In the previous chapter, we saw the opening of war game between Shivaji and Afzalkhan. As Afzalkhan proceeded towards Shivaji's territories, this game entered it's 'middlegame stage'. Without further ado, let us get back to the game, shall we?
WHITE: King Safety.
King here refers to all that Shivaji considered close to his heart - his family, his people and above all else his vision and his cause of creating an independent Maratha empire. Shivaji was a Shrimant Yogi and never assigned importance to his own life.
Shivaji knew that it would be pointless to face Afzalkhan in the open grounds around Pune. He evacuated his family and his troops from Pune and the surrounding areas. Families of many soldiers were sent to Rajgad, where Jijabai and Shivaji's family were also stationed and to the other forts controlled by Shivaji. The rest of the families were taken to the villages bordering Nagar. Idea was that if Afzalkhan raids the place, these people can quickly pass into Nagar. Nagar was under mughal rule and unless Afzalkhan intended to start a war with mughals, he would not have trespassed into Nagar.
OK, now that the innocent people were safe, next task was to secure the cause and vision of independent Maratha empire. Shivaji stayed at Rajgad and had various rounds of discussions with his mother and many of his prominent men. He chartered a backup arrangement in case he does not survive the raid of Afzalkhan. His infant son Sambhaji was to be made leader of his clan and the pursuit of an independent Maratha empire was to continue under the leadership of Jijabai. Shivaji made it very clear that his existence does not matter anymore and the war for freedom should continue whether he lives or dies.
The white King was safe and secured now in hearts of people.
BLACK: Bishop to the King (God).
Well, I know that Bishop is a religious figure in Christian world, but then it is also a player in the game of Chess. A player which always moves on not-the-straight-forward path but an odd and twisted path. It is the "tedhi chaal" [slanted movement] of the chess board bishop that is referred here, and has absolutely no relevance to the Bishops in Christian world. This move has its own religious impact though.
Let's see the details, shall we?
As Afzalkhan started from Afzalpura, he knew that he needs to draw Shivaji out of his mountain posts and have a battle in the open ground. He wanted Shivaji to challenge him, and as earlier as possible, so that he can get done with the raid. There was no point in surrounding each of Shivaji's forts and stations - it would take years before the entire region is recovered. Waiting for longer would mean giving more time for Shahaji to organize more and more forces and also allowing mughals to interfere. He wanted none of these. He wanted an open war and he wanted it ASAP.
So, what is the best way to foment Shivaji and get him on the battleground? What was Shivaji still vulnerable to? What would piss him off real bad and get him to attack Afzalkhan?? Well, let's see - How about Religion and Gods??
This is one tactic which Afzalkhan knew that always worked. Destroy the places of faith of the clan and they will try to fight you. And so it began!! Afzalkhan started destroying all the temples on his way to Pune. These included prominent temples as the Tuljapur Bhavani temple, the Kolhapur Mahalakshmi temple and the Vitthal-Rukmini temple in Pandharpur. When he reached Purandar, he tried to surround the fort and kept the siege for around a month. When there was no luck in retrieving the fort, he gave up and went to Pune. However, during this one month, he sent in his troops and violated the Jejuri temple as well. In Pune, his troops brought down all the temples.
This is just like the Joker guy in the movie Dark Knight. Just as the Joker kept killing the people near-and-dear to the Batman, one after the other, to make the Batman show up, Afzalkhan kept destroying the holy temples one after the other. The guy would not just stop at anything!!
Shivaji knew this is a pressure tactics of Afzalkhan and exercised control over himself and his forces. The temples destroyed and looted by Afzalkhan were of the prominent family deities of all Hindus in the region and everybody was furious about the sequence of events. When they appealed to Shivaji to stop the destruction of their gods, Shivaji pacified them and told them to keep faith. He encouraged them to join the cause against Afzalkhan.
Thus, this move which Afzalkhan took to drive Shivaji out on open, turned against him. All those who were still undecided about which side to join, now readily joined Shivaji. All the hindus in Afzalkhan's army knew their side has sinned and just like Mahabharata, it does not matter if the army of sinners is larger - it will eventually perish. They entered a state of dejection and despondency.
