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At the end of September we find Shivaji at the head of a great army raised for "some notable attempt against the Mughal." He also sewed 20,000 sacks of cotton for conveying the plunder he expected to seize! But on the dasahara day (early October), an auspicious time with the Hindus for setting out on campaigns, he sallied forth on a long expedition into Bijapuri territory, with 25,000 men, robbed many rich towns and then penetrated into Kanara, "to get more plunder in those rich towns to bear the expenses of his army". Early in December he reached Kadra (20 miles north-east of Karwar) with a division of 4,000 foot and 2,000 horse and stayed there for four days. The bulk of his forces occupied a hill near Hubli. But two severe defeats at the hands of Bahlol and Sharza Khan at Bankapur and Chandaguira (? Chandraguti) respectively forced him to evacuate Kanara quickly.1 (F.R. Surat 106, Bombay to Surat, 29th September and 10th October, Vol. 88, Karwar to Surat, 17th December, O.C. 3910, Fryer, II. Dutch Rec. 31, No. 805.)

ΧΙ.

Though Kanara had been freed from the Marathas, that province enjoyed no peace. Mian Sahib, the faujdar of Karwar (instigated it is said by Shiva), rebelled and Adil Shah had to conduct a long war before he could be suppressed. The two sides continued to have skirmishes with varying success. In February 1674 the royal troops captured Sunda, with the rebel's wife in it, but he held out obstinately in his other forts. By 22nd April this "long and tedious rebellion" was at last ended by the arrival of Abu Khan, Rustam-i-Zaman II., as the new viceroy. Mian Sahib's followers deserted him for lack of pay; his forts (Kadra, Karwar, Ankola and Shiveshwar) all surrendered without a blow, and he himself made peace on

1 The Portuguese Vida do... Sevagy (Lisbon, 1730), p. I, speaks of "grande lugar chamado Chandagara, do qual-tirou muita riqueza por assistirem &c." There is a Chandra-guti, 36 miles south-west of Bankapur. (Shimoga district, Mysore Gazetteer ii. 369.) Chandan-garh, 35 miles north-east of Satara, cannot be the place meant.

condition of his wife being released. Shivaji was then only a day's march from Karwar "going to build a castle upon a very high hill, from which he may very much annoy these parts." (F.R. Surat 88, Karwar to Surat, 14th February and 22nd April 1674. Orme, 35.)

Unlike his father, the new Rustam-i-Zaman did not cultivate friendship with the Marathas. In August 1674 he seized a rich merchant, subject of Shiva, living at Narsa (16 miles from Phonda), and the Maratha King prepared for retaliation. In October Rustam was summoned by Khawas Khan, the new wazir, to Bijapur; and, as he feared that his post would be given to another, he extorted forced loans from all the rich men of Karwar and its neighbourhood that he could lay hands on, before he went away. (F.R. Surat 88, Karwar to Surat, 2nd September and 27th October 1674.) In the beginning of September, "in Kudal about four hours [journey) from here [Vingurla], one of Shivaji's generals called Annaji came with 3,000 soldiers to surprise the fortress Phonda, but Mamet Khan who was there armed him. self, so that the aforesaid pandit accomplished nothing.” (Dutch Rec., Vol. 34, No. 841.)

At Bijapur everything was in confusion; "the great Khans were at difference." The worthless wazir Khawas Khan was driven to hard straits by the Afghan faction in the State. Rustam-iZaman II. after his visit to the capital evidently lost his viceroyalty. This was Shivaji's opportunity and he conquered Kanara for good. First, he befooled the Mughal viceroy Bahadur Khan by sending him a pretended offer of peace, asking for the pardon of the Mughal Government through the Khan's mediation and promising to cede the imperial forts he had recently conquered as well as the twenty-three forts of his own that he had once before yielded in Jai Singh's time. By these insincere negotiations Shivaji for the time being averted the risk of a Mughal attack., on his territory and began his invasion of Bijapuri Kanara 1 with composure of mind.

1 Invasion of Kalara and capture of Fhorda (1678), F.R. Surat 88, Karwar to Suat, 14th and 22nd April, 8th and 25th May. Rajapur to Surat,

XII.

In March 1675 he got together an army of 15,000 cavalry, 14,000 infantry and 10,000 pioneers with pickaxes, crow-bars and hatchets, etc. Arriving at Rajapur (22nd March), he spent three days there, ordering forty small ships to go to Vingurla with all speed and there wait for fresh commands. Next he marched to his town of Kudal, within a day's journey of Phonda, and early in April laid siege to the lastnamed place.

The hill fort of Phonda commands one of the easiest passes leading from South Konkan into the Deccan plateau beyond the Western Ghats and establishing direct communication between Kajapur and Kolharpur. So convenient is its situation and so gentle its gradient, that it has now been made practicable for artillery, and in one year (1877) nearly fifty thousand carts from Rajapur crossed it on the way to the Deccan. Both Rajapur and the Kolharpur district being in his hands, it was necessary for Shivaji to secure direct connection between them by taking Phonda. While he was prosecuting the siege, another division of his army plundered Atgiri in Adil Shahi territory and two other large cities near Haidarabad, carrying away a great deal of riches, besides many rich persons held to ransom".

