New History of the Marathas v1.c10.47

v1.c10.47

3. Night raid on Shaista Khan.—It has already been mentioned that while Shivaji had a stiff war on hand against Bijapur, Shaista Khan was pressing him severely from another direction. After the retreat of Kartalb Khan in February 1661, Shaista Khan immediately sent another large army into north Konkan and wrested from Shivaji’s hands Kalyan and its adjoining districts upto Pen. The next rainy season brought in a temporary cessation of hostilities; but operations were soon resumed and Namdar Khan marched against Pen where Shivaji routed him in January 1662. During this whole year there was no large-scale open warfare, but Shaista Khan wove his coil round Shivaji and crippled him in the region round about Satara. For a time Shivaji felt completely nonplussed against the growing menace of the Mughals. Here was the Khan backed by the full resources of the Empire then at its zenith, and practically all the *swarajya* which Shivaji had so long built up had been overrun by the Mughals. The Khan occupied the very palace of Shivaji, his soldiers and spies roamed throughout the land hunting Shivaji out like a beast of prey beaten out of the jungle. For three long years now Shivaji struggled and chafed, and racked his brain severely for a solution.