Shivaji killed Afzal Khan at their meeting and the Maratha troops routed the Bijapur army in the forest below.
01The march of Afzal Khan
On his way Afzal Khan desecrated the temple of Tulja Bhavani at Tuljapur and the temple at Pandharpur, as the Maratha chronicles record. Shivaji refused to meet him in open country and stayed in Pratapgad, deep in the Jaoli forest. Afzal Khan’s army had to come up through narrow valleys where its guns and elephants were of little use. Terms were set for a meeting: each would come with one attendant and a few guards waiting at a distance.
02The embrace
Shivaji came wearing armour under his clothes, with the waghnakh, steel tiger claws, in his hand and a bichwa dagger. Sabhasad’s bakhar says Afzal Khan, a much taller man, took him in an embrace, locked his head under his arm and struck with a dagger that slid off the armour. Shivaji tore into him with the claws and dagger. Afzal Khan’s bodyguard Sayyid Banda attacked and was cut down by Jiva Mahala. At the signal, Maratha troops hidden in the forest fell on the Bijapur camp.
Pratapgad made Shivaji’s name across the Deccan and gave the young Swarajya the guns, horses and treasure of a whole army.
