of the assailants. Yaqut promptly raised his battle- cry Khassu ! Khassu ! and shouting "My braves, be composed; I am alive and safe," he advanced slaying and binding to the centre of the fort where he
joined hands with Khairiyat's party, and the entire place was conquered.
Shiva had been planning the capture of Janjira, and now he had failed to hold even Danda-Rajpuri ! It is said that during the night of the surprise, at the moment the powder-magazine blew up, Shiva, who was 40 miles away, started from his sleep and exclaimed that some calamity must have befallen Danda-Rajpuri ! He was, however, unable to make reprisals immediately, as his army was busy else-where, in the Nasik and Baglana districts, where the Mughal viceroy was pressing him hard. Yaqut, therefore, could easily follow up his success by capturing seven other forts in the neighbourhood. Six of them opened their gates in terror of his prowess after his grand victory at Danda-Rajpuri. The seventh stood a siege for a week and then capitulated on terms, which Yaqut faithlessly violated, enslaving and converting the boys and handsome women, dismissing the old and ugly women, and massacring all the men of the garrison. For some time afterwards the Marathas were forced to stand on the defensive in their own territory. (K. K. ii. 225-228; only authority.)
These disasters fully roused Shiva. The recovery of Danda-Rajpuri fort became an absorbing passion
