Drums of the Destiny

Alamgir Aurangzeb was in a great plight. It had already been a year since he entered the Deccan soil, with a big determination on his mindand a hope in his eyes of conquering the HindaviSwarajya. And now it seemed as though all his hopes were demoted by the timeless failures that he had to confront from all the fronts.

Ramshej was yet impenetrable asan Ali Khan had failed to seize KokanKalyan was again captured by the Marathas. Aurangzeb thus turned restless and impatient day by day. But on a diverse faction he was a man of great optimism, determination and intellect. He would not easily fall for this fiasco. Aurangzeb now turned his irrefutable eyes upon Traimbakgad. The captain of this fort was KesoTrimal. He was the one secretly providing all the necessary ammunition and logistics to the fort of Ramshej, from Traimbakgad. Thus Muzzafar Khan, Baharamand Khan, Anamat Khan marched towards Traimbakgad with an intention of blocking these goods from reaching Ramshej. However they weren’t successful at this. 

The Marathas were marching in all the directions, recovering theChauthais. They attacked regions like Malkapur, Karanja, Vashim, Jalna etc... and looted them. These reports were everyday being thumped at Aurangzeb’s ears. He now turned frantic. Hasan Ali had already failed on his first Kokan campaign. Aurangzeb now decided to launch yet another campaign to capture Konkan and appointed Ranmastakhan for this formidable job. With him marched Bahadurkhan, Mukkaramkhan, Siddhi Yakutkhan, Rumikhan, Daudkhan, RamsinghRathod, HarisinghRathod and Padmasingh.SambhajiMaharaj in the meanwhile got to know about Ranmastkhanmarching towards Kalyan with a big force. SambhajiMaharaj left Raigad to confront Ranmastkhan. And with him marched RupajiBhosle, Kesopant and NilopantPeshwe with 10,000 cavalry and 12,000 infantry. The Marathas attacked the army of Ranmastkhan and blocked his path of ammunition. Thus Ranmastkhan ordered Bahadurkhan and Padmasingh to attack the Marathas. A huge skirmish took place. Marathas fought fiercely and killed many of the Mughals. Padmasingh acquired 35 wounds and succumbed to death.Harisingh was captured by the Marathas. All this took place on 27th of February 1683 (Julian Date). 

The Marathas trapped Ranmastkhan in the Pass. Aurangzeb got to know about this turn of events. He immediately sent RahullahkhanBakshi with a force of 8000 as an aid to Ranmastkhan. What the Marathas were unaware was that Rahullahkhan carried guns with him and in the skirmish with Rahullahkhan’s army, the Marathas had to back-off, as they couldn’t face his attack. Rahullahkhan captured the son of a Maratha Sardar. And soon he could see that the Marathas surrounded his army from all the sides and blocked his path of ammunition. Rahullahkhan, who came to rescue Ranmasthkan now himself got trapped in the clutches of Marathas. Finally Marathas on a promise from Rahullahkhan to free their man let him go unscathed.

ShambhajiMaharaj was himself on the front in all these campaigns; striving against the Mughals on all the fronts. He was barely 26 years of age. He was indisputably determined to destroy the Mughal dynasty till his last breath.

SahahzadaAzzam :

Aurangzeb’s position turned feeble as days went by. Success seemed yet far away from knocking at his door. The only ray of hope he could find was from his Shahzada, Muhammad Azzam. Azzam was at this time stationed near Kohlapur- Panhala. He had many of the potent and courageous men with him viz. Firozkhan, Kilichkhan, Sarfarajkhan and so on. SambhajiMaharaj sent his Commander In Chief HambirraoMohite with 15000 cavalry and 5000 infantry against Azzam. And a ferocious skirmish took place between the two antagonists and along with the Mughals, Marathas too got killed in a large number and many went into the custody of Mughals. HambirraoMohite could not stand the reality of so many of his potent men being killed in this skirmish. And as revenge, launched guerrilla attack on Azzam’s camp.Azzam at this time was not in his camp. He had appointed Aniruddhasingh Hada as an in charge of the camp. As soon as Aniruddhasingh heard of the Maratha troops approaching their camp, he was panic stricken. 

In the camp was a woman of great valour and courage. She was the Begum of MuhammedAzam. She was JahanzebBanu aka Jani Begum. While others in the camp were panic stricken, this lady got onto an elephant and paced forward to face the Marathas. Others along with Aniruddhasingh failed in their attempts to stop her. It is said, in order to boost the morale of her army, she herself handed over the weapons to each soldier and said, “We have a small army. Allah is with us. If at all unfortunately we fell short of his blessings, do not worry about me. I will finish my work (suicide).” But she never had to undergo this twinge as the Marathas let her go unhurt. However thousands of her Rajupt soldiers were killed by the Marathas. 

Aurangzeb’s mindset at this time can be best known from an English letter. It says, “Aurangzeb has gone mad with peevishness. He is always under the fear of Akbar. His army has started showing a favourable attitude towards Akbar. His mind is under lot of conflicts. If he does not die soon, thingswill get more tangled”. Aurangzeb had turned highly suspicious about his own men. And one fine day, his wrath fell upon Dilerkhan. Aurangzebhad him arrested. Dilherkhan was in a great shock. He had for years served the Alamgir with complete loyalty and faith. Unable to withstand this dishonour,Dilherkhan committed suicide. Aurangzeb lost a faithful and a loyal envoy to his foolishness.

The Portuguese: 

The first Portuguese encounter with the Indian subcontinent was in the year 1498, when Vasco da Gama reached Calicut on Malabar Coast.After 1510, the capital of Portuguese viceroyalty was transferred to Goa. In the times of ShivajiMaharaj, the Maratha- Portuguese relations were better off. However there are inferences about the Portuguese to have helped the Siddhi of Danda-Rajpuri against Marathas. However ShivajiMaharaj on 10th of February 1670 (Julian Date) entered into a pact of friendship with the Portuguese. The Viceroy of the time was Conde de San Vincente.

