Shivaji’s raid on Junnar

01A night at Junnar

By 1656 Shivaji had taken Javali and held a string of forts in the Maval country, all of it from Bijapur. In 1657 Aurangzeb, viceroy of the Deccan, invaded Bijapur. Shivaji had been in letters with both sides. Seeing the Mughal garrisons thin, he struck at Junnar, the Mughal town under Shivneri fort, where he had been born. On a night in late April his men scaled the walls, and the Marathas carried off cash, horses and goods.

02Aurangzeb answers

Maratha parties also raided the villages around Ahmednagar, though the fort held. Aurangzeb, angry, sent Nasiri Khan and other officers with cavalry, who beat a Maratha force and drove the raiders back into the hills. Aurangzeb ordered Shivaji’s villages laid waste. When Bijapur made peace and Shah Jahan fell ill in September 1657, Aurangzeb left for the north and the war of succession, and Shivaji sent envoys asking for pardon. The raid had shown the Mughals a new enemy.

Place · Hill with Satavahana-era caves; fortified under the SultanatesShivneri FortThe fort above Junnar where Jijabai gave birth to Shivaji in 1630, and named him after the hill’s goddess, Shivai. Its cliffs are full of Buddhist caves two thousand years old.Read →