Shaista Khan escaped with three fingers cut off, his son was killed, and he was soon recalled from the Deccan.
01Three years in Pune
Aurangzeb’s uncle Shaista Khan had come into Maratha country in 1660 with a great army, taken Chakan after a hard siege, and settled in Pune. He made his quarters in the Lal Mahal, the house Shahaji had built for Jijabai and the boy Shivaji. For three years his army ate the country. Shivaji could not meet it in the open. He chose instead a blow at its head.
02The night attack
It was the month of Ramzan, and the camp slept heavily after the evening meal. Shivaji, who knew every wall and passage of the house, entered Pune with a few hundred picked men, some passing as a wedding party, broke through a bricked-up door into the inner rooms and cut down the guards. Shaista Khan escaped through a window; a sword stroke took off three of his fingers. His son Abul Fath and several of his household were killed. Shivaji was out of the city and up Sinhagad before the camp knew what had happened. Aurangzeb, angered, sent Shaista Khan to govern Bengal.
The raid humbled the most powerful Mughal noble in the Deccan and spread Shivaji’s name across Hindustan as a commander who could strike anywhere.