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Shivaji and His Times c11: Chapter X. South Konkan and Kanara

Shivaji and His Times c11

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Chapter X. South Konkan and Kanara

§1. Kanara, its rulers and trade

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In the seventeenth century, Kanara, the extensive country along our west coast, was held by various Hindu chieftains. North Kanara (now included in the Bombay Presidency) owned the overlordship of Bijapur, which ruled directly over the coast-strip from Karwar (south of Goa) to Mirjan (14·30 N. lat.), leaving the inland districts in the hands of feudatory chiefs, among whom the Nayaks of Sunda were the most important. The portion of Kanara that lay south of Mirjan formed a large and independent principality under the Keladi dynasty, whose capital was then at Bednur.

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A Muslim officer with the hereditary title of Rustam-i-Zaman (originally Randaula Khan) was the viceroy of the south-western corner of the Bijapur kingdom. His charge extended on the west coast from Ratnagiri town, going southwards round the Portuguese territory of Goa to Karwar and Mirjan, while landwards it included the southern part of the Ratnagiri district, Kolhapur, Belgaum, a bit of Dharwar and the western corner of the North Kanara district. His seat was at Miraj. The fort of Panhala lay within his province, but it was governed by a commandant directly under the orders of the Sultan. The viceroy administered by means of his agents the flourishing ports of Rajapur in the north and Karwar in the south, through which the trade of the rich inland places flowed to Europe. In both towns the English had factories.

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"The best pepper in the world is of the growth of Sunda, known in England by [the name of] Karwar pepper, though five days' journey distant from thence." (Fryer, ii. 42.) Indeed, after the loss of Chaul, Karwar became the greatest port of Bijapur on the west coast. "The finest muslins of western India were exported from here. The weaving country was inland, to the east of the Sahyadris, at Hubli (in the Dharwar district), and at other centres, where the English East India Company had agents and employed as many as 50,000 weavers." (Bom. Gaz., xv., pt. ii. pp. 123-125.)

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At Mirjan, a port twenty miles south-east of Karwar, pepper, saltpetre and betel-nut were shipped for Surat. Gersappa, a district annexed by Bednur, was so famous for its pepper that the Portuguese used to call its Rani "the Pepper Queen." (Ibid., 333 and 124.)

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In 1649 the pepper and cardamon trade of Rajapur was the chief attraction that induced the English Company to open a factory there. Vingurla was spoken of in 1660 as a great place of call for ships from Batavia, Japan and Ceylon on the one side, and the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea on the other. All the ports of the Ratnagiri district did much trade also in calicoes, silks, grain and coarse lac, though pepper was their chief export, "which coming out of Kanara is sent by sea to Persia, Surat and Europe. This country is the store-house for all its neighbours." (Bom. Gaz., x. 175.)

§2. Shivaji's first raid on Rajapur

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After the disastrous failure of Afzal Khan, Rustam-i-Zaman had marched against Shivaji (December, 1659) with 3,000 horse, but this show of hostility was made simply to save his credit with his king. The queenregent, Bari Sahiba, being his enemy, he had made a secret alliance with Shivaji for self-protection. This fact was well known to the country around, and the English factors had found proofs of it. But even if Rustam had been in earnest, he could have done little with his small army.

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Shivaji had followed up his victory over Afzal's army by pushing on to Panhala and capturing that fort (28 Nov.). Then he entered the Ratnagiri district and began to "take possession of all the port and inland towns." The Bijapuri governors of these places fled to Rajapur, which was at first spared, "because it belonged to Rustam-i-Zaman, who is a friend of Shivaji." (Rajapur to Surat, 10th December 1659, F. R. Rajapur.)

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On the fall of Dabhol, its defeated governor made his escape to Rajapur with three junks of Afzal Khan, of 450, 350 and 300 tons burden respectively. The governor of Rajapur, by order of his master Rustam-i-Zaman, received the junks and landed their cargoes for safe-keeping. Shortly after this Shivaji encountered and routed near Panhala, the combined armies of Rustam and Fazl Khan (the son of Afzal.)* The latter, who bore the brunt of the battle, lost many of his followers, while Rustam, who had made a mere show of fighting, retreated to Hukri with slight loss, and there sat still, while the Marathas continued to make their incursions in Adil-Shahi territory. (Rajapur to Bassein, 4 February 1660, F. R. Rajapur.)

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The news of this battle greatly alarmed Rustam's governor of Rajapur, 'who took refuge in one of Afzal Khan's junks for escaping to the open sea. Before he could start, a Maratha force appeared on the bank to seize the junks; but the governor (about 10th January) succeeded in slipping away beyond the range of the Maratha guns, with the help of the English factor Henry Revington, who for his private gain opposed the Marathas, as will be described in Chapter 14.

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∗ Jedhe S. states that in this battle the Marathas captured 2,000 horses and twelve elephants. Shivapur Yadi gives the date as 28th Dec. 1659.

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Shivaji condemned this attack on his ally's town of Rajapur, dismissed Doroji, the general responsible for it, "commanded all things that his soldiers took from the townsmen [at Rajapur] to be restored," and put Rustam-i-Zaman's agents again in possession of the town and port. (Rajapur to Surat, 20 February.)

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The Dutch report states that about this time Shiva with his troops arrived within four hours' march of Vingurla, but was driven off by the desai of Kudal (i.e., Savant-vadi), while another Maratha army which had penetrated to near Bijapur was forced to withdraw after being defeated in a bloody battle by the combined Bijapur and Golkonda troops (early in 1660.) (Dutch Records, Trans., Vol. 24, No. 664 and Vol. 23, No. 651.)

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The Maratha invasion of the Ratnagiri district in Feb.-April 1661 has been described in Ch. 4 §5.

