Shivaji and His Times c9.s2.50

c9.s2.50

The eve of Shivaji’s coronation affords a suitable time for making a survey of his territorial position. We have seen in Chapter 3 §5 what his kingdom was in 1648 and in 1659. His gains between November 1659 and February 1660 were shortlived except in S. Konkan. Here he completed the conquest of the Ratnagiri district by taking possession of its western part (including all the ports except Rajapur and Vingurla as well as its southern extremity. From this time his power began to impinge on that of the Savants of Vadi (or the desais of Kudal, as they were then called), and after a long and confused struggle much of the latter's territory as well as the ports of Rajapur and Vingurla passed into Shivaji's hands, (by the middle of 1663), and all South Konkan owned him as its sole master. He had already wrested the western coast of the Kolaba district from the Siddis.