Religious Experiences in America

I would like to start a series of blogs about great individuals who lived, fought and died for the protection of Hinduism aka Sanatana Dharma and the land of its origin: India. Since I have ready information about few of the Maratha bravehearts I would like to start with them. These are not the well known people, ideally they should have been better known and talked about than the Mughal invaders like Akbar etc… but that is the irony of our history texts. Hindu heroes are just not as important as Muslim invaders.

Anyway in my first post in this series let me talk about Taanaaji Maalusare, one of the leading lieutenants of Chatrapathi Shivaji.

Taanaaji Maalusare is known as the “lion” general of Shivaji’s army who wrested the almost-impregnable Raigad fort back from Aurangzeb’s misguided Rajput loyals, at the costof his own life. Tanaji was summoned by his commander in chief Shivaji on the evening of a moonless night, with the mission to claim Raigad.

It is said, Tanaji scaled the incredibly steep wall of the least guarded sideof this fortress with the aid of a “Ghorpat” or mountain lizard, then threwdown rope ladders for the rest of his troops to follow. The ensuing rooftop battle claimed Tanaji’s life - while his younger brother led a secondfront at the door of the fortress, dealing a surprise defeat to the enemy.

Tanaji left his SON’s wedding, to obey the command of his leader Shivaji.He would not return alive. Describing his sorrow at the loss of his deargeneral, Shivaji said “gad aala, paN singh gela” (We won the fortress butlost the LION). In honor of Tanaji Malusare, the Raigad fort was renamedas Singh-gad, a name which endures even to this day. To this day the image of Tanaji is worshipped daily at hisshrine in Singhgad.