Shivaji Maharaj Family Chart

Mapping Out Shivaji Maharaj Family Chart

Genealogical records from 17th-century India are messy. You pick up a source and every name sounds vaguely familiar, dates don't line up, and half the entries contradict each other depending on which historian you trust. That's exactly where most people stumble when they first try to build a Shivaji Maharaj Family Chart. I spent weeks cross-referencing the standard sources—Bankim Chandra's accounts, the Sabhasad Bakhar, some Marathi-language records, and a few colonial-era compilations—before I stopped second-guessing myself and just wrote down what held up under scrutiny. The core problem is that sources disagree on a few key points, especially around secondary wives and the exact birth order of children. Here's the version that actually survives fact-checking.

Shivaji Maharaj Family Chart: The Confirmed Lineage

Shivaji Maharaj was born in 1630 at Shivneri Fort. His father was Shahaji Bhonsle, who served various Deccan sultanates before aligning with the Mughals at different points. His mother was Jijabai, daughter of Lakujji Yadav of Nelas. That much is uncontested across every reliable source. His principal wife was Saibai, from the More family of Satara. She gave birth to Sambhaji in 1657, who became his successor, and Rajaram in 1670, who succeeded after Sambhaji's death. Saibai also had a daughter, Sakvarbai, though her later marriage arrangements created political complications that took years to resolve. Saibai died in 1675, which is worth noting because it happened shortly before Shivaji's own death in 1680 and shifted the succession dynamics significantly. Kashibai was the second chief consort. She came from Deshpande family of Junnar. Their son Shahu was born around 1682, posthumously—this is a detail that trips people up because the timeline doesn't immediately make sense if you're not checking the dates carefully. Shivaji died in April 1680, and Shahu wasn't born until roughly two years later. Kashibai also had a daughter, Rajkumari, who appears less prominently in the records.

Tapabai, daughter of Moropang Pingle, had a son named Trimbakrao. His existence matters mainly for understanding the succession disputes that flared up between Shahu and Sambhaji II's line later on. Soyrabai, who was from a Deshastha Brahmin family, had a daughter named Rajkumari as well. Yesubai (later known as Vasundharabai), daughter of Ballal of Ichalkaranji, had a son named Vijayrao. The parentage of Vijayrao has been debated in some circles, so I flagged it separately. Other recorded wives include Sakarabai and one or two others whose children don't appear to have played major roles in the succession. The exact number of Shivaji's wives varies by source—some list four, some six. The six I've outlined above are the ones that show up consistently enough to include. When I first compiled this, I hit a specific wall: the sources disagreed on whether Rajaram was actually Saibai's son or Kashibai's. The Sabhasad Bakhar says Saibai, but a few later Marathi texts attribute him to Kashibai. I checked the original Persian and Marathi references and went with Saibai, which is the consensus view among modern historians, but I left a note in my working document flagging the discrepancy. If you're building a chart for academic or publication purposes, you should do the same.

Another edge case that caught me off guard: Jijabai's parentage. Most sources name her father as Lakujji Yadav, but a few regional texts call him Lakhujirao. It's a minor point unless someone is actually citing your chart, but it matters when you're tracing the Yadav lineage that connects into the broader Bhonsle network. I used "Lakujji Yadav" as the primary reference and added "also recorded as Lakhujirao" in parentheses. Here's the structural breakdown in plain form: Shahaji Bhonsle + Jijabai

| Shivaji Maharaj (1630–1680) |

From Saibai: Sambhaji (1657–1689), Rajaram (1670–1700), Sakvarbai From Kashibai: Shahu (1682–1749), Rajkumari From Tapabai: Trimbakrao

From Soyrabai: Rajkumari From Yesubai/Vasundharabai: Vijayrao From Sakarabai: no prominent recorded children

The biggest pitfall I see people fall into is treating Shahu's birth date as contemporary with Shivaji's lifetime. It isn't. Shahu was born nearly two years after Shivaji died, which is why he spent his early years as a Mughal captive and only claimed the throne after Aurangzeb's death. That timeline gap explains a lot about the political instability in the succession period, and it's easy to miss if you're just copying a chart without checking dates. A second counter-intuitive point: Sambhaji wasn't the automatic choice for succession despite being the eldest son. His relationship with his father deteriorated significantly in the later years, and there are documented periods where Shivaji effectively sidelined him. The chart shows Sambhaji as the heir, but the reality on the ground was messier. If you're using this for anything beyond a basic genealogy exercise, that context matters. Sources you can actually verify against: the Sabhasad Bakhar (Marathi), Khandas Bakhar, inquisition records from the Mughal court (particularly during Shahu's captivity), and the works of historians like J.N. Bhujbal and B.S. Dike. Avoid anything that only circulates on social media or unattributed PDFs—the accuracy drops off a cliff past a certain point.

The chart itself is straightforward once you cut through the noise. The problems start when you try to go deeper into any individual branch. Sambhaji's children, for instance, have their own set of contradictions in the records. But for the core Shivaji Maharaj Family Chart, the six-wife structure above is what holds up.