Later Mughals v2.c14.s19: Sec. 44.—Aurangzeb's Wars with the Mahrattas.
Later Mughals v2.c14.s19
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Sec. 44.—Aurangzeb's Wars with the Mahrattas.
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In June 1680, after defeating an attempt to place a younger son, Raja Ram, then eighteen years of age, upon the seat of authority, the elder son, Sambhaji, established himself in his father's place. In the next year, 1681, he gave refuge at Raigarh to Prince Akbar, the fourth son of the Emperor Alamgir. This Prince had headed a revolt of the Rajputs against his father, and finally had been driven out of their country. This combination between a rebellious son and a formidable rising State, like that of the Mahrattas, frightened Alamgir. He resolved to march into the Dakhin in person. On the 25th November 1681 he arrived at Burhanpur, and the remaining 26 years his reign were occupied by a continuous and in the result fruitless campaign. Prince Akbar was forced to leave the country and flee to Persia, Sambhaji was captured and executed (1689), his wife and children taken ;* but at the time of the Emperor's death at Ahmadnagar in 1707, the Mahrattas were more powerful than ever, and it was with difficulty that the imperial camp itself was protected from their inroads.
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The son of Shambhaji, Shivaji, known through life as Sahuji, a nickname given him by Alamgir, was eight years of age when captured. He was brought up in the Muhammadan
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This tract formed his swaraj or 'old dominions'......A recent but permanent acquisition was the Kanarese-speaking country extending from Belgaum to the bank of the Tungabhadra opposite the Bellary district......His latest annexation was the northern central and eastern parts of the present kingdom of Mysore and portions of the Madras districts of Bellary, Chittur and Arcot. This province was really held by an army of occupation." [J. Sarkar's Shivaji and His Times, ch. 15.]
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∗ For details see my History of Aurangzib, vol. iv. ch. 44 and 48. [J. S.]
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camp, and in 1707 when Alamgir's death occurred was still a prisoner of State. The Mahrattas had in the interval continued their resistance under the leading of Raja Ram, the half-brother of Shambhaji; and on his death, which took place in March 1700, by one of his widows, Tara Bai, on behalf of her minor son, another Shivaji (born 1691).
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During the years from 1700 to 1707 Alamgir continued his efforts against the Mahrattas, being chiefly occupied in reducing some of their innumerable strongholds. But meanwhile the "execrable enemy" multiplied their activity. In 1702 they levied contributions from Surat and Burhanpur. In 1705 they crossed the Narmada for the first time and penetrated far into Malwa. They overran Khandesh and Berar and broke with a large force into Gujarat. Mughal armies were sent after them to the north, while the Emperor himself marched southwards from Juner to Bijapur. An attempt was made to come to terms with them by offering first the release of Sahu, son of Shambhaji; secondly ten per cent. on the Dakhin collections under the name of sardeshmukhi. Nothing resulted from these negotiations. In February 1705 the Emperor began to besiege the fort of Wakinkhera, the stronghold of Pem Naik, the investment of which lasted nearly three months, nor was the place taken until Zulfiqar Khan and Daud Khan had been recalled to headquarters. The fort fell on the 7th May, 1705: and the imperialists passed the rainy season near Dewapur on the Krishna river, three kos from the place. On the 30th Jan. 1706 the Emperor reached Ahmadnagar, and there died on the 2nd March 1707. At the time of his death the Mahrattas were plundering quite close to the imperial camp. [Mirat, 498-507; M. A. 498, 504, 512, 521.]