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In March 1663, Rustam-i-Zaman did another friendly turn to Shivaji. Netaji Palkar, Shiva's "lieutenant-general," had raided the imperial territory, but a large Mughal division of 7,000 cavalry pursued him so close as to force him to march 45 or 50 miles a day. Rustam met this army near Bijapur and persuaded the Mughal commander to give up the chase as "that country was dangerous for any strange army to march in, likewise promising them to go himself and follow him, by which deceit Netaji got escaped, though not without the loss of 300 horse and himself wounded." (Gyffard to Surat, 30th March and 8th April 1663, *F. R. Surat* 103.) This reverse defeated Shivaji's plan of raiding North Kanara and penetrating to the rich port of Karwar. (*F. R. Surat*, Vol. 2, 9th October.)

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On 1st March 1663, Ali Adil Shah II., with all his Court, left his capital for Bankapur.* There they were at first denied entrance by the mother of Abdur Rahim Bahlol Khan, in whose fief it lay. But the gates were soon opened to the king. Adil Shah summoned Bahlol Khan, Shahji and other officers from the Karnatak, who came by forced marches and waited on the king on the bank of the Warda (an affluent of the Tungabhadra.) Bahlol and Shahji were at once arrested and placed in chains (end of June 1663), but Shahji was released in two days, though he continued to be deprived of his command for some time. The Bijapuri invasion of Kanara had already begun. (*F. R. Surat* 103, Gyffard to Surat, 8th April and 20th July 1663.)

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§3. Maratha conquest of South Konkan, 1663.

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Shivappa Nayak,† who governed Bednur for fortyfour years (1618-1662), first as regent and then as king, had extended his kingdom on all sides by his conquests and stretched his sway over the whole of South Kanara, the north-western corner of Mysore, and North Kanara up to the Gangavati river, including the port of Mirjan. At the close of his life his ambition brought him into collision with Bijapur. He had conquered Sunda and some other forts belonging to vassals of Adil Shah and had thus come dangerously close to Bankapur, the fortress of asylum of the Bijapuri Sultans in the south-western corner of their kingdom. (Bom. Gaz., xv. pt. ii. pp. 122-123.)

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∗ *F. R. Surat*, Vol. 103, Gyffard to Surat, 20th July 1663. A letter from him to Surat, 30th March, says that the Adil-Shahi Court went there in fear of the Mughals who had come within five leagues of Bijapur in pursuit of Netaji. But *Tarikh-i-Ali II.*, 160-164, (also B. S. 391) says that Ali went to Bankapur to direct the operations against the Rajah of Bednur in person.

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† In the Persian histories of Bijapur he is styled Rajah of *Malnad*, which is a Kanarese word meaning "hill country." (*Mysore Gazetteer*, ii. 286.) The Portuguese records prove that he died before the close of 1662. Surat, Vol. 104, Karwar to Surat, 18th April 1664 shows that Bhadrappa was "murdered per his Brahmans" very early in 1664,—which agrees with the Portuguese account that he sickened (of small-pox) and died in a few days after making peace with Adil Shah, not without suspicion of having been poisoned. (Pissurlencar, i. 19n.)

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The Sunda Rajah appealed to Bijapur and Adil Shah seized the opportunity of the death of Shivappa and the succession of his weak son Bhadrappa to invade Bednur in person with an overwhelming force.

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Ali Adil Shah’s campaign was short but vigorous and an unbroken success. Bhadrappa Nayak could make no stand against the combined resources of the entire Bijapur kingdom; he lost Sunda, Bednur and many other forts, and was forced to make peace by restoring Sunda to its former chief and promising an indemnity of 7 lakhs of hun to Adil Shah. On 21st November the victorious Ali II. returned to his capital. (B. S. 391-395; F. R. Surat 103, Karwar to Surat, 28th January and 27th February, also Gyffard to Surat, 24th May and 20th July 1663.)

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We now turn to the activities of Shivaji in this region. While Ali was engaged in the struggle with Bednur, Shivaji had been active in South Konkan and in the north-western part of the Kanara district. By way of Kolhapur and Kudal, he marched to Vingurla (May 1663); "all the way, as he goes along, he gives his qaul (assurance), promising them that neither he nor his soldiers shall in the least do any wrong to anybody that takes his *qaul*, which promise he hitherto hath kept." (F. R. Surat, Vol. 103, Gyffard to Surat, 24th May, 1663.)

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His going down the coast caused such alarm that "all the Muhammadan governors as far as Sanquelim and Bicholim were fled," and in consequence the petty robbers on the route became more active than usual. In June Shivaji returned from Vingurla after leaving a garrison of 2,000 soldiers there. Shortly before this Shaista Khan had defeated a Maratha army, killing more than 200 men. (*Ibid.*, Gyffard to Surat, 24th May and 22nd June 1663.)

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In July the Bijapur Government ordered its governor of Phonda to join forces with the Savant of Vadi and other petty Rajahs and try to drive Shivaji's men out of Rajapur and Kharepatan. But nothing was done, as "there was juggling between them, and he remained possessed of all." (*Ibid.*, 20th July 1663, Vol. 86, Surat to Co., 20th November 1663.)

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In punishment of Rustam-i-Zaman's secret friendship with Shiva, the Sultan dismissed him from his viceroyalty and gave the province to Muhammad Ikhlas Khan, the eldest son of the late Khan-i-Khanan Ikhlas Khan and a brother of Khawas Khan, while Dabhol and Chiplun were given to Fazl Khan. Shivaji got final possession of Rajapur at this time and kept it permanently in his own hands. (*Ibid.*)

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Rustam's agent at Karwar fleeced the English factors there so severely that in July 1663 they were ordered by the Council at Surat to remove themselves and the Company's goods quietly to Hubli. Adil Shah and Rustam-i-Zaman alike were sensible of the loss of revenue caused by such molestation of traders, and therefore the king sent them a *farman* promising that they would be left in peace at Karwar and would have to pay no other duties than they had formerly done. Then the factory was re-established at Karwar. (*F. R. Surat, Vol. 2, Consult., 14th August 1663.*)

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§4. Shivaji in Kanara, 1664.

