382 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. XI. night he silently scaled the walls of Junnar with rope-ladders, and after slaughtering the defenders carried off 11,000 hun, 200 horses, and much costly clothing and jewels.* Bands of Maratha light horsemen spread in all directions, cutting off provision trains and foraging parties, plundering the smaller towns and flourishing villages, render- ing the roads unsafe, and carrying devastation and alarm to the very gates of Ahmadnagar, the seat of the Mughal administration in that region. An attack on the town (pettah) which nestled under shelter of the fort of Ahmadnagar was frustrated by a timely sortie of the garrison. But so great was the alarm it caused that the Mughal governor made the citizens remove their property to within the fort as a precaution. Two other Marathas, Minaji Bhonsla and Kashi, where notably successful in their raids. Aurangzib orders reprisals against Shivaji, Aurangzib learnt of these disturbances and hurried reinforcements up to Ahmadnagar, with strict orders to punish Shiva. He chastised with his pen those officers who were slow in marching to the scene. His letters to his officers
- The history of the contest with Shiva is given in Grant
Duff, i. 162-164, Kambu 36, and Adab, 110b-112a (Aurang- zib's letters to Shaista Khan), 147a-149a (to Multafat Khan), 1530-157a (to Nasiri Khan). Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ
