| Battle of Sinhagarh | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mughal Wars | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Marathas |  Mughal Empire |
||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Tanaji Malusare † Suryaji Malusare |
Uday Bhan † | ||||||||
The Battle of Sinhagad was a night battle that took place on February 4, 1670 in the fort of Sinhagad, near the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India. It was fought between Tanaji Malusare, a commander of Maratha king Shivaji and Udaybhan Rathod, fortkeeper under Jai Singh I and Ibrahim Adil Shah I. Tanaji's army won the war to hand over control of the fort to the Marathas with casualities 300 from Mogul Side and 50 from Marathas and around 4000 Mogul troops imprisioned by mere 500 Marathas.
Contents |
Backdrop
The fort, which was previously known as Kondana, was controlled by Mirza Raja Jai Singh, and was strategically located amidst other forts in the region such as Rajgad, Purandar and Torna. The Mughals maintained an army of roughly 5000 men led by Udaybhan, a relative of Jai Singh, and the fort itself was defended by cannons at each turret.
Only one turret was left unguarded as it was at the top of a steep cliff, which was thought impossible to scale. Tanaji was able to infiltrate the fort and carry out a surveillance. He also discovered that there was a party on the night of the battle, so the Mughal soldiers would be off their guard. Tanaji was assisted by his brother Suryaji along with 300 Mavalas, who were light infantry of Maval.
Battle
Legend has it that Tanaji used a ghorpad named Yeshwanti, with a rope tied around its waist for climbing up the steep vertical rock face. After 342 marathas reached on the top with Tanaji Malusare suddenly the rope gave away due to rubbing on a rock and 60 Marathas who were climbing on the rope fell down and died. Then Tanaji Malusare told his brother Suryaji to continue the attack with other marathas from Kalyan darwaja the Mahadeo Koli (not to be mistaken with the fish catching Koli community on the grounds of kondana fort) will help you to go through the kalyan darwaja.
Once inside, they set upon Udaybhan and his men. A fierce combat took place between Tanaji and Udaybhan. Udaybhan managed to rid Tanaji of his shield, still Tanhaji fought Udaybhan by tying a cloth over one of his hands and using it to ward off Udaybhan's sword attacks. then udaybhan attacked tanaji on his right shoulder with his sword and tore him till his belly then tanaji felt on ground and then suddenly 60yrs old shelar mama came and attacked on udaybhan with his sword and killed him. However no historical evidence describes the character Shelar Mama. According to historical texts both Tanaji and Udaybhan were killed in fierce battle with each other.
After the fall of Tanaji, maratha soldiers tried to flee in fear. Then Tanaji's younger brother Suryaji convinced the army and marshalled the forces to recapture the fort. To prevent any escape of the Maratha's, Suryaji cut the supply lines & back an order to the retreting maratha's to either jump off the cliff or fight till death. Shivaji renamed the fort from Kondana to Sinhagad in Tanaji's honor.Mogul had huge inventory of artillery and cannons but due to sudden attack in night time these instruments became ineffective to use. Since Moguls were totally unnoticed when attack happened it took lot of time for them to mentally and physically 'prepare' for the attack as a result around 300 soldiers lost their life and thousands were prisoned thanks to quick movement of Maratha troops from all directions.
Marathas too lost 50 soldiers in this battle.
Aftermath
Nearly 1500 Mogul infantry fled to Pune from Sinhagad after the battle taking advantage of darkness of midnight. This battle significantly boosted confidence of Marathas and within two months after this battle Maraths won all nearby forts like Purandar, Lohagad so on. Till beginning of rainy monsoon season, excluding Pune, Indapur and Baramati all regions were won by Maraths.In June 1670,the Mogul army was totally unprepared and ill-equipped as Monsoon had arrived. Sensing this as unique opportunity, before preparation of Mogul army, Chatrapati Shivaji decided to attack urban area of Pune, Baramati, Supe and Indapur in the rainy season. Within 10–15 days, Maraths captured all these areas from Moguls, this transition happened nearly after 10 years that is in 1660, these cities were captured by mogul army headed by Shahistekhan.
Legacy
Upon hearing the news of the capture of the fort at the cost of Tanaji's life, Shivaji was greatly aggrieved and is said to have remarked, "Gad aala, pan sinha gela" - "We captured the fort but lost the lion". The fort was renamed from Kondana to Sinhagad, in honor of Tanaji. (Some historical texts suggest that name Sinhgad existed long before this incident.)
Today, there is a monument with a bust of Tanaji in honor of his valour.
See also
References
- Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the National Revival under the Marathas
- Grant Duff - History of Marathas, Oxford University Press, London
- S.D.Samant - Vedh Mahamanvacha
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