Morale of Shivaji's troops on the other hand got high due to the rage they developed. It was no longer a war to protect Shivaji, no longer a war to protect the Maratha empire, no longer a war to live the vision of independent Maratha empire; it became a war to protect religion, to protect gods, and to avenge wrong-doings done to gods.
In response to check by the bishop to the king [gods], all white pawns got re-arranged and the white became stronger.
WHITE: Pawn Structure.
After hearing the news that Afzalkhan is coming, Shivaji started to secure his territories. He positioned his troops on all places which were vulnerable to attack, either by Afzalkhan, or the mughals or the Siddi of Janjira. These troops were also stationed in such a way that they can survive the battle as independent units [taking advantage of terrain, etc] and can reach to the rescue of each other when required.
A line of defense was formed using various forts and stations along the southern and south-western borders. This consisted of a chain of posts at Rohida, Kenjal, Kamalgad, Mahabaleshwar, Makarandgad, Mahipatgad, Palgad, Mandangad, Songad, Mahaad, Chambhargad and Raigad. Each of these forts were equiped with a 1000 soldiers while the temporary and new stations [e.g. Mohangad] were guarded by 500 soldiers each. Thus, around 15,000 of Shivaji's men were dedicated to defending the forts and regions than participating in any attacks or battles.
10,000 soldiers were stationed at Rajgad under the direct command of Jijabai. If mughals decided to attack Shivaji's territories, these troops were to form the first line of defense in the north.
And then, there was the Siddi of Janjira - If he decides to align with Afzalkhan and attacks Shivaji, somebody was needed to stop him. Moropant was sent to Konkan with an infantry of 3,000 men in case the Siddi attacks. As a backup to Moropant, Tryambak Bhaskar was posted in Mahad with another infantry unit of 3,000 men. It would be worthwhile to note here that Siddi of Janjira commanded an army of 15,000 men and it was critical to contain these forces before they could cause any damage to the maratha empire.
Wai was Afzalkhan's province and if Afzalkhan decided to make it his headquarters and drive his battle movements from Wai, there needed to be presence of Shivaji's men along borders of Wai. The best place for this was the mountain ranges of Javali and the best commander suitable to conduct guerrilla warfare in these mountain ranges was Netaji Palkar. Netaji was posted in Mahabaleshwar and was given the command of the light cavalry consisting of 6,000 horsemen. This positioning of Netaji also had another strategic advantage. He was now at a distance of less than a day from Pune and Rajgad and could be called to Rajgad at a short notice. Thus, there was a backup force created to defend Rajgad, in case the battle breaks out at Rajgad.
As most of the infantry units of Shivaji were posted in the southern and south-western regions, in order to overlook their activities, a parallel headquarter was setup at Pratapgad. Kanhoji Jedhe was made chief of 5,000 infantry and these forces were spread around the Pratapgad fort.
Shivaji had now made sure that his forces are well stationed for the war which was coming on them real soon.
BLACK: Control of Center.
Well, Afzalkhan really wanted to make Shivaji confront him head-on as soon as the Adilshahi army reached Pune. But then, this hope of Afzalkhan did not materialize. Now, he was needed to stay a little longer than he wanted to. That called for securing control of the region, and arranging for encampment of his troops. He needed to make sure that he had a strategic advantage over Shivaji and also needed to make sure that his troops are ready against the Mughals.
Interesting right? Both Shivaji and Afzalkhan knew that if Shaistekhan reached Deccan, there was a chance of alliance. Problem was that an alliance with opponent meant a complete wipe-out of self and alliance with self meant losing control to the mughals - so both of them were wishing that the arrival of Shaistekhan gets delayed and both of them were getting ready for defense against the mughals.
