By: Er. Rajesh Pathak
Making no attack on the enemy fleeing the battle from his back; granting pardon to the enemy fallen in the hand; raising not the arms on an unarmed adversary; backtracking not from the promise once given, come what may; unconcerned to victory or defeat in the battlefield, sacrificing the life in the battle-field being held as a matter of valour and glory – such was the exclusivist outlook to the human virtues which Indian kings could not part with, failing to discern the new kind of barbaric and cunning enemies of jihadist mindset beyond the border, leaving the country succumbed to have suffered the ignominy of slavery and of secession of its territories one by one in their hands. But during this period for the first time one that in true sense discerned the deceptive tactics of invaders and left them behind in their own game and successfully founded the downfall of Mughals he was great Maratha Hindu king Chhatrapati Shivaji. It was the time when Hindu kings and vassals had the lone priority of somehow saving their respective territories by appeasing the foreign invaders. Initiating the attack on them was such a thing they couldn’t even think of.
But as Shivaji laid the foundation of Maratha power he opened the war-front against Mughals by launching fierce attacks, tearing into their military capabilities and empire as a whole. Utterly inferior since he had been before Muslim rulers in strength and resources both, the strategy he adopted earned the glory in the anal of history as ‘Gurilla-warfare’. Using dexterously the mazes of terrains of Sahyadri Mountain, forming a force of its tribal inhabitants-Mavlays, he dealt one after other setback to the enemies. Gradually he gained upper hand; and as his strength increased he began to attack openly on Mughals. And with the shattering defeats dealt upon Mughals led by Aurangzeb in the open battle of Salher in 1972, Maratha warriors even forced the opponents to adopt defensive stance! Away from the capital for 1 ½ years, Shivaji then successfully fulfilled the famous ‘Karnataka-mission’. With his able administration and planned strategy he won one after other battles, and founded a separate sovereign Maratha state extending more than 700 miles down to southern part of the country, famous Jinji fort near Chennai being the tip of it.
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Emulating the ways shown by Shivaji, later Maratha grew so formidable a force that Aurangzeb, frustrated, even had to propose a truce with them. But as of now it was too late; his proposal met with outright rejection by Maratha power. And from this shock of contempt, which could never been expected by him, he could gain redemption only when death embraced him.
And, particularly after 1740, when Mughals got weakened during the reign of Mohammad Shah the real power of the country had shrunk into the hands of Maratha. During 1755-1756 under Raghunath Rao and Malhar Rao Holkar they dealt decisive defeat to Rohillas and Afghans and succeeded in liberating Punjab after 800 years from foreigners. And, replacing Muslim rulers, at one point of time the Hindu Maratha dynasts had rooted their rules firmly extending from Attock (Peshawar) of north down to south to Tanjavur (Tamil Nadu); and from entire Gujarat in the west to Hugli river (Bengal) in the east. Rising above the caste-creed-regional pride, the Hindu community should keep in mind that their existence today is the result of complete decimation of Mughals under Aurangzeb by their brave ancestors in the past.
In this Great War Aurangzeb had put in all the resources of his vast empire from Bharuch to Bengal and from Kabul to the threshold of south India. This was a fight between a small ‘lamp’ and ‘storm’. But by the dint of their courage and prowess in battlefield Hindu Marathas successfully turned the result in their favour.
