the guidance of Bahirji, his chief spy, Shivaji, after three days and nights of anxious and ceaseless marching, escaped from the ring of his enemies by an obscure path.*[1] But he had to sacrifice much of his booty, besides losing 4,000 cavalry killed and Hambir Rao, his commander-in-chief, wounded. This happened towards the end of December, and Shivaji retired to Panhala to meet his recovered son.
The credit of this victory over the Marathas must be given to the troops immediately under Prince Muazzam, the viceroy of Aurangabad, who had returned to the Deccan "with a vast army" (M. A. 169) in November, 1678. Dilir Khan was too far away in the south, near Bijapur, and too closely engaged with the enemy there to have taken part in the fighting near Jalna. †[2]
- ↑ * According to Sabh. 93, Shiva wanted to retreat by the Jagdiri route.
- ↑ † Sabhasad mentions no Maratha military enterprise between Shiva's battle with Ranmast Khan and his death. B. S. contradicts the theory that the Marathas at all opposed Dilir Khan during these four months. The English records are silent. But Chitnis (176-177) says that Shiva on his return from Jalna expelled Dilir Khan from Bijapuri territory, recovered Bhupalgarh and Bahadur-binda (2 m. s. of Kopal), and sent Moro Pant with 20,000 men to invade Baglana and capture 27 forts from the Mughals there. All these exploits in January or February, 1680, appear to me improbable, as Shiva was then pre-occupied with domestic troubles. F. R. Surat 108 (Chopra to Bombay, 7 Aug., 1680), however, says that Bahadur Khan was then laying "siege to a castle which Shivaji took last year, Hummutigarh, bordering upon these parts." Now.