After his escape from Agra, ShivajiMaharaj regained all the territory of Kokan except Fonda, JambavaliPanchamahal and Goa, which were held by Portuguese. Some protagonist’s viz. the Kokan Desai’s, KeshavNaik ,KeshavPrabhuand LakhamSawant , often encroached upon Maharaj’s territory and terrorised the people. And often the Portuguese officers were in league with them. On 15th of September 1667 (Julian Date)NarbaSawant, a nephew ofLakhamSawant, and a Desai of Kudal went to Vengurla, caused a riot and molested a Dutch. In order to capture them and also punish the Portuguese who had harboured them, ShivajiMaharaj despatched an army of 1,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry to Bardez. 

For three days his troops plundered a number of villages. A contemporary Dutch report says that the Marathas killed two Padres and a number of Christians. There were hundreds of Padres in Bardez at that time. There is however no mention of ShivajiMaharaj having attacked monasteries or residents of the Catholic priests. But we should not forget the fact that these Padres participated in battles as armed soldiers and therefore met with resistance from the Marathas. And thus they were no “non-violent” preachers. 

However this incident can be said to be the starting point of the deteriorating Maratha- Portuguese relations whose reflection can be seen later in the reign of SambhajiMaharaj. And so Aurangzeb now decided to take help from these Portuguese of Goa. The Portuguese in a letter to Aurangzeb, had promised to lend a helping hand in his Deccan campaign. Aurangzeb immediately sent his lawyer Sheik Muhammad to Goa. The Portuguese Viceroy of the time was called “Francisco deTavora, conde de Alvor”. Alvor was certain that in this combat, the Marathas would be defeated and he planned to exploit this opportunity for getting South Kokan from the Mughals. To join the whole South Kokan to Goa was the long-cherished dream of the Portuguese and Alvor’s policy in the matter was not really different. SambhajiMaharaj was very much aware of these conspiracies. He decided to construct a fort on the island of Parsik,to fight the Portuguese when time demands. But the Portuguese were much faster and captured the island beforehand.

SambhajiMaharaj then started looting the regions under Portuguese. Alvor decided to confront SambhajiMaharajby attacking his fort of Fonda. The Portuguese army was large in number while the Marathas on the fort were handful of 600 in number.YesajiKanka and KrishnajiKanka led the army.The Portuguese army reached Fonda on 1st of November 1683 (Julian Date). Both the sides fought bravely. The rains, thunder and the storm were a witness to this fight of fidelity. Along with the rainwater, flowed the blood of “loyalties”. Three days went by; the Portuguese couldn’t seize the fort. And on the third day SambhajiMaharajreachedthe fortwith his army. This uplifted the spirit of Marathas. They fought with exceeding courage. The Portuguese army began to flee away. They fled towards the creek of Durbhat. The Marathas followed them and yet again the Portuguese army had to face the desirous Marathas and more of the Portuguese got killed in this skirmish. But, both Krishnaji and YesajiKanka sustained serious wounds. And unfortunately KrishnajiKanka succumbed to his wounds. This came as great shock to SambhajiMaharaj.

A few days later, Marathas marched towards the Juve coast, attacked and captured the fort on the coast. The date was 24th of November 1683 (Julian Date). And then started moving towards Goa.As the Marathas approached nearer, a wave of panic spread among the people. The Marathas had to cross the Mandviriver to reach Goa from the coast of Juve. The Portuguese upon seeing Marathas close to entering the city, demolished a dam on the Mandvi river. Huge gallons of water started flowing down. SambhajiMaharaj, who was at the time only desperate for a vengeance,rode ontohis horse into the swollen river. Moments later, with the rising level and speed of the water,SambhajiMaharaj realised that he had put himself into a serious danger. There was no way to go back and it seemed impossible to step forward. He was stuck! With his every attempt to cross the river, he was being pulled deeper into the water by the strong current. 

And at this vital time came to SambhajiMaharaj’s rescue a man named KhandoballalChitnis. He was the son of BalajiAvajiChitnis, who once held an important position in ShivajiMaharaj’sCourt.He was the one who was being ruthlessly executed by SambhajiMaharaj. It is very surprising to note that in spite of this deed by SambhajiMaharaj,KhandoballalChitnis did not demur from his duty. Such was the loyalty towards one’s master which ran in their family. 

He leaped into the river and saved both SambhajiMaharaj and his horse from drowing in. The Marathas then for a few days continued their firing from the coast of Juve. And within a few days got to know about Aurangzeb’s son Shah Alam marching towards South Kokan with a huge force. And thus the Marathas had to back off from the Goa campaign to face this new torment. 

SambhajiMaharaj then signed a treaty with the Portuguese. And Alvor let out a sign of relief. The Marathas vigorously confronted Shah Alam and his campaign was a failure. SambhajiMaharaj at a vital time backed-off from Kokan, marched towards Raigad and continued his fight against the Mughals.SambhajiMaharaj was just a notch away from capturing Goa in this campaign of 1683, but to the good luck of the Portuguese the Marathas had to back-off and it was not before the year 1961 when the Indian Army after independence launched military actions and regained control over Goa. 

JanhaviDatar

References: 

1) Raja ShambhuChhatrapati- Vijay Deshmukh

2) HindaviSwarajyaani Mughal – SetuMadhavraoPagadi

3) Portuguese Mahratta Relations – Translation by Shri T.V Parvateof an original book by ShriPandurangPisurlekar

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