Shivaji’s conquest of Javali

01The Chandrarao of Javali

The Mores held Javali for Bijapur with the hereditary title Chandrarao. Their valley, below the scarp of Mahabaleshwar, was thick forest cut by streams, and it commanded the passes down to the Konkan. When the old Chandrarao died, Shivaji helped a young member of the family to the seat, but the new Chandrarao, Yashwantrao, turned against him and leaned on Bijapur. Shivaji’s chronicler Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad writes that the Mores could raise ten to twelve thousand men, and that nothing could be done in the west while Javali stood. Talks failed, and Shivaji decided to take it.

02The fall of Javali and Rairi

In January 1656 Shivaji’s men came down on Javali through the forest and took it after hard fighting; the Jedhe Shakavali records the capture in that month. Chandrarao escaped to the hill fort of Rairi, and was besieged there until he surrendered in April. He later tried to slip away to Bijapur and was put to death. Rairi, a broad flat-topped hill, became Raigad, Shivaji’s capital, where he was crowned in 1674. On a spur above the Javali valley he built Pratapgad, and in 1659 Afzal Khan was drawn into this same forest to his death.

Person · 1630–1680 CE; crowned 1674Chhatrapati Shivaji MaharajBorn at Shivneri on 19 February 1630, Shivaji built a free Maratha state from a handful of hill forts around Pune, outfought Bijapur and the Mughals, escaped from Aurangzeb’s court, and was crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad on 6 June 1674.Read →