Samarth Ramdas: Cultivating the Social and Cultural Ground for Swarajya

The establishment of Hindavi Swarajya cannot be understood as the achievement of a single individual, a single battle, or even a single stream of thought. It was the product of a long historical process in which political ambition, military organisation, social mobilisation, religious consciousness, local traditions and individual leadership converged.

At the centre of that transformation stood Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who translated the idea of self-rule into an organised political reality. But alongside the political and military movement ran another, quieter process: the preparation of the mind, character and social will necessary for such a transformation.

It is in this parallel process that the contribution of Samarth Ramdas deserves examination.

The argument need not be that Ramdas "created" Shivaji's Swarajya, nor that he was the political mastermind behind it, there is insufficient historical basis for so sweeping a claim. Equally, it would be reductive to dismiss him as merely a saint whose activities had no relationship with the political and social transformation of seventeenth-century Maharashtra.

A more useful formulation is this: Shivaji Maharaj gave political and military form to the aspiration for Swarajya; Samarth Ramdas worked upon the social, moral and spiritual forces that could strengthen such an aspiration. The two operated in different spheres, but their spheres could, and historically did, compliment. 

A Maharashtra searching for a new direction

The Maharashtra of the seventeenth century was not an empty political landscape waiting for one extraordinary man to appear.

Shahaji Raje Bhonsale, father of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, had himself attempted to preserve and revive the Nizamshahi and had pursued independent political possibilities. Shivaji Maharaj's subsequent project therefore needs to be situated within a longer political experience of the Bhonsale family and the Deccan, and modern historians have cautioned against explaining his achievement solely through the influence of any one saint or individual.

Yet another question is even more important: why did ordinary people respond to Shivaji Maharaj's project?

A few Deshmukhs, Patils and established Maratha sardars could not by themselves have created the extensive military and administrative structure that eventually emerged as Swarajya. Shivaji's extraordinary achievement lay in converting people of relatively modest social and military standing into disciplined soldiers, officers, administrators and commanders. That required more than a political idea; it required a change in the psychology of society.

This is where the broader Bhakti tradition becomes important. The Warkari tradition, the Mahanubhav tradition and other devotional currents had already created an enormous cultural world in Maharashtra. Saint-poets had carried spiritual ideas into the language of ordinary people, and Sant Eknath, Sant Tukaram and others made religious thought accessible far beyond the confines of Sanskritic learning.

But the streams were not identical. The distinction drawn by Marathi thinkers such as Narhar Kurundkar is particularly useful here. Eknath's writings could contain an unmistakable call to social awakening, while Tukaram's devotional universe placed far greater emphasis on bhakti and spiritual transformation. Ramdas entered this cultural world with a markedly different emphasis: भक्ती joined with प्रयत्न, सामर्थ्य, विवेक and कर्म. His significance, then, lies not in replacing the Bhakti tradition but in giving another direction to the energy of Bhakti, turning its warmth towards will.

The Journey That Changed Ramdas

According to the traditional account, Ramdas spent twelve years in spiritual discipline at Takli (Nashik) before undertaking an extensive pilgrimage across India. His travels exposed him to conditions that deeply affected his understanding of religion, society and political power.

The anguish of that experience is captured in the Tirthavaliche Dandigaan:

देवस्थाने उदंड होती। आता झालें म्लेंछ नृपती।।

ठाई ठाई उरूस भरती रे रे रे।  कीर्ती उदंड सांगती रे।।

आत्माराम तो ठाई ठाई।  नांदे म्लेच्छांचे हृदयी।।

तेथे फोडोनि पाहती काई रे रे रे।  तेणे करिता सर्व चाले सर्वही रे ।।

दास म्हणे देव हा येक।  येर सकळही माईक।।

पाहणे तो अंतर्विवेक रे रे रे रे। तेणे होतसे साधक रे।।

A close rendering would be:

There were once countless sacred places; now Islamic rulers hold sway.

At place after place, Oors (fairs and gatherings) are held, and their fame is proclaimed.

Yet the Aatmaram is present everywhere, even in the hearts of those regarded as adversaries.

