Shivaji and His Times c12.s6.5

c12.s6.5

Qasim left Bombay with the fleet in November; up to March next he cruised off the Konkan coast, making frequent landings and kidnapping the people, all of whom (including the Brahman prisoners) he forced to do menial services of a defiling character. At the end of April 1678 he returned to Bombay to rest during the monsoons. Shivaji, wishing to avenge the degradation of his Brahman subjects, sent his admirals Daulat Khan and Daria Sarang with 4,000 men to Panvel, a town opposite Bombay (July), with orders to cross the creek and burn the Siddi fleet then anchored at Mazagon in Bombay island. But insufficiency of boats and the violence of the monsoon prevented the army from crossing, and Daulat Khan, after vainly pressing the Portuguese to allow him a passage through their territory, retired to Raigarh. Siddi Qasim sent his boats and plundered the Alibagh coast.