Chhatrapati Shivajiraje Bhonsle was a seventeenth-century king who ruled the Maratha kingdom of India from 1643 to 1680. This is history, but what stumps most people who do not belong to the state of Maharashtra is the level of devotion that Maharashtrian people carry in their hearts for this heroic King.

If you insult a Maharashtrian chances are that he will be angry but he will not retaliate. He might argue with you without becoming violent. But insult Chhatrapati Shivaji and any Maharashtrian worth his salt will turn upon you with a vengeance you cannot even imagine.

Non-Maharashtrian people are generally taken aback by this strange adulation for a King. Even I do not have an answer but I like to think that those who find reverence for Shivaji a mystery perhaps do not have any heroic king to revere. No offence intended, but in order to understand why Maharashtrians adore Shivaji…