What is gained merely by breaking open and looking outward?

The Divine is One; all else is transient.

It is through inner discrimination that one becomes a true seeker.

The passage contains an important complexity.

Ramdas expresses deep concern over the condition of Hindu sacred institutions, but his response is not simply one of hostility towards the religious other. The concluding emphasis is on अंतर्विवेक, inner discrimination, and on the unity of the Divine.

His response to the crisis he perceived was therefore not merely lamentation.

It was awakening, organisation and action.

The experience appears to have contributed to a broader realisation: that the preservation of a society's religious and cultural life also required social strength and political agency, sovereignty. Spiritual realisation alone could not substitute for collective effort.

From Spiritual Realisation to Social Responsibility

The foundation of Ramdas's thought can be described as a synthesis of ज्ञान, भक्ती and कर्म.

He did not advocate a spirituality that demanded withdrawal from worldly responsibility. His conception of bhakti was rooted in प्रवृत्तीधर्म, the fulfilment of one's duties while dedicating one's actions to the Divine.

In this understanding, the world is not something to be abandoned merely because it is imperfect. It is the field in which one's dharma must be performed.

This gives Ramdas's thought an unusual dynamism.

This is also why the Dasbodh reads so differently from a purely contemplative spiritual text. It is concerned not merely with metaphysical questions but with how a spiritually grounded person should conduct himself in society, how he should think, act, recognise people, exercise prudence, organise affairs and discharge responsibility. 

The Dasbodh does not teach fatalism; it teaches prayatnavada, effort. "यत्न तो देव जाणावा" effort itself is to be known as God.

The famous formulation captures the principle:

सामर्थ्य आहे चळवळीचें।

जो जो करील तयाचें।

परंतु तेथे भगवंताचें।

अधिष्ठान पाहिजे॥

The power to move lies in action; whatever one undertakes bears the fruit of one's effort. But that effort must have the foundation of the Divine.

For Ramdas, therefore, divine faith was not an excuse for inaction. Faith was the foundation of action.

The Politics of Character

This is perhaps where Ramdas's contribution becomes most distinctive.

He did not command Shivaji Maharaj's armies. He did not administer forts or collect revenue. He did not conduct diplomacy with the Mughal Empire or the Deccan Sultanates.

He worked upon something different: the character of the individual and the strength of society.

The Ramdasi tradition developed institutions, centres, disciples and networks through which his teachings could travel. The emphasis on बलोपासना, particularly through Hanuman worship and physical culture, gave concrete expression to the idea that strength itself could be cultivated as a social virtue.

The objective was not strength for its own sake.

It was strength placed at the service of dharma and duty.

Thus, the Ramdasi network can be understood as a form of social infrastructure, religious and cultural centres through which ideas, discipline and a sense of collective purpose could travel from one locality to another.

This is the context in which the tradition's association with Maruti temples, akhadas and Balopasana becomes significant. It was a method of cultivating both the body and the mind.

Ramdas and the Ideal Ruler

Ramdas's writings also make it impossible to portray him as concerned exclusively with private devotion.

Consider his description of the ideal king:

गनिमाच्या देखता फौजा। 

रणशूरांच्या फुरफुर्ती भुजा। 

ऐसा पाहिजे राजा कैपक्षी परमार्थी।।

The verse can be rendered:

The king should possess an army that stands before the enemy and warriors whose arms surge with courage; yet he must also remain oriented towards the higher purpose.

The ideal ruler is therefore not merely a conqueror.

He must possess: courage + preparedness + vigilance + strategic ability + higher purpose.

Ramdas continues:

तयास देखता दुर्जन धाके। 

बैसवी प्रचितीचे तडाखे। 

बंडपाखंडाचे वाखे। 

सहजचि होती।।

हे धूर्तपणाचे कामे। 

राजकारण करावे नेमे। 

ढिलेपणाच्या संभ्रमे। 

जाऊ नये।।

The vocabulary is unmistakably practical.

The ruler must understand the enemy, recognise circumstances, employ strategy and avoid laxity.

Ramdas's political thought therefore does not glorify power as an end in itself. It asks that power be combined with responsibility and moral purpose.

