New History of the Marathas v1.c10.90

v1.c10.90

Dilir Khan arrived before Purandar on 30 March and invested it with the numerous force he had brought. He opened a heavy fire against the fort with rapid effect. Murar Bāji tried his usual guerilla tactics of starving the besiegers out and setting fire to their ammunition. But these slow and imperfect methods had no effect on the well-equipped and richly supplied Mughal troops. Murar had with him only about two thousand select Mavla troops, all fired with the same zeal as himself. When the lower fort Rudramal fell into Dilir Khan’s hands, he took up his residence at its foot known as Machi or the ridge. Thereupon the defenders took shelter in the upper fort and kept up an incessant fire with their small guns. They attacked the Mughals with such fury that once Murar himself pursued the Khan right up to his tent on the ridge where the two parties closed with each other in a deadly hand to hand combat. Many Marathas were cut down. Murar Bāji lost one arm and his shield, but would not yield. He tied his maimed arm with his scarf and kept on hacking at the enemy. As he rushed against Dilir Khan himself, he was soon overpowered and had his head severed. His followers rescued the fallen trunk and sent it to Shivaji for the final rites. Still the Mughals obtained no access to the upper fort. The spot where Murar Baji fell is called Ranatemb meaning the hillock of the fight.