Shivaji and His Times c13.s2: §2. Internal discord in Bijapuri Karnatak
Shivaji and His Times c13.s2
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§2. Internal discord in Bijapuri Karnatak
c13.s2.1
With the fall of the Vijaynagar empire at the beginning of the 17th century, its various provinces covering the Mysore plateau and the Karnatak plains ceased to obey any common head such as might have held together and protected them. The numberless local chieftains stood up, each for himself, and engaged in incessant fighting with their neighbours out of a vain and ruinous passion for the extension of dominion. The defenceless and chaotic condition of these rich countries had drawn more powerful spoilers into the field. As the Jesuit missionary Proenza wrote from Trichinopoly in 1659, "The ancient kings of the country seem to invite the conquest of entire India by the Muslims....by their jealousies and imprudent acts."
c13.s2.2
At first the Hindu Nayaks of Jinji, Tanjore and Madura rose against their sovereign Shri Ranga of Vijaynagar (then holding Court at Vellore.) The ruler of Madura begged the aid of Golkonda, which came, conquered the Vellore province and expelled Shri Ranga to find a last refuge with his vassal of Mysore. Then the same Nayak of Madura invited Adil Shah, who took Jinji fort and annexed that rich province (1649), and advancing further south forced the Nayaks of Tanjore and Madura to pay enormous contributions and promise annual tributes [Mission du Madure, iii. 41-47.]
c13.s2.3
The treaty with the Mughal empire in 1636 having fixed their northern and western boundaries, the States of Bijapur and Golkonda could find an outlet for their territorial ambition in the south and east only, and during the next eighteen years they conquered much of Mysore and the Eastern Karnatak. The acquisitions of Golkonda in this region included the Kadapa and North Arcot districts up to the Palar river, and all the land bordering the sea from Chicacole to Sadras. Bijapur had spread its suzerainty over the district of Karnul, all the Mysore plateau north of Bangalore, and the Madras plain between the Palar and the Kolerun rivers, *i.e.*, the country from Vellore to near Tanjore. The Bijapuri generals continued to make raids into Tanjore and Madura (1650-1665) without annexing any part of these territories. They held only the Jinji province, where we find three such generals (one of them being Vyankoji) in charge of the government in 1673. [*Ibid.*, iii. 201.]
c13.s2.4
The suicidal wars among the Hindus still continued. The new Nayak of Madura at last seized the kingdom of Tanjore and beheaded its perpetually faithless ruler Vishwaray (1674.) Adil Shah was appealed to by the son of the murdered king, and he ordered Vyankoji to invade Tanjore and restore it to its old dynasty. After a year of patient waiting and plotting, and more by sowing dissension among the enemy than by superior force, Vyankoji took the capital, conquered the country, and usurped the throne of Tanjore with the title and authority of an independent king! He still held his father's jagirs north of the Kolerun, in the province of Jinji. Adil Shah sent an army to punish this audacious rebellion of his general, and the Nayak of Madura sent his forces to assist the Bijapuris, and Mysore also assembled its troops, seemingly in order to attack Madura when its Nayak would be entangled with Vyankoji (1676.)
c13.s2.5
The authority of the central Government vanished from Bijapuri Karnatak. In 1672 the boy Sikandar had succeeded to the throne of Bijapur and his guardianship had become an object of contest between rival factions at the capital. When his first regent, Khawas Khan, was put to death by Bahlol Khan (18th January 1676), an open civil war broke out in the heart of the kingdom, while the provincial governors ceased to recognize any superior and began to extend their own sway.
c13.s2.6
In the Karnatak plain, the local governors of Bijapur in 1676 were Nasir Muhammad Khan (a son of the former wazir Khan Muhammad, Khan-i-Khanan, and a brother of Khawas Khan) with his seat at Jinji and a jurisdiction extending up to Pondicherry, and south of him Sher Khan Lodi (an Afghan protege of Bahlol Khan) with his seat at Wali-ganda-puram. Further south were the Hindu Rajahs of Tanjore and Madura.
c13.s2.7
But there was no amity or even peace among these Bijapuri vassals. Sher Khan was bent on annexing the territory of Jinji with the armed help of the French traders of Pondicherry. Nor was this the limit of his dream. He would, after thus removing his only rival in these parts and doubling his strength, hire more French soldiers, despoil the Hindu Nayaks beyond the Kaveri of their fabulous riches and employ these resources in conquering the kingdom of Golkonda for himself!
c13.s2.8
And the Hindu rulers of the country were no less divided and senseless. Vyankoji was "the mortal enemy of the Nayak of Madura" and in June 1676 solicited French troops and ships for conquering the petty princes (poligars) in his neighbourhood. The ruler of Madura similarly applied for armed help from the French for a war further south (January 1675.)
c13.s2.9
Sher Khan Lodi opened the attack. He conquered Porto Novo and several other places belonging to Jinji and finally, on 14th Sep. 1676, a French force under Francois Martin by a night-attack stormed the fort of Valdaur (12 miles west of Pondicherry) on his behalf. By the end of that month he had completely defeated Nasir Muhammad and driven him into Jinji. Tindavanam was next besieged. At last, about 4th November, Nasir Muhammad made peace by ceding Valdaur, Porto Novo and most of his territory to Sher Khan. But he knew it for certain that Sher Khan would not be content to leave him even the fort of Jinji, and that he could not hope for protection from his sovereign who was now entirely in the hands of Bahlol Khan, the clansman and patron of Sher Khan.
c13.s2.10
In this state of despair, Nasir Muhammad was invited by the Golkonda Court to come over to its side and join it for conquering Sher Khan's lands. The paralysis of the Government of Bijapur and this civil war between its local agents tempted the Qutb Shah to seize this opportunity of easily conquering Bijapuri Karnatak. Earth-hunger is the ever-present passion of absolute rulers. But there was a special reason which led the Golkonda Sultan to embark on a policy of conquest in the Karnatak. His all-powerful wazir Madanna Pandit was a devout Hindu and Madanna's nephew Gopanna was a Vaishnav saint, for whose benefit the gods were believed to work miracles. It was the heart's desire of the minister to conquer Bijapuri Karnatak nominally for Golkonda, but really to place the whole of it under Hindu rule as had been the case before 1648.
c13.s2.11
For accomplishing this pious design, no better agent could be found than Shivaji, the ever-victorious captain and the sword-arm of the Hindu revival of that age. Madanna induced his master to agree to a joint enterprise with Shivaji, in which Qutb Shah, as the sleeping partner, would supply all the expenses and munitions of war, while the Maratha king, as the active partner, would do all the fighting with his own troops. Bijapuri Karnatak was to be conquered "in the name and for the benefit of the king of Golkonda," while Shivaji for his pains would get all the spoils of war and collections of blackmail as well as the territory in the uplands of Mysore.
c13.s2.12
An incursion into the Eastern Karnatak had been discussed in Shivaji's inner council for some time past. As far back as July 1675, the French director Monsieur Baron, while on a visit to Rajapur, had learnt about the Maratha king's ambitions about the Karnatak from his chief minister.*