Afzalkhan succeeded in getting the Siddi of Janjira on his side and Siddi started approaching the battle zone with an army of 15,000 men. He took Danda-Rajapuri and from there shipped a huge consignment of men, cannons, ammunition and provisions to Dabhol. Afzalkhan made Dabhol as his main station in Konkan and asked his allies to assemble there. Along with the Siddi's men, there were local warlords from Konkan as Surve, Palwankar, etc who joined arms with Afzalkhan. These other warlords and local soldiers added upto 6000-7000 men. This combined force of around 22000 men started penetrating Konkan territory of Shivaji. They took the Baankot region and were gradually inching forward towards Mahaad.
Sarvarkhan, one of the captains of Afzalkhan took control of Vasota fort and stationed there with a force of around 10,000 men. Vasota fort is very close to Mahabaleshwar and Sarwarkhan was stationed there to counter the threat of Netaji.
It was already mid-April when Afzalkhan started on his mission and by the time all these developments took place, monsoon arrived in Deccan. Troops now needed permanent stations. Afzalkhan retreated with all his forces to his province in Wai. He kept around 10,000 men around Pune, dividing them into four stations of Pune, Saswad, Supe and Shirval. These troops were to keep a check on activities of Shivaji's men at Rajgad.
Thus, Shivaji's estimates on various lines of attack by Afzalkhan proved quite correct. There was an eminent clash approaching between Siddi of Janjira and forces of Moropant/Tryambak Bhaskar, between Netaji and Sarvarkhan. While Afzalkhan's troops were poorly staffed in and around Pune, Shivaji let it be. He did not want his troops in Rajgad or under Netaji's command to get diverted from their posts.
In Wai on the other hand, Afzalkhan maintained a huge force with himself. There was the 10,000 strong armored Cavalry given by Adilshah, 15,000 infantry, 1500 musketeers, 90 big cannons, 85 Elephants, 1200 Camels and a artillery unit with hand-held cannons of 1500 men under his command.
Thanks to the monsoon, Afzalkhan had to slow down in his activities further more.
Despite this slowdown, he had made sure that he took a control of the war-zone and made the numbers in his favor !!
WHITE: The Hand of Goddess.
Well, as Monsoon started pouring over the war-zone, Shivaji got some more time to think on his strategy. This was a time when armies of both sides were relatively less occupied by thoughts of war. While Shivaji's men now believed that they are fighting for the right cause and Afzalkhan deserves to die, they were not sure how this would happen.
On the other hand, there is a letter discovered by historians, sent by some Adilshahi soldiers to the court, requesting a pay raise. Yes, a pay raise :-)
Usually, the soldiers in the sultanates had a basic pay and had an incentive to share the loots of any raids they participate in.
In case of this battle, they did raid, loot and destroy many temples on the way, but after reaching Pune, all they were told to do was to be stationed at fixed posts. There were so far away from homes and were supposed to be on guard rather than raid others. Add to it the rain, which was delaying the whole campaign and was pissing them off. This indicates the overall tempo of Adilshahi forces. Worst part was, their leader did not really bother too much about the delay. He was not going to give up unless he had Shivaji. By the way, the request for increment was approved by Adilshah and all soldiers got a raise of 10 percent. This would have cheered up the adilshahi forces for sure :-)
On the other hand, one fine day, while it was still too early to be a morning and a little late to be dawn, Shivaji had a dream. Now, the common belief is that dreams seen at this particular time always come true :-)
He dreamed of his family deity, the goddess Bhavani herself. The goddess blessed Shivaji and directed him, "I have sent an one-headed-daemon to you. Go ahead and slay him for me. Fulfill your duty to the gods. Act on their behalf."
Before the Sun could set on that day, news of this dream spread across the deccan.
There is a difference of opinion among historians whether the dream was real. But yes, there is no disagreement among them about news of the dream. Real or not, the news of this dream was spread all over the region and this news had worked it's magic on the people. It reassured them that the destruction of temples will be avenged some day. It also announced to them that Shivaji has himself taken up this role of Avenger.
People were convinced that Shivaji was now blessed by the goddess of strength. This brought a wave of cheer and encouragement among all of his troops and subjects. They knew that Shivaji was now going to kill Afzalkhan soon. Shivaji was now to act as the 'Hand of Goddess' !!