Ramdas and Shivaji: counsel, not causation

Popular memory loves the picture of the saint blessing the king. History is more careful. There is no credible evidence of a Ramdas–Shivaji convergence between 1649 and 1670; there is credible evidence of their meetings after 1670, most famously at Shinganwadi, where the counsel given is traditionally identified with the Laghubodh section of the Dasbodh. 

Scholars such as Setumadhavarao Pagadi have questioned the older, romanticised claims, and Ramdas himself never wrote that he had made Shivaji. Kurundkar's point stands: the question of guru-and-disciple is beside the mark. What is certain is that Ramdas and the Ramdasi Panth contributed enormously to the awakening, and that the saint's counsel ran with Shivaji's politics rather than ahead of it.

The counsel itself is kshatriya to the core. To Shivaji, the tradition records him saying:

बहुता दिसाचे बंड। म्लेंच्छ माजले उदंड। त्याचे करुनि दुखंड। राज्य करावे॥

"For long years the revolt has festered; the mlecchas have grown insolent and numerous. Having shattered them in two, you should rule."

The duty is not conquest but restoration; "राज्य करावे" rule, is the kshatriya's obligation, not his appetite. 

Ramdas is explicit that this is Shivaji's swadharma: "Your chief dharma is kshatriya-dharma. Men of kshatriya-dharma must protect the kingdom and nurture the people, serve the gods and the Brahmanas… It is Raghupati's wish that the mleccha-domination of this earth be ended through your hands."

The grammar of leadership in the Dasbodh verses quoted above is exact: readiness (an army before the enemy), energy (eager arms), and above all dhurtapan (shrewdness), yoked to paramartha, the ultimate good. "ढिलेपण"(slackness), is the vice that undoes a kingdom.

It is precisely this that S. M. Mate, in 'Sant, Pant ani Tant', captures when he writes that Ramdas revived and re-energised the whole current of pravritti, sweeping away the charge of meanness levelled at worldly life, and put his hand even into the "tamasic" politics of his day. Ramdas did not give Shivaji a political mantra, and did not conduct politics as Shivaji's equal. But he wove a politics that clung to Shivaji's own and served his success, of that there can be no doubt.

Beyond Shivaji: the letter to Sambhaji and the prayer for the king

When Shivaji died in 1680, Ramdas, wrote to the young Sambhaji a long letter titled 'अखंड सावधान असावे। दुश्चित कदापि नसावे।।' meaning, Be ever vigilant; never lose the courage of the mind; give up anger; forgive old servants and keep them working, so that idleness does not breed mischief. 

And he warns against the fatal Maratha vice internal quarrel: "दोघे भांडता तिसरा जय" when two fight, a third wins. Gather many, fill them with one thought, and fall upon the mlecchas; preserve what you hold, gain more, and make the Maratha Rajya everywhere.

Most moving is his prayer for the king's prosperity. In his Bhavani stotra, addressing Tuljabhavani, the family goddess of the Bhosales, Ramdas asks for one thing:

येकची मागणे आता। द्यावे ते मजकारणे। तुझा तू वाढवी राजा। सीघ्र आम्हाची देखता॥

"One thing alone I beg of you now; grant it to me for this reason: may You Yourself expand the king(dom) swiftly, on seeing us."

The line "तुझा तू वाढवी राजा" refers to expansion of kingdom instead of an individual king. It is the clearest textual instance of Ramdas praying for the establishment of Hindavi Rajya. 

And when Ramdas set down his portrait of the king himself, he gave the tradition the abhang it still sings as जाणता राजा:

निश्चयाचा महामेरु। बहुत जनांसी आधारु। अखंड स्थितीचा निर्धारु। श्रीमंत योगी॥ यशवंत कीर्तिवंत। सामर्थ्यवंत वरदवंत। पुण्यवंत नीतिवंत। जाणता राजा॥ देव धर्म गोब्राह्मण। करावया संरक्षण। हृदयस्थ जाला नारायण। प्रेरणा केली॥ या भूमंडळाचें ठायीं। धर्म रक्षी ऐसा नाहीं। महाराष्ट्रधर्म राहिला कांही। तुम्हां कारणे॥

"The great mountain of determination; the support of multitudes; unflinching in his steadfast resolve; a shriman yogi. Victorious, famed, powerful, blessed; virtuous, principled, the knowing king. To protect God, Dharma and the cow-and-Brahmana, Narayana became indwelling and gave him inspiration. Across this whole earth there is none who so guards Dharma; the Maharashtra-dharma survives still, thanks to you."

