and when Shivaji's mother wanted to develop Pune from the scratch ;she wanted to reduce the menace  of wolves in the forest. Jijau had announced that whoever will bring tail of  wolf   will be rewarded. Daulat who was barely  of 14- 15 years age killed many "Landge" and with the bunch of their tails he visited Lal Mahal. Jijau ,mother of Shivaji , was perplexed to see so many tails and for each tail she rewarded gold bracelet  to Daulat. Daulat however was not interested in Gold but wanted to meet Shivaji in person. Jijau also wanted such dare devils to get associated with her son , so she asked her son to meet Daulat.


When Shivaji met Daulat and asked him what can he do other than killing wolves ? Daulat told that he can use various weapons and gave demo of the same . Daulat also had another superb skill of imitating sound of various birds. Not only birds, but he could imitate sound of any person . He used to perform small skits to entertain people and earn his daily needs. Shivaji was happy to take Daulat in his team and later renamed him as Bahrjl.


Bahirji Naik used to  travel to several places in different dresses particularly in the area of enemies. Shivaji had happily agreed to be Bahrji's friend and gave him important task of collecting information. Daulat had many persons  in his department including good actors of both genders, who had the skill of knowing  several languages including the languages of animals and birds ! Persons of  different age groups with full dedication of achieving the objective in a given mission used to be in Daulat's group. There are no proofs of who did excellent work in the given mission but Bahirji helped Shivaji in detail planning of Shivaji Raje and helped to convert the planned things in actions. 


Whenever Shivaji faught any battle Bahirji used to give him support in the form of information and logistics involved .Bahirji used to win half battle and Shivaji or his Sardars used to win remaining half battle . When Shivaji was in Aagra Bahirji traveled and weaved his network in the North and gave support to Shivaji's plan of escape . It is said that Disciples of swami Samarth Ramdas Swami used to feed information to Bahirji's persons .


Two incidents are mentioned here to get the idea about Bahirji's several contributions.


The first one is when Shahiste khan came to Pune with more than 1 lac army  to defeat Shivaji.


Shahiste khan conquered Pune and started living in Lal Mahala where Shivaji Raje spent his childhood. For several days Shivaji Raje was doing nothing in the eyes of Mughals and people even started whispering why there is no resistance to Khan who was uncle of Auranzeb.Actually

Shivaji Raje was gathering every small information about Khan .The plan to attack Shahiste Khan directly was being hatched. It was clear to Shivaji's soldiers how to enter in Pune City  however Maharaj was not clear about how to enter the Room in which Khan used to sleep. Entry from the door was difficult and would have consumed time .It is said that Bahirji solved this problem. Bahirji's one person managed to get the job of Gardner in Lal Mahal and was waiting for the opportunity to unscrew the  hinges of the window of the room in which Khan used to sleep.Just a week before the attack was done , Bahirji gave message to Raje  that the job is done. In a spectacular dramatic  and daring style Shivaji himself reached Lal Mahal.. pushed the window hard and entered the room suddenly where Khan was sleeping.Fortunately for Khan, his one of the wives removed candle which saved Khan's life. Shivaji didn't know that Khan survived as he  attacked him  in the absolute dark however khan's fingers were cut. Khan was terribly shocked and frightened to see suddenly appearing Shivaji . In the same mission Bahirji had planted several animals with lighted Mashals on their Horns to misguide enemy in chasing Shivaji.  The amount of detail planning and its execution to attack on  the  centre of the large army with bare 50 - 60 people has no parallel in the history of world. Certainly Bahirji's contribution in the mission was as great as Shivaji's daring "leading from the front" quality to frighten the enemy.Within one week Khan decided to abandon his mission and started returning to Delhi.


The second outstanding contribution of Bahirji which has proof in the history is about the Surat battle and loot.

Bahirji himself was in Surat for over two months in the dress of an ordinary begger. An English officer has mentioned that he was shocked to know the begger was Shivaji's spy .

 In Surat Bahirji did all the ground work of marking houses of Rich businessmen, estimating the likely amount of loot and arranging bags to pack the looted articles.He organized and sent all heavy material,by different ships to swarajya by sea root so that movement of cavalry will not get affected .

All the detailing was executed by Bahirji's men and Shivaji knew upfront that he will not face any resistance from the enemy. Working each detail in advance in the  secrecy was an extremely tough job and person like Bahirji only could do that.

There were several other jobs executed by Bahirji and no wonder he was given a prominent place by Shivaji about which even many Sardars were not knowing !!


It is mentioned by almost all Historians that Shivaji's success was because of his ability to collect minute details before starting the missions and so the credit goes to Bahirji Naik who was responsible for it.Needless to say he was a precious gem or superb jewel of the great Maratha king.

---- Rajendra Phansalkar

April 4 , 2024

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