The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c14.10

c14.10

At what date he framed his naval programme and when he gave effect to it we do not precisely know. But this novel adventure did not fail to attract the early notice of his friends and foes. Khafi Khan mentions it as a new instance of his perfidy. Shivaji ‘had seized the ports of Jiwal, Pabal and others near Surat’, he informs us, ‘and attacked the vessels of pilgrims bound for Mecca. He had built several forts by the seashore, and had entirely interrupted maritime intercourse.’¹ Sabhasad sounds a note of exultation when he writes of the equipment of a mighty armada by his master as an instrument of offence as well as defence.² But as usual neither the Muhummadan nor the Maratha gives any indication of the date of so important an event. Cosme da Guarda, the Portuguese biographer and admirer of Shivaji, was definitely of opinion that his hero turned his attention to the sea when he could not expect to extend his kingdom any further on land.³ According to him, Shivaji launched his naval programme after his flight from the Mughal capital. But as usual Cosme da Guarda was inaccurate, for we read of the maritime activities of the Marathas in the letters of the English factors of Bombay and Surat as early as 1664. The Dutch spy saw at Goa a Pataxo of Dariya Sarang, one of Shivaji’s naval commanders, in January 1667,⁴ and the Dutch factors of Surat mention in their account of the first sack of Surat a rumour ‘that Sivagy had about 40 frigates in the river, also intent on plunder.’⁵ A still earlier date is supplied by a Portuguese official letter. On 16 August 1659, the Governor of Goa wrote to His Majesty the King of Portugal: ‘A son of Xagi, rebel captain of King Idalxa, has made himself master of the lands near Bassein and Chaul. He is powerful and obliges us to have great care as he has made some ships of war at Biundy, Galiana, and Panvel, ports in the district of Bassein. We have ordered the Captain not to allow them to put out in the sea and to impede their exit’.¹