WHITE: King Safety.
King here refers to all that Shivaji considered close to his heart - his family, his people and above all else his vision and his cause of creating an independent Maratha empire. Shivaji was a Shrimant Yogi and never assigned importance to his own life.
Shivaji knew that it would be pointless to face Afzalkhan in the open grounds around Pune. He evacuated his family and his troops from Pune and the surrounding areas. Families of many soldiers were sent to Rajgad, where Jijabai and Shivaji's family were also stationed and to the other forts controlled by Shivaji. The rest of the families were taken to the villages bordering Nagar. Idea was that if Afzalkhan raids the place, these people can quickly pass into Nagar. Nagar was under mughal rule and unless Afzalkhan intended to start a war with mughals, he would not have trespassed into Nagar.
OK, now that the innocent people were safe, next task was to secure the cause and vision of independent Maratha empire. Shivaji stayed at Rajgad and had various rounds of discussions with his mother and many of his prominent men. He chartered a backup arrangement in case he does not survive the raid of Afzalkhan. His infant son Sambhaji was to be made leader of his clan and the pursuit of an independent Maratha empire was to continue under the leadership of Jijabai. Shivaji made it very clear that his existence does not matter anymore and the war for freedom should continue whether he lives or dies.
The white King was safe and secured now in hearts of people.
BLACK: Bishop to the King (God).
Well, I know that Bishop is a religious figure in Christian world, but then it is also a player in the game of Chess. A player which always moves on not-the-straight-forward path but an odd and twisted path. It is the "tedhi chaal" [slanted movement] of the chess board bishop that is referred here, and has absolutely no relevance to the Bishops in Christian world. This move has its own religious impact though.
Let's see the details, shall we?
As Afzalkhan started from Afzalpura, he knew that he needs to draw Shivaji out of his mountain posts and have a battle in the open ground. He wanted Shivaji to challenge him, and as earlier as possible, so that he can get done with the raid. There was no point in surrounding each of Shivaji's forts and stations - it would take years before the entire region is recovered. Waiting for longer would mean giving more time for Shahaji to organize more and more forces and also allowing mughals to interfere. He wanted none of these. He wanted an open war and he wanted it ASAP.
So, what is the best way to foment Shivaji and get him on the battleground? What was Shivaji still vulnerable to? What would piss him off real bad and get him to attack Afzalkhan?? Well, let's see - How about Religion and Gods??
This is one tactic which Afzalkhan knew that always worked. Destroy the places of faith of the clan and they will try to fight you. And so it began!! Afzalkhan started destroying all the temples on his way to Pune. These included prominent temples as the Tuljapur Bhavani temple, the Kolhapur Mahalakshmi temple and the Vitthal-Rukmini temple in Pandharpur. When he reached Purandar, he tried to surround the fort and kept the siege for around a month. When there was no luck in retrieving the fort, he gave up and went to Pune. However, during this one month, he sent in his troops and violated the Jejuri temple as well. In Pune, his troops brought down all the temples.
This is just like the Joker guy in the movie Dark Knight. Just as the Joker kept killing the people near-and-dear to the Batman, one after the other, to make the Batman show up, Afzalkhan kept destroying the holy temples one after the other. The guy would not just stop at anything!!
Shivaji knew this is a pressure tactics of Afzalkhan and exercised control over himself and his forces. The temples destroyed and looted by Afzalkhan were of the prominent family deities of all Hindus in the region and everybody was furious about the sequence of events. When they appealed to Shivaji to stop the destruction of their gods, Shivaji pacified them and told them to keep faith. He encouraged them to join the cause against Afzalkhan.
Thus, this move which Afzalkhan took to drive Shivaji out on open, turned against him. All those who were still undecided about which side to join, now readily joined Shivaji. All the hindus in Afzalkhan's army knew their side has sinned and just like Mahabharata, it does not matter if the army of sinners is larger - it will eventually perish. They entered a state of dejection and despondency.
