Shivaji and His Times c6.s3.1

c6.s3.1

In the second half of the year 1657, the northward retreat of Prince Aurangzib, the likelihood of a civil war for the throne of Delhi, and the wrangles among the Bijapuri nobles about responsibility for their ill-success in the recent war with the Mughals (which culminated in the murder of the wazir Khan Muhammad),—all combined to remove the only checks on Shivaji's ambition, and he now launched forth on a fresh career of conquest and plunder unhampered by any fear or caution.