Sambhaji’s Goa Campaign

01Ponda relieved

In late October 1683 the Count of Alvor marched on Ponda, the Maratha fort that watched Goa from the east, and battered it with siege guns. Sambhaji came down from the ghats with his army, and the Portuguese, in danger of being cut off, fell back across the river with heavy loss; the viceroy himself was wounded in the retreat. The Portuguese records speak of the panic in the city.

02Santo Estêvão and the Mughal arrival

In November the Marathas crossed to the island of Santo Estêvão (Juve) and took its fort, and their horse raided Bardez and Salcete. In Old Goa the viceroy, the records say, laid his baton of office on the tomb of St Francis Xavier and prayed for the city. Relief came from the north. Aurangzeb sent his son Shah Alam down the Konkan with a large army in January 1684, and Sambhaji had to turn and face it. A peace with the Portuguese followed later.

Person · 1657–1689 CE; reigned 1681–1689Chhatrapati Sambhaji MaharajShivaji’s elder son held the Maratha state for nine years against Aurangzeb’s full imperial army, the Siddis, the Portuguese and Mysore at once; captured at Sangameshwar in 1689, he was tortured and put to death at Tulapur on 11 March 1689.Read →