Shivaji and His Times c8.s2: §2. Shivaji besieged in Panhala fort
Shivaji and His Times c8.s2
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§2. Shivaji besieged in Panhala fort
c8.s2.1
The siege dragged on for over six months; all the paths of ingress and egress were closed to the garrison. Shivaji found himself in a fatal trap. So, he wrote a secret letter to Jauhar, deceitfully begging his protection and offering to make an alliance with him. In order to negotiate for the terms he asked for a passport. Jauhar, "who was both fool and traitor," swallowed the bait; he assured Shivaji of his protection, gave him a safe conduct, and flattered himself that with Shiva for an ally he would be able to create a kingdom of his own in independence of Adil Shah. Next day Shivaji with only two or three followers visited Jauhar at midnight, and was received in *darbar*. After oaths of co-operation had been taken on both sides, Shivaji returned quickly to the fort, and the pretended siege was continued.
c8.s2.2
But there was one determined enemy of Shivaji in the Bijapuri army. Fazl Khan, the son of Afzal, and his chief retainer Siddi Halal, pressed the siege in earnest. A huge fort like Panhala could not, however, be taken by 15,000 men, even if all of them put their heart in the work. Shivaji had made some sorties and broken up the siege-trenches with heavy slaughter, forcing the Bijapuris to remove their camp to a safe distance from the fort. In these night-attacks Kartoji Gujar distinguished himself and won the title of *Pratap Rao* and the rank of a general (*sar-i-naubat.*) The Bijapuri army was terrified, and Fazl Khan henceforth avoided confronting Shivaji himself and transferred his operations against the neighbouring fort of Pavangarh. Seizing a hillock near it, he mounted guns and began to throw shells into the fort. The Maratha commandant of Pavangarh found his position untenable and pressed Shivaji for relief.
c8.s2.3
Shivaji found that further delay would ruin him by making escape from that fatal trap impossible. With Pavangarh lost, Panhala could be easily starved into surrender. So, one dark night (13th July), leaving a part of his forces to hold Panhala as long as possible, he slipped out of it with the rest of his men, fell on the Bijapuri trenches below Pavangarh, and in the ensuing confusion took the road to Vishalgarh, 27 miles to the west.
c8.s2.4
His escape was soon detected and a strong Bijapuri force under Fazl Khan and Siddi Halal set out in pursuit. The day broke while the fugitives were still at Gajapur, eight miles short of their destination, and it was discovered that the pursuers had kept up with them by marching all night with the aid of Bengal lights (*mahtabs*.) Shivaji was hopelessly outnumbered and his escort was worn out. Happily, the road here led through a narrow ravine which a few desperate men could hold against odds. Baji Prabhu, the *deshpande* of Hirdas Maval, agreed to defend the mouth of the pass with half the troops till Shivaji should reach Vishalgarh with the other half and signal his safe arrival by gun-fire. The Bijapuris delivered three bloody assaults on the heroic rear-guard, all of which were beaten off. For five hours after dawn, the obstinate struggle was maintained, with a loss of 700 men. Then the signal gun was heard, announcing Shivaji's safe arrival in his asylum. But Baji Prabhu was lying down mortally wounded. The faithful servant had carried out his task, at the cost of his life, and the knowledge cheered his last moments. Karnataki musketeers are said to have at last cleared the pass with their fire, and the remnant of the defending Mavles fled to the hills with the body of their chief. The Bijapuris pushed on to Vishalgarh, but wisely gave up the thought of undertaking a siege in that terrible region. They fell back on Panhala and thence on Bijapur.*
c8.s2.5
When the news of Jauhar’s treacherous coquetting with Shivaji reached the ears of Ali Adil Shah, that king burst into anger, and left his capital (on 5th August) for the Panhala district in order “to punish both the rebels.” He halted at Miraj and sent his vanguard towards Panhala. Jauhar now found that his master could not be befooled any longer. So, he made the Marathas at last give up Panhala to him (on 22nd September), and put an end to the long siege. The fort was soon afterwards handed over by Jauhar to the agents of Adil Shah.
c8.s2.6
A month after Shivaji had been forced to quit Panhala in the extreme south of his dominions, his arms met with another disaster in the extreme north. On 15th August, his fort of Chakan, 18 miles north of Puna, was captured by the Mughals. To explain how it happened, we shall have to trace the course of the war in that quarter from its commencement.
c8.s2.7
∗ Siege of Panhala, Foster, X. 251, 370-387; *Tarikh-i-Ali II*, 82-93; B. S. 371-376; T. S. 19; Malkaré 37-38; *Jedhe* gives the dates thus: “2 March, Shivaji again comes to Panhala and is there besieged by Siddi Jauhar. 13 July, Shivaji descends from Panhala and goes to Khelna, pursued by Jauhar’s forces, Baji Prabhu being slain; 22 Sep., Shivaji cedes Panhala to Jauhar and makes peace with him.”
c8.s2.8
I accept the English factory numbers,—15,000 besiegers and five or six thousand besieged,—as against the Marathi exaggeration of eighty thousand Bijapuris and sixty thousand Mavles. *Dilkasha*, i. 37, says that Shiva had only 3,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry when besieged in Panhala. Jauhar established his head-quarters at Kolhapur. The English factor Revington tried to sell him some ordnance and ammunition and personally took a mortar and some shells to Jauhar’s camp, early in April. He promised that these shells “would undoubtedly be the chiefest disturbers of the besieged.” But the mortar had not the desired effect at trial, and Jauhar refused to pay for the munitions, though the English traders continued, some at Panhala, others at Kolhapur as late as October 1660.