The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8.223

c7.s8.223

The Northern Konkan again suffered in 1684, when Bahádur Khán Ranmast entered the Konkan by the pass of Mhajah (Mándha?), and shortly afterwards Aurangzeb sent his son Sultán Mauzim (afterwards the Emperor Bahádur Sháh) with a larger army, said by Orme to have numbered 40,000 cavalry, to subdue the fortresses on the coast. Sultán Mauzim was accompanied by his son Muizuddin, and came down the Ambadári Ghát, and finding the province of Kalyán already ravaged, passed on to the neighbourhood of Ráygad, and is said to have plundered and burnt the villages from there to Vengurla.⁷ This town he sacked as a punishment for its former protection of Sultán Akbar, but the Dutch successfully defended themselves in their fortified factory.¹ This was one of the greatest military expeditions ever made in the Southern Konkan, and was on too large a scale for Sambháji to resist : so after putting garrisons into the forts he retired to Vishálgad with Sultán Akbar and watched his opportunity. The country no doubt suffered very severely. The Moghals however made no attempt on the hill-forts, and by the time they got near Goa they had, although unopposed, lost almost the whole of their horses and cattle, and even the men began to suffer from scarcity. The Maráthás then came down on them and harassed their retreat. "The enemy swarmed around on every side and cut off the supplies. On one side was the sea and on two other sides mountains full of poisonous trees and serpents. The enemy cut down the grass which caused great distress to man and beast. They had no food but cocoanuts and the grain called kudu, which acted like poison upon them."² Numbers of vessels containing supplies for the Moghals were sent off from Surat, but most of them were taken by the Marátha cruisers, and at last Sultán Mauzim was obliged to retreat with the remainder of his force up the Amba Ghát. In the meantime Sháhábuddin Khán had brought a force nearly as far as Ráygad, and defeated Sambháji in an unimportant action at Nizámpur,³ after which he returned to the Dakhan.⁴ The country being thus abandoned, Sambháji took possession of it without opposition and returned to Ráygad. After the rains the Portuguese re-took Karanja and also the hills of Santa Cruz and Asheri.⁵ Sultán Akbar and Sambháji came to Kalyán, and after ravaging the Portuguese territory invested Bassein,⁶ but were called away by a reported invasion of the Musalmáns. The chances of war on land appear thus to have fallen pretty equally, but Sambháji's ships at Rájápur were at this time more than a match for the Goa fleet.⁷