Shivaji and His Times c8.s23: §19. Shivaji assists the Mughals in the invasion of Bijapur
Shivaji and His Times c8.s23
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§19. Shivaji assists the Mughals in the invasion of Bijapur
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The war with Shiva having been thus happily ended and the terms of the Treaty of Purandar faithfully carried out, Jai Singh now began to make preparations for the invasion of Bijapur, in order to prevent his large army from eating its bread in idleness after its recent victorious campaign in Maharashtra. In September he received the Emperor's despatch accepting all his recommendations about Shiva together with a gracious *farman* (stamped with the impression of his palm) and a robe of honour for the latter. Jai Singh invited Shiva to come and receive these marks of imperial favour with befitting solemnity. "Shivaji, then in Adil-Shahi Konkan, immediately on hearing of it, travelled quickly and reached my camp on 27th September, 1665. On the 30th, I sent him, with my son Kirat Singh and my Paymaster Jani Khan, to advance and welcome the imperial letter on the way."
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A little mummery was acted on this occasion, to satisfy the etiquette of the Mughal Court: "As Shiva had worn no weapon on his person from the day when he had come like a penitent offender to wait on the Rajah up to this date, Jai Singh now gave him a jewelled sword and dagger and pressed him to put them on." (A. N. 907.) The ceremony completed his restoration to the good grace of the Emperor.
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Jai Singh then dismissed Shivaji to enable him to gather his contingent of 9,000 men and make the necessary preparations for the coming campaign, offering him two lakhs of Rupees from the imperial treasury for the purpose. Shiva promised to join Jai Singh the day before he started.
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At last, on 20th November, 1665, Jai Singh set out on the invasion of Bijapur,* from the fort of Purandar. The Maratha contingent, 9,000 strong, under Shiva and his kinsman (khwesh) Netaji Palkar,—"whom the Deccanis regard as a second Shivaji,"—formed the Left Centre of the Mughal army.
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During the first month of the campaign, Jai Singh's march was an uninterrupted triumph. From Purandar to Mangalbirah (Mangalvedhe), a fort 52 miles north of Bijapur, the invaders advanced without meeting with any opposition; the Bijapuri forts on the way were either evacuated in terror or surrendered at call to Shiva's troops, who had been sent ahead by Jai Singh to capture them. Phaltan, about forty miles south-east of Purandar, was entered on 7th December; Thathora, 14 miles south-west of Phaltan, on the 8th; Khatav (25 miles s. of Phaltan) about a week later; and Mangalbirah itself on the 18th. For these services Shivaji received a letter of praise, a robe of honour, and a jewelled dagger from the Emperor. (Parasnis MS. letter No. 9.)
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∗ The invasion of Bijapur by Jai Singh and Shivaji: Haft Anjuman, (Ben. MS.) 78a—94a, 138b, 172b—173b, 190b, 192a—193b, 201b—202a, 214a—215a, 231a—233b; Storia, ii. 141—142; A. N. 988—1021; B. S. 406—427; the narrative in Tarikh-i-Ali II. is useless; the sense being completely buried under the flowers of rhetoric. The Maratha writers are totally silent. For details about the war, see my History of Aurangzib, vol. iv. ch. xli. In Nov. 1665, Prince Muazzam left for the Court after handing over the viceroyalty of the Deccan to Jai Singh. (A. N. 924.)
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The invaders marched on, and then, on 24th December, they came into touch with the enemy for the first time. Next day, a Mughal detachment under Dilir Khan and Shivaji marched 10 miles from their camp and fought a Bijapuri army of 12,000 under the famous generals Sharza Khan and Khawas Khan and their Maratha auxiliaries under Jadav Rao [Ghorpare?] of Kaliani and Vyankoji, the half-brother of Shivaji. The Deccanis evaded the charge of the cavaliers of Delhi, but harassed them by their "cossack tactics," dividing themselves into four bodies and fighting loosely with the Mughal divisions opposite. After a long contest, Dilir Khan's tireless energy and courage broke the enemy force by repeated charges, and they retired in the afternoon, leaving one general (Yaqut the Abyssinian) and 15 captains dead on the field and many flags, horses and weapons in the Mughal hands. But as soon as the victors began their return march to camp, the elusive enemy reappeared and galled them severely with rockets from the two wings and rear. The Maratha rear-guard under Netaji bore the brunt of the attack, but stood its ground well. When the Deccanis hemmed Neta round and pressed him hard, he called for reinforcements from Kirat Singh and Fath Jang Khan, and with their aid repulsed the enemy. Jadav Rao of Kaliani received a musket-shot, of which he died in five or six days. Shivaji and his brother Vyankoji fought on opposite sides!
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After a two days' halt, Jai Singh resumed his march on the 27th. The next day, after reaching the camping-ground in the evening, he detached a force to attack and expel the Bijapuri army from the neighbourhood. The fight soon became general, and Jai Singh himself had to charge the enemy's largest division. Shivaji and Kumar Kirat Singh, seated on the same elephant, led his Van and dashed into the Deccani ranks. After a hard fight, the enemy were put to flight leaving more than a hundred dead and many more wounded.
