The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c18.33

v4.c18.33

Mahābat Khān’s brilliant conduct of the siege was the last success of a great soldier who, throughout his career, had excelled as tactician rather than strategist. The capture of Daulatābād by no means won the whole territory of Ahmadnagar for the Mughuls. In the west the Marāthās had a firm hold over the northern half of the present Poona district and the Konkan. Parts of the Bālāghāt were still in the hands of Ahmadnagar officers who maintained their loyalty to a phantom ruler or denied allegiance to the Mughuls for their own benefit. Parenda, which A‘zam Khān had failed to take two years before, had been made over to Bījāpur by its commander, and Mahābat Khān now proposed to the prince Shāh Shujā‘ that the Mughul forces should take it in order to subdue the outlying portions of Ahmadnagar and to establish a base for the reduction of Bījāpur. He detached his son Khān Zamān to ravage the frontier districts of Bījāpur and he established outposts along the line from Daulatābād towards Parenda so as to shut off the Marāthās. Shāhjī, however, announced the succession of another member of the Nizāmshāhī dynasty of Ahmadnagar and by raiding continually tried to break the Mughul line and thus relieve the pressure on Parenda. To counteract these movements a Mughul force was sent to force Shāhjī back to Junnar and to sack or capture some of his strongholds.