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In 1664 the war with Bednur was renewed. Shivappa Nayak had died in old age, about October 1662. His son and successor, Bhadrappa, was murdered by his Brahmans, (Feb. 1664) and an infant grandson named Basava was set up on the throne* under the regency of his mother Chennammaji and her favourite Timmaya Nayak, a toddy-seller, who "by his cunning policy raised himself to be general and protector" of the realm. At this revolution Ali Adil Shah II. was so incensed that he sent his generals, Bahlol Khan and Sayyid Iliyas Sharza Khan, to invade Bednur from two sides (April 1664.) [*F. R. Surat 104, Karwar to Surat, 18th April 1664. Fryer, i. 41-42.*]

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By this time Rustam-i-Zaman seems to have returned to favour at Court. Muhammad Ikhlas Khan was transferred from the Government of Karwar and his friends from that of Ankola, Shiveshwar (or Halekot), Kadra and other places in North Kanara and these cities were given to three of Rustam's sons. In August Rustam himself was ordered to go to that region with two other Bijapuri generals and try to expel Shivaji. He reached Kudal at the end of August, but did nothing.

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∗ The Portuguese records state that Bhadrappa was succeeded by his brother Soma Shekar. (Pissurlencar, i. 19n.)

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(F. R. Surat, 104, Karwar 23rd July and Hubli 28th August, 1664.)

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Any serious attack by Adil Shah on Shivaji was now rendered impossible as the Sultan's attention was diverted to Bednur, whither he wanted to march in person with 12,000 horse after the Dewali festival (October) and co-operate with Sharza Khan in crushing the Kanara Rajah. Throughout the second half of 1664 the coast region was in an unhappy condition. As the English merchants write, "Deccan and all the south coasts are all embroiled in civil wars, king against king and country against country, and Shivaji reigns victoriously and uncontrolled, that he is a terror to all the kings and princes round about, daily increasing in strength." (F. R. Surat, Vol. 86, Surat to Co., 26 Nov. 1664.)

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Shivaji had planned to march his army down the west coast, get on board his fleet waiting at Bhatkal (14° N, the southern point of the North Kanara district), and raid the coast towns. But Khawas Khan barred his path and turned him back after an obstinate battle (about 25th October), in which six thousand men are said to have fallen. Immediately rumour exaggerated the result as a disaster to Shivaji, who was reported to have been chased and closely invested in a fort by the Bijapuris.∗

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∗ *Ibid.* But on 2 Jan. 1665 the Surat Council declare the above a false report. The date of the battle and the fact of Khawas being the victor are taken from the Portuguese records (Pissurlencar, i. 12.) Jedhe S. says that in Oct.-Nov. 1664 Shiva fought Khawas Khan and forced him to flee beyond the Ghats; this was likely, but the other authorities are silent. A year later (Nov. 1665) Shivaji is known to have severely defeated Md. Ikhlas Khan, the brother of Khawas Khan, and expelled him from S. Konkan. Details of Khawas Khan's victory in Oct. 1664 are supplied by *Basatin-i-Salatin*, 398-402: "Aurangzib sent an envoy to Adil Shah to beg his co-operation with Jai Singh in the war with Shiva. Before Jai Singh arrived, Adil Shah sent an army under Khawas Khan. Shiva hearing of it began

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Shivaji was anything but crushed. He had turned back to settle scores with an old enemy. Baji Ghorpare, jagirdar of Mudhol, was a faithful vassal of Bijapur. At the siege-camp before Jinji he had carried out his commander-in-chief's orders by arresting the refractory Shahji (1648), without, however, resorting to treachery as alleged in later Maratha stories. He used to co-operate loyally with the Adil-Shahi generals sent out to restore the lawful king's authority over the Konkan territory usurped by Shivaji. His energy, honesty and devotion to his master made him a dangerous enemy to Shivaji. When Khawas Khan was marching to Kudal to expel Shivaji, Ghorpare came from Bijapur with his contingent of 1,500 horse to join him. But Shivaji struck the first blow and prevented the junction of his enemies. He suddenly invaded Mudhol. Baji Ghorpare, who had hurried to the defence of his jagir, was defeated and slain and 1,200 of his horses were captured. Mudhol itself was taken, and so many members of the Ghorpare family were put to death that the incident is known as "the massacre of the Ghorpares."*

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to close the mountain passes (ghats), but Khawas, by making rapid marches, crossed the ghat in safety, and descended [into Konkan ?] While the negligent Khawas Khan did not even know of Shiva's position, the latter with his full force surprised him at night and completely hemmed him round in an intricate hilly place, where the Bijapuri army had not space enough to move about or even to marshal the ranks. Khawas called his officers together and heartened them in the midst of their despair. The Marathas opened fire; the Bijapuris advanced to close quarters and fought a severe battle, losing Siddi Sarwar (the Abyssinian general), Shah Hazrat, Shaikh Miran and some other officers. The defeat of the Muslims seemed imminent, when Khawas Khan charged sword in hand; his troops followed him fearlessly in one body, and Shivaji was defeated and put to flight."

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∗ Sabh. 39; Jedhe S. The popular tradition is that Shivaji committed this massacre in obedience to his father's order that if he was his true son he should avenge on Baji Ghorpare the latter's treachery to Shahji in 1648.

