The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.32

v4.c20.32

In 1689 the Marāthās had been cowed by the fall of Shambhūjī, the siege of their capital and the perilous flight of their new king. Many of their forts easily fell into Aurangzīb’s hands. Throughout 1690 and 1691 the emperor’s chief concern was to take possession of the rich and boundless dominions of the fallen ‘Ādil Shāhī and Qutb Shāhī kingdoms in the south and the east. At this stage, he underrated the Marāthā danger, being satisfied with the annihilation of their state. He was soon afterwards confronted by a *people’s* war, and about the middle of 1690 the first signs of the Marāthā recovery appeared, which became triumphant in 1692. The leaders in the west or homeland were the *Amātya* (Rāmchandra N. Bāvdekar), the *Sachiv* (Shankarājī Malhār), and Parashurām Trimbak (who became *Pratinidhi* or regent in 1701), while in the eastern Carnatic the king’s supreme director was Prahlād Nirājī (created *Pratinidhi*), who stood above the nominal prime minister or *Peshwā*. Two extraordinarily able and active generals, Dhana Jādav and Santājī Ghorpare (rivals for the post of commander-in-chief), frequently passed from one theatre of war to the other across the peninsula, and caused the greatest loss and confusion to the Mughuls. The Marāthā plan of operations was for Rāja Rām to take refuge in the far-off impregnable fort of Gingee (in the South Arcot district) and make a stand there, while in the homeland independent commandos would be organised and guided against the Mughuls by Rāmchandra Bāvdekar, on whom was conferred the new office of dictator (*Hukūmat-panāh*) with full regal authority over all the officials and captains in Mahārāshtra. He had an inborn genius for command and organisation, chose the ablest lieutenants, and managed to make the mutually jealous Marāthā guerrilla leaders act in concert.