History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c63.s9: § 14. Gains from Bijapur and raids into Kanara, 1673.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c63.s9
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§ 14. Gains from Bijapur and raids into Kanara, 1673.
v4.c63.s9.1
In another direction, however, a wide door of conquest was now opened to the Marathas. Ali Adil Shah II. died on 24th Nov., 1672, and in a few months the government of Bijapur (with a boy of four on the throne) fell into disorder and weakness. This was Shivaji's opportunity. On 6th March 1673, he got possession of Panhala a second time, by bribery, and on 27th July he secured the hill-fort of Satara by the same means. In May his men under Pratap Rao Gujar burst into the inland parts of Bijapuri Kanara, looting Hubli and many other rich cities. But they received a great check from the Bijapuri general Bahlol Khan, who (in June 1673) took post near Kolhapur, repeatedly defeated the Maratha rovers, and expelled them from Kanara.
v4.c63.s9.2
Maratha activity in this region was checked, but for a time only.
v4.c63.s9.3
As Mr. Gerald Aungier, the English President of Bombay, wrote on 16th Sep. 1673, "Shivaji bears himself up manfully against all his enemies ......and though it is probable that the Mughal's army may fall into his country this year and Bahlol Khan on the other side, yet neither of them can stay long for want of provisions, and his flying army will constantly keep them in alarm, nor is it either their design to destroy Shivaji totally, for the Umarahs maintain a politic war to their own profit at the king's charge, and never intend to prosecute it violently so as to end it."
v4.c63.s9.4
Shivaji took full advantage of his enemies' moral and political weakness. Early in October 1673, he was reported to have made 20,000 sacks "ready to convey what plunder he can get, having also a considerable flying army ready for that action." On the 10th of October, this army, 25,000 strong, led by Shivaji in person, burst into west Bijapur territory, plundering many rich towns, and then passed into Kanara for more plunder. This work occupied him till the middle of December.
v4.c63.s9.5
§ 15. Defeat of Dilir Khan, Jan. 1674.
v4.c63.s9.6
Late in January 1674, a Mughal army tried to descend into Konkan and cause a diversion in that quarter simultaneously with the Bijapuri invasion of the Panhala region. But Shivaji stopped the paths by breaking the roads and mountain passes and keeping a constant guard at various points where the route was most difficult; and the Mughals had to return baffled. It was probably this expedition to which the English merchants refer in a letter written at the end of January 1674, in the following words, "Dilir Khan hath lately received a rout by Shivaji and lost 1,000 of his Pathans, and Shivaji about five or six hundred men." If so, Dilir Khan had either made a rash frontal attack on one of the entrenched passes or fallen into an ambuscade of the Marathas. Throughout these four months, December 1673 to March 1674, Shivaji's wars with Adil Shah and the Siddis were carried on languidly with only occasional outbreaks of vigour. The soldiers on both sides were weary of fighting and their commanders not in earnest to end this paying business. The winter rains of this year were very heavy and bred pestilence. Shivaji in December and January was compelled to distribute his horses throughout his dominions in order to stable them in comfort.
v4.c63.s9.7
Soon afterwards, the Mughal power in the Deccan was crippled. The rising of the Khaibar Afghans became so serious that Aurangzib had to leave Delhi (7th April) for Hasan Abdal, in order to direct the war from the rear, and next month Dilir Khan was called to the North-western frontier. Bahadur Khan was left alone in the Deccan with a greatly weakened force. This lull in the war was utilized by Shivaji to crown himself with the greatest pomp and ceremony, on 6th June, 1674, at Raigarh.