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In their next encounter (Nov. 1664), Shivaji is said, in the Marathi accounts, to have defeated Khawas and forced him to retire from Konkan. He then burst into the district now called Savant-vadi, (between Ratnagiri and Goa), the numerous petty chieftains of which were feudatories of Bijapur. The greatest among them was Lakham Savant, the desai (chief) of Kudal, who had sided with the Bijapuri generals in these parts against Shivaji and was the first to feel Shivaji's wrath now. After resisting for a short time he escaped with his bare life into the forest, leaving his riches to the victor. Keshava Nayak and Keshava Prabhu of Pernem and Rawal Shenvi of Bicholim* next shared the same fate. All these defeated desais took refuge in Goa and lived there in misery, making frequent attempts to recover their own by raising troops and organizing expeditions from

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The fall of the Ghorpares and Lakham Savant's defeat (which immediately followed it) took place in Nov. 1664, nearly a year after Shahji's death; they cannot be placed in 1663.

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* The geography of this tract in 1664 was as follows :—Leaving out a narrowing coast-strip in the south-west of the Ratnagiri district, from Malvan to Tarikhol, the inland part east of it was divided into the districts of Kudal (north), Vadi (middle) and Banda (south). South-west of Banda lay Pernem, and south of the latter lay Bardes and Goa successively, with Phonda due east of Goa. North-east of Bardes and Goa lay Bicholim, with Sanquelim further to the east. Of these, only Bardes, Goa and Salsette (or the 66 maritime villages of Goa, quite distinct from Salsette near Bombay island) belonged to the Portuguese in the 17th century, while Pernem, Bicholim and Sanquelim were annexed later. For Krishna Savant's intrigues against Lakham S. and the latter's faithful assistance to successive Bijapur generals, see Pingulkar, farmans 8-12; Sabh. 68.

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Shivaji repeatedly protested to the Goa Government against the conduct of the fugitive desais and even invaded the Portuguese territory of Bardes by way of reprisal. At last the Viceroy expelled the desais from Goa in May, 1668. [Pissurlencar, i. 12-25.] Then Lakham Savant submitted to Shivaji, pleading that he was of the same Bhonsle clan. Shivaji appointed him as his salaried agent in Kudal, under agreement not to raise forces or build forts but to serve under Shivaji's orders. [Sabh. 69; Pingulkar, farman 7 date incorrect.]

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the Portuguese territory against Shivaji's governors. Krishna Savant, a kinsman and rival of Lakham for the desai-ship, naturally joined Shivaji and was placed by him in charge of Kudal.

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Shivaji next plundered Vingurla, "a place of great trade, from whence he carried away vast riches." He had heard that the Dutch had accumulated great wealth by trade in their warehouse in this important port. Another town (probably Malvan) not far from it, suffered the same fate. About this time, *i.e.*, early in December 1664, his men looted Hubli and many other rich towns of that region, holding several eminent merchants prisoners for ransom. He had sent only three hundred horsemen to Hubli, but these did their work so thoroughly that the town "was little better than spoiled." The merchants who had fled at the attack were too frightened to return there soon, even after the departure of the Marathas. The raiders were said to have been assisted by some of Rustam's soldiers; that noble, as the English remarked, had "begun to taste the sweetness of plunder [so] that in a short time he would get a habit of it." "Shiva and his scouts range all over the country, making havoc wherever he comes, with fire and sword." (F. R. Surat 104, Karwar to Surat, 6th January 1665, Taylor to Surat, 14th December 1664; Vol. 86, Surat to Karwar, 23rd March, Surat to Co., 2nd January 1665.)

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On 12th March 1665, the Surat Council write: "The subjects [of Adil Shah] unanimously cry out against him for suffering Shivaji to forage to and fro, burning and robbing his country without any opposition, wherefore it is certainly concluded by all that he shares with the said rebel in all his rapines, so that the whole country is in a confused condition, merchants flying from one place to another to preserve themselves, so that all trade is lost...The rebel Shivaji hath committed many notorious and great robberies since that of Surat, and hath possessed himself of the most considerable ports belonging to Deccan [*i.e.*, Bijapur] to the number of eight or nine, from whence he sets out two or three or more trading vessels yearly from every port to Persia, Basra, Mocha, etc."

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§5. Loot of Basrur and blackmail from Karwar, 1665.

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On 8th February 1665 Shivaji left Malvan with a fleet of 85 frigates and three large ships, sailed past Goa to Basrur,[*] the chief port of the Bednur kingdom, where he was quite unexpected, so that he took immense plunder in one day. Then setting out on his return, he landed at the holy city of Gokarna, on the coast, 22 miles south of Karwar, and took a purifying bath with all religious ceremonies before the great temple of Mahabaleshwar. From this place he marched to Ankola (nine miles northwards) with 4,000 infantry, sending all his fleet back, with the exception of twelve frigates, which he detained for transporting his army over the rivers on his way back to North Konkan. On the 22nd he reached Karwar. The English factors, having got early news of his coming from the spies they had sent out, put all the Company's ready money and portable goods on board a small hundred-ton ship belonging to the Imam of Maskat, then lying in the river, its captain Emanuel Donnavado promising to defend it as long as he lived or his vessel kept floating. The factors themselves took refuge in the ship. Sher Khan,* a son of the late Khan-i-Khanan Ikhlas Khan and a subordinate of Bahlol Khan, arrived in the town that very night, without knowing anything about Shivaji's approach. With the help of his escort of 500 men he quickly fortified himself as well as he could to protect the goods he had brought down, and sent a messenger to Shiva in the night, warning him not to enter the town as he would resist him to the utmost. Sher Khan was famous throughout the country for his valour and ruling capacity, and his chief, Bahlol Khan, was "one of the potentest men in the kingdom of Bijapur." Shivaji, therefore, shrank from provoking him, and after much discussion "condescended to go a little out of the way, and so came and encamped with his army at the mouth of the river" Kalanadi, sparing the town.

