Shivaji and His Times c14.s4.1

c14.s4.1

In this danger Siddi Masaud immediately asked for help from Shiva, as agreed upon. The Rajah sent six to seven thousand heavy cavalry to guard Bijapur. Masaud could not fully trust his ally, he asked the Maratha contingent to halt beside the stream of the village Itangihal (5 m. n. w. of the city), but they came nearer, encamped at Khanapura and Khusraupura, and demanded that one of the gates and one of the towers of the fort should be entrusted to them. Masaud wisely declined. Then they moved to Zuhrapura and encamped on the plain just outside the walls, thus increasing Masaud's suspicion. Soon the allies began to quarrel openly.* The Marathas were detected in trying to smuggle arms and men into the fort, by concealing the arms in sacks of grain and disguising the soldiers as drivers of the pack-oxen! Then Shiva threw off the mask. He began to plunder and devastate Adil-Shahi territory again. His men looted the suburbs of Bijapur,—Daulatpura (=Khawaspura), Khusraupura and Zuhrapura, and carried off the rich banias for ransom. Near the tomb of Shaikh Ahmad Khawas-Khani, they slew Ali Raza and wounded Siddi Yaqut. But when they reached the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah, west of the city, a shot from the fort-guns killed the Maratha commander and the men fled away. Masaud now made peace with Dilir Khan.