शिवाई

जन्म झाला शिवनेरी ।
रयत ऋणी जीजाई ।।
शप्पथ स्वराज्याची ।
रायरेश्वरी शिवलिंग साक्षी ।।

भेदरली आदिलशाही ।
पाहून रक्तरंजित भवानी ।।
धडकी मुगल दरबारी ।
तो नतमस्तक रामदासी ।।

उभा अखंड सह्याद्री ।
घेऊन दरी राई ।।
संगे समुद्र अरबी ।
शिवगुण गायी ।।

मग काय करू शाहिरी ।
कोड्यात हा गोंधळी ।।
खंत एकच तुळजाई ।
नशिबा नव्हती शिवाई ।।

Shivaji, who was born to Jijabai at the fort of Shivneri, renounced the inherited comforts and swore to establish self-rule for the people of the land. He shook the tyrannical powers of the Adilshah of Bijapur and the Mughal empire in Delhi fighting many violent battles while humbly accepting the teachings of Sant Ramdas. When today the hills of Sahyadri and the waves of the Arabian sea sing his praises, neither can I better them nor can I shed my envy for unlike them, my life could not witness the acts of his valor.

The format of this verse is called Pawada. Over the centuries, it was the song of the wandering poets in Maharashtra called Gondhali. In a prescient observation, Harry Acworth wrote the following in his book, “Ballads of the Marathas”, published in 1894, “…the advantages of civilization will no doubt, before many years are over, be too much for these products of a time when the steam-engine and the high school were not.”