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∗ Basrur (Sanskrit *Vāsupura*), 12 miles south of Coondapur in the South Kanara District, was "the principal port of the Bednore Rajahs," (S. Canara *Gazetteer*, ii. 242.) Portuguese spelling *Bracolore*, early English *Barcelore*, Hunterian *Barkalur*, Marathi *Basnur*.

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From this place he sent an envoy to Sher Khan, asking him either to deliver the English merchants up to him or, retiring himself, permit him to revenge himself on them, "whom he styled his inveterate enemies." Sher Khan sent this news to the English and desired to know their final answer, which was that they had nothing on board except powder and bullets which Shivaji might come and fetch if he thought they would serve him instead of gold. "This our answer being sent to Shivaji did so exasperate him that he said he would have us before he departed, which the governor of the town hearing, they persuaded all the merchants to agree to send him [Shivaji]a present lest he should recall his fleet, which lay on this side of Salsette." (F. R. Surat, Vol. 104, Karwar to Surat, 14th March, 1665.) To this blackmail the English contributed £112, so as not to endanger the Company's property in Karwar, worth 8,000 hun. "With this Shivaji departed on 23rd February, very unwillingly, saying that Sher Khan had spoiled his hunting at the Holi, which is a time he generally attempts some such design."*

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∗ The cause of his coming to Karwar was to charter a ship of Rustam-i-Zaman's to convey Bahlol Khan's mother to Mecca.

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Thence the disappointed Maratha chief returned to Vingurla (early in March.) But soon afterwards Jai Singh's siege of Purandar and vigorous invasion of the neighbouring country called away Shivaji to the defence of his home, and Kanara enjoyed peace for some time.

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§6. Bijapuris recover and lose S. Konkan, 1665.

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By the treaty of Purandar (12th June 1665) the Mughals left Shivaji free to annex Adil-Shahi Konkan. The affairs of Bijapur also fell into confusion at this time. Bahlol Khan died (June or July.) He had come to Bijapur from the Karnatak war at the king's call, but died of illness only eight days after his arrival. The Sultan being jealous of his large force, 10,000 brave Afghans, tried to sow dissension between his two sons and nephew. Sher Khan, a brave, able and upright man, kept them at peace. But he was soon afterwards poisoned, it was suspected, by Adil Shah, and immediately bitter quarrels broke out between the two sons of Bahlol Khan, which the Sultan fanned and utilized to seize some of their *jagirs*. The affairs of the royal drunkard at Bijapur passed from bad to worse. (*F. R. Ibid.*, Karwar to Surat, 29th August 1665.)

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∗ Shivaji's loot of Basrur and visit to Karwar: F. R. Surat, Vol. 104, Karwar to Surat, 14th March 1665. Sabh. 70-71. The Karwar factors wrote on 28 Jan. that the great annual bathing festival (Shivaratri) would take place only eight days later at Gokarna. 4 Feb. was Krishna 14th. Shivaji missed it. He took ship for the Basrur expedition (at Malvan) on 8 Feb. [Shivapur Y.] and bathed at Gokarna on his return from Basrur. [F. R. Surat, 104.]

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The Bijapuri governor of Hubli fell into disfavour at Court and the governor of Mirjan rebelled. Muhammad Ikhlas Khan, the brother of Khawas Khan, recovered Dabhol and many other places in South Konkan from the Marathas, while the latter were busy fighting Jai Singh. But by November next Shivaji, now an ally of the Mughals, had reconquered all that country after slaying 2,000 soldiers of Muhammad Ikhlas, including several men of note. The Khan fell back on Kudal and waited for Sharza Khan to reinforce him. But no such aid came, as Jai Singh began his invasion of Bijapur that very month and Ikhlas Khan had to hasten from Kudal to the defence of the capital.* But Vingurla and Kudal continued in Bijapuri hands, while Shivaji held Rajapur and Kharepatan. The country about Karwar was at this time subjected to constant pillage by the soldiers of Shivaji's garrisons there, who used to leave their forts in a band of 200 men and raid the small towns. Murtaza Beg, who had lost his fort, also took to plunder with his 200 retainers. (*Ibid.*, 29th August, 21st September and 29th November 1665 and 15th January 1666.)

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∗ The Portuguese Viceroy (letter of 7 Dec., 1665, N. S.) ascribes all this to Khawas Khan, saying, "Khawas Khan, with 2,000 horse and many foot, being in our vicinity, Shivaji entered into his territories and easily defeated him and obliged him to retire across the [Western] Ghats, yielding Konkan. And not content with this, he passed those very rough mountains and entered the interior of the [Bijapur] kingdom to a short journey from the capital." [Pissurlencar, i. 14.]

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§7. Shivaji and Rustam, 1666.