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On 29th December, 1665, Jai Singh arrived at Makhnapur,* ten miles north of Bijapur fort. Here his advance was stopped, and after waiting for a week, he was forced to begin his retreat on 5th January, 1666, as he found his fondly hoped-for chance of taking Bijapur by a coup de main gone. He was not prepared for a regular siege, because, in his eagerness "to grasp the golden opportunity" of attacking Bijapur while undefended and torn by domestic factions, he had not brought any big artillery and siege-materials with himself. On the other hand, Adil Shah had put the fort of Bijapur in a strong posture of defence; its walls had been repaired, large quantities of provisions and material laid in, its regular garrison augmented by 30,000 Karnatak infantry, and the country round for a radius of seven miles laid waste, drained of its water-supply, and denuded of its trees. At the same time he had sent a picked force under Sharza Khan and Siddi Masaud to invade the Mughal dominions and make a diversion in Jai Singh's rear.
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On 27th January, the retreating Mughal army reached a place 16 miles from Parenda, and there halted for 24 days. Here we shall leave it, as the historian of Shivaji is not concerned with its operations any further.
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∗ In the Persian MS. the name may be read either as Makhanah or as Nagthana. The latter is a village 8 miles n. n. e. of Bijapur.
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§20. Shivaji fails at Panhala. 1666.
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On receiving the unexpected check before Bijapur, Jai Singh looked round, to create a diversion. As he writes in a despatch to the Court, "At my request the Emperor had [on 25th Dec.] sent a robe of honour and a jewelled dagger for Shiva, who was ready to co-operate at the siege of Bijapur, but......I did not deem it expedient. Shiva said to me,—'If you detach me, I can go and capture for the Emperor Panhala, of which I know all the exits and entrances, while the garrison are off their guard. I shall raise so much disturbance in that district that the enemy will be compelled to divert a large force from their army to oppose me.' As his words bore promise of action, I sent him away on his promised errand." (H. A., Ben. MS. 84b.)
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But there was a deeper reason for this step, as we learn from Jai Singh's secret correspondence. The unexpected failure before the fort of Bijapur gave rise to dissensions in the Mughal camp. The party hostile to Jai Singh, which was led by Dilir Khan,[*] ascribed his ill-success to the lukewarmness or treachery of Shivaji, and demanded that he should be imprisoned as a punishment. Jai Singh saw the danger in which Shiva stood among the defeated and sullen Mughal soldiery. To safeguard the liberty of the Maratha chief, and send him out of the reach of his enemies, he gladly accepted the proposal that the Maratha contingent should make a diversion in the western provinces of Bijapur. (H. A., 195a, 84b, 192a; hints only.)
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∗ Manucci attests that Dilir Khan several times urged Jai Singh "to take Shivaji's life, or at least to give him (Dilir Khan) leave to do so. He would assume all responsibility, and see that the Rajah was held blameless." (Storia, ii. 137.) The English factory records state, "In a battle between the Mughals and this country people, Shivaji ran away, being afraid that Dilir Khan would put him to death, he having told the said wazir [Dilir] that he would take Bijapur in 10 days' time, upon which persuasion he set forwards with 20,000 horse, but to his cost he found the contrary, being forced quickly to retire." (Deccan News in F. R. Surat, vol. 104.)
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Shiva left Jai Singh about 11th January, 1666. Five days later he reached the environs of Panhala, and delivered an assault on it three hours before sunrise. But the garrison were on the alert and offered a stubborn defence. A thousand of Shiva's followers fell, killed and wounded. When the rising sun lit up the scene, Shiva at last recognized that it was madness to continue the struggle, and drew back sullenly to his own fort of Khelna [Vishalgarh], about 27 miles westwards. But his troops continued to ravage that quarter and succeeded in drawing and detaining there a force of 6,000 Bijapuris under Siddi Masaud and Randaula Khan. (H. A. 84b—85a; A. N. 1002.)
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The news of Shivaji's failure at Panhala reached Jai Singh on 20th January. The evil was aggravated by the desertion of Netaji. Taking offence with Shiva for some reason or other,—probably because he deemed his valuable services and gallant feats of arms inadequately rewarded,—Neta accepted the Bijapuri bait of 4 lakhs of hun and, deserting to Adil Shah, raided the Mughal territory with great vigour and effect. Jai Singh could not afford to lose such a man; and so he lured Netaji back (20th March) with many persuasive letters and the granting of all his high demands, viz., the mansab of a Commander of Five Thousand in the Mughal peerage, a jagir in the settled and lucrative old territory of the empire (as distinct from the ill-conquered, unsettled, ever-ravaged recent annexations in the Deccan), and Rs. 38,000 in cash. (H. A. 193).
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Netaji's defection at the end of January, 1666, coming so soon after the recent reverses, greatly alarmed Jai Singh. If Shiva were to do the same, the entire Maratha army would join the enemy's ranks and the Mughal invaders would be crushed between the two. As he wrote to the Emperor, "Now that Adil Shah and Qutb Shah have united in mischief, it is necessary to win Shiva's heart by all means and to send him to Northern India to have audience of Your Majesty." (94a) The Emperor having consented to this proposal, Jai Singh set himself to induce Shiva to visit the imperial Court.
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CHAPTER VI
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VISIT TO AURANGZIB, 1666