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SHIVAJI.

[CH. VIII.

laid siege to Salhir (now in Maratha hands), and leaving Ikhlas Khan Miana, Rao Amar Singh Chandawat and some other officers to continue the siege, proceeded towards Ahmadnagar. (Dil. 107; O. C. 3567.)

From the environs of Ahmadnagar, Bahadur Khan advanced to Supa (in the Puna district), while Dilir Khan with a flying column recovered Puna, massacring all the inhabitants above the age of 9 years, (end of December 1671.) Early in January 1672, Shivaji was at Mahad, draining his forts of men to raise a vast army for expelling the invaders from the home of his childhood.*^[1] But the pressure on Puna was immediately afterwards removed and Bahadur Khan was recalled from this region by a severe disaster to the Mughal arms in Baglana.

↑ *F. R. Sural 106, Bombay to Surat, 13 Jan. and 20 Jan. 1672. The town taken by Dilir Khan is spelt in the English Factory Records as Puna Chackne and Puna Caukna, and described as "a place of great concern in a very large plain in the heart of all Shivaji's upper country." This description suggests Puna and not Chakan; but we have no direct evidence that Shivaji got back Puna and Chakan from the Mughals by the treaty of 1665 or that of 1668. The English record a rumour, which we know was baseless, that at the capture of this place Dilir Khan killed Kartoji Gujar. the Maratha Lieutenant-General, (i.e., Pratap Rao.) Supa, a few lines above, may easily be a copyist's error for Puna in the Persian MS. of Dilkasha, 107, which, however, is silent about this Mughal victory. Chitnis, 119, says that the Marathas recovered Chakan by force in 1667 or later.

[1] *F. R. Sural 106, Bombay to Surat, 13 Jan. and 20 Jan. 1672. The town taken by Dilir Khan is spelt in the English Factory Records as Puna Chackne and Puna Caukna, and described as "a place of great concern in a very large plain in the heart of all Shivaji's upper country." This description suggests Puna and not Chakan; but we have no direct evidence that Shivaji got back Puna and Chakan from the Mughals by the treaty of 1665 or that of 1668. The English record a rumour, which we know was baseless, that at the capture of this place Dilir Khan killed Kartoji Gujar. the Maratha Lieutenant-General, (i.e., Pratap Rao.) Supa, a few lines above, may easily be a copyist's error for Puna in the Persian MS. of Dilkasha, 107, which, however, is silent about this Mughal victory. Chitnis, 119, says that the Marathas recovered Chakan by force in 1667 or later.

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