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In the course of Jai Singh's war with Bijapur, Shivaji had been detached against Panhala. His assault on that fort (16th January 1666) failed and then he went off to Khelna. From this place he sent 2,000 men under a Muhammadan officer to besiege Phonda.* The garrison resisted for two months (February and March) killing 500 Marathas, and finally agreed to surrender in six hours. In the meantime, the Bijapuri Government had sent 5,000 horse and 1,000 foot under Siddi Masaud, Abdul Aziz (the son of Siddi Jauhar), and Rustam-i-Zaman to the Panhala region. They formed a plan for surprising Shivaji, who lay on the top of the hill overlooking Konkan. When their Van, under Rustam, approached, he beat his drums and sounded his trumpets and thus gave his friend Shivaji timely warning to escape. But Masaud chased the Marathas with 600 chosen cavalry and cut off 200 of the enemy. On the way back he intercepted Shivaji's friendly letters to Rustam, which he immediately sent to Bijapur. At this Adil Shah wrote to Rustam that though he reluctantly pardoned this act of disloyalty, he would dismiss him unless he raised the siege of Phonda. Rustam then wrote to his agent Muhammad Khan to save Phonda by all means. This was effected by a stratagem. Muhammad Khan could get together only a small force, with which he went and sat down in a town of his master's about three miles from Phonda, and sent word to the general of Shivaji that he had only come to look after his own country. The general suspected no stratagem, as his master and Rustam were friends. He went with his Muslim soldiery to a hill a mile off in order to say his prayers in public. Muhammad Khan seized this opportunity; he surprised and routed the soldiers left in the siege-camp, and after a long and well contested fight defeated the rest of the Maratha army who had hurried back from the hill. Thus the siege of Phonda was raised after the poor men in it had been driven to eat leaves for the last three days. "This business, it is generally thought, hath quite broken the long continued friendship between Rustam-i-Zaman and Shivaji. Rustam hath taken now Phonda, Kudal, Banda, Sanquelim and Bicholim, five towns of note, from Shivaji."

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∗ First siege of Phonda: F. R. Surat 104, "Deccan News," following a letter from Karwar, dated 24th April 1666. Phonda, 10 m. s. s. e. of Goa city, was the westernmost frontier-fortress of Bijapur nearest to Goa, and a menace to the latter. The Portuguese, after some previous failures, annexed it in the 18th century.

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§8. Plot to seize Goa, 1668.

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Soon afterwards, at the end of March 1666, Shivaji went to the Mughal Court. For the next four years he gave no trouble to Bijapuri Konkan or Kanara, his opponents during this interval being the Portuguese and the Siddis. The English merchants of Karwar repeatedly speak of Shiva in 1668 and 1669 as being "very quiet" and "keeping still at Rajgarh," and of his credit as decreasing during these years of inactivity, while the "country all about was in great tranquillity." (F. R. Surat, 105.) In October 1668 Shivaji made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer the territory of Goa by stratagem. He smuggled into the towns of this State 400 to 500 of his soldiers in small parties at different times and under various disguises, hoping that when their number was doubled they would suddenly rise one night, seize one of the passes, and admit him before the Portuguese could raise a sufficiently large army for their defence. But either the plot leaked out, or the Portuguese Viceroy's* suspicion was roused. He made a narrow search in all his towns, arrested the 400 or 500 men of Shivaji at various places, and evidently extorted the truth from them. Then he sent for Shivaji's ambassador, with his own hand gave him two or three cuffs in the ear, and turned him and the Maratha prisoners out of his territory. On hearing of it Shivaji assembled an army of 10,000 foot and 1,000 horse, threatening to invade the Bardes and Salsette districts of Goa in person. From the north of Rajapur he marched to Vingurla, inspected all his forts in that quarter, "changing their men and putting in (fresh) provisions and ammunition," and then in December returned to Rajgarh as he found "the Portuguese well prepared to give him a hot reception." (Gyffard to Surat, 12th November and 16th December, 1668. *F. R. Surat* 105.)

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At the beginning of 1670 came his rupture with the Mughals, which kept him busy in other quarters and prolonged the peace in Kanara till the close of 1672, when, taking advantage of the death of Ali II., he renewed his depredations in Bijapur territory.

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Meantime, in September 1671, Rustam-i-Zaman had broken out in rebellion against his master. He had at last been deprived of his viceroyalty and *jagir* for his treacherous intimacy with Shiva, the crowning act of which was the surrender of one of the king's forts to the Marathas. And now he took up arms in the hope of intimidating the Government into reinstating him. With the underhand help of Shivaji, he occupied Bijapuri territory, yielding three lakhs of *hun* a year, and plundered and burnt Raibagh, completing the ruin of that city, which had been previously sacked by the Marathas. But within a month the royal troops crushed the rebellion,—the forts of Mirjan and Ankola alone holding out for several months more. By the middle of 1672 Muzaffar Khan, the new Adil-Shahi viceroy of the Kanara coast, had made peace with the rebel chiefs (*Nayakwaris*) of Shiveshwar and Kadra.*

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∗ The Viceroy was Conde de S. Vicente, who died on 27 Oct. 1668, and according to Gyffard's letter he detected the plot "a little before his death."

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§9. Shivaji's failure in Bijapuri Kanara, 1673.

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The death of Ali Adil Shah II. (on 24th November 1672) was followed by the rebellion of the Rajahs of Sunda and Bednur, who invaded the Bijapur territory across their frontiers. An army under Muzaffar Khan chastised both of them (February, 1673) and wrested Sunda from its Rajah. (*F. R. Surat*, 106, Karwar to Co., 17th February 1673.)

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This rebellion had been hardly suppressed when the Marathas made their second incursion into the upland of Bijapuri Kanara, sacking many forts and rich cities in that region. Their general Pratap Rao raided Hubli,† the most important inland mart of the province, causing a loss of 7,894 *hun* to the English Company alone, besides the private property of the factors (early in May 1673.) The Company's house was the first they entered and dug up, carrying away all the broadcloth in it to their general who sat in the bazar. Muzaffar Khan, however, promptly came to the scene with 4,000 cavalry and saved the town from total destruction. The Marathas fled precipitately with what booty they had already packed up, "leaving several goods out in the streets which they had not time to carry away." When the English at Surat complained to Shiva about the outrage, he denied that it was done by his soldiers.

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∗ F. R. Surat 106, Karwar to Surat, 20th September, 31st October 1671, 26th June 1672. † The commercial importance of Hubli can be judged from the following remarks of the English merchants :—"Hubli, the mart of our Karwar factory, where we sell and buy most of the goods that port affords us." (F. R. Surat 87, 1st November 1673.) "Hubli, a great inroad [=inland] town and a mart of very considerable trade." (O. C. 3779.) Maratha invasion of Kanara in 1673 : F. R. Surat 3, Consult. 24th May, 10th and 19th July, Vol. 87, Surat to Persia, 1st November. O. C. 3779 and 3800. Sabhasad, 70, has only eight lines for the events of 1673-75.

