All you need to know about Hindu Samjrajya Diwas, 2021

June 4 has been celebrated every year as the Hindu Samrajya Diwas to mark the coronation anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It was believed that the Hindu Kingdom came into being with Shivaji’s coronation. Chhatrapati Shivaji was the ruler of 17th century founded by the Maratha Kingdom.

In Maharashtra, the day has been also celebrated as the Shiva Statehood Festival. Shivaji Maharaj still resides in the heart of every Indian and his tales are orated to the children.

Shivaji was coronated in a grand ceremony at Maharashtra’s Raigad Fort which is situated at a height of five thousand feet. And June 4, people celebrate the day on the 13th day of the Hindu month.

Shivaji Maharaj took an oath to establish the Haindava Swaraj when he was only a teenager. His stories of the fights against the Mughals and conquering the forts has been an adrenaline rush to every proud Indian.

He was coronated with the sacred waters of the seven rivers, including Indus, Yamuna, Ganges, Godavari, Narmada, Krishna and Kaveri. It was a huge ceremony attended by over fifty thousand people at Raigad, where Shivaji was entitled Shakakarta and Chhatrapati. He was also given the title of Haindava Dharmodhhaarak.

This day has been very important for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and has been one of the six festivals they celebrate officially at the organisational level. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the RSS would mark the event through thousands of online events on various digital platforms.

This is the only festival which has generally not been celebrated in the society at mass level. In fact, many people even don’t know that a historical event took place, which deserves to be celebrated.

This festival is generally celebrated at the RSS shakha by worshipping portraits of Shivaji and his master (Guru) Samarth Ramdas.

 

The famous letter written by Shivaji to Rajput King Jai Singh is also read on this occasion. 

The letter calls upon the Rajput warrior not to shed the blood of Hindus for Mughals and exhorts him to join Shivaji for the greater cause. On this occasion, senior Sangh functionaries also share anecdotal tales of Shivaji’s valour with swayamsevaks in the form of intellectual discourses.

Tributes are also offered to Shivaji’s mother Jijabai along with her son, Jijabai remains one of the most revered figures for the Sangh Parivar because of the way she motivated her son to fight against the Mughals and set up Dharma Rajya, which may be broadly translated as the ‘rule of righteousness’.

In celebrations, the swayamsevaks also sing patriotic songs especially penned for the festival by multiple writers.

The impact of celebrations is expected to get reflected in social media “trends,” also helping the RSS expand its outreach further, the trending hashtag can been seen over Twitter as well.