Cite
MLA
“The Portuguese sack of Dabhol.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/sack-of-dabhol-1508/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). The Portuguese sack of Dabhol. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/sack-of-dabhol-1508/
Almeida stormed and burned Dabhol on his way north to Diu.
01The attack
Dabhol, on the Vashishti river, was one of the chief ports of the Deccan, trading horses and goods with Arabia and Persia. Almeida’s fleet anchored off it at the end of 1508, landed troops, and after a hard fight with the garrison took the town. The chroniclers describe the burning of the town and the ships in the harbour and the killing of many of its inhabitants; Portuguese writers record that people along the coast afterwards cursed their enemies by wishing on them the fate of Dabhol.
02Toward Diu
The sack of Dabhol was meant as a warning to every port that might shelter the enemy fleet. Almeida sailed on north and in February 1509 met the Mamluk, Gujarati and Calicut fleets at Diu, destroying them. Dabhol recovered as a port under Bijapur and later the Marathas, but its old prominence passed to Portuguese Goa, taken in 1510. Its silting river and the rise of Goa and later Bombay left it a quiet fishing town.
It was the first Portuguese sack of an Indian port, a prelude to the battle of Diu.