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At Hubli, Muzaffar missed the Maratha raiders by just one day. He was probably suspected of having entered into a secret understanding with them, like Rustam-i-Zaman, for immediately afterwards all the nobles under his command and most of his own soldiers forsook him and the Bijapur Government removed him from his viceroyalty. This drove him into rebellion and he tried to retain possession of his fiefs by force. The great fort of Belgaum remained in his hands and also many strong places between Goa and Kanara (June, 1673.) Adil Shah sent a large army to reduce Belgaum in case Muzaffar declined the compromise offered to him.

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In June Bahlol Khan with a large Bijapuri army held Kolhapur and defeated the Marathas in several encounters, forcing all their roving bands to leave the Karwar country. He also talked of invading South Konkan and recovering Rajapur and other towns next autumn. In August he is still spoken of as "pressing hard upon Shivaji, who supplicates for peace, being fearful of his own condition." But soon afterwards Bahlol Khan, his irreconcilable enemy, fell ill at Miraj and Shivaji's help was solicited by the Bijapur and Golkonda Governments to defend them from a threatened Mughal invasion under Bahadur Khan (September.)*

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At the end of September we find Shivaji at the head of a great army raised for "some notable attempt against the Mughal." He also sewed 20,000 sacks of cotton for conveying the plunder he expected to seize! But on the dashahara day (10th October), an auspicious time with the Hindus for setting out on campaigns, he sallied forth on a long expedition into Bijapuri territory, with 25,000 men, robbed many rich towns, including Bankapur, and then penetrated into Kanara, "to get more plunder in those rich towns to bear the expenses of his army." Early in December he reached Kadra (20 miles north-east of Karwar) with a division of 4,000 foot and 2,000 horse, and stayed there for four days. The bulk of his forces occupied a hill near Hubli. But two severe defeats at the hands of Bahlol and Sharza Khan at Bankapur and Chandgarh (a fort midway between the Belgaum and Savant-vadi towns) respectively forced him to evacuate Kanara quickly.†

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† F. R. Surat 106, Bombay to Surat, 29th September and 10th October, Vol. 88, Karwar to Surat, 17th December 1673. O. C. 3910; Fryer, ii. Dutch Rec., Vol. 31, No. 805; Jedhe S. says that Sharza Khan killed Vithoji Sindhia in Kartik, about Nov.

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§10. Internal troubles in Kanara, 1674.

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Though Kanara had been freed from the Marathas, that province enjoyed no peace. Mian Sahib, the faujdar of Karwar, (instigated, it was said, by Shiva), rebelled and Adil Shah had to conduct a long war before he could be suppressed. The two sides continued to have skirmishes with varying success. In February 1674 the royal troops captured Sunda, with the rebel's wife in it, but he held out obstinately in his other forts. By 22nd April this "long and tedious rebellion" was at last ended by the arrival of Abu Khan, Rustam-i-Zaman II., as the new viceroy. Mian Sahib's followers deserted him for lack of pay; his forts (Kadra, Karwar, Ankola and Shiveshwar) all surrendered without a blow, and he himself made peace on condition of his wife being released. Shivaji was then only a day's march from Karwar, "going to build a castle upon a very high hill, from which he may very much annoy these parts." (F. R. Surat 88, Karwar to Surat, 14th February and 22nd April 1674. Orme, Frag., 35.)

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∗ O. C. 3800 and 3832; F. R. Surat 106, Bombay to Surat, 16th and 29th September 1673; B. S. 439-443; Jedhe S.

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Unlike his father, the new Rustam-i-Zaman did not cultivate the friendship of the Marathas. In August 1674 he seized a rich merchant, subject of Shiva, living at Narsa (16 miles from Phonda) and the Maratha king prepared for retaliation. In October Rustam was summoned by Khawas Khan, the new wazir, to Bijapur; and, as he feared that his post would be given to another, he extorted forced loans from all the rich men of Karwar and its neighbourhood that he could lay hands on, before he went away. (F. R. Surat 88, Karwar to Surat, 2nd September and 27th October, 1674.) In the last week of August, Annaji Datto passed through Kudal with 3,000 soldiers intending to "surprise the fortress Phonda, but Mamet Khan who was there armed himself, so that the aforesaid pandit accomplished nothing." (Dutch Rec., Vol. 34, No. 841.)

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At Bijapur everything was in confusion, "the great Khans were at difference." The worthless wazir Khawas Khan was driven to hard straits by the Afghan faction in the State. Rustam-i-Zaman II. after his visit to the capital evidently lost his viceroyalty. This was Shivaji's opportunity and he now conquered Kanara for good. First, he befooled the Mughal viceroy Bahadur Khan by sending him a pretended offer of peace, asking for the pardon of the Mughal Government through the Khan's mediation and promising to cede the imperial forts he had recently conquered as well as the twenty-three forts of his own that he had once before yielded in Jai Singh's time. By these insincere negotiations Shivaji for the time being averted the risk of a Mughal attack on his territory and began his invasion of Bijapuri Kanara with composure of mind.

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§11. Capture of Phonda and annexation of Kanara coast, 1675.

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In March 1675 he got together an army of 15,000 cavalry, 14,000 infantry and 10,000 pioneers with pick-axes, crow-bars and hatchets, etc.,* Arriving at Rajapur (22nd March), he spent three days there, ordering forty small ships to go to Vingurla with all speed and there wait for fresh commands. Next he marched to his town of Kudal, and on 8th April laid siege to Phonda, the most important Bijapuri fort near Goa. While he was prosecuting the siege, another division of his army plundered Atgiri in Adil-Shahi territory and two other large cities near Haidarabad, carrying away "a great deal of riches, besides many rich persons held to ransom."

