Cite
MLA
“Siege of Wagingera.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-wagingera-1705/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Siege of Wagingera. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-wagingera-1705/
Wagingera was taken after a hard siege, but Pidia Nayak escaped and his family regained the country after Aurangzeb’s death.
01The Berads of Shorapur
The Berads, a martial Kannada people of the Doab country between the Krishna and the Bhima, were led by a line of Nayaks who had served Bijapur and then made themselves independent. Their chief Pidia Nayak held Wagingera, a hill fort near Shorapur, and raided Mughal country with Maratha help. In February 1705 the eighty-six-year-old Aurangzeb came against him in person, with his whole camp, his family and his court, to a hill fort few outside the Deccan had heard of.
02The fort falls, the chief escapes
The Berads were fine marksmen and defended the hill fiercely, while Dhanaji Jadhav’s Marathas attacked the Mughal supply lines. Pidia Nayak played for time with offers of surrender. In April 1705 the Mughals stormed the hill, but Pidia Nayak and his family had already slipped away. Soon after, Aurangzeb fell seriously ill in camp. He recovered, but never led another siege, and died at Ahmednagar in 1707. The Shorapur Nayaks took back their lands.
Wagingera ended Aurangzeb’s personal campaigning; the empire he left was exhausted by twenty-five years of war in the Deccan.