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Shivaji and His Times c12.s2: §3. Shivaji's navy described

Shivaji and His Times c12.s2

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§3. Shivaji's navy described

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Shivaji's navy had its humble origin in his early conquest of the Thana district. Already in 1659 his first few war-vessels, launched on the creeks near Kalian, Bhivandi and Panvel, are found plying the sea and provoking the alarm and opposition of the Portuguese. With the extension of his power along the entire west coast down to the frontier of Goa, the rapid increase of his navy became not only necessary but also very profitable. With so many naval bases of supply and points of shelter and embarkation in his hands, the entire Malabar coast with its immense riches lay at his mercy. He knew that without naval supremacy his position even as a land power would be precarious. Therefore, as his courtier Sabhasad puts it, "The Rajah put the saddle on the ocean."

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The Marathi chronicles speak of Shivaji's fleet as consisting at its best of four hundred vessels of various sizes and classes, such as *ghurabs* (gun-boats), *tarandes*, tarambes, gallivats, shibars, pagars, manchwas, &c. But the English factory reports never put their number above 160, and usually as 60 only. They were formed into two squadrons (of 200 vessels each, if we accept the Marathi accounts), and commanded by two admirals who bore the titles of Daria Sarang (Admiral of the Ocean) and Mai Nayak or Mian Nayak.*

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The numerous creeks on the Bombay coast had developed among many low-caste Hindus of the region (such as the Kolis, Sanghars, Vaghers and the Maratha clan of Angrias) hereditary skill in seafaring and naval fight. The "Malabar pirates" were a terror even to the English. From them† Shiva recruited his crew, and he afterwards added to them a body of Muslims, notably a discontented Siddi named Misri and Daulat Khan.

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† "The Bhandari [caste of husbandmen] are found in most parts of the Ratnagiri district, but chiefly in the coast villages. They supplied the former pirate chiefs with most of their fighting men. A strong, healthy and fine-looking set of men.....they are fond of athletic exercises.....and do not differ from the Marathas and Kunbis." (Bom. Gaz., x. 124.) For the Koli pirates, ix. pt. i. 519-522; and the Angrias, i. pt. ii. 87-88; xi. 145.

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Shivaji's navy immediately took to plundering the coast of Kanara and Goa, and brought to him vast quantities of booty in the same way as his land-forces did. They often fought the Siddi fleet. (Sabh. 68.) We may here record what little is definitely known about Shivaji's mercantile marine. Soon after getting possession of the ports in North Konkan, he began to engage in foreign trade on his own account. Early in January 1660 he captured at Rajapur one of the junks of Afzal Khan and turned it to his own use. In February 1663 the English at Surat report that he was fitting out two ships of considerable burden for trading with Mocha (in western Arabia) and loading them at Jaitapur, two miles up the Rajapur river, with "goods of considerable value which were by storms or foul weather driven upon his coast." Two years later (12th March 1665), they write that from each of the eight or nine "most considerable ports in the Deccan" that he had seized, he used to "set out 2 or 3 or more trading vessels yearly to Persia, Basra, Mocha, &c." Again, we learn that in April, 1669, a great storm on the Karwar coast destroyed several of his ships and rice-boats, "one of the ships being very richly laden." (F. R. Surat, Vols. 2, 86, 105.)

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∗ Sabh. 68. Ghurabs are floating batteries or gun-boats carrying two masts and moving slowly. Gallivats are vessels constructed for swift sailing. Shibars are trading boats, manchwas being a stronger kind of trading vessel than shibars. (Orme's Frag. Sec. 1.) A tarande is a large sailing vessel. The machwa (a round-built two-masted craft of from 3 to 20 tons) and the shibar (a large square-sterned, flat-bottomed vessel with 2 masts but no deck) are described in Bom. Gaz. xiii. pt. ii, 717. Sabhasad, 68, speaks of Daria Sarang as a Musalman and of Mai Nayak as a Hindu of the Bhandari caste. But a Bombay letter dated 21 Nov. 1670 says, "The admiral of the [Maratha] fleet is one Ventgee Sarungee, commonly called Durrea Sarangee." Another Bombay letter, 11 Sep. 1679, speaks of 'Mia Nayak, a Bhandari of Rajapur.' (Orme MSS. 116.) Daulat Khan was an officer distinct from the Daria Sarang (Rajwade, viii. 27 and T. S.)

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§4. Doings of the Maratha navy, 1664-1665.

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The rise of the Maratha naval power caused anxiety to the Siddis, the English merchants, and the Mughal Emperor alike. On 26th June, 1664, the Surat factors report that Shiva was fitting out a fleet of 60 frigates for an attack on some unknown quarter, probably "to surprise all junks and vessels belonging to that port and to waylay them on their return from Basra and Persia," or to transport an army up the Cambay creek (Sabarmati) for making a raid on Ahmadabad. At the end of November it was learnt that the fleet had been sent to Bhatkal, to co-operate with his army in the invasion of Kanara. The English President describes the Maratha vessels as "pitiful things, so that one good English ship would destroy a hundred of them without running herself into great danger." (*F. R. Surat*, Vol. 86, 26 November 1664.) In addition to the inferior size and build of their ships, the Marathas on land and sea alike were very weak in artillery and, therefore, powerless against European ships of war.

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In February 1665, Shivaji's fleet of 85 frigates* and three large ships conveyed his army to Basrur for the plunder of South Kanara. (Ch. 10.)

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He had very early begun to plunder Mughal ships, especially those conveying pilgrims for Mecca from the port of Surat (called *Dar-ul-hajj*, "the City of Pilgrimage.") The Emperor had no fleet of his own in the Indian Ocean able to cope with the Marathas. Early in 1665 when Jai Singh opened his campaign, in accordance with his policy of combining all possible enemies against Shivaji, he wrote to the Siddi to enter into an alliance with the Mughals. (*Haft Anj.*, Benares MS., 78a.) Late in the same year, when Jai Singh was about to begin the invasion of Bijapur, he invited these Abyssinians to join the Mughal force, promising them *mansabs*.† By the Treaty of Purandar, the Mughals left the territory of Janjira adjoining Shiva's dominions to him, if he could conquer it. (*Ibid.*) Shiva also offered to attempt the conquest of Janjira for the Emperor. (*Ibid.* 78*b*. But *Tarikh-i-Shivaji*, 22*b*, states that Jai Singh definitely refused to make the Siddis give up Janjira to Shiva.)

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∗ Duff (i. 201n) suggests that by the term *frigates* were probably meant small vessels with one mast, from 30 to 150 tons burden, common on the Malabar coast.

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† A Siddi Sambal fought on the Mughal side during the invasion of Bijapur in 1666. (*A. N.* 1012.) The informal connection thus established between the Emperor and the Siddis continued, as we find that during Shivaji's siege of Janjira in 1669, Aurangzib wrote to him commanding him to withdraw from the attempt. (Bombay to Surat, dated 16 Oct., 1669, *F. R. Surat*, Vol. 105.)

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