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∗ Invasion of Kanara and capture of Phonda (1675): F. R. Surat 88, Karwar to Surat, 14th and 22nd April, 8th and 25th May; Rajapur to Surat, 1st and 20th April; 3rd, 21st and 31st May; 3rd and 14th June; B. S. 441; Orme Frag., 38, 40. Sabh. 70 (scanty.) Delusive peace offer to Mughals, B. S. 445; O. C. 4077.

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He began the siege of Phonda with 2,000 horse and 7,000 foot, and made arrangements for sitting down before the fort even during the coming rainy season in order to starve the garrison into surrender. Muhammad Khan had only four months' provisions within the walls; there was no hope of relief from Bijapur or even from the Portuguese who now trembled for the safety of Goa and appeased Shivaji by promising neutrality. Rustam-i-Zaman had too little money or men to attempt the raising of the siege. But Muhammad Khan made a heroic defence, unaided and against overwhelming odds.

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Shivaji ran four mines under the walls, but they were all countermined, with a heavy loss of men to him. He then threw up an earthen wall only 12 feet from the fort and his soldiers lay sheltered behind it. The Portuguese, fearing that if Shiva took Phonda their own Goa would be as good as lost, secretly sent ten boat-loads of provisions and some men in aid of the besieged (middle of April); but they were intercepted by Shivaji, and the Viceroy of Goa disavowed the act.

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The siege was pressed with vigour. By the beginning of May Shivaji had taken possession of two outworks, filled up the ditch, and made 500 ladders and 500 gold bracelets, each bracelet weighing half a seer, for presentation to the forlorn hope who would attempt the escalade.

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Bahlol Khan, who was at Miraj with 15,000 troops, wanted to come down the Ghats and relieve Phonda, but Shiva had barred the passages with trees cut down and lined the stockades with his men, and Bahlol, being certain of heavy loss and even an utter repulse if he tried to force them, returned to his base. His inactivity during the siege was imputed to bribery by Shiva. At length the fort fell about the 6th of May. All who were found in it were put to the sword, with the exception of Muhammad Khan, who saved his own life and those of four or five others by promising to put into Shiva's hands all the adjoining parts belonging to Bijapur. In fear of death the Khan wrote to the *qiladars* of these forts to yield them to the Marathas, but they at first declined. So the Khan was kept in chains. Inayet Khan, the *faujdar* of Ankola, seized the country and forts lately held by Muhammad Khan and placed his own men in them, but he could make no stand against Shivaji whose forces were now set free by the fall of Phonda. He therefore compounded and gave up the forts for money. In a few days Ankola, Shiveshwar (which had been besieged by 3,000 Maratha horse and some foot-soldiers since 24th April), Karwar, and Kadra (which alone had made a short stand), all capitulated to Shivaji, and by the 25th of May the country as far south as the Gangavati river had passed out of Bijapuri possession into his hands.

§12. Marathas in Kanara uplands

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On 26th April, 1675, one of Shiva's generals had visited Karwar and "burnt the town effectually, leaving not a house standing," in punishment of the fort of Karwar still holding out. The English factory was not molested. This general, however, went back in a few days. But next month, after the fall of Phonda, the fort of Karwar surrendered to the Marathas.

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The rainy season now put an end to the campaign. Bahlol Khan went back to Bijapur, leaving his army at Miraj. Shiva at first thought of cantoning for the rains in a fort on the frontier of Sunda, but soon changed his mind and returned to Raigarh, passing by Rajapur on 12th June.

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A Maratha force was detached into the Sunda Rajah's country at the end of May. "They finding no great opposition seized upon Supa and Ulavi belonging to the Rajah." But Khizr Khan Pani (Bahlol's lieutenant) and the desais in concert attacked the Maratha garrisons there, killed 300 of the men and recovered both the places. A party of Marathas that was posted at Varhulli, 7 miles south of Ankola, to take custom duty on all goods passing that way, was now forced to withdraw (August 1675.) (F. R. Surat 88, Rajapur to Surat, 27th August 1675.)

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The dowager Rani of Bednur had quarrelled with her colleague Timmaya, but had been compelled to make peace with him (August), she being a mere cypher, while he held the real power of the State. [Ibid.] The Rani then appealed to Shivaji for protection, agreed to pay him an annual tribute, and admitted a Maratha resident at her Court. [Chit. 70, but Malkare 64 puts it earlier and calls the money blackmail.]

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The dalvi, or general of the desai who had been the local Bijapuri governor of North Kanara, had aided Shivaji in the conquest of that district. But now (1675), disgusted with him, the dalvi was moving about the country with a force, saying that he would restore his former master. He attacked Shivaji's guards in Karwar town and forced them to retire to the castle. The people were in extreme misery in Shivaji's new conquests: he squeezed the desais, who in their turn squeezed the ryots. (Bom. Gaz. xv. pt. i. 128.) But Bijapur was now in the grip of a civil war, the Adil-Shahi State was hastening to a dissolution, and Shivaji's possession of South Konkan and the North Kanara district remained unchallenged till after his death.

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But Bednur did not really become a Maratha protectorate. We learn from an English letter of 29th July, 1679, that the Rajah of Sunda and the Rani of Bednur had sharp wars, "but the former by the assistance of Jamshid Khan has had the advantage of compelling the Rani, on conclusion of the peace, to deliver up to him his castles of Sirsy and Sera, formerly possessed by them, as likewise the port and castle of Mirgy [=Mirjan], a little to the southward of Karwar." (Orme MSS. 116.)

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