A History of the Mahrattas v1.c12.49

v1.c12.49

Afzal Khān was buried upon the slopes of Pratāpgarh, close to the spot where he was killed. His mausoleum, which, according to the usual custom, he had constructed during his lifetime, still stands outside the walls of Bijāpur. ‘The tomb appears never to have been completed, and was, no doubt, still in the hands of the architect when Afzal Khān was ordered away on that ill-fated campaign against the treacherous Sivājī. It is said that the astrologers predicted that he would never return; and so impressed was he by their words, that he set his house in order before starting, and put up the date of that year, 1069 A.H., in the cenotaph, and he is also said to have drowned his sixty-four wives. His death really occurred one month after Sivajee prepared his troops as if to attack the Seedee, who, on the approach of Afzool Khan, had laid siege to Tala and Gossala ; but on the report of his discomfiture and the destruction of the Beejapoor army, he hastily retired. Sivajee, although he pretended to meditate an attack on him with his whole force, was engaged in an intrigue with the officer in charge of Panalla, from whom he had received overtures for surrendering that important place.¹ The terms having been agreed on, and their future operations determined, Sivajee could scarcely assure himself of its not being some stratagem contrived by the Beejapoor government, in order to draw him into their power. To guard against this, as well as to neglect nothing for securing a place of much importance, Sivajee sent forward Annajee Dutto, one of his most confidential Bramins, with a strong body of Mawulees, whilst he himself secretly drew together a large force, both of horse and foot, to act as the occasion might require.