New History of the Marathas v1.c9.59

v1.c9.59

After the conquest of Jāvli Shivaji was occupied in strengthening his position in the vicinity of Wāi. He had built Pratāpgad where he was supposed to have his main residence, treasure and stores. Afzal Khan too was intimately acquainted with the Wai district of which he had long been the governor. He started from Bijapur in September 1659 with a select army of twelve thousand and travelling via Pandharpur, the Mahadev Hills and Maladi, arrived at Rahimatpur and purposely behaved as a ruthless fanatic by desecrating Hindu temples and idols to give his expedition a stern and vengeful appearance. He particularly demolished the famous temples of Tulzāpur and Pandharpur out of spite for Shivaji. At Malavdi he wreaked his wrath against Bajāji Nimbālkar who had recently been reconverted to Hinduism at the instance of Shivaji and his mother.