History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c63.s19: § 27. Death of Shivaji.

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c63.s19

Language: English

§ 27. Death of Shivaji.

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The recent rebellion of Shambhuji had revealed the serious danger that threatened the newly founded Maratha kingdom. The character of his eldest son filled Shivaji with the gloomiest their rear-guard. Shidhoji Nimbalkar with 5,000 men held him in check for three days, but was at last slain with many of his men. In the meantime, very large reinforcements were hastening up to the Mughals from Aurangabad, close at hand, under Kesari Singh and Sardar Khan. When these came to a halt six miles from the fighters, Kesari Singh sent a secret message to Shivaji as a brother Hindu, to run away at once before the Mughals could complete their circle and cut him off. Shivaji trusted to his chief spy, Bahirji, under whose skilful guidance the Maratha army escaped by an obscure path after three days and nights of anxious and ceaseless marching. But they had to sacrifice much of their booty, besides losing 4,000 horsemen killed and Hambir Rao wounded.

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From this disastrous expedition, Shivaji returned to Patta-garh* (about 22nd November) and rested his exhausted and stricken army for some days, and then, at the beginning of December, went to Raigarh,

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as thanahdar or qiladar of Jalna at this time. We afterwards meet him as thanahdar of Akluj (Dil.)

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∗ Patta, 20 m. s. of Nasik and the same distance east of Thal Ghat (Ind. Atlas, Old sheet 38), 19.42 N. 73.54 E. The fort was renamed Vishram-garh or the Castle of Rest. Bombay writes (29 Nov.) that he "fled here with 500 horse, having lost the greatest part of his army near Bijapur, where Dilir Khan wholly routed him, and took 2,000 horses besides prisoners." [F. R. Surat 108.] Here the place of battle and the Mughal general are incorrectly named.

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As Dilir Khan was advancing westwards from Bijapur (middle of November) and seemed intent on laying siege to Panhala, and the presence of Shambhuji in the enemy's camp threatened a civil war in the Maratha State, Shivaji tried to convert Panhala into an impregnable refuge by removing to it the guns of many of his other forts, besides 40 pieces bought from the French.

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Towards the close of November, a fresh Maratha army of 12,000 men assembled near Rajapur in South Konkan. They fired the town (26th) and set out (on the 28th) for Burhanpur, but abandoned the idea and turned off towards Malkapur, where Shivaji himself was reported to have arranged to meet them with 20,000 more cavalry. Evidently, he did not do so, and the Maratha division that raided Khandesh, in the last week of November, "burning and plundering Dharangaon, Chopra, and many other considerable towns adjacent," was led by one of his generals.

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At the end of January 1675, a band of 3,000 Maratha cavalry under Dattaji roved in the Kolhapur district, levying blackmail from the towns. In the middle of February, a Mughal force crossed the Ghats, fell on the town of Kalian, burnt the houses (including those of many Khojas) and then quickly retired, after which the Marathas re-occupied the place.

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§ 17. Shivaji's false negotiations with Bahadur Khan, 1675.

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Shivaji next opened delusive peace negotiations with Bahadur Khan, who eagerly swallowed the bait, as he was weary of the war and at his wits' end how to guard all parts of his viceroyalty against such a mobile and elusive enemy. For nearly three months (March—May) Shivaji kept the Mughals in play, by feeding false hopes of a peace. His real motives were to gain respite from Mughal attacks in order to provision his forts, to get money out of Adil Shah by the threat of an alliance with the Mughals for the invasion of Bijapur, and to secure his northern frontier during the siege of Phonda.

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∗ Fryer says that it happened "some four months before" 22 May, 1675.

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It was proposed that Shivaji should cede 17 of his forts to Aurangzib and send his son Shambhuji with a contingent to serve under the Mughal subahdar, while the Emperor would create Shambhuji a commander of 6 thousand horse, and grant Shivaji all the country on the right bank of the Bhima. The negotiations were deliberately spun out. Shivaji "demurred to sending his son to the Mughal general until he had better security for his safety." Bahadur Khan reported the terms to the Emperor, who sent in reply a farman accepting them and pardoning Shivaji's past misdeeds. Then the viceroy sent messengers to Shivaji to receive the farman and deliver the forts. But, by this time (July 1675), Phonda had been captured. Shivaji now threw off the mask and dismissed the Mughal envoys with taunts, saying, "What pressure have you succeeded in putting on me that I should seek peace with you? Go hence quickly, or you will be disgraced."

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Bahadur Khan, ashamed at being thus outwitted and anxious to cover his foolish credulity and diplomatic defeat by some striking success, hurriedly made an agreement with the Bijapuri wazir Khawas Khan (October) for a joint war on Shivaji. (B.S. 445.) Aurangzib approved of the idea, and is said to have offered to give up one year's tribute from Bijapur if that State heartily co-operated with his viceroy in a concerted attack on Shivaji from two sides. But the overthrow of Khawas Khan and the usurpation of the regency by Bahlol Khan (11th Nov.) spoiled this plan, and soon afterwards the Mughals were drawn into the whirlpool of faction-fights at the Adil-Shahi Court.

