In 1674, Visheshvar (also known as Gaga Bhatt) of Varanasi, the gteai- 
esl Sanskrit theologian then alive and a master of the Hindu scriptures 
and philosophy, was summoned to perform the coronation cere- 
mony of Shivaji.'" 

A Marathi Bahhha), wiitten about the middle of the nineteenth cen 
Lury, claims that Rajghat and the village of Sheopur neai it were named 
after and founded by Shiva ji when he halted at Varanasi on his way to 
Agi'a in 1665 to meet Aurangzeb, but there is no evidence of his having* 
made such a visit. Khafi Khan’s narrative seems to point to th-e probabi- 
lity of Shivaji’s having visited Varanasi while he was fleeing back from 
AgTa to the Deccan.^ 

During the reign of