Page:Shivaji and His Times.djvu/137

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1665]
SOME MARATHAS WON OVER.
117


safe conduct and money help, (middle of February.) These were given, and they reached his camp, along with Mankoji Dhangar, and were enlisted in the Mughal army (4th week of March) (Paris MS. 113a, 123a.) Similarly, Afzal Khan's son, Fazl Khan, solicited from Jai Singh a command and an opportunity of avenging his slaughtered father on Shivaji. (120b.) The adhesion of the petty Rajahs of the Koli country north of Kalian was secured through Niccolao Manucci, then chief of Jai Singh's European artillery. (Storia, ii. 132-133.)

Money and promises of high rank in the Mughal service were lavishly employed on Shivaji's officers to corrupt their loyalty (Ben. MS. 54b.), and with some success, as in February Atmaji and Kahar Koli and two other brothers of the former, who commanded 3,000 cavalry and were posted by Shiva at the foot of Purandar in charge of artillery, sent their agent to Jai Singh agreeing to desert to him. (Paris MS. 113a & b.) Rama and Hanumant, two captains descended from an ancient line of jagirdars of the Supa subdivision, were called away from the service of the Rajah of Chanda and employed under Jai Singh on account of their familiarity with the seat of war and local influence. (122a.)

Above all, Jai Singh concentrated all authority in his own hands, as an indispensable condition of success in war. The Emperor had at first given him the command of the field-operations only, while all administrative work, like the promotion, punishment