Meanwhile, the Mogul empire’s character had changed drastically. Aurangzeb, the Muslim fanatic had managed to descend on the throne of the Mogul empire by ruthlessly disposing off his brothers and imprisoning his father, Shahjahan. He was well aware of Shivaji’s cunning and daredevilry. By then, Shivaji had captured large areas and many forts of the Mogul empire. Aurangzeb realised the need to contain Shivaji.
To his uncle Shaista Khan he revealed his view, “Bijapur is in bad shape. Shiva has broken its back. Shiva too is weak. Battles with Bijapur have drained off his energy and resources. We can defeat both the enemies in one move.”
Shaista Khan accepted the task to do it.
He set out for south or 28th February, 1600 with a large Mogul force. He reached Swarajya area one month later when Shivaji was in Panhalgarh in the siege of Sidhi Johar. Shaista Khan went on a rampage destroying temples and terrorising people. He entered Poona and occupied Lal Mahal, Shivaji’s ancestral palace.
From there he plotted against Shivaji. In the meantime, Shivaji had escaped from Panhalgarh to Vishalgarh fort. The fort came under the attack of Mogul army. Inspite of battling for there months and losing thousands of men it failed to capture the fort.
Shivaji also quietly smuggled out 500 of his surviving soldiers and left the fort because he too was running out of resources.
Out of sheer frustration Shaista Khan marched at Panhalgarh to capture it. When Shivaji learnt about it he quickly contacted Siddi Johar and secretly handed over the Panhalgarh fort to him accepting the fact that it was indeed Bijapur’s property.
So unwittingly Mogul forces and Bijapur forces clashed for Panhalgarh. Shivaji laughed merrily as the warring armies inflicted heavy casualties on each other besides the loss of material.
Meanwhile, Kartalab Khan had gone on a military expedition to Konkan Sahyadri area on the orders of Shaista Khan. The area was the heart of Swarajya, the destruction of which could mean crippling of Shiva’s Swarajya. Kartalab was a trusted lieutenant of Shaista. And he was leading a large force.
Kartalab plundered on without meeting any opposition. He went deeper into the hilly area. It was there that suddenly Shivaji’s guerilla army showed itself on the hills, high grounds and the ridges. Down below Mogul army was trapped in low ground. The guerillas pounced on the Moguls like hill tigers. Moguls were massacred in those narrow gorges which served as natural graveyards. Kartalab beat out of that trap like scalded cat.
Meanwhile, Shivaji and his army stormed into the coastal ports ending up in Rajapur where European traders had large storage facilities. Shivaji got all godown destroyed and took the traders in his custody. He wanted to punish them because they were supplying cannons, guns and ammunitions to Muslim empires. Thus, all foreign forces had joined hands against the native resistance. Other coastal towns were also raided and huge funds were collected for Swarajya.
As Shaista Khan was failing to tackle Shivaji Mogul court sent Raja Jaswant Singh to assist him. It was a stupid choice because Raja admire Shivaji and was his well wisher. He never really helped Shaista Khan.
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