Against Bijapur and the Mughals: the famous episodes

Detail

The core method: guerrilla warfare

• Guerrilla warfare = small groups of fighters who use speed, surprise and knowledge of the land to beat a much bigger army. This was Shivaji's signature tactic.
• Why it worked in the Deccan:
• The Sahyadri hills are steep, wooded and cut by narrow passes. Big armies with cannon, elephants and baggage move slowly there.
• Small Maratha bands moved fast, hit the enemy camp or supply line, then vanished into the hills.

• Forts gave them safe bases. Shivaji did not need to win one big open battle; he only needed to make the enemy's stay costly.

• The fort system is not just a story — it survives on the ground. Twelve Maratha forts were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "Maratha Military Landscapes of India", India's 44th World Heritage property [4][5].

• These forts sit on coastal and mountain terrain and worked together as one defence network — protecting trade and holding territory, not just guarding one spot [4].

Episode 1 — Afzal Khan at Pratapgad

• Afzal Khan was a general of the Bijapur Sultanate (the Adil Shahi kingdom of the Deccan).
• Bijapur sent him in 1659 with an army of about 20,000 men to crush Shivaji [2][3].
• Shivaji pretended to be frightened and sent humble, submissive messages. This pulled Afzal Khan's large force deep into hard hill country where it could not fight well [2].
• The meeting was set at the foot of Pratapgad fort, in thick forest. In the one-on-one meeting Shivaji killed Afzal Khan with the wagh nakh ("tiger's claw" — a small claw-shaped weapon worn hidden on the fingers).
• Marathas already hidden in the woods then rushed down and routed the leaderless Bijapur army with guerrilla attacks [2].
• Pratapgad is a hill-forest fort on the Sahyadri ridge, with a steep rock face, bastions (towers jutting out of the wall), ramparts, a maachi (a flat terrace on the hillside used to house troops and buildings), water tanks and a citadel with royal and office buildings [4].
• The dense forest that Shivaji used for the ambush is part of why the fort is classed as a hill-forest fort [4].

Episode 2 — The night raid on Shaista Khan

• Shaista Khan was a senior Mughal noble (Aurangzeb's viceroy in the south) who invaded Shivaji's lands and stayed three years, occupying Pune.
• Aurangzeb had ordered this march because he was alarmed by Shivaji's growing power [2].
• Shivaji answered with a night raid — a midnight attack with only a few soldiers, straight inside the viceroy's own camp.
• Result: Shaista Khan lost fingers of one hand and fled Maharashtra. His son was killed in the raid, and this pushed him to pull his force back [2].
• The NCERT chapter compares this to a modern surgical strike — a small, precise, deep strike instead of a full battle.

Episode 3 — The sack of Surat (twice)

• Surat was the richest Mughal port (in present-day Gujarat). Shivaji raided it as retaliation for Mughal attacks on his territory [2].
• Treasure taken was worth almost one crore rupees.
• The raids had clear rules:
• Religious places were left untouched.

• The house of the charitable merchant Mohandas Parekh was spared.

• European traders were in Surat, so news travelled far: the raid was reported in the London Gazette, including Shivaji's demand to European agents for "immediate presents of money".

• Contemporary English factory papers on Shivaji survive as a printed record, "English Records on Shivaji (1659–1682)", held in the national digital collection [6].

Episode 4 — The Treaty of Purandar

• After Surat, Aurangzeb changed tactic. Instead of another Mughal noble he sent the Rajput general Jai Singh, who knew hill warfare and could squeeze the forts.
• Shivaji conceded defeat at Purandar fort (near Pune) and signed the treaty.
• Terms in the chapter:
• He surrendered a sizeable part of his kingdom.

• His son Sambhaji entered Mughal service.

• Keep this apart from a later, different treaty of the same name: the Treaty of Purandhar of 1776 was signed between the Marathas and the British, not Shivaji and the Mughals [7].

Note: A search for "Treaty of Purandar" mainly returns the 1776 Maratha–British treaty [7]. The NCERT episode is the earlier Shivaji–Jai Singh treaty at Purandar fort; both names are correct, they are two separate events.

Episode 5 — The escape from Agra

• Shivaji was persuaded to visit Aurangzeb's court at Agra.
• There he was insulted — made to stand among lower-ranked nobles — and then put under house arrest.
• The escape:
• He began sending out large baskets of fruits and sweets as gifts to holy men and the poor.
• Guards checked the baskets at first, then grew bored and stopped checking.

• Shivaji and Sambhaji hid inside the baskets and were carried out.

• Aurangzeb never captured him again.

• After this phase Shivaji rebuilt his power base. He reconstructed Raigad in 1662 as his second capital — an easily defended hill with the king's palace, a market, a rainwater harvesting system and administrative buildings; it became the Maratha kingdom's administrative and ceremonial centre [4][8].

Prelims Hooks

• Afzal Khan was a general of the Bijapur (Adil Shahi) Sultanate, not of the Mughals.
• Afzal Khan was killed in 1659 at the foot of Pratapgad; his army numbered about 20,000 [2][3].
• Weapon used against Afzal Khan: wagh nakh ("tiger's claw").
• Shaista Khan — Mughal noble, invaded for three years, lost fingers in Shivaji's night raid; his son died in the same raid [2].
• Surat — Mughal port in present-day Gujarat; sacked twice; loot worth nearly one crore rupees; religious places untouched; house of Mohandas Parekh spared.
• The Surat raid was reported in the London Gazette.
• Treaty of Purandar (Shivaji era): Mughal side led by the Rajput general Jai Singh; Sambhaji entered Mughal service. A separate Treaty of Purandhar, 1776, was Maratha–British [7].
• Agra escape: Shivaji and Sambhaji hidden in gift baskets of fruits and sweets.
• Raigad was reconstructed by Shivaji in 1662 as his capital [4][8].
• "Maratha Military Landscapes of India" — 12 forts (11 in Maharashtra, 1 in Tamil Nadu), India's 44th UNESCO World Heritage property; includes Raigad, Shivneri, Sindhudurg, Pratapgad [4][5].

Mains Points

• Terrain plus forts beat numbers. Shivaji did not try to match Mughal or Bijapuri armies in the open field. He used the Sahyadri passes, forest cover and a linked chain of hill and coastal forts so that a bigger army lost its advantage. The surviving fort network, now a UNESCO property, shows this was a planned defence system, not a set of one-off ambushes [4].
• Economic warfare as strategy. The Surat raids hit Mughal revenue and prestige at its richest port rather than its armies. Sparing temples, mosques and a charitable merchant's house shows the raid was aimed at the state treasury, not at ordinary people or a religious community — useful for answering whether Shivaji's wars were religious or political.
• Setback and recovery. Purandar (defeat, loss of forts, Sambhaji sent to Mughal service) followed by the Agra escape shows a leader who could accept a bad treaty, survive, and then rebuild — Raigad's reconstruction in 1662 and the later coronation flow from this phase [4][8].
• A European-recorded Indian ruler. Reports in the London Gazette and the English factory records of 1659–1682 mean Shivaji's campaigns were followed by foreign trading companies in real time — evidence that Deccan politics was already tied to global trade [6].