Here is the "parallel force" thesis in the saint's own voice. The last line, महाराष्ट्रधर्म राहिला कांहीं। तुम्हां कारणे "Maharashtra-dharma survives only because of you" is Ramdas's own testimony that the political achievement was what preserved the dharma. And the phrase "देव धर्म गोब्राह्मण" leads directly to the most contested label of all.

The second wheel

Rajwade was right that Bhakti, left to itself, did not make a kingdom, and wrong to conclude that the saint-poets therefore had nothing to do with it. Eknath lit the fire; Tukaram warmed the household; and Ramdas, arriving in Maharashtra around 1648-49, built the network that turned warmth into will. He did not found Hindavi Swarajya. Shivaji did that, by his own genius, against odds that would have broken most men.

But Ramdas ran beside him. He forged Balopasana and the akhadas that made strong bodies; he planted Maruti temples as centres of courage; he sent Ramdasis into the villages with the idea of Swarajya; he prayed to Bhavani for the prosperity of the king; and when the king was gone, he held the young Sambhaji to the ideal of an unbroken Maharashtra.

That is what it means to be a parallel force. One wheel is the sword and the state; the other is the saint and the awakening. Neither turns the cart alone, and each needs the other to move at all. The political achievement gave the dharma a shelter; the spiritual and social awakening gave the politics its people. Samarth Ramdas did not cause Hindavi Swarajya, but he made it possible, and then he made it last, by teaching a people that strength is a form of worship and that to protect dharma is the highest devotion.

Conclusion: When Bhakti Became Strength

The greatest contribution of Samarth Ramdas to the age of Shivaji Maharaj may therefore not lie in a single meeting, a single instruction or even a single text.

It lies in a larger transformation of the meaning of भक्ती.

Bhakti did not have to mean withdrawal. Renunciation did not have to mean indifference to society. Spirituality did not have to mean helplessness.

For Ramdas, the devotee could also be disciplined, courageous, physically strong, intellectually alert and socially responsible.

This was not the construction of a kingdom in the administrative sense.

That was Shivaji Maharaj's historic task. He did not need to be the architect of Shivaji Maharaj's political strategy to have contributed to the social and spiritual climate in which Swarajya could acquire depth and durability. He stood beside the larger movement as a teacher of सामर्थ्य, प्रयत्न, विवेक and कर्तव्य.

One transformed sovereignty. The other helped transform consciousness. One established the political reality. The other strengthened the moral and social energy surrounding that reality.

In that larger historical canvas, the contribution of Samarth Ramdas deserves its rightful place.

Sources and further reading

- Samarth Ramdas, Shrimad Dasbodh (twenty dashaks, 200 samasas), especially Dashak 11 (Bhima-dashak), samasa 5, Rajkarana-nirupan, and Dashak 19 (Shikavan), samasa 9, Rajkarana-nirupan; and Dashak 13, samasa 6, Laghubodh.

- Samarth Ramdas, Manache Shlok; Karunashtake; Ramavardayini Shri Tuljabhavani Stotra; the abhang on Shivaji (Nishchayacha Mahameru… Janata Raja).

- Samarth Ramdas, letters of counsel to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, as preserved in the Ramdasi tradition.

- V. K. Rajwade, writings and document-collections on Maratha history.

- Narhar Kurundkar, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj: Jivan Rahasya and Nivadak Narhar Kurundkar (collected essays).

- S.M. Mate, Sant, Pant ani Tant.

- Setumadhavarao Pagadi, Shivaji (National Book Trust, India).

- R. R. Gosavi, Shri Samarth ani Samarth Sampraday

- Marathi Vishwakosh, entries on Dasbodh and Dandigan.