During Shiva’s stay at Bangalore Shahaji had appointed a teacher to teach him letters. In Poona, Dadoji arranged for the continuation of that education besides warfare, use of weapons and public relations.
From Dadoji Shiva continued to get good moral education by example. His mother and the grandfather provided cultural and religious feed in.
Dadoji took upon himself to give political education to young Shiva. He used to take Shiva along on his tours of the state. Dadoji would introduce Shiva to the people, let him interact with them and become familiar with their basic problems. It was infact a practical education. Dadoji made Shiva sit on a high seat and hear to the complaints of the common folk. Shiva often gave his judgements or solutions to the problems.
The clever old fox was setting up Shivaji among the people as their prince and the future king. He guided Shiva to form bands of young followers wherever they went. His young followers were to implement Shiva’s ideas and schemes in villages.
During that period, wild killer beasts were multiplying in the rural areas of Poona state. The people and the cattle were getting killed in alarming numbers. A programme was launched to deal with the menace of beasts. Besides beasts, the rural areas were being plundered by the bandits, robbers and dacoits. Under a programme youngmen were given training in use of arms and were equipped with weapons to eliminate the menaces. It proved to be very successful and earned Shivaji great popularity and fame. Encouraged by it Shivaji expanded the scope of his programmes. The exploiters and the cruel moneylenders were given severe punishments. It made Shivaji young hero of the poor masses.
Jijabai and Vittoji made Shiva dream of a vast Hindu empire of future.
Young Shivaji was married to a girl named Saibai at the early age of 10 years. That was the custom those days. Shahaji couldn’t attend the marriage of Shiva and Saibai as he was too busy in wars and the affairs of the state of Karnataka although the marriage was arranged with his consent. Shiva elder brother Shambaji always stayed with his father. They had very cunningly made city estate of Bangalore into a kind of their own kingdom. After the marriage of his son, Shahaji again invited his family to join him.
Shivaji and his wife stayed with his brother and father at Bangalore for two years. During this period Shivaji got ample opportunities to go on war campaigns with his brother and the father. He learnt a lot about actual warfare. His father saw how keen his Shiva was. What pleased Shahaji was that his son was talented, clever and above all ambitious.
It was now time for Shivaji to return to Poona. His prolonged stay at Bangalore could upset and annoy Bijapur court. Shivaji was married to a second wife Shobabai before he left Bangalore. This time Shahaji sent some expert warriors, planners and administrators with Shivaji to help him build up his dream empire and expand. It was the year of 1642.
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