New History of the Marathas v1.c9.35

v1.c9.35

But the interval of eight years between 1644 and 1653 had seen great changes in the south, not less than six different individuals having governed the Deccan territories of the Mughal Empire, including such well known figures as Mirza Raja Jaysingh, Shahzada Murad Baksh, and Shaista Khan. None of these, however, left behind him any conspicuous mark of his rule. Shivaji was then mainly occupied in consolidating his paternal jagir without rousing Mughal opposition. It was about 1657 when Shivaji’s vision began to expand beyond his father’s jagir, that he attracted Aurangzeb’s notice for the first time. When freed from the affairs of the Morays of Jāvli, Shivaji made his first open raid upon the Mughal territory in the summer of 1657, and plundered Junnar and Ahmadnagar. He simultaneously carried on an offensive movement against the Adil-Shahi possessions of north Konkan, by capturing Kalyan and Bhivandi. The Court of Bijapur was then involved in the wanton Mughal invasion which followed the death of Muhammad Adil Shah on 4 November 1656. A high road from Junnar to Kalyan then carried the inland trade of the Deccan plateau to the ports of Kalyan and Bassein on the west coast, then centres of wealth and traffic, which commanded the fertile region below the Ghats crossed by numerous navigable creeks. Shivaji considered the possession of this rich territory a highly advantageous adjunct to his jagir and one which could be easily defended from his base of Poona.