History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c60.s8: § 11. Jai Singh's preparations and plan of campaign.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c60.s8
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§ 11. Jai Singh's preparations and plan of campaign.
v4.c60.s8.1
We can learn from Jai Singh's letters how he employed every possible device for dealing with an enemy, how wide awake and full of many-sided activity he was, how he looked far ahead, and how he handled his force so as to cause distraction to the enemy or deal a concentrated blow at a vital point.
v4.c60.s8.2
In view of his two enemies, Jai Singh very wisely decided to take up a position between both, i.e., in the eastern part of Shivaji's dominion, whence he could also easily threaten Bijapur, instead of pushing the war into the Western Ghats or the Konkan plain further west. He knew that if he could strike fatally at the heart of the Maratha kingdom, the distant limbs would drop down of themselves.
v4.c60.s8.3
Secondly, he played skilfully upon the hopes and fears of the Sultan of Bijapur, holding forth the chance of reduction of tribute and removal of the Emperor's displeasure, if Adil Shah aided the Mughals and thus clearly proved his want of connection with Shivaji. Thirdly, he arranged to combine against Shivaji all his enemies and distract his attention by attacks from all possible quarters. As early as January he had sent two Europeans named Francisco de Mello and Diogo de Mello to the western coast with letters to the chief of the Portuguese settlement of Goa inviting him to help the imperialists by attacking Shivaji, who had collected a fleet of his own.
v4.c60.s8.4
In January he had sent his Brahman emissaries to various Deccani chieftains, to stir them up against Shivaji. Every one who bore a grudge to Shivaji or envied the sudden rise of the Bhonslés, had been approached by the Mughal general's spies. Baji Chandra Rao and his cousin Ambaji Govind Rao Moré,—the family from which Shivaji had wrested Javli,—reached his camp, along with Mankoji Dhangar, and were enlisted in the Mughal army (4th week of March). Similarly, Afzal Khan's son, Fazl Khan, solicited from Jai Singh a command and an opportunity of avenging his slaughtered father on Shivaji. The adhesion of the petty Rajahs of the Koli country north of Kalian was secured through Niccolao Manucci, then chief of Jai Singh's European artillery.
v4.c60.s8.5
Money and promises of high rank in the Mughal service were lavishly employed on Shivaji's officers to corrupt their loyalty, and with some success.
v4.c60.s8.6
Above all, Jai Singh concentrated all authority in his own hands, as an indispensable condition of success in war. The Emperor had at first given him the command of the field-operations only, while all administrative work, like the promotion, punishment and transfer of officers, the payment of the troops, and the regulation of jagirs, was left in the hands of the viceroy at Aurangabad. Jai Singh rightly insisted that in war there should be only one head, and that the ‘man on the spot’ should be given full authority, or else the work would suffer. The Emperor yielded to the argument and Jai Singh gained absolute civil and military authority alike. The commandants of the Mughal forts at Ahmadnagar and Parenda were also placed under his orders.