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He began the siege of Phonda on 9th April 1675 with 2,000 horse and 7,000 foot, and made arrangements for sitting down before the fort even during the coming rainy season in order to starve the garrison into surrender. Muhammad Khan had only four months' provisions within the walls; there was no hope of relief from Bijapur or even from the Portuguese who now trembled for the safety of Goa and appeased Shivaji by promising neutrality. Rustam-i-Zaman II. had too little money or men to attempt the raising of the siege. But Muhammad Khan made a heroic defence, unaided and against overwhelming

odds.

1st and 20th April; 3rd, 21st and 31st May ; 3rd and 14th June, B.S. 401, Orme, 38, 40. Maratha accounts in Sabhasad, 70 (scanty). Phonda described, Bombay Gazetteer, X, 167 m., 333, 343 and 358..

Delusive peace offer to Mughals. B.8. 401, О.С. 4077.

Shivaji ran four mines under the walls, but they were all counter-mined, with a heavy loss of men to him. He then threw up an earthen wall only 12 feet from the fort and his soldiers lay sheltered behind it. The Portuguese, fearing that if Shiva took Phonda their own Goa would be as good as lost, secretly sent ten boatloads of provisions and some men in aid of the besieged (middle of April) but they were intercepted by Shivaji and the Viceroy of Goa disavowed the act.

The siege was pressed with vigour. By the beginning of May Shivaji had taken possession of two outworks, filled the ditch, and made 500 ladders and 500 gold bracelets, each bracelet weighing half a seer, for presentation to the forlorn hope who would attempt the escalade.

Bahlol Khan, who was at Miraj with 15,000 troops, wanted to come down and relieve Phonda, but Shiva had filled up the passages with trees cut down and lined the stockades with his men, and Bhalol, being certain of heavy loss and even an utter repulse if he tried to force them, returned to his base. His inactivity during the siege was imputed to bribery by Shiva. At length the fort fell about the 6th of May. All who were found in it were put to the sword, with the exception of Muhammad Khan, who saved his own life and those of four or five others by promising to put into Shiva's hands all the adjoining parts belonging to Bijapur. In fear of death the Khan wrote to the qiladars of these forts to yield them to the Marathas, but they at first declined. So the Khan was kept in chains. Inayat Khan, the faujder of Ankola, seized the country and forts lately held by Muhammad Khan and placed his own men in them, but he could make no stand against Shivaji whose forces were now set free by the fall of Phonda. He therefore compounded and gave up the forts for money. In a few days Ankola, Shiveshwar (which had been besieged by 3,000 Maratha horse and some foot soldiers since 24th April), Karwar, Kadra (which alone had made a short stand), all capitulated to Shivaji, and by the 25th of May the country as far south as the Ganga vati river had passed out of Bijapuri possession into his hands.

XIII.

On 26th April one of Shiva's generals had visited Karwar

and "burnt the town effectually, leaving not a house standing"

in punishment of the fort of Karwar still holding out. English factory was not molested. This general, however, went back in a few days. But next month, after the fall of Phonda, the fort of Karwar surrendered to the Marathas.

The

The rainy season now put an end to the campaign. Bahlol Khan went back to Bijapur, leaving his army at Miraj. Shiva at first thought of cantoning for the rains in a fort on the frontier of Sunda, but soon changed his mind and returned to Raigarh, passing Rajapur on 11th June.

A Maratha force was detached into the Sunda Rajah's country at the end of May. "They finding no great opposition seized upon Supa and Whurwa (? Ulvi) belonging to the Rajah." But Khizr Khan Pani and the desais in concert attacked the Maratha garrisons there, killed 300 of the men and recovered both the places. A party of Marathas that was posted at Burbulle [Varhulli, seven miles south of Ankola] to take custom duty on all goods passing that way, was now forced to withdraw. (August 1675.) (Ibid, Rajapur to Surat, 27th August 1675.)

The dowager Rani of Bednur had quarrelled with her colleague Timmaya, but had been compelled to make peace with him (August), she being a mere cypher, while he held the real power of the State. The Rani then appealed to Shivaji for protection, agreed to pay him an annual tribute, and admitted Maratha resident at her Court. (Ibid and Chit. 70.)

a

The dalvi, or lieutenant of the desai who had been the local Bijapuri Governor of North Kanara, had aided Shivaji in the conquest of that district. But now (1675), disgusted with him, the dalvi was moving about the country with a force, saying that he would restore his former master. He attacked Shivaji's guards in Karwar town and forced them to retire to the castle. The people were in extreme misery in Shivaji's new conquests: he squeezed the desais, who in their turn squeezed

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