What Happened to Shivaji's Son After Aurangzeb Captured Him?

On the first of February 1689, at Sangameshwar on the Konkan coast, Mughal troops under Muqarrab Khan surprised and captured Sambhaji, the eldest son of Shivaji and the second king of the Maratha state, together with his poet and adviser Kavi Kalash and about twenty-five of his officers. They were taken to the camp of the emperor Aurangzeb, dressed as jesters and paraded through the camp on camels. Thirty-eight days later, on the eleventh of March, by the Bhima river near Pune, Sambhaji was executed. He was thirty-one years old. Shivaji had built a kingdom in open defiance of the Mughal Empire. His son inherited that war, and a rebel Mughal prince who had run to him for protection, and with them the full attention of Aurangzeb, who marched south and never went home again. In this video, we trace what actually happened to Shivaji's son and to the family he left behind. From the boy of nine who escaped from Agra hidden in a basket, alongside his father hidden in another, to a crown taken back from his own stepmother, to the betrayal at Sangameshwar and the two very different accounts of his last weeks, Mughal and Maratha. Then the part most people never hear: his wife Yesubai and his seven-year-old son Shahu, captured at Raigad that same year, raised for eighteen years inside the camp of the man who had executed his father, given Shivaji's own sword by Aurangzeb, released only after the old emperor died, and crowned at Satara. And Yesubai, a Mughal hostage for thirty years before she came home to Satara. We follow the family to the two royal houses that still carry Shivaji's name today, to the 2025 film Chhaava, and to the angry debate over Aurangzeb's tomb that broke out the same year. This is the full story of a prince who lost everything, and a family that waited three decades to come home. If you made it this far, leave the word Chhaava in the comments. And if you enjoyed the video, please subscribe. These deep dives take real work, and your support genuinely makes a difference. Sources: • Wikipedia, Sambhaji • Wikipedia, Execution of Sambhaji • Wikipedia, Shivaji • Wikipedia, Shahu I • Wikipedia, Yesubai • Wikipedia, Rajaram I • Wikipedia, Tarabai • Wikipedia, Soyarabai • Wikipedia, Kavi Kalash • Wikipedia, Muqarrab Khan • Wikipedia, Sultan Muhammad Akbar • Wikipedia, Deccan wars • Wikipedia, Aurangzeb • Wikipedia, Peshwa • Wikipedia, Bhonsle dynasty • Wikipedia, Tulapur • Wikipedia, Chhaava • Uday S. Kulkarni, The Return of Queen Yesubai, eSamskriti (2019) • The Week, How did Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and Kavi Kalash die? (2025) • Maktoob Media, Explainer: who wants to remove Aurangzeb's tomb (2025) • PBS NewsHour / Associated Press, Curfew set in Indian city after demands to demolish a Mughal ruler's tomb (2025) • The Hollywood Reporter India, Dhurandhar surpasses Chhaava (2025) #Sambhaji #Shivaji #ChhatrapatiSambhajiMaharaj #MarathaEmpire #Marathas #Aurangzeb #MughalEmpire #Mughals #Yesubai #Shahu #Raigad #Satara #Kolhapur #Chhaava #IndianHistory #Maharashtra #DeccanWars #MedievalIndia #RoyalFamilies #ExiledRoyalty #LostKingdoms #DynastyHistory #HistoricalDocumentary #ForgottenHistory #SouthAsianHistory