The Mavalas took the fort in a night assault; Tanaji fell in single combat with Udaybhan.
01The night climb
On a dark night of Magh, Tanaji’s Mavalas came up the steep western face where the garrison kept the thinnest watch. Ropes were fixed, a few men got over the wall, and the rest followed before the alarm spread. Udaybhan Rathod, the Rajput qiledar holding the fort for Aurangzeb, met Tanaji sword to sword. Both men died. The Mavalas wavered, and it was Suryaji, Tanaji’s brother, who rallied them and cut the ropes behind them so there was no going back. By dawn the fort was Shivaji’s.
02Gad ala, pan simha gela
Maharashtra remembers Shivaji’s grief in one line: the fort is won, but the lion is gone. The saying gave the fort its later name, Sinhagad, the lion’s fort. Tanaji’s samadhi stands on the hill, and the shahir Tulsidas’s powada of the night assault is still sung. The capture opened a year in which the Marathas took back one Purandar fort after another.
It began the recovery of the forts surrendered at Purandar and gave Maharashtra its most loved soldier’s tale.