Morale of Shivaji's troops on the other hand got high due to the rage they developed. It was no longer a war to protect Shivaji, no longer a war to protect the Maratha empire, no longer a war to live the vision of independent Maratha empire; it became a war to protect religion, to protect gods, and to avenge wrong-doings done to gods.
In response to check by the bishop to the king [gods], all white pawns got re-arranged and the white became stronger.
WHITE: Pawn Structure.
After hearing the news that Afzalkhan is coming, Shivaji started to secure his territories. He positioned his troops on all places which were vulnerable to attack, either by Afzalkhan, or the mughals or the Siddi of Janjira. These troops were also stationed in such a way that they can survive the battle as independent units [taking advantage of terrain, etc] and can reach to the rescue of each other when required.
A line of defense was formed using various forts and stations along the southern and south-western borders. This consisted of a chain of posts at Rohida, Kenjal, Kamalgad, Mahabaleshwar, Makarandgad, Mahipatgad, Palgad, Mandangad, Songad, Mahaad, Chambhargad and Raigad. Each of these forts were equiped with a 1000 soldiers while the temporary and new stations [e.g. Mohangad] were guarded by 500 soldiers each. Thus, around 15,000 of Shivaji's men were dedicated to defending the forts and regions than participating in any attacks or battles.
10,000 soldiers were stationed at Rajgad under the direct command of Jijabai. If mughals decided to attack Shivaji's territories, these troops were to form the first line of defense in the north.
And then, there was the Siddi of Janjira - If he decides to align with Afzalkhan and attacks Shivaji, somebody was needed to stop him. Moropant was sent to Konkan with an infantry of 3,000 men in case the Siddi attacks. As a backup to Moropant, Tryambak Bhaskar was posted in Mahad with another infantry unit of 3,000 men. It would be worthwhile to note here that Siddi of Janjira commanded an army of 15,000 men and it was critical to contain these forces before they could cause any damage to the maratha empire.
Wai was Afzalkhan's province and if Afzalkhan decided to make it his headquarters and drive his battle movements from Wai, there needed to be presence of Shivaji's men along borders of Wai. The best place for this was the mountain ranges of Javali and the best commander suitable to conduct guerrilla warfare in these mountain ranges was Netaji Palkar. Netaji was posted in Mahabaleshwar and was given the command of the light cavalry consisting of 6,000 horsemen. This positioning of Netaji also had another strategic advantage. He was now at a distance of less than a day from Pune and Rajgad and could be called to Rajgad at a short notice. Thus, there was a backup force created to defend Rajgad, in case the battle breaks out at Rajgad.
As most of the infantry units of Shivaji were posted in the southern and south-western regions, in order to overlook their activities, a parallel headquarter was setup at Pratapgad. Kanhoji Jedhe was made chief of 5,000 infantry and these forces were spread around the Pratapgad fort.
Shivaji had now made sure that his forces are well stationed for the war which was coming on them real soon.
BLACK: Control of Center.
Well, Afzalkhan really wanted to make Shivaji confront him head-on as soon as the Adilshahi army reached Pune. But then, this hope of Afzalkhan did not materialize. Now, he was needed to stay a little longer than he wanted to. That called for securing control of the region, and arranging for encampment of his troops. He needed to make sure that he had a strategic advantage over Shivaji and also needed to make sure that his troops are ready against the Mughals.
Interesting right? Both Shivaji and Afzalkhan knew that if Shaistekhan reached Deccan, there was a chance of alliance. Problem was that an alliance with opponent meant a complete wipe-out of self and alliance with self meant losing control to the mughals - so both of them were wishing that the arrival of Shaistekhan gets delayed and both of them were getting ready for defense against the mughals.
Afzalkhan succeeded in getting the Siddi of Janjira on his side and Siddi started approaching the battle zone with an army of 15,000 men. He took Danda-Rajapuri and from there shipped a huge consignment of men, cannons, ammunition and provisions to Dabhol. Afzalkhan made Dabhol as his main station in Konkan and asked his allies to assemble there. Along with the Siddi's men, there were local warlords from Konkan as Surve, Palwankar, etc who joined arms with Afzalkhan. These other warlords and local soldiers added upto 6000-7000 men. This combined force of around 22000 men started penetrating Konkan territory of Shivaji. They took the Baankot region and were gradually inching forward towards Mahaad.
Sarvarkhan, one of the captains of Afzalkhan took control of Vasota fort and stationed there with a force of around 10,000 men. Vasota fort is very close to Mahabaleshwar and Sarwarkhan was stationed there to counter the threat of Netaji.
It was already mid-April when Afzalkhan started on his mission and by the time all these developments took place, monsoon arrived in Deccan. Troops now needed permanent stations. Afzalkhan retreated with all his forces to his province in Wai. He kept around 10,000 men around Pune, dividing them into four stations of Pune, Saswad, Supe and Shirval. These troops were to keep a check on activities of Shivaji's men at Rajgad.
Thus, Shivaji's estimates on various lines of attack by Afzalkhan proved quite correct. There was an eminent clash approaching between Siddi of Janjira and forces of Moropant/Tryambak Bhaskar, between Netaji and Sarvarkhan. While Afzalkhan's troops were poorly staffed in and around Pune, Shivaji let it be. He did not want his troops in Rajgad or under Netaji's command to get diverted from their posts.
In Wai on the other hand, Afzalkhan maintained a huge force with himself. There was the 10,000 strong armored Cavalry given by Adilshah, 15,000 infantry, 1500 musketeers, 90 big cannons, 85 Elephants, 1200 Camels and a artillery unit with hand-held cannons of 1500 men under his command.
Thanks to the monsoon, Afzalkhan had to slow down in his activities further more.
Despite this slowdown, he had made sure that he took a control of the war-zone and made the numbers in his favor !!
WHITE: The Hand of Goddess.
Well, as Monsoon started pouring over the war-zone, Shivaji got some more time to think on his strategy. This was a time when armies of both sides were relatively less occupied by thoughts of war. While Shivaji's men now believed that they are fighting for the right cause and Afzalkhan deserves to die, they were not sure how this would happen.
On the other hand, there is a letter discovered by historians, sent by some Adilshahi soldiers to the court, requesting a pay raise. Yes, a pay raise :-)
Usually, the soldiers in the sultanates had a basic pay and had an incentive to share the loots of any raids they participate in.
In case of this battle, they did raid, loot and destroy many temples on the way, but after reaching Pune, all they were told to do was to be stationed at fixed posts. There were so far away from homes and were supposed to be on guard rather than raid others. Add to it the rain, which was delaying the whole campaign and was pissing them off. This indicates the overall tempo of Adilshahi forces. Worst part was, their leader did not really bother too much about the delay. He was not going to give up unless he had Shivaji. By the way, the request for increment was approved by Adilshah and all soldiers got a raise of 10 percent. This would have cheered up the adilshahi forces for sure :-)
On the other hand, one fine day, while it was still too early to be a morning and a little late to be dawn, Shivaji had a dream. Now, the common belief is that dreams seen at this particular time always come true :-)
He dreamed of his family deity, the goddess Bhavani herself. The goddess blessed Shivaji and directed him, "I have sent an one-headed-daemon to you. Go ahead and slay him for me. Fulfill your duty to the gods. Act on their behalf."
Before the Sun could set on that day, news of this dream spread across the deccan.
There is a difference of opinion among historians whether the dream was real. But yes, there is no disagreement among them about news of the dream. Real or not, the news of this dream was spread all over the region and this news had worked it's magic on the people. It reassured them that the destruction of temples will be avenged some day. It also announced to them that Shivaji has himself taken up this role of Avenger.
People were convinced that Shivaji was now blessed by the goddess of strength. This brought a wave of cheer and encouragement among all of his troops and subjects. They knew that Shivaji was now going to kill Afzalkhan soon. Shivaji was now to act as the 'Hand of Goddess' !!
Sir,
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful, Informative strategic explanation of Afzalkhan / Shivaji Maharaj battle ground.
Very Nice.
-Vivek Vatve
vrvatve@rediffmail.com