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§ 18. Shivaji's war with the Mughals renewed; his union with Bijapur.

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In November, Bahadur Khan, on being sharply censured by Aurangzib, marched to Kalian, and pressed Shivaji hard in North Konkan. In January next (1676), a Maratha band spread near Aurangabad, but Bahadur with light equipment and no tent, made a rapid march from Pedgaon, defeated the rovers near Lasur, 28 miles from the capital, and drove them back towards Junnar.

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At this time Shivaji was taken severely ill, and passed the next three months on the sick-bed at Satara. His perfect recovery was announced at the end of March. The Marathas looted Athni, 43 m. west of Bijapur, in April. The civil war that had broken out between the Deccani and Afghan parties at Bijapur, was Shivaji's opportunity. Early in May we hear of his having sent out "4,000 horse that ranges up and down, plunders and robs without any hindrance or danger."

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In May, his prime minister Moro Trimbak drove the Rajah of Ramnagar out of his country and took Pindol* and Painecah within three days' march of Surat. But the monsoons being at hand, he left 4,000 men to garrison the district and retired with the rest of his army to Raigarh at the end of the month.

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On 31st May Bahadur Khan opened a vigorous and long campaign against Bijapur, where the Afghan faction had seized the Government. The consequence was to drive the new regent Bahlol Khan into the arms of Shivaji, and in July we have the report of a peace between the two having been concluded through the mediation of the Golkonda minister Madanna. The terms of this treaty were that the Adil-Shahi Government would pay Shivaji 3 lakhs of Rupees down as a gift and one lakh of hun annually as subsidy for protection against the Mughals, and confirm him in the possession of the country bounded on the east by the Krishna, including the Kolhapur district. But the union was shortlived, as no policy could be durable in a State ravaged by civil war and subject to almost daily changes of authority. Shivaji hardly minded the rupture of this subsidiary alliance; his eyes were fixed elsewhere; and in January next (1677), he set out on the greatest expedition of his life, the invasion of the Karnatak.

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∗ Pindval, 11 m s e of Dharampur in the Dharampur State south of Surat. Painecah is probably either Panva, 5 m w of Pindval or Pana, 9 m n of Dharampur (Ind At, 24 N E)

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§ 19. Diplomatic preparations for the Karnatak expedition.

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The political situation in the neighbouring countries was eminently favourable to the design. The Mughal Emperor had, no doubt, returned to Delhi on 27th March, after a two years' absence in the Panjab, but his best troops were still engaged in controlling the revolted hillmen of the N. W. frontier. At Bijapur the Afghan leader Bahlol Khan, who had seized the guardianship of the boy-king Sikandar, alienated Bahadur Khan, the Mughal viceroy, who openly took the side of the Deccani Party and on 31st May opened a campaign against Bijapur which was to continue for more than a year. The rotten and tottering Adil-Shahi Government was in no position to trouble Shivaji at such a time.

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Over the Mughal viceroy of the Deccan, Shivaji's clever diplomacy won a complete triumph. Bahadur Khan had now grown weary of his more than two years' war with Shivaji, which had been chequered by as many defeats as successes and which seemed to promise no decisive end as far as he could look into the future. He had already coquetted with Shivaji for a friendly understanding and offered to make peace between him and the Emperor and get a command of 6,000 horse for his son Shambhuji (June, 1675.) And now, on the eve of opening the Mughal campaign against Bijapur, (May, 1676), it was as much his interest to make friends with the Marathas on his right flank as it was Shivaji's to secure Mughal neutrality in his rear during his invasion of the Karnatak. When two parties find a mutual advantage in being at peace, the terms are quickly settled.

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Shivaji sent his Chief Justice, Niraji Raoji, "a clever logician," to Bahadur Khan, with costly presents to induce him to promise neutrality during his projected absence in the Karnatak, the conquest of which was expected to take one year. Bahadur received a large bribe for himself in secret, and a certain sum in public as tribute for his master, and made a formal peace with the Marathas.

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With Golkonda close friendship and co-operation were secured. Madanna Pandit, the all-powerful wazir of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah, had already made a subsidiary alliance with Shivaji, promising him an annual tribute of one lakh of hun for the defence of the realm. Prahlad Niraji, a shrewd diplomatist, had been posted at Haidarabad as Maratha envoy. Shivaji decided to get from Golkonda the expenses of the campaign and the assistance of an auxiliary force, by promising a share of the conquest. But he was careful to avoid the least show of force, and trusted to his personal magnetism and power of persuasion in winning Qutb Shah’s alliance.