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The Warrior of Vasai - Part 1

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In this series of blogs, let us see another golden page in history of medieval India, where an Indian force once again defeated a European power decisively just like Sambhaji Maharaj had threatened Portuguese existence in India in 1680s. Sambhaji Maharaj was not able to completely eradicate the Portuguese given the pressure of Mughals on the other side. However, in the era of Bajirao I, the Marathas were finally able to confine the Portuguese to Goa and the English to Mumbai for the whole of the 18th century. The Portuguese had to stay in Goa till 1961 that is for almost 230 years after this and their dreams of colonizing India were vanquished.  THE PORTUGUESE POWER IN INDIA- As seen in earlier blogs, the Portuguese had arrived in India in 1498 and gradually climbed to a status of a paramount naval power over the next century and captured various important ports like Mumbai, Thane, Vandre(Bandra), Tarapur and eventually won the island of Sashti by 1584( This is different from the G...
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The Rise of The Phoenix of Deccan- Part 3

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In the last blog, we saw that the Nizam and the Marathas, both destroyed their opponent's capitals and the Marathas were now headed for Aurangabad, which was the second capital of the Nizam of Hyderabad.  The Marathas had significantly weakened Nizam by their diplomatical tactics by alienating the defected Maratha sardars like Bhosles of Nagpur and Patwardhans of Miraj from the Nizam. After these sardars joined the marathas, the Nizam became a sitting duck in the maratha territory.... but the Nizam was completely unaware of these events and was inching towards Aurangabad to save his capital from the Marathas.      Peshwa Madhavrao I, Peshwe Park, Pune THE PHOENIX RISES-        The Nizam was left alone on his march towards Aurangabad along with his favourite minister Vitthal Sundar. Vitthal Sundar pleaded the Maratha sardars on Nizam's side to not leave them seeing the possibility of a clash with the marathas now seemingly inevitable. B...
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The Rise of The Phoenix of Deccan- Part 2

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In the last blog, we saw that the Nizam had started marching towards Pune on the advise of Vitthal Sundar and the Marathas were contemplating their next step against the Nizam. Let us now move towards the counter moves of the marathas and some strategic manouvers which significantly affected the outcome of this campaign against the Nizam of Hyderabad.  STRATEGIC AND DIPLOMATIC MOVEMENTS OF THE MARATHAS- Vitthal Sundar was the most prominent minister in the Nizam's court. He was the one responsible for defections of Maratha generals like Gopalrao Patwardhan of Miraj and Janoji Bhosle of Nagpur to the Nizam's side. He also had a lion's share in the rise of Nizam Ali, the current Nizam of Hyderabad. Vitthal Sundar was responsible for the renewed attack on Pune. The Nizam continued his march towards Pune. Here, Raghunathrao contemplated an attack on the marching Nizam's army; which is exactly what was desired by the Nizam as the Maratha army could not match the Nizam's ...
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The Rise of the Phoenix of Deccan- Part 1

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In this series of the pages of the history of pre-modern India, let us take a look at the first major comeback of the Maratha Empire post the debacle at the Third Battle of Panipat on 14th January, 1761.                   Peshwa Madhavrao I In merely 10 years after Panipat, in 1771, the Marathas had gained back the status of the paramount power in India by recapturing Delhi. But this eventual comeback came after a string of internal and external struggles which were successfully overcome by the Marathas. This delayed the eventual British rule in India for over 50 years. THE EMPIRE TREMBLES- After the debacle at Panipat, Nanasaheb Peshwa called back all of his troops spread across India back to Pune.  The withdrawal of troops from the Maratha dominions and the death of Peshwa Nanasaheb on 23rd June 1761; merely 5 months after Panipat plunged the Marathas in a crisis. Peshwa Madhavrao, a sixteen year old teenager and son of Pes...
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..And Portuguese would have left India 3 centuries earlier..- Part 3

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JUVE (ST. ESTEVAM), GOA: 1683 In the previous blog, we saw how the Portuguese retreated back to their territory in Goa after facing a crushing and humiliating defeat in their attack on Ponda.  In this blog, let us further witness the total humiliation of the Portuguese which even in their own words is a battle so fierce that they had never faced earlier.               Lady virgin church  ( Juve island) Juve Island or St. Estevam as renamed by the Portuguese is situated near a village called Dhavji (Dongium) in modern day Goa.  It was earlier possible to literally walk into Goa from Dhavji in every low-tide of the ocean. To protect themselves, the Portuguese had built a strong fort on the doors of Goa and named it St. Estevam.  Behind this fort laid the maratha territory and in front of it was the Portuguese territory separated by river Mandavi. It was a fort of importance for the Portuguese as it evidently was the l...
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..And Portuguese would have left India 3 centuries earlier..- Part 2

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GOA: 1683 Now let us move forward to the next part of the offensive of the Marathas on the Portuguese.  As we discussed in the previous blog, the relations between the Marathas and Potuguese deteriorated and the Portuguese eventually decided to capture Ponda, an important fort of the Marathas to counter the reverses faced in North Konkan. In the recently released film "Chhaava" on the life of Chh. Sambhaji Maharaj,  the battle with the Portuguese has been completely left out, maybe due to time constraints.  But this is one of the most fierce battles fought by Chh. Sambhaji Maharaj himself  and would have been a visual treat to watch on the big screen for sure! On 1st November 1683, the Portuguese army crossed the river separating their territory and maratha territory; towards Ponda. Their army is estimated to be around 3200 men combining infantry and cavalry along with some cannons. After defeating the patroling units of the Marathas, they besieged the fo...
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